the last monsoon waterfall

monsoon wrap

sibling revelry I

sibling revelry

feeding time

a factory called loneliness

pup in the jungle

Published Poetry: Five New Poems by Snehith Kumbla in the Muse India Journal (Mar-Apr 2018)

Five of my new poems have been published in the Mar-Apr 2018 edition of the prestigious Muse India literary journal. These poems were each written at different times, some pieced together over years, but most of them wrote themselves in one flow.

fear not your loneliness
fear not your cowardice

you in countlessness
you in me-them-us-ness

Ordinariness is about the resignation and defeat to the widespread human nature of routine. Nothing comforts us like routine and nothing unsettles us like attempting new things. The first two lines of the poem were waiting alone in a forgotten notebook for quite some time. It was some years later that other words arrived to complete the train of thought.

a bicycle tinkle
hovers on the
footpath

alone

into the jaws
of gregarious
traffic

Evening Walk, City is about that one stroll among the many post lunch strolls I took around my former workplace. Pune, a charming, nature-rich small town was losing its richness at a rapid rate. In the space of one afternoon, you could witness the blatant destruction and yet go on, unaffected. 

when
it splashes in
dark coated ink
you may yet see
what you are made of

Sadness was written at a low moment, yet there is more to learn from grief than there is ever to imbibe from utter happiness. When one dwells deep in sadness or into any other aspect of life, surprises appear tranquil and dancing to the morning breeze.

right on cue lightning
strikes, genuinely afraid
they embrace for dear life

Late Night TV is a chronicle of perversion, the consequence of a sexually repressed culture. Sex education can make so many young and teenage lives better, but we are eons away from any revolution or insight in that aspect. Widely available porn and provocative content only add to the delusions and blindness.

life is outdoors
in its throbbing
and uncertainties,
pleasured and seething,

Youth Invincible Youth is an ode to age, about embracing reality in all its pain and joy. It is a celebration and teeny weeny nudge to step outdoors, bask in the sunshine, rain, winter,  and spring. It is about moving away from computers and cell phones whenever we can and experience life as the young experience it, in all its purity and freshness.

Introducing my New Blog: The Bollywood Song of the Week

This is to introduce my new weekly blog THE BOLLYWOOD SONG OF THE WEEK.

The blog is an additional outlet for my love for Hindi films and Hindi film songs. It is an unbiased yet affectionate listen in to the music of our times. 

Every Friday, I will feature one song among the many that fill the Bollywood film soundscape on the blog. I will also review the other new songs and soundtracks, apart from highlighting and talking in depth of that one Bollywood /Hindi film song of the week that stood out that particular week.

Legendary Playback Singers Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd Rafi

A Never-Ending Musical 
Ever since sound came into Hindi movies in the pre-independence era, every Hindi film (barring a handful) have featured songs. The uniqueness of what is popularly now called 'Bollywood Movies' - is the lip-syncing and bursting into a song and dance routine at any slightest excuse or inclination.

Very few directors are able to make the song an audio-visual experience integral to the story. The rest, as they say, is mayhem.We talk here of the song as a purely audio experience. But notable visuals will certainly be talked about.

Now, there are over a million Hindi film songs and counting, which, if played together at the same time would resemble some epic fun-fair of sounds.In this blog, we celebrate many such songs and their makers, the transition of the same onscreen, the stories behind them, the legendary singers, how the failure of the film can take some beautiful songs into oblivion, and how box-office success ensures delusional immortality.

Hail, The Great Hindi Film Soundtrack!

Great Singers All: Asha Bhonsle, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar & Manna Dey