Darkroom Vs Lightroom

I just completed 9000 downloads and record earnings on a single stock agency. I don’t think there could be a more appropriate time to write this blog. Since I never learnt photography nor was I ever inclined to know the traditional ways of composition or techniques I always found it wrong to address this serious issue which I was unable to discuss with traditional practitioners. After almost 5 years being in the business I feel I can let out some frustration and understanding about photography and how it differs when you do it commercially instead as a hobby.

The most important thing that changed for me after starting to sell images was my choice of a shoot. I suddenly stopped clicking pictures I knew that won’t sell or maybe those which could sell but not at that quality which the situation provided me. I found no point in taking a picture for fun. Earlier I regretted this a lot as an artist. I thought the commercial aspect was curbing my creativity, but I was totally wrong. After say 2 years, I could still get the frames that I ignored with a better perspective and a commercial value. I feel if not art our time is as valuable in life. We might not be interested in earning a lot from our art at a certain time, but when we realize that we can fund the art itself from earnings we start getting serious. Better equipment and accessories surely mean more quality. If this all is bought from the art’s earnings it might ease the load on our regular income which might go to routine living expenses.

Entering stock was about quality standards which meant ‘no noise’, ‘crisp sharpness’, ‘nice colors’ and mainly ‘artistic & saleable’. Shortly since I don’t click any images that require a very high shutter speed I got obsessed with lower ISOs as I always was. None of my image exceeds 100 ISO except for a handful that were lucky to be shot at 200 ISO. This gave me a lot of discipline in terms of holding a camera still for low light pictures that too without a tripod. Though I bought a good tripod later, I still avoided using it unless it was a real long exposure.

This then brings me to another important topic which actually is the title of my blog. What changed during recent years from the past? Most importantly it is the number of photographers that have sprung up from nowhere and majority of them are taking a formal training. Is it because the prices of camera’s crashed??? No I don’t feel so. The SLR still comes in similar price ranges. There are two other major reasons for the change. One, there is a lot of variety available from consumer cameras to SLRs and second, there is no cost of buying a roll, developing and printing involved. If there are 100 photographers today 95% of them don’t even know DARKROOM or the techniques, maybe that’s why Adobe found LIGHTROOM a more marketable name.

With digital cameras having a good automated processing, enhanced colors everyone who clicks starts feeling that he/she is a great photographer. It is positive initially but wasn’t for the photography industry. This was proved when in initial years prices fell due to cheap photographs available in market from amateurs. With photography courses on the prowl there are frequent exhibitions / expositions. One never wonders to look at the technical quality of the pictures in terms of full size viewing. Generally if 100 (good) photographers are given a single subject, 80% from them who had a course on photography will click similar picture. The rest 20 will click a different picture with more creativity put in, but will it be a sharp shot and good one at 100% viewing size? No one would care especially because they will pass off saying they are not here to sell their art, they are doing it as a hobby. Then why aren’t the real hobbyists taking the view size as lightly as they are?

If any kind of artform has to be saved a serious note and understanding has to be taken by a non-buying audience about the quality of the photography they might get to see with awe. Serious buyers wouldn’t surely miss factors like grain, sharpness and the overall frame. I hate using the term composition these days because the more time I spent in photography the more I realized I could play with people’s mind about composition. Though there were strict composition rules or layouts, they don’t exist any much more. I had many rejections in my initial days of photography till I remained adamant to show my composition structures which were proved by the sales. There was something unique and original about those.  

I think all photographers, professionals and hobbyists should try to look beyond their equipment into darkroom and lightroom and explore more possibilities of better pictures using graphic editing softwares like photoshop. If one really surveys it will be found that almost everyone is clicking the same kind of frame and getting the right colors, but are they looking perfect at 100% blowup? Does one know the importance of sharpness or grain? Printing has been a history to me now. I have 40 DVDs containing my photography of last 5 years, but there is not a single image from it that I have printed yet. Never thought of doing that, and maybe never will. This will save paper too. Before printing any images from digital photography also keep in mind the GREEN VALUE of saving paper. The photos we print we don’t see more than 50 times in life. You might as well see them on your TV /computer screens. I can agree that some blowouts and family portraits could be printed for your house interior enhancement.

This blog was not about criticizing any amateur photographers, it was just my view for photographers who really want to feel good about their work… especially with digital photography where everything should be less dependent on your camera processors and more about your post-processing. When we have got rid of the hard-work required in DARKROOM it doesn’t mean we should leave everything to machines and leave everything to the LIGHTROOM. Freak out and create your new rules and be unique. Whether you have a D-SLR or a normal consumer camera does matter but not for creativity. No one can tell this to you better than me knowing that my best-sellers and a high amount of my portfolio images are the one taken from consumer cams randomly, just because they are easy to carry anywhere!

Michael’s Fans – We are his swords & shields

By : Nikhil Gangavane

The recent excitement and speculation of a Michael Jackson album with new material was suppressed by controversies as usual but there was a huge difference this time. Till Michael was alive it was the media that created the problems and fuelled allegations, this time its hurtful to see so many fans fuelling a controversy that is finally going to affect Michael’s legacy. I can understand sentiments of Michael Jackson fans because I have been one for so many years following his every move and his feelings and most importantly respecting them. Most of the fans feel that just because SONY BMG supported my fan club, I support them. They are entirely wrong. 

In this blog I want to explain fans not just the business side of the whole thing, but how are we ourselves harming Michael Jackson’s legacy in all this FAKE voice fiasco we have set up.

A few years ago when Michael was charged with false molestation charges I wrote a song called “THE MICHAEL JACKSON ANTHEM”. I wasn’t very proud about the music arrangement part of the song, but I was surely very happy with my lyrics. The main line in the song which told the world about US… the fans was “WE’RE NOT JUST FANS… WE ARE HIS SWORDS AND SHIELDS!” And today what is happening is not intentional harm to Michael or his legacy, but we have been indirectly hurting his reputation and status by ourselves showing disbelief in what is been given to us. Are we an army staging a mutiny against our own king… our idol??? To understand what I am trying to tell, get off the shoes of being a MJ fan and see it as a third person and also as SonyBMG.

Releasing new Michael stuff had to be challenging because most of the songs released here might now have worked or finalized by Michael in the studio in production terms. They were raw and wouldn’t have been produced well until an album of unreleased material itself was final till he was alive. One fact that many of the fans are failing to notice is that even when Michael was alive THIS IS IT concert and the album related to it was coming through SONYBMG anyway apart from Mike’s hatred for the label that was displayed in 2001. The hatred was specifically targeted at Tommy Mottolla (HEAD OF SONY AT THAT TIME) and then against all music labels which were exploiting artist. The scene reached a different level when it was specifically staged as Music labels treating black(African-American) artists disrespectfully and cheating them.

