blog.adarsh.me

a spell in psychiatry

2010-02-12T03:03:00.001+01:00

A couple of months ago, I chose to do a rotation in one of the psych wards in Bordeaux. I had no idea what was waiting for me in those legendary grounds. Psychiatry was among those of the specialities that didn’t speak to me at all before that. I certainly came out of these 4 weeks as a changed and pretty disturbed person. Here are a few random thoughts about this world as I jotted them down during my spell.

I was dispatched along with another colleague in a ward dealing with Anxiety Disorders. Among these, we had mostly patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Social Phobia, but I quickly realised that we were mostly treating the depression related to these troubles. As a junior (l’externe), I wasn’t left on the field to talk to the patients. Rather, I’d follow the daily interviews between the patients and my interns. The only few tasks I had comprised writing down prescriptions, running a couple of EKGs and writing down the biographies of new patients.

The psychiatry ward is a gossip temple. If you spend enough time in there, you might come up with a few movie scripts. Picture this: nurses are being paid to write down all the actions of their patients during the day. And they get to discuss it between the transmissions while adding their own personal views. “Mr X seems to love Mrs Y. Mr Z will get good company with the new boy in room A. Miss blablabla has fallen in love with her doctor…” In a normal medical environment, this is trivial matter, but not in psychiatry.

Depression is somewhat contagious. It’s quite hard to get back home in a jovial mood after spending a day interviewing people who, almost everytime, start crying at some point. This might be the main reason why I wouldn’t want to specialize in psych. The reasons behind the patients’ break-downs could be classic: loss of job, loneliness, divorce, the ras-le-bol (exasperation) of life of teenage girls. However, depression over your dog’s demise or even MJ’s death (yes, we had one such case) was a bit over the top for me.

OCDs are quite interesting to study. I never thought a person could be so obsessed by his school exams to end up in psychiatry. Above all, not a medical student. Others obsessions included dirt, the fear of killing someone at work, or simply the choice of the best photos for a photo album. It was amazing to listen to these patients describe their constant doubts and how they would spend hours casting these doubts away: by constantly cleaning, or verifying the mailbox, or making lists, or finding new ways to pile the thousands of photos they’ve taken of themselves. I started wondering whether online solutions like Remember the Milk or Evernote could fit in the treatment options for them.

The psych rotation was also the time to demystify the electroshock or its nicer name, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). It’s quick (a dozen patients per morning session), it’s impressive at first and the outcome is excellent on patients who are hard to treat with pills.

I also got to spend 24 hours in the psych emergency department. In one day, several failed suicide attempts were sent to us. They are, by far, the most common patients in the ED and range from the teens to the lonely elders. I had a pretty good insight in the sufferings facing the dementia patients and their helpers. Lots of psychotic disorders showed up too with their delusions and hallucinations.

I wonder if it’s a french exception. It looks like people easily seek psych advice here, which isn’t the case in my country. Psychiatry is still taboo in Mauritius and it’s hard to convince someone to seek professional help, whereas in France, it’s culturally acceptable, even trendy, it seems, to have a personal psychiatrist or psychanalyst.

This rotation has given me an excellent overview of the mental state of the French society, its love for the meds and the trust it lays in its psychiatrists. Above all, I’ve convinced myself of the magic of the human touch and the necessity to take all the necessary time during a medical visit. This spell in psychiatry has indeed helped me to better understand the doctor-patient relationship.

That said I do have a few rants:

I feel like bipolar disease is being overdiagnosed. The problem might be with the very definition of the hypomanic episode.
There is a lack of coordination between health professionals in the region. When a patient gets discharged from a service, his stay report takes on average 2 weeks to be sent to his GP.
We still rely too much on fax machines.
In my ward, there was only one computer. “Economic measures,” they say. In other words, the paperless utopia is way behind schedule here.
Even the EMR software used on the network needs some serious reconfiguration in its UI. Different wards use it differently as per their convenience.
The number of medical students and healthcare professionals who turn psych patients is scary. (OCD, Mood Disorders)

So that was my 4 weeks as a psych externe. I wish my neurology rotation that followed had gone as smoothly… but that’s for some other time.

2009 Best Albums

2009-12-21T02:56:00.002+01:00

Here we are. With 2010 closing up, a music blogger would traditionnally publish his top 10. This is tough job. I’ve gone through countless records this year but few have remained for long on my ipod. In fact, I cannot really make a top 10 while knowing since January 2009 that nobody would make a better album than Delhi-6 other than A.R. Rahman himself. Let’s say, Blue just didn’t reach that level.
So yes, the winner is *drumroll* A.R. Rahman for Delhi-6 ! These are the songs I’ve listened to and sung the most. In fact, Rehna Tu is the best song of the year, in my opinion.
Remember, this represents solely my musical taste. I’ve been trying since the later half of this year to single out my monthly best. These albums, plus my listening stats at lastfm, have been useful in drafting this top of 2009.
You’re most welcome to refute my choice. If there’s something I’ve missed, please add it in the comments. Obviously, each person is listening to something else on his ipod. We are all in our own micro-genres. I love this diversity, but I’d also like this diversity to be shared. Never be ashamed of your musical taste.
OK, the number 1 spot is already fixed. I’ll just mention the rest now. First, I won’t go the Mauritian radio way of having two distinct categories: a top Indian and a top Occidental. I’ve just listed below the albums that I’ve found interesting this year and wouldn’t mind listening over again. Here’s my top of 2009:

A.R. Rahman - Delhi-6
Abraham Inc. - Tweet Tweet
Advaita - Grounded in Space
Amit Trivedi - Dev.D
Anouar Brahem – The Astounding Eyes Of Rita
Avishai Cohen - Aurora
Balmorhea - All Is Wild, All Is Silent
Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose
Charlie Winston - Hobo
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Devendra Banhart - What Will We Be
Dhruv - Distance
The Dodos - Time To Die
Fink - Sort of Revolution
Imogen Heap - Ellipse
Just Jack - All Night Cinema
K'Naan - Troubadour
Kailash Kher - Kailasa Chaandan Mein (& Yatra - Nomadic Souls)
Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence
Megafaun - Gather, Form & Fly
Mekaal Hasan Band - Saptak
Mùm - Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know
Noah And The Whale – The First Days Of Spring
Peter Broderick - 4 Track Songs
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Piyush Mishra - Gulaal
Regina Spektor - Far
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy - Luck by Chance
The Swell Season - Strict Joy
Vishal Bhardwaj - Kaminey
Vishal-Shekhar - Aladin
Volcano Choir - Unmap
Yodelice - Tree of Life

Special mentions for:
Amit Trivedi: He has brought much needed fresh tunes to Indian cinema. He’s been called the next Rahman since Dev.D and he deserves it.
Justin Vernon: Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago (2008) could easily make it to the best of the decade. So bad, I was late to discover it. Thankfully, Volcano Choir didn’t deceive either with Unmap.
The Swell Season: The band to whom I gave the most exposure this year. Strict Joy is a new collection of simple yet pounding love songs after the soundtrack for ONCE. I wish they had more exposure in France.¨
Piyush Mishra: This actor/composer/dialogue writer/lyricist and what else should be showered with awards for his work with Anurag Kashyap for the movie Gulaal.
The Dodos: I particularly enjoyed Time to Die. While most credit has gone to Animal Collective this year in the psychedelic folk genre, I’ve been mostly drawn to this little energetic band which goes with less instruments for a greater effect.
Kailash Kher: I didn’t listen to a lot a Indipop this year but Kailasa Chaandan Mein was one of the few. It took me some time to enjoy the songs. Now I keep adding stars to them every now and then. Third album and the band is still going strong!
That’s it. 30+ records for you to check out and for me to enjoy again.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

just adarsh.me

2009-12-12T18:11:00.001+01:00

So that's it. Storyltr is closing down on December 31. This is the best lifestreaming site I had found, perfect for the lazy blogger who still wants to centralize his presence on the web. This site is easy to use, easily customizable and is hosted by external servers. I've tried Sweetcron on my own server but I'm just not good at playing around on new services anymore. Let's face it: there's nothing better out there.

What next? I've decided to drop the idea of having www[dot]adarsh.me as a lifestream. Instead I've promoted my Tumblr as my main site. No more picks[dot]adarsh.me, just adarsh.me or www[dot]adarsh.me. One less site to manage is bliss!

This also means that the content of my posts on tumblr will change. The classic #1S1D (1 Song 1 Day) exercise will remain though. I might however remove the auto-posts to facebook if the frequency of posts gets too high.

This is the end of lifestreaming for me, and as long as Friendfeed is around, there's still a way to search back in time. The hoarder in me can still sleep tight.

Update: The day later, Storytlr goes open-source! Thank you @eschnou. I'll play with it one day when I'll have time.

goodbye ufr107

2009-10-24T00:54:00.002+02:00

I'm closing down my year's network which I was hosting on Ning.com. This post explains why the journey ends.

L’an dernier, j’ai monté et entretenu avec l’aide précieuse de mon ami Shakeel un réseau social sur Ning.com pour ma promo. Cette fois, par contre, j’ai choisit de laisser tomber le projet.

Plusieurs raisons ont poussé à cette décision:

Avec la réforme de la fac, les 3 unités ont été rassemblées. L’effectif triple et a été redivisé en 4 centuries avec des parcours différents.
Les autres unités avaient leurs propres sites. Lequel choisir?
Les enseignements ont été bouleversés – les forums sur Ning n’ont pas la profondeur requise pour accueillir tout ce changement.
J’ai tardé pour m’occuper du changement; je devais réviser pour mes rattrapages.
De nombreux mini-groupes ont été montés sur facebook entretemps.
C’est con mais je ne peux pas changer l’url du site.
Personne l’a annoncé mais il semble que le site (cdbx.org) de notre asso Les Carabins de Bordeaux est désormais le choix idéal pour réunir tous les étudiants en médecine à Bordeaux.

A un moment j’ai pensé convertir le site en une alternative à facebook pour la promo ; beaucoup d'entre nous préfèrent discuter médecine sur une autre plateforme. Mais j'ai vite laisser tomber l'idée. La vie d'externe ne me permettra pas de gérer tout le flux d'infos.

C'est donc avec grand regret que j'annonce la fermeture de ufr107.ning.com. Ce site a été une aventure intéressante pour une petite promo de D1U1 mais avec la réforme et la multitude d'autres sites déjà existants, je me suis résolu à le fermer.

C'est avec grand regret que j'annonce la fermeture de ufr107.ning.com. Ce site a été une aventure intéressante pour une petite promo de D1U1 mais avec la réforme et la multitude d'autres sites déjà existants, je me suis résolu à le fermer.

Merci à toi, Shakeel pour ton aide. Merci à vous qui avez rejoint les discussions sur le forum: Gauthier, Christelle, Noémie, Eve, Pauline, Johanna, Jennifer, Nicolas, Anne-Cécile, Pauline, Nitesh, Marion, Julien, Aurélien et tous les autres que j’ai omis.

Merci Robin pour ton hommage:

Voilà, je voudrai féliciter Ad et Shakeel pour ce site qui va bientôt passer à la postérité. On se rappellera les précieux services qu'il nous a rendu ainsi que les coups de gueules, les prises de bec et le saucisson à l'ail.

