The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata)

To conveniently canned Hindi cinema patriotica: Sabarmati ke sant tu ne kar diya kamal, Mere desh ki dharti sona ugle ugle hire moti..., Aye mere vatan ke logon, and the shrill little boy voice doing: Nanna munna rahi hun, desh ka sipahi hun... With almost no break there began what is now described as a reality show, where tuneless voices karaoke with canned music, and more canned music to which the local belles danced. Music for each of them comes conveniently canned into cassettes and discs along with strange devotional parodies of all-time cinema hits. One goes: “Mata ke dil mein kya hai mata ke dil me.” Each of the many mosques dotting our area is permanently equipped with public address systems and nearby the faithful also play HC canned music loudly. He can even hear a bell tied to the foot of an ant!) Unexposed to public address systems, the godpersons, the sants and matas, the political leaders of times gone by are not deaf. These piercing public address systems supplied cheaply by your friendly neighbourhood decorator or electrician will continue to belt out appropriate or inappropriate music at decibels that should make the pollution control board squirm. The writer, a former professor of English at Jadavpur University, can be contacted at sajni