Now as a third person let us consider that SONY BMG is exploiting Michael’s material for their profits. But any music label would be doing the same. I wouldn’t like to mention the other beneficiaries of Michael’s work who are on equal profit terms as SONY BMG, but many fans would conveniently want to ignore that fact. I don’t know how many of you are aware of a new contract that came out through TMZ on Friday that showed another negotiation did by a Jackson Family member. Now even when we are considering that SONY is profiting from Michael, Sony wouldn’t sake its reputation by using a fake voice like Jason Malachi as Michael’s voice. We as Michael fans have been doing a free publicity and PR stunt for Jason Malachi… something that would have cost him thousands of dollars. Sony, any other music label, any sound engineer or music producer doesn’t need Jason Malachi to sound like Michael Jackson. The sound technology today is advanced enough to use voco-coders, Sound wavelets and many other effects that can artificially produce Michael’s sounds at a certain pitch and pronounciations. Wavelets can make it happen. This is safer for Sony that putting Jason Malachi on Michael’s record.

On the other hand, regardless of the truth and lies all fans should remember that it is the sales that is going to matter to any person on the planet that will prove Michael’s success again. If fans are talking about doing piracy and not buying album, despite of being a release of new material after Invincible then we are creating a loss for Michael. The sales are going to prove how influential he and his music still is in todays world. Michael always wanted to release an album that would surpass the sales of Thriller, and if fans are not going to buy his albums and do piracy this will hurt his legacy in the long run. The album should be bought by every fan. I am not against listening to leaked tracks… downloaded tracks but see what the media will have to say after the sales are less. The media will portray the whole thing as a failure of Michael to lure fans into buying music.

This debate is totally useless as well as harmful to whatever the news is telling today. Fans should know that there is no alternative than buying albums that will be released only through SONY in the coming years. And not buying them might hit on the profits of MJ estate, his family as well as sony, but the harm to his legacy and reputation for sales will be much higher. The debates on forums, social networks and blogs have been so pathetic that some fan clubs and communities had to ban the topics on their forums or even messages posted anywhere else. For a change be positive and if you don’t want to buy the album keep it to yourself. 

Consider this in a simple way. Akon recently said “Jesus died of our sins and Michael died because of the sins of the media. Jesus had bible but Michael had Wikipedia.” This Wikipedia is the reaction of fans on fan sites, forums and social networks. The more negativity we generate the media will lap it up in its own way. Instead of being emotional for some reason that cannot be solved and illogical for something practical we should try to see what result we want to achieve. Not for us but for Michael. I know that this album might not topple sales for thriller, but it can become the best-selling album of 2010 if fans are determined. 

Before winding up I would again like to mention that I am not a SONY BMG freak. I am a Michael Jackson fan but since I am in entertainment industry in some way or the other I understand some business of how it works. I am neither a celebrity nor a successful producer, but for me what matters is what we are doing as an ARMY of Michael. There is this ignorance that engulfed us due to emotional reasons but we have to unite and break through it. The possibilities of many more unreleased stuff will be ruined if the first album after he is gone, is received so badly. So I pray and hope that all fans understand what we have to achieve keeping aside our feelings of hatred for some entities… for some obvious reasons. Let us just be Michael’s fans and nothing else for the days to come! L.O.V.E

THIS BLOG CAN BE FREELY PUBLISHED ON ANY WEBSITE / EDITORIAL / PRINT as long as a link is provided back the THE MICHAEL JACKSON ANTHEM PAGE & http://nikhilgangavane.blogspot.com

Life in a Bus Ride

Time and again bollywood reminds of a dialogue that people keep repeating to each other “Ladkiyan buses jaisi hoti hai... ek jaati hai to doosri chali aati hai” (Girls are like buses, if you miss one bus you can always catch the next one). I don’t know whether this is a pessimist dialogue or something that really solves depression of a heartbroken lover. Thinking about it more deeply made me feel like this whole BUS transportation system works with different characters and entities in all relations. Just trying trying to put through a stupid idea that popped up in my head. This aint a serious blog like I always write... I am too busy or maybe emotionally exhausted at the moment to write the usual blogs. When this idea came up at 1 AM at night, I still went ahead to put i down to fill up the missing gap in the timeline of my blogs. I hope I make it short I have to wake up early tomm.

TYPE 1 Person : A PASSENGER who stands on the bus stop and waits for the bus to come. Might or might not catch the right bus. If the person missed the right bus one will catch the different one taking to the same decision. In a bad case the person catches the wrong bus in desperation to get down at a junction and then change the bus again. In the worst case the person gets no bus.

TYPE 2 Person : The person is THE BUS itself. Maybe one passenger or more get in. The bus travels from one source to destination enjoying every single passenger ride on it. Taking this seriously if the bus takes more passengers than it actually should causing an overload, it will eventually breakdown half way. The bus not being a small vehicle keeps carrying multiple passengers ruining itself due to wear and tear.

TYPE 3 Person : The driver would rather represent a person who is influencing the TYPE 2 PERSON - THE BUS. The driver is driving the bus and in some way trying to convince the bus that the destination that the driver is taking it to, is the right destination. One can imagine of a HIJACK here. :)

TYPE 4 Person : The TICKET CHECKER who is controlling who can get in the bus and who cannot. The poor bus might not want an overload or just rely on the ticket checker to check that the right people are riding it with the right permissions (tickets). If the ticket checker is corrupt or stupid... the bus will break down.

TYPE 5 Person : THE ILLEGAL PASSENGER is a kind of person who will get into the bus just for a free ride. The bus is so much used to multiple passengers and so is the conductor who might miss on even checking on a passenger traveling for free. This kind of passenger has the least to loose. It has a habit of climbing into any bus with a particular destination in mind. He enjoys the ride and gets away clean.

If a relational algorithm is created from the above entities, one will find that all these roles are habitual. The role of the bus and the passenger itself are worst. Replace a bus with a vehicle that a passenger is trying to buy. A passenger might be buying a new vehicle not knowing that it is used, at the same time the passenger might be buying a used vehicle not knowing how many times it has been used for real. In the worst case the passenger might not be aware that this vehicle is jinxed to change its owners too soon. In the vehicles case the vehicle might find a new buyer wealthy and nice hoping for royal life, but the buyer might be renting out the vehicles! The vehicle might not be maintained or attended well if the buyer has too many of them. A buyer might abuse the used vehicle if it fails to perform as much as the seller had promised him it would, or maybe it fails to perform as much as it did in the trial ride.

In whatever the cases the drivers, ticket checkers and the bus stops have nothing to loose. The spectators might be people around traveling in other modes of transportation just watching you and gossiping about u but these drivers &  ticket checkers can be dangerous. Drivers and ticket checkers are the people who can influence your life or control you unknowingly. Mostly stupid, indecisive or overconfident people will fall in their corrupt traps.

