Van Chitgough- The Art of Life

Taking some break from the advice column..here’s some of the stuff that’s’ been going down:

• Federer rules. I mean there’s really no doubt about it….thank you sir swiss for bringing my love for the great game back. It was down and out ever since my idol Sampras bowed out, but you have brought back grace, glory and a classy arrogance that only the likes of you can pull off with panache….
• Its getting warm in delhi. Holy shit. It hadn’t been 3 weeks of slightly biting chill factor since my return from Goa and its already getting warm. Im predicting a pretty belligerent summer…
• Got a hold of another killer Robert plant album that I’m aching to get a full listen of later this week. I’m sure the creators will enjoy the unearthing of a classic performer…
• Met Sagar the man a couple of weeks back with PD…still the dude he’s been globe trotting across the continents. Good fun and good memories revisited.
• Jamming sessions this week hopefully with mr. seth and rudy….maintaining the balance and coercing the fingers to fly.
• Chandigarh this weekend fr a sangeet and more….neha’s bro is getting married. Should be a blast and a quick fire change of pace. Looking forward.
• Russell Peters is due to come into Delhi (again) first week of March…fingers crossed and really praying the dude doesn’t turn out to be a pansy and cancel again. Watching him live would be phenomenal..
• January has literally whizzed by. The US trip has gotten indefinitely postponed. Will keep you guys in tune of developments happening on that front.
• Opportunities (and with it decisions) come and go…the decision making process is more complicated with the addition of age and responsibility. As the branches to the tree of our lives reach out to more and more people, so do the nests and habitation dependant on it. Cutting off and relocating; physically or spiritually, becomes more of a tangled mosaic….a mosaic that is at times a rainbow, and at times a violent portrayal of a life more motley and elaborate then what we ever wanted in the first place….

Posted by chitgo at 1/30/2007 03:17:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Dear dC,
This is a bit embarrassing to say, but my husband and I (married for nearly 25 years now) have been having some trouble in the bedroom department lately. I don’t know if its his new job or the new mattress I just got from the discount store down the street; he just isn’t firing on all cylinders if you know what I mean. Or well, he’s firing a bit too quickly…well I’m sure you get the drift.

I’ve been reading your column and I am sure the wonders of music would get his ‘well you know’ thing going….
Please help! I want more children…4 is just not enough don’t you think?)

-Desperate in Dalhousie

Dear Desperate,
Ok lady, first off…you’ve been married for 25 years. Considering failed child marriage acts in this country I’m guessing that should make you atleast 30 years old. So please quit saying ‘well you know’ and ‘if you know what I mean’. We ain’t talking about the secret blood line of Jesus Christ or the crying lactose effect of ganesha statues here. Nothing to be shy about man. This isn’t Dan Brown’s advice column ok?

Ok. Back to your problem. Fairly common issue. My worry here is more for your husband and his state of mind at the moment though. You see men like to perform when relaxed. This is not just restricted to the bedroom. Whilst sport is a different matter (where adrenaline and competition play a mightier role in performance), the bedroom is about union, a congruence, a divine act. What im trying to say is , Lady, are you trying to make a little cricket team out of your kids? you’ve already got 4 in 25 years, go easy on the cycle of life sister, we’re all doing our bit…you don’t have to take on china alone you know.

Anyway, what you guys do is up to you. If mr. desperate needs some motivation I suggest a couple of things that have been known to work for some of my friends. My phenomenon of a flatmate chooses to play any one of the longish Doors numbers when he’s getting his mack on. Problem with that though can be that Jim’s songs many a times last longer than him so there’s this melody going “Mr Mojo riiiiiiiiiiisiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, got to keep on riiiiiiiiiisiiiiiiiiiiiiing” and I come downstairs to find the 2 of them washed up, dressed and drinking stale orange juice….not the coolest scene on the block you know but yeah an option…

Don’t go for the obvious sexual healing and lets get it on. They’re clichés and quite frankly no Indian dude can ever really compare male machismo to the African-american…way out of our league. For your unique case though, I propose putting on Lenny Kravitz’ greatest hits and learning the words to ‘I belong to you’. That’s gotta get things smoking…and if not. Just get a poster of the dude on the wall, whatever Mr. Dalhousie can offer, you can enhance through lenny’s supposed super sexuality. I’ve known a few cats to shake off below average (but good people type) lovers through that image.

Hope this helps.

