झूमर झूमर ...

हँसती खिलखिलाती सी वो,
कभी बाल संवारती,
कभी सूट संभालती।

6 इंच की स्क्रीन से उसने,
6 फुटिया पंजाबी मार गिराया।

Counting Sheeps

Run until you fall, try until you halt,
Play until you break, love until you hate,
Sing until you cry, live until you die,

Is that all there is?

Search for Eden

Last man alive,
living in a ghost town,
passing through wisps,
dreaming of a touch.

आंसुओं के बीच

घड़ा बड़ा है सीने में
तेरी याद से भरता जाता है
बाहर कभी दिखता नहीं
बस आखों से छलकता है
 
साथ भी रखना चाहूँ मैं
पर भार घड़े का ज्यादा है
अँधेरे में, अकेले में
ये मुझे डुबाये जाता है

आजा माँ तू वापस आजा
एक आखिरी बोल सुना दे
इस मर्ज की दवा बता दे
आकर मुझको गले लगा ले
इस घड़े का वजन उठा ले

नहीं उठाया जाता अब
दर्द देता है ये घड़ा

Out of sight, out of mind

Three sailors,
Lost at sea,
No family, no friends,
Not a drop to drink amongst them.
.
.
.
Even the tears were salty.

Make Believe

Took me a year
to get over seven days with her
Then she returned...


...and left again

वो मुझसे दूर क्या गयी 
उसकी तासीर ही बदल गयी
पहले बातों से दिल लुभाती थी
अब यादों से सुइयाँ चुभाती है 

मुलाकात से पहले ही 
जुदाई उसकी तक़दीर में थी 
तब खुशकिस्मत था कि अंजान नहीं 
अब बदकिस्मत हूँ कि पहचान है 

जब संग थी तो मुस्कान थी वो होठों पर
अब संग नहीं, तो कलम की शायरी बन गयी

वो मुझसे दूर क्या गयी
भावनाएँ उथल-पुथल कर गयी
यहाँ थी तो चेतना का संचार था
वहां है, तो बस वेदना ही वेदना है

हल्का सा एक झोंका, खुशबू ले के आया
पंखुरियों के पीछे निकल पड़े हम

वह झोंका आंधी में कब बदला पता नहीं

पंखुरियाँ राख बन गयी
घुटनों पर गिर गए हम

मैराथन

जज़्बा बुलंद है मंजिल पार निकलने का
एक कहानी डोली में बैठ चली है
राहें हैं अंजान, बस रूहो‌ं का संग है 



रुक जाना नहीं,   थम जाना नहीं

History as should be taught

What do you do when you have a question google can't answer? Go to quora? Yahoo Answers?

In our small group of friends, we never had to rely on the replies of an unknown genius far far away. We have our own HRH to answer stuff for us.

My friend recently had an itch of curiosity. And for answers, he did what we all have always done since we learned to frame questions.

He approached HRH.

Y: All hail HRH!!

If HRH would, in all his majesty, look at this map, I have a few questions that need drops of your knowledge.

--Who exactly were Dravidians?

--This doesn't seem to be population weighted, is it power weighted? If yes, how is 'power' defined?

-- Who were the Assyrians?

-- The map shows Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrian, Persians, Roman, Arab, Christians, Mongolians, English-French and Americans as powerful, but never once Indians. Historically, there was only 1 great empire at a time, last 500 years and there's never been a monoply, which puts US's latest power into perspective. What are your thoughts on that?

HRH: Live happily my dear peasant. You shall reap the rich fruits of your inquiries here, and be satisfied:

Dravidians

Dravidians are the speakers of Dravidian (South-Indian) languages, which form a different language family. Their origins are still not clear but this much is agreed that they have inhabited the Indian subcontinent for longer than Indo-Aryans (branch of Indo-Europeans who came to India during 1800-1500 BCE and settled across north India). Some people suggest that Harrapans (who were settled in Indus valley from 3300-1800 BCE) were also Dravidians and got pushed to the south because of environmental reasons or coming of Indo-Aryans from the north-west or something else. But this is still debated. Over the course of time, Dravidian languages have got significantly influenced by the Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit. Dravidian languages have very rich literary tradition. For example, Tamil literature spans 2000 years whereas most of Hindi/Hindustani/Urdu literature is only 300 year old. Of course, we have much older Sanskrit literature but then it was never a language of masses.

