Music 01: Annie Lennox

The music connected/ influenced by the Serpentine Lords of Saturn Rahu Ketu is shadowy mixture of erratic/ sublime at the same time. I find the erratic music of Annie Lennox a perfect depiction of Serpentine qualities. A perfect mixture of BIZZARE and DIVINE! Watch the video: click here:  Love Song For a Vampire. Enjoy...

By-lanes 06: Osians Cinefan Festival, 2012

In By-lanes, I narrate experiences of the Serpentine journey, full of detours, diversions, tangents, and by-lanes. Name inspired by the song By-lanes by friend Lueit Parasar. Check: https://soundcloud.com/adimachine/

 After two long years of  long void, finally this year Osians film fest 2012 was held. As an obssessive fan since 2006, i made a lot of grand plans this year. Of live blogging, daily online critique of films, personal narratives, viewpoints etc. And even editing my shamble of a film 'After Paris' and giving it for the shorts. But with the Serpentine Lords of  Rahu Ketu, its always serpentine deviations from the expected  objective. Thus what took place was far from the objective/ critcal schedule i had planned. Instead a visceral/subjective/ highly personal experience unfolded. With the Serpentine Lords of Saturn Rahu Ketu, it's always almost opposite of what's planned. So here I am in the post orgasmic chill, the  severe hangover of the festival,  mulling over. At the end of a wild, tempestous and brief romance. Chewing the cud that i hastily swallowed. In 10 eventful days. Of  Osians 2012.

The first film I saw was Yeralti (Inside) by Zeki Demirkubuz, from Turkey. Suddenly my childhood friend B*** was before my eyes. The perfect EPITOME of Ketu energies!! He was cerebral, hypersensitive, overzealous, idealistic, sentimental. At odds with the changing mores of kaliyuga. Far from the politically correct metrosexual modern dude. And had bouts of iconoclastic behaviour in the most inappropriate social gatherings. The film seemed to explain his very existence. I called my friend painter Kareem, similarly ruled by Ketu energies, who was vastly similar. Told him, the films was on him. He cursed me but saw it. Liked it.
The next remarkable film I saw was Sentimental Animal by Wu Quan, from China. Few years back, me and my wife had gone for Nadi palm leaf/ past life readings at Qutab enclave, katwaria sarai. My wife Sangeeta's previous life seemed to be in China. and her husband was paralytic. but she took good care of him. the dark, grayish, hypnotic, nebulous, hazy, shades of Sentimental Animal seemed to manifest a past life predeliction in great cinematographic detail. Even the hair detail of the actress was same as my wife. the second time i saw without subtitles. Just the pure cinematic form.
Women on Edge by Masahiro Kobayashi, from Japan, captured the very essence of Hecate. The three witches, the fair maiden, the mother earth, the old crone. Three archetypes captured accurately. We saw it sitting cramped, on the carpet of the crammed Siri 4, audi. Worth every hair tingling frame. The divine, insane, hormonal, disbalance of the Shakti archetype.
Shame, that I saw The Smell of Curry and Rice, by Satoshi Yamaguchi, from Japan almost all alone at Blue frog. Maybe the world of mankind was NOT yet ready to be exposed to its infantile , filial obsession with food/ women/ domestication/ entrapment. Maybe the juvenille male illusion, "she cooks good like mother. she is good" is still there to stay. and hold  womenkind in disguised enslavement. Sadly with me its reversed. my mom was working, maid cooked horrible. So filialy, mother, women and good food are very different things for me. So i thoroughly enjoyed the sarcasm of this film.!!
Stateless Things by Kim Kyung Mook, from South Korea was one of the darkest movies i saw on migration, urban struggle, displacement. Unimaginably horrifying, cathartic, morbid, it expressed some of my own struggle/ displacement in Delhi. but in a far more acute and horrifying imagery. With Ketu, you see it, its negated. Neccesary, vaccination/ cathartic purgation to survive in this urban jungle. I came to this festival to understand. Not enjoy.
The Road by Yam Laranas, from Phillipines was one of the most brilliantly crafted horror contemporary movies. Its Shutter/Ring/ Grudge/ Curse/ Black water rolled into one. But MUCH More. I actually had to take out my asthalin spray in the vastly spacious, crowded siri Fort 1. Horror on ,many levels. Unlimited layers till the last frame!!! I wanted to congratulate Yam Laranas, but he was overcrowded with extra brilliant people giving him suggestions. First, make a 1/ 105th horror film like him, guys. Then comment.

I'm tired now. So many more. but these were the visceral best. in my personal, subjective, visceral, nightmarish, subterranean experience in Osians Cinefan, 20102. I think the Turtle, the symbol of the Osians Award was perfectly (signifying the amphibious, underwater, Kurma avatar, the subterranean realms this years Osians Cinefan Festival brought to us. From the mainstream highway of commercial fare, a subterranean, Serpentine by-lane into another realm.. worth every visceral moment..

