Mother Do You Think They'll Drop the Bomb?

This is basically a monologue. I want to remember this so I'm putting it here.

It's an early morning. Yesterday, your mom and you had yet another fight. You really went at each other. Hammer and nails. Abuses were hurled, promised broken and ultimately your dad threw you bodily from the room. Whose fault was it? Was it yours for not understanding or was it hers for provoking? 

You open your eyes. Reach for your glasses. Sigh.

And suddenly you see the bookshelf. JRR Tolkien. Neil Gaiman. Colin Dexter. Hemingway. You remember the book club on Facebook and the oh so special friend you made there. You remember her obsession with Backman and how you yourself nearly wanted to punch Kevin hard for what he did to Maya. 

You remember The Old Man and the Sea. You remember learning so many words, of visiting so many worlds. The conversations you wish you could have had with authors. The one time Jeffery Archer said your writing had potential.

And suddenly, you're two or three years old and you've got your first pair of glasses. Your mother gives you a book. You fall in love.

And so when your mother wakes up, you give her a cup of tea. 

Your entire house is your mother. She hides in every nook and cranny. She lives in pages, in ebooks. 

Which mother do you want to remember? And why do you fight her? Doesn't it seem shallow to you? Remember not to let your anger at some illness cloud the memory of a woman giving her child the key to a world where he has found peace. 

Remember. Please remember. 

The Bilge Master

Is This the New Normal?

The city is asleep in broad daylight

Its slumber interrupted by me

The passerby staring out a bus window 

Which will carry me across the length and breadth

Of home

The bus has a radio playing 

Lady Antebellum croons a new song 

Partial faces regard me with suspicion

Masks everywhere

Just a few months ago, this place was Times Square

The sun is still shining but the light it gives out 

Has changed from welcoming to menacing 

It is harsh and blinding 

As a killer stalks the city

Taking millions to the Underworld 

Vile creatures and evil smells lurk

Unafraid of anything 

They crawl out of their hiding places 

Hell bent on destruction

If this is the city by day

What is the image at night?

So many things we took for granted 

Are now gone 

Will we make it through the night?

Or will unseen demons claim us 

And helpless we will drown

The Bilge Master

In Conversation with Yatindra Acharya and Jason Fernandes

A while back I was added to a group on Facebook where I got to know an artist called Yatindra Acharya. He brought out an original composition in Hindi which I really liked and I got talking with him and his friend Jason Fernandes about music and their work. 

This led to a proposal for a proper interview which is going live below. Do welcome Yatindra and Jason to the blog and I hope you enjoy reading the interview! They've also included links to their work in the post, should you wish to know more about them and what it is they do! 

The Bilge Master

What do you like about music?

Yati : From a listener's point of view, music does to my life what it does to movies. Imagine Sam Raimi's Spiderman, but without Danny Elfman's ensnaring soundtrack. Yeah, you can't. It just becomes part of your story. You'll find me head banging or at least thinking about it every time another Motörhead song blasts in my head.

Jason: I like how versatile it can be, how simple to the ears yet with a lot of technicality to it. How one can capture the depth of the scene just by random notes playing in harmony.

 

What according to you is the most important aspect of a song? Lyrics or melody?

Yati : The melody (don't hate me, man). You want them to turn it up on the radio in their cars? The lyrics won't matter as long as the melody is great. You want them to analyse your words, post it in song discussion threads and remember it too? You'll still need a great melody.

Jason: Melody for sure. I actually focus much on the dynamic aspects of the song since I do have my fair share of learning music theory. That’s one of the many reasons that I hate modern pop songs coz most of them aren’t as technical enough for my ears. Even a groovy bassline can move my head and I wont focus on the lyrics. However that doesn’t mean, lyrics aren’t important as well. Any Queen fan like me would tell you, that Freddie was a lyrical genius

 

What makes a song appeal to you?

Yati : It HAS to make me feel something. Hope, fear, awe, happiness, nostalgia, melancholy, inspiration, evil, heroism... The scream, guitar solos, drum fills, everything, has to serve the context of the song, and has to make the audience FEEL the emotion behind it. That is all art is, you know? It should make you feel something.

