Muthaliks of

the world may now be on

the sidelines, still trying to crawl out from under that mound of pink chaddis, but the Indian male, on boardwalk or in boardroom, still hasn’t got the point. Take the new ad for Gillette (the best a man can get, after all). Using the now de riguer DSLR tilt-shift mood shots, the shaving company extolls Indian men to ‘protect’ Indian women, ‘stand up’ for them and

so on. All a bit of foam, really, because the ad has already attracted a lot of negative feedback for its rather patronizing attitude. Or take this recent article by Aaakar Patel ‘The Woman Makes the Couple’. We won’t say any more – you can be the best judge of its value and relevance.

From tweets by twits about ‘sending women you don’t like to Delhi’, to mean chow being blamed for awakening baser instincts; from Presidential offspring running off at the mouth (‘dented and painted’, yeah right) to clerics issuing a fatwa on an all-girl rock band, this Valentine’s Day arrives with a lot of baggage. Venerated institutions even in the erstwhile Pub Capital impose college dress codes prohibiting jeans. Separate staircases for boys and girls are still in fashion. And packs of frustrated miscreants still hunt down couples having a ‘good time’, enforcing their twisted ideas of morality with clubs, fists and, most of all, ‘holy’ approval.

Clearly, extreme incidents of violence and injustice aren’t catalysing or bringing the change we want to see. The picket lines form up and candlelit vigils abound, there is much screaming and intellectual debate in cyberland, signatures are sought on petitions, bills are mooted and stalled and passed and forgotten.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-Ak9chFCTYU

Perhaps what we need are smaller things. Everyday things. Little acts of kindness or selflessness. Moments of reflection. Just a thought, in the right direction. Just a line, drawn in time. And just keeping all of

these in mind. Saving a bit of space for them, amid all the clutter, the detritus of 21st-cent madcap life.

Here’s remembering four years of One Small Love. And drawing a little line.

The post Drawing the Line, Four Years On appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

Dear Tehelka,

Thermal And A Quarter is a Bangalore-based rock band with delusions of world domination since 1999. We read Inder Sidhu’s outcry against “the media’s hysterical coverage of Indian rock bands” with familiar feelings of resigned amusement and piquant regret. While Sidhu makes some pleasant noises and points available fingers at the usual suspects, he disappoints us by stating the obvious and therefore fails to offer us any fresh insight into what actually ails the rock scene. What ails the media we already know.

First off, Tehelka could have attempted to address the question: What is uniquely “Indian” about the Indian rock scene? You get really excited about Indian writers in English, so why can’t an electric guitar and English lyrics employed to express Indian themes excite you as much? Is the Indian rock “movement” — as some like to call it — merely about the explosion of rock band competitions and sponsored collegiate rock festivals? Is it only about the so-called mushrooming of venues for Indian rock? Is it about the legitimacy accorded to it by weak-willed Bollywood flicks such as Rock On? Is it more than a West-aping deluge of residual post-adolescent hormones? Or is it merely a vehicle for selling phallic fantasies associated with jeans, bikes, movies, or alcohol?

Why can’t the music scene you obsess about be the product of entrepreneurial activity or the struggle of independent artists to secure a platform for expression in a milieu notorious for the absence of infrastructure or patronage? Is it not also about artistic independence — and what is indie in an Indian context anyway? Is it not about the paucity of industry support for independent music (and just what is this “industry”?)? And why are we in such a hurry to pack it all up in one store shelf labelled ‘rock’ – what about Carnatic blues, or Indian jazz-rock, or Indian prog-rock, or Indian death metal, or Devotional jazz-rock, or Malayalam thrash metal, or Hindi country blues, or Kannada funk?

Which part bothers you the most: that the Indian media is writing about Indian rock music at all, or that it is covering rock without balls or brains? After all, we read your magazine because it tells us what we believe is closest to the truth. But never has it once offered lip service to this movement, apart from getting musicians to applaud their favourite bands at the back of the book. When it comes to the coverage of underground music acts in India Tehelka, too, is part of the “lazy press” you love to deride. Your dispirited coverage reinforces the fact that in this country we have no national newspapers or news-magazines — only parochial ones. When it comes to covering the independent music scene, even Tehelka cannot look beyond Delhi or Mumbai before your vision gets all blurry and your perspective degenerates to homogenising what you attempt to analyse. Isn’t it time you became free, fair and fearless in writing about this too?

Sidhu writes that the “vocabulary and context for rock criticism does not exist in India.” When was the last time you met an editor who condescended to carry a major story about any westernized urban counterculture in India? When was the last time any self-respecting commentator (such as you, we hope) turned away from the clippings morgue and did some legwork to find out what’s really happening in India’s underground music scene?

