Some Rum and Four Seasons in One Day.

This past week was pretty enjoyable: good physics, cool results, and I came back home to practice a bit on the guitar. Ah it's been so long since I played the guitar. All my finger callouses were gone. But now they're back! And I recorded one of my old favorites: Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded House.

Could be much improved, of course, because I go off tune so many times. The issue is that I can't record both the guitar and singing at the same time using my stupid laptop microphone. It just doesn't work. The guitar begins to sound tinny. And it's just much easier to keep your tone/rhythm when you're playing along with the guitar. I need to figure out a way if this can be fixed.

A concise dictionary of Punjabi pop songs.

Living alone is terribly boring. That's a fact. I have just too much free time on my hands these days, and Saturdays and Sundays are especially useless. Although most of the time I work, there's always some time to enjoy and watch snooker or the great pottery throw down or listen to nonsensical Punjabi songs. So much so, that at this point I figured I should make a concise dictionary on the trends in Punjabi pop music.

Here's the most amazing and concise list that probably exists nowhere else on the internet. The aim of this list is to not to talk about various genres of pop or cheesy love songs but to highlight the most awkward themes in Punjabi music. And I'm absolutely honored to make this small contribution to the canon. So here goes nothing.

1. Punjabi kid in India finds his girlfriend is being arranged with a Punjabi guy in England/Australia/Canada/USA and is heartbroken.

Chief sub-themes: the foreign born Indian is an effeminate guy who can't speak Punjabi properly and the lead celebrates the breakup with lots of alcohol (Patiala Peg referring to, of course, a glass of whiskey filled to half glass.), preferably explaining that he was done with the girl anyway.

Special Mentions: Diljit Dosanjh with such great hits as Patiala Peg (Canadian boy marries his girl so he makes lots of Patiala Pegs and gets drunk) and Panj Taara (English boy marries his girl so he drinks lots of whiskey and dances).


2. Punjabi kid is a villager and he likes a girl from the city.

Chief sub-themes: There are many subtle variations to this theme, but some things stay common. Villager is a hard-working dude. Girl is a snob, who wears western clothes, wears sunglasses, and drives a good car. Girl is enchanted with villager dude, of course.

Special Mentions: Ammy Virk's Date (where he laments the girl's desire to go on a date since he hardly has time besides farm work), Preet Harpal's Law (where he says that it's not his fault that his Law-studying wife left law and became a housewife who gets bored cooking but what can she do---he's so cool and worth it after all), and Jassi Gill's Bapu Zimidar (he's too poor that all the money in his bank account is equal to one time meal for the girl. She likes him but he thinks she's too sleazy because he sees her playing basketball with another guy. Lame.)

3. Chiding the girl for wearing western clothes.

Special Mention: Navv Inder and Badshah's Wakhra Swag ("Girl, you throw your life after Gucci Armaani, and keep checking tags for brand names, come, let me show you what true style is. I'm a Jatt from Ferozpur, I never say anything that is illegitimate. Let me show you what true style is. My style is unmatchable". Right.) And forgot: Guru Randhawa's Suit (This has a whole section in English which is like, you're awesome whatever you wear, but you know you blow my mind in a sari, which is kind of really just true.)

4. The CAR. Especially if it's a Lamborghini/Jaguar/etc.

Chief theme: The CAR. The girl wants the car.

Special Mentions: Sukh-E's Jaguar (Girl gives love on condition of Jaguar; Sukh-E is cool though generally), Imran Khan's Amplifier ("Girl you're my woofer, I'm your amplifier." wtf. Must be said though this song is great to hear while driving. )

5. Cross-border Love.  Self-explanatory.

Special Mentions: Gippy Garewal's Lahore (all the pretty girls are from Lahore, Delhi, Chandigarh, of course...).

6. Girl cheats. This is surprisingly common in Punjabi pop.

Special Mentions: Pav Dharia's Bewafa AND Imran Khan's Bewaffa. How creative.

Now, let us not forget a lot of Punjabi pop songs are made by Indian and Pakistani immigrants settled in Canada, USA, England, and Australia. So how does this intense villager dynamic translate into the Western setting you ask? This brings another important category of important songs.

7. Race Relations. Self-explanatory.

Special Mentions: A-kay's Brown-Boi (lamenting how Indian girls in Toronto are going for white boys. Then he shows one such girl his Lamborghini and she's "wtf, made the wrong call going for the white guy", and then, too bad, there's even a girl inside the Lamborghini. Of course.), Pav Dharia's Gal Sun Ja (regarding dating an Australian girl.),  Yo Yo Honey Singh's Brown Rang (he only wants to date brown girls.)

8. English Punjabis who suddenly discover a love for their dying language.

Special Mentions: Jaz Dhami's Meh Punjabi Boli Ah ("I speak Punjabi". Intense video laments the split of Punjab, and a kid who only knows Punjabi script getting beaten by his teacher who wants him to memorize ABCD).


AND FINALLY, WHAT SHIT AM I LISTENING TO TODAY? Harry Sandhu's Backbone and Hornn Blow, and Pav Dharia's Heer Meri.  I'm positively ashamed for listening to this shit, but what they hey, it's entertaining enough.