Jason: The complexity of the entire mix. The eventual build-up of the entire song to get you those chills at the exact moment. The emotion of the song matters.

 

Talk a little about how you go about composing your songs.

Yati : I could be washing utensils, or sweeping the floor, or working in the orchard, and some melody, some hook will pop up in my head. I'll keep repeating it till I get my guitar and figure out the chords that line will need. I sing it, listen to it and then discern what it makes me feel. The rest of the song just falls into place as I realise what themes can fit the hook. Coming up with open ended or abstract lyrics is the best way to go about it. With time, I will sculpt the song to make it dynamic in the instruments and the vocals, and in 3-5 hours I will have the song completely constructed.

Jason: I am not much into creating/composing songs since m not much of a lyrical genius if you ask. But in yati’s case when he said something about his song and he needs to do a whole track on it, I was like all in. I could add in a bit more to rough structure of composed songs, some added accents that would enhance the end result.

 

Would you say a cover of a song helps the original song to become more popular, even if the original song's quality is inferior to the quality of the cover?

Yati : Absolutely. If laypeople can recognise the quality of the cover, people with good ears will eventually but surely think, "How the hell did those guys come up with this melody? Did they even know how much this song would affect me one day that I would scour the internet for different covers of it?". It gives the original artist the opportunity to become part of a richer culture.

Jason: Absolutely. The best thing about covers is you can do it any genre. And music has so much of it already. People have preferences and, in the end, if someone wants to figure the original one out, sure it exposes them to that genre as well.

 

Comment on the statement, "A cover is just someone copying something because they couldn't come up with something original."

Yati : After mindlessly spitting this, they'll listen to Jimi Hendrix's version of "Hey Joe" for the 6th time that day. I cannot stress how important song covers are. Just slight differences in the guitar tone, vocal style, even the video, makes the artist's soul seep into that rendition. Why would anyone want to shoot that down? You get another angle of the song that you like, and possibly more people will know about the song to now enjoy the original version. Everybody wins.

Jason: Well, as I said, a cover could be as exact to the original, or you could use your artistic imagination to flow into the genres that you like. Obviously, a cover is a copy, you are copying a pattern of chords of the song, but one could obviously enhance or improve it. If you ask me, I am not that well into composing songs and, I was just a part of one and many more to come, but covers is what I can do seamlessly. That doesn’t degrade me as an artist.

 

How important is an app like Spotify or a site like YouTube in today's age of the internet?

Yati : Imagine what previous generations had to go through to listen to music. It hurt the artist more, in my honest opinion. If the only thing keeping you from becoming a cultural phenomenon is the fact that people can't access your material, it's sad for you. The people will find other songs to love sooner than you think. To have these sites distribute your material at minimal cost to you but with high chances of being shared is absolutely wonderful.

Jason: Social media is the key to this internet age, and apps like these help for more exposure than ever. People are accustomed to this easy life. One doesn’t have to buy CD’s anymore and those were at a cost if I'm not wrong. Streaming services are a way to go not only since they are easy to use unlike going through shelf of CD collections and they are cost efficient.

 

Comment on the rampant piracy of music.

Yati : Sad reality is, majority of the households have much, much more important things to spend on. Something that is so easy to pirate as music WILL be pirated. There's no escaping it. You can take the high road and say "People should support artists by buying their music, going to concerts, purchasing merchandise," and what not, but people do those things because they LIKE it. Not because they want to support the artists. There's no conclusion to this, it's just what is.

Jason: That’s the sad reality, I guess. But didn’t we all download pirated music at one point since it was free. I guess right now since the age of streaming in recent years, these have reduced. So that’s a good sign.

 

How important is music as a medium of expression of feelings?

Yati : Ask Slash from GnR. A shy lad who wore his top hat low and covered his face with his hair just so he didn't have to look at people. Interacting with people is scary business, and just because we got used to it doesn't mean it still isn't emotionally taxing. The ability to express who you are, what you do, in the context of a song is not just a bonus, but a gift so many of us need to tell the world what makes us, us.

