….what goes around comes around.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:

35 GB. Because my hard drive crashed two days ago, and one partition had to be formatted. Bye-bye, my complete Aphex Twin/Sigur Ros collection. *sniff* Some of you will be back again soon enough, and some will have to be downloaded again. ( already have, in fact)

And oh, some of it is legal, ripped versions of CDs I have back at Hyderabad.

2. The last CD you bought was:

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero OST,
Humko Ishq Ne Maara OST
Hanging Around by Trickbaby.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero or Bose, for short, was a disaster. Humko Ishq Ne Maara was a pseudo-gift from moccacino – because I was the one that had to pay for it – but quite a worthwhile buy, containing a number of peppy feelgood songs from the nineties. Most likely the movie never got released, but the music has endured. The music is by Aadesh Srivastav and the singers are all winners of Meri Aawaz Suno, the TV show that ran on Doordarshan ( and then on other channels, as if I care which ones…)

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?

Juno Reactor – Pistolero
Varrtina – Itkin

Both these songs played as I was answering the questions above, and considering that I have only these two enqueued on Winamp, I mustmention both. The Juno Reactor song is mucho different from the Matrix work these guys have done, it’s off their album Shango, a flurry of acoustic guitar riffs and Spanish vocal samples, with the occasional gunshot.

Varttina is every bit as good as I thought it would be – this is the three-girl band from Finland collaborating with AR Rahman on the Lord Of The Rings: The Musical. Itkin reminded me of the title song of Parthaley Paravasam.

Incidentally, I got both these songs from a Finnish friend in the office.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.
This is going to be tough, I can feel it.
For starters, I am going to exclude all AR Rahman and Björk songs. Among the ones that remain:

1) The 5-6-7-8’s – I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield – The song that the house band of The House of Blue Leaves is playing in Kill Bill Vol 1, when the Bride is spying on O-Ren Ishii and the band. Possibly my first Japanese song. Life has never been the same since then.

2) Indian Ocean – Village Damsel – The first Indian Ocean song I heard, and possibly the one that cemented my love for the band forever. I will always associate this band with my Higher Secondary Board Examinations. And Goa. And sitting in my college room wondering if I will ever see this band live and kiss Susmit Sen’s hands.

3) Vangelis – Chariots of Fire – I was 10 when I heard the Hindi version of this song, and then a couple of years later, someone played this in a quiz. Floored. One of the songs I used to play before exams to pep myself up bigtime, along with Koncham Nilavu ( That’s a Rahman song, hence not in the list) Also the first song I taught myself to play on the keyboard.

4) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Musst Musst – I love all the versions of this song available, the sparse, voice-dominated Qawwali, or the Infinite Guitar-backed fusion piece, even the trip-hoppy Massive Attack version. Not to mention the innumerable other versions mixed by the holy mixmeisters from T-Series. Of course, I first heard of this through Viju Sha’s adaptation in Mohra.

5) Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit – If there is a song that reminds me of my College years, it has to be this (or maybe RATM’s Killing in the Name)

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?
moccacino, because I think I know what she’ll put in, and just want to double-check.
psasidhar, though he is out of town at the moment. He doesn’t do memes, but I have a feeling he’ll like this.
vrikodhara, because I want to find out what the boy’s been downloading. Humph!