Nine questions for Joan Baez

Brought up as we were on a steady staple of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and promises that the "revolution was just around the corner", you can imagine our excitement when, through a serendipitous turn of events, my sister got to meet and hear the legendary singer in Istanbul this week.

To say that Baez, now 74, was a family icon at whose handmade sandals we worshipped daily would be an understatement. Ever since we heard the first notes from the American singer's unique soprano with its three-octave vocal range and distinctive throat vibrato, we had been in her thrall. Which is why, almost five decades later, I am imagining what I would have said to her had I also met Baez this week.

After all, Baez, with her songs and active participation in some of her era's most epoch-making moments and causes, had illuminated and inspired us pre-teens to imagine that the world was soon going to be a more equitable and better place to inhabit.

So, without much ado, here are some of the questions I would have submitted to Joan:

1. In the song "We Shall Overcome", you have stated specifically that "we'll walk hand in hand/live in peace/not be afraid and overcome". Which of the above has transpired? If none, then why?

2. In the song "What Have They Done to the Rain", just before the words "And the rain keeps falling like helpless tears", where did the little boy who stood in the rain disappear to? Is he safe? Will he return? Please make your answer short and avoid blaming specific countries or leaders.

3. In the same song, where you sing "Just a little breeze with some smoke in its eye", what exactly do you mean? Is this, in any way, a reference to climate change? If so, try and explain the song's allegorical theme.

4. "Calves are easily bound and slaughtered/Never knowing the reason why/But whoever treasures freedom/Like the swallow has learned to fly". What did you mean by the above sentences in "Donna Donna"? Is it a reference to the oppressors and the oppressed? And if swallows learn to fly, as you have encouraged them to, are there clear skies for them to do so? Or as you have stated in "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall?", another popular song of yours written by your fellow troubadour, Bob Dylan, will it be impossible for swallows to fly? Answer in three short sentences please and try not to refer to the Al Gore documentary.

5. Who exactly was Joe Hill? Why did he insist he "never died"? Can his alleged murder be attributed to the "copper bosses"? Who are the modern equivalents of Joe Hill today? Are they still endangered?

6. What does the sentence "bluer than robin's eggs" in the song "Diamonds and Rust" mean in the scientific context? Or did you mean it as a poetic illusion only? Is the phenomenon common in your knowledge?

7. In the song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", have the young men come home from the war? And the girls? Is the fighting over finally? Have they "learnt" by now?'

8. Do you still wait for the "rooster to crow" to get up every morning or have you switched to the alarm on your mobile phone?

And finally, the question that I've wanted to ask my childhood heroine for decades:

9. Who was a better kisser: Steve Jobs or Bob Dylan?

Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasmumbai@gmail.com