Luka and the Fire of Life

Release Date – November 16/2010 CANT WAIT!!!!

Info about the book can be found here

Bombay or in politically correct terms : Mumbai

Ive been wanting to write  about my India trip ever since I got back  but the thought of it being too personal has scared me a little. Maybe I will post some pictures at a later date but in the meantime I would like to say this.

I read quite a bit of Rushdie when I was in India.  I read his most recent “The Enchantress of Florence” which was decent at best. I also read some of “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” which still has me interested. However it was “Imaginary Homelands” which is a  set of essays and criticisms that resonated with me the most. Specifically two excerpts from his essay “Imaginary Homelands”  which attempts to capture my thoughts and feeling about my time in India.

“….our physical alienation from India almost inevitabley means that we will not be capable of reclaiming precisely the thing that was lost ; that we will, in short create fictions, not actual cities or villages but invisible ones, imaginary homelands, Indias of the mind.”   —- Salman Rushdie “Imaginary Homelands”.

“The Shards of memory acquired greater status, greater resonance, because they were remains ; fragmentation made trivial things seem like symbols. and the mundane acquired numinous qualities” —— SR “Imaginary Homelands”.

Perhaps I am not destined to catch Caribou perform live.  Ive missed him twice in two years although the first time wasn’t really my fault perse.  When he came during the “Andorra” tour, I wasn’t familiar with his music. I remember going to the “Black Mountain” gig and seeing the poster for the Caribou concert. I didnt think much of it since I didnt even know who he was.  Couple of months later, after having listened  to what I would describe as a perfect discography, I was angry at myself for not having discovered him earlier because I would have definitely attended that first show back when Andorra was released.  Every time I would  watch one his youtube clips online or listen to his music, I would imagine how great it would be to experience his music live. I told myself that I wouldn’t miss him live next time. Flash forward to April 2010 when I was planning my India trip.  I knew I wanted to go to India for at-least two months (May and June) since I was going there after eight long  years ( I ended up staying there for three months ). Unfortunately the Caribou gig took place while I was India.

Now there are several things I missed while I was in India : my mom, my sister, my records,  the excitement of new music leaks etc etc but if there was one thing that I truly regret is missing that Caribou concert. I comfort myself with this clip and a hope that I can catch his show next time.

The holy trinity of Bollywood is involved in this :

Director – Mani Ratnam

Music – A R Rahman

Lyrics – Gulzar

Enough said. The music is already blowing my mind.

This is amazing. I wish I could play the piano. Check out his other piano covers as well.

“Fangs” is from his last album called “The Viodist”. The whole album sounds like a long lost album from the 70′s. So obviously its not the most original album out there but it sounds really good.

check out this myspace -http://www.myspace.com/imaadw