This world is so wide that, even if you flitted around and around it, you would never reach the end of it. This blog is a collage of more or less literary and humorous, outlandish or sometimes even serious glimpses at this great wide world.
These (om anandamayi chaitanyamayi satyamai parame) are the words of the first song on a wonderful CD I've had for years – Hymns and Songs in Sanskrit, sung by Joy Chowdhury of Auroville, South India.
I briefly met Joy Chowdhury at a friend's house in Auroville late in 2004 and remember – and this is a memory that's stuck in my mind for incomprehensible reasons – seeing her vanish behind a curve of an Auroville dirt road on her scooter, with her daughter riding behind her.
– Leonard Blumfeld
The musicians are:
Joy Chowdhury - Vocals
Holger Jetter - Keyboards & arrangements
Bryce Grinlington - Flute
Krishna Both - Tabla
Nadaka - Tambura and additional vocal
This week's Inspire me Thursday task is to go beyond the comfort zone (the week before it was to define the comfort zone, in which I did not participate – did not feel comfortable with that one, I guess).
What came to my mind for this one was a quote from a postcard received from a close friend:
So you're a winner ...
You work, and it's rewarding & fun. You share your life with a marvelous woman, who complements you and moves you much as you move her. You bless the world & the world's blessing shines on you.
Here's a picturization of one of the most famous romantic duets of popular Hindi cinema – it also was sort of the theme song of the happiest times of my marriage...
The song is from Dilli Ka Thug (1958). It stars Nutan, one of the most beautiful and charming actresses of the time, and Kishore Kumar, who is better known as a playback singer than an actor. Here he does playback singing for himself, while Asha Bhosle is the singing voice of Nutan.
The new office has five windows, of which 3 are obscured by shutters this morning to prevent glare whenever the sun chooses to poke out for a sec.
No. 4 shows part of an apartment building, built ca. 1920, when they still had a taste for nooks and crannies (this one has many of those). It's pale orange, with the entrance in pale pink and the hinged shutters in pale green. The most conspicuous contemporary feature is a clump of red and zinc satellite dishes on the red tile roof.
No. 5, at an angle of only 8 degrees from no. 4, shows an entirely different period in the back - a recent high-rise apartment building, all boxy impersonal lines. Pale yellow and concrete grey. Another apartment block, straight, 1960s, boring, transverse. Partially covered up by deep-green spruce trees. A beech in front. Still hanging on to last year's brown leaves.
Somehow a dismal morning. Discernable drops of rain coming down out there. Any sound from outside covered up by the humming and occasional ghostly activity of the huge HP printers stationed further back in the room.
In 1990, I bought Chris Rea's album "Shamrock Diaries," which contains some of the best songs he ever wrote. I particularly loved "Stainsby Girls" and was planning on writing a novella based on the theme suggested - that of two wild, unconventional sisters, who, as Chris Rea says, could not only steal a heart, but break it in two.
I'd even decided on my names for the sisters – Charlotte and Vivian. Charlotte, I was definitely sure, was the proper name for my Rolling Stones loving heroine. She would be the one to break my hero's heart in two.
Alas, I never even wrote a single line of the novella. But the idea has lingered in my head for over 15 years and is revived each time I listen to the song. Which still happens now and then...
The lyrics follow below the video. Watch out for Chris' slide guitar solo!
Stainsby Girls
Some girls used to kiss and run Never knew what they had done Some girls always wasted time Keep you hanging on the line Some loved horses and always stayed at home But the Stainsby girls loved the Rolling Stones
Now some had games that you had to play Making rules along the way Strange attractions newly found Pride and passion kicked around Some girls stole your heart Like most girls do But a Stainsby girl could break it in two
And I fell in love, I fell in love I fell in love with a Stainsby girl
Deepest water Stainsby blue Running straight, running true Names and faces fade away Memories here to stay
And I fell in love, I fell in love I fell in love with a Stainsby girl
This post is for my friend Chris from New Jersey, who is married to Rose. The other day he told me about a song he'd written for her, and that reminded me of the Johnny Cash song "Give my love to Rose," of which I recited part of the lyrics to him. He thought it was unbelievably corny. But then he doesn't like country music in general. However, then I discovered that his fellow New Jersean and hero Bruce Springsteen performed the song on some occasion. So here it is - Springsteen-style...
Occasionally, the daily horoscope I get by e-mail is right on target, as it was today:
Your usual determination has gone out of town and left no forwarding address. Of course, like any self-respecting Capricorn, you continue to accomplish what's demanded of you. But you sense something missing in relation to your motivations. Those around you notice it as well, so expect to have to justify or explain your occasional lack of pep...
Please get me back my forwarding address! And, preferably, back into town!
Ruminations Here we are – it’s the 4th morning in 2008, and a fib – in the shape of a diamond no less – served as a warm-up exercise for a day begun with reluctance. If we are to trust Richard Leider and other commonsense gurus, it is essential to have a reason for getting up in the morning. Each and every morning. Let’s just say that some mornings are easier than others.
I briefly met Joy Chowdhury at a friend's house in Auroville late in 2004 and remember – and this is a memory that's stuck in my mind for incomprehensible reasons – seeing her vanish behind a curve of an Auroville dirt road on her scooter, with her daughter riding behind her.