For instance, how do Indian bands approach songwriting, where do they learn to play their instruments, where do they rehearse? How do they finance gear, studio time and production efforts? What level of initiative does it take for a band to bag concert dates at Hard Rock Cafe or Blue Frog, or plan a five-city tour? Or to cut an album and market it independently?

These realities offer story ideas for any journalist with a serious interest in writing about Indian rock. Perhaps Sidhu might want to consider exploring these areas instead of expending two thousand words on a subject he believes is not worth writing about. That’s laughable. Of course, we are aware these stories can’t be written within a week’s deadline but has any journalist cared to investigate the possibilities, or any editor dared to commission them?

For instance, on February 14 this year Thermal And A Quarter hosted the ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’ concert. Commemorating the first anniversary of the attacks on women in pubs in Mangalore and Bangalore, it brought musicians and speakers together to give voice to issues like freedom of expression and tolerance. About 500 people attended the concert in Bangalore and many more logged in to watch the live webcast. The Facebook page for One Small Love added 1,300 fans in a single week sans any advertising or PR.

The media did not take notice of One Small Love. Why? Because we took a decision not to invite any mediapersons to cover it.

In its weekend magazine supplement, a leading national paper gushed about an “unsponsored” concert in Bangalore by two independent rock bands held on February 13, the previous evening. While we attended that concert and doffed our hats to the bands that pulled it off, we noted dourly that the journalist had not done his homework when he hailed the unsponsored concert as a first-of-its-kind event. Thermal And A Quarter was among the first bands in Bangalore (perhaps in the country) to pull off successful (in terms of attendance and gate collections) self-funded shows dating back to 1999. National Public Radio in the US reported our Floodaid concert of 2005 (a fundraiser for the families affected by the 2004 Asian Tsunami) but no Indian publication bothered to do so. Just because no press releases were issued, does it mean these were not events?

We’d be happier if the media did not write about the “scene”, because clouding these half-cooked reports and analyses with poor reportage, bias and myopia is far worse. As some wise guy once said, “It’s better to shut up and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Every “music journalist” wants to be the next big commentator on the Indian rock music scene. In 14 years of being around, we’ve seen these megalomaniacs crash and burn and we have outlived them all. On the Indian rock scene, longevity is to die for. As the only band in India to release four studio albums in our career through independent distribution plans, we are not looking for benefactors in the media to make or break our career, thank you.

Frank Zappa said, “Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.” We wrote a song about journalists like that – it’s called Paper Puli. And we have an annual award for music journalists who satisfy Zappa’s criteria. It’s called the Paper-Pulitzer. We might consider nominating you.

Love and peace.
TAAQ

Cross-posted on our Facebook page

The post Don't believe everything Tehelka says about Indian rock! appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

In a tired-sounding article imaginatively titled ‘Fund-amental gigs‘, an unnamed DC correspondent wrote on Feb 20:

It was in the late 1990s that Thermal and a Quarter organised shows, free of corporate sponsorships. But, after a few such gigs, and without much success, the concept faded away. Almost a decade later, another city act has decided to commit themselves to this cause and is spearheading a ‘movement’, thus inspiring a generation of young musicians.

The other city act is, of course, Lounge Piranha, which pulled off a cracker of a show along with the (now) Bangalore-based Gowri and Hyderabad’s Native Tongue at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore on February 13. We attended that concert.

We appreciate the indie-mindedness of the journalist’s effort but perhaps the anonymous correspondent might want to get out of his Mighty Strange office and do some real legwork for a change while writing about the bands that don’t circulate press releases of their events. For instance, he/she could have taken a bus (or billed the company for a cab) to Opus in the Creek on Whitefield Road on February 14, the day after the show he/she covered, to watch the One Small Love concert, a completely un-sponsored affair with no gate collections to break even.

And here’s another correction: Our last un-sponsored gig before this was Floodaid, a fundraiser for the families affected by the Asian tsunami featuring Antaragni, at the St John’s auditorium on January 4, 2005, a good six years after the late 1990s. No sponsors, sir/ma’am. Uh-uh.

Heck, just because we issued no press release doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!

Dear correspondent, you have been nominated for the PaperPulitzers 2010 in the Best Armchair Journalist category.

The post A PaperPulitzer for the Deccan Chronicle? appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

This is a poem about love.

Just listen to me – a poem, she says. Bravely.

But today’s Valentine’s Day, right? Oh, go ahead, buy your lover a furry toy monkey, listen to the Carpenters, for god’s sake, without blushing. “It’s the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around…” Listen to James Blunt without cringing. “You’re beautiful…”

But seriously, what is this notion, this emotion called love? This passion, this obsession, this confusion called love? This attraction? Creation? Collaboration? Communication? You know, people, you can take almost any noun with a shin sound and make it an aspect of love.

