Chp 224. The Women in my Life!

I thought of calling this post – A tribute to women of Metal, but then, I know how unworthy I am to make such a humongous mammoth topic.

I don’t want to misguide metal fans all over the world into coming here hoping to find famous Metal women, only to find a few selective ones. Like how 90% of the visitors who came to my 2006 post "Underworld - 3"– a sardonic fiction I wrote about interracial relationships based on the movie, were actually looking for the official Movie review!

[In my defense, I had no idea they were going to make part 3 back then! And oh by the way, I went for the First Day First Show of "Underworld – Rise of the Lycans" on Friday, and it was AMAZINGGG, though a bit disappointed that it was only 80 minutes long. Do watch it in theatre if you’re a true Underworld fan… psst psst, yea I know, aXXo hasn’t released the divX rip yet ]

Hence in order to avoid messing with SEM, I call this post "The women in my life" - Women that I have deep (and a wee bit disturbing) crushes on these days.

A must read for Metal fans or those who want to experiment with new music.

I’ve already mentioned a couple of Symphonic Gothic babes in my post "Sweet Gothic Love" that covered some of the more popular bands like Epica, Sirenia, Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Theatre of Tragedy, Tristania, After Forever, Within Temptation, Eden Bridge and Lullacry. This post is more about female vocalists that really really touched me (emotionally speaking ).




First of all, there is Doro.

Love her! Her music style nostalgically reminds me of those Alannah Myles "Black Velvet" and Joan Jett "I love rock and roll / I hate myself for loving you" days.



What I really love about Doro (formerly the vocalist of Warlock) is that her style is exactly like those 80s 90s rock style, and yet she is still able to pull it off even today. In fact, her most recent album was released just last month - Jan 30th (9 days ago!). The album’s called "Fear No Evil", where she paid a tribute to ROCK with her song "Celebrate" (my favorite song in this album).

We celebrate our love for Rock and Metal
We raise our heads as we salute
Tonight we share our love for Rock and Metal
There's nothing more we wanna do

Seriously, we all love that era but how many bands do you know that still play in that style? I can bet my metal-crazy ass anybody listening to this 2009 album would assume it’s a blast from the past. That’s why she is truly the queen of Metal.

Here is the official trailer of her new album, courtesy afmrecords



Enjoy!




Ok now, moving to a little bit more symphonic gothic metal, I give you – Sirenia!

Sirenia’s latest album featuring their new spanish vocalist Ailyn is a must buy, and is worth every penny. No offense to the former vocalists, but I really really love this new album and Ailyn delivered perfectly. Plus she is sooo cute!



Here is their official promo, courtesy Nuclear Blast Records:



See how difficult it is not to fall in love with her! That cute smile, that innocent laughter, that romantic accent, that childish giggle, and yet all those with such dark gothic aura… oooh boy, I am sooo in love!

Listen to these small samples I made of three of my fav songs from their latest album. They are of around 1 minute each only. Thank you dear Eve for showing me how to do this!

It’s just a sample so I hope I won’t get sued for this Plus hey, I am giving them more publicity, free of charge! Also hoping Google won’t delete my post!!! (I’ve always been a very good boy. I swear!)

Here is my favorite song from this album: "Led Astray" [1:02]



Here is another song entitled "The Mind Maelstorm" [1:00] with classic symphonic gothic Gregorian chants, a style that many other bands follow too.



Another song called "Beyond life’s scenery" [0:48], magnifying Ailyn’s alluring voice. If she was a sultry siren, I would gladly captain my ship straight to its rocky death just to listen to her fatal songs! [Refer Odysseus and Sinbad legends]



Now go buy the album before it’s out of stock!




Dark Moor.

Another great band, sometimes categorized as Power Metal. Although there are no female vocalists in the band currently, they still use a lot of female back-up vocals. I would love to see them hire a female frontwoman again. I miss you Elisa!!!



Here is my favorite song called "The Emperor" from their latest album "Tarot".



Also listen to "Devil in the tower" from this album if you buy it. It’s another great symphonic gothic song.




Dark Princess.

One of those symphonic gothic vocalists with a unique voice, the kind that seems to transport you across a serene river amidst time standing still, the kind that gives you an out of body experience as the song transports you to an unblemished Paradise. Meet Olga Romanov, vocalist of the band "Dark Princess".



See if you like her style of songs. This one is called "Living in me".






Battlelore.

A very unique gothic and folk metal band. All their songs are based on J.R.R.Tolkien’s Middle Earth! If you’re a fan of his books or the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and into symphonic Metal, then you are bound to love this band! (They also sing a couple of death metal, which I personally don’t like coz I’m not into that genre. But I love their other songs.)

Another thing very unique about this Finnish gothic band – their vocalist Kaisa is an Indonesian! - Something that you usually don’t see in these kinda bands. And boy do I loveeee her clear pristine voice!