-dC

Posted by chitgo at 1/30/2007 03:14:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Dear dC,
You seem like a well traveled individual. Which part of the world have you picked up direct influences of your musical tastes from?
Why I ask is that I am going to Bangladesh soon and it is my first experience of international travel….I’d love to get some tips on how to go deep into the roots of that culture and dig out music that encompasses the core of their cultural diversity…
-Chatterjee Sen from Kolkatta…


Dear Senmaster (not),
Just a second. Let me get this straight. You live in Bengal, you’ve never traveled abroad, and of all the god-forsaken locations on this gorgeous planet you choose Bangladesh? Man, you’ve got a brain, the internet and hence possibly enough cash flow to afford a newspaper… Are you not seeing what’s going on in that country??? Political lockdown, economic distress….do these words make any sense to you? Dude, they haven’t got things sorted out since the British left us battered and bruised 50+ years ago. They’re busy giving nobel prizes to dudes for micro-finance policies , little realizing that that’s the entire economy itself...

Anyway, what you do in your spare time man….

Finding about musical tastes in different cultures is a discovery. People watch the European top 20 on crap-assed MTV or VH1 and they’re all “im multi cultural and embrace diversity”. Bite me. The same shit does the same rounds all over the world as capitalists drive forward selfish motives and promote seemingly (but hardly) global sounds like shakira and Madonna to any continent that can afford it.

My trick – go into homes man. People’s homes. Go for small Sunday fests in little known cities and hear the music they play. Walk slowly behind mothers taking their children for a walk and listen in on the lullaby they sing. Don’t get too close or you’ll get a roundhouse kick all the way back to rosagulla land but you get my drift.
I spent a weekend at a gorgeous little cottage in the outskirts of Bern once where all I heard was a piano infused jazz collection of the home-owners family collection. Not exactly my cup of tea but it gave me a sense of the serenity of the place. I went for a live concert 3 months later and heard a rapped up French version (in concert) of dr. Jekyll and mr. hyde with Will I am in an awesome avatar. The answer is on the streets.

Man I don’t know what you’re doing in Bangladesh but if finding flute organs made out of raw rice and playing it for pleasure is what you call music, hell all I’ll say is respect….
If you become a political prisoner though I’m denying I ever gave you advice.

-dC

Posted by chitgo at 1/28/2007 05:59:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Dear dC,

My personality/work are such that I end up being asked to give advice on everything under the sun and my cellphone has become more of a 'Advice Hotline'. Unfortunately, about 50% of the time people don't end up taking my advice and then end up crying and coming back to me a year later saying they wish they'd listened to me while I resist the urge to say, 'I told you so!' Sometimes I wonder if I should move to the top of a mountain where my advice will have more meaning and an aura of romanticism. Please tell me how you manage to cope with all this.

Advisor to the people,
Confused in Karachi



Dear Confused,

I have often been faced with the depression arising out of the curse of unending wisdom and knowledge. It is truly the bane of intelligence.

There are however, solutions. Firstly, quit whining. Secondly, do not resist from saying ‘I told you so’. It is an effective, clinical and awesome thing to say to someone that has obviously not taken the good advice you have been so gracious to provide. Secondly, the pained expression on their face from such supposed heartlessness is worth a million bucks.

Ok, moving to the top of a mountain is not a good idea (unless it’s the swiss alps which are in general more developed and habitable than some of the ‘posh’ areas’ of places you and I come from). Mountains are cold, windy and good to see from a postcard. Do not be foolish.

Instead, I suggest you become a cool corporate mckinsey/BCG type person and charge unheard of amounts for telling people something they already knew but were too dumb to notice. This way you will get a nice office, good looking co-workers and an air of superiority that you can blanket with a crazy bank balance and proud parents. Do not give advice to idiots, it will only make you feel like one.

Hope this helps. if not, i guess you should give yourself some advice since you seem good at that.

-dC

Posted by chitgo at 1/25/2007 06:26:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Dear dC,
I’m planning to get my first ink-job….any advice from a well tattooed brother like yourself? Also, its not like the pain matters too much but just checking- how much does it hurt?
-Alex from Mumbai..