Assyrians

It’s hard to explain any historical concept in isolation. Nevertheless, I can give it a try.

If we put aside East Asia (China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia) for time being, around 2500 BCE major civilizations in Eurasia and Northern Africa were those of Sumerians (in south Iraq), Harappans (Indus valley) and Egyptians. During 2500-2000 BCE two major groups of tribal people, namely Semitic and Indo-Europeans, displaced/subjugated/absorbed these societies. If we discount the Turkic and Mongol (both having East Asian origin) hegemony during medieval times, these two groups have dominated the region to this day.

Here is a bit more about Semitic and Indo-European linguistic groups:

Today Semitic people include Hebrews (almost all are Jews) and Arabs (mostly Muslim but not all) and are settled around North Africa and West Asia. Jews were pretty widespread across Europe, but as it has happened, most of them are back to their base in Israel. Anyway, point is Arabic and Hebrew are part of same language family.

Indo-Europeans include:

Asia: Kurds (North Iraq), Iranians, Tajiks, Afghans, Balochs, Kashmiris, Punjabi, Sindhi, Rajasthani, Gujarati .... Bengali, Assamese

Europe: Almost all Europeans with dominant groups being Germanic, Latin and Slavs.

There is a geographical discontinuity between the regions inhabited by European branch and Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-Europeans because of Turkification of Anatolia (now called Turkey) and Central Asia during medieval times. Turks, as mentioned earlier, were from East Asia.

Persian and Urdu have very similar script to that of Arabic and also share considerable vocabulary with it but they are part of different language family. Arabic is a Semitic language whereas Persian and Urdu are Indo-European. Similarly, Turkish has both influenced and got influenced from Indo-European and Semitic languages, but is part of an entirely different family.

Idea of discussing spatial distribution and dynamics of language is that it embodies within itself a great deal of history. Moreover, linguistic influence is a good marker of wider cultural exchanges taking place.

Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians (I like their names! :P)  empires were established by Semitic groups whose relative influence rose and fell in the region of Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel & Jordan) during 2400-500 BCE.

Together Mesopotamia and Levant forms the Fertile Crescent. Agricultural fertility supported many ancient societies in the region and is thus called as 'cradle of civilizations'. This region has been the first to saw the advent of agriculture (10000 BCE) and also development of writing (3000 BCE), which in my opinion are the first two of the four great revolutions that has shaped humanity. Other two being: Industrial Revolution and Information Revolution.

After the decline of non-Semitic group of Sumerians in South Mesopotamia, Akkadians built the first Semitic empire (2400-2100 BCE) in the region. Then Babylonians became powerful for some time and finally Assyrians rose to prominence around 1300 BCE in Upper Mesopotamia and are credited with inaugurating the 'age of empires'. They were the first one to maintain standing army and developed elaborate administrative apparatus for collecting taxes, essential to maintain an empire. They were real badass and quite unpopular among people (as suggested by biblical texts). Subsequently, Assyrian empire was destroyed by the west-ward expansion of Persians (who were of Indo-European stock) around 600 BCE.

Persians (first under Median and then Achaemenid empire) dominated West Asia, in addition to Persia (or Iran, their homeland), from 600 BCE to 300 BCE and were even trying to subjugate the Greeks across the Aegean Sea. They were not Muslims back then. Islamization of Iran happened in 7th century CE.

Remember 300 and Persian war with Athens and Sparta? The movie exemplifies Eurocentric historiography by romanticizing Spartans and portraying Persians in bad light. Historically speaking commoners were much better-off under Persians than Greeks. Greeks had a huge slavery problem. This is a good example how history is often twisted by the powerful group to suit their narrative. In the movie, Greeks are portrayed as Americans of the classical age, torchbearers of "freedom".

At their greatest extent Achaemenid Empire stretched from Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River. But then Alexander crushed it in 330 BCE. And it goes on like this!

Meanwhile, after the decline of urbanism with Harappans in Indus valley around 2000 BCE and inflow of Indo-European tribal during 1800-1500 BCE, India was first dominated by pastoralists in upper Ganga valley (1500-1000 BCE) and then agriculturists in middle Ganga valley (1000-500 BCE). Second wave of urbanism in India started in 500 BCE with rise of Magadha and other provinces across north India and centred on middle Ganga valley. First major empire rose in India around 300 BCE under Mauryas, after Alexander had already destroyed the Persian Empire.

