Speaker Sauce - 1

Listening to songs all the time makes you wanna listen to newer songs. So my collection keeps expanding every now and then. And every time it makes a considerable growth I thought maybe I shall post a few tunes out here.


This is the first in the series. It is a very personal list of music. You can always suggest, but let's not criticise.


Sauce #1
Kode9 and the Spaceapes - 9 Samurai

A minimal dubstep-ish track. It doesn't have all the commercial wobble and filth that dubsteps has come to be associated with. What it does have is a very haunting vocal and a trumpet (horn? correct if I am wrong) bit that's sweet ear candy. Oops I am salivating.




Sauce #2
Justice - Helix

In the whole list, this would probably be the most personal selection. I've loved Justice. And the new album's just come out. It's the same 80s-synth-with-a-solid-bassline sound. But this particular track is very headbop-worthy. Don't you think so? Was that a nod?




Sauce #3
The Glitch Mob - We Can Make the World Stop

The Glitch Mob has to be like the find of the month for me. Their glitchy, boppy sound is gives a brilliant rush of adrenaline. And their tracks have enough variations in it to make it a very engaging listen.


(Thanks to GoPro HD Hero 2's video for introducing me to The Glitch Mob)




Sauce #4
The Dewarists (feat. Shri, Monica Dogra, Rajasthan Roots) - Changing Worlds

The Dewarists has been a breath of fresh air in Indian television. I don't think any original Indian TV show after Surabhi has been so entertaining and enlightening at the same time. This is the kinda show the current crop of kids can feel nostalgic about when they grow up.


About the song I have chosen from The Dewarists, I think this best represents a collaboration. Shri hasn't done anything with such vivacious vocals that Monica Dogra offers. Rajasthan Roots haven't done a DnB track. And Monica, well she's very func-ish. My personal favourite song though is Vishal + Imogen Heap's Minds Without Fear. And my favourite episode is the one with Zeb + Haniya + Shantanu + Swanand.




Sauce #5
Sigur Ros - Lúppulagið

After all the electronic tracks, this one's a bit sleepy. And it never fails to move me. If I am not wrong, this is the only unreleased track from their new live performance film Inni. The Sigur Ros page on facebook has the opening 10 mins of Inni.




Just as Saucy:
Raghu Dixit - The Dewarists Theme

Amidst such stellar names collaborating and producing marvellous tune, this piece of gem from Raghu Dixit holds the whole show together. And majestically at that.

Idle

Is there a place
So far away
Where neither a gaze
Nor thoughts come to play.


Where the wind blows
To its own fancy
And the world moves
Like it is no one's to see.


Is there a place
Where I can go to
To find solace
With nay a thing to do.

Our schools are a whopping success!

And that's not just our schools. But all schools. It inculcates in us the constant craving for reaching heights that they have set. Of going against odds to succeed in tests that they deliver. But above everything, it has succeeded in breeding this fear of failure. The embarrassment of not achieving. To strive to reach a level from where you can look down at heads hung in shame at their inabilities.


Failure has become a nightmare. And it all dawned with a simple craving to learn how to skateboard. The skateboard's here. There's a decently cemented path outside the house. Shoes, check. Unfortunately no safety gear. But a bruise or two is ok. What is not ok is that I cannot afford to fall. Oh the humiliation of falling on your ass when you try learning something that doesn't come easy to anyone at all. Whoever taught you to ride a cycle that's got just two wheels.


That was your Dad. Thankfully he is a good teacher. He doesn't grade you with a D- that gets worse every time you fall. Imagine an F from your Dad for not cycling properly. 


Schools on the other hand are not so benevolent. You make a mistake and you are gonna carry that burden through your life. Meticulously recorded into scriptures that you will have to show the world and get their witness certificate from. 


Here, Dad. I failed. Hope it makes you feel nice. It sure doesn't make me feel nice having failed. I feel worse that I have to show you the record of my failure. And to get your name on it, in a way taking responsibility for it (your son after all?) -- hand me a nice long knife instead.


By the end of it, you have sleepless nights. You are unnaturally tense going through badly printed (and awfully written) textbooks that are supposed to make you a winner. A winner of what?


If there is one thing famous people have taught you, it is that they were pretty awful at winning in all the regular stuff. When you think about it, it makes an awful lot of sense. Schools and other educational forms are so designed so you do well in existing fields. But those who become famous, rarely does so in fields that are already established. Changing the world starts with discontent towards the existing.


So what needs to go? 


Grading must go. It hasn't served anyone. In the end we are all herded into a collective. The 10th standard topper is as lost as the 12th standard gold medal holder or the 7th ranked nobody.


And what should come in?


Passionate teachers and an open-minded view of what can be called talent. These two cannot exist without each other. Passionate teachers are the ones who will know that in front of you are kids who are growing up. That they all have eyes dreaming of a future where they are happy doing whatever. It is up to them to make sure that they grow to realise whatever their dreams might be. To spot what they have a knack of doing. Or just to help them along the way. The success of this will probably far outweigh the failures of the current system.


I agree the cold realities of the world will strike them at some point. But it is nothing that cannot be dealt with. Think about it, you are dealing with them right now. Did your schooling help in any way?