Dear Alex,
First of all, if the pain didn’t matter, you wouldn’t ask. So quit being a pansy and ask. Now as you asked I must say ‘quit being a wimp and worrying about the pain’. Especially the pain impaled upon from a tattoo. Tattoos are voluntary. In 59 years you might be suffering from some dilapidating disease that causes your bones to crumble at the touch of a hard substance and that is real pain. If we suddenly decide to go to war with sri lanka and the 2 of us need to get enlisted, and you get shot by an LTTE sniper dude in the bottom half of your left ass-cheek, that is pain. Quit whining.

Ok, about the tattoo. First of all, I am not that well-inked up. I have one glorious job paying homage to the sun-sign on my right arm which shall get supplemented at some time in the future….

Good tattoo parlors are numerous. Funky monkey in bandra is beyond tremendous. The player there has a phenomenal samurai scene going live across his chest and back. If you’re looking for pain, inspiration and true devotion ask him to take his shirt off to get a peek. Do not be gay about it though. Secondly, my tattoo experience was enhanced with bad company’s self titled album blaring behind my ears through the hour long duration required for the creation of ze masterpiece. Everytime I heard Paul Rodgers go “bad company, till the day I die…” it was a holy matrimony of an experience.

Anyway, I suggest you tell the ink-master to pump in something cool like the drive-by truckers or even old school alice in chains (man in a box or grind would be scintillating) …. If its pain you’re worried about though, there are hena tattoos on every beach in goa that offer mehndi jobs to little old ladies. They play compulsory goan Christian music with that fallacy of an art, but please refrain from writing or sending pictures to me of the aftermath if this is your choice of action.

Good luck and godspeed

-dC

Posted by chitgo at 1/25/2007 03:44:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Dear dC,
Life has been tough on me lately. I lost my job in a BPO (a pretty tough place to lose a job), my girlfriend dumped me for a shorter, darker, uglier guy and my dad wants me to join him in the family business (which happens to be making the elastic bands that go into v-shaped underwear). I’m a bachelors In geography which isn’t the most sought after courses and lastly, I’m developing this weird infection in my …(edited and removed for the sake of my readers and their children).
Anyways, I’m looking for some music which will help me turn it all around. I’ve been listening to some Scorpions and BSB mixed up with a bit of early Abba but nothing seems to cheer me up…any advice ?

Much love
Harassed in Hyderabad.

Dear Harassed,
See, I read through the first bit and entered the zone known as perpexia (the land of the perplexed). It was only in that very last bit that a thunderous mass of white light shown through your terrible excuse for an advice seeking letter and it was clear.

BSB and early Abba? Scorpions?

Wrong wrong wrong. First thing you need to do is throw out your sacre bleu music collection and take first dibs at any ZZ Top album you can find (maybe you could start with Rio Grande Mud or Fandango). 3 men from Houston with huge beards and blues rock offerings should begin the humanizing process. The man-izing process will take more work though. I’m prescribing a week straight of nirvana’s Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero. Take a week off after that to let the dust settle in your newly rattled bones and switch to a healthy dose of any song/album you can find of Alice Cooper. Bryan Adams and Jon Bon Jovi are like cancer for you. Stay away as a fat person should stay away from cake. No matter how much you might like to believe it, singing ’18 till I die’ in the middle of a male dominated hyderabadi pub will not get you laid.

The music I have prescribed will expose you to more realistic sides of life such as apathy, incest, violence and despair. This will make your pathetic life seem awesome.

This in turn, is quite awesome.
May peace be with you.

And one last thing…grow a pair and quit whining.

-
dC

---------------------------------

more advice here

Posted by chitgo at 1/23/2007 03:37:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Life has been good to me. Rather good. The experiences (I can hear KVA, AD and sam laughing right now- screw you b@#$#@), ups, downs, travels, travails etc etc have all been positive in their outcome or the intended learning they were to impart; and now I feel it is time to give some back.

Yes, that’s right. Its time to get a bit philanthropical and plant a few seeds for the future generations.

Which is why, I’ve decided to devote some time every week (till the time I feel I’ve reached out to an ample percentage of the population) on giving advice.

Yes, that’s right – advice. (thanks ray for the inspiration)

Now, as some of you might be well aware, my advice is usually not very complicated in nature. Being a blunt, straight forward and fairly in your face fella’, I have usually restricted my pearls of wisdom to the following:

“Quit being a baby and grow a pair”
“Grow up dipshit”
“Being dumped is not like a heart attack. I don’t care if you’re a girl- grow a PAIR!”

…..and so on and so forth.

But here, dear reader, is where the change shall appear.

