Politicians dancing

I can relate to the time when my music died.  I think it is when ZZTop came on the scene. What a name , I thought, And I stopped listening to new bands looming in the horizon, some flickering brightly for some time and dying out, some going on to make a name. I can’t remember when. May be the late 80s or early 90s. I heard a young college graduate raving about ZZTop and I thought this is it. No more. I realize that many good bands did come out after ZZ Top. There are some which made an impression by sheer power of music or lyrics. But for me ZZTop was a defining moment. Before ZZ Top- a time when I listened to new and upcoming bands and after - when the music stuck in the grove and died. Completely.
          So, I said to myself: don’t blame yourself for not hearing of Midnight Oil. It has a tall gentleman with a shaven pate mouthing lyrics like he had something round and fluffy stuffed inside his mouth. He is Peter Garett, the lead singer of the band. And presently the Honourable  Minister for Environment  in the Australian Federal Government- A government of Labour persuasion. I was surprised to learn that the Midnight oil has been on the scene since 1973. So it fails the ZZ Top test. How come I didn’t hear them? I would listen to Radio Australia on the short wave in my village in Palghat, Kerala in the early eighties. I remember the Air supply, REO speedwagon, Blondie, Police and Culture club. Around  2 PM everyday a programme called countdown with recent songs are played. On Saturdays and Sundays the Australian hits and international hits are played. I remember the voice of Jill Williams, the announcer, talking smoothly in her Australian twang- the words just escaping into the room.
             This band was before ZZ Top and you hadn’t heard of it, I told myself. Peter Garett quit the band in 2002. He was a campaigner for Environment- fighting to save whales, against US bases, against unexplained wars and other bleeding-heart causes. He has retained his nothing-to-hide hairstyle and has completed a smooth transition from Rock music to politics. (Number of metallic rings pierced and tattoos embossed into private parts are not yet known to public). The Honourable Minister went on stage recently in the midst of his onerous responsibilities to raise funds for the victims of the Victorian Bushfire.
            In a performance reminiscent of his glory days he strutted around stage, tall and strapping. In his day job he wears a suit.  In this avatar, he wore golden shirt half open and loose trousers. And the money poured in for the Victorian bushfires. Vital statistics of the tragedy was amusing from the Indian perspective- an area of 250000 hectares were burnt down in bush fires. Loss of lives? 250. That describes what a vast and under populated continent this is. Minor fires in a small mohalla in the Indian hinterland can result in a much higher body count.
   It is good to have Ministers with music in their hearts. I wish we had them back home. And some bureaucrats too. Just to loosen up the atmosphere a bit………..y’know
You can watch Peter Garett performing “Short memory” at  this YouTube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgukduYJZ44
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        A few days back we woke up with a start. We had our day off. Chathu had to be packed to school. It was getting to be six AM and I was just about to wake up. There was a loud crash in the hall and the sound of glass breaking. A big mirror and two vases fell from a height and there were broken glass pieces all around the hall. For a moment I thought it was an earthquake. Then I wondered whether someone had thrown a stone to our house. A racist attack? Anyway the fall was mysterious triggering speculation from Chathu that there could be a ghost in the house. The Missus was shattered. She had gone to great lengths to keep the house clean and orderly. Now this… no one would even believe that something like this could happen just like that – without any external force or stimuli. Maybe the mirror was resting on the vases for a long time and we hadn’t noticed.
      I sent a mail to my landlord explaining the situation. She was very cool and understanding about it. She and her husband came around to reassure us. They told us not to bother about replacing the mirror and the vases. But it still rankles us. We will be at peace only if we replace the whole thing. Our landlords had given us a place to live when things were looking bad. I wouldn’t like them to suffer even a small loss for their gesture.
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Chathu came home last month saying that he is one of the toppers in Mathematics in class. Normally, this ought to be music to a parent’s ears. Instead I panicked. He was poor in the subject back home in India and he has worked hard on it. Still he is not good enough compared to the average Indian 9th standard CBSE student.
   So I went through his textbooks, class notes, compared with CBSE syllabus etc. My conclusions were amusing. The Aussie curriculum places a lot of emphasis on applications. While the Indian curriculum is mostly rote learning-  without explaining why the hell do problems need to be solved. The Aussie curriculum is also less demanding in terms of complexity of sums to be solved. I am not competent to teach him the subject anymore: so he is on his own in pretty much every subject. Back home every kid is sweating it out to outrun everyone else. It is more relaxed here.
         So I decided to take it easy. Maybe he will be a misfit when he gets back home. I am still hoping that this experience would be fulfilling. Maybe he will come back here and make a life someday. I would surely be glad if he does that.