Bojack On The Shore

In the bygone years of my academic pursuit, specifically during my first year, the corridors of my college echoed with an intense yearning to know. To know more. To see the world beyond what everyone comprehended. You could perhaps call it intellectual curiosity but I’m not sure it is the right word. I found myself entwined in deep conversations with people from different backgrounds, all with different stories and multiple interpretations. Among them, a senior, a confidant, a recently familiar face in a wave of fleeting connections, extended an invitation to a seminar which my own department was organizing - an event that I was completely oblivious of.  It could appear mysterious in our college, that a new student, just starting to dive into literature, was so excited about joining a talk on the tricky topic of "Post Truth. A conspicuous anomaly, perhaps, for a newbie immersed in the world of letters and paradigms, yet my curiosity pushed me through the corridors of prose and pa...

Times of introspection are tough. Especially when introspection happens at unfortunate times - hanging by a deadline in two hours, 104 pages of documentation awaiting to be written, 2 developers pinging every 10 minutes with 24 doubts, a birthday celebration happening in the pantry, phone buzzing every 20 seconds and whatnot. It’s as if chaos decided to drop by for an evening visit, and I couldn’t help but greet him with a sigh. And in such a time of introspection, you wonder whether all of this is really worth it. I remember reading an article a few months back from Nat Eliason, titled ‘When the Money’s Just Too Damn Good’, where a very peculiar line struck me to the core - “Be careful what you do to pay the bills. You might just succeed at it.” I wondered, and I wondered. And the best I could do was just that. Wondering. Always wondering, pondering, but never truly making anything out of it.  It’s a little quirky, and hitting at one point, that are we really afraid of not makin...

Here’s a bunch of songs for those circling in life’s maze, stuck in the vicinity of obligation. For the ones who yearn, but are restrained. To the ones introspecting on the nuances of their dreams, and trying to make a grey canvas colorful with each passing day. Here’s something for the people awake in the mundane, unable to escape the various shades of monotony.  Here’s something for people shuffling between a 9-5 job and a 7-12 passion, for people hanging on in desperation trying to hold on to everything they love, for people breaking their necks to make ends meet, for the people who end up in turmoil no matter how hard they choose to be.  Here’s something for the people who stare out of their office windows, wondering whether life could have turned a way around. Here’s to the people who out of everything that has happened, decided to care. To the ones who never went down without a fight. Here’s to your indomitable spirit. This is for you. 1. Black Hill & Silent Island -...

Petrichor - it’s the first thing to happen once rain falls, a revitalizing fragrance that accompanies the first rain after a prolonged period of dry, hot weather.  A similar phenomenon happens with people. And I’d like to begin this article with that since the Kerala monsoon has arrived, perhaps a little late to the meeting. If petrichor is what rain does to the earth, pensive is what it does to people. It’s the first sign that you’re being pulled into a memory matrix, a serene contemplation, or sometimes a terrible introspection.  One day it rains, and you see people in a reverie. It’s as if their entire lives passed right through them in the flash of an eye, and here they are in a deep pensive. Now add music to the contemplation and suddenly life becomes a music video. Everyone’s story is a thousand music videos in itself.  I see people drenched in Kerala’s monsoon, physically and emotionally. And if I were to quote a line from a movie, I’d go with one from ‘Her’. “Some...

Post 2020, things have been uncertain for independent music bands in Kerala. Although I felt that original music was taking a plight for some time now, a lot of cover bands on the other hand have increased in popularity recently. This is not to say that original music is dying, in fact, original music seems to be rising from a bear market too, although very gradually. 2022 witnessed a few music festivals across Kerala; both the big budget ones and the underground ones as well. It also seems that a lot of bands who went into a hiatus some time ago are slowly getting back into the scene. Hoping for the best of independent music this year. Anyways, I thought of starting a weekly series to share new music, or even old ones that I listen to, now and then. Will be featuring five songs, not specifically from a particular genre, as I’m planning to cover multiple genres. Here we go: 1. Heretic - Choice Formed in 2005, Heretic is an alternative metal band based in Bangalore. The band release...

 An artist can never settle down, especially when his art is in the making.   You’d see that in the first few opening minutes of Pradeep Kumar’s extraordinary documentary - Arunagiri Perumal. It has struck me since then, and hasn’t left my abbey of sacred sentences. I write this as I listen to a particular song, at a very particular time, with a very particular feeling. The beauty in the soothing baritone of an old Ghazal, one that holds a poignant fragrance of heartache followed by a caressing touch of the Kerala guitar.. A song that tells its tale of emptiness, melancholy and loneliness.. I sit here, listening to Philip V Francis, who everyone fondly remembers as Philipettan. I sit here listening to his touching rendition of Babukka’s Thedunnathare Shoonyathayil, almost breaking down at every silence between the melody.. I was introduced to Philipettan very late, and unfortunately, only after his departure from this world. For those of you who don't know, Philip V Franci...