আমার আকাশ

আমার আকাশ, আমায় নিয়ে চলো বাড়ি
যেখানে দেয়ালে দোলে বাংলা ক্যালেন্ডার
কি জানি হিসেব লেখা কাঁপা হাতে মা'র
আলনায় ঝোলে কয়টি কস্তা পেড়ে  শাড়ি,
না সে কোনো স্বপ্ন নয় হাজার দুয়ারী
বর্ষায় বাড়ে কমে নেহাত সস্তার  দুয়ার
প্রতিবার চেঁছে চেঁছে রং চটা তার
মধ্যবিত্তের  দরজার মাপও মাঝারি।

আকাশ এবার আমায় নিয়ে চলো ঘরে
সপ্তপর্ণীর পাতায় ঘেরা জানলার কাছে।
ফাটা চৌকাঠে ঋজুর বিয়ের আল্পনা
কালিঝুলি মাখা রান্নাঘরের কোণা।
বাইরে ভাঙা ডাল নেড়া তার ঝুলে আছে।
যেখানে জীবনসার ছিন্নভিন্ন ঝড়ে।

My skies

My skies, please take me home

where there's a Bengali calendar on the wall

some indiscernible account written in Mother's unsteady hand

and plain bordered saris hanging on the clothes rail

No it's not a dream of a thousand doors

in fact, it's a cheap shutter that expands every monsoon

and the paint's peeling because it has to be trimmed every year -

the doors of the middle class are also moderately sized.

Skies, now please take me to my home

to the windows curtained by the leaves of the seven-leaved tree

rice slurry patterns drawn on the cracked threshold,

to the sooty kitchen corner draped in cobwebs

Outside broken branches and bare electric wires dangle,

where entire lifetimes lie in ruins after a cyclone.

My home state West Bengal has been devastated by Cyclone Amphan. We were already reeling from the pandemic. The cyclone has killed nearly 90 people in a few hours. Thousands of livelihoods and lives ruined. Some of my relatives in Kolkata were without power/running water/communications  for 5 days, there are still areas in the city where the first responders are struggling to restore supplies. Even worse impact on the rural communities. It will take years to rebuild. But we will get it done. 

Let them eat some cake!

How many hearts have been crushed in these fifty days

how many pairs of feet have walked the national highways

and how many lives were sliced open on the rail tracks

how many children starved as their parents trudged back

the unbalconied people who'll go anywhere

and work everything from harvesters to daycare.

Well, there's no vote this year - is that the reason why

you talk about bells-n-petals, and let them die?

Maybe then...

Maybe when aeons of rivers flow down

to the sea, maybe when lightyears of time

stand ripened, rippling in the autumn sun,

when gallons and gallons of hymns and homes

are blown out embers, landfilled out of town  

when fathoms of feet have trampled stations

maybe then, maybe then? maybe then…

Maybe when memories turn blue black, grown

into the sky, fade inward to smoke and grime,

maybe when the weight of stories equals millions,

when miles and miles of birds and biomes

slink out slowly, escape this long lockdown

to love again - always an affliction,

maybe then, maybe then? maybe then…

How much?

The question is - how much time? mere six weeks

to knit bones, much less than that for a scratch,

forty days for the womb to rest and bleed

out its slow postpartum debris, to catch

its breath after birth. Exactly how much

time after death is the trauma safe to touch?

All my days are sleepless nights far too deep

for tears. It was she who taught me not to weep.

She was a little old school, but it’s rubbed

off - knit into the brain, the mesh of neurons

and won’t unravel, however hard I tug.

I touch this wound only when I’m alone

and my fingers come away wet, not with blood

or tears, any fluid I have ever known.

April was a monumental month, a whirlwind of events public and personal - some terrible, some devastating, some just bad and some not so bad. 

I failed the A-Z 2020 Challenge because I couldn't comment/visit, though my posts all got done as per schedule. I withdrew halfway through. 

I was absent from the WEP Challenge for the first time since I joined. The support, well wishes and prayers from my fellow WEPers were...just beyond words. They chose to award this entry, which was pre-written and scheduled, of course. What can I say? To all those who wrote here and at the WEP site, emailed or used other social media channels to reach out - thank you! But thank you doesn't even begin to cut it. 