The public transport vehicles represent people who are known to keep only few people like driver and ticket checker on board all the time while changing the passengers habitually all the time. They might be circulating the people in a particular relation many times and still not feeling anything wrong or messy about it. They are so much used to the fact that they are confident to carry next passenger till whatever destination as long as they can. The passengers who board or buy wrong vehicles are generally emotional fools who go more on instincts and less on logic and suffer equally boarding or buying a wrong vehicle.

To end the blog finally to make the friends of my spiritual network happy - ITS FATE! hahaha but still I suggest you all to identify with the above examples and then correct yourself or play safe!

God Bless

By God's Invitation Only

Since more than a year I had been told by an astrologer to go and worship Balaji at Tirumala (Tirupati) as some remedy to my problems. Being into spiritual healing, counselling and astrology as well I follow all these things very devotedly. Lord Balaji is known to be very kind to his devotees especially when it deals with money matters as its told. Well I didn’t need the astrologer to tell me to visit the pilgrimage, I myself had been wanting to go there since a long time. There is a strange thing about some temples which are really active in their powers. “You cannot go there till the God invites you”, they say. Well one cannot die and go to heavens also till God says according to me so temple is as difficult, simple logic. Saibaba at Shirdi, Tirupati and some more religious places are known for this kind of invitation. If you go uninvited, you somewhat never reach the temple for some or the other reason. I have experienced it myself many times. Hence one should also never leave an opportunity to go there when invited.

This time the invitation came unexpected when my sister, bro-in-law and their family were going and asked me to join them. The invitation was at the wrong time because it has been during my worst financial crisis ever, but then after all I am supposed to go to the God who is known to shower his devotees with good amount of wealth. With a bit of financial arrangements made I decided to go with a lot of hope in my heart and faith in Lord Venkateshwara who would surely help me out. Well one would wonder where was the invitation. Invitations are supposed to be hints like this. The plans of me wanting to go there for years didn’t ever materialize. Though this was my 3rd visit. Surprisingly I realized that I am going every 10 years. I went there the last time in 1990 and then in 2000, this is 2010!

Lord Venkateshwara (Balaji) is actually an incarnation / avatar of Lord Vishnu and Lord Vishnu is actually very hard to please. Lord Vishnu, since he is considered the creator of all universes, the supreme, THE ONE tests a devotee a lot, not in one but many lives. No wonder this incarnation of lord Vishnu known to answer prayers attracts thousands of pilgrims everyday throughout the year. I started wondering if lord Vishnu was gonna test me again in this form too. After all life has been in the worst phase and tests last 4-5 years and I had been through a gruelling session of trying to pass them, maybe not in high ranks. Unfortunately I was right.

The kanyakumari express which I boarded did leave Pune station on time but when it halted at Solapur at 1 o’ clock in night I heard some rumours of a train accident that happened ahead on the track. A bridge had collapsed taking a train down into the river and some of it straight into some corn fields. My fears came true when the staff told me at WADI station that the train would now be taken from another route via Hyderabad, Secundarabad, Vijaywada, Tenali and then would join the station - Renugunta which was just 10 minutes before our destination. The whole detour made a 12 hour delay in the whole journey. The water and food in the train exhausted and so did the patience of all the passengers.

I somewhat cannot sit in the train doing nothing I love standing at the door. It is very risky but almost everyone does it, but it taught me a lesson this time. After brushing my teeth at 8 at Secunderabad station I boarded the train, had some coffee and breakfast and was standing at the door when suddenly the door for some reason banged on my rear pushing me outside. Since I had held the bars on the sides firmly my legs flung out for some moments till they came back to a position that I could push myself in. I was lucky that my legs weren’t stretched out when there was the regular pole passing near the door. I would have been without legs by now if it was the case. The episode kinda scared me but still didn’t stop me from standing at the door. Finally I was going to the temple and God saved me from getting handicapped, surely sounds like blind faith or stupidity.

Standing at the doors for almost 8 of the 12 hours of the journey doesn’t sound comfortable but was a pleasure all the way. Whatever way we took ran through many parts of forest areas. I saw scenes that I had never seen in my life. The scenes resembled something that might be seen in some Hi-Definition nature documentary or stories only. We passed a huge expanse or marshes or maybe a lake which was totally covered with white lotuses and water lilies. It was buzzing with honeybees and other insects and the heavenly aroma actually filled the air, except for the stink that the diesel locomotive was leaving on its way. Some 200 kms later a similar situation replaces with countless butterflies in white, copper, green and light blue colors. There were so many that it appeared like some paper pieces flying due to wind from a distance. The scenery looked really beautiful but somewhat confused me. It had a diverse combination of vegetation from high altitude areas as well as coastal palms. A regular passenger told me that the area before and a bit after Vijaywada was a conserved forest belt. But Vijaywada was loaded with heavily polluting power plants, cement factories and other industries. Tenali station reminded me of Tenali Raman stories, I don’t know if the name really has to do with that man. Finally when the train reached Renugunta at 12.00 AM at night, we were happy as our station (Tirupati) was just 10 mins away. We got another shock when we came to know that since the train had reached back on its original track it was gonna wait here for 1 hour for refills. We also filled ourselves up with coffee only to reach our station at 1.30AM at night.

Tirupati station was loaded with rats n’ mice running around the sleeping passengers on the platform. It was anything but clean. Nothing had changed it in since 10 - 20 years since I had seen it except for the newly erected buildings around. The roads were still filthy though there were hardworking cleaners working even at that time of the night. We got a decent hotel and then the stay was smooth with expected crowds, pilgrims and the system which somewhat seems to work efficiently. There were 2 sad parts about the trip. First that I fell terribly ill with such a high fever that I couldn’t hear things properly and i was walking like a zombie, not knowing what I am doing. The 2nd thing was knowing that money speaks even at religious places like this. Of course I knew this from before but then experiencing it was more important.

Coming back I didn’t see any good effects around till last week. I was hoping for miracles to happen very soon like it did for others. I didn’t get good news about resurrection of my faltering finances until last week. Things are not good otherwise in terms of personal life. I wonder if there is any god to solve these problems. But I guess our spirit lives in a certain body to face these relations and survive through them. Well that was a joke. There are all kinds of gods for all kinds of purposes. You need to study a lot of religion for that, but then its better to study yourself more. I think everyone is busy today with matters of wealth and then enjoyment. I wonder how many people really give time to think about themselves or rather would they consider that important?

I think its high time we should think about ourselves. The spiritual site with my counseling and some more healers is coming up very soon. Also up is the new site of photography http://www.thefinalmiracle.com/photography and Updated site of Shammi Kapoor Fan Club - www.shammikapoor.net . My next blog which is coming up very soon will be on Alien Invasion or maybe Alienation. Cya till then!

