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a blast from the past - jethro tull




 

So,
a blast from the past as my friend writes to me.
jethro tull
- the lyrics of Ian Anderson to be specific.

I loved this song
since way backwhen -
when (in kolkata) it was considered to be too uncool to even listen to this band.

but Mr Anderson himself explains:
Ian Anderson - jethro tull
this song was to illustrate how a style of music may go out of popularity
like with every other fashion and fade and then
everything comes back around
and the style rises
again…

being uncool -
is the story of my life - all my life
and words comes around as a reminder

 

“Too Old To Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young To Die”

The old Rocker wore his hair too long,
wore his trouser cuffs too tight.
Unfashionable to the end     drank his ale too light.
Death’s head belt buckle     yesterday’s dreams
the transport caf’ prophet of doom.
Ringing no change in his double-sewn seams
in his post-war-babe gloom.

Now he’s too old to Rock’n'Roll and he’s too young to die.

He once owned a Harley Davidson and a Triumph Bonneville.
Counted his friends in burned-out spark plugs
and prays that he always will.
But he’s the last of the blue blood greaser boys
all of his mates are doing time:
married with three kids up by the ring road
sold their souls straight down the line.
And some of them own little sports cars
and meet at the tennis club do’s.
For drinks on a Sunday     work on Monday.
They’ve thrown away their blue suede shoes.

Now they’re too old to Rock’n'Roll and they’re too young to die.

So the old Rocker gets out his bike
to make a ton before he takes his leave.
Up on the A1 by Scotch Corner
just like it used to be.
And as he flies     tears in his eyes
his wind-whipped words echo the final take
and he hits the trunk road doing around 120
with no room left to brake.

And he was too old to Rock’n'Roll and he was too young to die.
No, you’re never too old to Rock’n'Roll if you’re too young to die.

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… at last! or is it? …




 

2008 AD

the United States of America has elected a black president - their first ever black president.
It is an event I did not expect to see in my lifetime.

I am in disbelief.
Why?

There has been many notable first blacks in the country’s sad and often unpleasant history.

On a day when history is about to be re-written,
I can only think of
one person - Elizabeth Eckford
one school - Little Rock Central High School
and the one event - Little Rock Nine
that never failed to leave me in speechless anger,
everytime I remember
and for as long as I can remember.

 

Little Rock Nine

1957 AD
Nine students who had been chosen to attend Central High because of their excellent grades.
They were nine black students.
Central High was a racially segregated school.

September 4:
Segregationist “citizens’ councils” threatened to hold protests and physically block the black students from entering the school. The Governor Orval Faubus had deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists.

On that first day of school, only one of the nine students - Elizabeth Eckford
showed up because she did not receive the phone call about the danger of going to school.


Elizabeth Eckford is depicted in this photograph taken by Will Counts in 1957

She was harassed by White Americans outside the school, and the police had to take her away in a patrol car to protect her.

September 24:
President Dwight Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne to escort nine students to school.

153rd Infantry, a Task Force had to hastily organized taking over the entire operation when the paratroopers left and remained on duty until the end of the school year.

 

October 3:
Georgia Dortch and Jane Emery,
editors of Central High’s student newspaper The Tiger, editorialize:

“Looking back on this year will probably be with regret that integration could not have been accomplished peacefully, without incident, without publicity.” The editors encourage “each individual to maintain a sensible, peaceful neutrality; to accept the situation without demonstration, no matter what personal views are entertained; and to make these, your years in Little Rock Central High School, the happiest and most fruitful of your academic education.”

How long will it take to finally erase all these memories?

How long does it take to right the wrongs?
Fifty years, it seems, hasn’t been long enough.

The Legacy of Little Rock

Juan Williams Thursday, Sep. 20, 2007

The 50th anniversary of the Little Rock school crisis is a powerful lesson in the complicated calculus of social change.

Earlier this year the U.S. Mint issued a silver dollar commemorating the event, and throughout the anniversary’s week there will be other observations marking this turning point in U.S. history. But the joy will be somewhat muted, for American schools are still nearly as segregated as they were 50 years ago.

Fifty years after U.S. troops had to escort nine black children to school in Little Rock, the issue is still how to take race out of the equation when it comes to educating every American child.

The students had written the editorial fifty years ago.
The observation in the Time US was made only a year ago - fifty years hence.

Equality is not confirmed overnight by the election of a president,
it will come only on the day every American child is truly considered as equals.

Its over to each one of you,
each american citizen …

 

 

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still searching for a ‘chandmama’




 

the moon was my ‘chandmama’
my ma sang me so,
chand ~ moon
mama ~ ma’s brother

on nights when the moon was silvery bright,
she would sing to chandmama to come and put a ‘teep’ on my forehead.
teep ~ a bindi,
children, traditionally, would have a ‘kajol’ teep put on foreheads,
kajol ~ kohl based
to keep the evil away.

when I was a little older,
I learnt of the old woman on the moon
who never stopped working on her spinning wheel
all I had to do was to get the right tilt of my head, and there she used to be

with one small step of (a) man,
all folklores I grew up with were shattered
overnight the moon became a barren piece of rock,
a giant nightlamp, helpless, trapped into a spin eternal around earth

 

many moons have gone by since

 

the myths broken
the old woman long forgotten,
except on cloudless moonlit nights, when I can almost hear my ma’s voice

I read India too is joining in the giant leap of mankind


but will they be looking for our ‘chandmama’,
forever preparing ‘kajol teeps’
for little children?

 

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