On earth-day, for a competition, I wrote this poem in flat 5 mins... hope you like it.
It’s your fall You shouldn’t have shone You shouldn’t have rained You shouldn’t have allowed me to breathe You shouldn’t have nourished me with food You shouldn’t have made this place safe haven Why did you give everything selflessly?
I am high in spirits I am intellectual I am busy inventing I am heartily making profits I pollute you I corrupt you I exhaust and drain you All for my selfishness
I forgot, I belong to you You are My HEART My EARTH
I am one among six billion to wish you ‘Happy Earth Day’
Disclaimer: I have written this post with my little knowledge on rock music and have not referred any third party sources. But of course, earlier I have watched and read many interviews of Rock Stars and also conscious that some of my views or thoughts reflected in this article will be same of oseartists.
I thank Putholi, a dear friend of mine, who inspired me to write this post. It all started a week before as a general discussion on Rock Music. I am grateful to Bala, Beta & Bobby who has introduced me to the Rock genre.
I am a greatest fan of the band Pink Floyd and their music. I dare say floydian music has greater influence of all my life. I strongly believe in two things that will bring peace and harmony to the world, the first one is Music and other is Sports.
Rock ‘n’ Roll is definitely a Black Music (started by Afro-Americans), originated in America at early 1940’s. The origin of rock music is the mix of Boogie-woogie (a popular style of playing piano that was famous in early 1930’s) and blues. In other words Rock ‘n’ Roll is a mix of (R ‘n’ B) Rhythm and Blues in up tempo. If you hear a rock song you will notice the vocal goes with a lead or rhythm guitar & electric bass guitar, drums and Piano or Saxophone or all.
Rock ‘n’ Roll – Revolution for the liberationRock ‘n’ Roll born in early twentieth century in the midst of White and Black racism. Whites used to serve only to white customers in restaurants or pubs, taxis run by whites used to carry a plate similar to number plate displaying “We serve only white customers”. Nonetheless blacks did the same. Rock 'n' roll was seen as obscenity and vulgarity by the white people. There were many black artists at that time, their music failed to release by the white run record companies. This trend was later changed by ‘Sun Record Company’ founded by Sam Phillips (a white) in 1952.
Chuck Berry - Father of Rock n Roll There was integration problem. Rock ‘n’ Roll started to break the racial barriers and that was the last thing any white politicians wanted at that point of time. To get through this a 12 member committee was formed by the American Government to study the consequences of Rock ‘n’ Roll music. All the Government officials including Mayors were against the growing audience of Rock ‘n’ Roll music. The audience was none other than the youth, 51% of them are below 18 years. All kids danced for Little Richards, Chuck Berry, Elvis, and Carl.
In my opinion, Chuck Berry was the Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Chuck a most influential rock artist of that time. He was a good lyricist, and his music was adored by the American youths of both the races. Most of his songs are fast paced and everybody enjoyed dancing. In-fact in some of the recorded - live shows of Chuck Berry, I have seen White and Black people getting mixed up while dancing. This was just the beginning. Rock ‘n’ Roll started to break racial boundaries. The mass integration of both Black and White youths were seen for the first time. All these happened in a short span of three years. Music was a powerful medium and Chuck Berry was the door opener.
Elvis Presley – The Catalyst of Change When I say Chuck Berry was the door opener, the catalyst was none other than Elvis Presley. Elvis was shaped by the hands of God, he was so good looking. Nobody ever could find a fault in his looks. All he has to do is just come to the stage and say ‘Hey You’ the audience includes majority of girls went crazy and scream never stopped. Elvis was the catalyst and he made people not only to dance but sing Rock ‘n’ Roll.
When I was kid I used to think Elvis was a serious guy, and for that matter most of the rock music lovers thought the same. I could not believe myself when I burst out laughing watching his recorded – live shows. He made his audience laugh like no other could have imagined.Not only youths but middle aged people started to like his music. In one of the interview of Bruce Springsteen, I remember him saying that his mother was once against Elvis, later liked his music after watching Ed Sullivan Show (a popular show on CBS network). Springsteen was one of the many artists who got inspired by Elvis and later turned out to be a musician. Bruce Springsteen has won many Grammys and also won an Academy award/Oscar.