LEGACY

LEGACY - A word that represents huge responsibility about a transfer of power, history and achievements in absence of its owner but bestowed by the by will of the owner, hierarchy or just handed down to the next generation in the family. The literal dictionary meaning would be - a gift of property, esp. personal property, as money, by will; a bequest or anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor or an applicant to or student at a school that was attended by his or her parent. I don’t think that this word would be appropriate when its a normal transfer of property which isn’t huge in terms of its value in terms of money or value in terms of work.

Legacy is always taken by pride and maybe sometimes for granted. Many of the times its given by the owner willingly but also many times considered to be the right by their family. A work done with lots of skill, labor and patience is blindly in the hands of someone who might or might not be suitable for such a job, to retain its value and respect. In todays world in most of the cases we must be a witness to hundreds of legacies like this, the most important ones being the biggest ones. The poor are generally cribbing about why some person is rich because of the legacy handed over to him by his parent. The few of the rich who are the lucky ones to handle these legacies by inheritance try to live up to the work of the predecessor, but still there are many of those rich also who spoil those legacy.

Michael Jackson being my favorite lets start with him. A legacy of music left behind with his estate and the beneficiaries being his children and mother. There was also a lot of debt of $450 million involved apart from other debts amounting to $1 Billion. The debt was paid of within one year of his death. Apparently Michael was smart enough to have his lawyers and manager handle his estate business instead of the beneficiaries themselves. His children won’t be getting any money which will be divided equally in them till they are 40, though their needed expenses will be taken care of by the estate. Michael saved his legacy from being explored by the worst enemies and leeches that lie in his own family, fans know it but won’t talk about it.

The real legacy left behind is his music, his HIStory, his business skills & more. His children or his family which is not directly beneficiary of his will are going to benefit from this. Most of them already did from regular media appearances in terms of shows, TV interviews and whatever that was offered to them. Some of them who really loved him tried to keep a low profile. At least one of the children or all (who are in their innocent phase of childhood right now) will be eventually moulded into artists and mean machines to exploit everything that is left behind with just a name that had become a brand - Michael Jackson. Any one of them releasing an album will be swooped up by Michael Jackson fans. Die-hard fans will keep buying the following albums even if they might not like those, but not all would. Would a legacy be safe in such a way. But lets pray that his children also become successful in their forays in music if they do, and protect Michael’s legacy.

The recent order given by the supreme court about uplifting the ban on a controversial book on Shivaji Maharaj also created a lot of ripples within the pro-hindu political parties.Me respecting Shivaji Maharaj is also not going to make me feel that supporting only certain political parties who love and support him is going to prove my love for my heritage, my Maharashtra or my country in all. Who and when gave the rights of protecting Shivaji Maharaj’s legacy to these parties ever? Shivaji Maharaj belongs to every person India as much as he belongs to them. Again no person in the world had a 100% loving following, they all had haters. Today we have dictators who want to tell people of Maharashtra to prove their love for Shivaji by supporting them, in this rule people might not express their hatred for the dictator but they will still hate him inside and might take any opportunity to destroy him even when they love Shivaji. Todays leaders also seem to be stuck in their blind ego not understanding that banning the book in Maharashtra won’t stop people from Maharashtra from reading it. Anyone can import it or simply read it on the internet! Who the hell makes them think that they own Maharashtra just because they love Shivaji, we also do but we don’t support you. There are books that talk about our Hindu Gods portrayed indecently not just as a painting but also in text content, what have they done to stop those publications? There should be some other way to support such sentiments or protect the legacy which is more logical and practical. But then again, can just a political party be in charge of that great legacy of Shivaji Maharaj?

There have been spiritual gurus of today coming under scanners for various charges like sexual molestation and a lot of other stuff. We also have guru’s who themselves are clean and have a huge following behind them. Sometimes the higher management of such ashrams get into indecent acts ruining the whole ashram’s purpose. Who is supposed to be blamed for this? Its not just the ashram involved into illicit things as long as the guru is alive, the worst is expected to happen after the guru’s death who promises to live spiritually with every follower. How can this kind of spiritual or religious legacy continue to thrive on the supporters or followers who just might be appearing sincere to get the reins in their hands. The hands that are supposed to bless then start becoming hands that just molest!

There is more of danger which cannot be called legacy but it is. Aren’t their nuclear and EMP devices which are rumoured to be as small as a beer can and some as suitcases being sold in the Russian black-market after their fallout. The technology got in hands of the people who were more destroyers than protectors. When USSR became just Russia, the broken of peaces retorted to various business including one like this. It is for normal people like us to understand that supporting a person handling a legacy is not about supporting the person behind it. People are hungry for power, money and fame, they might be pretending to offer you what you expect them to just by playing with your sentiments. The success of many extremists lie in the manipulation of the extremism within us, which might be of supporting someone or being of a certain religion or country. Neither them no us really own that legacy. Its done and staying here as a residue and not as the process itself. If we get so much attached to that residue, we ourselves might become a negligent residue than an explosion in process. I would prefer to be the latter.

The BUSYness Perspective

About 10 years ago, I had an argument with a close friend of mine over the kind of life I was imagining ahead. While talking about career, routine and then personal life together, she was teaching me of how a normal and good life is about working 9 to 5 and then spending time with your family or friends till dinner. Sleep with / without watching a movie and wakeup again the next day to progress with whatever we were doing yesterday. The only thing I agreed with was to sleep and wake up the next day to progress with whatever we were doing yesterday.  I didn't like the 9-5 concept or even about the after work time to be spent with family or friends.

I hate this for 2 reasons -

1. Why should I slot my time for everything precisely. Can't I just prioritize my work and meetings for the day according to what needed how much time? I wasn't having a business in those days but rather doing some full time and sometime part-time jobs. My attitude has generally been about doing and 8 hours job in 2 and then spend time on things that I wanted to do. 
2. Why spend the free time with family / friends always?? Where is the time for your own mental and spiritual growth? Why isn't anyone giving more time to themselves apart from the time the spend in the loo (if they dont read in there) or over a lonely drink / cigarette?

Over the time after meeting more n' more people I started realizing that maybe I was not ambitious. Not for a career everyone was running after. I wasn't academically bright ever till my school days. My IQ was amongst the top 5 in my class but my rank was among the last 5. I really hated the way I was taught. I loved some subjects like biology, history and drawing but I wasn't given the freedom to experiment here. There was always a rule. Even for playing my keyboard for the gathering there were rules like which songs to play, which not to. And again not because I played bad but because I was a notorious kid, i was banned totally from playing solo at the school gathering. Its another thing that I ended up as a backup artist with almost every singer in the same gathering. Things the way they were moulded or routine(d) never did and still don't seem right to me. I always wanted to walk life in the untrodden way. Yes I wanted to earn money and I still earn money that I targeted. Though I agree things went horribly wrong on the personal life front. I wanted to be busy and progress but I wasn't made for the old school tricks.