There are few aspects of my life that I hold very dear. External aspects that can affect my mood and accentuate them in a manner that acknowledges their existence and lulls them away from destructiveness or depressiveness or sheer retarded melancholy. One such aspect (and the most omnipotent I might add) has undoubtedly got to be the power of music.

and that, dear friends, is the answer. I already have a fairly sizeable list of advice seekers that have stumbled upon van chitgough’s blogesque space and hence answering their life’s queries shall be of first priority. For the others, Chitgo’s advice column officially opens its doors to the virtual space at large. Come to me with your problems and I shall respond with songs, albums or mere sounds that I believe will do your conundrum wonders. Solutions I cannot promise…satisfaction to the soul- certainly.

It’s time for some healing…

Posted by chitgo at 1/23/2007 02:47:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Spent the last weekend extremely sick, bed ridden and basically pummelled into nothingness by some mutated version of a throat hammering viral infection. it lasted 2 gruelling days. 103-104 fever and a state of retardation unknown to me without the confederacy of alcohol. watched some nearly 328940328932408 hours of television though and the bottom line of all I saw can be summarized in a few key points:

1. Men's tennis is in good hands. The most unbelievable match ups this last weekend with nadal and murray, this german fantastico called schreiber (or something), gonzales and ofcourse the lord with a racquet - his elegantia Sir Federer. Very pleased is van chitgough, looking forward to further brilliance.

2. India is poised. Poised to become a bunch of idiots. If I hear 'crazy kiya re' one more time I am going to shoot someone. If I hear one more discussion on the race debate regarding shilpa shetty in big brother im going to shoot 2 people. If I find the guy that slapped/jumped on/doggy-styled/drop kicked/side-kicked/shadow punched/uppercut/body slammed greg chappell in bhubaneshwar I'm going to ....you guessed it, shoot him. Get a life, get a job, earn some cash and support your family idiot. Noone cares if your Orissa players got into the indian team or not. you shouldn't either. its not putting bread on your table. India is poised remember? please be poised and stop acting like idiots.

3. To the indian media, get A LIFE. learn something from the BBC and intersperse logical, analytical and FACTUAL news reports with programs of substance and class on matters and subjects that entertain and improve perceptions and ambitions of life. You are a mockery on the state of news journalism and quite frankly- turning into a pretty pathetic version of B-grade Tollywood. If i hear one more soundtrack accompanying visions and video recordings of a young girl being made to recite the sight of her dad slitting her mother's throat...good lord I'm going to shoot myself.

4. India won. Dada did, does and will always rule. I've maintained it from the start and I'm glad I was right. More importantly I'm glad he was right. Keep going boss dawg. You're the one that set this ball rolling, its time to cap it some memorable victories here and in the caribbean.

Hrmphhh, maybe I'm just grumpy from being so ill.

Posted by chitgo at 1/23/2007 02:35:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

I saw 'whats eating gilbert grape' a long time ago. a movie based in the southern parts of america about 2 brothers; one of whom was mentally disabled (di caprio) ; the other (if i remember correctly) being johnny depp....It was a strange movie, though intensely occupying and a must watch for those more interested in bollywood's more macabre depictions...

Leonardo DiCaprio has come a long way...I know this now more than ever as he stands at the helm of utter brilliance with the oscars around the corner.

The Departed was awesome.

Blood Diamond was just in another league....
Phenomenal acting, heart-wrenching violence, stunning portrayals of the sheer helplessness of war-torn West Africa, super hot (although not such a great actress) Jennifer Connelly, eye opening accounts on the history of conflict diamonds....the list could go on...

DiCaprio is a phenomenal actor. From his near perfect accent to the intensity with which he switches from calm to damn near chaotic...There's this one scene where he guts and rips open a wild boar (or something along those lines) to prove a point..."if you ever put my life in danger like that again, ill rip the skin right back off your face"....memories of the Beach came flooding back..

A must see....
TIA

Posted by chitgo at 1/18/2007 09:46:00 AM | Permalink | Comments   

xkcd still rules.

Some things I've learnt from personal encounters/trials...