Although their latest album "The Last Alliance" was released last year, I haven’t laid my hands on it yet, so I will talk about my two favorite songs from their album "Third Age of the Sun".

Elves of Lúva – A slow melodic song about the Elves. It has a very raw appeal, and there is a slight North-eastern accent in her English (!) which makes me love this song even more! Feels like one of our local celebrities singing it.




Valier - Queens of the Valar. My favorite song from this album. Listen to the sample [1:08] and you will know why it is my favorite.



You can also listen to the complete song here.




Next on my list is… Tarja Turunen!

First of all, most of you must be knowing Alice Cooper right?

Yeah that famous 70s to 90s Glam Rock band many of us grew up listening to. "Poison" is undoubtedly their most famous song (seriously which Mizo of that era can ever forget "one look, two look, three look, four look" !!! )

Well, my deep crush for the past 5 years Tarja Turunen (ex-frontwoman of Nightwish) came out with her first studio solo album called "My Winter Storm" in 2007 and did a cover of "Poison", which I must admit is freaking awesome.



Here is a slide-show of the song "Poison" by Tarja, courtesy nikoletka2525



For my Mizo visitors, well the other night I was having a discussion with some of my friends – which Mizo pop icon could pull this song off like how Tarja did? We shortlisted the vocalists to two finalists – Mami Varte and Tetei Ralte.



Please feel free to vote! Listen to Tarja’s version and tell me who would "fit" her voice better.








And to end this post… how can I talk about Tarja Turunen and not talk about her former band Nightwish?

Meet Anette Olzon, the new Nightwish vocalist.



The internet community is still deeply divided between who is better, Tarja or Annette. Well, I will not give my opinion, because I love them both and I think they are not comparable as they have different styles. You be the judge, my friend.

Below are two music videos from Nightwish’s latest album featuring Anette: Dark Passion Play [2007] courtesy Nuclear Blast Records.

Bye Bye Beautiful:



Amaranth:



So do YOU think Anette Olzon is better/equal/worse compared to Tarja Turunen? When she joined Nightwish, she must have known that she had some pretty big shoes high-heels to fill. Do you think she managed to fill it?

Cheers, and rock on!!!

If you like this post or you’re a fan of Doro or gothic metal bands like Nightwish, Sirenia, or you’re deeply in love with Ailyn, Tarja etc, feel free to digg!

Chp 223. Photographs Never Lie…

"Are you sure you don’t wanna come with us?"

Farahnaz sweetly asked me one last time.

"No Farah, you guys carry on."

It was really hard saying no to those large beautiful round eyes.

"Alright… if you really don’t wanna see the tide coming in… but I’m telling you it’s gonna be amazing…"

"I know… I just don’t feel like going out today."

"Ok then… I guess we’ll see you when we return…"

I could feel the sense of hesitation in Farah’s voice… like she didn’t want me to stay back at the mansion all by myself while they frolicked on the beach. But she didn’t know that I knew why she didn’t want me to stay at home all alone!

…..

Last week the gang decided to go for a road trip - Spend a well-deserved and long overdue relaxing vacation at Farah’s ancestral home in Udvada, Gujarat for the weekend. Since she was the only Parsi in our group, she wanted to take part in the Fire Festival, the Jashn-e Sadé, as she hadn’t been to one in ages.

Renowned for its Zoroastrian Fire Temple and large Parsi population, we prepared ourselves for the trip. There were Farahnaz and Pooja from HR, Paul from administration, Shaan and me from marketing, and Teresa from Customer Relationship. Together we formed a close pack in office, always hanging out together during the weekends or even during our short lunch breaks.

When Farah suggested that we go on a road trip to her ancestral home in Gujarat, most of us weren’t very enthu, until she mailed us photographs of her so called "house". It was a freaking mansion! Old and antique, it was built during the Portuguese colonial era of 1600s!

It resembled one of those historical palatial bungalows we flipped past in our school history textbooks. It had everything right from early masonry blood-red brick walls to vintage steeples that were crumbling away at some sections of the large pre-Victorian building, with long winding dark corridors leading to the semi-detached toilets! It was a must visit!

Farah herself had been there only thrice, and the last time she’s been there was more than 10 years ago.

During the journey from Mumbai to Udvada, Farah couldn’t stop talking about the great times she used to have there with her uncles and cousins when she was a kid, and how the beach was just a few hundred metres away. She assured us that the place was still secluded and undisturbed by civilization!

After driving for nearly 4 hours, we reached Udvada. We refueled and bought groceries. I didn’t know Gujarati so I had to communicate using sign language. From the historical town we proceeded towards the mansion. Finally, we reached a towering rusty old iron gate that creaked loudly as one of the servants dragged it open. The servants were informed a week in advance about our weekend plans and they had prepared everything for us, right from clean bed sheets and mosquito nets to bottles of mineral water. Farah’s uncle had suggested that we use well-water like they had done when they were our age. We decided otherwise.