Map

This map was made during a time when Euro-centrism was quite dominant. As a result, European and West-Asian (as it was the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity and there was relatively more knowledge of this region because of geographical proximity) societies have been assigned disproportionate power. Moreover, there was not much research done about the history of East Asia and South Asian history was often seen through colonial lens. In spite of its shortcomings, it gets few things right. As shown in the chart, Chinese and Indian civilizations are the only ones having an unbreakable presence.

From the following figure, which is based on a more objective and measurable parameter, it’s clear that as a unit China and India dominated world economy and trade from 1-1700 CE.

But that was because India and China had substantial proportion of world population throughout history, as it is today. However, unlike today, there was no large scale disparity in per capita income around the world. And that made India and China very powerful as a unit. Pre-eminence of India and China was probably because of vast cultivable land that is available, and before Industrial revolution economy was largely dependent on agriculture. However, India and China were also major producers of industrial goods too. Mughal Empire in 1700 CE produced 25% of global output.

Economy should be the major component of assigning power. You can judge it by anything like degree of urbanism, composition of workforce, share of world trade, share of world GDP etc. And all these parameter will put China and India as major power blocks historically.

My thought on the histomap is that the cartographer tried to represent a very subjective concept such as power and that too without providing any information on what parameters he used to judge it. However, it does give an overview.


Missing monopoly in modern times

I guess there is no dominant power during last 500 years in the chart because we know lot more about modern history of different empires and political units. Consequently, the cartographer had to accommodate a lot of comparable groups for the modern times which don’t leave room for anyone to dominate. On the other hand, for medieval and ancient time, little is known about some regions and groups. This seems to have resulted in the empires which have been well researched being assigned a lot more weight.

Current Hegemony

As far as most powerful group today is considered, here is what I noticed going through Human Development Report last year: In top 23 countries according to HDI, 17 are the ones where mother-tongue of majority is a Germanic language (English, German, Dutch, Swedish etc.). Moreover, there are only 17 Germanic nations in the world. That means there is no Germanic country in the remaining 164 countries (a total 187 were considered). And of course this is very much visible. Their share in major industrial, financial, educational, and cultural institutions is disproportionately high. Therefore, I would say that since last 300 years, most powerful group is that of North Europeans and not US or UK. And this is probably because they were pioneers of Protestantism, capitalism and were the first to capitalize on the benefits of public education.

Now, power of a political unit doesn't make much sense to me. Notion of power should be connected to how much control an average person feels over his life. And this power can be derived from income, education and health. Since these are the exact variables that go into HDI, I think thats the best measure of power we have at present. Countries such as India, Russia, Saudi Arabia etc. can be thought as reasonably powerful but that is because of large population/geographic/natural-resource base. Power of a political unit may make some sense to ruling elite but it has no significance for an individual. When we get down to per capita power, South Asians are almost at the bottom today. Maybe better than 10-15% of world population at best.

It seems, only people who are putting up a challenge to the Germanics are the East Asians, both at an individual and block level.

R : But O mighty HRH, hear my opinion. 

Correlation does not imply causation. That Germanic languages are in the list of top countries by HDI is an interesting observation, but to say that the 'Germanic' people are the current power group will not be correct. The power groups are dominated by trade, and as a result all Western European countries are there (thanks to colonialism). The other major groups I saw in the list are the Arabs (Oil power), and South Korea, Japan and Singapore (Tiger and Tiger Cub economies). And the wikipedia page mentions Afrikaans as another Germanic language, but I don't see any African countries in the list.

Clear my doubts as well, O modern sage, and let us bath in your wisdom.

HRH: Hear me O peasant, lest you return unpacified

Afrikaans is a mischievous name. Dutch settlers in South Africa named the variety of Dutch language they spoke there as Afrikaans!!! It is spoken by less than 15% of South African population and hardly anywhere else. So that doesn't count as South Africa is not a majority Germanic nation.

