Fireflies Music Festival 2009

Last night was one of the best experiences ever, I'd been to the Fireflies festival of Music. It was awesome a bit boring in between but one hell of an experience.

Fireflies music festival has been happening since 2004. I had heard of it a couple of years back but only managed to go for it this year. The basic idea about this music festival is that its like a night out with live music being played from dusk to dawn and yeah there is a theme that changes every year. That is right from 6pm to 6am and I'm sure your wondering how the hell can anyone stay up all though the night and listen to music leave a side being with friends this is with random people around.

Its not easy I'll give u that but its uniquely different and quite amazing. This years event they had these people come and perform.

BHUMI THAYI BALAGA (Folk)
ANUSUYA KULKARNI (Indonesian Anklung)
PRAKASH SONTAKKE & GROUP (Hawaiian Guitar Fusion)
SHABNAM VIRMANI(Kabir/sufi)
SOLVITEUR CANENDO (Acapella)
GEETHA NAVALE & THE ESPERANTO PROJECT (Soul Fusion)
VAYALI (Kerala Folk)
SWARATMA (Folk Rock)
SHABNAM VIRMANI
Group (Kabir/Sufi)
VEERAGHASE (Kannada Folk)
SHAHID PARVEZ of NAGPUR (Qawali)
RANJANKUMAR BARUA & Group (Hindustani fusion )
REX ROSSARIO (Jazz Quintet)

All of them were awesome I am not a jazz person so that hour I utilized to stock up on some food. I'm pretty sure that like me none of you would have heard about any of these bands but trust me they were mind blowing, the simplicity of their performance and the way they captured the crowd was brilliant. Its not like u have to be in the mood to listen to such music or be relatively high to ""get"" this type of music you have to be you and you'll connect to the tune. Trust me on that.

To get the music and appreciate it all you need is a soft mattress yes you read right and it isn't a typo a mattress. Tough this festival is gaining a lot of publicity (1000 odd people had turned up) the seating is basically like a classic amphitheater with a center low level stage and in circular increase stone seats. This is the only biggest pain that u need to over come a real pain in the ass abd lower back. I mean seriously after 4-5 hours you will defer from using the term PIA with anyone :(.

The best part about this festival was the audience that managed to gather around. I mean the crowd wasn't a closely knitted group there were people from all over bangalore from different professions different background, from tapori's to suit clad gentlemen to kurta wearing jogi's with an afro hair do. It was simply amazing and most importantly is that there were no restrictions at all. People were allowed to do what they wanted where they wanted. No complains! No Nonsense! Peace :). No police to say or do anything, nice and simple setting and nothing happened, people were having fun and enjoying the music just as if they were attending their own college functions. I hope all that come there from now on adhere to this and live upto the standards that have been all these years.

I remember at some point of time this firang came in and started singing we shall over come and the crowd hearing this automatically starts singing the desi version of it and gave a good fight .. lol it was amazing the unity amongst the crowd without any sort of restrictions, I say it once again simply amazing. Especially when they performed the hit qawali no: dama dum mastkalandar seriously it was like sitting in REX while a hit bollywood item number is playing ... lol ... too too funny and heart warming to see people join together and enjoy the music.

My personal favorite were prakash sontakke, sabnam virmani, the qawali grp and last but not the least swaratham .. I particularly liked their kannada rock song(pavan u'll love this i think). lol how can I forget my friend developed this big time crush on the violinist.


My first fireflies experience was awesome, I hope I can go next year too :).

few videos that I could find while googling that hopefully impress you and make you want to join this next year

1. http://video.aol.com/video-detail/fireflies-2008-fusion-of-kabir/2816968742
2. http://affiliate.kickapps.com/_Prakash-Sontakke-group-playing-Raaga-Fusion-/video/163665/13499.html

Billu ... A review

Hi ppl "Billu" after a very late controversy about its name, something to with barber being there in the title finally released on friday.

The details about the cast and all you can get from here. The movie overall is good I'd give a 3.5 / 5. The songs and the special appearances by the various hot actresses adds to the much needed jazz as Lara doesn't do much at all in this area.