After years of facing hatred, jealousy, anger, uncertainty, disgust, etc not from my own conscious but my own people, time started changing recently. Maybe I didn't earn some years of my life like others did, but I do earn right now as much as they do by working only 1/4th of the time they work. Now people openly tell me of how lucky I am or how jealous they are about how I live my life, I wonder what they were thinking in the past? Its only when people see an example they term as successful, they justify its ways. I am not saying that all people are envying me nor do I yet say I am successful, I am still on my way, the problem is about people having time to judge other's lives and comparing it with themselves. I think after their education and in their settled life - sad are those people who are not happy with the work they do and envy others, happy are the people who are happy with their work and have time to think about the ways other people work, but happiest are the people who are happy with their own work and are least concerned about what others are doing. I am from the last batch regardless of being successful or not, but its quite often that people in the earlier 2 categories pull me down to their level when they have to argue about my ways of work or about someone else.

I always wondered why was there a discrimination in all aspects during mankind's history. Right from races, castes, colors, profiles, status the leaders of a society or a community have always found out ways to set different categories of people. With over-emphasized or hyped education about unity or peace we fail to achieve peace, instead we end up blinding ourselves against the reasons where logical discriminations were made. Its the judgemental attitude of people which has resulted in any kind of discrimination. The person who had the right to set this pattern always put oneself in the best status, because after all he was given the honor of setting these. Even the industrial revolution resulted in white collared workers and others. The corporate world has resulted in more. The trouble itself about the discrimination or any kind of frustration arising from one's own deeds or someone else's deeds would all end if we stopped judging other and thought more about the betterment or enhancement about what we do. 

Recently after a lot of investigative attempts of some people I wanted to know what they are upto. I was not understanding why are they really interested in what I am doing and how much I am earning. Now this group of people knows three examples where I am one of them.

1. Myself - A person who believes in chasing dreams but not dreams based on still-life career or routine work. I believe that money comes if you are persistent, patient and strategical enough about what you want to achieve. Just following a routine part of progress, appraisals and promotions doesn't mean success for me. For me success means a lot of money & fame laying on the foundation of satisfactory work. NO REGRETS! I earn and spend an X amount for 4 hours work.
2. PERSON X - A person who has a lot of fortune left for him by his parents. He dreams of earning crores by is hell lazy do do any kind of work. Rather this person doesn't know what he/she wants to do. Having new ideas every year, the person is lost about where to invest how much to invest and how much to expect in profits. Even after lot of loans which remain unpaid or are paid by selling assets this person lives a comfortable lifestyle with the fortune which never seems to end. Still earning and spending the same X amount a month.
3. PERSON Y - A hard-working ambitious person. Very dedicated to one's work and career. Sets goals and hits them with a lot of hard-work but in time. Works for 10 hours in a day still earns and spends the same X amount. People abroad earn and spend more though.

A handful of people from the third category are really intelligent enough to understand the concept of smart-work and also are totally happy with what they are doing. They have no time to think about others. But most of the people in the third category generally have the idea of hard-work in their head which has to feel hard and not to be done with ease. These frustrated people are always calculating their own work time with other individual's work time. Being frustrated most of the times with their own routine and career choice these buggers spend endless energy and efforts in crucifying themselves or criticizing others for their ways of work. These people work really hard and whenever they have the time to think about themselves they are in a very tired and frustrated mood. They generally get insane looking at a lazy person who is lucky enough to live the same kind of lifestyle without working as hard as him/her. Their comparison is generally dependent on how much time they spend working hard for their bread, save their money and then spend it for their definitions of right spendings. They loathe people who are earning the same amount in lesser time and easier ways.

The problem in these frustrated people isn't about their wrong ways of work. I am nobody to judge that. Their problem is about the time and energy they spend comparing themselves with others. In worse cases, the frustration that they endure trying to convince others about how hard they work and rightly they are paid and others are just lucky for being paid for easier work. The the WORST cases these people don't just try to convince their targets but spend time in preparing a team to convince their point of view to a certain person. These unsatisfied souls are extremely unstable with their own career. Their intellectual limitations itself show of their inability to find logical and practical solutions to reach a certain goal in an easier way. They really spend their energies totally dedicated to their work and are physically and mentally exhausted when they come across and opposite work situation which is giving equal kind of results. I think happiness of a person has a lot to do with the intellect of a person and not just about satisfaction and contentment. The people who spend a lot of time grumbling about others and proving themselves right are generally unhappy about themselves. They cannot be passionate about their work enough to be able to ignore what people around them do. Their happy and satisfactory moments in work are generally occasional moments when they are praised by their collegues or subordinates for some specific purpose. Even understanding the selfish motives behind all the praise, they relish it like their favorite dish and get energetic again to bombard others with ethical, practical and career knowledge using their own example as metaphor for success.

I don't believe that many of the people who read my blog lie in the frustrated category in the last example I mentioned, but I am sure that there are a handful of people who might be in that category. For the non-frustrated I would encourage you to continue with your passions and goals no matter how many hurdles of frustrated people you face. Don't even spare a thought trying to analyse their views. For the frustrated lot i would say, "Avoid convincing me or the people whose ways of work you don't approve. Spend more time enhancing yourself and being happy with your work all the time instead of momentarily. we don't have any problem with your ways of work as long as you leave us alone. Remember the happiest people are those who mind their own business and handle others, we follow just that. Our BUSYness progress is more about our own goals and personal satisfaction which has nothing to do with others. We cannot compare our ways of work and our profits with anyone else's, instead when we fail we try to learn what went from from our own mistakes and other stories we found successful. We don't have time to criticize you..... oops. I think I am only doing that writing this blog.... but damn you.... you provoked me to do this after torturing me for years!!!! It will take you a lifetime to get me frustrated again. I am peaceful after letting out all this scum on you, and I was always been happy with myself anyway! 

Need to be NORMALLY Materialistic

Ages n' Ages we have been taught by our religions and spiritual gurus to be away from the materialistic world and into our souls. Get away from attachments, desires and just think about god to attain Moksha. For some reason I am realizing that getting materialistic is now become one of the steps towards god. Most of us have become dependent and insanely attached to technology in the digital for and internet which is all virtual. Just some major technical setback or a terrorist attack technically and we all will be unwired.

Our systems, our work, our memory today is all dependent on the machine. I remember how I used to remember everyones phone numbers by heart and when I started using a cellphone I eventually ended up remembering only a handful. These handful numbers are not remembered because they are important, but because they are used more often. I think memorizing things is also become obsolete after passing out from a school or rather till the time you are not handed over a digital gadget where you can store all your information.