By-lanes 05: Chalihas farmhouse at Khetri

In By-lanes, I narrate experiences of the Serpentine journey, full of detours, diversions, tangents, and by-lanes. Name inspired by the song By-lanes by friend Lueit Parasar. Check: https://soundcloud.com/adimachine/

  

On 6th May, I went to my family friends, the Chalihas farmhouse at Tuloni, Khetri, outskirts of Guwahahti. For the past months, Mon (Angshumon Chaliha), had been giving me descriptions about farm life over the phone. From the urban frying pan of Delhi, his stories seemed a planet away. So finally I landed up on Sunday evening. Budh Purnima.

The farmhouse was on top of a hill. Below, around it were many ponds. Many of them seeding with prawns. Each prawn the size of a grain of rice. Millions of them. Evening, the moon rose behind the forest hills. An orange moon. Gradually become yellower with ascent. The ponds gleaming under lunar light. Mon's father Biswa Bijay Chaliha, had given up urban congestion of Guwahati in 2006. To begin his life in paradise. Like the character Strickland in The Moon and Sixpence. (Somerset Maugham's novel on the life of artist Paul Gauguin). Far From The Madd(en)ing Crowd. 

I went into the kitchen. Above the earthen stove, on a bamboo tray, a heap of dried fish. Salivating  I began munching.  Salty, raw, primitive. Suddenly I was transported. To the age of prehistoric reptiles. My niece Angel stared. I gave her a piece and she began munching. After all… my niece. Evening, my family left. Mesmerized by the sound of billion crickets, I stayed behind. Later, Mon and I went down to the staff quarters . In a corner of the hilly slopes. We drowned in Rohi, fermented rice beer. Later sloshed, we went down to the ponds. To feed the million starving baby prawns. The dried mud was glowing like phosphorous. We lay flat on a patch of grass. A billion stars above us. 
Far from the bustle,  the maddening crowds, the shady haven, a heavenly haunt, a Serpentine by-lane into a havenly lair...my gratitude!

By-lanes 04: Secret Haven of Opu Saikia..

In By-lanes, I narrate experiences of the Serpentine journey, full of detours, diversions, tangents, and by-lanes. Name inspired by the song By-lanes by friend Lueit Parasar. Check: https://soundcloud.com/adimachine/

 4th May, 2012, I went to family friend Opu Saikia's place at Sundarnagar, Guwahati. He took me to his  private video room. A secret haven, frozen in time. Every square inch covered with posters. Every wall, corner, door, and even ceiling. Thousands of screen goddesses, temptresses, crushes, and 80's wildfire foxes. A Private Rahu lair of ancient desires. Was I really that adolescent goat dreaming of that siren/fox??
Opu being a avid film buff, collects wildest movies across genres and times. He picks out a film from his vast film archives. Especially for me. And suddenly in the secret haven of his video room, I'm transported to another world. Of  mongols warriors, abandoned aliens, and love affairs across time. From the burning fire of the solar blaze outside.. the shady havens, by-lanes of the Serpentine Lords.....

By-lanes 03: Insight into Mayan Astrology..

In By-lanes, I narrate experiences of the Serpentine journey, full of detours, diversions, tangents, and by-lanes. Name inspired by the song By-lanes by friend Lueit Parasar. Check: https://soundcloud.com/adimachine/
 
I came to my friend Lueit's office. Being Ketu influenced he suddenly comes with these flashes of inspiration, and raptures. Suddenly, and sponatneously, like Ketu energies, he began talking about Mayan calendar, Dec 2012, galactic center alignment, Gamma rays, etc. Ketu energies is like Sun, Mars, LEADS with sudden flashes of insight. And Rahu energies is like Saturn, Venus, FOLLOWS/ RESPONDS , albeit lazily. In a serpentine, meandering path. In true Rahu style, I began randomly browsing on the net. And chanting Ketu mantras for some insight. Suddenly, I found this awesome link on Mayan astrology. : link: (free_mayan_readings).  Using the online Dreamspell Calculator, I found my being/ self: Red Earth.(click Link). Reading the Mayan Terminology of my own character "Tone 8: Harmonic Resonance", had me zapped, cos its one DEFINITIVE aspect of Lord Rahu, my ruling Lord. In fact the Mayan Term: Harmonic Resonance is a perfect Rahu quality!! Different civilizations, different nomenclature. But the same heavenly beings. Call it Serpentine Lords Saturn Rahu Ketu or Chtulhu, Dragon, Quetzlcoatl whatever..!!! Universal recognition of Serpentine energies in ALL CULTURES!!

By-lanes 02: Snail Trails....