Having any preconceived notions about the movie will ruin it even more. The first half where the build up to the story takes place is quite a drag actually it was very very hmm .. just not getting the right word. The first time we went to watch the movie (two of my friends and me ) we walked off after the interval, what with democracy playing its role. I went to cauvery the next day sat through the whole movie and liked it. The 2nd half is where the movie unfolds and moves on at a nice pace with the ending leaving you with a nice happy feeling.

Okay so my overall verdict

1. Its a good movie and I'd rate 3.5 / 5.
2. Irfan Khan's acting simply brilliant.
3. Tough I give it a 3.5 if you don't have patience or are prone to sleeping in the theatre then rent the dvd and watch.
4. On the paisa vasuul area ... hmm ... the three songs Love mera hit hit(featuring deepika) worth atleast 50 bucks, marjani (featuring kareena) worth atleast 20 bucks, Khudaya Khair (featuring priyanka) worth atleast 40 bucks, the rest atleast well Irfan Khan's brilliant dailog delivery.
5. Some really good comedy scene's (very few ... mind it!!! )

Where it falls apart.

1. the ever long first half.
2. rajpal yadav and om puri .. please what the hell were they doing there.
3. "Billu Bhayankar" when this song starts please run for it!!
4. The making of "Aasmaan ka faristha khoon ka rishtha" which is the movie with in the movie.


So folks do watch it!!

Pramod Mutalik and the RHS

I was just googling for older news about Rashtriya Hindu Sena national president Mr Pramod Mutalik what with all the The Pink Chaddi Campaign, I was just wondering on what this guy was up to b4 this incident which is his new claim to fame in politics.

This Piece of Shit(POS) justifies what happened in Mangalore with this and if you don't know what I'm talking about then read this. What I found was really interesting and just adds to the fact about how full of shit this guy really is. Check this article out.

Mr Pramod "#$@%ed up piece of crap" Mutalik says:

" ... If centres of religious importance for Hindus are targeted, twice the number of religious centres of the opposite party will be smashed hereafter. If the Hindu girls are exploited by the members of other religions, double the number of girls from other religions will also be targeted ... "

This POS says this a couple of months back trying for a spot in the limelight a few months back he goes on and then he goes ahead and justifies what happens in Mangalore. Where the hell did all the aggression go. He takes a stand against all the terrorist activites done by others but when it comes to him and his bunch doing the damage, suddenly thats justified.

He goes on to say

"... there is a need to launch a second quit India movement against the anti-nationals ... "

WTF!!! The sick SOB anti-national is you and your idiotic group of terrorists which needs to be flushed out of our country. People like you who instead of resolving the thousands of other problems that plaques the country where the police and the govt are helpless, go about creating problems where there were none to begin with.

Whats even more sad is that the govt just didnt do nothing, these people were caught on camera for godsake and their leader even justifies it ... I mean WTF!!!

In a way its us who is to blame. What with not taking part in the elections, not giving a thought about it and not voting the right candidate.

My friend Roshan couldnt have said it better

" ... We don't need to wait for some politician to take a stand and make a change. The change needs to start from each one of us. We need to use the power of our vote to get the politicians to hear our voices. If we don't, then get ready to lose our rights one by one. Get ready to be attacked again and again in the name of culture. It’s up to us! We need to decide if we want to go to pubs and malls and restaurants or if we want to be scared and stay indoors. You know it and I know it that we don't lose our ‘Indianness’ or our cultural identity by indulging in some harmless fun. It's up to us to drill this in to out politician’s heads by using the power of our vote!

Our first chance to make our voices heard loud and clear is the upcoming General Elections sometime in April-May. We need to get out and vote and reject those who support such narrow minded organisations! But first, to vote you need to get your name registered in the electoral or the voters list of your constituency. The JaagRe! One Billion Votes Campaing website http://jaagore.com is an excellent place to start the process of registering.

The youth today constitute a majority of the population. We are almost 30% of the total electorate. Yet, only a handful of us really go out and exercise our right to vote. For the politicians we are an insignificant majority because we sit out during every election ...."

