Bollywood Music

I imagine, it is hard for people to understand the role that music plays in Indian movies. (While our movies are made in almost as many Indian languages as there are Indian states, I speak really of Hindi cinema.) This music does not come as the signature background score we might hear in Western movies or by way of Hollywood-style musicals such as Moana or La La land!

Playback singing has always been an important part of Hindi movies, which typically have six or seven pre-recorded songs that the actors lip-sync for the cameras. The lyrics of these songs are thoughtfully constructed and frequently poetic. They advance the narrative and are set to carefully composed music. I think this music is part and parcel of one’s DNA, if one grew up in India or even if one’s parents grew up in India!

Filmi music permeates the subcontinent. It can be heard wafting from open windows on warm summer mornings and playing in bustling bazaars on balmy evenings. It runs as a common thread across the nation, connecting small town India with the busy metropolis. The housewife hums a popular tune as she goes about her chores, the delivery boy croons a favorite song as he pedals along on his bicycle and the paan (betel leaf) shop owner sings with the newest release playing on his transistor radio. My earliest memories include Hindi film melodies wafting through the house, from a boxy radio set to my mother’s favorite station. When television first entered our lives, the favorite show was Chitrahaar, featuring a half-hour of popular movie songs picturized in black and white!

Today, this music makes me nostalgic and I am drawn to it more than ever. Here, in distant America, Bollywood music is a touch of home. My ears love the words and the tunes and the sound of the Hindi language. A wonderful App allows me to listen and download and share the songs that strike a chord. This is more than just music and it is so pleasing that I can carry it with me; in my phone and in my heart and in my head.

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/bollywood-music/

Little People, Enchanted Worlds

For the past three weeks, I’ve had 11-year-old Dhruv and just-under-six Sara as house guests in DC and we’ve inhabited a magic world. There have been excursions and explorations and discoveries and epiphanies. We have had teasing and laughter and tantrums and tears. Some days have been exhaustingly long – with working and chores and caring for the kids – but then the stress vanished as we chased fireflies at dusk…

And we have had some defining moments… The tooth fairy made two visits in a week, after Sara lost two teeth in quick succession and (of course) the Calgary fairy was texted to please come to Alexandria, given our current whereabouts. A second missive has been sent since, seeking advice on the best way to eat if one has two missing teeth and third ‘wiggerly’ one! Enriched with $10 from this bountiful tooth fairy, Ms Sara set forth for some 'jewelry’ shopping at Claire’s and the highlight for me was Dhruv’s insightful and profound comment, spoken in wonderment, “they can take the simplest thing and make it as mindless as possible!”.

Numerous pearls of wisdom have been uttered these past weeks and some of these gems had me scrambling for pen and paper, lest they be forgotten after being spoken! The most precious by far was Sara’s dream yesterday, “I was walking through a rainbow and a unicorn came and picked me up and took me for a ride in the sky”. We should all be so lucky to have dreams such as this!

Now, the house is silent as both children sleep gently in their enchanted worlds. The bags are all packed and standing ready by the door. Their early morning departure hangs over me like a dark and inevitable cloud. And so it goes – till I see them next and share in fresh adventures.

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/little-people-enchanted-worlds/

Art Museums, Other Worlds

The most wonderful aspect of living in Washington DC is the easy access to its world-class museums and monuments, most of them free of charge. I never tire of repeatedly visiting all the Smithsonian museums and it is a special reward to frequently discover new exhibits, temporary and permanent. I have made several excursions to the Natural History and Holocaust museums, been awestruck at the National Air and Space museum and browsed the fascinating Newseum. I remain in queue for the newly opened National Museum of African American History & Culture. However, it is DC’s several art museums that truly transport me!

Gaps between business appointments will generally see me change into walking shoes and head to the National Portrait Gallery, to become immersed in the fascinating stories of the notable personalities that shaped America - leaders, rebels, artists, entrepreneurs, entertainers. This past week provided the welcome opportunity for two visits to the National Gallery of Art, and they weren’t nearly enough! I will be back, having seen only a very small fraction of all that is on offer in the numerous galleries across the beautifully laid out and older West Wing; and the spaciously modern and newer East Wing.

