Poor little Indian

Let's just accept it honestly. Indians DO have a fascination for white skin or so I discovered a few days back. Even in a cultural melting pot like Mumbai it happens. And I am not talking about middle-class, white-collared Indians. Here we have the so-called suave and cool folks from Gen-X. What happened was a series of instances happening with amazing predictability! Ok, here is a short background:
I work with the Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai which is the branch of the "Goethe Institut" of Germany. I work here as a Project Officer and my job entails in short handling activities related to Music Germany and Mumbai. And I got this job because of my previous experience as Musician in Mumbai and now because I also can speak fairly fluent German.

Now, we had a guest in the form of an extremely genial German gentleman called Ralph Christoph. Ralph is an electronic music expert from Cologne, Germany and he heads an annual international music festival called C/o Pop. He was here for researching the electronic music scene in India. I was here called on the job of helping him network with the right people from the Bollywood side and from an otherwise underground independent music world. Usually Ralph, I and Anja would travel together for these appointments. Anja was the Intern with Max Mueller Bhavan at the time. Here comes the funny part.
Whenever we would meet these other Music directors, Music label heads or anyone, they would greet only Ralph and Anja. And of course I was the poor little Indian. Then after 5 mins when I would have faded into oblivion, Ralph would feel really embarrassed that nobody was taking me into the discussion! Then while leaving, Ralph would normally turn to me and ask me something very vital, or my opinion about something or then I would stand up during a discussion and motion to Ralph to end the meeting because we would have some other appointment lined up further and then he would jokingly say, "I have to listen to her."! :-)) And it was THEN that the "poor little Indian" was noticed. Then they would ask me my name and tell me theirs. The truth is I knew not just their names but their entire musical biography which was exactly why I brought Ralph there in the first place!
Yes I felt very angry in the first few meetings. But later the awkwardness on their faces when they realised that the person whom they dutifully ignored was the one with whom they were going to have to deal, was what I started enjoying! I thought, "Oh! Poor little Indians!". :-))

B flat or C sharp!

It is said that when society undergoes a major cultural change, Music is the last frontier to be affected by that change.
But looking at the state of Music today, I shudder to think what it must be like in other aspects of culture!
Look at the picture alongside. It's so amazing that this picture manages very well to boil my blood. I perceive these ten figures here as BUFFOONS of the first order. It's a "musical" show. Or so they wish it could have been one. None of them are musicians or singers or have anything to do with music. Not even the judges. One of the judges is a film-director and the other one's profession is not yet clear to me. My guess is that she owns a laundry or something. And the joke is that the 8 participants "sing" and the judges judge them.
Music is in such BAD hands I tell you!
Where else would such a nasty thing be allowed to take place?
It's akin to asking Akshay Kumar to judge a Bharatnatyam performance! Or even worse asking Kishan Kumar ( I hope you remember him! ) to judge a theatre act!
What do the 2 judges on this above-mentioned reality show( Aaaaarrrgh. That's a topic for another day... ) have to do with music? Who gave them the right to be the judge at all!
It has become a joke. There are Musicians who have toiled for years and decades to understand and assimilate the nuances and secrets of music. They have practised their instruments every single day religiously...sometimes even till their fingers bled. Nobody asks them for a performance. I know musicians who are dying of hunger inspite of being A-grade musicians.
It's such a tragedy and even more so because it happens in India. We are the hosts of one of the greatest Classical music traditions in the world. Of course I am not saying that a bunch of idiots from reality shows pose a danger to the tradition of good music itself. But all I am hoping for is an aware audience who can discern between bull-shit and Music. Because only if WE as people refuse to have our ears stuffed with nonsense, will this atrocity stop.
Amen!!

Nothing much except Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrgggh!

I truly have come to wonder how many people really understand the value of "TIME": their own and more importantly of others! I am appalled and numbed.
This has prompted to vacuum-clean my life of all the time and space-suckers! Yes, I am going to do it. People call up on the cell. I cut the call. After 3 minutes they call up again. I tell them, "I will call you later. I am busy". Do you think they get the message? Wrong. They don't. They call me back AGAIN. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggghhhh! And all they want to know is, "What's up?". Is that even a question?
Is it afterall THAT difficult to understand? Am I asking for too much? Do I have to fight for my own privacy? What do the "time-suckers" want?
These are haunting questions of a daunting task!
Thank the Good Lord for caller identification.
Thank the Great Lord for creating blogs. Where else would I vent out all this?
Whew!