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Relishing Rabab
Music maestro Meermaftoon from Afganistan says he's in love with City Beautiful
Both Indian and Afghani music is spiritually sublime and melodic in nature with a celestial origin. Music has been the medium of interaction and guftugu with God and his creatures for the Sufi mystics and religious saints here. They experience boundless joy through the notes of the Rabab that rejuvenates them, as our music satiates and nourishes the soul unlike the shor-o-gul of western music," says the Ustad and music maestro from Badakshan city in Afghanistan. He was in a mood to share more on the music of different nations, but the language barrier came in the way, which is certainly no hindrance when he communicates through music. Meermaftoon has performed at world musical venues where he claims to have sent the audiences, not knowing Persian or Pushto, into a scintillating reverie.
Photo: Vinay Malik
Budapest to Bapu
The Hungarian stamp exhibition in the city brings images of many Indian leaders
Never mind if Paz Noviolencia, inscribed on a stamp, stares back at you, or you aren't instantly able to place Republique Democratique Populaire, or for that matter pronounce Una Societa Basata Sulla Non Violenza or Eve Szuletett, spell Anniversaire De La Naissance De or Ismeretten part fele. Pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mother Teresa, couple of freedom fighters and it all falls in place, perfectly.
Picks & piques
Real to reel
Two biggies released this week, each from diametrically opposite genres. Madhur Bhandarkar's Jail, a dose of bitter realism, about the unrepentant justice system existing in the country today may not be a true story in the strictest sense but it is definitely as real as you can get in a cinema while Raj Kumar Santoshi's Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani is pure comedic-fantasy-love story, typical of the mindless Bollywood popcorn entertainer.
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