POURED IT OUT

           

                   There are very few moments when we tend to overlook the negativities in life. Generally, hardships, hurdles and negative energies attract us more than any existence of positivity. In the past few days, I have been recalling a few of them. There are people who emit negative energies to the farthest possible extent; there are people who manipulate things in a way which would suit them well; and there are people who have forgotten how to smile.
                    In spite of the presence of the above, there are wonderful people who will listen to you calmly, who will stand by your side, who will make adjustments to suit you and who will do little things to bring a smile on your face. For the first time in my life (the counting starts from the day I gained the general facts of life), I think I should not care about everybody. I am not supposed to be the one available to people who are never available to me. I don't feel the need to compromise or sacrifice.
                   The feeling of "last" few days of student life seemed to be a huge thing just like the first few days. Everything in my life is different today. During all this time, I have fallen in love, tried my best to give up on love, got hurt, done stupid things, been forgiven and have forgiven, trusted people and learnt how not to trust certain people.
                    After jumping from the "student" phase to the "employee" phase, things were difficult, but I'm proud of myself that I have learned many things now. Things seem to be undone but I am still happy that I have earned something. Scribbling all of this here is a relief now. Everything has a perfect time. Maybe this is the perfect time when all of this can be actually felt because this is the time when I'm actually missing some real jewels close to my heart and yet I know I can't go back to them or have these days back. 

THE 'RANGABATI' MUDDLE

         

              This is my first post on a legal issue where I put a step out of my world of art and enter into this world of reality. For the past few days what has been troubling me is the slow growth of my beloved Odisha. I work in Bangalore and I have found people who consider Odisha to be backward. I get back at them with all the rich culture and the beautiful tradition lecture.
             Recently, I found the massive circulation of the remixed Rangabati song on YouTube and many other social networking sites. I was finally happy to hear that people have come to know about our music and have loved listening to the same in a loop. This was pushing our culture to the forefront.
               But, this did not last long and then popped up a copyright issue claiming this song to be an infringement. I'm sad that the progress of our culture in the nation has come to a standstill, but at the same time, I'm also happy to know that the law relating to intellectual property has gained relevance in Odisha.
                 They fight over the issue of 'public domain'! Dude! a work comes into 'public domain' only when the copyright over it has expired. In India, a copyright expires sixty years after the death of the authors and our author still live. Not taking the permission was kind of "underestimating the power and knowledge of an Odia!". We showed them that we are not going to sit back!
                    Saying all of the above and thinking from a young Indian's point of view, I think the copyright owners should take a reasonable royalty, impose a penalty for not taking permission and let the remix remain untarnished. This is helping Odisha become famous and bring out the real colours of Odisha in a modern way. The breaking of "ranga" from "rangabati" is just a part of the remix to bring out the modern music effect to this 1977 song. However, even if 'ranga' refers to 'third gender', what's wrong in addressing a 'third genger' as beautiful?

This is one platform where I can open up my heart and mind. I did so. I hope it reaches out.

-Somya Mishra