After freshening up and exploring the place for almost two whole hours, we finally relaxed in the large salon. We still couldn’t stop admiring the awe-inspiring architecture and medieval wooden furniture that looked as if they survived the Protestant Reformation era.

"Looks haunted!" Shaan suddenly exclaimed and grinned.

"Yeah, like those B-grade slasher movies, you know… where a couple of weekend backpackers suddenly started disappearing one by one in the middle of the night…" Paul joined in.

"Shut uppppp!" All the women cried in unison.

"Comon Farah," I pried. "I’m sure this mansion must have its own fair share of… unexplained stories to tell!"

"Well…" Farah hesitated.

Pooja and Teresa immediately got up to leave but we held them down amidst their cry and protest. Farah smiled and then suddenly became serious again.

"Well, there had been none of those luminescent spirit sightings and weird noises in the middle of the night…"

"But…?" Shaan enquired slowly. By now all of us including Pooja and Teresa were glued to Farah. Pin drop silence suddenly flooded the room. I thought I felt a brief gust of chilled air… but then, it could be my imagination too.

Farah slowly continued, "Ever seen those horror movies where somebody takes a photograph and later when the picture is developed, something else appears on the photograph?"

"Don’t tell me…" I cut in. "Some…thing appeared in the snap?"

"Well… not exactly…" Farah’s face was dead serious now. I could see from the corner of my eyes that Teresa and Pooja were holding each other’s hands tighter…

"The funny thing is… any photographs taken during this Fire festival inside the Master bedroom never sees the light of the day…"

"You’re kidding!" Paul shouted in disbelief.

But Farah was not the type who would play that kind of prank on us and we had known her for a long time.

"This was what my uncle told me. For some strange reasons, the negatives on their camera were always solarized… overexposed… when they tried to develop them. Of course when my father, long before he met my mom, told his college friends about this, they all came in a large group during this very festival and clicked as many photographs as they could inside the bedroom and all of them came out perfectly. But again, the next year when my uncle and his family came her for the festival, the negatives couldn’t be developed again…"

Silence…

"And my uncle swore it was not his fault… Moreover, he’s a professional photographer… I know it’s weird. You may ask how come nothing happened to my father’s friends… I have no explanation for that but other than those, all the photographs that had been taken here all came out blank…"

"Any… ermmm… reasons for this phenomenon?" Paul enquired in a low voice. Our heads inadvertently moved closer to Farah.

"Well… supposedly… one of my great grand uncles died during a family photograph many years ago during this Fire festival. They had called a professional photographer all the way from Daman… Since he was almost bedridden, they set up the bedroom itself for the family photography…"

Fear had well crept into the eyes of Pooja and Teresa.

"And then just as the cameraman pulled the plug, that sudden bright magnesium flash from the 19th century camera gave great grand uncle a sudden shock and he died on the spot…"

"Ah, those large cameras with a tripod stand and black cloth covering the person behind it?" Pooja had barely managed to ask coherently.

"Yes."

The room went through yet another round of deafening silence and then Farah continued.

"Anyway, that was the only story this mansion had. Other than that, no eerie apparitions walking through walls or mysterious women sobbing by the well in the middle of the night…"

"Or headless babies crawling in the corridor!" Paul added.

Farah smiled, Pooja screamed, Teresa threw a pillow at Paul and we laughed, although a bit uncomfortable.

We soon changed the topic, brought out the beer and played dumb charades. Soon the alcohol kicked in, the volume on the stereo pumped up and we started dancing, although we all went to the loo in pairs as the toilet was situated at the end of the dark corridor far away from the main room.

When it was time to sleep, we all slept together in one of the five bedrooms. But none of us dared to sleep in the adjacent Master bedroom, although surprisingly, we all slept soundly that night.

The next morning, Farah went to the Atash Bahram Fire Temple while the rest of us nursed a hangover. Parsi food was served by Garima, the residential servant who had seen 4 generations of Farah’s relatives undergo their sacred thread ceremony in this mansion. The food was surprisingly pungent for a Parsi dish, but we later found out Farah had informed Garima to make it extra spicy as she was afraid we wouldn’t like the traditional bland taste.

Farah came back in the afternoon and by then we were all fresh and ready to go to the beach, which was just a few hundred metres away.

It was then that a strange thought suddenly overcame me. I needed to see this photograph black-out phenomenon with my own eyes!

I know it might sound stupid to some, but being a horror movie buff and extremely inquisitive about unexplained mysteries, I suddenly had this immense urge to see with my own eyes if this story could be true!

…….


"So are you sure you don’t wanna come?" Farah asked me one more time.

Paul too beckoned, "Dude, it’s gonna be fun!"

"Seriously guys, I don’t feel like going out in the sun right now. Bloody hangover. Anyway we are having the bon-fire party tonight right? Lemme save my energy for that."

