Aaiye Meherbaan...

I am completely new to blogging and have been wanting to start a blog of my own for a while. As they say, the best way to start anything is to do just that -- get started as quickly as you can. So here I am. I deliberated on what I can write about that is not already being written about, but that would probably eliminate almost anything that I could cover. So, this is an attempt to write about things that I am passionate about, and perhaps a combination of those things would differentiate this blog. But, enough said already; I'll just get started!

My inspiration for the name of this blog is indeed the song from Saudagar (the 1970's Amitabh movie) written by Ravindra Jain. I love the song "Har haseen cheez ka main talabgaar hoon...", and I could identify with the sentiment it expresses: "...ras ka, phoolon ka, geeton ka, beemar hoon". I found that the song resonates well with my own temperament, my interests and passions. This could be a Piscean anthem almost. But anyway, I tried looking up the meaning of Talabgaar (spelled sometimes as Talabgar, but I decided to stick to the song version) in various Urdu-English dictionaries on the web. In the context of this song, I understood that Talab could variously mean: Desire, Need, Search; and a Talbgaar then is someone who is needy; someone who has a deep desire or longing; someone who is constantly in an internal state of disquiet and is searching. Searching for what? We'll leave that for each Talabgaar to decide for themselves.

I do not have a concrete plan for this blog but I am sure that as an avid film- and music-lover who grew up in India in the 70's, my topics will be dominated by Hindi cinema, music, and film-personalities who influenced my generation. Another word of caution: I am a true-blue Piscean and fit the description of my kind provided by Linda Goodman and others to a T. I am a hopeless romantic, and do tend to look at the world through rose-tinted glasses, borrowing from the words of Goodman and others. I am fascinated by the ideals of righteousness and humanism, which I believe are facets of romanticism anyway. I know that the world is far from perfect, but I like to bat for hope, optimism, and positivism. If my musings seem unrealistic, impractical, or downright dreamy sometime, I hope that you will rid your mind of such thoughts immediately and let them "sleep with the fishes":-)

Here's welcoming fellow Talabgaars again, and I do hope that you will take the time to post your own comments, criticism, and suggestions to my posts in abundance.