Ananya Mukherjee's blog

As the subject in this story might suggest, I am not exactly here today, sulking on a Sunday afternoon, disrobing rather unveiling the many faces of freedom. In fact, I have just had an hour long happy noon day siesta and woke up with a very funny thought! Could be the aftermath of a forgotten dream that I can't quite trail back! It was like someone whispering in my ears in my sleep a one-liner punch line. "Like fantasy, freedom has many faces!!"

While your little darlings run around shelling out their pocket money and treating you like kings on this special day, let's raise a toast to you--
To you, Superdads, for bringing a new life to the world (and yet never figuring out how diaper strings are tied), for cracking that impossible puzzle and fixing all broken toys, for teaching a child the meanings of the words "home", “work”, “fight”, “play” and “party”, for all the “firsts”—the cricket bat, the cigarette puff, the soccer match, the scotch on the rocks, the car keys, the night outs, ….the list is endless, cheers to you for making that fine balance between corporate ambitions and domestic commitments, for still looking like a teenager in your tees and dreaming of stealing your son’s girlfriend one day!!
Happy Father’s Day!

Amjad Ali Khan’s musical extravaganza
By Ananya Mukherjee
Singapore
 
 
When Sarod Samrat Ustad Amjad Ali Khan narrates the intricacies of his craft, you are bound to pay undivided attention and listen.
During the first session of his concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore last week, he started with demonstrating the two different ways of playing the sarod. Whilst using the fingertips on the strings can result in a dull-toned melodic line, using the grooved edges of the fingernails on the first two fingers, as taught by his father and guru Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, creates the signature singing tone from the instrument, he explained.

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom"  - Ananya
 
 

 
"Can you see the light there?" you ask me, pointing towards the dark sleepy hills dominating the landscape across the sparkling Subarnarekha. The river's at her passionate best, shining like quicksilver on a gorgeous moonlit night. "Do you hear the rumbling of the maadol?" I ask in return. Somewhere hidden in those mysterious shades of green, grey and brown jungles, someone is offering a prayer in a language we cannot comprehend, but whose essence we can both construe—music!