Au final, ufr107 en une année c’est 148 membres, 69 sujets de discussions, et un long billet sur une Ronéo manquante (la fameuse ronéo d’épidémio du 03/04). C’est aussi le partage de fichiers, de photos de parasitologie, des vidéos de chirurgie, et comme on s’attend, des pics de consultation en période d’exam.

Je terminer ce billet avec quelques screenshots avant la fermeture définitive ce weekend. Une nouvelle page se tourne.

Leslie Helpert, Serpentfly in Bordeaux

2009-10-16T02:01:00.003+02:00

I’m just back from Tchai Bar, my most common rendez-vous point in Bordeaux. Tonight I went in for a sitar-guitar-tabla show (which I mentioned early this week). To be frank, I was in to see the talented Mark Brenner play the sitar, but I made a great discovery – Leslie Herpert.
From her myspace:

Helpert has composed over 1000 pieces of music and has performed in over 200 venues. Most recently (2008) she was endorsed by the ministry of cultural affairs in Bermuda as the first musician-in-resident. Additionally, Helpert internationally performs tributes to Billie Holiday. She is a teacher of voice and yoga as well as a spoken word poet, dancer, beat-boxer, illustrator, voice teacher and novelist; her music is informed by the entirety of her artwork. She has recorded 4 full length albums spanning the years of 1999-2008. She has played in places ranging from CBGB's in New York to Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, CA, and theaters such as Théåtre Lino-Ventura in Nice, France, The Boulder Theater in Colorado and The Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, Georgia. Her guitar is her compass.

Great husky voice. She’s got her own frivolous style and her lyrics made me sit back and smile. The sitar-guitar improvisations were pretty impressive as well. I’ve got in hand her 17-track EU Sampler which I’ll most certainly listen next morning during my commute.
Here’s the setting. A small cave in old Bordeaux, Mark Brenner on sitar and veena; Leslie Herpert on acoustic guitar and sometimes bass guitar; and a tabla player, stuck on keherwa taal most of the time. No mic: just the 3 musicians and some 30 persons in a intimate warm setting with our tchais and other infusions. I feel privileged to have been there.
Leslie recorded an EP in Barcelona in August. It’ll be available in December on iTunes.
The [blue gorgeous] escapists (from self-made/engineered 4th album)
myspace.com/serpentfly

Externe, enfin

2009-10-04T01:24:00.001+02:00

Finally in 4th year! I've been waiting a long time to talk about med stuff on this blog. Now I can, now that I’ll be having my own patients to follow.

While Bongi mentioned his years as a clinical student as extremely hard times, I've battled to reach this level. Indeed I've been officially allowed in Masters 1 (4th year) just 2 days ago so I'm not gona complain (yet) about being at the bottom of the ladder. I'm excited to be here!

While waiting for my exam results, I got to be “l'externe” during 2 weeks (that's how we call a med student working in a French hospital). My current rotation is in cardiology-rhythmology, specifically in the service of Dr Haïssaguerre, known as a pioneer in the surgical treatment atrial fibrillation.

Many patients I've come across are here for ablations as a means of treatment for persistant atrial fibrillations, flutters or junctional tachycardia. However most come in for the day for routine post-ablation checkups. I've also had two ladies screening for Brugada syndrome and one kid came in to rule out a cardiac reason for his frequent black-outs.

Nearly 25% of the patients are from abroad. I’ve met greeks, israelis, canadians, azerbaijanis... It’s pretty fun being summoned by the nurses to help as translator.

I’m slowly learning the job. Typically, I go and meet any new entry, and jot down all my observations. My in-charge (l’interne’ then comes in and I try to match my observations with his/hers.

That’s it.

Truth is that I’m writing this post as a reminder to Adarsh, the internet addict, that the next 3 years will require utmost self-discipline. Medicine has been a well-thought choice. It requires a lot of sacrifice and focus because time will always be limited from now on. This implies access to email, rss feeds and social media stuff at controlled times.

More medical stuff will follow as I come across interesting cases worth sharing. Meanwhile, I hope to be in an EKG pro in the coming weeks.

2009 Top Albums So Far

2009-07-31T01:55:00.008+02:00

July is coming to an end. Time for a short recap of the music albums that, in my opinion, left a good impression in 2009 so far. For this list, i’m taking a look at my last.fm charts, my iTunes library and at the albums I’ve bookmarked on Spotify.

I tried hard to find a way to classify the records: according to genres, geographically.. but i’ll simply hand it out alphabetically. Music has gone truly global now. Just bear in mind that I’m a guy from the island of Mauritius, currently in France, fan of everything that blends with Indian music, and who's recently developed a certain liking for post-rock instrumentals ever since he discovered Sigur Rós. That’s a pretty good description of my musical world right now.

A.R. Rahman Delhi-6

A.R. Rahman NOKIA Connections

Advaita Grounded in Space
Amit Trivedi Dev.D

Avishai Cohen Aurora
Balmorhea All Is Wild, All Is Silent

Bikram Ghosh Little Zizou

Dhruv Ghanekar Distance

Caravan Palace Caravan Palace

Charlie Wilson Hobo

Kailash Kher Kailasa Chaandan Mein

Kasabian West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Niraj Chag The Lost Souls

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy Luck by Chance

Vishal Bhardwaj Kaminey

Years Of Rice And Salt Service Bell EP

I’m curious to see how this list will look like at the end of the year. Making a top 10 will be hectic!

So what did I miss?

musique, les outils actuels du consommateurs

2009-07-27T02:52:00.002+02:00

Ce qui suit vient d’un travail à la fac que je devais soumettre il y a 2 mois environ. Dans le cadre de mon initiation aux technologies web, j’ai monté http://adarsh.free.fr qui devais inclure une partie hobby. Cette page, dédiée la musique, je la transferre (avec qql modifs) ici avant la fermeture du site.

