Happy Holi

Today is a holiday for the spring festival Holi . The urban tradition of blaring (Hindi) film music is on in full swing . With an unfortunate twist . Every building is blaring different songs . If you happen to be within a 10 feet radius of the speaker then you might be able to listen to the song in all it's audio glory . However if you are at your residence you'll hear a random remix of songs from the 70s to current chart busters . Every now and then Amitabh's voice droning what is now the Holi rashtriya geet 'Rang barse' will be heard . It's like an audio kaleidoscope . Move a few inches here or there and the predominant song you hear changes .

Is it any wonder that film song based reality shows are such a draw in India ? If you have a passable voice then you needn't put in any effort to memorize songs. Just relocate to Mumbai ( or do many places in India offer equal opportunity in this regard ?). Just living here will prepare you more than adequately to participate in programs that require you to muster up a song in nanoseconds.

I was quite tempted to record the sounds and share an audio clip. But consideration for readers of the blog stops me from doing so .

Happy Holi.

p.s - As I sign off...a live band has joined the celebrations . No prizes for guessing what tunes they are playing - film songs .