Jason: Well if you can express your words in music with the tone and feel of what you want your message to be. It hits right on point. You want your listeners to feel what you are going through which also helps them relate in their lives. Everyone has their own playlist when they are in certain type of mood that they can relate to.

 

Name a few artists whose work has inspired you to take up music.

Yati : Linkin Park, Insomnium, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Guns N Roses, Steve Wilson, Devin Townsend, Alter Bridge, Breaking Benjamin, KK, Shaan, Lucky Ali, Hans Zimmer, Nicholas Hooper, John Williams… I could go on. There's just so many, and each one of them has had some influence on my current work.

Jason: Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Linkin Park, Shaan, Lucky Ali, Hans Zimmer, Guns N Roses, Journey, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Silk Route, Bryan Adams, Eagles, Elton John, AC/DC, Toto, Beatles and most of the Classic rock and 90’s artist.

Do you believe there is a message in the music you make? If yes, what is that message?

Yati : It's quite simple. Making music makes you cool.

Jason: I can’t answer this. But what Yati said.

 

Pick out five artists whom you admire.

Yati : Guthrie Govan, Girish Pradhan, Devin Townsend, Axl Rose, Myles Kennedy… Basically song writers who have insane guitar/vocal abilities, since I started out as a guitarist and am now a vocalist.

Jason: Freddie M, Brian May, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, Elton John, Any member of the Beatles.

How were you introduced to music?

Yati : My family. My mother is a Carnatic singer and plays the harmonium. We sing bhajans at random times, I used to play the tabla when I was a child and the response I got from people back then would leave me wanting more.

Jason: Well, being raised a catholic has its perks. I was actively involved in church activities and every church has its own choir which I was a part. Slowly I developed interest and enrolled myself for keyboard classes seeing my friends in them. My mom used to work as nanny for Pankaj Udhas’ elder daughter. So she kind off pushed me into music as well.

 

Where do you see music and artists say five years from now?

Yati : Foresight is absolutely not my thing, I'm horrible at projecting things in the future, and I'd be lying if I said that it makes me sad. But I'm pretty sure that selling music online will be even more profitable than it is now, or so I hope. I see so many new artists going back to Rock n Roll, India's metal scene is flourishing and I, for one, can't wait for people to realise how weak their playlists were five years ago.

Jason: Its hard to say. I know many artists right now are struggling to survive in this pandemic. And, the ‘DJ culture’ is taking the world by storm. I have seen enough American Shark tank to notice that Music is a risky business. One needs to create connections or be incredibly good at it to be found online. And then there are many who are good it at it. That however doesn’t mean that the older genres would fade off. I hope to see more international rock/metal bands performing in India though.

 

What if music never existed?

Yati : I would just be a shirtless guy on Facebook, instead of being a shirtless guy in my own music video. Can't imagine what my personality would be like if it weren't for music. I don't think I assimilate more of anything else, maybe superhero movies, but even they need soundtracks. It would be a grey world indeed.

Jason: I would just be another software engineer on a chair with a PC in front of me.

 

Here are links to stuff that would show what kinda music I make and what I'm into.

Ik Shama : https://youtu.be/EHr7AwX8TSc

One Step Closer cover: https://youtu.be/hCj1qJtmge8

Hotel California solo cover: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2082291738488575&id=100001233067301

 

My social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kilmyster

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kil_mister/

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/c/YatiAcharya

 

Jason:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jazz94

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simply_khadoos

Food, Friends and Fun- A Photoblog

When a plan has been in the works for over a month and suddenly on a day like today it just happens, you really wish that the guy who wrote that God was in his heaven and all was right in the world could be here because you'd totally buy him a drink. This is a post about a bespectacled fat guy, a seventeen year old Gordon Ramsay and a storm that is white.

I will let the photos do the talking. Basically the three of us got together to have pasta and it went well. I then extended my losing streak at Scrabble to 11 straight losses. I know I'm awesome! 

Introducing Manda the Panda, White Storm and of course your very own The Bilge Master and featuring a packet of pasta, lots of milk and cheese, a blunt knife and vegetables.