“

Je suis un passionné. Parlez-moi de musique; je suis constamment à la découverte de nouveaux groupes. Et le net est vraiment l'outil parfait. Depuis que je connais Last.fm, je suis un obsédé du scrobbling. Le monde doit savoir ce que je viens d'écouter. Cela pourrait surprendre mais si un nouveau service n'est pas connecté à Last.fm, j'ai tendance à ne pas y rester longtemps.

Recemment, j'ai commencer la série #1S1D (1 Song 1 Day) sur mon tumblr. J'y parle de LA chanson qui m'a inspirée un jour donné. Le tumbltape de droite en est le résultat.

Bref, voici mes outils préférés du moment:

lecteurs offline : iTunes, Songbird

J’ai commencé à organiser mes mp3 avec jetAudio. Puis j’ai migré vers iTunes. Pour l’instant je roule avec iTunes et Songbird, ce dernier étant surtout utile pour lire les mp3 dans les pages web.

lecteurs online : Spotify, Deezer, Jiwa

Spotify est le nouveau chouchou du web. Je l’adore pour son interface et son contenu beaucoup plus vaste. Et c’est le seul des 3 qui permet le scrobbling.

recherche rapide : Songza, SkreemR, Grooveshark

La plupart des gens cherchent sur Youtube. Je préfère l’organisation des titres sur Songza. Grooveshark, lui me surprendra toujours par les variété des titres qu’il contient.

découvertes : la blogosphère, The Hype Machine, Last.fm, the sixtyone + MES AMIS

HypeM vous donne une idée des chansons populaires du moment, même s’il y a une tendance récurrente vers l’indie et les remixes. Leur nouvel objectif de tracker les titres mentionnées sur twitter parraît prometteur.

Ce mois-ci je tente de voir si last.fm vaut ses 3€ mensuelles pour l’accès à ses titres et ses nouvelles radios multi-artistes et multi-tags.

Thesixtyone est un bon endroit pour découvrir les nouveaux talents et le site est assez addictif avec ses objectifs à atteindre.

à la télé : taratata sur France 2 et France 4, One Shot Not sur ARTE

Voilà les outils du moment. Ce sont des choix qui changent tout le temps. Vais-je résister à Wormee d’Orange? Vais-je payer pour Spotify Premium?

En attendant, retrouvez-moi sur twitter. L’expérience #1S1D devrait continuer.

Et ne manquez pas les news du maestro A.R. Rahman sur Friendfeed.

Dhan Ta Nan - Pulp Fiction - Misirlou

2009-07-10T15:25:00.006+02:00

Misirlou is a century-old folk song but Dick Dales’ version from the ‘60s is the most accepted one, especially after Pulp Fiction in 1994. Now it seems that any song that has the Misirlou tune and/or beats is an instant hit, Pump It by the Black Eyed Peas being the obvious example.
Bollywood too borrowed from it. We had Cash by Vishal-Shekhar in 2007 and today, Dhan Te Nan by Vishal Bhardwaj for movie Kaminey (sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Vishal Dadlani from Vishal-Shekhar).
Even the Mauritian rock band Xbreed Supersoul started their song Crowd Surfing with Misirlou, so there are lots of covers out there.
Xbreed Supersoul’s last album ‘A Letter to G’ is available on iTunes. (Myspace)

Google Moris

2009-07-03T14:50:00.001+02:00

Images - bann zimaz

Groups - bann group

Connect - konekte

Search Google - Resers Google

I’m feeling lucky - Mo ena lasans

Search pages in Mauritius - Resers bann paz depi Moris

Advanced Search - Resers avanse

Preferences - Preferans

Language Tools - Bann zouti lingwistik

About Google - Tou lor Google

Voilà, they did it. Google.mu now is in Mauritian Creole, the lingua franca of the island. That’s a language that i consider to be only spoken… there’s is no rule to write in Mauritian Creole, it’s all phonetics. However, there’s been a lot of efforts to write a creole dictionary and Dr Arnaud Carpooran did it. I wonder if they’ll come up with a Mauritian spellchecker in the coming years…

Anyway, that’s a major step for the island and its 1million+ population. Congrats to the collaborators.

"En France c'est pas comme ça !"

2009-07-01T18:33:00.002+02:00

Vous connaissez cette phrase typiquement mauricienne? Quand un mauricien qui a été en France (moi dans ce cas) se trouve parmi d'autres mauriciens, il se fait souvent lancé cette merveille.

Ça c’est un bon briani! En France c'est pas comme ça!

T'as vu cette coupe de cheveux? En France c'est pas comme ça!

Ici on boit du Phoenix. En France c'est pas comme ça!

Ou tout simplement dans la rue sans aucun contexte précis, on va te lancer, 'Hey, en France c pas comme ça!'

En gros, il sert à te faire sentir coupable d'être parti de l'île. Son origine? Cela pourrait bien être l'histoire (vrai ou pas) d'un mauricien venant de France, qui faisait la grosse tête en comparant tout le temps les 2 pays.

Je ne veux plus entendre ces mots… mais non, à mon retour l'année dernière, on me l'a rappelé plusieurs fois, moi qui ne suis en aucun cas le gars qui fait la grosse tête. Mais cette phrase est devenue une tradition. C'est comme quand t'es invité chez des gens, et qu'ils ont acheté du vin exprès pour toi… Merde, je rentre au pays pour vivre à la mauricienne!

C'est impossible maintenant de ne pas passer pour le français; j'en suis devenu un. Mon créole s'est francisé - l'accent a changé, je pousse des 'euh…' entre les phrases, j'utilise le mot 'bof' (au fait, qui peut traduire 'bof' en anglais?)