Farah pleaded with me one last time with her eyes and then said, "Alright then, we’ll catch ya later for lunch. We won’t be long anyway."

And they all started walking towards the gate.

"Hey one last thing!" I shouted.

Farah turned.

"Those two kids playing there, they are Garima’s kids right?" I smiled.

"Yes." She replied with a puzzled look on her face.

"And that old man in a white inner vest is her husband?"

"Yes." She smiled back.

"So other than the four of them, there’s nobody else here correct?"

"Correct." She was about to laugh now realizing why I asked.

A silly grin appeared on my face.

"I just don’t wanna be talking to some strange kid or man, and then you coming home later and telling me the person I’ve just described that I was talking to, had been dead for 100 years!"

Farah laughed out loud.

"Dude…" Shaan shouted, "If you ever come across any ghost, believe me, it’s not going to be THAT clichéd!" And they all laughed, turned around and disappeared behind the gate.

As soon as they were out of sight, I ran to the bedroom and opened my bag. My hands trembled a bit… With a heavy breath, I whipped out my trusted Sony Cybershot digicam!

Now we shall see if the legend is true or not…

As I switched the power on, I felt a little bit dizzy because of the excitement and suspense. I sat down for a minute and closed my eyes.

ok, this is it. It’s now or never!

I tried to convince myself - Farah’s relatives had used the old-fashioned film cameras… the negatives could be overexposed due to various reasons like the moisture in the room and direct sunlight from the mosaic windowpanes. I was using an advanced digital camera, something that could not be affected by… "ghosts".

unless of course, the ghosts these days are tech-savvy! I joked.

However, I couldn’t even bring myself to snigger at that joke inside my head.

I still felt a bit shaky and my knees didn’t exactly feel sturdy when I stood in front of the tall hand-carved Elizabethan door. With one swift but anticipating push, the door creaked open and a forceful leap took me across the threshold…

So there I was, standing in the center of the infamous Master bedroom. Long slender rays of sunlight beamed in from between the mosaic glasses above. There was no dust on the wooden vanity or the antique mirror, nor were there cobwebs covering the roof beam. The servants had done a good job stripping the room bare of its undesirables and eeriness.

It looked just like any of the other bedrooms inside the mansion, except this was bigger and it had a "history".

I looked into the display lens of my digicam and aimed it across the room.

Remember… there are no ghosts… there are no ghosts…

With great trepidation, I clicked on the camera… the sudden flashing lights from the camera shocked the hell out of me. The room suddenly felt… darker, hence the reason why the flash felt brighter than usual.

It’s all in your head you idiot… comon be strong…

I looked into the display… everything felt like slow motion… time seemed to stand still and all sound ceased to exist, as if I was living in a vacuum…

The display slowly loaded…

Perfect picture!

It looked like one of those photographs in a National Geographic magazine! The exposure and color settings were perfect. Nothing blurred, nothing unfocused. It was one of the best natural snaps I’ve ever taken!

I laughed at myself. First a grin, then a chuckle, until I ended up laughing out like a madman permanently lodged in a forgotten asylum.

How silly of me to think I was actually going to see a ghost or a blank screen!

I clicked a few more times, capturing the room from different angles and perspectives. I wondered how it would feel like had I been able to capture the past in my camera. I looked at the pictures again and again, making sure they didn’t disappear mysteriously! And then I chuckled like before when I tried to imagine the supernatural trying to erase the data in my memory card!

A haunted memory card! Now that is hilarious!

What if the intensity of the haunt depended upon whether the memory card is a micro SD or CompactFlash card! Would the memory card ghost spread via USB port? Could anti-virus remove them?

All I could feel now was laughter.

20 minutes and 30 photographs later, I walked out of the Master bedroom and explored the rest of the mansion one more time. I took pictures of the cobblestone, the ancient well next to the servant’s quarter and the beautiful flora surrounding the mansion.

As I was focusing my camera on a rusty old bicycle semi covered with shrubs and roots that was probably used during World War II, a childish giggled startled me. I turned around quickly and heaved a sigh of relief. It was one of Garima’s kids. Upon seeing me, he laughed again and ran away.

I ran after him until I reached the servant’s quarter, where Garima and her husband were both preparing the lunch. They stopped what they were doing and smiled at me.

I waved to them using sign language, asking them to move closer to each other so that I could take their picture. They gave a puzzled look and smiled again, so I had to repeat my gesture. Finally but slowly, they huddled together by the cooking pot.

I guess they had never seen a person of oriental origin or a digital camera before, or even both.

At least one good thing out of this was that I didn’t have to tell them to smile. They couldn’t stop giggling at me! Hence I didn’t have to figure out how to say cheese in Gujarati.

I love these folks!

