Ozma ...

Yet another concert :) Damn I'm loving them, this one was at Excess @Novotel and free drinks n snacks. The music was good but I'm not a great fan for rock (though it was rock-jazz), and I loved the earlier one by Sylvian Luc much much much much better but it's overall a very good concert also considering the company :)
Starting out as a working group as well as one of the musical research and experimentations, OZMA was born in 2001 as a result of the meeting of three young students at the conservatory of Strasbourg. A trio at first, inspired by metric jazz, funk and some musical exoticism, Adrien Deennefeld, Stephane Scharle and Edouard Sero Guillaume lay down the foundations of what was to be the future ozmic music.

In 2004 the group expanded with the arrival of David Florsch and Guillaume Nuss. The quintet then created a new repertoire combining each members energy and experience. In 2005, the group of five release a self produced album called OZMA which was the fruit of severall years of friendship and musical connivance. OZMA gave and captivated by frevidness, dynamism, generosity and childlike mindset, its passion, five friends who like playing together a real talent's fusion, which let nobody indiffernt.

It's just a great group and they played really good numbers mostly self composed, and for a change here is the group in b&w

chalna jeevan ki kahani ... rukhna maut ki nishani

How true!! Last 1month has been amazing. 3cousins got married, 2 friends got married, went on 2trips with friends, 1 trip to g.parents place for Ugadi, been to 3 concerts, worked on a major project at work. I couldn't ask more from life, but I'm not planning on stopping it there :D Next few months are going to be even more exciting. 5more weddings starting April 19th, 4more trips starting April 10th but ofcourse still within India :) and 2concerts per month :D

And the best part, all these irrespective of people turning up or not. Its a very old story that I/we plan for trip but people backout slowly and finally I end up pissed off, but these are trips already planned and approved :D some unavoidable hehe. Only downside I'd put on a tummy like everyone else if I don't keep up my cycling or exercise after soo much of free food.

I also learnt that I'm a natural photographer :D I could come up with some excellent shots (of a monkey running away with a coconut and another one giving milk to its kid, few censored pics of couples which I could use to blackmail :P, pics of a guy extracting liquor from tree (thati kallu - desi daaru) n more). The cam is worth more than what I bought it for (4.5k worth 9k at a 50% sale) [:)] its a 7.1MP with 4x optical and 14x digital zoom.

I think I'll start to write about each of my trips and concerts explicitly instead of summarizing them into one cramped up post making no real sense :D I started off this blog to express my opinions and now its becoming more and more personal :). I really wish to blog on the onset political situation in Andhra Pradesh (!!!) which could bounce off even the greatest minds but I'm just lazy hehe.

Oh did I forget to mention they opened a branch of Vacs just beside my house :D Now I have a real good bakery(Vacs), a cool hang out place (beenz), most happening pub (poison), few real good restaurants n pizza places, shopping malls(bf, bb), multiplexes (cinimax n adlabs), most happening gyms (latitudes n helios) all walkable distance from my house :D Am I lucky or what hehe .....

"Staying single is a bliss" - Saaketh

Marriages, Concerts and life

This was supposed to be posted in mid March :D

Like I previously mentioned, had a very nice time at both the cousins weddings. No more close relatives weddings for the next 6yrs, and by then who knows whos who!!

Been to this concert, "Duo Rosario" on 1st March and one by Sylvain Luc on 18th March.

The 1st one was vocal + instrumental, it included French, spanish and Italian songs along with English. There was also solo instrumental by a 8yr old and another vocal by a local group. But the actual group i.e. the Duo Rosario was excellent. Two music lovers of classical vocal and guitar, Celine Laly and Mickael Noel, set up the Duo Rosario in 2005. It was important for them to add value to the unusual combination of voice and guitar in the world of classical music, which favoured only the more regular forms like guitar-flute, guitar-violin, song-piano, completely negating one side of the repertoire. To highlight their repertoire, the musicians have selected works of each era, particularly representing their style and their form. So they enter into their program works as varies as songs of farmyard, cycles of melodies or popular songs and thus us SIX different languages. But yes the major languages were French and English, and I should say the lady had an incredible voice. Mickael didn't really know English and was on guitar all the time.

