From Oh Maria to Eu Te Amo Larissa

Gosh how i have been dying to do this post...only thing my hands were tied with chores...boring and endless...And this post sure is going to have it all...i mean not of the chores but what i've been so eager to share...

 FIFA....yes...but when i was taken with the stadiums and did a huge post on the stadiums last time this time it is Brazil and it's colorful culture which boasts of many celebrations and festivals it is not surprising that i can only think of Lambada, Samba, the Brazilian Carnival and Bumba Meu Boi.
Lambada comes first to mind because that was the FIRST that my son a toddler recognized as music and went adorably cute, alert with that sparkle in his eyes, leaving his feed leaking behind hopelessly on the nursery printed sheet of his as he weeble woobled towards the speaker to be right next to it and as close to that 'mewjee' (music) as he could be.
Chorando se foi quem un dia so me fez chorar chorando se foi quem un dia so me fez chorar... would see my bonny baby going gaga with glee, one could see his only two toothed wide grin with a bit of his transparent sweet smelling baby drool trickling down the corner of his lips perhaps escaping the gaps left by the unborn set of teeth. He would try to dance with whichever way he could think of, all that feathery soft curly locks flying all over his face as he went head banging and foot tapping, then rolling on the ground when he didn't know what to do as the music rolled. This happened that day and we all rejoiced the tamasha. We knew he loved music and Lambada was special for each and every time Lambada played, he would just stop whatever he was doing. Sometimes even waking up from his unfinished nap if by chance he heard his favorite familiar tunes and then would want nothing but to be left free next to the speaker. i remember him getting soothed, his tantrums subsiding to a manageable and easy sobriety when Lambada reverberated in our home at Patna. Yeah i have recorded it in the baby book of his...this one by KAOMA


And that was way back in 1990..

Hmmm, 2014 now, have traveled far but not much and perhaps would've known more savored more than actually i have of music but Heaven alone knows how my love for music and dance suddenly from the front seat of my car called life flew out of it's window as the new journey called taking care of the family began. Appearing only in bits from here and there and i lost track of my passion of collecting the best from all over the world. Both of dance and music. Although i still love watching. Both, even now and never miss an opportunity if it suits me.

i definitely thank my stars that i am still here in some part of my country sitting in the comfort of my bedroom quite like the Ms Froggy in the well when i am introduced to something i had not been attentive to earlier or maybe could not get an opportunity to be aware of. Whatever.
As if Brazil only meant Lambada or Samba or for that matter the famous Carnival and Bumba Meu Boi.
i wouldn't have known had it not been for the Grand Opening Ceremony. Things have been happening all over the world and we perhaps catch a little bit of Shakira here and a little bit of Jennifer Lopez or Pitbull there but it is always the opening ceremony where the best of the country is featured and i am fortunate to be in that composure when i can appreciate better and savor the talent of the artist who was born of illustrious parents so as to speak and about whom i didn't know.

i am not doing anything original. Because i don't have better describing words so i am copy pasting what New York Times had to say of her when she performed at City Winery...

And because i have never been to the New York City either and wouldn't know what winery and which place the New York Times was referring to where my newly- discovered- full- of- expression and life the Soprano Singer had performed i had to find out that first.

"In the heart of the Big Apple, City Winery New York City is a unique facility, combining a fully functioning winery with intimate concerts, food &; wine classes, ...
... City Winery is the brainchild of Michael Dorf, founder of the iconic Knitting Factory, one of New York’s longest running music venues..."
Michael Dorf's passion for wine inspired him to create a space in Manhattan where he could combine his shared passion for wine and music. This unique place called City Winery has a restaurant, a fully operational winery and a performance space.

So this is here where she performed and then thus was reported of her performance. And why am i copy pasting the lines of the entire is because in this particular song that held me electrified and made me instantly fall in love with her voice and her singing style i found exactly the expressions matching to what captivated me most about her singing. i could not have produced the justified words to prove my sincerity...although she has sung not the song mentioned in the article text but nevertheless...

