Top 10 songs of 2011 (Malayalam)

1. Ente Mohangallelam - Anand Raj Anand - Vidhu Prathap, Cicily - Violin
2. Chempakoo - M. Jayachandran - Sudeep Kumar - Rathinirvedam
3. Araane Araane - Deepak Dev - Job Kurian - Urumi
4. Chakkaramaavin - Afsal Yusuf - Sonu Nigam - Bombay March 1993
5. Kaanamulal - Bijibal - Shreya Ghoshal, Ranjith Govind - Salt n Pepper
6. Madhumasa Mounaragam - M. Jayachandran - Shreya Ghoshal - Rathinirvedam
7. Adyanuragathin - Jai Kishan - (unknown) - Swapnamalika
8. Pakalin - Sithara - Mejo Joseph - Traffic
9. Chirakengu - Alka Ajith - Srinivas - The Train
10. Ninodenikkula - Riya Raju - Vinu Thomas - Dr. Love

Money !!!

It seems to me that making money through legal way is treated as a crime in India. Everyone, including the Government & General Public think that if a person has amassed wealth – it’s only done through illegal means. The wealthy people are treated as ‘ill-will’ people who are crooks and monsters who suck the blood out of the middle class and poor and build golden villas. I’m not saying that all rich people are nice – but why this generalization?

This attitude became more clearer during the recent Anna Hajare Anti-Corruption fast. I was wondering why people got down on streets to support Anna Hazare? The reason is – he does not have any wealth on his own name. He has a simple lifestyle. He does not seem to have ‘political ambitions’ and he is old. In contrast, I was wondering why didn’t Baba Ramdev gather huge public support? Because people think he’s got lot of wealth and owns foreign land. There’s no evidence of Baba Ramdev has any stake in any of trust or company but people think he’s wealthy; which means he is a crook and he’s got political ambitions.

I’ve this ‘broad’ plan in my mind – Once I’m successful in business, I’ll use technology to bring a massive change to people’s lives – and also do my own bit as a political leader. I might also have to stand in elections and have an official post which will allow me to actually ‘execute’ things in faster and efficient manner – something every ‘leader’ should do. But now I’m thinking, if I gather wealth (and in the process, make thousands of others wealthy in a legal way) common people will treat me as a crook! They won’t vote for me because, I’ve some property in my name! That means I won’t be able to win an election in a legal way! Wooa!

On one hand we want ‘good’ people to enter politics. On second hand – only poor people are ‘good’. So that leaves the whole majority of the middle class that’s aspired to raise above others. Looks like I’ll not be able to enter politics…

EVER!

Sorry world, you just lost yet another ‘good-willed’ leader who cared for the people.

List of News merchants

If you are a news junkie, here-- a motherload of daily fix. Its the twitter handle of Indian journalists. I'm not sure who created this document but I have a feeling that it was done by @labnol. So thanks to him/her. The list is not exhaustive or all inclusive. Feel free to add.

NEWSPAPERS
The Indian Express

@SuanshuKhurana
@Harneetsin
@annavetticad

The New Indian Express

@sisir_gupta
@PrabhuChawla
@M0therOfGods
@Deepa_R123
Hindustan Times

@madversity
@virsanghvi
@gchikermane
@nehadara
@jugni_on_acid
@seemagoswami
@pranavdixit
@sonalkalra
@YashicaDutt
@ymjoshi
@yashwantraj
@vinodnairscribe
@lovestruckcow
@meghamahindru
The Hindu

@nramind
@MaliniP
@ananthkrishnan
@ganant
@deepakurup
@tallstories
@venkiteshram
@Amannama
@Vidya_Ram
@SudhishKamath
@JournalistRoy
@ajaxiom
@svaradarajan
@lakshmisharath
@krishashok
@ketaki86
@praveenswami
@svaradarajan
Economic Times

@sruthirk
@thisissrividya
@therealjpk
@hiteshrajbhagat
@karanbajaj
@jojiphilip
@heyyparth

The Times of India

@bpradeepnair
@sreemoytalukdar
@mahafreed
@arorakim
@chidu77
@Ramkamal
@SaritaTanwar
@AshDeshmukh2011
@AdityaRajKaul
@nandibull
@javed_del
@theneela
@sreemoytalukdar

Mid Day

@SachinKalbag
@yoshitasengupta
@deephalder
@shashankshekhar
@lindsaypereira
@SupraMario
@sharinbhatti
@abhijitmajumder
@shynx