This inspired me to buy a cam ;) and this was on 18th March Sylvain Luc Trio -- Only instrumental and I have to tell you, this was/is my all time best concert. "In Esukadi, before the music, there is the transparency of the air, and the wide song, lyrical atfirst. Over there where Sylvain Luc comes from music is in your mind before being in your fingers." - Sylvain Luc, indeed was excellent. An accomplished and talented musician, he begun music early, sharing his love of music with his brothers in Bayonne. Accordion on one side, drums on the other are as many influences he claims as he plays manouche music, valse, or basque folklore. He laso plays bass, violin or cello which he studied at the conservatory. In early 90s and since he played with many great names like Richard Galliano the Argentinean singer Jairo or George Moustaki among many others.

Here he playes with Jean-Marc Jafet on bass guitar and Andre Ceccarelli on drums. Andre also played music with a plain paper, trust me it was just a plain paper. No wonder this group won the best jazz music award in 2003 and also nominated for the best jazz album of the year.


I wish I could write more, infact I could write forever, I recorded a few but I definitely realized how much I missed not having a cam and I bought one finally a 7.1MP Powershot, simple and does the purpose.

More marriages and concerts lined up, I'll be doing a lot of travelling too :D just in India though

Kala Bandar !!

It's been a busy fortnight and it ends on March 1st. Two of my 1st cousins are getting married (one on 19th and other on 27th). I had a really great time at the 1st wedding, and I believe it's gonna be even better at the 2nd wedding :). I have quite a few cool announcements to make, but I'll do that in another post.

Saw Delhi-6 today, people didn't really like it, some even didn't understand the movie but trust me its a really great n wonderful movie. You GOT to open your mind and put yourself in the shoes of ANY of the characters if you want to appreciate the movie. EACH character had his/her part to play, and each character depicted something about the human nature. One major blunder that the director did was to chose a wrong concept. Religion is and always was a very dangerous topic to choose. Movies might have become hit when they chose to support a religion but fighting against the evilness and blind beliefs in the name of religion is a VERY dangerous topic to pic, esp in India. I REALLY believe that if the same movie was directed by an English director and the climax changed a little bit (Abi dies), the movie would have won as many Oscars as Slumdog if not more.


I liked the concept of "kala bandar", it's more than just a joke, its a reflection of the fears in common man, its a reflection of the blind faith, its a reflection of exploitation, and it's also a reflection of the role of media in modern India. Some of the dialogues are really thought provoking, but invain, I don't think people got the point :(

Sorry Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the movie is definitely better than RDB or Slumdog conceptually, but its a little beyond its time, trying to deal with the religious beliefs of Indians is not that easy. Atleast there should have been a typical villain who did all the 'bandar' stuff for the masses to like the movie. I loved it anyway. Hats off and as you said RDB is your high school stuff & D6 is coll, just that you chose a difficult thesis topic !!

On the eve of V'day

No net @home for the last two weeks and it'd take one more week before I can get a new connection, and thus the disappearance. Lots happened in life in the last two weeks, on personal front and @work too but I'm too lazy to post all that.

Here is Valentines' Day again. Every year I make it a point to freak out on V'day to celebrate the fact that I'm still single (why should couples have all the fun :P), but damn this year I don't see it happening :(. No I'm not afraid of Ram Sena :P, just that most of the friends are now in US, and those in India are either committed or married or too busy working and trying to save their ass from being kicked out of office thanks to recession and layoffs. I guess cupid is just too jealous I'm enjoying my bachelorhood even on V'day :P.

No worries, I'm sure it'll work out just good like every year :-). On a different note I'll be going home for a few days next week and I have my cousins marriage the following week, so there might not be much of an online presence.


PS1: I know eve of V'day is tomorrow :P, but I won't be able to post this tomorrow hehe.
PS2: I got a few mins net access and this is what I do :D
PS3: If someone has any spl plans feel free to invite me along :D
PS4: Got to do a lot of shopping, I'm almost broke and its only 12th :(, lucky this isn't a leap year.