Je sais que les gens ne me verront plus comme avant. Le moment où je m'en suis vraiment rendu compte, c'est un matin au réveil. Au lieu dire 'ki gogot!' j'ai appuyé sur snooze en soupirant, 'putain' ! Je suis conscient du changement. Donc cessez de me faire chier avec 'En France, c'est pas comme ça!'

No more Ads

2009-06-30T13:13:00.001+02:00

I’ve been fighting for quite a while to keep the word ‘Ad’ as my online identity. In real life, my friends call me ‘Ad’ but i guess this can’t be the case on the web for obvious reasons. So from now on, ‘Ad’s Journal’ is now simply ‘blog.adarsh.me’ Say goodbye to

and welcome

However, i’ll still keep the title ‘ad’s senses’ for my lifestream on storytlr. Just love it.

Trac-Des-Exams Songs

2009-06-23T15:33:00.005+02:00

Now that I'm taking a few weeks' pause from my medical textbooks, I'll have to share a few songs with you, those songs that came to me at 7:30am while I was tying my shoelaces before setting off for exams. It's funny how long-forgotten pieces of music come back to you in times of doubt.
First one is 'Har Taraf' from 2003 movie Saaya. I've no idea how this song could come up. Usually i might have listened to it 2 days ago, but not this time. It's not in my playlist and there's no fuckin radio playing Indian songs here. Why this song ? Har taraf har jagah har kahin pe hai haan usi ka noor (One can find His light everywhere) Is this a sign that I need someone/something to relate to in times of doubt? I know I relate to a light, a certain spirituality via my music be it a bhajan / naat / in fact anything evoking 'khuda, maula, etc'. Or maybe, i just have a cinematic approach to every aspect of life.
On another morning while leaving for exams, it was the song 'Mele Chaliyan' from movie Yahaan (2005), yet another song that doesn't feature in my library. Now this is weird. I've never cared to know what's being said in this song and I've watched the movie only once, but this particular tune has a certain darkness that will stay with me forever. Kudos to Mr Shantanu Moitra.
Yet another dawn gave me 'Rehna Tu' from Delhi-6. OK, I've got an explanation for this one. A.R. Rahman’s last album got released while i was having my 1st semester exams and really stuck with me throughout that exam period. I remember singing Rehna Tu, Masakali, Dil Gira Dafatan and Kaise Mujhe (Ghajini) during my pauses and breakdowns.
My musical mind is always on. Right now, I'm enjoying Kailasa Chaandan Mein. Next on the list is Riceboy Sleeps and then I'll most probably stall for a while on Balmorhea's 'All Is Wild, All Is Silent'. But what I've realized is that no matter how many genres I've tried, Bollywood remains my primary source of emotional content. It pains to find nothing inspiring coming my way these last 2-3 months. So far in 2009, few albums from tinsel town deserve the repeat button: Delhi-6, Dev.D, Luck By Chance, and maybe Gulaal. My level of expectation has definitely gone up.

1st on your contact list

2009-05-26T12:47:00.007+02:00

My name is Adarsh, which means I come first on the contact list of many. To those ppl who don't activate their keypad lock, please do something...

Today Oomesh, some guy I haven't seen in 2 years has been calling me...at least his phone has been calling me. When i reply, i get a bizarre sound, it's a mixture of a train on the Indian railway and that of a foetal doppler...perfect for an Animal Collective song. No voice, no reply.

I tried to warn him by sms or by calling him, but it won't work. It's still going on right now... i'll soon turn vicious and let him burn his money.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi : my (late) review

2009-04-19T01:59:00.004+02:00

Post Mohabbatein, Aditya Chopra decides to direct a new movie to revive the Yash Raj banner. And tada! he ropes in SRK.

First, i must say that I'm in France, with almost no chance of watching a Bollywood on a cinema screen. I just look for the DVDs or find other means... The response to this movie was just OK, so i thought i'd wait for the DVD to better appreciate it. Anyway, i'd never miss an SRK movie. However, the fact that I could wait a few months before watching it is a bad sign. I might have lost patience in Yash Raj.

Here's what I liked about RNBDJ.

Grand acting by SRK. I got attached to Suri's light sense of humour. The aam, maamooli aadmi was well depicted. Raj's mannerisms too worked.
Anoushka Sharma is a promising talent. I got used to this new face quite fast.
Amritsar...well yet another movie set in Punjab, but I've got used to it now.
Haule Haule's single takes are mind blowing.
Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte's cameos and settings + the song itself (Sonu Nigam, music and lyrics)

However, on the overall, I'm very disappointed. RNBDJ has a ridiculous storyline. Aditya Chopra had the initial concept and knew how it would end...but the path taken to reach to the final dance is boring and predictable.

No, really? You can't see it's the same person? But OK, let's forget that ‘minute’ detail.

How about the time when she disappears from the cinema theatre to meet Raj. She has no explanation to Suri for that?

And what!!??? She asks for help from Rab, opens her eyes and it's Suri...that's it !?? How backward is that?How... euh... filmi is that? If Yuvvraaj was an '80s drama, this one is no different.

And please this ain't a role for Vinay Pathak. I like the chubby one :)

In general, we have bad songs apart from the 2 mentionned above. I hate 'Dance Pe Chance'. Salim-Sulaiman's background music is just too loud and dull. And please, i hate that trademark Yash Raj music, especially the WOOOOO sound fx found in all Yash Raj films since 'Neal N Nikki' (I think.)

RNBDJ isn’t meant for me. Rating: 2/5

And now ONLY am in a position to announce what pleased me in 2008 in B-town: *Rock On!!, Jodhaa Akbar, Aamir, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye.

