I was reading Sashi Tharoor’s tweet and he recommended working on October 2nd every year if we truly want to celebrate the life and times of Mr. M.K. Gandhi. I find myself in agreement with this thought.

Among all freedom fighters, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (called Mahatma with due respect) is a name that resounds in the hearts of millions of Indians. He never took a day off during the struggle for India’s independence.

A working October 2nd would be the ideal tribute to the man who moved a nation.

“If people fall in love, do they rise out of it?” – Anonymous

That was the name of the Jagjit Singh concert organized by Smile Foundation last night at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi. For anyone who likes listening to ghazals or nazms, attending a Jagjit Singh concert is a must. The man is absolutely magical and mesmerizing. The accompanying team of musicians is equally talented with the violin player in the team a first rate artist in his own right.

He began with some of his lesser known numbers and slowly progressed to to the popular ones such as hum to hain pardes mein, chithi na koi sandesh, main nashe mein hoon, hosh walon ko khabar kya, kiska chehra, hazaron khwahishen aisi etc. A medley of tera chehra kitna suhana, woh kagaz ki kashti etc came up in the middle. The entire audience joined him in singing along on tumko dekha toh yeh khayal aaya. Towards the later part of the concert, he sang aahista aahista and the entire auditorium came alive at this moment.

People arriving late could be seen seated on the stairs or standing at the back of the auditorium inspite of having valid tickets which led Jagjit Singh to comment that Delhi is a ‘sarkari‘ city, so genuine ticket holders end up standing to accomodate the government officials who are seated in the front rows. He added that the situation stays the same whenever he performs at the Siri Fort Auditorium; government officials present at the concert always inconvenience the genuine audience.

Over the years Jagjit Singh has developed a distinct style of performing on stage – interspersing his ghazals with very brief explanation of difficult urdu words, or having the audience applauding with his wisecracks.

In all, he performed for a close to two hours and had the audience wanting for more by the time he concluded the concert.

For everyone who dreamt of watching Michael Schumacher behind the wheels of Ferrari once again, it came as a sad news. He confirmed that he won’t be returning to Formula 1; via his official website. He stated that his neck had still not recovered enough to permit him to get behind the wheels of a Ferrari for the upcoming European GP.

Luca Badoer, a test driver for Ferrari, will now race in the European GP in place of Felipe Massa.

More than often, the music/motion picture studios manage to surprise me with their policies for piracy control. Most of the dvds currently being sold are region locked – Asia, Europe, US etc. all have their region codes and a dvd from one region can’t be played in a player/computer drive from some other region.

I can fairly assume that it must somehow help the music/motion picture studios curb piracy. What they forget in this hurry is to port their dvds to various regions. As a result, many of the imported dvds being sold in India are region locked for the US, hence they can’t be played by players manufactured for Asia. This has happened with me many a times in the past with dvds of famous artists such as Metallica, Phil Collins, BA, MJ etc.

I’m sure there are people who share the same story – of buying original “import” dvds from retail stores in India only to find that they are unplayable here while there are others who find it convenient and easier to access the dvd content of the very same artists from the internet paying zilch for the stuff.

It makes me wonder whether the music/motion picture studios are trying to curb piracy or promote it.

In remembrance of The Man and his Fan

Michael Jackson

July 5.

King of Pop Michael Jackson died yesterday of cardiac arrest. This comes as a big shock for everyone as he had been scheduled to perform live in London for 50 performances in a comeback tour beginning on July 13.

I know of a close friend who would have been terribly sad to hear this news today.

May God rest his soul in peace.

It’s a tad bad that FOTA won’t be forming any breakaway league next year. I was really looking forward to an alternate formula 1 league next year, one that would not have been bound by the preposterous rules that FIA sets out for teams every couple of years just to prove that they’re the real bosses.

Things seemed to be coming to a standstill but Max Mosley and Luca Di Montezemolo have resolved all issues to FOTA’s satisfaction. Anyway, it is a whiff of fresh air for formula 1 that Max Mosely won’t stand for re-election.

If you see her, say hello
she might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring
Is living there I hear

Say for me that I’m all right
though things get kind of slow
She might think that I’ve forgotten her
don’t tell her it isn’t so.

We had a falling-out
like lovers often will
And to think of how she left that night
it still brings me a chill

And though our separation
it pierced me to the heart
She still lives inside of me
we’ve never been apart.

If you get close to her
kiss her once for me
I always have respected her
for doing what she did and getting free

Oh, whatever makes her happy
I won’t stay in the way
Though the bitter taste still lingers on
from the night I tried to make her stay

I see a lot of people
as I make the rounds
And I hear her name here and there
as I go from town to town

And I’ve never gotten used to it
I’ve just learned to turn it off
Either I’m too sensitive
or else I’m getting soft.

Sundown, yellow moon,
I replay the past
I know every scene by heart
they all went by so fast

If she’s passing back this way
I’m not that hard to find
Tell her she can look me up
if she’s got the time.