DIARY OF A JANIAC

14 years ago, on Jan 24th, yet another college band went up on stage as a cover up for a band that failed to keep its promise of playing in their college. No expectations whatsoever were around. Their drummer was the club secretary and they had to this show to get the crowd going. They had had just a week or so of practice and were on stage. Their sound check was at 12 at midnight. It went on till about 5 AM. Soon their drummer crashes at his home and leaves home in 2 hours. Everyone is sleep deprived. Yet they are all nervous as its their first show. I have no clue how that show went, but I have to say this band, in just 14 years, has done miracles that most other bands can only dream of. They’ve touched a billion hearts the world over and will always do so. They’re celebrities in their own right yet remain firmly rooted to the ground and have no air around them whatsoever. A band that has done everything from rocking the most unruly crowd to opening for major international acts like Megadeth to Opeth to rocking HIV positive kids. This band is one like no other. This band is MOTHERJANE!!!

Many people have asked me why on earth I’m so addicted to motherjane. My reply to them has always been “It is written” or “MAKTUB”. I don’t know why that is my reply and I will always keep wondering and never figure out an answer. But come to think of it I don’t think there can ever be a better reply. I’ve never pressurized anyone to listen to motherjane; I’ve only expressed my love out in public. But many a times, I’ve had many people come to me and asked for their music. They’ve come to me and said “Wow! This band is brilliant”. I’ve bonded with men from Java over motherjane, more notable people like Thoriq Arridlwan Aria and Ben Prasetyo. I’ve known these men only from facebook. But Thoriq is one man who was so touched by the music since they played the first note at Java Rockinland. Thoriq is one proud janiac, his display picture right now on facebook is that of him and his friend standing with John, the drummer and Suraj, the vocalist/lyricist. I’ve bonded with men and women and even kids my age, just a tad bit older, even a few younger and the only thing we have in common is our love for motherjane.

motherjane, motherjane, motherjane! It’s the only word that I chant all night and day. If I’m writing an exam, I’m superstitious enough to wear a motherjane t-shirt inside. I play the drums. I’ve learnt for just about a year or so. I dream of making a band and blah blah. And if I said that I don’t dream of becoming a band like motherjane I would be lying. BIG TIME! But I swear to God, everytime I play on a stage I’ll pray to God, yes, but I will definitely pray to JOHN THOMAS, my guru, to watch over me, in spirit, as I play my set. I’ll pray to SURAJ MANI, to be by my side, as I recall every word of his advice that I have been blessed to have. I’ll pray to CLYDE ROZARIO, pray so that I can get his temperament and loyalty to the music that flows through our bodies. I’ll pray to BAIJU DHARMAJAN, pray that I can be truthful to what I play and never forget the path that I have followed to reach the destinations that I hope to reach. I’ll pray to DEEPU SASIDHARAN, pray that not only do I play my instrument with as much love as he does but also that I can carry off an attitude like his on stage.

This band has produced some of the best sounding songs that has ever been made in India. And the most admirable quality about them is the fact that not only are they extremely patriotic, they are extremely proud to be patriotic. They end their set at every show with the words “Jaya He! Jaya He! Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya He!” from our national anthem. Baiju plays his rendition of Vande Mataram, admirably named Metal Mataram by few, during every gig. And each time (I have no clue about the notes mind you) it sounds so different in a way very motherjane. I hope that makes sense but its very true.

motherjane has brought out two albums and one EP in these 14 years. The EP got lost in the wilderness of Indian rock but there albums have been received with so much love and affection from people from all walks of life and their upcoming albums too shall be extremely well received. They brought out Insane Biography in 2003 with their ex-guitarist Rex, he currently plays for Avial which is also a super awesome band. They brought out Maktub in 2008. They released in a way no other band had. They had a web release! Their idea behind it was that they would be close to their fans on this very special day. They believed that this was the album that would give them the break that they deserve and my goodness, has it given them a super huge break or what? They’ve won the AVIMA and they’ve rubbed shoulders with Mr.BIG. They’ve extended their fan base from a few hundreds to many thousands or is it millions. They’ve grown from strength to strength and they shall always do so.

Their contract with Aum-I Artistes states that they must produce 5 albums in 5 years and they’ve produced 1 in 2 years. So we’ve got three years and four albums coming out! JANIACS I SWEAR TO YOU WE ARE IN FOR A HUGE TREAT!

Nelson Mandela once said that he dreamt of a while guy walking hand-in-hand with a black girl and vice versa. I don’t have such huge dreams. But I have one dream that many janiacs that I know will proudly support and stand up and say “Yes! I’ve dreamt of this too”. I dream that one day 5 men going by the names Suraj, John, Deepu, Baiju and Clyde will walk with head held high onto a stage and thousands of men stand up and clap in awe. They’ve just won the GRAMMY!!! They lift up their newest addition to their trophy case and then suddenly boys and girls in black t-shirts with motherjane written on them storm the hall and they sing out proud :-

YOU ARE THE BEAUTIFUL NOTE IN A SYMPHONY OF SPIRITS

A THREAD IN A TAPESTRY OF DREAMS

WHERE EVERY COLOUR BLENDS TOGETHER

LIKE THE DROPLETS, THE OCEANS, THE RIVERS AND STREAMS!!

motherjane is not just the first but the only band I know off that has composed haikus. They’re called the Odes to Life. And they seriously are! What John Keates did in Ode to Autumn in 3 stanzas, Suraj Mani did in the four lines on both tracks. The two odes to life talk about two faces of the same coin, LIFE and DEATH and yet both have a positive ending. I feel that one of the best things about motherjane, which other bands lack, is the fact that each one of their songs ends on a positive note. Take Broken, it switches from such a dire topic to a supremely positive note on the ability of humans to be courageous. I personally love that a lot about them.

