Thursday, May 31, 2007

the great outdoors







After a kind of hiatus from outdoor activities, I went camping again with some friends to a campsite near Julian, CA. The weather was excellent, unlike the last time when we spent 36 hours in near sub zero temperatures with just the aid of a couple of jackets (admittedly, an excellent bonding experience). Some activities included roasting various vegetables and turning them into amazing snacks -mushrooms, onions, capsicum (ok ok..bell peppers!!) of various colours, making wood fired pavbhaji, and playing antakshari in company that included a broad spectrum of vocal talent: ranging from those who sang like vessels in a sink to one of the best non-professional ghazal singers I had ever heard. Also, a post midninght walk where we had a rare and life-freaking-out brush with something that sounded like and had the outline of a wolf. Well, as long as I am alive to write about it, I suppose I should not mind.

The crowning glory was clearly the two warning we got from park rangers for being noisy and being on the verge of getting kicked out. Felt like I was back in school again..

ghalib ke chahne wale...

Some good news for those ghalib fans whose grasp of urdu is not that strong. Check out http://www.smriti.com/urdu/ghalib/ . It has almost 50 of his ghazals including most of his very best with the meanings of all the harder urdu words there. If your appreciation of his ashaar was limited by your urdu, this will take care of that problem!

Also, youtube has several episodes of the late 80's doordarshan serial "Mirza Ghalib" which was a confluence of artistic class never seen before- the life and shayari of mirza ghalib, directed by gulzar, featuring naseeruddin shah and jagjit singh's silken voice!

Intro

Now that you are here, the obvious question is what can you expect to find here? To start with, plenty of my first passion: sports! In any form, shape, from any corner of the world. Also a good deal of my new found passion: Urdu/Hindi poetry. I have been captivated by the poetry of Mirza Ghalib and Gulzar. Their work is mainly what I read though with time I have been reading some shayari by other classic shayars as well.

Some stuff for sure on music: Passion for Metallica. An erstwhile passion that is making its way back into my life: Tabla. And then hopefully some clips of action from my everyday life!

Agar hai junoon, toh shuru ho jayiye!