“Experience is the fuel to my imagination, its dissemination, its consumption
for the masses”

“If there is any knowledge far greater then knowing what you love doing, it’s the knowledge of knowing what you don’t”

“If you’re still friends with your ex-girlfriend, she was never your girlfriend in the first place”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enough gyaan. Yesterday was interesting with Van Chitgough entering Part 2 of national TV appearances with Barkha Dutt's outstanding talk (I use that characterization flippantly) show 'We the People'. More than my 180 seconds of wisdom, it was the content and the consequent opinions of distinguished leaders punctuating the panel that really shook the foundations of how I assessed the internet, Web 2.0 , so on and so forth...

some key questions that arose from the discussion :

1. how must the IT act meet the Indian Penal code and other defining legislations of the Indian constitution so as to provide clarity and descriptive guidelines for aspects like privacy and justice?
Van Chitgough's Did you know - Stalking is not 'officially' even a crime in India! go figure!, our frickin roadside romeos and stalker by birth freaks had the constitution understood a lot better than our cops! no wonder none of them ever get into any serious shit....

2. Pornography and the case of consent..
With child pornography, internet hijackings and mass distribution of popularly consumed chicanery; the creation of laws that arrest the dismissal or bypass of consent as a pre-cursor to a diverse range of web-based divulgation is top-most priority.
Van Chitgough's Did you know - 54% of e-commerce globally is driven by 'sex'. And here I am talking about web-based marketing as the future of entrepreneurial and small business set ups. Are we looking at the advent of Porn-based internet consultancies as the next big wave? Mckinsey, E&Y, BCG, are you listening?

3. Handhold our children through the maze
Something said last evening that I felt very strongly for was that the 'internet has become another medium for misbehavior rather than actually being the cause'. If the advantages and power of purpose that web 2.0 offers can be acknowledged, so can the destructive elements of such a network. What is more pertinent though is the fact that human nature and the education on morals to our children needs to be even stronger and more widespread than ever before. Technology was always going to make life faster, smoother and provide easier routes for an escape from reality.
In light of 'morals', aren't 'faster', 'smoother' and 'escape' the biggest drivers of amoralistic activity? They were for me..:)
Van Chitgough's Did you Know - 67% adults are not aware of what their children are doing on the internet.

I think its time we got some education going. Seriously. If the media is intent on focussing heavily on the negatives and extremities of web proliferation in our lives then it has to be a combination of mass-based education for our younger and older generations alike; combined with a demystification of elementary concepts surrounding the virtual expanse. Schools, colleges and societal networks need to step up and address this issue before pointing fingers at the extended new muscle for our cerebrum - the internet.

On that note, I think its time for a quick ego search to check if any slanderous comments have been made about me recently..

I promise that's all I run ego searches for;)

Well, sorta...

Posted by chitgo at 1/15/2007 10:00:00 AM | Permalink | Comments   

for all the achewood fans out there, i stumbled upon ray's place today and it is as awesome as it is hilarious...

excerpts:

Dear Ray,I'm a college student at a semi-respectable, east coast, mountain-type university. I've been studying Anthropology, concentrating in Sustainable Development, for the last few years. Last semester I went off on a trip with my (now former) girlfriend to France and Thailand. Needless to say that shifted some things around in my list of priorities. I'm now a senior and I need to graduate one day, but I have realized I love making pottery!! Sort of embarrassing to tell my Dad, but it's true. Please tell me, should I finish my Anthropology degree and move to Sri Lanka to help tsunami victims OR should I try to go the way of the starving artist: completely blowing off my chances of cocktails and other fancy beverages?
Anthro/Clay Guy

Dear Clay Guy,

Why not do your helping people job during the day, and then make pottery in the evenings and at night? I’ve only ever thrown clay after about 11pm, and you don’t see my life all a-shambles.

My advice is go and do your helping people thing, and get paid, and do pottery in the evenings and on weekends. Transition to a life of total pottery in a few years, once you have built up a pottery sideline business that can support you. “Do what you love and the money will follow,” as they say, but I would add, “...but don’t do ONLY what you love until it generates adequate cash flow.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by chitgo at 1/11/2007 12:09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Let this be a lesson to you girl: Don't come around where you know you don't belong.
They're riding on the avenue and probably coming after you and they all look mean and strong.
Mean and strong like liquor.
Mean and strong like fear.
Strong like the people from South Alabama and mean like the people from here.
Take it from me… We ain't never gonna change.

Daddy used to empty out his shotgun shells and fill 'em full of black-eyed peas.
He'd aim real low and tear out your ankles or rip right through your knees.
There ain't much traffic on the highway. There ain't much traffic on the lake.
The ATF and the ABI got everything they could take.
Take it from me… They didn't take it from me.