Z is for Zilch .... Zip ... n ... Zillions

This last day put your headphones on for an old but path breaking band from the 90’s - Bombay Vikings, with their hit number Zara Nazron Se..

And then keep them on for a new one, here’s Zokova live with an untitled track -

The last piece of music in this A-Z series is a jugalbandi featuring maestros Zakir Hussain and Amjad Ali Khan on the tabla and sarod respectively. Both are world famous performers of their instruments. A jugalbandi is a piece played by two musicians in a kind of call and response format.

Y is for ...Yellow ... n ... Yaman ...

First I've a band called The Yellow Diary, relatively young, from Mumbai with a number titled Rab Rakha. Formed about five years ago and already making waves with their style of music which they dub poetry with rock. Take a listen -

Next is a band called The Yellow Bucket, yellow is clearly a popular shade with alternative bands, I know! I had no idea either! :)

And finally something a little different - the raga Yaman played on a guitar and accompanied by the traditional tabla. I found this rendition quite delightful. Enjoy!

X is for... Xosh! ... Xoly Xow! ... it's Xoubting Xhomas!

You’d think finding music for X, and X doesn’t even exist in any Indian language that I know of, would be super impossible. But no…I have a positive deluge of tracks today. Yeah, I know. I'm as surprised as you are. First, there’s Chronic Xorn a hard metal band from Kolkata with a track titled Necropolis. Not exactly my kind of music, but hey...it's X and beggars can't be choosers.

Next I have for you Mysore Xpress with Freedom Rock, the lyrics are a mix of Hindi and Kannada,  languages spoken in North, Central and South India respectively. Nice and peppy for the Independence Day celebrations a couple years ago.

Now put on your headphones for this oldies goldies lilting track from the 2009 album called Xsuie by Lucky Ali. 'My heart keep on singing' is the specific title - Dil Gaye Jaa. 

And finally, this cover of xxxtentacion by chrms rounding off things quite nicely. Take a listen -

W is for... Willow... n...Winners ....Widespread...

First I have a very young, teenage musician for you today with a track called With You. Apt! and pleasant on the ears too.

Next we have Warwan with a track called Nishan. Warwan is a relatively young band too. They're based in Delhi and play in the Hindi metal genre. Lyrics are meaningful and the overall sound is great, so even if you can't follow the former, no worries.

Finally, get your headphones on for Woh Hum Nahin, which translates to That’s Not Us, a protest song composed and sung by musician Ankur Tiwari for the recent Anti-CAA protests. The video includes footage from across India and at Shahinbag in Delhi. Jo mazhab ke bahane aapas mein lad rahe…those who’re fighting using religion as an excuse – that’s not us, that’s not us, that’s not us. Moving visuals – I’m always moved by young people taking a stand and expressing themselves. Have a listen -

V is for...Valley....Vivid... n ...Vedic

Today I’m starting with something a little different, an instrumentalist called Veena Srivani playing Breathless by Shankar Mahadevan on the veena, which is an ancient Indian plucked string instrument dating back to around 1700 BCE. Again, you don't have to know anything about the veena to appreciate her fluency and mood-lifting facility on it. You've heard the original song earlier in my B-post (listen again here).

Next I’m giving you Parikrama, a megapopular Indian band, playing their title Vapourize  at the Download Festival, Donington Park in UK. Sadly their lead guitarist, one of the founding members, passed away earlier this year. 

And finally the Vinyl Records with their Ready Get Set Go. Enjoy -

U is for ... Unheard ... Unknown ... Unfathomable...

Underground Authority is an alternate rock band from Kolkata, formed in 2010. Their music has elements of reggae, rap and hard rock. Lyrics much influenced by protest poetry and anti-capitalism messages.

This next track called Ungentle is from Bhayanak Maut (lit Horrific Death). They style themselves as a hardcore death metal band - the number certainly lives up to its name!

Finally, this - the grandmother of all Indian music. Ustad Bismillah Khan (1916 - 2006) playing Raga Puriya on the instrument of his choice and mastery - the Shehnai, at a concert in London in 1993. Bismillah Khan is one of the cornerstones of contemporary North Indian Classical music. India woke to independence to the melody of his Shehnai - he played at the Red Fort on India's first Independence Day on 15th August, 1947. Ustad Bismillah Khan has given Shehnai recitals all round the world, I was fortunate enough to be part of the audience when he played in Bahrain in 2002. Ustad, btw, is a honorific meaning Maestro/Teacher used for Muslim musicians, similar to Pandit for their Hindu counterparts. 