I have been so moved by all the breathtakingly beautiful creations - paintings, sculptures, tapestries, carvings, photographs - and so greatly impressed by how these museums have been thoughtfully and lovingly curated. It is a stroke of genius to place an old master alongside a modern one; to allow the viewer to experience both the contrasts and the parallels, as he imagines the varying worlds the artists inhabited and the different experiences that shaped their techniques. I am also deeply touched by the generosity and benevolence of all the art donors, who have made it possible for viewers like me to gaze upon masterpieces that we could only have read about or seen in picture books…

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/art-museums-other-worlds/

Impatient to Grow Older

Yes, you read that correctly. While most of us would love to halt the clock, I am currently spending a good deal of quality time with a little person that can hardly wait to get older! Little Ms Sara doesn’t much care to be labeled as little and, at just short of six years, I imagine it is irksome to always be smaller than 11-year old brother Dhruv…

Curious to understand this urgency to enter the ‘big girl’ world, I confronted Sara directly and unearthed some surprising revelations and an interesting mix of motivators. Right up front, Sara confessed that she wanted to be a big girl so that she would be able (and allowed) to read big girl books and magazines, including details of makeovers and other appearance-enhancing secrets. Redeeming herself somewhat, she added that she also wanted to grow older so she would be able to do Math and (somewhat mystifying) ‘so that I can fold clothes better’!

Sara confided that an important consideration was to have her own room and she went on to describe the various elements needed to render this a perfect environment. ‘I want a pretty room, with a pretty bed and a pretty closet with pretty clothes inside it.’ Warming to the theme, she elaborated, ‘I also want a baby crib and a dolly I will love’ and suggested that this beloved doll would need lots of her own clothes. Hooks were mentioned for hanging ‘princess dresses’ but I’m not quite sure if these dresses were to be for Sara or the precious doll…

At this juncture, Sara’s imagination was unleashed from all inhibiting bounds and she declared, ‘I want my own window, where I will get to place my Legos on the window sill’ and ‘I also want my own bookshelf and desk with a laptop and piggy bank!’ Somewhat diverted, I asked how this piggy bank was to be filled and received this thoughtful and comprehensive reply, ‘the piggy bank will be full of money from mummy, for doing good things like helping to make beds, clearing up toys and helping fix the couch and pillows’.

To round off her ‘big girl’ vison, Ms. Sara told me that she wanted her own bathroom with ‘no boy’s toothbrush’ and I couldn't help but say, ‘well, that makes two of us'!

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/impatient-to-grow-older/

Which Comes First?

Do I love you because you are perfect? Or, are you perfect because I love you?

Each of us would answer in the affirmative to the second question, were it asked about a parent or a sibling or an offspring. However, the standard might shift when speaking of a romantic partner or spouse - perhaps even leaning toward perfection of appearance, over intellectual perfection or artistic perfection!

I cannot imagine the slightest diminishing of our unbound love for the most impossible children, maddening siblings or exasperating parents, regardless of how distant they might be from any accepted notion of perfection. They spell perfection, simply because we love them. Maybe our sights get realigned in seeking a partner; perhaps we look for an elusive chemistry or even the envy of passersby! We might then benefit from the ancient Greek wisdom: ‘There is but one genuine love-potion – consideration’ - Menander (circa 343–291 BC)

In the same vein, do good looks make for lasting compatibility? Likely not, if the world of show-business and its beautiful inhabitants is anything to judge by. At the same time, we all know of deep and abiding relationships that involve persons who are less than perfect; where beauty does indeed lie in the eye of the beholder or love truly is blind… 

We would do well to remind ourselves that ‘We don’t love qualities, we love a person; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as their qualities.’ - Jacques Maritain (1882-1973)

http://www.5oclockreflections.com/love-or-perfection-which-comes-first/