"....Maria Rita’s voice carried everything else the music needed. It’s a gentle, lustrous soprano with elegant depths and minutely detailed phrasing: long-breathed and sustained or darting and syncopated, vulnerable or teasing, limpid or bluesy. ..."

i am no music critic, a connoisseur or have even that required flair for words rather so far as voices go i have troubles with my comprehension explaining the exact feelings about how the voice can be best described and i remember mentioning this earlier in one of my blogs too.  

http://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.in/2011/09/thank-you-all-but-could-you-also-help.html

All i can say is i could feel her expressions and so many emotions rang inside me as she sang. Don't know a word of what she sang but feelings flowed along with her music like the wind and the tide.

i felt like a baby...a small girl playing all by herself in the field picking dandelions and blowing those feathery strands away, then building sandcastles on the beach humming some meaning LESS only known to me words, as a teenager with dreams of a prince and stars in my eyes and butterflies in my stomach , as a women  who wants nothing but the best so maybe keep bewitching till Mr Right comes along , then drowning in love and making promises to keep. i was feeling emotions mixed with some immense joy which is unexplained. It is unbelievable but even without knowing a word of what she was singing i was feeling 'The Waters of March'.

A stick, a stone, it's the end of the road

It's the rest of a stump, it's a little alone
It's a sliver of glass, it is life, it's the sun
It is night, it is death, it's a trap, it's a gun

The oak when it blooms, a fox in the brush
The knot in the wood, the song of a thrush
The will of the wind, a cliff, a fall
A scratch, a lump, it is nothing at all

It's the wind blowing free, it's the end of the slope
It's a beam, it's a void, it's a hunch, it's a hope
And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the end of the strain, it's the joy in your heart

The foot, the ground, the flesh and the bone
The beat of the road, a slingshot's stone
A fish, a flash, a silvery glow
A fight, a bet, the range of a bow

The bed of the well, the end of the line
The dismay in the face, it's a loss, it's a find
A spear, a spike, a point, a nail
A drip, a drop, the end of the tale

A truckload of bricks in the soft morning light
The sound of a shot in the dead of the night
A mile, a must, a thrust, a bump,
It's a girl, it's a rhyme, it's a cold, it's the mumps

The plan of the house, the body in bed
And the car that got stuck, it's the mud, it's the mud
A float, a drift, a flight, a wing
A hawk, a quail, the promise of spring

And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the promise of life, it's the joy in your heart

A snake, a stick, it is John, it is Joe
It's a thorn on your hand and a cut in your toe
A point, a grain, a bee, a bite
A blink, a blizzard, a sudden stroke of night

A pass in the mountains, a horse and a mule
In the distance the shelves rode three shadows of blue

And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the promise of life in your heart, in your heart

A stick, a stone, the end of the road
The rest of a stump, a lonesome road
A sliver of glass, a life, the sun
A knife, a death, the end of the run

And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the end of all strain, it's the joy in your heart

Songwriter

Antônio Carlos Jobim

Read more: Sergio Mendes - Waters Of March Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

i guess then that's why they say music has no language. It transcends barriers.

From a sweet  impish charm saying Au...to her Zsaa zsa zsaa...as she raised her arm in the throes of her music i hopped and skipped close to the TV to peer at the tattoo that had caught my attention. It was on the underside of her forearm and before i could catch the tattoo enjoying her song and dwell into it more for i thought there would be a crescendo of sorts , she was done.

Was stunned at how synchronized she was to the piano when she sang which also stopped with a couple of chords and as abruptly as her last am ma ba ba ba which sounded so similar to the gurgling songs of that of a baby...those meaningless cute words when they are singing to themselves. Suddenly jolting me out from my reverie. She bowed raised her hand and with that same charming smile thanked all her piano maestro too and welcomed all to her country. She thus in her most humble way prepared me for more of hers.  

i kept listening and soaking in the permeating richness without needing to understand all that jazz. 