Night at the Hospital- A Guest Post by Atmadeep Banerjee

Atmadeep is a doctor who used to be a quizzer and debater, back in college. Most of his time now is spent at the hospital or at the study desk. In his spare time, he likes reading and cultivating a growing interest in philosophy and geopolitics. I met him in August 2012 at a Poets of the Fall concert and we've been friends since! This is something he shared on Facebook recently and it caught my eye. Have a look and welcome Atmadeep to the blog people!

The Bilge Master

There’s a small room at one corner of the hospital, that used to be perennially bustling with activity. Even in the middle of the night, on any given day, residents and interns would be flitting in and out, gathering paperwork, vials of blood and all the other mundane tools of daily work. It is here that I sit awake one night in late June of 2020, trying to remember what life used to be like in this residents’ room. Scattered memories flash before my eyes like a montage out of a film: worklists prepared by sleep-deprived residents, cold meals shared at 4 in the night, differentials passionately debated by seniors, barely funny jokes laughed at uproariously at the end of a tiring shift. It seemed surreal. Like memories from a past life, long gone.

I remember I used to be so afraid when I first joined as a junior resident over a year ago. I would rush into this very same residents’ room a million times every night and ask my senior to verify my diagnoses and re-check my management plans. Those days of hand-holding are long gone. I’m trusted to handle the night-shift on my own now. The seniors are always just a call away, manning their own stations at the different wards and intensive units, but they have faith in me and as do I. However, today, that is a hollow victory.

It is an unusually quiet night. As with all residents, I’ve learned to be distrustful of these idle hours after dark. They have a tendency of lulling you into a state of lowered vigilance – which you can ill afford, especially in these times. “A doctor’s work is never done”, goes the quote from Park’s textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine. And before you know it, the façade of tranquillity comes crashing down in an instant, as a staff member comes rushing in to inform me of a new admission. Another poor soul whose own body is failing him. Another set of anxious faces praying desperately that their family doesn’t end up being yet another tally on the wrong side of a statistical sheet.

Once the patient is stabilised, and the relatives counselled, I return to the room. “Cytokine storm”, “ARDS”, “DKA” – seemingly alien jargon that gets bombarded at our citizens through their television screens like some sort of apocalyptic foretelling with little explanation. Then there are the snake oil salesmen, ready to fan the flames of fearmongering to make a quick buck. I wonder how those outside the medical fraternity feel in these moments of crisis – scared, confused, wondering if it’s karma, divine will or just the absurd indifference of the universe?

A drop of sweat trickles into my eyes, blurring my vision. An unpleasant reminder of exactly how uncomfortable a PPE is, especially while working at a non-air-conditioned hospital in the middle of summer. This PPE is the 21st century rendition of the iconic white-coat – our greatest inheritance from our forefathers in the medical fraternity. Today, it feels not like a privilege, but a burden. It is stifling to stay in, impossible to see in, sickening to walk in, and draining to work in.

But it is a reminder that the men and women, who first wore this white-coat, faced the same nemeses that we used to scoff at till a few months ago. They wrestled with the same foes, without the privilege of the antibiotics of mass destruction that we launch with the push of a syringe today. They went to war with unknown diseases, armed with nothing but grit, courage, a begrudging respect for the enemy, and unending compassion for the souls that were ailing from its blows.

It is the same white-coat of Dr Jonas Salk who refused to patent his Polio vaccine, of Dr Barry Marshall who swallowed Helicobacter pylori bacteria in order to prove that they cause peptic ulcers, of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy whose birth anniversary we celebrate today. And most importantly, it is the same white-coat that has armoured the generations of doctors across time and geographic boundaries who worked tirelessly and did their best – the ones who aren’t immortalized by the textbooks, but whose actions echo on in all our lives today.

This PPE is more than a medical equipment. It is a talisman. It protects our physical selves and those of our patients and families, but more importantly, it galvanizes our spirits in our moments of greatest despair. It is a symbol of the faith that our forebearers have earned, and the trust that is our privilege to repay. It is a reminder that every moment we’re in the wards, in the clinics, in the OT, at the laboratory, or the study desk, the spirits of healers who came before us are guiding our hands and watching over us.

The sky outside is a bit less dark now. The birds have started chirping.

It seems we shall make it through this night yet.