finally. been planning to move for a while, but things needed to fall in place...now they have. will continue this blog/site @ http://feddabonn.com. the new site works better as a blog+portfolio. all the content from bottlebroke has been moved to feddabonn, and updates will only be there.

on the upside, the new site is much easier to browse through, and content doesn't belong to google or depend on their servers. it is much lighter design wise, and can be user optimised for low-light or low-power conditions. there are also no irritating word verifications when typing in comments.

there is a mobile friendly version @ http://m.feddabonn.com too. the site automatically detects a mobile browser, and auto redirects to the mobile site. a link at the bottom of the feed allows you to go to the 'main' site if you want to. still a work in progress, and a ways to go.

on the downside, those of you who use RSS readers would need to point them now to http://feeds.feedburner.com/feddabonn. am hoping i won't lose readers in the switchover!

there is still some formatting work to be done, and i'll keep at it. hope to see improvements, especially with the mobile site. will also update a links section very soon. all feedback is very welcome.

thanks to geordee, who is seeing to the server space/domain rego stuff; and blind dayze who did the logo, the favicon, and tweaked the free template i got from tech designs. thanks too to the people who have made wordpress such a brilliant software to use, and who have managed to keep it free.

thanks most of all to you people who read and comment on the posts. you make this whole effort worthwhile. again, would love to hear your feedback!

arohanui,

baruk

google (the one they missed)

naked and in love

while i know i've posted a couple of songs here, i don't think i've ever flogged 'naked and in love'. so here goes.


'naked and in love' (also NAIL) is three of us, reuben, sanga and me, who used to write together in our university years. we had no way to record then, though we did dream of doing so someday. then i left shillong, and never really went back. in 2008, a little before leaving for aotearoa NZ, dee and i made a quick trip to shillong. in the time it took us to get there,  roob had pushed hard enough that we'd got a name for the project, and decided to record. while we did manage to make it to the studio for some of it, most songs were recorded squashed up in roob's bedroom, between infinite cups of red tea and qwai. 

and this is the result. 

'zama left today'  was the only song written (together) during that intense one week, the others are all from back in the day. feedback, as always, is welcome. 

where is the sea

the sky is cold

nibbling at my edges
the earth is hard
chewing at my feet

where is the sea
all soft
and warm
and final

where is the sea
all soft
and warm?

panacea

one part sunshine
two parts sea
stir
sip
gargle
spit

repeat.

my brother's eater

cutting labels

so we sit
and throw our tantrums
crying like spoiled children;
stupidly
noisily
impolitely
screaming
screaming
for justice.

while the mai-baap* government
plods steadily on
grand as a sunset
and inevitable
as death.

My sister and I can't have been very old when we started cutting the labels off our jeans. While it may seem like teenage defiance, I have graduated to cutting (visible) labels off my shirts, and recently, a new pair of shoes. We liked the quality of the denim, but damned if we were going to wear someone else's name on our butts. In the years since I left Shillong, I have been mistaken for South American, Malaysian, Indonesian, and more recently Samoan, Tongan, Fijian and South African. In the light of the recent actions of the Indian government with relation to the Bhopal Gas tragedy and the fiasco of the court passing judgement, the war on tribal land for bauxite and coal, and now the repulsive Civil Nuclear Liability Bill...I am almost glad I do not wear my Indian identity on my face.

Bhopal is the classic story of corporate cost-cutting gone wrong, though it has only really gone wrong for the people who were and are being affected by the terrible gas leaks of 2-3 December, 1984. Warren Anderson is free to enjoy his millions, safe in the knowledge that neither the Indian nor the american governments have the balls to go after him. And with Dow Chemicals taking over the assets (but *not the responsibilities) of Union Carbide the shareholders were taken care of too. I, for one, would have been stunned if the courts had actually made anything more than a token effort at justice, seeing how the CBI has been trying to get poor Anderson off the hook for years, and how it was the Indian Government that let the bastard leave the country in the first place, after they had arrested him for manslaughter.

And then comes the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill. As if it were not enough to demonstrate that large American Corporations would have no real trouble from our police or judiciary, the government (by the people, of the people, for the people) has decided that this might as well be made law. The insurability of an American Corporation, you see, is SO much more important than putting in realistic controls to make sure they are not over-burdened with financial claims should the equipment screw up. Capitalist exploitation at its beautiful best, the profits without the responsibility.

I have little understanding of politics, much less of economics. However it doesn't take a degree in biology to realise you are being raped; by the same government (by the people, of the people, for the people) that is supposed to protect you. I wish the stranglehold of corporates and national governments over our lives was as easily removed as the labels from our clothes. But here we stand, in the curious position of a person sold into slavery, not knowing whom to hate more- the bastards that sold you, or the bastards that bought.

NB: Cut a label...sign the petition against this bill.

*mai-baap=father-mother, a role many see the government as playing, particulary in the imperialistic scheme of things.