In By-lanes, I narrate experiences of the Serpentine journey, full of detours, diversions, tangents, and by-lanes. Name inspired by the song By-lanes by friend Lueit Parasar. Check: https://soundcloud.com/adimachine/
 
9th Jan, 2012, 12:45 am, late night, Guwahati. We reached 7th Jan, afternoon and were immersed in diagnostic process of father in laws urinary tract carcinoma. Wife Sangeetas place was super full with her whole family reunion gathering. I was clamouring for a breath of respite. My friend Baba picked me up and we went to lokhra for his car servicing. While coming to Adil's place we were walking down the Bhetapara shortcut/ matahauri/ levee. Where I and cousin Bhaiti used to take our late, late, morning walks in 2003.

It was a awesome, serpentine by-lane, with strange, wild foliage, bogs, strange trees, isolated temples. The rivulet/ canal was always jammed with corpses of abandoned dogs, cows, buffalo. Because of running water, the bodies were preserved like atrophied mummies that looked like plastic inflatable dolls. Today I again saw a cow corpse floating and preserved in flowing, water like some swamp in prehistoric Africa. It was an uncanny moment, for a sunday morning. I was flooded with memories of  demonic morning walks of  2003 with Bhaiti. I was crossing a narrow Serpentine trail, yet overlooked by progress,  frozen in time. A tract which was frozen, mummified despite the vicariously changing urbanscape. A fragment of a tract, frozen in time.....

Later Baba, adil, Aftab I went to Ethnic Food festival in Maniram Dewan Centre. Since forever had i craved to taste exotic dishes of the neighbouring states. But had always found my options completely blocked. But today, in the 3rd post itself, I found release/ relief. Suddenly, all desired exotic dishes  gathered under one roof. The Bodo stall was offering snails. Snails cooked in tribal style, tasted unimaginably exotic. Raw, reptilian, primitive. An ancient taste, the hallmark of Lord Rahu. Suddenly I was chemically transported to forgotten, primeval lands of far ago. Palates forgotten to the human taste buds. Ancient forgotten chemical memories. The essence of the Serpentine flavours..

By-lanes 01: mah song Deep Blue Sea

In By-lanes, I narrate experiences of the Serpentine journey, full of detours, diversions,tangents, and by-lanes. Name inspired by the song By-lanes by friend Lueit Parasar. Check: https://soundcloud.com/adimachine/

Since 2005 I had completely given up creating music. Earlier it was a full fledged profession for me, composing music for TV, documentaries, arranging songs etc. But from 2005, (when the ice age of my life commenced) after returning into interiors/ architecture, marriage, shifting to Delhi etc, my music career had completely died. Since then I had often tried spasmodically to re start the creative process, but technology had move too far ahead. The entire process of creating music had changed. Whereas I used to work on the Trinity sequencer, saving data on the floppy drive!!, the new world had got VST, PC platform, MIDI/ Usb keyboards etc. My Korg Trinity had become completely redundant and I had become completely obsolete. So when friend Sudip from srfti, called me to collaborate on a song he was making, I was considerably delighted. There were lot of technological obstructions (read that as Karmic blocks) that we faced. Though, Sudip was well versed with recording methods and softwares, he was compltetely unfamiliar with the Triton advanced keyboard he had at his disposal. And for me it was vice versa. The flash memory card of the Triton was missing. There was no way we could even save a song I had sequenced. I was completely handicapped without the sequencer. Despite so many blocks, I somehow recorded few tracks live to his composed song Naina Morey. Sudip sent across the basic track to his friend director who appreciated it. At least all the haphazard efforts had proved frutiful.

Creation of my first proper song: DEEP BLUE SEA
Yesterday, 16 Dec, Friday, Sudip came over late afternoon. Last few days I was down with fever, cold and yesterday I just went out to break the monotony. I sat on Sudip's Triton and tried to figure out ways to save data, frutilessly. Then just a exercise, began composing layers of the sequencer. one thing led to the other and suddenly I had a full fledged short song happening. I mixed tracks internally and dumped all of it unmixed from the keyboard. Hastily, I wrote few words and began.. singing (for the 2nd time ever). Soon Sudip plugged in some flanger and reverb and lo, we had a song Deep Blue Sea on our hands. Almost a decade of working on music, and this was the first time ever, i came up with a proper song. All songs prior to this were forced exercises without meaning or intent. Half created shambles of incompleteness and incoherence. An earlier song Nowgong Town created in 2004 had been worked upon for next 1.5 years, incompletely!!  But Deep Blue Sea was not planned, objectively, but a random trial, which ended up a complete song  in three hours flat! A random by-lane, which led to the lyrics dedicated to Lord Varuna, who rules the Deep Blue Sea  within our hearts.  leading us relief from this harsh, karmic world! For years my friends had asked me to make them hear my "song", my story. Henceforth, if i never get to create anything ever, at least I created one song on Lord Varuna, the prime deity connected to Serpentine Rahu and Shanidev...

Click link to hear song;  Deep Blue Sea on soundcloud