We ain't never gonna change.
We ain't doin' nothin' wrong.
We ain't never gonna change
so shut your mouth and play along.

I thought about going in the army. I thought about going overseas.
I wouldn't have trouble with a piss test; only problem is my bad left knee.
My brother got picked up at Parker's, got him a ride in a new Crown Vic.
They said that he was movin' on a federal level but they couldn't really make it stick.
Take it from me…

We ain't never gonna change.
We ain't doin' nothin' wrong.
We ain't never gonna change
so shut your mouth and play along.

You can throw me in the Colbert County jailhouse.
You can throw me off the Wilson Dam
but there ain't much difference in the man I wanna be and the man I really am.

We ain't never gonna change.

From the song Never gonna change by Drive by truckers.
The kind you hum along to on a long highway leading up to lights of the horizon...not quite bright, yet not quite faded enough to ignore.

Posted by chitgo at 1/10/2007 10:05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

I left for the big G on the 25th of December. A blog posting from Mumbai airport, surprisingly uber-punctual flights via sahara and 6 hours later I set foot on a truly gorgeous part of my beautiful country...
Goa was everything and more.

One of the first things that struck me about this place was just how clean the damn place was. From superbly maintained roads to lush greenery (ok that could be the climate, but still) and well structured directions to various parts of the coast town beauty. Agreed that goa is mostly populated during 2 weeks in the year, I could not get over the sheer pleasure of my surrounding. The fact that my cab driver was most indignant when I laughed at the sight of 2 dudes (heavily inebriated) attempting to give us directions was apt to the importance of pure chilling...
His explanation ‘they are enjoying’. You know, not drinking, not tanking, just plain ‘enjoying’. That is the spirit of goa.

Maybe this preparation was good ‘cos it stopped me from guffawing myself to death when the dominos rep on the phone (yeah yeah I had just arrived and I was much too tired to drive down to north goa for my first plate of prawn curry ok?) says ‘sir im sorry but we cannot assure the 30 minute delivery promise during this season’.
Somewhere some dominos marketing rep is turning in his grave…crores and crores of rupees spent on branding and quick delivery and here’s chiller goa telling customers “we could be there in 40 minutes or maybe even 50, just wait please sir?”

Hahahahha I wish I was kidding…

So anyway, the laid back masti of the wind down to a phenomenal and most intense year began.

It was fitting.

When I look back at this last year I can distinctly look at it from 2 very different perspectives. It started off with major dreams and difficult battles, both on a personal and professional front. I won some, I lost some, but in the end I think I came out stronger and smarter with each battle; none of them scarring me with a wound deep enough to refuse the chance to heal.

I made some big decisions…and learnt that more then the actual decision itself, it is the strength and integrity of the individual to stand by them in thick and thin, as if they were entities residing within us, next to us. The decisions I made this year were almost like people themselves. They carried with them the experience, foresight, pain, pleasure and irregularity of human beings. I stood by each of them and got them through. Another year of being proud with my Entscheidungen.

Goa was heaps of fun. I was staying in donapaulo, residing in le pad of lord KS which had all the amenities and more…the beach jetty near his place yielded gorgeous sites such as these that had me and T gazing wistfully during long walks and occasional sips of our coconut water….goa puts you in a lull…magnifique….


Trips to baga

were often in the first half before the damn place became a fish market. Highlights were the rockstar gautam singhania

making an entrance in his chopper right at the shore of baga and the brilliant dj pearl mixing an absolutely killer mix through submerge at the sunset parties of zanzi’s. a must do for everyone who enjoys the simplicity of sea food, house music, the setting sun and the goan kings beer mashed in with good company and the taste of sand in the air……


We spent a lot of time at candolim with the college gang. Me and T finally found a picture that we both like a lot.

Goa had a lot of attempts and this one certainly comes closest to the most adorable of all time…it was truly awesome having one to one time as much as we did.
The gang was in their element and I was reminded of just why I got such little studying done in college with these guys. In between skinny dipping at midnight too handa’s butt slapping with his new oshos and long insane walks to shack parties noone had heard of to sethi snoring so loud that foreigners wanted to take video recordings specially for youtube specials….