I am myself a digital freak. I love the digital world and I am addicted to it. Not just my life but even my living is dependent on the internet and computers today. One could have argued about the same while changing from slates to write to papers. I have no idea of what people thought about such kind of transformations in those days but today I am understanding a huge change, an experience where I have been a part of a revolution that is making our brains travel in the world of truth, reality, then virtual reality (the worst form of maya). There are virtual games with virtual worlds where people have their own characters not just playing some silly game but doing business within the game. There are many addicted to such games. The less fortunate are also living in virtual worlds of chat and social networking. No wonder when I used to handle an internet cafe, I used to end up saying LOL instead of laughing many times. I still do that... but sarcastically.

Even after being so much on machines almost 80% of the time I am awake, I am not liking much of it these days. I am lacking the fun of using hands on physical objects that I can touch and smell. Something that is beyond the computer screen and eyes. Yes on the internet I can reach many and many can reach me. I have a lot of ideas to share, I have a lot of work to do, I have a lot of money to earn and what not!? I am surely enjoying and benefiting from it too, but I am also missing making photo albums by hand, or printing CD labels for a customized audio CD I burnt or an audio cassette I recorded. The creativity is greatly dying in the sense of moulding things physically. I am myself a great fan of farmville, playing it and will soon stop playing as I will reach the highest level possible. Why did I play farmville and not cafeworld? Because I love gardening. If I love gardening why don't I work in the garden of my own bungalow?? I would love too, but isn't it that I am all the time uploading or editing photos/music making a living. Maybe I have the comfort of working from home, but still I have to be near my computer. As much as I am connected online the more money I am going to make in the longterm. Thats where a virtual game like farmville satisfies my hearts hunger to do farming or gardening. But how long will this work. I had got bored of the game in between, but then I decided to cut down its usage and finish it completely before stopping the game.

I don't watch TV. I feel proud about it. I loved to watch documentaries or travel shows more than I loved to watch music though I make music myself. Over the years as I started working online I stopped listening to much of music as well. I think everyone would agree that our most memorable songs are the songs that were made before 2000. I made a survey on this even with the new generation. My students who range from the age of 6 to 50 all like songs of different types. Obviously the new generation is liking the song which is chart buster at the moment, but ask them about the song after a year.... They have not just forgotten to play it, but they are not even interested in hearing it again. Some new song is on their mind now. Now lets not immediately jump to a conclusion where this generation is needing something new all the time. Its not that. They do love the songs their parents hear or some old songs they hear otherwise from friends or a retro party. They still remember the songs that were not their own favorites but they have heard vaguely like this. There has to be some logic and not magic behind this.

Taking music only as an example its a well publicized fact in the public today that todays music doesn't stay eternal in the hearts of listeners because there was no hard work done in the process of making music like it was done in the old days. I completely disagree and so will any person who is doing and listening to good music. Since many years music directors and arrangers have been emphasizing on acoustics and original instruments which are disappearing very fast from the studios due to production constraints. The producers want to use more clear samples, more better VST (Virtual Synthesizers) and use loops instead of live rhythm. The EXCESSIVE use of digital automation in the field of music is a curse more than boon according to me. It should have stayed in limits. The tones and samples of instruments though close to real are so clear that they dont sound like a real instrument that is heard live. The samples and tones are tuned in comparison with the sound of the instrument through a mic or mixer on flat levels. I feel the noise, hiss or breathing sound need to be there to give a more humane touch to the music. The all clear track of sound feels nice to listen in realtime but doesn't really flatter the frequency of the strings in our cells.

Same with photography there is too much digitalization and modification of photos. A photo that might have come crap in real time is modified beautifully to make it look like a masterpiece. After a while a person doesn't understand whether the photo was good or the editing was. For a buyer the masterpiece is what is essential. But slowly I am loosing the fun in it. In the first stage I was loving exploiting my creative side while taking pictures. In the second stage I started correcting the pictures to achieve the right results. In the third stage I started modifying the pictures drastically to achieve artistic results beyond imaginations. Conceptually and technically the images come out at the highest standards for my customers, they pay me a lot for it, but in the end what did I exactly do? Was I a good photographer, a good graphic designer or a good conceptualizer. Ever since I entered the photography market I was criticized for my composing techniques and concepts, 3 years later many photographers want to follow me and models want to get pictures clicked from me. Why is that? Not just because I modified those pictures perfectly or fought the industry rules of composition. I achieved high results because I managed to use a camera like a computer and computer like a camera. But honestly speaking I would have been happier making a painting with canvas, paints and brushes. My concepts would still work there, but would there be a time for doing that. If I am doing something digitally its taking me 1/100th time of what would have taken me physically.

We stand on a brink of extinction in terms of how are we going to use all the muscles of our body together to achieve a single result whether creative or not. True consciously or unconsciously we did get away from many material aspects of life on the superficial level, but the virtual world has got us deeper into the material structure. There have been virtual dating, then virtual marriages, even porn sites converting themselves to live sex shows on cam feeds, virtual memorials for deaths, virtual get-togethers, etc. I think this is all becoming more closer to a make belief world. People are following a certain pattern of digitalization. If there is a river with that name, most of us are blindly floating on it, not even swimming in it, and going on as it takes its own course. The people who aren't yet aware of such a world are missing a lot of good and lot of bad things too. I think its time for smart people to think of how their virtual activities be limited or be converted into their physical world and material world where they could use senses other than sight that fuels their incredible brains with imaginations that are not going to last till their journey back to the real world.

With more people getting together, spreading activities or rumours has becomes much easier. All creations related to this technology right from art to softwares have lost their profits because of increases free sharing of utilities. A software or a music album that would have sold a million copies before will manage to sale bearly 10k copies today. All because we have to a habit of sharing, copying and swapping things for free. Though open-source is here to stay it is going to fuel only technology and not going to benefit its creator in the long run. Even with e-books, digital book gadgets like kindle will keep screwing our eyesight. Over exaggerated reports about global warming and solutions for it like norms on carbon emissions are leading us to do more disastrous things in life. Read article titled " Cars Bombs & Climate Changeon PAGE 14 of TOI's crest to actually know the other side of the global warming solutions. The link will lead you to the online edition.

I somewhat again and again feel the need to go back into 70s and live that world. I might have lived only 1 year as a baby but I enjoyed my life till computers came in my life precisely in 1992. I was fascinated by anything that was mechanical since my brains are of the engineering background by heridity. I have been fascinated by machines and toys. Computers made it more easier and more vast. But then somewhat I feel the human life existed more before computers reached in the hands of ordinary people. We met in life more than we chatted online. Our problems were more realisitic than virtual or kinda imagined I would say. There would be more of togetherness and humanity. There was hysteria about celebrities and fascination about them which we dont have for any celebrity anymore. Yes there are fans, but there is not that mysterious life hidden behind walls. We know everything about them all the time. There was only gold-spot and thumbs up if I remember. Watching a movie was strictly limited to saturdays that too after VHS came. Otherwise TV was about family sitting together at primetime watching buniyaad, nukkad or ramayan. Whether you loved those serials or not, for sure all would be watching them together because there was limited entertainment and no choice. The success behind those legendary works also was due to this factor that these products were shared by everyone in the household or friends. Now we all have our own televisions, computers and laptops and can hole up in our room and watch what we want to.

