Friday, December 19, 2014

Songs of the Season

Music takes the front seat, in most people’s lives, at this time of the year.

And on top of the charts of world ‘Billboard Holiday 100’, this Christmas season, is Mary Did you know by Pentatonix. Immediately after that, at number two, is All I Want For Christmas Is You  by Mariah Carey.

These two songs have been vying with one another to stay on top, for the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, people are also digging up old favourites on YouTube where the season’s music is available more quickly today.

If you belong to my age-group, or of my parents – because taste in music didn't change so fast then - you would have definitely heard that rich booming bass voice of Jim Reeves from his famous album Twelve Songs of Christmas.  

These songs of Gentleman Jim, I think, will not lose their magic for years to come, and will keep reverberating in the ears and minds of many.

And who can forget Mary’s Boy Child by Boney M? Or Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee? Or the Christmas Portraitalbum by the Carpenters?

Elvis, Beatles, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, The Jackson 5, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. All the mainstream musicians knew that a lot of moolah will come their way if only they can release a Christmas album, in its season.

And they did. And the moolah came.

Which is why in the recent past, Mariah Carey, ‘N Sync, Justin Beiber, and even Susan Boyle, did not spare the season. They belted out their own versions, adding to the already dense Christmas music rain-forest.

We must agree, however, that there is something special about Christmas carols which bring out a special warmth inside, and some strange goose bumps on the outside, for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Good music that lifts up our spirits and rejuvenates our minds is always welcome.

But over the years, from a sequence of rhymed stanzas that the 10th century European monks probably uttered in a liturgical style, to a highly upbeat Christmas Rock of the 20th Century, it is clear that music has meandered into some un-trodden paths.  

Paths that could shock those angelic choirs which started it all!

Rock bands like Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Hollywood Undead, Linkin Park, and Phantom Planet have all come out with their own Christmas singles, in the rock genre, beating drums – the ear drums, I mean – to a very heady banging of vocal chords and guitar chords together. 

I have some other personal grouses too. Like, for example, I strongly disagree with Wham’s Last Christmas being listed among Christmas Songs. It is not!  Apart from the word Christmas, there’s just nothing related to it. 

Just like Jingle Bells! Which we know is all about a Sleigh ride. Or of Winter Wonderland, or of Let it snow, which are all about snow, and nothing to do with the main Christmas story.

But let me not get too clinical and cynical. And let me not rob you of that special spirit of the season. Or of that particular joy to the world which the big fat man in red, who is coming to town, brings.

So, be of good cheer. It is not all humbug. Download and listen. 

And silver bells will ring in the cash-registers of online music companies. And musicians’ pockets will jingle all the way… to the banks.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Horror worth Remembering

Pablo Bartholomew's Iconic Photograph of a child victim
On the night of 2 December,  someone started tweeting the world’s worst industrial disaster, as if it were happening live.

But exactly 30 years ago, around the same time on the same day, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy had really happened live, at the then US-owned Union Carbide factory in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

It happened, perhaps, exactly as given in this deadly, chilling account by the tweeter @1984Bhopal.

Around half a million people had been exposed to the deadly fumes of the Methyl Isocyanate gas-leak. Almost 4,000 people died in the immediate aftermath, and around 10,000 subsequent deaths are blamed on this horrible disaster. The survivors’ fight for appropriate compensation is still on-going.

I was thirty years younger then, but I still remember the screaming headlines of the newspapers dated 4 December 1984.

TV news then was very new, and extremely slow. But I clearly remember, from the newspapers and news-magazines, the gut-wrenching photos of heaps of dead bodies, of people and of cattle.

You have to just google the names of photo-journalists Pablo Bartholomew and Raghu Rai - with the word ‘Bhopal’ - to see the horror they recorded for posterity.

Anyway, coming back to the tweeter, we are not very sure of the real identity. But Aziza is the name given. And here is what Aziza tweeted.

"At about 12.30 am, I woke up to the sound of Ruby coughing badly...”

"The room is filled with a white cloud. I hear a great noise of people shouting. They are yelling ‘bhaago, bhaago!’” (Run... run...).

"My son Mohsin is coughing. I am coughing too. With each breath as if we are breathing in fire. My eyes are burning".

“We are feeling worse. Mohsin has stopped groaning. He is unconscious. Mother-in-law says we must rush to Hamidia hospital".

“We start. I am carrying Mohsin. Ruby is holding my hand. Sister-in-law is also holding two children. Father-in-law is carrying a grandson”.

 “Looks like lots of others have run past us. Shoes, shawls, clothes are on the street. White clouds are everywhere”.

“People are running, screaming for help, vomiting, falling down, unconscious”.

“Mohsin & my niece are still unconscious. Ruby is holding my kurta. We manage to walk another 500 metres. Bhopal Talkies crossing”.

“Mohsin is vomiting on me. Ruby is also vomiting. I can't control my bowels. Faeces is running down my legs”.

“We must get to hospital. But we can't. We fall down. No strength. I can feel I am having a miscarriage. Blood all over my body. Around me”.

“There are people lying on the ground. They look dead. If we stay here, we will die too. We must go. We must run”.

While some gruesome details can be too disturbing to read, we must admit, the disaster is too real for us to forget.

The world does not learn its lessons quickly. In fact, just two years after Bhopal, in 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant of Ukraine had had a radiation leakage that affected thousands - leading many to suffer and to succumb to cancer.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, when Tsunami hit the Japan in 2011 is an example of how, even if man is very careful, nature can sometimes turn very furious. But should we not be prepared?

Our rising dependency on chemicals, nuclear power, and related technology should create a greater accountability and responsibility from our leaders.