My utmost deceptions came from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Ghajini, Yuvvraaj. Drona

That said, I didn't watch Fashion, A Wednesday and Mumbai Meri Jaan.

Let's hope 2009 is a better year for Indian cinema. So far we've had two gems: Luck By Chance and Dev.D. Let's see what else is in stall.

Coup de gueule sur quelques clichés

2009-01-24T20:53:00.002+01:00

Tu es mauricien et t’étudies en France? Voilà ce que comporte typiquement les conversations avec des inconnus dans la rue.

T’auras des idées mal conçues sur l’île avec des phrases du genre:

“Ah bon, Maurice n'est pas un département français?” Et non… on est indépendant.

“Ah bon, il y a aussi des chinois à Maurice?” Tu trouves un peu de tout à Maurice.

“Dis donc, tu parles bien français, toi…” Le mauricien est triligue au minimum. Il parle anglais, français et créole.

“Maurice c'est le paradis, non?” Celle-là, je continue à répondre avec un oui franc; il faut bien faire tourner l’économie mauricienne ^^

T’as une tête d’Indien? Mon message au bordelais c’est que si vous trouvez quelqu’un avec un tronche d’indien, il a plus de chance d’être mauricien ou réunionnais qu’indien. Hier un algérien m’a demandé si je suis pakistanais... je ne m’y attendais pas. Et non, je ne suis pas musulman non plus. La meilleure quand même est venue lors de la dernière coupe du monde avec presque tous les jours des “Salut, Vikash (Dhorasoo)” dans le tram.

Et si tu fais médecine (comme moi), t’auras souvent ceux-là de la part des français.

“Tu fais médecine? Alors tu vas travailler en France ou à Maurice?” Franchement, moi je ne sais toujours pas.

“T'es Indien? Tu fais médecine? Pourquoi tu fais Médecine?” Ben, tu l’as dis: j’suis indien :b

Avec la nouvelle vague bollywoodienne qui sevit depuis quelques années, tu pourras avoir:

“Elles sont belles les Indiennes. Qu'elle est belle aiswarararara rai!”

“Les films indiens, j'adore. J'aime bien ce gars qui chante dans tous ses films.” Euh..ils chantent tous dans leurs films...et vraisemblablement ça parle de Shahrukh Khan.

Toi, mauricien, tu a maintenant été prévenu.

Nitin Sawhney London Undersound Tour

2008-11-11T01:55:00.009+01:00

I got a train to catch in 4h and i badly need to sleep but I got to jot this down while it's still fresh in my mind.

I'm back from Nitin Sawhney's only concert in France. It was at La Maroquinerie (XXe) and I must say, great moment it was for me.

I already knew what it would be like cuz I had listened to his concert at the BBC Electric Proms in October.

So the show started with a first part by Natty, who was performing for the first time out of the UK. He performed with just a guitar and djembe, and it sure looks promising. I'd be glad to hear him again someday.

Nitin Sawhney unfortunately didn't perform with all his known singers. I particularly missed Reena Bhardwaj. This left Ashwin Srinivasan doing all Indian vocals. Several times, his bansuri was used to replace some other instrument, like Anoushka Shankar's sitar in Charu Keshi Rain and in the revisited version of River Pulse. This boy excelled in every song. For me, he stole the show.

Also present throughout the concert were Tina Grace and Lucy Jones.

TRACKLIST

Sunset - the track that unleashed Nitin to the world

Immigrant (with special mention of the new US president)

Letting Go - Nitin mentions writing this song with Tina in Paris some 10 years ago.

October Daze - Nicely penned down by Tina

Days of Fire - Natty (The only song from the new album that was known to the French public)

Distant Dreams - Lucy & Tina replaced Roxanne Tataei

Moonrise - Tina replaced Natasha Atlas

Herecica Latino

Homelands - justified excitements upon Ashwin's alaap

Noches En Vela Pt 2

Breathing Light - spotlight on Aref Durvesh

The Conference + Nadia - Who doesn't like the Conference!? And Nadia with a male voice works too!

River Pulse - Nitin on keyboard and Ashwin on flute (Anoushka did this part in London)

Dead Man - roars for Ashwin, Tina & Lucy

ENCORE

Prophesy - Nitin & Aref only. Mindblowing finale.

Charu Keshu Rain - Ashwin replaces Anoushka's sitar

The crowd was blown away despite the absence of so many artists. I hope Nitin wins more fame in France after tonight's show.

(13/11/08) I've made a playlist of songs from the concert available at Grooveshark: go check it out !

(01/02/08) Here's an interview from zikaddict that (looks like) was made on that very day.

On Air – Le Retour

2008-09-03T15:46:00.003+02:00

After my previous post (i’m talking a lot about music these days), i gota confirm that long quiet hours on the plane or in the TGV are the rare times when I enjoy music albums. Album sales are going down these days now that we can just pick out the tracks we like on iTunes. Hopefully, streaming sites like Deezer, Jogli, Grooveshark and search engines like Songza and Favtape (dunno what’ll happen to Muxtape) give us the ability to listen to practically all tracks on an album so we can decide on spending € 9,99 instead of the € 0,99 for 1 track.

So after 2 months of holidays, i’m going back to Bordeaux and here are the new additions to my ipod.

Camille Music Hole 2008	John Metcalfe Darker Sunset 2008
Radiohead In Rainbows 2007	Niraj Chag Along The Dusty Road 2006
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy Taare Zameen Par BGM 2008	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy Rock On!! 2008

Along with these, some albums might still feature in my playlist.

Batman Begins stays there until I get hold of The Dark Knight OST. Same goes for Nitin Sawhney’s Philtre; his new album London Undersound will be available on October 13.