It had it all.
We also made a solemn promise to do goa for NYE an annual thing…if there’s one thing I wish- its for that too actually materialize. Would be a good story for our grandkids…

I knew the airline situation whilst going had to be too good to be true, so on my return sahara expectedly lost my baggage. 2 trips and many shoutings later, I got hold of my one solitary suitcase from the delhi airport and resumed life in the kickassery of the north side; but with one exception.

CK flew in on the morning of the 4th and it was nothing short of…
Well words fail me.

One makes acquaintances, friends, good friends even. One makes plans of meeting across geographies, in home and alien environments. One tells stories of friends and family and just how the bond would grow within loved ones…

Many a time these dreams and promises just don’t come true, they don’t come through. Life is full of people coming in and going away fairly easily. When younger you feel pain, hurt and extended depression on losing the special ones. Age hardens you, maturity and responsibility being the evil reasons for ‘drifting apart’

CK, you and me laid the first grounds for never letting that happen…from playing chauffer to the various wedding ceremonies, to endless screwdrivers at shaloms and laid back waters to conversations extending early into the morning and late into the evenings….we just picked up where we left off and it was awesome.

4 days went by much too fast and I look forward to coming to singy bro. more adventures await us.

Its back to the routine now...something tells me 2007 is gonna have its own share of surprises, only time will tell.

Bring it on I say, bring it on….

Posted by chitgo at 1/10/2007 07:47:00 AM | Permalink | Comments   

The Web in its ever evolving avatar allows one to follow various doorways and paths, leading us to never before seen or heard secrets (some well kept, others just too pure and brilliant to be uncovered by the generic commonality of mass production).

Chris Whitley has been my last, most successful journey, a discovery.

The Entertainment Weekly in September 2001 proclaimed
""...The troubadour goes digital, looping in Middle Eastern chants, bongo beats, electronic beeps, and DJ Logic's scratches..."
Samplings of his music available here

For me, it was the magnificence of Pandora that begun it all. On the DC alternative rock channel, some true judge of musical talent, known only to me from a digital signature played a track of his called breaking your fall. Pandora, in all its tremendous wisdom explained the genres to me as follows:

mellow rock instrumentation
folk influences
mild rhythmic syncopation
acoustic sonority
a vocal-centric aesthetic
major key tonality
acoustic rhythm guitars

My first reaction, What the f@#$? Folk influences interspersing with mellow rock instrumentation and an accoustic sonority? I had to hear more.

I then find this.

He was Dave Matthews' musical mentor.

Amazon kicked in towards the discovery of this phenomenon. I got Rocket House.

The album enters macabre and yet very real elements of my sensibility and the haunting, almost unreal sounds generated in conjunction with simple, heart-wrenching vocals has my mind in a dizzy.

I close my eyes and allow the tabla infused electronica of this poetic trapdoor to take over....

Here she comes
Catching on fire again
Casting all restraints to the wind
Fanning out her flame to little men
Well they never gonna take your
Heart away
Like a million to one
You're the one
I Would side with you
You're the one
Bright as you want to
You're the one
But they never gonna let you
Get away
Well the world will follow
Always
Here she comes
Sending the faithless home
Tending these fuses alone
Offending the ice age
You're the one.

-Little Torch by Chris Whitley
(from the album Rocket House)

-----------------------------------
My kingdom for any or all of his gifts of music....as a gift.
-----------------------------------
are you listening?
-----------------------------------


R.I.P. CW.

Posted by chitgo at 1/08/2007 03:41:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

and a round
and round
it goes....

i should have guessed
the escapist within
escapes again...

twisting turning
across geographies
landscapes
the faces change
and yet
remain the same....

stories untold
now shed their inhibitions
attempting
to air my discomfort.

i watch you sleep
moody even
as your eyelids flutter
knowing not
what you could have had
what you never will....

my once deprived body
now replenished
stronger with experience
faster with dissidence
harder with punishment
smarter with refound
innocence,
smiles at me knowingly
as if to say
there's more to 'us'
than meets the eye
isnt it?

i reach out
for familiarity
for a force of habit.
for i will be gone
again.

and a round
and round
it goes...

Posted by chitgo at 1/05/2007 07:44:00 AM | Permalink | Comments   

at goa airport. thank god for killer tata indicom wifi...downloaded 267 emails exactly out of which only a 100 seem to be immediately deletable junk....

goa was awesome beyond comprehendible proportions....

a major update coming up soon.

hope all you guys had an awesome new years btw:)

Posted by chitgo at 1/03/2007 04:34:00 PM | Permalink | Comments