Rendering Renditions

Rendition is one of my favorite words; It doesn't means copying, it doesn't mean plagiarizing either;It doesn't mean imitating, it doesn't mean stealing either. When we talk of music; rendition is just another way of recreating an existing song from the composer's perspective. Just giving the song a little bit of his/her own soul.

You must have come across a lot of renditions yourself....remember "Leaving on a jet Plane" by John Denver? Who can forget the divine rendition of this song by "Peter, Paul & Mary". In fact because of THIS rendition the original song became famous.

What is it that makes renditions so appealing to us? I guess it is the opportunity of seeing our good old song in a new garb which is what catches our imagination. Apart from that, sometimes these renditions appeals to your own musical affinities. Personally speaking I think that though Bob Dylan's forever young is one of the most beautifully written song, I find the original cover a tad loud for my own taste, but the lyrics somehow more than makes up for itJ. Recently I just stumbled onto Joan Baez's rendition of the same song and Boy o Boy!! Wasn’t I glad to find it? I must have played it for at least 50 times on my laptop since then.

I also feel that renditions have a life and touch of their own. They sometimes make you feel the way which is so hard to explain; when the original songs fail to do so. Though, I must admit that all renditions are not so great. Just take the case of "Knocking on the heaven's door" by Bob Dylan (who BTW seems to be most 'renditioned' music artist).

There are countless renditions of this song; The Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Bryan Ferry, Mark Knopfler, Wyclef Jean, Roger Waters, Givan Tichy, Eric Clapton, The Sisters of Mercy, Warren Zevon, Seether, Cold Chisel, U2, Television, Guided By Voices, Avril Lavigne, Daniel Lioneye, Bon Jovi, The Lost Dogs, Randy Crawford, Beau Jocques, Chaozz, Zé Ramalho (Brazil)(info courtsey wikipedia) just to name a few. There are bound to be some bad one's in there simply by the law of average.

Particularly I like a rendition when it strips a song of everything that was entirely unnecessary and all I get to listen is the bare essential of the song, its very soul. Well..Isn’t it something to look forward to!!!

Here is a list of renditions I like a lot, there are not many but I will try to append this list in future:

Peter, Paul & Mary (Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver)

Sheryl Crow (Sweet Child O' Mine by G'N'R)

Joan Baez (Forever Young by Bob Dylan)

Joan Baez (Blowin' in the Wind by Bob Dylan)

Avril Lavigne (Knokin' on Heaven' Doors by Bob Dylan)

Nirvana (Penneroyal Tea by Nirvana itself)

Time to go...

Stay Beautiful.
Amitabh

Wonder Years !!

Amidst the hectic life I am living these days, I somehow try to catch an episode or two of Wonder Years which I have downloaded on my laptop. Not surprisingly I have become a huge fan of the show. I had only heard and read about this show earlier, was finally able to catch hold of it now, thanks to broadband internet connection!!

Wonder year seems to have a huge fan following and not undeservingly so. What I liked most about it that the main characters are hardly any heroic sort, you see an episode with a very familiar situation and you expect it to end it a certain way, but it doesn't. Nothing extraordinary happens and I end putting myself in Kevin's or Paul's(and sometime Winnie's too) shoes simply because it is so easy to relate to them. Can I pay a better compliment to the director of the show?

I like Kevin and Paul the most in the show, as their friendship is something which reminds me of my school days, they are just two people living one life, which happens only when one is kid.

Not to mention, Winnie Cooper is the most adorable 12 year old I have seen, so fragile and vulnerable and yet so divine, It's difficult not to fall in love with her. Though when I was in Seventh grade, I hardly thought of girls, I was too busy with my studies, friends and the next episode of Shaktimaan (Just kidding I am not that young ;-)). In fact I thought that this 'thing' is only for IDIOTS. I mean who had money for it. In 9th grade all we cared about is our endless supplies of Samosas & Jalebies and some other things unmentionable in public space. What a fool I was :-)

It’s hard to think about those days and not smile, somehow all the spanking and scolding we got when were kids is all forgotten and all we remember is something we all will cherish throughout our lives.