Tehelka

@vijsimha
@mriganayanika
@tehelkaimran
Business Standard

@priyankarocks
@nirajb

DNA

@shaaqt
@GauriSinh
@prachikad
@autumnshade
@saikatd
@djoiii
@calamur
@greatbong
@autumnshade
@mihirfadnavis
@AniGuha
Maharashtra Times

@kparaag
@AshishChandorka
@ashokpanvalkar
Sakaal (Marathi)

@samaphadnis
Mint

@sidin
@shukla_tarun
@priyaramani
@geetiga
@zahidjavali
@monikahalan
@samar11
@sanjuktasharma
@espydreams
@mint_ed
Sunday Guardian

@unessentialist
The Pioneer

@KanchanGupta
@offstumped
Bangalore Mirror

@vilakudy
Telegraph

@DelhiDean
MAGAZINES
India Today

@Surruchi
@shilparathnam
Forbes India

@nsramnath
@r0h1n
@indrajitgupta
Money Life

@suchetadalal
Outlook

@Namrata_Joshi
@prattyg
@sunitarora
@sundeepdougal
@mohitsatyanand
Entrepreneur Magazine

@ankushatwork
Filmfare

@jomeera
@jiteshpillaai
@FarhanaFarook
Vogue

@priyankakhanna
@ShrutiThacker
@anupamachopra
Grazia

@Mehernaaz
Frontline

@flvisha
Rolling Stone India

@bobin_james
@deeabolique
Elle India

@nonitakalra


TV / RADIO
NewsX

@J__K_
@pierrefitter
CNBC TV18

@cnbcSri
@NayantaraRai
@anuradhasays
@SuVenk
@AshwinRaghu
@ShrutiR
@AnkitV

NDTV

@PrannoyRoyNDTV
@UmaSudhirNDTV
@BDUTT
@nidhi_razdan
@vikramchandr
@VishnuNDTV
@RajivMakhni
@nazir_masoodi
@NatashaNDTV
@sidpatankar
@SoniaSinghNDTV
@soniandtv
@KulsoomNDTV
@NitinNDTV
CNN-IBN

@sardesairajdeep
@sagarikaghose
@Mrityunjoykjha
@somenm
@ratichaudhary
@Raghav_Bahl
@suhasinih
@pallavighcnnibn
@SumonCNNIBN
@smitharnair
@Samirabbas
@prathibha_ibn
@TMVRaghav
@hrvenkatesh
@palkisu
@jaithemon
@AmritaT
@anubhabhonsle
@Paarull
@GauravCNNIBN
@FatimaKaran
@RajeevMasand
@anuradhasays
@gaurav

IBNLokmat

@ibnlokmatashish
@waglenikhil
IBNLive.com

@Soumyadip
@Arunava
@RuchiraSingh
@PragatiRatti
@TweetingKenny
@Satanmig

Headlines Today

@akashbanerjee
@gauravcsawant
@nandinidurga
@ShivAroor
@PoulomiMSaha
@sabakazi
@rahulkanwal

Times Now

@dhanyarajendran
@sanketupadhyay
@bhavatoshsingh

ET NOW

@shailichopra
@sudhirsyal
@sonalikrishna

Star News

@milindkhandekar

NewsLive

@atanubhuyan
@zarirhussain
@paragaditya


News Today

@kbalakumar

TV9

@tulsidasbhoite


RADIO

Radio Mirchi

@mirchi983FM
@meemeera
@mirchimumbai
@RJShrey
@Mirchipune
@elninowski
@jeeturaaj
@rjsangeeta
@radiosuren

NLINE NEWS
BBC

@rajiniv
@mridubhandari


WSJ India

@RMantri
@harshgpolicy
@RupaSubramanya
@shefalianand
@margheritamvs
@wadhwa

NYT India

@vikasbajaj
@mbahree
@anupamachopra
@lpolgreen

AFP

@adamplow
@akannampilly
@MrBenShep
@philhazlewood

Asia News

@smitaprakash

Rediff

@vickynanjappa
@TheSai
@Toralvaria
@RajaSen

Yahoo

@sumantics
@amitvarma
@deepakshenoy
@mohitsatyanand
@venkatananth
@prempanicker

To be categorized
Freelancers / Multiple Publications

@gopinathmm
@speaktosriram
@indiatravelblog
@lakshmisharath
@ankitagrawal87
@bgmahesh
@jaiarjun
@PatelDevansh
@KomalNahta
@desijourno
@PritishNandy
@MriduKhullar
@2shar
@sunandanlele
@Abhinandanat
@acorn
@cemonde
@pooja1712
@crhemanth

Happy In- Dependence Day !