You are right about causation and correlation. It’s difficult at times to differentiate the two. It’s hard to say what exactly make Germanic people so advanced. But the figures to support the case are hard to ignore. I am not saying they are advanced because of their language. But their pre-eminence does suggest that they share certain historical or cultural advantage which has enabled them to be so. Moreover, it would be too simplistic to assign colonialism as its only cause. Except UK and Netherlands, no other Germanic country such as Germany, Sweden, Norway or even US had vast colonial empires. French, Spanish and Portuguese on the other hand ruled over much larger territories but in EU today, they are the underdogs. Therefore, as you correctly pointed out, trade (Dutch) and technology (US, Germany) seems to be some of the factors which have contributed to Germanic success other than colonialism (which itself was made possible because of superior technology). Dutch for example, found the first multinational corporation in 1602 (Dutch East India Company, most badass corporation ever! And yes, its older than Taj Mahal and Red Fort!) financed by shares traded on stock exchange. India is yet to have that sort of financial maturity.

South Koreans developed because of huge investment in public education. They were poorer than many African countries and had almost no natural resources 60 years back. Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau because of facilitating trade, which was in turn was facilitated by a highly literate population. Japan probably because of their strong commitment to work and investment in education and technology. China seems to working on similar ideas. Arabs on the other hand just got lucky! They may be rich but still lag on many other parameters. Had there been no oil I don’t think they could have done better than Sub-Saharan Africans as Indian ocean trade, which was their economic mainstay, had been was taken over by the Europeans. So education it seems to be the common thread running through these success stories which can enable a nation to advance even in the absence of colonies and natural resources.

And the reason why South Asia is backward, and most probably going to be so in foreseeable future, is mostly because there is hardly any political will to deliver quality education to everyone, which is essential to develop technology, facilitate trade and for almost everything. Here are priorities of government of a supposedly better off state in India during last 2-3 months:

Gita Lessons to be Included in School Syllabus: Haryana CM
RSS ideologue part of Haryana education panel
Haryana plans to flow water in ancient Saraswati riverbed
Acharyakulams to be opened across Haryana

And if you read the research articles by current Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, you will think he must be trolling.

To know more about the awesomeness of the Dutch East India Company, check this youtube video

R and Y: We announce ourselves well satisfied. All hail the mighty sage, the omniscient, HRH!!

अल्विदा

मुस्कुराते रह गये हम, जब उन्होने अल्विदा कहा
इक चोट पड़ी दिल पे, पर दिल झेल गया
कि आगे और भी पड़ाव आयेंगे, दिल लुटाने के
कश्ती अभी नदिया में उतरी ही है...

Helen and Menelaus

He started a war to claim her.
But on the eve of battle,
he saw her and lost.

God's unwanted children

Looking for a place, to spread my wings
and fly above all, and break this jinx
of destitution, loss and failure,
and find my ways, sans a savior
sans a gaurdian, destiny's forgotten child
fighting for the throne, and kingdom of the wild.
I'll fight alone, for this is my fate
A fate I chose, not one you create
I'll be my own Deadalus, and soar too high
above the clouds, my limit is sky
and declare then, o master of all
I'll be your doom, I'll make you fall
When I claim my kingdom, and take my throne
And dare your sun, wax wings hurling stones
I'll find my way, out of this labyrinth
and rewrite my fate, become destiny's prince.

Finally I see you
Feel you, smell you, know you
And all I have to do
is leap up and claim you
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But my mind wanders...

Arya Stark's Reaction to s03e09

The words unsaid...

An ode to that girl at Director's Dinner...

With my wolfpack I sat, eating and grunting and laughing, like a wolfpack might

She entered from the other end, gliding through the air, such a lovely sight

The crowd stood between us, yet I saw her gleaming, fairer than a snowflake

So beautiful and serene she was, though I ignored her, as well as I could fake

For it was a party, she was popular, and my wolfpack sat with me,

I wanted to stand and take her hand, and confess to her, but instead I chose to flee

And while she roamed the lawns, the queen of all, my heart stood shattered

For the words unsaid, the tale untold, because those words could have mattered

The epitome of beauty, with a heart so pure, never could she have snubbed me

If only I showed the courage, the will to confess, and not hurriedly took leave

Without the final adieu I went, watching her, as her friends took their places

To her side, a place that was mine, but instead filled by unknown faces

It was resolve I lacked, afraid of the future, afraid of defeat, afraid of pain

But with the silent goodbye, my future defined, I know I shall never see her again

A burden I shall carry, throughout my life, wondering what could have been

With you in my arms, a song on my lips, a new life won with a lover’s win.