Running down the boulevards of life, though we hardly find time to catch our breath, we tend to slow down sometime when life permits us and take a look back; what we see at the far end of the road we travelled once is some initial darkness and then we see the growing years, learning years and even formatting years as they have labeled them . We shake ourselves a little and try to see them for what they actually were and it suddenly hits us, though we are all grown up that we always wanted to be and have all the money wads bulging out of our pockets we somehow feel a little pang in our heart for all the years that they were, the innocent, the untouched, the unblemished and peaceful years ;as they aptly call them, they truly were our wonder years. Though we know they will never come back, we’re simply glad that once they were ours and with a wry smile we keep moving on, it’s time to catch the bus to office :-).

When I look back I see many people I’ll always be glad of meeting. Here are some of the protagonists of my "Wonder Years”: (In no particular order)

Suman: My best buddy till 5th grade, he left for Rourkela and since then we never met.He was so fast in writing he always ended up doing my home work too :).

Rana: She was my classmate in Nursery and Kinder Garten, always came first ..a reason good enough for me to remember her and mention her name. By the way I never talked to her (atleast as far I can remember :-)).

Puja: I first got to know her in 2nd grade, remember the girl who will always do her homework in impossibly neat handwriting and also will come first in the class ??....that's her for me.

Ravi Joshi: The small guy who didn't voted for me in 6th grade student council's elections,I never forgave him for that, He was such a dear friend. I stopped talking to him till eternity.(Though we were bickering as usual again after 2 days)

Bharti: He was my friend from 2nd grade and saved me from a bully in 7th grade, I owe him my life for that.

Aashish, Aaditya: The 1st, 2nd rank holders in 6,7,8 . Why are they so important ? I was the only one who came within a striking distance of 10 marks to shake their throne.Gees din't I tried hard for that ?

Aaditya now works in my company and Aashish is currently in Bangalore.

Goldi, Prakash: I had a trio better than DCH(Dil Chahta Hai for the uninitiated) way before it was released.

Goldi is now untraceable and Prakash is in Indian Army these days.

Ekta, Rajni: 2 girls I absolutely adored at school. Why ? They always scored more marks than me. Simple.

There are quite a few notable omissions here, let me keep them inside the warm blankets of my memories.They don't seem to mind.

Stay Beautiful,
Amitabh

IAQs & As

You must have seen FAQs(Frequently Asked Questions) in one place or the other.You also must have seen the Q&As published in glossy magazines -sort of a mini interview of celebrities.Well ..I thought what would I do if someone asked me such questions, and since I am no celebrity( I mean ..not yet ;-)) these questions would seldom be asked, they would be infrequently asked questions & answers(IAQs & As).

I completely agreee this is as self-indulgent as it gets but as they say ..what the HECK !!

Here I go :

Q1.You salivate when ..... ?

I see Katerina Kaif,Carmen Electra & Authentic Mughlai Food (In no particular order..)

Q2. You drool over .... ?

Intelligence, self-sufficiency and honesty and sometimes over Jessica Alba too ;-)

Q3.Life is....

Pointless

Q4.Friends are ...

neccessay evils

Q5.Love is ...

I am clueless about it.

Q6.War is ...

Occupation of perverts....

Q7.Music is...

To each his own

Q8.Books are...

my favourite escape from the real world.

Q9.Biggest threat to the world ...

Religion, Terrrorism and Global Warming(In that particular order)

Q10.You cringe when...

• Someone is denied his freedom of expression by violent means.


• People don't know what they are talking about.


• I hear of any kind of religious violence, I feel like shooting all who did that.

Q11.You feel happy when...

• I am reading a good book


• I behave like a gentleman(happens very rarely)

Q12.What you want to be ??

Nothing that I am already not.

Enough of it now , even I am tired ....now it is your turn ..go ahead ...answer these IQAs for yourself.

Signing Off
Amitabh