At The Edge

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket." -George Orwell  It is the History Channel Ad campaign for its "Gods of Music" Series. The Ad has wonderful visuals. I saw two of the Ads of History Channel. One had John Lennon dressed as The Buddha. But, I think it’s this  one that takes the cake, we see Carlos Santana as a Hindu god. The hue Santana’s face is blue and in his neck, we find the garland usually seen around Lord Rama’s poster, we can also see peacock feathers that would mean Lord Krishna. The idea for the image may have come from the cover of Santana’s Shaman Album. But, this time they have really made him into a true Hindu god. The History Channel Site for India has a little flash clip based on the Series.

The land is parched. Dry wind blows.Their throat as dry as the village well, they look to the cloudless sky and sing. “Allah Megh de pani de …”           O God Give us cloud Give us water The sequence is from 1970s Hindi movie, Palkon Ki Chaon Mein . The song by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle is a classic. When i was a kid, i could not tell whether that song was a sad or a happy song. It’s meant to be sad but it almost sounds like magical chanting, almost hypnotic begging for rain through prayer. Various movies had the same lines as the song - “ Allah Megh de..” . Dev Anand’s Guide had those lines, even Bappi Lahari used it for the film Amaanat (1994), a forgettable movie from 1990s with forgetful songs. So What’s the origin of this wonderful song? All these songs are the illegitimate children of a Bengali folk song. The song attributed to Bangladeshi vocalist Abbas Uddin Ahmed , is rooted in traditions of  Muslim peasantry of Bengal. Allah megh de pani de chhaya de

WHAT THE THUNDER SAID AFTER the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying Prison and place and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience Here is no water but only rock Rock and no water and the sandy road The road winding above among the mountains Which are mountains of rock without water If there were water we should stop and drink Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand If there were only water amongst the rock Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit There is not even silence in the mountains But dry sterile thunder without rain There is not even solitude in the mountains But red sullen faces sneer and snarl From doors of mudcracked houses If there were water And no rock