After I took their picture, I waved bye to them and walked back to the house. I could still hear them giggling behind me. An hour had gone by since the guys left. They should be back any moment now.

I sat on the large wooden dining table and Garima laid the plates, quickly followed by her husband who carried a large vessel of steaming curry.

"Mutton dhansak!" he proudly proclaimed in a highly accented English. I nodded my head politely and smiled.

After all the dishes were laid on the table, resembling a medieval banquet fit for a Nawab, the servants left, still giggling and I could hear the voices of Paul and Shaan in a distance.

Finally, they’re back, just in time.

I looked at the camera one more time. Although a part of me knew the photographs were not going to "black out", I just felt like browsing through all the pictures I just took.

All there!

As I put the camera down next to me on the long wooden bench, Pooja’s unmistakable laughter followed by the sweet giggle of Teresa and Farah filled the hall. Shaan and Paul too laughed hysterically.

In a matter of seconds, they walked into the dining hall. Their feet were wet and covered with sand.

Farah immediately asked, "So Garima told me you were trying to socialize with them using sign languages?"

I grinned.

"And what was that strange stunt you were trying to pull? They still can’t stop talking about it!"

"What stunt?" I asked perplexedly

"I don’t know. I just assumed you were up to your tricks playing with people. But you sure made them laugh a lot. They really liked you!"

We all laughed.

"I guess they found it strange that I was taking their picture," I replied nonchalantly.

Paul who was already sitting and pouring a glass of water gave me a dumbfounded look.

"Dude, what picture?"

"Photographs, duh! With my digicam." I replied.

Farah’s eyes froze. "What do you mean your digicam? I took your digicam with us to the beach." And she pulled out my digicam from her handbag…

I looked down at the bench…

There was no digicam.


-----------------------------------------

Chp 222. Addendum to Mizo Blog Directory

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Chp 221. Mizo Committee: Formalities.

So this Sunday I took part in my first MSYM (Mizo Students & Youth of Mumbai Association) executive-member committee. And the funny thing? I was neither a part of the executive body nor was I invited! I gate-crashed the meeting. lolz.



Ok so it was like this. After the Mizo Church service @ Malabar Hills, me and my friends would usually go to Gokul (a very popular Mizo hangout) @ Colaba, followed by dinner at Bagdadi right next door. And then we would all part our respective ways.

We would socialize and talk about various stuff that’s happening around our lives, families, jobs, society, relationships etc, after all, that’s the only day we all get to see each other.

That Sunday, the MSYM executive members had a committee, so my friends told me to go ahead to Gokul with some of the other guys and they’ll catch up with me after their meeting. And then suddenly I discovered one thing: All the people I knew well were ALL members of the executive body!!! Arrrgh.

I didn’t know the other guys who were going to Gokul that well. I didn’t want to feel awkward sitting with people I’ve never spoken to before (who also all happen to be much younger than me).

So I had no other option but to tag along with the executive members to their meeting!

The MSYM President Mafaka (err that’s his name. I’m not cussing him!) was extremely understanding and had no objection to me being present during their committee. My friends told me that was the first time an outsider (Read: non-executive member of MSYM or BMCF or MMA) was present for any of their committees. lolz! Of course I felt awkward, but rather that than the other option.

So there I was, sitting in the committee as if I was an important delegate discussing about critical agendas!

Hence for my dear non-Mizo visitors, here you have it, an outsider-cum-insider’s report of how committees are held in our Mizo community.

Social voluntary work is extremely popular in the Mizo community. We have this committee and that committee for this function and that function. The list is endless. Back home at my locality, I am a proud executive member of our local Church’s Refreshment committee! Our group takes care of all the refreshments that are served after Church and other important Church related activities, right from preparing tea to serving tea to washing the cups.

Likewise the other youngsters belong to various other committees like those who take care of the seating arrangements, the sound system, transportation and accommodation etc. This is a common practice in our Mizo society.

Back to Mumbai – 18th Jan 2009, 5 PM.

The MSYM committee started off very well that day. It was extremely professional. One minute we were all sitting together laughing and joking and teasing one another with the latest gossips about them etc, and then when the committee started, everybody was dead serious.

MSYM President (Mafaka) started with a prayer. And then MSYM secretary (Saia) distributed the agenda sheet. He handed me the agenda sheet too and everybody laughed, but a second later it was all back to being serious again.

The Agenda:
1. Finalizing the MSYM tee-shirt.
2. Discussing the MSYM picnic spot.
3. Planning the upcoming MSYM general election.
4. Discussing the nomination for next agenda.
5. Deciding if it is possible to nominate agenda over phone.

Apart from those, there were urgent issues not a part of the agenda which were discussed at the end of the meeting, which MSYM treasurer (Mapuii) announced as AOB. When I asked her what that stood for, she boldly replied "Agenda Omlo a tawpa Belh – A.O.B." which meant, "Not a part of the Agenda which is added in the end".