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

The Dark Knight

2008

Nitin Sawhney

London Undersound

2008

That’ll be all for now. Bordeaux, me voilà. My next post will be about my holidays including a critical view of Mauritius as I see it now.

Septembre 03 - 23:40 - Update: I'll finally have the Dark Knight OST on time.

Chronicles of Plagiarism in Indian Film Music

2008-07-27T17:22:00.003+02:00

Trekker guy, Guru sent me a link to this treasure of a site. I guess, there's no need for me to blog about plagiarism in bollywood anymore. I don't usually reblog here by the way, tumblr is here for that, but here's an exception.

July.12.2008
@ Ram Gopal Varma's love for horror films/ horror film theme pieces continues into Sarkar Raj. The composer seems to be getting out of work, ignored and neglected composers to compose music based on his personal fetish. So, in Sarkar Raj (2008), for a musical piece titled, 'Govinda Theme' he gets Bapi Tutul (again!) to lift and Indianize the Main Title theme of Omen II (1978), which had stunning music by Jerry Goldsmith. RGV, being the maverick he is, even accepts this life in his blog - can someone use this against him and sue him, please?

22. I could recollect omen II listening to the tracks of Sarkar Raj.
Ans: - Yes I copied it from there. I saw Omen II seven times in Vijaywada, Leela Mahal just to listen to the title track.
Listen to Govinda Theme | Omen II - Main

OSTs

2008-07-08T05:58:00.004+02:00

In the same line as my last post, here comes la crême de la crême of movie soundtracks according to me, a person highly inspired by indian music discovering new melodies almost every single day (that’s how i define myself). Even today i came across the OST of The Darjeeling Limited. It won’t join today’s selection though; the bollywood songs are taken mostly from the ‘70s and ‘80s, a period I can’t stand. In fact, I find a lot of french people wanting to discover Bollywood turning to movies from that period and songs like Dum Maro Dum. PLEASE, don’t do that! This isn’t the right introduction to Bollywood.

So here come the OSTs. Keep in mind that i’m considering the albums as a whole. Obviously, i’ll start with A.R. Rahman.

Dil Se.. My all-time favourite. An evergreen album.	Taal The album that gave Rahman international recognition.	Lagaan Nominated for Oscars. Loved for its songs and background score.
Saathiya (and Alaipayuthey, it’s Tamil version)	Water Mycheal Danna & Rahman both excelled.	Rang De Basanti I even ripped off the score from the DVD.

Other Indian movies include:

The Bhansali masterpieces. The transition from Ismail Darbar to Monty Sharma for background scores is a wise move by the ace director.

Devdas
I found ‘Devdas with Selected Dialogues’ in France. Awesome.

Black

THE movie that made me cry.

Saawariya
The movie might not have worked but music is excellent.

Select pieces from the top music directors in Mumbai.

Bluffmaster

Vishal-Shekhar

Omkara

Vishal Bhardwaj

Lakshya

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Away from Bollywood but with still a foot in India, we have scores by Nitin Sawhney, the most famous being The Namesake. I’ve yet to get hold of A Throw of Dice.

Among French movies, i’ve been largely inspired by these three:

Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain

Yann Tiersen

Les Poupées Russes
Kraked Unit, etc. (Klapisch OSTs in general.)

Ne Le Dis A Personne

Mathieu Chedid / -M-

I finally reach Hollywood. OSTs that stand out are:

Babel

Gustavo Santaolalla

Kingdom of Heaven

Harry Gregson-Williams

Batman Begins
Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

Let’s not forget this year’s Academy Award winner for best music: ONCE by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová…

…and a special mention to Daniel Licht’s work on Showtime Series Dexter.

Music matters are now closed from the year 2007-2008 on this blog. Keep in touch with my loved tracks on Last.FM or on my friendfeed.

Mauritius, here i come. Some traditional sega will do me some good.

On Air In The Air

2008-06-29T15:52:00.004+02:00

Today, i’ll talk a bit more about music. My friends usually picture me as a singer of bollywood songs. Sure I am. I still try to listen to each and every song that comes out. But now i’ll delete those that don’t appeal to me on the 1st hit of play. I won’t say, ‘Maybe if i listen to it more, i’ll get to like it.’ I know my tastes now., tastes that have changed during these few years abroad. Bollywood is only part of my library, but i still look for that indian touch in every song. My favourite artists remain A.R. Rahman and Nitin Sawhney, because they are the only composers that have been able to blend indian influences to occidental styles, and have kept doing it consistently, mesmerizing us with every new song.

Now, here’s why i’m actually writing this post. I wanted to share my playlist during my 16 hours of travel from Bordeaux to Mauritius. Here’s the opportunity to appreciate a few albums with shuffle turned off.

I can’t even take a nap in the TGV or the plane. I'll keep my laptop if wifi is available in Paris or for a movie eventually. So if there’s noone interesting beside me to talk to, here's what i'll listen to: music that won’t make me sing but that'll nonetheless activate my facial muscles out of appreciation or in a bid to attain a very low or very high pitch. Music that i’ve had in my library this year but which i never listened to on one go.

Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale

Breathing Under Water

2007

Ensemble Badila

Qalandar Express

2006

Badmarsh & Shri

Signs

2001

Susheela Raman

33 1/3

2007

Nitin Sawhney

Philtre

2005

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager

2006

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

Charkha

2007

Asa

Asa

2007

A.R. Rahman

Vande Mataram

1997

That should be enough for the trip. In case I manage to refill my ipod, it’ll have the following too.