Her performance in this particular song was admirable and has left it's indelible impression on me. From the beginning when she started with her P-P-Pau pedra looking towards her piano maestro then facing the audience with the mike in her hand her seriousness and the starting words Pau Pedra softly first to that sounded something like uma ave no and her brows cocked to that impish smile in which you could not see her eyes but they laughed along with the corners of her lips, then as she finds her ease to that turning her head lost in the music taking me flow along with her in abandon to some free land. 
As she whistled in tune along with the accompanying music too which was fantastic...and i tried my level best emulating her... 

this Heeta in Fuschia pink...had me turning along with her as she moved her head in rhythm rather in a swinging manner synchronizing with that singing with her heart like those birds that i follow. For an instant when she turned her head this way and that after her oww...to that zsaa zsaa zsaa i had flashes of my curly locked sonna my beautiful darling baby...and his dancing to Lambada.

Although the tattoo eluded me i lingered wide eyed, confessional, yearning for more.

In my search was sure helped by not only one but two to satisfy my yearning. For one instantaneously was my resource Maria Rita on Wikipedia as usual but what happened the very next day is something that does not happen with me everyday. And that too has left an imprint in my heart.

A gesture which is denied to me by many of my own people but coming from somewhere some part of the world i wouldn't know...an extra mile run by someone who doesn't know me and yet took all that time out and spent her energy to satisfy me completely and in full measure...

This was incredible !

Incidentally there is another beautiful Brazilian lady involved here and i couldn't help but only love and thank her.

So to this Ms beautiful soul who says she doesn't know English that well although i feel her English is as good as mine i say Eu Te Amo and OBRIGADO .

LARISSA FREITAS, ( i hope you are listening, and i pray you see this post of mine) 

When i was in school probably in the sixth or seventh grade we as teenagers had this temporary fad. We were on a collecting spree. I love you in as many languages as we could collect. Then there were no computers then. We had to rely on letters of friends and cousins staying abroad to know I love you in different languages or maybe jot down from magazines. i had learnt I Love You in twenty different languages Portuguese included. i hope my Eu Te Amo is as fine as your good English.

About Obrigado meaning thank you i learnt it with the click of a mouse just when you sent me this...

" Hi, Shivani! I’m so glad you liked the vid and her songs! Maria Rita is one of the best brazilian singers. She sang six songs in this performance. "Águas de Março", "Desafinado" and "Garota de Ipanema" were Elis Regina's songs (This songs are also known in the voice of Tom Jobim). Elis Regina was Maria Rita's mother who passed away in 1982.

I searched the lyrics in english and I found in this sites:

Águas de Março (Waters of march) :

http://www.metrolyrics.com/waters-of-march-lyrics-sergio-mendes.html

And here you can read more about the song and its meaning: http://joekiddone.blogspot.com.br/2014/03/waters-of-march-aguas-de-marco-elis.html

Desafinado (Toneless):

http://www.letras.com.br/#!joao-gilberto/desafinado/traducao-ingles

Garota de Ipanema (The girl from Ipanema):

In portuguese: http://letras.mus.br/tom-jobim/20018/

In english: http://letras.mus.br/tom-jobim/646525/

Não deixe o samba morrer (Do not let the samba die)

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/nao-deixe-o-samba-morrer-don%E2%80%99t-let-samba-die.html

A Festa:

I didn’t find this one :( but I translated it for you:

Ja falei tantas vezes

-I’ve told u so many times

Do verde nos teus olhos

-about your green eyes

Todos os sentimentos me tocam a alma

-all this feelings touch my soul

Alegria ou tristeza

-happiness and sadness

Espalhando no campo, no canto, no gesto

-Spreading in the field, in the song, in the gesture

No sonho, na vida

-in the dream, in the life

Mas agora o balanço

-but now the swing

Essa dança nos toma

-this dance takes us

Esse som nos abraca, meu amor

-This sound embraces us, my love

O teu corpo moreno

-your dark-skinned body

Vai abrindo caminhos

-opens a path

Acelera meu peito,

-accelerates my heart

Nem acredito no sonho que vejo

- I don’t even believe in this dream that I see

E seguimos dancando

-And we go on dancing

Um balanco malandro

- in this naughty swinging

E tudo rodando

- and everything is rotating

Parece que o mundo foi feito pra ns

-It feels like the world was made for us

Nesse som que nos toca

-In this sound that touches us

Me abraca, me aperta

-hug me, squeeze me

Me prende em tuas pernas

-hold me in your legs

Me prende, me forca, me roda, me encanta

-hold me, force me, roll me, amaze me

Me enfeita num beijo

-enchant me with a kiss

Por do sol e aurora

-sunset and sunrise

Norte, sul, leste, oeste

-north, south, east, west

Lua, nuvens, estrelas

-moon, clouds, stars

A banda toca

-the band is playing

Parece magia

-feels like magic

E pura beleza

-It’s pure beauty

E essa musica sente

-and this music feels

E parece que a gente

-and seems that we

Se enrola, corrente

-are wrapped

E tao de repente voce tem a mim

-and suddenly you have me.

And last but not least:

O homem falou

http://lyricstranslate.com/pt-br/E-o-homem-falou-E-o-homem-falou.html

Well.. That’s it. I hope you enjoy her songs. Her new cd is called “Coração a batucar” -the translation is something like ‘heart drumming’- and you can hear it here: http://ouvirmusicasdegraca.com/maria-rita-coracao-a-batucar-2014/ and you can also buy it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/coracao-a-batucar/id847980820

PS: I’m sorry, i’m brazilian so I did my best to write everything in english, I hope you understand everything :)

Good night,

xx Larissa. "

i was restless till i shared it all. Till i had explained how touched i was. That my Eu Te Amo is not words uttered just like that out of sheer habit. i've had experiences...and i'd rather not talk about those sad ones rather concentrate on this happy Larissa moment.

All i knew of Brazil was that it is a great football loving country with it's culture rich with dances and music of all kinds. Had no idea that the people are so genuinely kind and helpful too. i think i have used this Sanskrit Shloka once when i had talked about a friend, a real friend of mine who is so rooted to his native place in an earlier blog of mine. http://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.in/2011/08/return-of-native.html

But i would like to bring it here again because Larissa, you invoke this again on my blogpost. You who are a Brazilian but with your gesture you are making me rediscover and without even being aware of what great job you have done you are reminding me of my own Indian value of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. Meaning the whole world is but one family.

Now isn't this a great Redescrobrir...rediscovery. Wow!

Redescobrir ! isn't that the name of the hit Album which got Maria Rita many accolades including her Grammy ??? and what a co-incidence through you what a great redescobrir for me.

And thus for this redescrobrir Obrigado and as for your gesture, your extra effort there is no other word and i mean it. Eu Te Amo. 

Now as for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam which is actually in Sanskrit taken from a shloka from Holy Scriptures...

A shloka is a couplet of Sanskrit verse otherwise known as hymns especially one in which each line contains sixteen syllables.

The shloka is like this...in Devanagri script 

अयं बन्धुरयं नेति गणना लघुचेतसाम् | उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् || ”

ayaṁ bandhurayaṁ nēti gaṇanā laghucētasām | udāracaritānām tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam ||

Discrimination saying "this one is a relative; this other one is a stranger" is for the mean-minded. For those who're known as magnanimous, the entire world constitutes but a family.

i wanted to get the lyrics of Maria Rita's this particular song so that i could learn it. To be able to sing it just to pep myself up each time i get my blues. 
Yeah do that. i sing all kind of songs quietly... hopelessly out of tune because i cannot sing that well but nevertheless i sing. Sometimes it's the lyrics which helps and other times it's the peppy tune that lifts me up. And even when i'm in my doldrums the song goes on inwardly too. Like this one by Maris Rita pronounced Maria Heeta is going on inside my head although i am not in my blues right now but just a bit stressed out. Too much work and some that just can't be postponed and have to be attended to much to my chagrin. Because i want to be left free for TV and Brazil...