No post on motherjane is complete these days without mentioning Eva Dowd, their online promoter. She has helped this band reached out to so many more people than motherjane personally ever dreamed off. Any post that involves me has the words “motherjanes no.1 fan”. I’ve thought of this tag. I’ve been called motherjanes biggest fan by so many people. But come to think of it honestly, I’m just one of them. There are so many out there who are as crazy about motherjane as I am maybe even crazier than me. I’ve had the honor of getting to know a few. Infact I actually want to take up this space to thank my cousin, Raja. He was the one who made me listen to my first motherjane song. Without him, who knows, maybe motherjane might have just sounded like a joke to me. There is one fan. RAJA! Then there is JABRI! There is NIKHIL! There is DAMIEN MARWEIN! (Very few named. Pardon me for omission of any names) There are ever so many and I have blessed with the company of only few of them but I am sure there are tons more out there who will give their life in support of this band. So to all the janiacs out there, here is yet another one of you, raising a toast to all of us who have proudly stood by our one true love – MOTHERJANE! And I’m sure I speak for all the janiacs out there when I say that we will always proudly stand by your side when all of us together CHASE THE SUN!

Here is wishing you a happy "anniversary" / "birthday" once again motherjane! May your songs dominate our souls in all the years that we may live.

AMAJANIAC!!!

motherjane had performed at Bangalore 12 days ago as part of Times of India International Arts Festival. That was in between my exams but this time around, it was after those irritating hours in a small room, similar to a prison chamber, with endless droning hours in front of sheets of paper that you barely understand head or tail of. And this time around, i vowed to enjoy this day like I've never enjoyed any day of my life. The day started with me jumping out of bed with butterflies in my stomach. Because today was the day that I was going to give something in return for all those brilliant notes of music that those 5 fine gentlemen have supplied to me. Today was the day when I was going to give them just as great a feeling as they had given me when they all sang happy birthday to me at Opus.

So before I get to the concert. Let me tell you what this kickass surprise was. And trust me, if you were a part of the crew that gave this surprise, you would have woken up with butterflies in your stomach too. Well here goes. Me and three other diehard janiacs that I know decided to paint our faces and make a t-shirt of our own. This idea came up when I logged on to pringoo.com and decided it was time to buy the motherjane t-shirt. The hopeless choice of colour ranging from baby pink to bright orange inspired the idea of coming up with our own t-shirt with our own faces painted on them. We could flaunt them and it would be truly ours. The t-shirt says AMAJANIAC. This is, in physical sense, the title of one of the songs that Suraj Sir has written. However, to us, it goes way beyond just a song. It represents the collective sense of belonging that we feel towards the band. It represents that spirit that dwells in us. It represents our true selves. It represents us!

We took an entire day to paint our faces and pose for our photographs and everything. I even made pizza and went on to be complimented as being a kickass cook which drove me to make dinner that night. We didnt really bother going to photo studio to get our faces done. We had a one lakh camera in our midst and we decided we'll do all the photo shooting at home. We had a black lamb of god t-shirt for a background, and thats quite an insignificant thing compared to the fact that we kept pillows on the chair and sat on the pillows to make sure our height was just right for the photo, which was on auto-shoot mode. LOL!

Our day turned out to be an out-right sucess, as you may see for yourselves.

JABRI - a.k.a. PRAVEEN :P

HARI - a.k.a ME :P

RAJA

NIKHIL

Well, those are our painted faces and that was just one half of our adventure. We then shifted the photos onto t-shirts and the front said AMAJANIAC and had our face. The rear had the chorus of the song written.

I WOULD UNDERSTAND IF YOU SAID THAT POSING IS AN UNDERSATEMENT

THATS US - JABRI, RAJA, NIKI n ME - JANIACS FOREVER

Now, for the big day. THE CONCERT! I was as nervous as I was when I went for my very first concert. We went to the venue with this t-shirt well concealed. An hour or so before the gig was to actually start, we decided it was time. FOR PAYBACK(refer to my last post)! :P - we called all the members of the band and made sure they could see us all and we slowly removed the shirts we wore on top of our t-shirts and we revealed our t-shirts and the moment they saw it, they were stunned. They had emotions running from shocked to happiness to crying out in joy to excitement to any emotion you can name. It was all there. I personally was extremely happy that they loved it. Mission Acomplished! This was one of the dreams that motherjane had envisioned when they started off as a band and I was really quite proud of myself to have been a part of this. I was proud that I had done what I wanted to do and that feeling is simply unmatched. We then took snaps with the band.

