I decided to add dhivehi songs to my music playlist recently - started listening to them a bit. However, since I didn't have any dhivehi songs on my hard drives, I was left to scour the internet. Luckily, there is a Maldivian website that boasts an impressive amount of dhivehi songs on its pages - GNAtoll.com. The site seems to be a portal aimed primarily at the people of Gnaviyani atoll (a.k.a Fuahmulah).

Since the above mentioned site stocks quite a lot of dhivehi songs, many people seem to use it to get their fix. Copyright issues and the related legal mambo jumbo aside, this is quite handy when you are abroad (or broke) and want to get hold of some or even a particular song. Sadly, the site does not allow one to directly "download" songs and instead plays the songs via a webpage embedded music player. This forces one to visit the site everytime to listen to the song. I can't be bothered with all that hassle and I suspect many of you can't be either. So I wrote a few lines of code in a hurry to have the site crawled to get the direct links to exactly 546 songs - all ready to be downloaded off the site and onto the computer!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the list. It has the song name and the associated download link to the song. Click here to download the list

Enjoy!

I like classical music. It is very rejuvenating, refreshing and energizing. Tonight, I am stuck on Beethoven. Ludwig van Beethoven is the most loved among my classical collection. I find his music very energizing - especially the famed 9th Symphony. My knowledge of music is an utter shame so I know nothing of his music's greatness. However, I can stand witness to the power of his music. The 9th Symphony is the sort of music that plays with my auditory systems and permeates into myself...

The 9th Symphony was Beethoven's last complete composition. Interestingly, he was totally deaf at the time of its composition! At the premiere of this work, Beethoven is said have been so immersed into his own world that he continued conduct after the musicians had stopped playing. The 9th symphony has made appearances in movies (A Clockwork Orange) and cartoons (Tom and Jerry). Someone even went as far as stretching the 9th Symphony into 24 hours! The ninth symphony (download) is in four "movements". My favourite is the second movement - it is the most moving - but the fourth movement is amazing too.

Then again, Beethoven has so many other great compositions. "Violin Romance" (download), "Fur Elise" (download) and "Moonlight Sonata" (download) are among my favourites. (note: the links provided are just free for download renditions that a quick search on Google turned up)

Syncing back to Beethoven now....

I am missing home today. Home as in Maldives - the people, the sun, the blue sky, the humid air, the lagoons, the sea, the beaches and wind...

A friend of mine sent me this video ad of Maldives titled "A little bit of Maldives". Apparently it is currently being shown on BBC and used for tourism promotion in the European markets. The video is a little bit over-the-edge, with shots mostly of the sculpted landscapings from the resorts and paints a dolled-up image of the country. Despite that, it still is good to watch the sunny beaches and idealize the homeland. The images trigger warm feelings of nostalgia. Plus, the ad carries a catchy tune which does a good job of lingering around in the crevices in the head, ready to pop up in mid thought - especially on these winter mornings.



Enjoy!