We are already facing a backlash of our overconfidence in the virtual world. I see my internet lifetime as my dreams. I love its part as a getaway from real life. Mainly because my work is related to this. This is where I earn. I am happier and more creative when I am not on the internet, but still internet helps me forget things that are happening in real life. It makes me feel happy and comfortable talking to people I dont know for real, people I cannot trust for real, yet I can take the risk for that happiness that is acting in my todays world. Looking around, I realized a lot about coming back to the real world again after my best friend shifted back to Pune. All these years he wasn't here, I wanted to meet my friends every evening just to hangout and talk, but everyone was busy with their work as well. Everyone working overtime and the rest of the time coming home to watch tv or sit on the internet. Past few days I am loving it staying away from the net and cutting down my usage drastically to fuel more in my life. I dont know. Maybe just because my friend is here, a happy part of my real life is back. if he disappears again I might jump back into the virtual world looking for a hideout to stay away from the real world again. When the internet is down I want to sleep a lot, not because I am sleepy because I have now caught up with the tendency that if I am not awake and not earning, why spend my life feeling the pain of the unhappy life around. I rather be happy in dreams. Fortunately I dont have nightmares. I think digital world is like that, its like a dream.... like an imagination, once you are are disconnected its like waking up and wondering what to do. If electronic gadgets stop working due to some EMP pulse, then no ones ipod will work what will remain to listen are the old LPs and maybe a few cassette players.

Getting addicted to internet or dreams is surely not a solution to avoid real life problems. All of us who spend more than 2 hours on the internet for non-work reasons are surely consciously or unconsciously living this virtual life for the same problems. I realized the positive and negative side of this world. I have been living in this world for almost 8 hours a day on average for last 10 years. I have not just seen my life which I consider moderately connected but I have seen the best people get ruined due to getting away from the real world and getting on virtual world. I never used to read books, I only read comics, now I am making a point to read books to excuse myself from the virtual world. Though I would always like to be connected with people online and infact expand my network I will do it in a limited way. I need to enhance my spiritual productivity instead of hampering it. A session of meditation would do more wonders than dreams. An astral travel to a place I want to in the real world would be more rewarding than a trip to a social networking site. And last but not the least partying with friends on a saturday night, getting high and letting loose is always better than being online. Its time to get away from the worse form of maya and improve by getting back to the worst (better than worse) form of material world.

P.S Internet and computers was just some terms used to represent any kind of big n' small devices that have taken us away from the normal walk of life. So internet lovers dont get pissed off, I love the internet as much as you all do, but I want to enjoy a peg or two of the internet and not the whole bottle. Or maybe I will learn to serve people the whole bottle of my product on the internet... haha! God Bless You All!

Michael Jackson Vs Sony

This blog is strictly for people who are Michael Jackson fans rest please dont read this.

In 2002 Michael Jackson has spent the last couple of months complaining that Sony didn't do enough to promote and market ''Invincible,'' released last November on Sony's Epic label, which sold 2 million copies in the U.S. and only a few million more in the rest of the world -- lackluster figures by Michael's standards. Sony says it has done plenty, having spent $50 million producing and promoting the album, but it balked at Jackson's request earlier this year for $8 million to shoot a third video for the album, the Times reports. But the dispute over the handling of ''Invincible'' grew out of a larger struggle between Jackson and Sony over Jackson's effort this year to renegotiate his contract with the label, where he has spent his entire adult career, those involved in the negotiations. Michael explicitly said on numerous occasions that he thoroughly disliked Sony and its business executives, called administrators, such as Tommy Mottola “devils” and “racists” (see picture), and blamed people at that company as well as others for creating a “conspiracy” against him by tarnishing his image with child sex abuse accusations because they wanted to gain the rights to his 50 percent share ownership of the Sony-ATV music publishing catalog and The Beatles music catalog.

All the fans have supported Michael against the Sony campaign. Everyone forgot that Michael was targeting specific executives at Sony like Tommy Motolla. All said and done. On 25th June 2009, Michael died under mysterious circumstances fueling new theories. Who murdered Michael? Fine I agree with all Dr. Murray, but if there was a conspiracy who made him murder Michael? Sony or someone else benefiting from the death? All fans obviously pointed fingers to AEG Live and Sony. Logically yes AEG live was also my suspect, but not a strong proof against Sony. Sony was earning when Michael was alive and would have earned if the concert did well, as well as they would have earned after Michael died.

Lets consider the facts. The finances were shambled and there was a lot of debt on mike's head. Thats the reason why ATV catalog was put in again to re-negotiations of his loans. There was no way he could buy back the rights to his own catalog as well as ATV under the new loan re-negotiation even if THIS IS IT concerts would have done well. The amount was huge and the stakes were risky at the same time with neverland also gone there was not much left apart from the coming royalties from the sales of the albums. Most of them were reissued or recompiled jobs of old songs. Even the fans were starting to loose interest.

Lets forward time to 17th March when the new record deal was signed by the Michael's estate with Sony. Fans again are upset because it happened with Sony. What they dont understand are the details or the behind the scenes of this contract. Its just a 2 years extension for the distribution of Michael's catalog which Sony already has the rights for till 2015. The deal doesn't include publishing or royalty which will amount to huge amounts as well. Apart from the fact that Sony will earn from this, this would have been done by any music label in the world. They have to profit from the artist and their own catalogs. Are there any fans who wont buy any new material that will be released now just because it is from Sony??? No!!! Its silly just screaming and shouting as fans without understanding the business going behind. The Michael Jackson Estate has a lot of debt to be paid of and this deal is also not enough to do that. Not to forget the fact that the estate is not even in a state to buy back the remaining stake in ATV catalog after re-negotiations of loans. Sony or any music label in its place would have done the same thing that Sony is doing now. I am not saying that Sony was right during Invincible times. But Tommy Mottolla is out. And we need to know that Michael Jackson catalog is gonna end up nowhere else but Sony in future. Considering business strategies of entertainment industry against a falling empire with no king, there is no possibility of Michael Jackson estate buying back the rights for ATV. Infact they might sell the rest share as well as Michael's own catalog to sony in future. There is not going to be any use cribbing about sony now.

