Latcho Drom: The beloved sister & Desert Places, A companion to Latcho Drom

सातों रे भाईड़ों री अम्मा एक बेहनाडली

परणाई रे ए क्यूं , परणाई रे ए क्यूं

She was the beloved one sister of seven brothers..
Why, oh why did you give her away in marriage?
Latcho Drom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B4aom3IaBQ

Latcho Drom - Have a safe journey (in English) {Aastar Jaijo (in Marwari)} is a film by Tony Gaitlif about Roma gypsies, an ethnic group of people who live in transit, leaving from, arriving at, or traveling in between places that they struggle to call their own.  Roma gypsies are believed to have started aigrati from Rajasthan more than a thousand years ago, reaching far flung places in North Africa and Europe.  The film does the same, taking us from Rajasthan to North Africa to Southern Europe using what Gypsies do the best, singing and dancing and celebrating life. The skits are fluid, changing from one country to the next using strains of music to transition, never talking over, never translating and never altering the rich experience of watching and hearing the songs and dances, the sounds of transit, of struggles and triumphs, and the silences in between.

It is unfortunate that this beautiful film is not available on DVD but if you are one of those lucky luddites who are still clinging to their VHS players, then you can treat yourself to this experience. 

For music and dance lovers, this film is a treasure, with pieces ranging from Kalbeliya dancing and devotional singing, sung for Baba Ramdev (Mhaaro Helo Sambhalo Ji) in Marwar to Flamenco performances in the gypsy neighborhoods of southern Spain.  In Marwar, one of the most magnetic performances is that of Ghazi Khan Manghaniyar singing Kaman Garo Kanhaji with incredible charm and flair on a cool clear desert night - pure enchantment!

Desert Places - A companion to Latcho Drom

This is not your ordinary travelogue.  There are no recommended hotels and no rave reviews of the Hawa Mahal or Fatehpur Sikri.  This is the story of a bold and successful journey that an Australian woman Robyn Davidson undertook when she signed up to become a co-companion of two of the prominent nomadic tribes of the northwest India, the Raika in Rajasthan and the Rabaris in Kutch, in their yearly migratory cycles. Davidson is a seasoned traveler, having undertaken in the past, a more solitary but more rigorous journey across the Australian desert but she seems unprepared at first for the chaos and unpredictability of India, especially Rajasthan, and barely manages to keep her schedule and her wits despite her lofty royal connections, the usual privilege of the white traveler who ventures into the Indian heartland. But this is where all similarity to the curious westerners ends.  As Ms. Davidson starts to eat, drink and walk with the Raika, she acquires a sophistication and a deep understanding of their condition and their struggles to retain their identity, their migration rights. As she outlines the impossibility of their situation, their struggles against the corrupt government authorities and loss of habitat itself, she reveals her own anger and outrage at their exploitation and their vulnerability.  In a defining moment in the book which takes place in an upscale cocktail event in a posh Delhi neighborhood, she's challenged for criticizing the Indian apathy for its own people.  Ms. Davidson shines as she records this event to point out the irony of the situation.