Raga Puriya is an evening/night Raga - the Indian Classical music system is based on Ragas/Raginis, which are specific melodic modes created by a fixed combination of notes in a certain progression and with emphases characteristic to that Raga. Each Raga is meant to evoke a certain mood and is played at a certain time of day/season. 

But you don't need to know a thing about Indian Classical, or Ragas, or Ustad Bismillah Khan, to appreciate his expertise and execution and breath control, how he makes the Shehnai 'speak' and 'weep,' his consummate ability to transport audiences. Have a listen - 

T is for Terai...Terrain.... n ... Tree

The first song is a track by Thaikkudam Bridge called Fish Rock – and fish being a staple in the eastern, coastal parts of India, resonated with me massively. :) The second is Tunak Tunak Tun by Daler Mehndi, another foot tapping Bhangra Pop number. Have a listen -

S is for ... Sent....Science.... n ... Success

Starting today with synthesis - the folk/fusion band Swarathma singing in Kannada, collaborating with Shubha Mudgal. So a South Indian band singing Western inspired music and a singer of North Indian Hindustani Classical blending their disparate styles and languages into a miraculous whole. Sometimes my head spins from the melting-potness of the melting pot that is India. :)

Now for a very different sound - the progressive metal band Skyharbour with musicians from India and USA, singing a track called Dim -

Finally here's Suneeta Rao with a decades old but super successful number Paree Hoon Main from the album Dhuan, released in 1991, which made her name known to every household.

R is for ... Radio ... Ratna ... n ... Rich

Starting off today with Ritviz...a young musician with a background in Indian classical gravitating towards EDM and hiphop. Followed by Raghu Dixit and then Roga Bolo Na from Chandrabindu which is the veteran band in this bunch. Have a listen.

Q is for ... Quaking ... n ... Quailing

Today is the turning point when the challenge gets into difficult terrain, the first of the letters that are the litmus test of survival. And I with my unpreparedness - am quailing and quaking more than usual, what else? But all is still not lost...managed to find a couple things. First, this is by a Bengali filmmaker, music composer and lyricist - Qaushik Mukherji, the lyrics are awful profane so if you understand Bangla and are sensitive then please don't click play. If you don't follow Bengali/are not easily offended - have a listen.

From the controversial avant garde to the pukka traditional - the next number is my only concession to Bollywoody music. However, it is based on a musical form called the Qawwali - an Islamic Sufi devotional which developed in the subcontinent centuries ago and is still sung in the Sufi shrines and dargahs. A very typical choral performance, this has been adapted for use in many Bollywood films. Qawwali uses Sufi metaphors of the 'beloved' and the 'wine-bearer' for God, and the tavern, wine and drinking for the material world. Even if these metaphors are unknown the lyrics can be taken at face value and still feel absolutely riveting. 

The reason why I chose a Bollywood Qawwali rather than an original one is simply because a real Qawwali performance can typically go on for half an hour or more. In a film it is necessarily more compact but less authentic. Note that in the clip there are actual performers 'Qawwals' called Nizami Bandhu who sing at the shrine/mausoleum of Nizamuddin Auliya, a 13th century Sufi saint in Delhi. However, the film has playback artistes singing the song. 

P is for...Poster...Popular.... n .... Page

Long Post Alert! Stop wherever you want to...sections marked off for your easy cherry-picking :)



Parikrama is one of the pioneers of rock and roll - they've been at their music for nearly three decades. Here's they are with But It Rained -

Peepal Tree  with Rosha-e-Kaafile. It's worth mentioning that peepal is the Hindi word for the sacred fig, an actual species. So their name can be taken as it is, or as a pun - whateva...

And finally, a protest song that the recent people's movement against the Citizenship Amendent Bill has generated. I'm not getting into politics here - I have seen the explosion of creative expression that happens during political upheavals, once in Egypt and now in India, and I just love the outpouring of song, poetry, art and the super innovative ways people find to make themselves heard. 

Btw, Poorna Swaraj means 'total independence' (lit complete self-rule) and this was the resolution adopted by the Indian National Congress at its convention in December 1929 so the title is a super famous slogan and an allusion from the Indian Independence movement.