Our occupational Safety and Health Administration experts should never stop warning us or preparing us for the deadly harm technology can sometimes do.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Movie Memorabilia Worth Millions

When I heard that the piano used in the 1942 movie Casablanca was sold this week – at a New York auction - for $3.4 million, my mind went back in time, to the day I saw it first.

The movie, I mean. Not the piano.

But, yes, the piano was in the movie; though I wonder if anyone will actually remember how it looked.

I remember, however, the very beautiful Ingrid Bergman - Ilsa in the movie - who goes into Rick’s Café, run by her old flame.

She pleads with the pianist, known to both, for a song:  "Play it once, Sam. For old times' sake…. Play ‘As Time goes by’…"

From the movie Casablanca.
Sam, the pianist, and Rick the owner of the Cafe

These lines have now become memorable in the chronicles of Hollywood. And many say that, even now when they watch the movie, they have tears in their eyes when the pianist plays the song.

Especially, when Rick enters, agitated by this song which brings back painful memories, and suddenly sees his former lover sitting in his own Café.

Of course, many will further admit they had had even more tears at the end of the movie!

Several years ago, I was among some seventy odd people who attended a three-day event, in my hometown, on Hollywood film appreciation.

In a small hall, each evening, we were shown a Hollywood Classic. There was an elaborate introduction before the screening, and a heated discussion, by a panel of experts, after the screening.

Casablanca was one of the three movies shown. High Noon and Citizen Kane were the other two.

Not only do I vividly remember these movies, but I also remember the wonderful whirr of the projector, the scratchy flashes on the screen, and that ethereal beauty of black and white movies, straight from the celluloid.

It was a completely different experience from watching the now easily accessible High Definition colour formats of the day.

No wonder the connoisseurs of nostalgia are willing to pay millions to collect the Hollywood memorabilia they hold close to their hearts.

I read that at the same New York City auction held this week, the Cowardly Lion costume from the movie “The Wizard of Oz” was sold for  $3.077 million.

Interestingly,  though not in millions, and though not in this auction, the coat which Orson Welles wore in the movie ‘Citizen Kane’ was also among the items for which collectors paid a lot.

My curiosity got the better of me, as I wanted to find out which item from the movie memorabilia could be the highest ever sold.

And guess which one it was?

It was a dress. And it was sold in 2011, for an astounding $4.6 million, by the actress Debbie Reynolds from her huge movie prop collection.

Even if you have not seen the film, you would have seen – like the whole world has seen, for 60 years now – the iconic photograph of the white dress of Marilyn Monroe – from the movie ‘The Seven Year Itch’.

The gusty-lusty breeze from the New York subway grate below, had then raised not just her skirt, but a thousand eyebrows!

Whatever these dresses and movie props meant then, I genuinely doubt if they will really appreciate in value over time, but the fact remains that the current owners think they will.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Stasi - The Dreaded Secret Police

“This is like the Stasi”!

An angry German Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to have used these words lambasting Barack Obama, when her personal mobile phone was tapped by USA’s National Security Agency, in December 2013.

This month, when the world is celebrating 25 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, I thought it pertinent to look at the dreadful role ‘Stasi’ played in the tightening of the iron curtain during the cold war.

Stasi, the state security department of the former communist East Germany (German Democratic Republic) was the most hated and feared institutions.

Many consider it the most repressive intelligence and secret police agency to have ever existed.

Apart from spying on its population, through a network of some 90,000 people, mostly citizens turned informants, Stasi fought all opposition ruthlessly. Sometimes, even by hidden psychological destruction of dissidents.

But let us go back a little, into the past, to understand the reasons.

In 1945, when WWII ended with the division of the German land – into what became capitalistic West Germany, and communist East Germany - even the city of Berlin was split into east and west.

West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) came under British Administration, and East Germany under Soviet Union.

On the dividing line were trenches, barricades and barbed-wire fences. But many east Germans wanted to escape to west which promised a better life.

‘Stasi’, however, was spying on people to find renegades, to fight dissidents, and to stop emigration.

In 1961, East Germany ensured that a solid wall was built splitting the country, and particularly, the city of Berlin. And immediately, families were divided, jobs were lost, and communication was cut.

Stasi would report on citizens trying to flee from east to west.  Border guards would shoot anyone found trying to cross-over.

Angela Merkel knew this ‘Stasi’ very well. They were all around her in East Germany where she grew up. In fact, Stasi had even approached her and asked her to join them, but she did not.

The data Stasi collected about East German citizens is simply astounding.

I read in a report by BBC’s Matt Frei that “by 1989 Stasi had collected more than 6 million files - on a population of only 17 million!

“Even after an orgy of shredding, ripping and burning documents they still bequeathed the Western authorities 100 miles of files”.

Today, many of these files are open to public. And individuals can request to see the information Stasi had collected on them.

Here is a real example Matt Frei quotes from the file of Petra Weyer, a student of German literature: “Grounds for suspicion: Watches West German television for more than two hours every night. Maybe planning to flee the republic.

“October 14, 1987. Subject enters the Kafe Rose at 3pm. Sits by herself. Eats a piece of cake (cheese cake with cherries). Drinks three cups of coffee. Cream. No sugar. Stays one hour six minutes. Leaves. Goes home by bus (Number 15b)”.

Last week, on a BBC radio program, I heard a German lady say “The Stasi even knew the soap I used, and the lotion I applied to my skin”!

We may smile at the ridiculousness of it. But is ‘state snooping’ completely gone now ?

No. Many governments - and not just USA with its NSA - conduct ‘state surveillance’ in the name of security. And I think we have very little choice.

Stasi was dissolved in 1990.  But look around us. Google reads my email. Facebook keeps a record of the profiles I searched for. YouTube knows the videos I watched and where I left off. My telecom company knows where I was and what calls I made from my mobile phone. And all this data is available for governments if they ask.

So, it looks like the Stasi is still with us - in just another new form.