I later googled and found out AOB stood for Any Other Business which is discussed at the end of an Agenda in a meeting. I must say Mapuii came pretty close! We definitely need a treasurer like her… someone who could say anything with a straight face!

"Mapuii, where is the 5000 bucks meant for the picnic?"
"My dog ate them, u Maruat."
"Oh, ok."



Just kidding. Mapuii’s a good friend of mine. Sweet, helpful, and caring, although I have no idea why her pet name is "Mapuii" when her real name is Vanlalthlani.

All the executive members stood up whenever they had to say anything. All of them had done their homework really well. Example, the sports secretary (Hriatpuia) had collected all the information required regarding which company could manufacture MSYM T-shirts and at what cost etc. Assistant Secretary (STa) also had a couple of really good points to make. Likewise, everybody (except me of course) was free to voice their opinion and others were free to counter their argument.

Exec member TBC (Vaiva) fell asleep and snored during the earlier Church service! Ok that’s not related to the meeting, but I just felt like mentioning that here The dude snored and drooled all over my freaking shoulders!!!! Arrrrgh!

Exec member Mapuia Vashi was shouting at the top of his lungs as usual to the person sitting right next to him. Never sit next to him at Gokuls! Your ears would ring for the next one week! Assistant leader Mapuia MBA bunked. Guess he’s enjoying swinging like a Tarzan these days. Exec member Rob-a demonstrated some pole dancing steps which he learnt during the New Year’s party.

Ok. Back to the MSYM committee now. The meeting progressed slowly, and as one agenda was discussed after the other, the secretary finally summarized the meeting and announced the conclusions. Once every member was satisfied with the report, the President ended the committee with a prayer. The committee lasted for nearly 3 hours!

Ok here is where something funny took place!

The MSYM President said, "Ok we shall end this meeting with the Lord’s Prayer." And we all stood up, waiting for him to lead the prayer. He started [in Mizo] "Aw Lalpa…" (Oh Lord) instead of "Kan Pa…" (Our Father). His exactly words were "Aw Lalpa… oh ka tihsual… Kan Pa, Van a mi…" (Oh Lord… ooops sorry, Our Father, who art in Heaven…)

Of course there’s nothing wrong with the meaning, but it sounded really funny because it was different from the conventional way and it was so innocently blundered too. We joined in with the prayer, but I could hear my friend Vaiva who was standing right next to me trying hard to control his laughter. He’s closer to Hell than I am! (err… because he is shorter, duh).

Great meeting. Great responsibility. Great maturity. Special thanks of course to u-Maruata, in whose house the committee was held. Aunty remembered me even though the last time we saw each other was more than 4 years ago!

When she served tea to everybody and I told her I don’t drink tea, she went to the kitchen and made MILK for me!!! Very embarrassing to be drinking hot milk in front of the giggling ladies, I must confess. But I gulped down my milk like a real man and we all went to Bagdadi for dinner after that.

What happened in between the dinner and after we left u-Maruata’s house is all blur to me, if you know what I mean

And so that is how a typical committee is held in our society. Cheers.

Chp 220. A little bit of speed. Speed Metal!

[A Metal centric post]


Ask any metal fan which is their favorite symphonic speed metal band and the reply you’re most likely to get is Helloween.

(err… by Metal fans, I mean those who are hardcore into all types of metal and not those who know just the popular bands like Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica etc. Sorry folks, you don’t count.)

Speed metal is one of my favorite genres of metal. And I was high on Helloween ever since high school. Hence in this post we shall talk only about speed metal (and also a little bit about "power metal" because of the close correlation). Hope you enjoy this post.

First of all, for the uninitiated, what is Speed Metal?

According to allmusic:

Speed Metal:

In the early '80s, speed metal became the most popular form of heavy metal in the American underground. Speed metal was extremely fast, abrasive, and technically demanding — the bands played fast, but their attack was precise and clean.

Characterized by fast paced guitar riffs, rapid double bass drums and riotous tempos, what I LOVE about speed metal is the clear crispy lyrics amidst such aggressive music. Hence the likes of thrash, death, doom and black metal differ from speed metal in terms of clarity and morbidity.

Taking this "clean" quality of speed metal one notch higher, we have symphonic speed metal. But in this post I will refer to this genre as just "speed metal" as there are many schools of thought that believe symphony is now an integral part of speed (and also because many of the original popular speed metal bands are now categorized differently or have changed their style).


I. Helloween

Helloween are truly the GODS of speed metal. No doubt about that.

As for me, I came into the Helloween scene late (because of my generation, duh) and was into Helloween only from the early 90s because of my seniors and cousins’ influences.



The first Helloween album I bought was their 7th album "The time of Oath" after my cousin Atea recommended it (around 95-96), and hence that’s my favorite album. I remember the time because money was tight those days (and extremely valuable since I was just a kid) and I bought that album with my own pocket money!!! (That, and Slayer’s "Seasons in the Abyss". Ah, nostalgia!)