Elvis was ‘Color Blind’ his music did not differentiate Black or White or Red. Everybody loved it. Elvis did not realize his potential; the impact of his music was so immense that it can’t be reversed. White parents had scary nights thinking of their children picking up the music of blacks. And what was scaring the most was Elvis was white.
Tough TimesPoliticians felt the threat of integration. The smash up of Rock ‘n’ Roll started and some of them worth mentioning are Mayor banned Rock ‘n’ Roll, Chuck Berry sentenced two years on Moral Charges, Elvis forced to join Military service and later posted to Germany, Press & Media hated Rock ‘n’ Roll for five long years and TV banned all rock related shows.
Last Few WordsRock ‘n’ Roll - Revolution for the liberation. The social impact of this genre was so powerful that it has leveled and influenced day to day life of the Americans, Europeans, Australians, Asian and other people. India was greatly influenced by this music genre in the late sixties. Ilayaraja, a south based music director was one of the early adopter of this genre.
I like to end this article with one of my favorite quote from the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ “V: Would you... dance with me?Evey Hammond: Now? On the eve of your revolution?V: A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having!”
Last night, my wrecked memory remembered ‘Bill Hicks’ – A Comedian. To refresh my memories I saw couple of his shows in you tube.
Hey Bill, Thank You! You made me laugh all your shows, but you did open my eyes. You are one among few comedians who lived with a philosophy. Long Live Your guts & wits & .
Bill used to end all his shows with the following quotes... The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we kill those people.
Long ago i read about Rachel Corrie's death.. but recently i saw 'occupation 101' A must see documentary. I remembered Rachel again
I’m here for other children. I’m here because I care. I’m here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger. I’m here because those people are mostly children.We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them. We have got to understand that these deaths are preventable. We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us. We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs. We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000. My dream is to give the poor a chance. My dream is to save the 40,000 people who die each day. My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there. If we ignore hunger, that light will go out. If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow.
The following speech is been taken from the last scene in ‘The Great Dictator’, one of the masterpieces by Charles Chaplin, filmed in 1940
Below is the full transcript from the scene:
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an Emperor - that’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible — Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another; human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there’s room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful.
But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.
To those who can hear me I say, “Do not despair.” The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass and dictators die; and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers: Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel; who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate; only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural.
Soldiers: Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written, “the kingdom of God is within man” — not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men, in you, you the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite!! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people!! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise!! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers: In the name of democracy, let us all unite!!!
Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality.
Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up.”
Eight young Italian boys from the mountains outside Florence wrote this passionate and eloquent book. It took them a year. Simple and clearly, with some devastating statistical analysis of the Italian education system, they set out to show the ways in which attitudes towards class, behavior, language and subject-matter militates against the poor. They describe too, the reforms they propose, and the methods they use in their own school - the School of Barbiana, started under the guidance of a parish priest and now run entirely by the children.
This remarkable book was written for the parents of the Italian poor. But it is about poor everywhere: their anger is the anger of every worker and peasant who sees middle-class children absorbed effortlessly into schools as teacher’s favorites.
Letter to a Teacher was a best seller in Italy and has been published subsequently in many languages. The School of Barbiana was awarded the prize of the Italian Physical Society, usually reserved for promising physicists, for the statistical achievement involved in the book.
Image: Don Lorenzo Milani(1923-67), founder of the school of Barbiana.
In 1915, following a plague outbreak Gandhi decided to take his group of over forty souls to a plot of land at Sabarmati, where ‘there was no building … and no tree’ and house them at canvass, he(Gandhi) admitted that ‘the whole conception about the removal was mine, the execution was as usual left to Maganlal.’ – lbid.,p.616
Under Maganlal’s leadership the prickly shrubs, rocks, sand and cacti were removed from the river bank and vegetables and neem trees were planted, and ‘in very short time the barren land became green with vegitables’ – Narayan Desai, The Fire and the Rose[Biography of Mahadevabhai], Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1995, p.85.
Maganlal designed and supervised the construction of all the buildings, he systematized the management of the ashram, introduced discipline and took control of ashram craft work.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the ashram at Sabamati was Maganlal’s creation and that to a large degree he was the ‘soul’ of the ashram.
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