Shakespeare in Love

Saw the movie late into the night. Then saw it some more. The poet in me woke, and here is a piece by your's truly:

I dreamt of you in your majesty, rising from east, like morning’s bloom
But the dream was to end unfinished, as reality cast its doom
I looked for you when I woke, in songs, in books, and in plays
But every time you fade and float away, as reality webs its ways
The songs never suffice, nor the books nor the plays
The love they weave is a shadow, not one to last till end of days
In their illusions I rejoiced, aye! And danced like a lover might
But as they end, I see me, being stranded alone for all nights
Of the glorious song ending, and you, becoming a memory again
Untouched, unheard, unreal and such a sweet pain
You torture me whilst I sleep, yet I yearn for it awake
What spell have you cast on me sorceress, that I dare not break?
You come to me faceless, yet only you I see where eyes may go
You I dream, you I see, and you I shall have, if destiny wills it so
By night I fear, to lose you with morning as the sun claims
By day I long for night, to hold you, and kiss you again
It is a story to be mocked, a fool and his lover’s quest
But one day we shall embrace, your heart beating next to my chest
And Then I shall see your face, gleaming as its beauty shames the moon
And with sun we shall rise, together, a dream fulfilled
And that day shall be my boon.

When the Gods caught Fire

“Jay, go and wake Tauji, it’s time for the aarti.”

“Coming Ma!”

Jay went to his uncle’s room. His uncle always slept on the folding cot, even though there was a perfectly good bed in the room. He never quite got his uncle’s logic.

“It helps with my back pains,” he said.

“Then let me remove the mattress from the bed, it will be the same.”

“But the cot is closer to the window!”

“I can move the bed wherever you want”

“Oh bacche, let’s go do the Aarti first. We can decide on the bed later.”

“Tauji is coming Maa!”, Jay shouted, then went upstairs to turn on the lights. The entire house lit in red as the Chinese lights flickered to life. He came back to the mandir. His mother was arranging all the diyas, putting the money between them, and making the swastika.

“That is the wrong swastika. You made a straight Z. It’s the opposite.”

“You correct the swastika then, I’ll go see where your Tauji and father are,” his mother said.

“They are coming! You just correct the swastika, I’ll go get Guddu.”

After around half an hour of hustling by Jay and shouting by Guddu, she finally came to the mandir. It is not easy getting kids away from crackers, especially when they have a bucket full of them left.

“Can I eat that?”

Guddu’s first words when coming to the mandir was to ask if she could eat the Milk and Jalebi prasada. Mom didn’t allow it, so she threw another of her tantrums.

“Jay! Jay!! Turn off your phone now and take Guddu from here!! And find your father and Tauji!” Mom clearly had too much to handle.

“Hey Guddu, I’ll make you a deal. You go and find Tauji, then when Mom isn’t around, I’ll let you have a piece of the prasada before the Pooja,” He offered her. It wasn’t his first time controlling his sister, and he knew how he could tempt her. Eyes sparkling with a prospect of sweets earlier than others, Guddu ran to find her father and uncle. Jay went back to his phone.

“Meena, take this photo too. Add it to the mandir,” Ramesh gave his wife a photo of the three gods, Ganesh, Lakshmi and Saraswati,  taken from a newspaper daily. He had carefully cut the sponsor’s ads in the bottom.

“But I can’t tape it to the wall, there’s no tape in the house. Besides, we already have a picture of all these three in the mandir.”

“Yes, but I spent half an hour trying to cut the ads from the bottom! Jay, come here. Keep holding it so it won’t fall on the diya,” Ramesh gave Jay the picture, carefully setting the picture between the Pooja Thaal containing the diyas, and the wall.

“But dad…”

“Shhh…. Here, See? Now the photo won’t fall if you keep this corner tucked in your shirt’s cuffs. Come on now, start the pooja Meena! Where’s that pamphlet with the different aartis?”

“Athshubhb Samvat Shri NripatiVeer Vikramaditya Rajya Samvat 2068…”

“Dad, you are reading today’s calendar date from the pamphlet! This isn’t an aarti!”

“No that’s okay. I saw punditji read the date before he starts the Pooja. Now don’t disturb me.”

“Okay, sorry.”

“…Shaka Shali Vaha Nasya 1933 Maso Tame Masya Kaartika Maasya Krishna Pakshe Amavasya Budhwar 46-50 chitra nakshatra 27-35 pal vishka yog 29-28, pal choh karan 21-48, tula arka Kaartik parvishthe 19 tadanusar Budhwar 26-10-2011”

“That is the date of last year’s diwali dad!”

