Ok, here are a couple of things I love:

1. Great food (with the taste buds I have, almost all cuisine –except for seafood–is classified as great food in my book)

2. Great music (especially Persian and Indian)

3. Great ambiance (sth cozy, exotic, and soothing)

So put all 3 together and you have the restaurant I went to last night…and the bonus part is that the music was live…yep 4 musicians..and the take requests…I requested 1 song (zengi ek safar) and my mom 3 songs (an AMir Khan and Kaloj song from the film Fanaa; a song from the film Darkaan, and a sonu Nigaam song)…oh and the male singer sounds a bit like Kishor Kumar

Here are some pics and videos of Rangoli at Radisson Sas (they don’t have a website   )

PS. plz excuse the quality of the pics and video, they were taken with my mobile

Rangoli's Menu

First page of the menu

The musicians at work

The restaurant is build around the base of this dhow. The Dhow itself is another restaurant

Musicians getting ready

That butterfly was not edible

The entrance

The dessert

PS. I’ll upload the videos soon

My energy level is low…very low these days…except when I am at work…my new job has given me the passion I had long lost in the masquerade parties of my old work place…but since this universe never lets things be balanced, my personal life has lopsided…I don’t enjoy any one’s company anymore…anyone currently in my life…a minute chat with total strangers gives me more energy than a single exchange of words with my so-called friends…they haven’t done anything…it is I who have changed…

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You know how sometimes a song starts playing on your ipod that you have heard a billion times in the past 20 years but have never actually ‘listen’ to it…that’s what happened last night…I ‘listened’ to Whitney Houston’s song “Saving all my love for you’ for the first time and it just dawned on me that she is the other woman in this song!!! How come I had never paid attention to the lyrics before?

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Talking of Whitney Houston, I think her song “Greatest love of all” is gravely underrated…it’s the perfect song…the words should be taught in school…grade one…as the book of life…our manual…yeah the greatest love of all is learning to love yourself?…. Or is it?…what does loving yourself really mean anyway? …A while ago I was thinking whether there’s any truth behind this quote: “If you are afraid of being lonely, don’t try to be right.”…Almost every single person told me yep it’s right…but doesn’t it mean that you would have to give up your dignity for the sake of not being right?…

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THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL

WHITNEY HOUSTON

I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
Everybody searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone who fulfill my needs
A lonely place to be
So I learned to depend on me

Chorus:
I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone’s shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I’ll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can’t take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be

Chorus

And if by chance, that special place
That you’ve been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in love

Posted in Awakenings, Clipped from the net, Family or Friends, God, I thunk about this today, Inner peace, Me, myself and moi, Song Tagged: beliefs, change, God, illusion, Love, quote, Rants, Thoughts, Work ]]> http://mymagicaldroplets.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/greatest-love-of-all/feed/ 8 Darya http://mymagicaldroplets.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/windmills-of-my-mind/ http://mymagicaldroplets.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/windmills-of-my-mind/#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:25:39 +0000 Darya http://mymagicaldroplets.wordpress.com/?p=387 ]]>

Never ending circles

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Wrote this at wee hour of a Thursday morning after listening to “Windmills of your Mind” over and over again. I first heard this song in music class in grade 2 or 3. The melody was stuck somewhere at the back of my ‘windmills’ for many years. I ‘found’ the song 2 years ago on one the blogs but didn’t quite get it till this morning. Finally the lyrics clicked; now that my mind is entangled in the same whirlpool

The original version of the song and in my opinion the best version

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Dusty Springfield’s version is the best female version of it.

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Lyrics

The Windmills Of Your Mind

(from “The Thomas Crown Affair”)

Music by Michel Legrand
Lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on its face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream.

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on its face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that you said
Lovers walking along the shore,
Leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And a fragment of a song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong

When you knew that it was over
In the autumn of goodbyes
For a moment
You could not recall the color of his eyes

[if a man is singing, this part would be:]

When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair?

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circle that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Now this is weird…just 2 days ago i was thinking that Matt hasn’t released a new video in a long time and today I log onto YouTube and one of the recommended videos is….his new video

Oh…his first video was one reason that inspired me to resign and travel…so i guess i owe him one..thank you Matt for the inspiration.

ENJOY THE VIDEO

Oh and the only time i have seen Matt change his dance slightly is in this video when he is in India

And if you haven’t seen his previous videos: (the 2006 one is my fav–love the music too)

2006

The original one 2003

More info on Matt and his trips:

1. FAQ on his site

2. His lectures on why and how he made the videos:

part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I can’t sleep again ….and yes once again I created another masterpiece…this time it’s a video of the pix I took in Abyaneh.

Oh, once I get off my lazy ass, I’ll write a proper post about Abyaneh and it’s mesmerizing cultural/historical attractions. But to be honest with you, I have lost the book and the CD I bought over there with all the info!!!

So until my Angel of Lost and Found Items places them in my lap, please accept the video and this brief info for the time being:

Abyaneh has been nicknamed a living architectural and anthropological museum.

It is famous for its highly intellectual and educated people, their deep commitment to their traditional customs and attire, and the fact that they still speak Parthian Pahlavi amongst themselves. Parthian Pahlavi was a language spoken in NE Iran from 250 BC to226 AD, i.e a language that died out 2000 years ago.

