Of hidden interests

 I must confess, I do have a hidden interest, waiting to be pursued. Its about reading. I wish to take a particular author and read all of his writings/literature/ contribution.

I did this with Ruskin Bond, I have read so much of Ruskin Bond books and many of the stories multiple times, that I feel quite pleased with myself. This came from my love for Uttarakhand - home of Mr Bond.

Post this, I have never been able to circle around a particular author and read all of his/her works in succession. 

Few of the authors whom I have in me mind are Kipling, Nietsche, Jim Corbett, Agatha Christie, Virginia Woolf (felt too hard), Mark Twain, RK Narayan, Tagore, Bertrand Russel - couldn't handle philosophy.

I also have a dream to have a library at home. Going by the price of wood, per square feet, I am pretty sure, it ain't gonna happen soon. Also, books are quite costly.

But how cool it is, to have all of Gurudev, Ruskin Bond, Satyajit Ray, RK Narayan, Kipling, Mark Twain, alongside, Tintin, Agatha, the printed one's stacked up and you wake up to them, having a book nook. 

Reminds me of good old days, when life was simpler and the air was purer, grass was greener, and of course traffic was lesser and environment was cleaner and we had a library (membership) of course, where we could smell books, and a bakery next to it, where we could get something to eat too :) Simple joys of life.

Someday!

Cheers, 

Kishor Kumar

 I am very much a fan of Kishor Kumar, I love his singing, but more than that, I love his eccentricity. He was one in a century kind of person. I always thought about writing on songs and my favorite singers. Someday I will. But for today, I shall want to add a link to the interview of Kishor Kumar, most likely the year was 1985? Well, not too sure. 

I am very much in awe with whatever his thought process was. 

https://theprint.in/features/when-kishore-kumar-spoke-to-pritish-nandy-about-bombay-hitchcock-and-his-many-wives/93307/

Cheers,

Toto - Rosanna - Rosanna Shuffle or Porcaro Shuffle

It was during my teenage years I came to know about TOTO. The song which I liked of TOTO back then was a cover of the song written by The Beatles Legend - Sir George Harrison, called While my guitar gently weeps. 

I so much liked the song, back then I had never heard of the song by The Beatles or Sir George. The year being 2002/2003, I did not have much info back then on ToTo or youtube or Wikipedia or online music.

Somehow I realized Toto had couple of other hits - Rosanna and Africa - which I genuinely liked. Now with so much of online info available, I realized they have a lot of hits to their name.

But what impresses me the most was not the only the song Rosanna but Porcaro Shuffle.

- Imagine, you write, play and record a song and you end up creating a legendary drum shuffle which is so hard that even after 30 years of the drummer legend Jeff Porcaro passing away people to this day still struggle to play it neatly without mistakes. That is TOTO

- Imagine you are a bunch of guys, who are the first to be called for any artist as session musician, that is TOTO.

- Imagine you end up raking 12 Grammy awards over 2 albums, that is TOTO - TOTO IV  won 5 and these guys worked with Micheal Jackson as session musicians, and that album won 7. I may have figures wrong, but the thought of having that kind of achievement itself is remarkable, back when you had legends contending for Grammy's.

- Imagine, Porcaro Brothers (Jeff, Mike, Steve), Page, Hungate, Kimball, Lukather all together in one line up, the amount of creative juices flowing (well apart from the ego), thats TOTO.

- Rosanna is a very complicated song to record and sing, just count the number of instruments being used in the below song. All of these instruments could have created noise, but they create music, why, that's simply because its TOTO :)

And all of this I realized only after having known TOTO for more than 15 years as just a band!

Makes you realize so much of time spent drooling over unnecessary things and playing in mud while legends were out there entertaining the world live!

Cheers,

PS - It would be better to use a good set of headphones or speakers, because the song Rosanna is really enjoyable if you can decipher all of the instruments (drums, sax, bass, keyboard, piano, guitar, trumpets, congo)

PPS - I had to post this comment. Thats Rosanna shuffle or Porcaro shuffle!

Of Books and reading

 As I was caught up with work and work in the past month, I could not write, but that did not stop me from reading, it was three months into 2021 and my play station was keeping me busy.

But once Far Cry 5 got over, yeah I completed playing the full story, I was on the look out for more PS4 games. But most of them were and are expensive. Mafia definitive edition, Sniper Elite 4, Sniper Elite 3, Dirt rally 2.0.

So decided to read something with the available time, also, was tired of seeing monitor for long that, I did want to change that, though ironically, kindle too is a digital device. But no complaints.

Read - Jim Corbett, Edd China, autobiography, am reading Rudyard Kilpling autobiography - which happens to be cut short.

Have also purchased and downloaded multiple books,

1. Theft of India.

2. The Hindoo Holiday

3. Agatha Christie - Mysterious affair at Styles.

Best part of all the three books are they are based on-or before Victorian era. I am as always curious of life when technology was bare minimum. Reading Kipling's autobiography reminds me that alongside technology, medicine too was still premature, going by his description of pandemics, sad, but true.

I always regretted not having read much Agatha Christie, now is the time to reclaim I feel. There are many more titles on my kindle, but short of time.

Also today, got Hitman First Edition delivered for my Play station, so this will be my next game which I shall play. Hopefully I get to write as well.

Cheers,

Back to writing something and reading something.

 Got some time today to do some personal work on my personal computer, else weekdays its just work and shut off. When day becomes so mundane where in you get up, work and finish, starting up with personal blog post work seems to be a lazy thought. I have been a bit busy last month.

But I managed to sneak in sufficient time to read couple of books. Jim Corbett book on People of India was a decent one, and then managed to read autobiography of Edd China.

I was a bit disappointed with Edd China's book. I was a huge fan of Edd China in Wheeler Dealers. So much about cars, I learnt from Edd. But autobiography of Edd showed very less on his personal side and more on his prowess during his teenage and grad years. 

The book fails to provide the same kick that Wheeler Dealer show provided, where Edd not only explained the mechanical aspects of car, but also the physics involved and the engineering which was built around the concepts of physics. The book is all show and sadly no go.

But still looking forward to Edd's youtube channel - Grease Junkie, the last Friday episode was an interesting one. 

Mind you, I am still a fan of Edd China and his English, lots to learn apart from cars :) Impressive work ethics and loads of patience!

Below is the link -