हार्ड रॉक कॅफे (२)

शाळेत असताना जास्त करून पॉप साउंडच ऐकायचो. अ‍ॅबा, बोनी एम, ब्रायन अ‍ॅडम्स वगैरेंपासून बॉयझोन, बॅकस्ट्रीट बॉयज, स्पाइस गर्ल्स हे मुलींचे(च) बॅन्ड्सपर्यंत ऐकणे असायचे. नथिंग्स गॉन्ना चेंज माय लव्ह फॉर यू, कर्मा कमिलिअन वगैरे गाणी भारी वाटण्याचेही दिवस असतात. असेच एकदा 'नथिंग गॉन्ना स्टॉप अस नाउ’ ऐकत मान डोलावत वगैरे असताना मामा तिथे आला. मी काय ऐकतोय हे पाहून तो म्हणाला, "अरे अजून तू याच स्टेशनावर का?" मी म्हणालो, "ठिक आहे, तुझे स्टेशन सांग." त्यावर तो उत्तरला, "तू आता जे काय ऐकतो आहेस त्याला जवळ जाणारे एक गाणे सांगतो. म्हणजे ऐकताना तुला फार शॉक वगैरे बसणार नाही." त्याने नाव सांगितले 'ब्रिज ओव्हर ट्रबल्ड वॉटर'. बॅन्डचे नाव 'सायमन अँड गार्फंकेल'. मी हे नाव कधीच ऐकले नव्हते. त्यांची गाणी ऐकणे तर दूरच राहिले. तेव्हा नेट वगैरे काही नसल्याने पाहिजे ती गाणी मिळवणे सोपे नव्हते (त्यात मी नूमविचा, मित्रसुद्धा माझ्यासारखेच.) मग काही दिवसांनी तो परत घरी आला असताना त्याने वॉकमनवर ते गाणे ऐकवले आणि त्याचे म्हणणे खोटे ठरले. मला शॉक बसला. हा साउंडच माझ्यासाठी नवीन होता. इंग्लिश गाणी अशीही असतात? माझी आणि सायमन-गार्फंकेलशी ओळख अशी झाली.

लोकसंगीताचा वारसा घेऊन आलेल्या बहुतेक बॅन्ड्समध्ये एक rawness जाणवतो. तो लोकसंगीताचा अंगचा गुण असतो. परंतु हा वारसा घेऊन आलेल्या सायमन-गारफंकेलच्या गाण्यांत मात्र सफ़ाई होती. दिमाख नव्हता, पण चमक होती. असा तोल त्यांनी साधला होता. पॉल सायमन हा आतापर्यंतच्या सर्वोत्कृष्ट गीतकारांपैकी मानला जातो. त्याला गीतकारी जमली होती. त्याला आर्ट गार्फंकेलची मस्त सुरीली साथ मिळाली. 'साउंड ऑफ सायलेन्स' हे फोकरॉकचे राष्ट्रगीत आहे. हे एक protest song आहे. सायमनने हे गाणे केनेडींची हत्या झाल्यानंतरच्या काळात लिहिले. खुद्द सायमनचे म्हणणे - "A societal view of the lack of communication." कुठलेही खरे मानले तरी गाणे अतिमहानच. पण प्रोटेस्ट सॉन्ग घ्यायचे झाले तर मी ’आय ऍम अ रॉक’ निवडेन. ब्रिज ओव्हर ट्रबल्ड वॉटर हे रॉक म्हणता येईल का नाही, यावर वाद होतात, but what the heck! मला आवडते! शेवटी एका गाण्याचा उल्लेख झालाच पाहिजे - 'मिसेस रॉबिन्सन'. द ग्रॅज्युएट (वयाच्या १६-१७व्या वर्षीच पहावा असा चित्रपट ;-) ) या चित्रपटातले प्रचंड गाजलेले गाणे.

ते अजूनही कधीतरी कार्यक्रम करतात. आता त्यांची जुनाट गाणी कोण ऐकत असेल असे वाटते का? २००४ साली रोमच्या कलोसियममध्ये झालेल्या त्यांच्या कार्यक्रमाला ६,००,००० लोक उपस्थित होते.