“ Yeah I know… now Budhwar, no Mangalwar, what is the date today?”

“13 November 2012”

“Right… Kaartik parvishthe 19 tadanusar Mangalwar 13 november 2012. Shubh Dipawali.”

As the Aartis kept going, with his father stammering on the long Sanskrit words, his Tauji filling the diya with oil at every chance he got, Guddu sitting quietly in her mother’s lap, and his mother keeping his father motivated by reading alongside him, neither Jay nor the rest of his family understood much of the Aartis. Soon his mother grabbed a diya, put it on her palm, and started praying to each god with it. His father followed, and then did Tauji and Guddu.

“Jay, take this Diya, and there is a photo of your grandparents in the living room. Go and pray to them.”

Jay stood up and put out his hand. Guddu placed the diya on it. Suddenly, his Tauji started shouting. Then his mother quickly moved forward, his father stopped her and took her place, trying to grab something near Jay’s feet. He looked down, and saw that the photo of the Gods taken from the newspaper had fallen on one of the diyas, catching fire.

There was no water in Mandir. Guddu quickly grabbed what seemed like a water bottle to her. Tauji quickly took it and jerked her away.

“That’s Gangajal bacche. It is pure, not to be wasted here.”

Meanwhile, his father was trying hard to put out the fire with his hands. By the time the flames stopped, Goddess Lakshmi had vanished, and God Ganesh’s belly was reduced to half. Tauji calmed down, and his mother stopped looking for water.

Jay stood stunned, not quite understanding what had happened. Tauji put a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s okay, let’s start the Pooja again.”

“But Bhaisahab, he is always so careless, never…”

“It’s okay Ramesh. Bacche hain. Give me the photo, I’ll bury it with the Tulsi plant. Let’s start the Pooja again.”

Tauji took the photo from Ramesh, carefully folded it, and put it in his shirt pocket. Guddu, who was silent till then, whispered in her mother’s ears, “Will I get double prasada for double Pooja?”

“Okay sweetie, you take double,” her mom replied.

“Then can I take half of my double now?” she asked innocently.

Tauji was overhearing this. He lifted Guddu in his arms, took the bowl of prasada, and fed her a spoonful.

“Don’t you worry bacche. You don’t have to sit for the second Pooja. You and your brother can play outside, while we elders do the Pooja again.”

Ramesh kept looking dumbstruck at his elder brother. Meena started arranging the diyas again. Jay went back to his phone, and Guddu to her crackers.

And the Diwali celebrations continued....

Dexter

How would the story of a serial killer (and a real close look at his modus operandi) make you feel? Disgusted? Nauseated? Enthused?

Dexter is now in its 7th season. But buried in all his kills, the only time I felt the show potent and piercingly strong was when Rita was killed. I have seen many episodes, many series, and seen them multiple times. Save the episodes of Dexter with Rita in them. Seeing them once was a drop of heaven. A salutation to the good in the world. After she died, they became a cursed memory. Every thought of her now reminds me of her final scene, of her son Harrison sitting next to her. She was sitting in the bathtub, silent and serene, may be sleeping. Harrison was crying next to her. There was blood filling the bathtub, blood spilling out of it to the floor, to Harrison. She had gone.

I was in shock for a full day. After I finally got used to the thought that Rita was dead, I could concentrate. But going to the next episode took me a whole year to accomplish.

I couldn't talk of it to anyone till today. It is still painful.
I can't watch her episodes still.

Killer Queen

Hard to believe the same person wrote the lyrics of Killer Queen, as well as Bohemian Rhapsody.
Stumps me every time!


Killer Queen Lyrics
She keeps Moet et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake' she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Kruschev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can't decline

Caviar and cigarettes
Well versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, guillotine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable in appetite
Wanna try?

To avoid complications
She never kept the same address
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness
Met a man from China
Went down to Geisha Minah
Then again incidentally
If you're that way inclined

Perfume came naturally from Paris
For cars she couldn't care less
Fastidious and precise

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, guillotine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Drop of a hat she's as willing as
Playful as a pussy cat
Then momentarily out of action
Temporarily out of gas
To absolutely drive you wild, wild
She's all out to get you

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, guillotine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
You wanna try