Shankar Mahadevan, Shivamani & Louis Banks SILK Fusion Show	Sigur Rós Hvarf / Heim 2007
Grand Corps Malade Midi 20 2006	Susheela Raman Music For Crocodiles 2006
In the Mind of Nitin Sawhney 2007	Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Searching For The Hows And Whys 2008
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Micheal Brook Mustt Mustt 1990	Jagjit & Chitra Singh Beyond Time 1987

I’ll end this post with these two songs that always remind me of a plane flight: the Swades Theme (A.R. Rahman) and Flight IC408 (State of Bengal).

That’ll be all from Adarsh.

See you in Mauritius as from July 11.

The Last Bite

2008-05-25T21:46:00.003+02:00

This evening I read 'The Last Bite,' a critic on the world food system by Bee Wilson, and I highly recommend that you read it all. By comparing Malthus' essay of 1798 with today's food crisis, and by analyzing recent books by authors like Michael Pollan, Raj Patel and Paul Roberts, the writer presented a bleak future for the ever-growing world population and its demands. Here's how I summarize it.

We eat too much, too much of the wrong things - above all, meat.
Our stomach is no more 'inelastic' with the Western diet; it has learnt to grow as a balloon. And new emerging economies like India and China are eating this way too now.
Today's food is less tasty and less nutritious, from the 'red tennis balls' that have replaced our tomatoes to the crumbly chicken meat kept artificially juicy with salts and phosphates, to the toxin laden salmon.
The meat industry, whether cattle, poultry or fish, is damaging the environment and our health...and we all know that. The 'poop lagoons' is something new for me though.
The present crisis has been created by overproduction rather than underproduction; now we have more overweight people than starving people.
Cheap food is a major problem intoxicating the consumers and killing farmers at the same time.
The apparent abundance of choice in the supermarket is a mere illusion. Aren't we eating the same vegetables every time? Isn't there soy oil in almost all products?
The global manufacturers and wholesalers have an interest in continuing to manipulate our desires, feeding our illusions of choice, stoking our colossal hunger.
Monoculture must be abandoned; the Cuban method might be a better solution.

As Michael Pollan says 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.' Eat food, not 'foodish' stuff, don't overeat (eat till you're full, not till the TV show is over) and reduce meat consumption. That should be a great effort on the individual basis, and a good start if we want to radically change the food system. He did a talk about his latest book 'In Defense of Food' at Authors@Google. Find some time to watch it.

Stop it Pritam - You can do better

2008-05-21T10:10:00.005+02:00

After my last post on plagiarism in bollywood, I found another song from Jab We Met that Pritam lifted... Tum Hi Se sung by Mohit Chauhan

	Mohit Chouhan - Tum Se Hi

	Found at skreemr.com

and he lifted it from none other than the Red Hot Chili Peppers!!! It's subtle but you'll figure out the resemblance.

	Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium

	Found at skreemr.com

Someone merged the song 'Pehli Nazar Mein' from Race with its original South Korean version...

This ain't funny now, is it?

Mauritius isn't Mauritania

2008-05-08T12:57:00.003+02:00

Here's a conversation i had with a Mexican guy who was looking for 'friends' on Skype (i keep getting those invites these days):

i'm a student in France
cool
i'm originally from Mauritius, which i don't think u've heard about
yes, a little bit. Near to Africa, right?
ya
;) in spanish it's Mauritania, i think
nope....this ain't mauritania
Mauritania is another country in West Africa
Mauritius is an island in the Indian Ocean

This is a common mistake by English speakers as compared to French people don't really have this problem to distinguish 'La Mauritanie' from 'L'île Maurice.'

A few years ago, even Times Magazine made that mistake. In their list of countries governed by islamic principles, they mentioned Mauritius! Thankfully they cleared their erratum later but my island was listed as a potential threat to the US government for a few weeks.

There's also the story of a US President who made the same confusion when meeting the Mauritian Prime Minister...

Let's clear this confusion once and for all, please, shall we?

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

2008-04-14T16:51:00.005+02:00

I listened to this British group led by Sam Duckworth once or twice last year when i heard that Nitin Sawhney would be producing their 2nd album.... And now that 'Searching For The Hows And Whys' is out, i decided to listen to the 1st album 'The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager' again. And that's when i realized how much punch there is in this group. Each and every song keeps you on the alert with its musical richness and catchy beats.

Yesterday, while in the streets of Bordeaux, i got swept by the song 'Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.' and today when I found the lyrics, i knew i had to share it.

You say it's fair, a labour source for the masses,

providing cheap garments we can sell and brand,

as a new and hopeful answer to an existence so bland.

Open your eyes, as you don't need to buy.

You do not have to be a coat hanger for a corporation in a market that's lost the plot.

You decide if it's worth having their blood on your hands just to wear the latest Nikes.

Open your eyes, as you don't need to buy.

If I had a cape, that made me disappear,

I'd fly around the world for days just so I could hear,

the rich count their dimes whilst the Africans cry,

and record it on a tape and stream it high across the sky.

Open your eyes, as you don't need to buy it

A.R. Rahman	Delhi-6
A.R. Rahman	NOKIA Connections
Advaita	Grounded in Space
Amit Trivedi	Dev.D
Avishai Cohen	Aurora
Balmorhea	All Is Wild, All Is Silent
Bikram Ghosh	Little Zizou
Dhruv Ghanekar	Distance
Caravan Palace	Caravan Palace
Charlie Wilson	Hobo
Kailash Kher	Kailasa Chaandan Mein
Kasabian	West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Niraj Chag	The Lost Souls
Phoenix	Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	Luck by Chance
Vishal Bhardwaj	Kaminey
Years Of Rice And Salt	Service Bell EP

blog.adarsh.me

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The Last Bite

Stop it Pritam - You can do better

Mauritius isn't Mauritania

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.