Cmon, its time to go...
Neurotron | 22 February 2005, 9:45am
There is no pain, you are receding...
This blog rests.
For how long...is uncertain.
Current Mood: Thoughtful
Current Music: Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
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Rock Show
Neurotron | 17 February 2005, 12:04pm
Come Friday evening, Feb 18th 2005 at 6 p.m., Microtone will be performing at Nizam College, as part of the festival "Expressions".
The band was last seen at Carpe Diem, CBIT, last year, where they came as a surprise package, playing songs nobody ever thought they would get to hear on stage in Hyderabad.
Now Microtone is all geared up, with a new member on vocals and guitars, and set to kick some ass...again.
Be there! And I can guarantee, we'll play you stuff never heard before live in Hyderabad!
Last heard, Native Tongue have also agreed to play and headline the event, and take the Alternative Rock revolution further.
Viva La Revolution!
You know ya gotta be there.
Current Mood: Heroic
Current Music: Blindsight - Microtone
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Where do the children play?
Neurotron | 14 February 2005, 9:36am
Where Do The Children Play?
Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.
I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?
Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorryloads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems you can't get off.
Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?
When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the air.
Will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?
I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?
- Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam), from Footsteps in the Dark
I must have heard this album when I was 4 or 5 years old. Cat Stevens is a hugely underrated songwriter in the league of Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison, and the simple music is salve for the soul, though, regrettably, nowhere near as well known. Songs we sing happily today, like 'Father and Son' by Boyzone (ugh), or 'Wild World' by Mr. Big, were originally by this man. The song that captured my imagination then was the first track on the album called 'The Wind', and I absolutely love it even today. The song that I really understand today is this one above. These sounds remind me of days more carefree, of laughter, and lessons learnt on the playground.
I've lived in the same house all my life, and one of the biggest blessings we have is a playground. I felt an immense sadness about two weeks ago when I saw that the slides, monkey gyms (do kids today even know what those are?) and other play structures I grew up with have been removed. This, by a colony association filled with new people with children of an electronic generation, who are too busy with tuitions and cellphones to be bothered with a change like this.
Those play structures were the last standing visual representations of a community that grew up together; sentinels of simpler, happier times. Now the whole park had been laid with grass, with a track around it, and benches where elderly people who use them about twice a month can sit. Mounds have been introduced in the name of aesthetics, effectively removing chances of playing a decent game of cricket or football. An additional pang was brought on by the realisation that the secretary of the colony association now is my father.
I remember a time when I was 3 or 4, and we kids were playing at one end (the park is rectangular, about 60 metres X 20 metres). The bigger boys were playing football over the rest of the ground, and my father would stand between them and us. If the ball came anywhere near us, they got a tongue lashing. Those were also days when teenagers respected people older than them (I think this is one of the greater losses of our society today), so the boys would try their best to not kick the ball too hard if they were near us. We bachchaas learnt so much just sliding down the jaarabandas, and climbing on various old-fashioned solid cast iron structures.
Then, at about age 7 or 8, we would hang around the older boys, hoping to be asked to join them. Then we join their sports and are treated like the kids we are. Then as you score more goals and runs, fall down and pick yourself up again, you earn respect and the right to participate in team decisions. So many bonds built over cut lips, intense sporting rivalries, fights, and patch-ups. Then you become one of the 'older' boys and take on the responsibility of taking care of the young children playing on the slides and monkey bars.
The lessons learnt on a playfield are of incalculable value to a child, boy or girl. It saddens me deeply to see the children of today hooked to their computers, the internet, online gaming and their cellphones, at an age when they should be out there getting their knees scraped and their hands dirty. In building our concrete jungles, we have forgotten to leave space for green pastures where childhood lessons and memories can be planted and nurtured. Then, we go further and remove the very instruments of learning that we built social skills and broke teeth on.
Tell me, father, where do the children play now?
Current Mood: Worried
Current Music: Cat Stevens
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