Blog entry #21
"Unner mah umbuh-rella, ella, ella" | Usher | Udbhavaha kshobanodeva... | Ulsoor
"Unner mah umbuh-rella, ella, ella"
During Mumbai rains, it’s of no use carrying an umbrella IMO. The rains lash out at you, and frankly, you’re better off with a raincoat instead. The umbrella will be of more use to you on sunny days. In this city, the expression "It never rains but it pours" is to be taken in the literal sense. Mumbai rains ten years ago - going about your daily life as if it were any other day, walking to school with shoes sans socks in the floods, it was all part of the routine. So, it’s funny to hear people say "Oh my, it’s raining" and take several precautions to stay dry, even during a drizzle, in other cities. The song in the title refers to a song by Rihanna, my very first English song I ever heard, referred to by my Aunt when I visited the US back in 2007.
Usher (Hyderabad)
My second year on campus - this was the phase where I used to listen to all sorts of artists from the hip-hop genre, and their contemporaries - Chris Brown, Pitbull, Eminem, and T-Pain, to name a few. Usher Raymond, mononymously known as Usher, was also part of the list. Although the former artists produced more of pop music, with Eminem in the sub-genre of rap, T-Pain and Usher belonged to the contemporary R&B genre, along with Taio Cruz and Justin Timberlake. "Without you", "More", "OMG", "DJ got us fallin’ in love", and "Scream" - these songs are still on my playlist even today, from six years ago.
Udbhavaha kshobanodeva…
"Udbhavaha kshobanodeva iti paramo mantraha, shankabhru nandaki chakreeti keelakam" - Chennai folks, is this line more familiar now? It’s one of the lines from Vishnu Sahasranamam, a list of 1000 names of Vishnu, with each name eulogising His countless great attributes. Powering up my Alexa at 6am every morning, with the instruction: "Alexa, play MS Subbulakshmi songs", either this or Bhaja Govindam would be among the first songs played. After a while, a few lines from this Stotra come to you naturally, you don’t need the lyrics. This Stotra (Stothram) or prayer, is probably the most frequently played Shloka in this city than any other - you can hear it in the mornings, you can hear it in the evenings - in houses, or in temples - played as a recording, or chanted by a group of people.
Ulsoor
Etymology can either be fascinating or annoying. The first time I saw this name in Bangalore, I pronounced it "ool-soor". It’s actually "uhl-soor". If you look at common English words from "u", most have an "uh" sound - umbrella, under, ugly, utter, urn, umpire, ultimate. The other "u" words go like "you-niform", "you-niverse". So technically, I should’ve said "uhl-soor". But if you look at proper nouns - names of places especially, they have the "oo" sound - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ujjain, Udaipur, Ulhasnagar (place in Mumbai). Take places in South - Udagamandalam (aka Ooty), Ubburu, Udupi, Uppal. By this logic, my "oolsoor" pronunciation seems apropos. If you want to avoid all this, you can simply say "Halasuru" :)
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