A Musical Ear?

I made a wonderful discovery just now. 4 Hindi songs, which are very very special favorites of mine - I mean they are part of some ten select songs or so, which never fail to move me...I so love listening to them...and the discovery is that these 4 songs are based on the same raga.

1. Dil mein tujhe bithake from Fakira
2. Kuch dil ne kaha from Anupama
3. Nainon mein bhadra chaaye from Mera Saaya
4. Kismat se tum humko mile ho from Pukaar

Other good songs on the same raga are "Khiltey hai gul yahaan" from Sharmilee and "Tum mile dil khile" from Criminal...and the raga is Bhimpalasi. Actually I got interested when I listened to a ghazal by the Pakistani singer Tahira Sayeed on this raga. Her voice was haunting making me listen to it again and again...but I knew there was also something about this raga. It just attracted me. Then I did a research and found that there are whole lot of songs which I dearly love, which are based on this raga.

Same is the case with another raga called Reetigowla. There are a few Tamil songs based on this which I listen to again and again. Everytime I listen to them, its like I just get inspired. These songs are

1. Chinna kannan azhagiran from Kavi Kuyil
2. Thalayai kuniyum Thamaraye from Oru oadai nadiagirathu
3. Sudum Nilavu from Thambi
4. Kangal Irandal from Subramaniyapuram

Now I do not have any musical training or understanding or ragas, yet my ears, my heart or something very sensitive inside me really knows what it wants to hear and when I listen to that melody, I just get enthused, inspired, engrossed and energized. Like a moth I get attracted to the flame and burn. I guess music is just a language that everyone understands though there are a privileged few who are accomplished enough to speak it.

Dream come true

I watch the sunset.
And wonder,
If many sunsets later
Someday, I shall
Create that which
I wish to see.

The expression
of my thoughts.

The solidity from
a figment of imagination

The reality
out of fantasy.

A thousand brilliant suns
shall shine anew

When my dreams come true.

Loving

Happiness is but thinking of you
Every moment, every hour, every day
Emptiness is not having you
Need is yearning for you every day

Love is such a beautiful thing
Creating such wonderful fantasies
Enjoying pleasures without having them
Keeping harsh realities firmly away

And then I see you walking
the long distance to my heart
Heavenly flowers pave your path
Like God you answer as I pray

I am lost in the trance
Feeling, sensing every pulse
Absorbing you in my hearts boundless ocean
Where like Vishnu you lay

Excerpt

After a long long while I have finally written a little bit of my second story

"The long wafer thin curtains swayed in the gentle breeze, that kissed his dense mane and dried the emerging droplets of sweat on his forehead on a humid day. He was reclining upon a divan propping his head up on high round cushion. He rubbed his forehead to be rid of the irritating after effects of dried up sweat. If only he could rub away the irritating memories of the morning’s events in the durbar. If only a fine gentle breeze from somewhere would blow them away. Never before had he felt so alone, so lost in this wide world. He possessed two wives who loved him deeply, sweet children to whom he was attached, his mother, his caring, doting sister-in-law and above all a protective, possessive brother that no one else could have and yet he felt he could not bare his deepest angst with anybody, his eternal restlessness none could quieten, this thirst for something unknown, indefinable that none could quench, except for one proud, irreverent lady, or could even she achieve the impossible? His instincts had never lied to him and it was an instinct that drove him, made him possess her. Now though she was his, she was still not his….not completely anyway and the question still remained – was she the panacea to all that ailed him?"

Listless

The autumn leaves
The petering drips
The days and nights
Things change, yet
remain the same

The barren tree
The closed tap
A sluggish mind
Listlessly watches
the passing of time

Passionate restlessness

In the still quietness
you come as an ethereal music

In calm restfulness
you usher passionate restlessness

You bring torrential rains
In the barren wilderness

Awash, overwhelmed I am
Lost are the days of idle peace

Facing up to Fate

He who lacks belief in himself
What kind of man is he?
Who cannot conquer his own fears
And yet talks of bravery!

Those who know not what is right
Pity them that they cannot decide
Deride the one who lacks courage
To stand for, knowing what is right

For "they are brave who dare to be
In the right with just two or three"

The brave champions for the good
Knowing the odds stacked up against
He doesnt run away from the field
Even after a thousand slashes of Destiny

What best can Fate determine, but half
Countered by a determined will
Against the vicissitudes of life
Faith and Courage shall stand still

Ye man, believe
that you can be - a good man
even against the will
of Destiny!