You can’t help but get an eerie feeling walking through the streets of Abyaneh

PS. The song in the video is “Doroghataam Ghashange” by Naser

Don’t ask me what’s the song got to do with the video :O

Till 6 this evening I still hadn’t come to any final decision on what to call this new baby. For me to choose something I have to ‘feel’ that it’s right; I need to get a sign—nooooo I haven’t read one Paulo Coelho book too many

So I’d added some new songs to my ipod—some old albums that I hadn’t listened to for a long time—when Moein’s song Pialeh came on. Oh god this song!!!It must have been at least 10 years since I last heard this song. I love the message of the song. So merry old me tried to sing along, trying to remember the lyrics when the following words were sang out loud:

Bi Neyaz o

Tanha baash;

Teshneh bash o

Darya bash

Translation:

Be detached (from worldly possessions)

Be solitary

Be thirsty

Be the sea

Can a sign get any clearer than this??!! It says be the sea—be darya.

And so Darya (the sea) I become

The ebb and flow of my sea will be marked here: www.mymagicaldroplets.wordpress.com

I had created that blog when I wanted to export the posts on Magical Droplets before deleting it. I just exported all the posts on Mirror Polisher to it as well.

PS. I forgot to credit the two images in this post (edited) and the one preceding it–opps– they are both from this site

Pic from ‘The Daily Star’

So in the 9 years I lived in Tehran how many times did I go a traditional Iranian concert—> Zilch

How many traditional music Cd did I buy?->Zilch

How many traditional singles did I listen to?-> Zilch

How many times did I switch channels and radio stations when a traditional music came on?-> Billions

How excited did I become when I found out that Dar AlـAthar AlـIslamiyah would be hosting a traditional Iranian concert?-> Jumped up so high doing the dance of joy that my head damaged the ceiling.

And what a night it was. A rejuvenating night for my soul for it was my soul not body that danced to the melody of the music. Now I know why people close their eyes, smile and wave their head side to side when listening to music…I was doing that!!!!!

The best part of the evening was the encore. Once their performance was over, the crowd drew them back on stage with their cheers. They played the Iranians version of a Kurdish song they had previously played earlier. Then when the clapping of the crowd died down, the vocalist sang: Ey Iran, ey marzeh por ghohar.

This was when my mom’s soul was revived. She started to sing along with them and the Iranians in the audience (which incidentally weren’t too many) clapped all through the song. I must confess that their version of “Ey Iran” was the best I have ever seen or heard.

Unfortunately, my phone camera didn’t have enough space to record, the quality is not that good anyway, and I was too busy enjoying the show to shoot anything anyway, but here’s a couple of videos:

VIDEO 1

VIDEO 2

VIDEO 3 (Kurdish Song)

More info from the Daily Star

About the video:

“Attan is a traditional Afghan dance. It is said to be one of oldest Afghan Pagan dance, some identify Attan as an a religious ceremony of early Zoroastrians placing it 2000 BCE, and some have placed even older going back to King Yama’s celebration of Nowroz and warriors dancing and circling around the fire. King Yama was the first Afghan king dating back to 3500 BCE. This was later modified into an Islamic dance to allow the dancers to get ‘closer to God’ this virtual Attan practised by many Afghan poets and mystics had even reached to corners of Turkey, Europe known as the Rumi Dance. It is performed usually with a Dhol, which is a double-headed barrel drum. The dance can be anywhere from 5 minute to 30 minutes long. There are many different kinds of Attan most famous are Kabuli, Mazari, Kandahari, Sistani, Herati, Pashayi, and Nuristani.”

UPDATE:
Intlxpatr asked:

1. Is this dance related to the dance of the whirling dirvishes of Konya?

I just came to know about it, and based on what I have read so far the dance dates back to early Zoroastrians so I wouldn’t say it stems from Sufism. However, with the coming of Islam, it was modified by Islamic mysticism. The dance involves “rapid circular motion, dancers perform until no one is left dancing in a fashion similar to sufi whirling dervishes.” SOURCE

2. Women are allowed to dance this dance? Are they permitted to dance it publicly?

Based on this site, I would say yes they are. Of course, whether they still perform publicly in present day Afghanistan is another story.

I wrote this post on my old blog but just realized I never published it. It was in the drafts. Well, Mirror Polisher is publishing it:

I dunno why these days every time I listen to an Iranian song I automatically start translating it in my head. It forces me to go beyond the melody, relate to the words, live the story behind the lyrics so to speak.Anyway, this particular song kinda reminds me of a past conversation between my two souls:

“The Distance” by Siavash Ghomeshi

I say, “They destroyed me; they put out the lanterns of my eyes;

You say, “God is here; he would place the moon in your hands.

I say, “But that was my heart that was thrown into the mud.”

You say, “Least you have your health; the mirrors are clear and pure.”

And so this is why one can’t fill the distance with tears.

One of us is a lively spring; the other an autumn in agony.

I say, “The distance between your hand and mine is death.”

You say, “This distance is the love between us.”

“I say, “Now should I suffer or endure the pain?”

You say, It makes no difference; nothing would be lost.”

I say, “This is what you lose—a life gone can’t be re-lived.

You say, “That’s the whole story; you are but a leaf in the wind.