I was at a traffic signal yesterday waiting for the signal to turn green. Three poor kids, with torn clothes and all the dirt over their bodies approached me trying to sell me the Indian national flag memento. Before they could start their sales pitch, I had to leave because the signal turned green. I felt sad – not because I couldn’t buy the flag from them but because of the fact that even after several decades of ‘Independent India’, there are tens of lakhs of people in this country who’ve to spend their day for less than Rs. 5 . I’ve already decided that I will not celebrate 15 August as Independence day; because I believe we never had our Independence.

Several years ago, the British got bored of staying in India as they had already stolen most of its wealth and there were growing protests and fasts by Indians. So they did what made most sense to them: Tell Indian people that they were free. Going by the facts – The British Government passed an ‘act’ in their parliament called “Indian Independence Act 1947″ which cleared declared India & Pakistan as two dominions governed by the British. First I wonder whether we ‘won’ our Independence and actually made the British ‘get out’ of our country OR ‘they’ decided to do so. Both are two radically different things. Had we made them leave our country – we’d have restored all our Indian systems in place and there’d have been no traces of British rule in India. India and Pakistan and Bangladesh would have been ‘one’ country. Coming back to the point – the British government decided that India and Pakistan would be two different ‘dominions’. Note – it does not say “nations”. Go check out the meaning of dominions. It was only on 26 January 1950 that we became ‘Republic Of India’. Whatever it is called in English – I don’t like the sound of it – as it sounds totally ‘British’.

Now check this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFcfXVYk-_Y&feature=player_embedded (Sorry embedding not working)

What’s more astonishing is that (and I’ve always had this question since childhood) that why did the (so called) Independence was declared at mid-night! In India, we celebrate all ‘good’ activities in the day time – not in the night. I believe Indian leaders should have questioned this at the time of Independence. The second thought which amazed me is that Mahatma Gandhiji did not attend the 15 August 1947 ceremony. Isn’t it surprising? The man who led the Indian Independence Movement, opted NOT to attend the grand finale!

I discovered the answers later. It was Nehru who was eager to become the Prime Minister of India. While the congressmen decided that ‘Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’ should become the President Of Congress and Prime Minister Of India – Nehru told Gandhi that if Patel is chosen for the PM’s post; he would quit and split Congress. Gandhiji’s worst fear was seeing Congress split into two and giving a chance for the British Governer to stay in India. Gandhiji agreed while he knew it wasn’t the best decision in Nation’s interest. He knew Nehru was a British Soul In Indian Body – and he’d keep the remote control in British hands.

…and decades after, we experience the exact consequences of it. The reports estimate 85 crore Indians are below poverty line. ‘English’ has taken over local languages. The education system has transformed from ‘Gurukul’ to the ‘British Schools’ which produces clerks who ultimately work for British and US corporations. 99% of the products we use are owned by foreign companies and take out thousands of crores of rupees out of India in insane amounts of profits. The technology we use is all ‘dumped’ by the foreign countries in India. The world dumps their ships, wastes and plastic on Indian soil. Our IT industry is totally controlled by US and British corporations. The rupee is all time low as compared to dollar. Parents think it’s uncool to talk in their native language with the kids. We’ve given up totally on Indian clothing and adopted foreign style of dressing – no matter how uncomfortable it is. Our kids learn the history as dictated by those who ruled us. Our kids believe India was always a poor country (by the way, if we were poor, why did the British came here? To catch the snakes, huh?) Our music has been destroyed. Our ‘dance’ and ‘music’ shows are all copies of the western shows. Singing without a ‘sur’ and ‘taal’ is being considered as ‘with the modern times’. Dancing only means ‘hip-hop’ and ‘salsa’. Our whole concept of ‘progress’ is copying what US and British do.

I feel sad to hear friends say to me that they wish to go abroad to do MS to ‘learn new technologies’ and then implement them in India. It’s a well known fact that hardly anyone comes back to ‘implement’ the knowledge they acquire. I’m yet to meet someone who says “I’ll stay in India and Develop new technologies here”. If the foreigners can develop new technology by staying in their land, why can’t we? I wonder why can’t we develop high-quality alternatives to foreign goods?

The current young generation (including me) is spineless. We are grown up on complan and horlicks – and education that’s imported. We are, at the best good at spending time on Facebook & Twitter clicking buttons to ‘spread the message’. To all such people - Get back to work and lead the country.

