It has been quite some time since I uploaded a list of my favorite songs. Fall is a season which doesn’t really make an appearance in India but everything I have seen in popular culture seems beautiful beyond words. So here is my fall playlist which might or might not be about fall. 😛
A Lonely September: For those days when you are alone and restless. When I was younger I tried so hard to learn the chords for this song on a guitar without any success. 😛
We Don’t Talk Anymore: I am so addicted to this song. Not a day goes by when I don’t listen to this song at least five times. The video is amazing as well. There is so much happening, you have to watch it twice to see what all is really happening.
Faded (Not the Alan Walker one) – Have been listening to this song ever since the last three weeks surprisingly turned into an endless stream of club hopping and party sessions.
Nashe Si Chaddh Gayi: Not so much of a fan of Arijit Singh, but there are some good EDM beats coming out of Bollywood recently and also, the video of course is pretty great. So here it goes.
Cool Girl: Another one from the club hopping scenes. Tove Lo is at it again! 🙂
Kids: Gems like these are what make me fall in love with One Republic again and again, ever since I began listening to their first album!
Brothers in Arms: Once in the morning in office and you’re set for the day, from one of my favorite movies of all time. Is there a second part coming or not?
Take Me There: EDM from our own shores, Nucleya kills it again. Having attended it live, I feel a little too attached to this band. Fun fact: the featuring artist and I were college mates. Pretty epic I must say.
I found a picture,
Between the tattered pages,
Of an old notebook.
It was a picture of you,
With your teeth shining,
Like the pearls sewn in your dress.
The colour of the sky,
And freshly plucked flowers,
Adorned the laces on your sleeve.
A prettier picture I had not seen.
I look back at those days,
When I asked mother;
“Why did you have to have
another daughter?”
How could I have been so ignorant,
I had always wished for someone magical,
To come into my life,
To fill in the vacant afternoons,
To be a partner-in-crime,
To be all mine.
What would have I ever done without you?
You are the greatest gift ever.
I never wished for anything again.
Thanks to SK, I was introduced to this amazing Belgian singer and songwriter. Each and every song of his that I have heard until now (the ones with subtitles) are beautiful. Not just the music, but the video the story and the message behind it all. He is creating quite a rage in America right now with his concerts. He is definitely one of those musicians that you can’t afford to miss.
The first song that you should listen to is Papaoutai. I was going through his wikipedia page and it says that his father was mostly absent during his childhood, until he died in 1994. This song I guess is expressing the pain he went through because of his absence and you do feel his pain as well while watching the video. The instances when he witnesses boys of his age playing with their fathers and he unsuccessfully tries to do the same, until the point when he hallucinates that he actually has come to life.
The second video is Carmen. This video is an apt critique of social networking, specifically Twitter. How his life changes and goes downhill because of his addiction to Twitter. All his relationships die and ultimately the ‘twitter bird’ leads him to his doom. The music creates a feeling of dystopia and will make you question our consumerist society and the world in general.
The third one is perhaps the best video and song of his. It’s about cancer and it plays on the lines “Quand C’est?” (When is it?), the word phonetically is similar to the pronounciation of the word “cancer”. It is amazing how he uses these techniques and plays with language to reach across a wider audience.
Last but not the least is the song, “Tous Les Memes”. Stromae himself plays the role of a woman and a man, and even though it’s an old age technique, he executes the roles so damn well it’s crazy! All his videos have some sort of conclusion and message that really make you think! I still have to completely decipher this one, given that the subtitles aren’t on the mark.
Let’s face it: this blog title sounds a bit odd. It does to me. Aren’t feminists those people with hairy armpits and heavy boots?
Let me correct myself straight away: no, they’re not.
Being in a lab with 11 men and one other woman is to say the least interesting and for our lab meetings 3 more men are added to it from my supervisors wife’s lab. Before coming here, I’ve never really thought about women’s rights or feminism – lucky me! Boys and girls go to the same schools, can do the same sports, have similar opportunities and are equal really, or so I thought. At least in my home country, the Netherlands.
But then small thoughts started nagging. Like last conference I went to, why was clothing so much more of an issue for me than for my male companion? He just put on his same old trousers…
The sea has a million stories to tell, all you need is to take out the time to hear. The waves of feelings and emotions sweep you away like the water sweeps the shore. All you need is to spare a moment of solitude. The sea will make you its own and you could embrace it as yours, all you need is to open your heart and let it all go.
A photo essay on clouds compiled of pictures that I clicked over a few years. I realised there are very few pictures from Mumbai, maybe because there are too many high-rise buildings around to ever give a clear view of the skies.
Pseudorandom Musings 