"The time of Oath" brought tears to my eyes, especially since it was dedicated to their drummer Ingo who committed suicide the previous year. Based on the prophesies of Nostradamus, this album has the most number of my favorite Helloween songs - "power", "forever and one", "steel tormentor", "the time of oath", "wake up the mountain" and many more.

Funny thing about Helloween though. In the 90s, I couldn’t find any of their albums anywhere in Kolkatta or Chennai (they were still Calcutta and Madras those days). But walk the narrow small winding streets of Aizawl barabazaar and you could see all the roadside vendors with copies and copies of bands like Helloween, Testament, Pantera, Motörhead etc!

In school (St.Thomas - Calcutta and Montfort - Tamilnadu) whenever I tell my non-Mizo friends about this amazing band Helloween, they would immediately correct me, "Kima, Halloween is pronounced HAL-O-WEEN. HAL. HAL. Not HEL. Say it slowly… HAL… O… WEEEEN. You have a slight Mizo accent."

And I would be like, “What the bloody @^$&%$#. The name of the band is HELL-O-WEEN. HELL!!! HELL! NOT HAL."

Yeah, those were difficult times!

Also do not miss "Keeper of the seven keys part 1", considered to be Helloween’s best album and harbinger of symphonic speed / power metal into mainstream rock. The Dark Ride (2000) was the last album I bought before I discovered napster, audiogalaxy and their successors.

But the world of Speed metal is not just Helloween. There are numerous amazing bands out there that follow the styles of Helloween. I’ll take you through two other favorite bands of mine.


II. Axenstar

Perpetual Twilight and The Final Requiem are my favorite albums. Fast paced guitar riffing and bass beat, the songs you MUST check out are perpetual twilight, king of tragedy, the cross we bear, blind leading the blind and the sands of time.



Like vocalist Andi Deris of Helloween, Axenstar’s vocalist Magnus Winterwild has a unique high pitch voice that you can easily distinguish – A voice that seems to transport you across interdimensional realms of psychedelic metal fusion. (RSJ, please hire me! )


III. DragonForce

Ok stop grinning. Yeah I find the name corny too!

Sounds like those anime on cartoon network with space ships that can transform into one giant dragon shaped robot right?

But they’re my second favorite speed metal band. "Valley of the damned" is a masterpiece, an example of their many fantasy based themes. And again, like the two bands mentioned above, ZP Theart, vocalist and frontman, has that really melodic and high pitch voice which makes their songs so soothing and pleasant to listen to.



If you haven’t listened to "Through the fire and flames", then you are missing something! It’s their most popular and acclaimed song, and probably the best speed metal song so far! (Just my opinion)

Youtube link of their music video here:




The song even featured in the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock game, where it was proclaimed the most difficult stage!


[img src blog.wired and istyles ]

Herman Li, guitarist of DragonForce himself could complete just 2% in the HARD difficulty level! If you can complete it at EXPERT difficulty level, then you earn "The Inhuman Achievement" in XBOX 360!!!



And here is 9 years old Ben scoring a whopping 866K on this! I don’t know if he’s the same kid I saw on the Ellen DeGeneres show, but that kid in the show was also playing this same "Through the fire and flames" track.

Here’s the video of Ben in action:




And last but not the least, here is a BOT playing this same game to perfection, programmed by JefffN666.




Before you sign off, try to get hold of another DragonForce song called "Soldiers of a Wasteland" which is as awesome as the above too!

With that, I too will call it a day. Wish I could tell you about my other favorite speed metal bands like Blind Guardian, Running Wild, Accept, Rage, Grave Digger, Sinner etc but due to time and space constraint I’ll get back to my speed metal meditation for now.

Cheers and rock on!



Ps. A little help required from my Mizo visitors - While describing DragonForce, I wanted to say "Guitar zut an tlir kha, a phuh in an rawn phuh chhuak". How do I say this in English??? The closest I could come to was, "They spewed out rapid strumming in quick succession" but that is pathetic and doesn't make any sense. Help anyone?

Chp 219. No more Tribal Wars!

Aaaargh!! That’s it. No more Tribal Wars for me, ever! No more Travian. No more Ikariam. No more browser MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) !! Period.



The bane of Online Games!

I remember posting about Tribal Wars a couple of months ago and how exciting it was. I gave a couple of reasons why this game was the next best thing that happened to me ever since I discovered that "the birds and the bees" was just a metaphor.

Chp 205. Online Tribal Warfare!

Reasons why this is an amazing game:

1. Being a browser game, it does not require any CD/DVD installations or high system graphics settings. All you require is a browser (duh!) and a net connection.
   
2. Same rules and styles of strategy games like AOE, Warcraft, ROME etc.
   
3. The style of the game involves slow resource collection and slow movements. Hence you don’t need to sit in front of the game the whole time. You just need to click a few commands once every 3-4 hours.
   