US AND THEM!

Infact, a cameraman from Deccan Chronicle came up to us and asked us to pose for him. That was my first taste of the celeb life [:P].

MOTHERJANE @ HRC - I'M SURE BANGALORE FELL IN LOVE :P

AND THATS CLYDE ROZARIO ON THE BASS

The concert began soon later and we were once again doing what we truely loved. We were watching our favourite men doing what they do best. Rocking! And rocking real hard at that. They played all their songs, except Prison Chains, Shh.. Listen and the Odes to Life. A couple of my classmates came for the concert. One of them came for his first ever concert. It was such a pleasant sight to see him thoroughly enjoy himself, but it came as no surprise, everyone thoroughly enjoys themselves at a motherjane concert! And so will you, if you go for one! [:D]. And thats a decision you'll never repent. I'll even buy you a ticket. Hehe! Anway, signing off folks! [:D] Sorry for the long read couldn't help. [:)]

ROCKING BANGALORE

SURAJ MANI - PASSION REDEFINED

THE GOD OF SMALL STRINGS - if you ask me he is the GOD OF ALL STRINGS

ME n MY GURU - JOHN THOMAS

ME WITH THE BUDDHA ON BASS - CLYDE ROZARIO

And before I sign off, here is a small song that I wrote about motherjane. Its my first song about them and hopefully the first of many to come. Read and enjoy. [:)]

Child of motherjane

We've all had our share of dreams
Blinded by faith and tested by time
But I've got a new saviour
That'll carry me through just that

A bond that I shared
Since I heard the first note
A bond that lingers
In every move of my soul

Each beat, each note,
Every melody is now
A part of me and it shall
Always be

Coz

I am a child of motherjane
A man that stands tall among many
And forever flying towards the stars
To reach his one true love "MOTHERJANE"

The lessons I've learnt
through just your songs
And lessons I shall learn
from nothing but your presence

Your faces feature in all my dreams
And your music flows through all my veins
And I am really blessed coz
You not just show me in yourselves, you
Give voice to all of my thoughts

And

I am a child of motherjane
A man that stands tall among many
And forever flying towards the stars
To reach his one true love "MOTHERJANE"

Looking forward to your comments about it.

Cheers
Hari
amajaniac n so r u

MAKTUB - WHICH PART OF YOU WILL HEAR WHAT I MUST SAY

The title of one of the best albums that the indian rock industry has produced!!! Maktub by Motherjane is an album comprising of 9 songs, including the remastered version of the evergreen MINDSTREET!!!

The album consists of songs, which like all motherjane songs, have meaningful lyrics and they haven't just been written for the sake of writing, its been written because of the inner drive in them to write these songs and each and every one of these songs are so unique in their own ways that you cant help but wonder how on earth can a band be so diverse? How on earth can a creator make his creation so diverse in nature? When one hears the song with concentration and tries to understand the lyrics of each song, he will be able to understand the immense thought put into each song and he will also feel the fact that each one of the songs, not just this album but all albums, are so dear to the members of the band that their pearls of sweat can be felt in each song! (This is out of experience and I'm sure each and every one of you will feel it or have felt it)

The songs of the album are
1) Chasing the Sun
2) Fields of Sound
3) Broken
4) Blood in the Apple
5) Ode to Life
6) Maktub
7) Mindstreet
8) Before One Million Comes One
9) Karmic Steps

Each song in the album has its own theme and conveys a very positive message! The messages conveyed by each song, when implied by one, can definitely change ones look at life and make him a better HUMAN BEING than he was before! (This is out of sheer experience, again)

The song "Ode to Life" is a haiku. Haiku in the rock industry are very rare and honestly, i hadn't heard any haiku by a rock band before. I actually rubbished the thought of a haiku by a rock band but the "Ode to Life" Part 1(from Insane Biography) and Part 2(from Maktub) changed my perception about haiku! I now see it as a powerful way to display ones deepest thoughts in just a few lines and I honestly feel that no one can do it better than Suraj ettn! The lyrics of the 2nd Ode to Life is

"I've seen new life
and there is new life in me
I wonder how you feel
when you see all that you see"

These four lines express the sheer bliss of being a father and how you treasure each and every moment that you share with your child! Although I have no clue as to how one feels when he gets a child, I was able to feel the happiness through the song! I've just taken the above song as an example and I've tried to just briefly explain the way I felt about it!

I remember that Suraj Ettn once said that the reason a person becomes a fan of any artist is because he is able to see a part of himself in the the artist and this is the very reason I'm a fan of Motherjane!

The album was launched on 27/09/08! It was a web launch and each member of the band had face paint to exhibit the fact that they believed that man is half human and half spirit! I felt that it was a very nice way to portray what they thought!!

They showed the videos of Fields of Sound and Chasing the Sun and my comments on it would be "The scenery matched the music!"

Well after all this I have just one thing left to say, "Please don't miss out the chance of listening to one of the best albums the Indian Rock Industry has produced"