And it's not that i am so smart that i know the song already...i guess listening to it again and again i shall get the pronunciation right. Right now the tune is there and some words...especially the high notes of peroba do campo...o p, o cho...

It's not easy as i had thought. That i would get the lyrics and will get it set on my tongue and lips...the words and pronunciation at the moment feels like a nightmare so i prefer remaining silent with Maria Rita on my head phones. As she goes..

pau, pedra, o fim do caminho 

Pau, pedra, o fim do caminho

um resto de toco, um pouco sozinho
um caco de vidro, a vida, o sol
a noite, a morte, o lao, o anzol

peroba do campo, o n da madeira
Caing, candeia, o Matita Pereira
madeira de vento, tombo da ribanceira
o mistrio profundo, o queira ou no queira

o vento ventando, o fim da ladeira

a viga, o vo, festa da cumueira
a chuva chovendo, conversa ribeira
Das guas de maro, o fim da canseira

o p, o cho, a marcha estradeira
Passarinho na mo, pedra de atiradeira
uma ave no cu, uma ave no cho
um regato, uma fonte, um pedao de po

o fundo do poo, o fim do caminho
No rosto o desgosto, um pouco sozinho
um estrepe, um prego, uma ponta, um ponto
um pingo pingando, uma conta, um conto

um peixe, um gesto, uma prata brilhando
a luz da manh, o tijolo chegando
a lenha, o dia, o fim da picada
a garrafa de cana, o estilhao na estrada

o projeto da casa, o corpo na cama
o carro enguiado, a lama, a lama
um passo, uma ponte, um sapo, uma r
um resto de mato, na luz da manh

So as guas de maro fechando o vero
a promessa de vida no teu corao

uma cobra, um pau, Joo, Jos
um espinho na mo, um corte no p

So as guas de maro fechando o vero,
a promessa de vida no teu corao

pau, pedra, o fim do caminho
um resto de toco, um pouco sozinho
um passo, uma ponte, um sapo, uma r
um belo horizonte, uma febre ter

So as guas de maro fechando o vero
a promessa de vida no teu corao
Pau, pedra, fim, caminho
Resto, toco, pouco, sozinho
Caco, vidro, vida, sol, noite, morte, lao, anzol

So as guas de maro fechando o vero
a promessa de vida no teu corao.

 

"Aguas De Marco (Waters Of March)" is track #1 on the album Elis & Tom by Antonio Carlos Jobin.

i am capable of providing all this at the click of the mouse had it not been for the timely help rendered by one who at first felt like i have bumped into a bum chum of mine from childhood and in between sharing lozenges and candies we were exchanging notes about the pageantry, the beautiful gowns and the songs that we liked the most in this Opening Ceremony of FIFA Congress 2014.

Like i said the other source for music where i go first is You Tube and a beautiful lady blessings be to her had already uploaded The Performance with The Song and the other songs that followed for all to hear and enjoy. i just liked and commented asking her how i could get the lyrics and the translation of the song and forgot all about it although Maria Heeta stayed. A few words and the tune...i kept humming and managed and when i had some easy time logged on to check for new updates on my computer. There it was, the bell logo telling me that i have notifications on Google plus...and Larissa had come while perhaps i slept or was busy and left her gesture of love and kindness for me.

Larissa and all of her effort not hastily done but one that requires devoting some precious and valuable time for a stranger. No motive here just one genuine act. Researched well enough to provide me with the six songs that Maria Rita sang for this FIFA 2014 Congress 64, the lyrics, the translation and where i can find them and what she couldn't find she took all that it takes to the best of her ability and went that extra to make me more aware so that i could appreciate even better. How can one appreciate if one doesn't know. You can because music is like that but knowing the words or their meaning perhaps makes comprehending emotions better.

i am stunned at her capability too as i know i could never do such a translation. It is difficult because i had tried it once when i had done that post on voices. 

http://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.in/2011/09/thank-you-all-but-could-you-also-help.html