4. It is an MMORPG, hence the other players I am interacting with are real people all around the world. No crappy AI.

Those were the reasons why I thought this game rocked.

Well, I WAS WRONG!!! So wrong!

Yes, I do not waste any precious office hours as I just need to check on the game once every 3-4 hours only for just a few minutes. My work does not get affected in any way.

And it was that very thought which made me blindly believe that there was nothing wrong with the game. After all, work is the most important priority for any individual right? Wrong. My work might not have been affected, but my LIFE certainly was!

Oh dear Lord, the addiction!!!!! The uncontrollable urges! I became a total junkie to this new drug, and I just couldn’t seem to get enough of it! My social life was completely torn apart. My biological clock went haywire.

Sometimes I would wake up suddenly in the middle of the night thinking if one of my neighbors was going to attack me, or if our tribe had made the right decision in allying with another tribe that other players despised, or whether my warehouse would be full before I could come online.

Thoughts that haunted me day in and day out.

At first, it felt great playing this game. We collected resources slowly and started building our armies. It was great taking part in minor wars. It was not a big deal losing my village because it was all a matter of learning – I simply restarted and played everything from the beginning again, not repeating the same mistakes I made. Everything was taken lightly.

But slowly, as I became a PRO from a noob, things drastically changed.

I was no longer playing for fun or leisure.

It was now a matter of dominating my area, my continent, my world! I started devouring villages after villages, mercilessly nobling [TW slang for conquering another village] the unsuspecting players and creating havoc in their area. And then suddenly I realized, what the heck am I doing????

Unlike PC strategy games, there is absolutely no goal in this game. You just keep expanding and expanding by taking over as many villages as possible, while at the same time concentrating on defense so that other players don’t conquer your villages.

You start playing it like a chess game. You try to read their minds. You send fake attacks and you try to determine whether your enemy is sending fakes or not. Should you dodge that first wave of attack?

And the problem is, the more villages you have, the more you’ll have to start monitoring your villages and attacks. Ergo, the more restless and distracted you’ll become when you are away from the internet for a long time.

Everyday I start my day by raiding all the small villages around me for extra resources - I’m bored now because that is soooo monotonous. But I HAVE to raid them because it’s difficult to concentrate on anything else when I know there are "free" resources (wood, clay and iron) available in those villages.

These days, I usually spend the weekends at M’s place. Even though I have an amazing time over there, I just can’t help thinking about my villages and tribes. That’s so damn irritating. nnnnaaaaaarrrgghh!

I needed a break.

In the middle of a party I started thinking about my farm upgrades. Over dinner I was contemplating about sending my nukes out or not. Sitting in the loo I started deciding which 50K player I should invade, weighing all the pros and cons of invading victim number1 and victim number2. Should I research on my cavalry-archers first or catapults? Which player is a possible threat in my area? What is his style of playing – defensive? aggressive? Is he concentrating only on raiding units or heavy on Rams?

Blah blah blah.

Hence after a long hard thought, today I deleted all my accounts in every single World that I was dominating. No more MMORPG games for me. I am now Tribal Wars FREE!!! Yay!

Yeah mum, no need to enroll me in that Tribal Wars Rehab camp, or force me to take part in a Tribal Wars Anonymous Meetings!

Wow! I’ve forgotten how beautiful the real World is like! It's breathtaking! That online madness had really blinded me! Now I can see! Now it’s time to physically get more involved in real-World activities like… blogging, orkut, facebook, twitter and community discussions forums. woot woot!

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Ps. Cheers to all the players I’ve fought with or defeated, the new friends I’ve found and the times we’ve spent socializing with one another. "Baron Mizohican" will cherish those moments forever.

Chp 218. 36 hours

36 hours of virginal bliss
fused with a reality so surreal.
This madness, sweet madness
echoing across every sense within me.


36 hours of binge
neither sleep nor exhaustion prevailing.
Day and night and day again
all becoming but one single entity.


36 hours of ecstasy
dripping slowly, like overflowing nirvana,
seeping down the celestial rope
to the open souls of thirsty mortals.


36 hours of sin
rollicking amidst the darkest realm
and yet, intentions so innocent,
placing the Heavenly in a dilemma.


36 hours of poison
and reminiscence that will forever be engraved
- a moment truly immortalized;
- a Legend to pass down among brethrens.


36 hours of Eden
quenching the bottomless Inferno within.
In the horizon, daylight breaks
we salute the dawn with our chalices high!


36 hours of everything
Time gradually swaying like intoxication;
till the sun returns to the shadows…
oh darkness again, welcoming us with open arms!


36 hours of distorted paradise
and inhibitions found wanting.
A moment never to relive…
but sweet Lord, forever I’ll cherish!



Happy New Year everyone!