Cricket, Games, Doping and Beyond

Shock.

And shame.

Shock, because the fat cats who were in charge of organising the games (like that bearded dude) are cooling their heels in Tihar jail for having succumbed to their natural instinct to loot the exchequer.

And shame, because some of the athletes who brought laurels to the country, have now been revealed to have artificially boosted their performance.

Only the swanky stadia, swimming pools and velodrome—and the spit and polish that was provided to the nicer parts of Lutyen’s Delhi—stand testimony to the games. If they are still standing, that is.

The Great Indian Dope Trick past shows a deep-rooted malaise afflicting the non-cricket sports scene in our country.

The cliched question is, where have we gone wrong? The short answer is: from the very beginning.

For decades satraps have usurped powers befitting nabobs and run various sports bodies like their own fiefs with the sports ministry having little or no teeth to discipline them. More often they have colluded with officials in looting the public money, as is evident in the CWG scam.

Most athletes, till recently, didn’t have decent training facilities or equipment, either in terms of boarding and lodging or sports gear.

Who can forget the badminton coaching camp for an international event that had to be abandoned and the shuttlers sent back because they had not arranged for the shuttlecocks?

Or that some sarkari babu sat on the files and forgot to buy the bullets for our shooters?

Or the time when an athlete had to run around to get his visa stamped, make it to the airport just in time to board the flight, and stay on measly allowances, while the officials accompanying them lived in five–star comfort?

Indian politicians and officials are keener to rub shoulders with Bollywood stars during gala opening and closing ceremonies and keep themselves busy arranging free passes and souvenirs to their friends and relatives.

Recently eight, that’s right, eight hockey players were cramped in room participating in a major tournament, and this while a meeting of the Indian hockey federation was in progress to discuss the future of Indian hockey.

Cricket is often blamed for all the ills that are plaguing other sports. But the least the officials can learn is how cricket is being organised and marketed, how the past cricketers are taken care of, without letting them die on streets uncared for, and how the team continues to perform, throwing up superstars and icons every now and then. Though cricket doesn't come under WADA.

The plight of most non-cricket sports in general and athletics in particular only shows that there is a lot of catching up to do.

The single most important facility created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India is a giving pension to cricketers who have played for the country.

Eastern Europe has always been a haven for athletes taking drugs, with nations themselves being involved in promoting drug abuse. This was before the World Anti doping Agency (WADA) came into being. And our national coaches are mainly from there. Any surprise that the CWG story has ended first in corruption and then in shame.

Doping is a menace that has come to stay.

Like hacking in computers, the more firewalls and security systems that is put in place, the more hackers will find thrill in breaking into such systems that have all the security. The more drugs are banned, more and more athletes will use them under a masking agent which will cover the main drug used or abused.

Athletics, in future (the days of designed drugs), will become a match between chemists wearing white coats and coming out with drugs and keeping a step ahead of the chemists working for anti doping agencies like WADA or NADA.

It is for the International Olympics Association to make sure the evil of drugs is rooted out of the system once and for all and keep a vigil it never resurfaces.

Otherwise, the Olympic movement through sports is truly over.

Hope is a beautiful thing. It tells you to expect the unexpected, to believe the implausible, to fly even when your feet are stuck in the dark mud of the pestilential agony and loss of worth. It is indeed one of the languages in which Gods at some end of this Universe speak to us in his sincere, grey and comforting tone.

To be agitated is a state which we all have so become habituated to. We believe that resilience will slowly spread its silken wings and descend on our parched souls, long lost in fits of despondency and contemplative and meticulously crafted pity.

I was spoken to today in many ways which are not only the most unusual but least expected. As fate and destiny are the instruments in the hand of invisible omnipresence, I won't delve on them much. I won't speak of instances which made my faith stronger and resolve impermeable. I won't saunter into the grey zone of my belief and phases of agnosticism. I won't speak of the tones in which I was comforted and assured. That all is kind of personal. Maybe all that I said here can be justified in the undermentioned lines from the Scraps of Bob Dylan. And then I shall get to writing what is meant to be written. A note of thanks and a heart of gratefulness.

The quote goes thus:-

"DESTINY is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your own mind of what you're about WILL COME TRUE. It's a kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it's a fragile feeling, and you put it out there, then someone will kill it. It's best to keep that all inside."

So keeping inside what is supposed to lighten (Both in terms of pressure and transitive verb), and thanking God for his support and bringing to us what we need most at a particular stage, I shall speak of a phone conversation that not only uplifted me from the nooks of some creepy alley but also fed me with a music (hard rock) that was both deafening and enamouring at the same point.

