For those who can’t get enough of Pink Floyd, and want to cherish the memories of the recent Dark Side of the Moon concert, here are two excellent accounts (from gigs of the same tour elsewhere) that I found. The first is particularly powerful.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/09/29/105808.php

http://www.stuff.co.nz/3945154a4500.html

Injoy!

Or, as mumbai med-school lingo would say it, “Basics Mein Rada”.

Get the fundamentals straight guys – get the damn voice calls to work. We love contradictions and ironies in India, don’t we? Only here do you find that basic needs are ignored, while everyone vies for a share of the top-end of the market. We have the best institutes in engineering and management, but poor penetration of primary education; the best vehicles money can buy, but no roads to speak of; and now, the 4th largest phone population in the world, among the largest business deals in recent times, but a user has to live with a sub-standard phone network.

Droped calls, jammed networks, billing issues – how is this any different from struggling with the MTNL operator for a Trunk Call? At the Roger Waters concert in Mumbai last night, you might as well have left your phone home!

Mr. Sarin, we don’t mind waiting a bit longer to become the largest mobile network in the world, or for the fastest nG technology. Can we please make a trouble-free phone call?

Can’t think of a better way to spend a weekend than to watch God play music for you. This was my third Floyd concert (That includes one by the official Pink Floyd in London, and the other by Roger Waters in Bangalore). And it is only Pink Floyd’s music that for me, does not succumb to the law of diminishing returns. Its amazing how year after year, play after play, the songs still sound as magical.

Last night’s concert was a 2.5hr set comprising a fantastic selection. The first half started off with In the Flesh, and included Mother, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Wish You Were Here, Shine On, Have a Cigar, Sheep (complete with an inflatable Flying Pig), Perfect Sense, Southampton Dock. The highlight though was his new song – Leaving Beirut. The idea of having lyrics projected on the screen (and that in the form of a storyboard) was phenomenal. And what lyrics they were. A scathing attack on the political machinations of wars waged by the US (and supported by Britain) on the Middle East. Not surprisingly, the lyrics invited huge cheers from the Indian crowds.

Sample this:

“We motored down to Paris, fuelled with Dexedrine and booze
Got bust in Antibes by the cops
And fleeced in Naples by the wops
But everyone was kind to us, we were the English dudes
Our dads had helped them win the war
When we all knew what we were fighting for
But now an Englishman abroad is just a US stooge
The bulldog is a poodle snapping round the scoundrel’s last refuge“

“Are these the people that we should bomb
Are we so sure they mean us harm
Is this our pleasure, punishment or crime
Is this a mountain that we really want to climb
The road is hard, hard and long
Put down that two by four
This man would never turn you from his door
Oh George! Oh George!
That Texas education must have fucked you up when you were very small”

“Every time a smart bomb does its sums and gets it wrong
Someone else’s child dies and equities in defence rise”

The second set comprised the entire Dark Side of the Moon in quadrophonic sound. Suffice it to say – Brilliant!

The encore comprised the all-time-favourites – Another Brick in the Wall, and Comfortably Numb. The pleasant surprise being the latter was preceded by Vera Lynn and Bring the Boys Back Home, just like in the album.

A sense of fulfillment is inevitable. Sigh!