Naan yaav bhashe nalli mathaaadbeku antha, yaaaru nan-hattara hel beda, hel baaradu. Samaj mein aaya? Purinjitha? Manasilaayo, maashey? And if I could learn to speak all 22 scheduled languages and all its glorious hundreds of dialects I would speak them all, I would sing them all to you.

My culture is made up of many colours, many faces, many tongues. It has no room for hate of the “other”.

to love.

C K Meena, well known to Bangaloreans for her tart, witty columns on life in their ever-changing cityscape, has written two books of fiction — the semi-autobiographical Black Lentil Doughnuts and the crime thriller Dreams for the Dying.

The post One Small Love – C K Meena on Love appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

Address:
#2, Doddenakkundi Industrial Area, Opp. Shell Petrol Station, Brookefields Main Road, Off ITPL Road, Bangalore

Phone: 9844030198 / 080-40943031

From MG Road via Old Madras Rd and Whitefield Rd


View Larger Map

From MG Road via Old Airport Road


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From Marathahalli Bridge

View Larger Map

From Koramangala via Inner Ring Road and Old Airport Road

View Larger Map

The post One Small Love – How to get there appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

“People smile for the camera, but I wish they would just smile otherwise,” says Zubair, a Bangalore-based photographer.

Join him and other concerned Bangaloreans at ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’, a celebration of diversity and freedom with performances by Thermal And A Quarter, Swarathma, Gerard Machado, Konarak Reddy, Alwyn Fernandes, Karan Joseph, Ravi Kulur and other artists and opinion leaders on February 14 at Opus in the Creek, Whitefield Road, Bangalore.

Draw the line. Spread the love.

The post One Small Love – Syed Zubair draws the line appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

Freedom to choose, asserts Konarak, is our most important asset — as long as we exercise it within the provisions of the law. Politics, argues Kirtana, is not a dirty word as it is often made out to be, but a state of mind. And art and politics cannot be separated.

Join them at One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore, a celebration of the spirit of freedom and tolerance with music, food and free speech on February 14, 2010 at Opus in the Creek, Whitefield Road, Bangalore.

Draw the line. Spread the love.

Join One Small Love on Facebook

The post One Small Love – Konarak and Kirtana draw the line appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

Right-click and save the image and use it in your Facebook profile

We’ve been getting a lot of requests for the Facebook profile image, so here it is. If you’re all thumbs (like us) at web tech, just follow the instructions to download and use it.

Firefox: Right-click and ‘Save image as’ to your computer

Internet Explorer: Right-click and ‘Save Picture As’ to your computer

Chrome: Right-click and ‘Save image as’ to your computer

Using the profile image on Facebook: Click on the edit icon of your current Facebook image (the ‘pencil’ icon). From the ‘Edit your Profile Picture’ menu, select ‘Upload a Picture” as shown in the screenshot below and follow the rest of the instructions.

How to change your profile image to One Small Love on Facebook

The Facebook page for One Small Love has over 335 fans within 24 hours of its launch. Thanks for the love!

The post Download the One Small Love profile image for Facebook appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

But first, we need you to do something for us.

Thanks to Happy for the idea and the cool folks at Kieon for making this work!

The post Draw a smile, get the song appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

Last year, February 14 was Violentine’s Day.

With the world in turmoil and India licking the wounds of 26/11, the last thing we needed was for churches to be desecrated and women to be attacked in pubs and on the streets of our cities.

Thermal And A Quarter responded to this climate of hate and suspicion with One Small Love, a song that persuaded you to perform a small act of kindness to make a difference in a tired world. The music video, broadcast on YouTube, continues to be very popular.

This year, One Small Love is echoed by the collective voice of Bangalore’s concerned citizens.

On February 14, 2010, join us for ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’, a convention of concerned and like-minded Bangaloreans, to celebrate the spirit of freedom and tolerance with free speech, food and music.

The event will see performances by Konarak Reddy, Allwyn Fernandes, Gaurav Vaz, Ravi Kulur, Gerard Machado, Karan Joseph, Swarathma and Thermal And A Quarter.

‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’ begins at 7 pm at Opus in the Creek, Brookefields, Bangalore, on February 14, 2010. Entry is free. Come in peace.

If you are not in Bangalore, show your solidarity by becoming a fan of the ‘One Small Love’ Facebook page.

Draw the line. Spread the love.

And watch this space for updates over the week.

Special thanks to Merwyn Rodrigues for the poster. And, eternally, to the incredible folks at Happy for dreaming up the music video that started it all.

The post One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).