It was 12:15 on a mountain town. Sitting aimlessly and hyperventilating over How I fared in a task I undertook and whether success is elusive, I had a strong urge to speak to my friend.

We spoke for two and a half hours rambling on stuff we both desire, seek and hope for. We spoke of tales of success, the persevarance and patience it demands, the need for focus and determination, the resolve of not being bent by the tsunamis of failure and non-activity.

We argued, we fought, we debated (even over our debating skills and who is better). We spoke in rowdy tones of uncouth hoodwinks, in tones of a sadness and depressions and in guffaws of laughter smirked across with innumerable smiles.

We spoke of how one year is less valuable than a life of frustration, how even 5 years is worth the wait for where we want to see ourselves and how the Universe shall be bent to fulfill our destined destinites. We were Alchemists conjuring every rare potion that could soothen our burns. We were optimists, we were victors, we were even the vanquished and the defeated.

In mid of this I remember one of the lines I read in Archies Comics. " What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to What lies within us".

Thus even in our frantic searches for answers, we could relate to the possibility of a perfect plate life is bound to serve as and when the time arrives and the destiny's bell is struck. I told you, we were optimists.

There is no good way to close something which has had such a deep and profound impact on you in such a short span. Maybe at times we know what is right and what is to be done. Maybe we have our paths charted out. But all that is required is a sense of reassurance to resurrect us from our own ashes. I found that flight in more than one ways yesterday and speaking strictly for this phone conversation, all I would like to say is:-


P.S My friend Ashwin Issac had a complaint that i am not being emotional on blog.

Hindi film music is changing

With bold numbers like “The mutton song”, “Karma is a bitch” and now “Bhaag D K Bose”, Bollywood music has turned a new leaf. The popularity of the numbers, replete with punchy, unconventional and slang-laden lyrics laced with pacy tunes, has elbowed out sugary romantic numbers from youngsters’ playlists.
“Songs signify what we like. The youthful feel of the songs makes them a hit amongst adolescents. Basically who makes a song a hit? It’s us, our generation, so it’s right that now musicians are making songs keeping us in mind
“Songs like ‘D K Bose’ and ‘Karma is a bitch’ gained immediate popularity because they are fast, energetic and, on the whole, fun,”
A large population of India comprises of youth, With the growing number of young people, it’s natural to cater to that section and non-film music styles too have seeped into Bollywood music.”
Bollywood, expected to be a $2.03 billion industry according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, is inseparable from music.
In terms of business, songs contribute as much as 15 per cent of a film’s earnings. So filmmakers and musicians are focusing on contemporary tunes and lyrics to attract the attention of youth, who constitute about 30 per cent of the population.
The changing themes of Hindi films demanded a new kind of music to captivate the younger crowds.
Cinema is also changing. We don’t have the kind of cinema anymore where a girl is yearning for a boy. The whole system of filmmaking is changing. As the language and the fabric of films are changing, it is obvious that the music will change.
Be it cutting-edge music of forthcoming film Shaitan or the rock-infested soundtrack of Luv Ka The End, young and hip compositions are given priority.
Not only that, now more than one composer works on a single album to add that extra factor. Sometimes filmmakers even collaborate with non-film music bands. For instance, Indian Ocean composed for Black Friday and Peepli Live, Kailasa gave music for Dasvidaniya and Bhayanak Maut composed a song for Shaitan.
And rock happens to be one of the favourite genres used by composers. Composers like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Amit Trivedi, Vishal-Shekhar, pretty much everybody is contributing to the trend of new sounds now. It also helps to bring in new talent as singers, composers and lyricists. Also, rock as a genre is being incorporated a lot lately. For the past few years, songs with rock influences have been doing very well because our audiences are growing to like that type of music.
Be it qawaali, Sufi or a romantic track, rock elements are used everywhere. “Pichle saat dino mein” from Rock On!, “Baangur” from I Am, “O mama” from 7 Khoon Maaf, "Luv Ka the End' from Luv Ka the End, “Jiyein kyun” from Dum Maaro Dum and “Aitbaar” from No one Killed Jessica are rock-based songs that became chartbusters.
So there is enough space for experimental music.
Today what is interesting is that you can have regular Bollywood music in a film and there is room for non-regular music. Also, at the end of the day it’s the film that dictates the music that will be used. This trend might continue for an year or two. Would love to see what happens next. An edited version of this article was published in FWD Magazine. Link :