Now let me get to the point. I am not a Sony employee nor sony paid me for this. What I am not understanding is the fans attitude to ignore the real culprits. I won't really point at them except for Joe Jackson who is openly running after the money, saying $15000 monthly allowance is not enough for him. I think the kids are worth having the money share but what about the rest. There are so many other people in the family suddenly in limelight after Michael's death. People who were not given any importance by the media or the rest of the world. Even after Michael's death they failed in plans, but they reaped a lot of money in music projects, reality shows and various collaborations. Though nothing worked like they thought it would. The reason is simple. There can be only one Michael Jackson. Fans need to realize and study Michael's will and where the profits of his sales are shared. Simply looking you will see the kids getting it. But it is not just the will. Look around and see the people claiming to be Michael's personal friends or relatives cashing in, making hay till the sun shines, trying to cry in front of cameras and looking comical. These are the real culprits. Fans cannot also ignore the fact that just like Michael hated sony he also avoided any concerts or albums with many family members or friends in his lifetime after 1982. These are the same people in limelight and making money in his name now. Sony is just a music label, a corporate, a business that is not supposed to be emotional, but what about these people who were supposed to love and support Michael in life more than showing off their love in his death for money?!?!

I understand my own hatred about Sony as a Michael Jackson fan under his command. After his death I choose to hate the other side more. Like I said above SONY is doing business and we will be buying albums that they release even if many of us hate them. What about these snakes who kept biting Michael when he was alive and now are still biting him in his grave?

To Love or Not To Love Sonu Niigaam

FOR SONU FANS : I was myself a fan. This blog in not Anti-Sonu, this blog is about a perspective as an Indian and as a supporter

I am not a big Sonu Niigaam Fan. I don't hate him either. I love him as a singer, his technique... somewhat was never impressed with the tone (as an audience, not as a singer). Sonu's songs for me are from Deewana and Jaan, the non-film songs that never becomes as popular as film music in India. He had his share of his good songs and bad songs, for which he gave his 100%. There was a trend in music directors at a time when they used to give him only sad songs to sing. He fought it and came out of it. He sang masterpieces like Kal Ho Na Ho, Satarangi Re and a lot more. I love those songs, but not as much as I love songs from Deewana and Jaan where Sonu sounds more free, more touching and non-monotonous.

Recently the industry had a buzz of why Sonu Niigaam aint singing songs as much as before. The supporters of Sonu claimed that he is taking only selected and good projects while the other side claimed some other reasons which I don't feel like mentioning here. Somewhat things seemed uncomfortable, strange and weird in last 2 years. There were wrong PR and other movies which seemed to have a very short-term vision. Suddenly a Sonu Niigaam that I admired got me worried. I myself faced an ego clash during the Michael Jackson Tribute project, and I never know if it was he himself or some of his assistants who did things in his name. It seemed like I am looking at the life of a celebrity in the 3rd phase where we hear history telling us, a time when they only want people saying 'YES' or 'GOOD' around them. Criticism wasn't easily accepted and there was a feeling for the person to be very high, closer to God than any of the people they knew. With people calling him GOD this can ruin things more!

Aamir and Sonu both are fighting for royalty rights for artists lately. A move, an action that should be supported, loved and respected by all artists in India. This fight will help save ourselves from the death that yesterdays stars suffered due to lack of business knowledge. If artists put in their 100% for a project they should be paid royalties as well. There needs to be a strong forum, strong community to tackle this problem. Unfortunately, Sonu or Aamir can't afford to go on a strike with a few supporters. I say few, because though the support is very large and strong, many might look this as an opportunity to jump into the vacant places. I was happy that India was changing. Like the legendary Amitabh Bachchan said in his blog, if all goes well many of todays celebrities will end up ending more money than they did in their lifetime just like Elvis and Michael Jackson. These celebrities had a strong PR that made them so famous, a PR that was funded from their incomes which hugely was from royalties and not signing-amounts.

Recently Sonu posted this blog - http://www.facebook.com/notes/sonu-niigaam/wake-up-india-from-the-slumber/372952231095 on his facebook fanpage. It goes as below

All the producers, director, composers, lyrics writers present in the meeting, are witness to the fact that I never spoke about singers to get 25% Royalties. That's a misquote by the media. Its the composers and lyrics writer's royalties that are confiscated by the music companies 100%, and all we all were proposing was a fair split where in the producer being the funder, gets 50% and rest 50% split between the composers and the lyrics writers! How much more fair anyone wants us to get when in the rest of the world, 100% goes to the composers and lyrics writers.!! We are not even discussing singers at this point.!

My favorite actor, whom I consider like my spiritual elder brother, who is known to be fair generally,.. just proposed to someone secretively, “forget it....give these guys 1%.....“ What a magnanimous contribution!! My favorite actor!!!! Wow!! God bless all of them. I have anyways decided to live outside this country, a country that is too shy to give its artistes, their dues doesn't deserve purists like myself!. No wonder Ravishankarji, Zakirbhai, etc live abroad. I only feel bad for the future artistes, who will have to be subjected to this feudalistic arm twisting, if proper amendments are not made now. And the people who treat music as prayer and not a glamour driven activity.. Wake up India from the slumber!! 

Love,
Sonu Niigaam
_______________

After reading this blog I suddenly lost my respect for this great personality who was fighting for us artists, gave so many beautiful songs to us. Thats why I titled this blog "TO LOVE OR NOT TO". His last paragraph disturbed me a lot. Not just as an Indian, but as a person who supported this man. If he calls this a war against an unfair practice, what does he mean to say?? Is he running away scared or he wants to fight a war from a palace? The country is not shy to give the artists their share otherwise no one would have thronged in thousands to their concerts. With such a stupid statement and move I don't think the motive and passion for the cause by Sonu makes any sense. Maybe he is only thinking about his own pockets and if he can't fill them well like he wants, he will move out. I feel he better shift out then. He is doing a M.F.Hussain. India is large and populated enough to produce artists to feel the vacancy.

My view is simple - If SONU NIIGAAM is fighting a good cause for all the music fraternity in India. But why should India also pay royalties to an artist who anyway is going to live outside the country? Seeking sympathy and pity like this and then running away from one's country is not a virtue of a person whom people idolize. I choose to love Sonu NIGAM, but I choose not to love this Sonu NIIGAAM. The highlight of the LAST-NAME SPELLING CHANGE also indicates a deep metaphor as living outside a country.

If as an audience I have a right to love a person, I also have the right to hate him for something that can be more important. I have no personal relation with Sonu that I loved as a singer, so I don't want to comment on his personal life. But I do have the right to talk about his public views and image and feel compelled to just know him as Mr. Niigaam who resembles a singer I loved. A singer who sarcastically talks about his favorite actor whom he supposedly considers like his SPIRITUAL ELDER BROTHER. Shame on me, Shame on him... that an admirer reached to a state of questioning himself - To Love or not to love a person like this!  I am an Indian, I was never sleeping on Royalty issues maybe because I am not a successful artist yet. But yes... Thanks to Mr. Niigaam for waking me up from a slumber with a dream of admiring a person I thought of to be someone else. I think its time to act and understand, a time for political leaders understand & kick out pessimist anti-Indian thoughts instead of creating fights within India.