Solution-Problem

Recently a friend of mine posted the following data on his facebook wall -

Engineering institutions' count :

J & K + Punjab +Haryana + HP + Rajsthan + Uttaranchal + UP + Bihar + MP = 1748

Maharashtra = 739

That would explain the immigration to MH a bit more.
Gujarat virtually has no engineering institutes. Northern folks can't survive with their Hindi chauvinist imperialism in Southern India. Because Southerners would kick ass if they try that there. So MH takes the load on itself. North East and Central East India collectively have hardly around 200 engineering colleges. Discuss!!
ps- the data is taken off wiki in most parts. some numbers might be a bit, tiny bit different.

Interesting! Actually, this analysis has long been accepted in our circles. The north never had many engineering colleges in the first place, let alone 'decent' institutes. MH and south had many decent institutions, both govt-funded and private. Decent implies that graduates would have some viable job opportunities. Now, MH and south both have been industrially better-developed as compared to the north. That obviously led to better job opportunities. Just count the number of engg colleges in MH that are at least 40 years old. (I have always perceived from my experiences that there's some fundamental difference in the educational environment across the Vindhya range. But this may be completely a subjective observation highly tinged with my biases.)

But here's the downside. Due to availability of local, decent institutions, MH students to a large extent were never interested in going to colleges like IITs or the regional engineering colleges or BITS. There was hardly any motivation for a marathi middle class student to aspire for these colleges. The worst effect of the availability of resources is that a complacency sets in. This is what my father likes to call 'problem of plenty'. We see that now all around us.

When we slam MNS policies claiming, rightfully of course, that every indian has the right to migrate anywhere in india, we conveniently forget the responsibility of local government. Isn't it a top responsibility of the local government to provide opportunities to lead a good life to the citizens? It is highly one-sided to blame parties like MNS. The northen governments just shirk from their responsibility by doing so. A case in study would be the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. They stepped in, they created opportunities and we already have reports of a reduction in bihari migration.

I am slowly getting more and more in favour of local governments i.e. local governments led by regional parties. The future is going to redefine our 'traditional identities'. We will not be perceived based on our religion or caste, but we will be grouped on the basis of the common problems we share - water is going to be the first! These problems may be global in nature, but the solutions must be tailored to suit the local populace. In fact, this is not a case of 'what must be done', this is a case of what will be 'demanded by' the locals. Global problems with highly local solutions, that's glocalisation for you. We will be most interested to know whether the next person is having the same problem and where that person stands on that problem. Fursungi citizens (a small town near Pune, where Pune Municipal Corporation dumps its garbage) unite against Pune citizens and fight the garbage dumping. MH disagrees with Karnataka re allocation of water from a dam. May be that's also been there in the past, but the current severity of the problems is unprecedented and it's only going to increase. Who says we have to forget our differences and unite? We better keep the differences, but we are going to have to reshape our differences. Even if a so-called national party comes into power, they will be pressured into adopting policies and strategies which will be increasingly localised.

This leads to yet another thought, which is comforting and debilitating at the same time. Judging from many reports, it seems probable that water is going to the problem of the 21st century. On one hand we are going to have a lot of it in our oceans and on the other hand we may have it less on the land. While there are many reasons and factors behind this issue and while the issue is certainly scarily close to our daily life, there might yet be an upside to it. One of the consequences of this problem is going to be a solution for yet another problem viz. our petty differences based on caste, creed, religion, race and so on and so forth. Yes, there is a vast majority that thinks these are not petty differences but rather very important issues, the intricacy of the water-problem is going to make everything else look ridiculously petty. Water is going to be the ultimate duel-edged sword, the ultimate disguise an opportunity would ever don, a problem that will offer a sweeping solution to most of the other problems. The common enemy will unite us and so we shall finally have the ability to seek the correct (i.e. the worst) issue. It's just unfortunate that we had to create the enemy to achieve this ability. 

I remain

When they asked me
asked me
to do a dance do a dance
dance did I on the floor
with hope in my steps
with wish in my trance

Soon they will blame me
blame me
for making the floor wild
I am mother of free men
I remain daughter of my child