We need to get of our ass and change this attitude of ours. Get up and go Vote make your choice and maybe then we'll be heard!!!

Accident NO: 40

I know i shouldn't be making a mockery about having been involved in so many accidents but this one was in a way different from the rest, i wanted to know what others would have done in my place or at least how my friends judge what i did.

It all starts after a mediocre day at work and after a long gap i hit the gym, basically had a dull and tiring day. The route that I take to get back home is airport road -- MG road -- wilson garden -- sadashivnagar -- dollars colony -- bel circle -- and home.

I left office a earlier than my usual time around 9 so relatively the street was more crowded than how it is at 10 - 1030 types. As I reach the domlur bus stop an insane old guy tries to make a dash at crossing the road, there was another person also trying to cross but seeing the light turn green he backed off but for some reason the old guy persists. Seeing the old guy I slow down my pace and tell him to cross but he gives me sign to go ahead so as I accelerate but the dumb fuck makes another dash at crossing and bhaaaaammm we collide my bike goes out of control I slide and roll a lot.

A few minutes goes by I realize that I'm lying on the road I get up check on myself and the damage to the bike also I see that a crowd has already gathered, amazingly all the crowd is doing is to tell me to run, I didn't think it was the right thing to do. I again checked on how I was doing and then I picked up the bike and kept it at side of the road and then I go over to the old guy whom the crowd has safely taken to the other side of the road. I reach the place and see that no damage done at all tough he was complaining about shoulder pain, immediately a guy from the crowd comes and checks him up and declares his collar bone is fractured .. i'm like yeah right.

So now another hero comes up from the crowd is making his intentions clear by talking loudly and asking how we both are and all and then hez like okay lets get both of you to a hospital I him i'll manage on my own just get him to a doc first. The guy said okay we'll take him to Bowring hospital pay us Rs 50,000 .. I just wanted to curse my ass of at the guy but seeing the mob collected around I kept my cool and said sir "I'll take care of myself, it was as much as my fault as it was his so I'll take care of myself and let him take care of himself." To this the smart ass hero goes senti and all and takes about humanity and manavytaa and all. I told him if I had fallen down no one would have given a shit. tho this guy goes on about how karnataka people are so helpful and all. I got a feeling that this is a big time con job that they are planning and my best chance was to run off.

I stay cool and talk along for some more time and then I pick up the old man and put him on my bike. Just to see if he his faking i ask him to put his apparently injuerd arm on my shoulder for support. During the bike ride i made it a point to makehim get as many jerks as possible and on every jerk his injured arm would grab hold of my shoulder i knew that okay hez alright types but still i take him to the hospital. At the hospital I give the guy 50 bucks telling him to have a check up and leave in the same time I make a run for it.

I know it may not have been a very nice thing to do if it was not a con job and the guy was in fact seriously hurt but then i felt it was and so i made a run for it. What do u people think of or rather what u have done.

Whole of last night I sat thinking if it was the right thing to do or not! Felt bad that yeah i should have done more but then in the end I still stand by what I said ... it was as much his fault as it was mine so i'll take care of myself and he will tend to himself.

As for me I suffer a medium sprain on my right wrist and a lot of scratches and cuts, and yeah because of a bad cut on my knee I limp a bit.

Just for precaution sake i came by car today :) .. just in case the mob tries to pull me into this again :(.

Idiot sighting

I had a really sad and dull day yesterday for no apparent reason at all, so for today I thought I'd try out a different routine and read up some posts to start my day. So I go to India Uncut. Amit Varma is brilliant going through his blog more than covers up if your not in the habit of reading the newspaper daily.

Some of his sightings are so wierd that I had to put it up on my blog as well. Here are a few of them.

>> Watermelon is nature's Viagra!

>> Getting Raped!!! Use your cell phone

>> Dara Singh wants cable TV

>> Sleeping on a flight!!!

>> I Love America

Well what a start to the day .. more later .. right now i'm off to get me a bowl of watermelon :)