The one in which i has expressed my anxiousness about my lack of ability to give suitable adjectives to voices and i had used a certain poetry of a famous contemporary poet recited by one of the sexiest voices in Bollywood on my post. A blog friend from faraway land had asked me for a translation, an English translation of that poetry and i couldn't do it because when i tried everything was falling apart. The meter, the rhythm...and the essence. Yes it is difficult i know. Later when a well read and a writer himself a diplomat by profession and a well known gentleman in the literary field  Mr Pawan Varma published an English translation of the poetry i had remembered and sent that blog friend of mine the English translation. i haven't yet received an acknowledgement from that blog friend of mine. Why i'm saying this is is because people ask and forget about even their own question. Here i expressed a desire not a question but it was amply and caringly fulfilled . 

Larissa did it all for me. And how humble she sounds at the end of all her good effort. For this i ask... who will that person be who will not love her? 

 And neither am i blind nor deaf.

i kept gazing at her beautiful thumb nail picture provided on You Tube. Dark hair, comely features. Beauty! quite a stunner i say. 

But for me beauty is much more in what is what beauty does. She seems to be beautiful inside out.

What she has done for me feels beautiful as beautiful as Maria Rita's song.

Ask me for even if she was not a moca bonita she would be one for me. Her gesture has shown me that of hers and her country, her kind, sensitive and helpful upbringing.

Three years back Alka had sought me out on facebook. She had asked for my phone number and showed that fake keen ness about meeting up when i had landed in Delhi. Probably in between she did her homework well. Perhaps found out that in her scheme of things i did not fit in. That was the day and till date she hasn't called. In fact in between i was in dire need of some information which i was sure she could provide me with. i sent her a facebook message. Once again she asked me for my phone number, did not give me hers or even suggest a good time/ place and thus once again i landed with a sifar (nil /zero) from her side. i see her quite active on facebook with travel, fashion, festival and daily updates though. She has not been the only one and i think i have mentioned this before. My own best friend from school has avoided me because now i don't belong to her coterie. The only ones who come to visit me are the new ones who are hopelessly into their networking spree...to size me up...see how i fit in. How i can be best used to their advantage. i have become careful though and learnt the hard way to say NO although after a long drawn painful but truthful process of failings, betrayals, back biting, jealousy and between all that my sincere attempt to keep holding on to a friend , getting hopelessly used and then thrown like a disposable paper cup. Yes but i am fortunate that i woke up to that realisation before it was too late that unfortunately some of my friends sure have been and still are 'gold diggers'. Sad but it's true.

The word friend now leaves me with some distaste. i just need some time from them and trust me they don't have it. My real friends are thus now very limited. Two should be the precise number. Rest are all aayaram gayaraam. Transliteration Ram came and Ram went. Meaning actually that the absence or the presence of these friends means nothing to me. 

Being hopeful though i have not shut my doors to them but my heart does not light up on their coming nor does it get dulled as their absence does not make me miss anything. And definitely no Ya tebya lyublyu or ich leibe dich or wo ai ni or je taime....  for them. All that feverishly comes out is a 'generally' TC...take care... 

Thank God for FIFA in Brazil...

i was beginning to feel like one hardcore cynic and the overuse of those three words generally making me sick that i had begun to doubt the sincerity of those words because sometime i have copied them too in that ' generally' saying mode for stuff and people alike. 

Thank God for Maria Rita and her music which became a via media through which i met Larissa and although we have not met or anything just exchanged words on music i felt love, kindness, and positivity.  

Larissa and Maria, how else!

How else would i have known the other aspects of Brazil too then, other than Football, Lambada, Samba and Carnival. 

How would i get the real picture of it's people sitting here in my bedroom like a Ms Froggy in the well. How could i hum this pau, pedra, o fim do caminho  and know so much more...had it not been for Larissa...

And that's how it happened...from Oh Maria to Eu Te Amo Larissa...

                                   Image courtesy: 

All images taken from the Internet when i typed free Images: