A sweltering day in December

Yesterday was the first weekend in December. I really love the month of December, especially for the weather it brings. Its "December time" for us at office when most of the clients go to sleep, and the workload is at its lowest in the year. December's also the time when it starts snowing across the world, and all I need is nice music, a bean bag, closed eyes and a smile on my face to dream of the first snowfall in Hyderabad.

Let my dreams be as far-fetched as possible, but it really felt my dream was farther fetched yesterday. I had been out with my mom to take care of some shopping chores, and I needed some money. So, I drove to the nearest ICICI ATM. To my dismay, there was a queue of atleast 30 people waiting for their turn in front of the ATM. ICICI did their best by providing 4 ATM machines inside the ATM bay, but it took me nearly 15 minutes of waiting in the queue and under the hot sun.

That brings me to the subject of my blog. Why is the sun so hot in December? Global warming? Naah! Its probably the air-conditioning at office to which I got used to. But then I saw a street-dog digging itself into a pile of sand near a house under construction. I'm sure it was feeling the heat too. (Well I leave it to the user to take the correct meaning of heat here). I wished I was lying there too, digging my hands and feet into the wet sand, and cooling myself off.

I really love Hyderabad for its climate, even if it can get unbearably hot in summer. The air generally is extremely dry, and how much ever you sweat, its going to get evaporated soon. But it gets tough when it is hot, as it will sap all the energy in you. Standing in the hot sun for 15 minutes took its toll on me, and I had to sleep for more than 4 hours towards the evening to recover from the ordeal.

And it did not end there. I had a headache late in the night. I'm feeling better now, but the weekend is almost over, and I'm still trying to get into the weekend mood here. So, after I post this blog, I'll switch on some nice jazz, slump into my bean bag, close my eyes and smile.

Pandora continues to surprise me, and continues to take me into a wonderland, if I decide to lay in my bean-bag and doze off. The sun continues to blaze, but I don't care.

Weekend downtime

What do you do in the weekend? I call it the "weekend downtime" where you do some maintenance activities to refresh yourself and ensure smooth running for the rest of the week. The way I do it is by listening to a lot of music. Had splurged on audio CDs recently, and there's quite a lot of collection in my hand right now. So, What I'll do now is to post one-paragraph reviews about each of them.

John McLaughlin Trio - Que Alegria
Had bought this quite a while ago, when I started to get to know John McLaughlin through my favourite band Shakti. The reason I got attracted to this album, apart from John McLaughlin himself, is because it featured Trilok Gurtu, a famous jazz percussionist. The tracks in this album were pure jazz stuff. I know I'll love it very soon, but unfortunately, I'm still not into the whole jazz genre yet. I'm still in the middle of traversing through instrumental fusion and jazz. I don't like this album a lot yet, it'll have to wait.

John McLaughlin - Friday Night in San Francisco
This is one really amazing album featuring John McLaughlin with another great guitarist Paco De Lucia. John McLaughlin is agressive and shows his explosive qualities in here, producing a lot of fireworks, and Paco De Lucia bridges the explosion with a very sweet, soothing and sonorous acoustic guitar notes. Paco De Lucia is so good that I started listening to him on Pandora. And by the way, several guitar enthusiasts rate this as the best acoustic guitar live performance ever.

Shakti & John McLaughlin - All the hits
This is a money-saver definitive collection 3-CD pack from Sony Music. The 3-CDs are the best albums ever to be released by Shakti in their prime period. They are Natural Elements, A handful of Beauty and John McLaughlin and Shakti. I'm proud of this collection and I listen to this very often. Even though I had access to almost all the mp3s featured in here, I went ahead and bought the original CDs. The beauty of mp3s is that they act like teasers. When you listen to an mp3 and you like the tracks, you should buy the original CD to give the artists the appreciation they deserve. This CD collection is really value for money.

Paco De Lucia - Gold
I've got used to listening to Paco De Lucia's smooth acoustic guitar in pandora, and I loved almost every track he made. This motivated me to try some CD of his. I was strolling through the aisles of the local Music World and hit upon this CD. I used up my HSBC's credit-card points to buy this CD. This is a 2-CD collection and has 25 tracks of solo acoustic guitar. This probably falls in flamenco genre. The music is very rhythmic, and light. Amazing album.

Pure Silk
Happened to know that this music band was performing in Hyderabad from my friend and we had to scramble to ITC to get the tickets. We finally got the tickets after a huge adventure. Anyways, the concert wasn't that great because of of several issues, but for me, the band was an instant hit. I just loved the way Shankar played with music, and how Sivamani enjoyed getting his hands dirty with all his signature sound-ware (I keep wondering how he manages his inventory when he flies from city to city... Or does he have a full set of his ware in every city?). There were Louis Banks, Carl Peters too, but they never made an impact as their instruments were hardly audible. This Pure Silk album is a recording of their live performance at a music concert in London in the year 2000 (They performed better in London than in Hyderabad). The music is lively, modern, urban jazz. A very good find and I'm fond of it.

So, what do you think of it?

Pandora

I'm proud to introduce you all to pandora. This place is a treasure trove for music lovers. I have been listening to it for over 2 months now. There was a time when I thought I knew what I liked, and that I have a defined sense of musical taste and that I have had the privilege of being able to hear the best musicians this world had to offer. This site reminded me of the "frog in the well" tale.

Yes, its true. There's a "lot" of music out there. Lots of top quality music. The popular music is just the tip of the iceberg, or probably the layer of dust over a precious stone. I was amazed to look at the collection it has, and I realize I need to write about it, as I have marked pandora as an important friend that has entered my life at a good time.

Here's how you go

• Register for it. Its free, from money-mongers and spam.


• Choose an artist or album or song and create a station with this simple search criteria.


• Pandora will dish out music for you, that closely matches the musical criteria of the artist / song / album that you wanted.


• Listen to the music dished out patiently. Rate it religiously.


• Keep building 3-4 stations of your favourites. Whenever you find a very interesting piece, bookmark it, go back and start researching about it.


• If you fall in love with an album / artist / track, go buy the album, as a token of appreciation to the artist who has created it.

Here are some of the good points of this site I have noted till date.

• Introduces you to a lot of work out there in the wide world.


• Has an uncanny ability to "read your mind" and to present music that's an exact match for your taste.


• You end up knowing a lot more performers than you initially knew, and your music collection grows, you enjoy a wider spectrum of music, and you end up re-defining your faviourites


• Quality of music is high (almost CD quality) - good stereo, and good bass (they seem to run their music into an equivalizer that make the music more pleasing.


• The quality of their collection is really good. None of the song they dish out is "bad".

Some of the things that I do not like about Pandora

• No indian classical collection etc. So, you get to know only about western and world music


• When you choose an artist, the first song that they play often tend to be of some other artist, whose musical qualities match the artist you asked for. This might not go well with a lot of people.


• Your inputs are absolutely necessary if you want to end up with the music you like. (I'm not sure if this is a disadvantage).


• Not meant for very casual music listeners, who just want to listen to songs they like. This is more for people who are interested in exploring new music.


• The collection still needs a lot of content. You can't say that "everything under the sun is available here."

The bottom line - the intelligence built into the system works so well that it can read yout mind. You just need to talk to it truthfully. Over a month's time, Pandora figured out what I lile. and 9 out of 10 times, I end up liking the song it plays.

Have fun.

Dor - My Review

I am not a great fan of the mainstream movies produced from either hollywood or tollywood. I might watch them and go back home happily if I am satisfied with their "entertainment value". Otherwise, my way of looking at a movie is slightly off-beat. I appreciate the visuals, sound and technique a lot more than the characters and the glamour attached to them.

Now that my evaluation criteria is set, this movie scores a 10/10 in all areas except one. Let me talk about the "one" aspect that scores low. This really is a one-and-a-half hour film, and its very unfortunate that it was stretched for more than 2 hours. Not that it ever made me feel that I'm being strangled in a movie theatre, but it actually makes you drop off from the canvas occasionally, and start thinking about the popcorn that's melting in your neighbour's mouth. I don't "like" to take my eyes out of the screen even for a second when I'm watching a movie, and this movie doesn't "glue" my eyes to the screen 100% of the time.

But even in cases where I tend to sit back and relax in a "slow moving" situation, I keep marvelling at the visuals on the 70mm screen. A very scrisp camera-work. And the music is brilliant, and never for a second makes you feel that you're listening to some boring folk number.

Rajasthan looks so beautiful in this movie and I had an intense feeling to book a ticket to Rajasthan tour immediately. The golden sand and the brick red costumes left a mark in my heart, and I will definitely cherish a chance to feel the sand enveloping my bare feet.

The background score is brilliant, and so are the song tracks. Deep in meaning, and strong on melody, these tunes will stay in my heart for a long time to come. I will need to look out for more of his work. The CD seems to contain a purcussion composition from Trilok Gurtu, who's a brilliant percussionist. I guess I'll buy the CD soon.

Stepping back and looking at the movie as a whole, I believe the "key factor" of this movie is the narration. The story is about a woman going on a search for another grieving woman to ask her forgiveness for a sin that's not committed, and it doesn't sound interesting to me as is. But the way it was narrated is astounding. If you ask me, the story, by itself, is bland. But the way the characters relate to human values is amazing. And if it wasn't for Nagesh Kukunoor, this story wouldn't have made it to a silver screen, and even if it were, there wouldn't be any takers.

This movie is indeed a bold step in the right direction for the sensual cinema. The package attracts city multiplex frequenters, and the rest of India would ignore it. But Nagesh now has the backing of his "loyal" fans, and I'm sure we promise to watch every movie he makes, Nagesh is among the very few currently in this industry who has the guts to avoid all "run-off-the-mill" tricks, and still still win success, love and huge fan following.

If you haven't watched this movie, go watch it. Be a proud to be able to be present in a time when Nagesh shows off his magic. And go visit Rajasthan if you can.

The resurrection

Looks like promises are malevolent to the promiser. Here’s why. You tend to keep up to your promise, only till you actually make the promise. Here’s an example that has “not” happened with me, but I’m hoping to go through it some part of my life. You love the girl from the abyss of your heart till you actually commit the rest of the life with her. Right?

The example that happened with me is this blog. I had promised I’ll put in a lot of content about Vizag and it unfortunately never happens. So, here readers! I declare that I’m breaking this promise, in an attempt to resurrect the blog. I give up. I can’t write about the Rishikonda beach now that the experience is buried in sediments worth six months deep. Not totally unlike wine, old experiences rot. But we need to take it as one of life’s paradoxes that people don’t like all things to rot. So, time to throw the rotten experience out of the window. But the experience, when I went through it, was worth a lifetime.

Here I am, blabbering away, and that makes me feel good.

What have I been doing in the past 6 months? Well, I went on a world tour, with the most beautiful damsel the Almighty has ever cared to create. Put in more comprehensible language, I was asleep and I was dreaming wild.

License to Spam

AOL has a good spam filter. Most of the spam that gets spewed out, is trashed automatically by the spam filter. Now, AOL and other mail service providers get a new idea to make more money at the espense of their subscribers. To sell spamming licenses.

If you are a spammer and you're concerned about the low number of mails that are making it to real inboxes, and can spare some money to ensure more hits, here's a way out. Pay AOL and they will guarantee that your mail gets to the inbox of their subscribers. Sooner or later, you'll have to live with the "licensed" spam, or you'll have to deal with the head-ache of designing your own spam filters.

1. Instead of cribbing, let me give a better idea.
2. The spam filters will still be there, trashing the regular spam.
3. There will be a set of "spammers" allowed, who can buy licenses at a premium after providing enough justification on how their spam improves the world. When providing license, they should be classified into a certain group - sex, health, financial help, shopping etc.
4. The subsrcibers should have an option to choose to get mails from a classified set of spammers in one of the topics above. For receiving spam, the subscribers should get paid a small part of the royalty that the service providers earn for delivering spam.

This way

• The spammers are happy their spam is reaching their destination.
• The serivice provider is happy earning more revenues from the spammers
• The subscribers are happy as they get spam that interests them, and also earn money for inviting spam.

What say?

Mumbai Magic

Here's another one that shows the Gateway of India in the foreground and the majestic Taj Mahal hotel on the background. When people visit Mumbai, they're attracted to the Gateway of India, but I marvel at the Taj.

I've modified the colour balance a bit to give a old-timers' feeling to the photograph, but the boats in the front seem to betray the idea. The modified picture looks far better than the original, so I decided to display it.

Paint the turban red

This man didn't know I was photographing him. And I am pretty sure he doesn't know his photo is on the internet. He was on the platform when we were in a train that goes to Mumbai. I was lucky my camera was with me and that the camera was on. He was not there posing for a long time. If I didn't click when I caught a glimpse, I would have missed the chance of adding such a wonderful photo to my "I shot it" collection.

I am eager to take more of such shots. Wish me good luck.

Einstein and Violin

Another of Einstein's photographs in my collection. Something that connects to me.

Someone said Einstein might not have come up with the theory of relativity if he didn't play the violin. I have no idea how far that is true, but I did learn that Einstein drew his creative inspiration from Mozart and Bach.

But I can definitely tell you that playing a violin does make you feel really good about yourself. Its like driving your Harley Davidson minus the adrenalin rush minus the inevitable risk.

Learning a musical instrument is always fun if you like listening to music. Even getting a few notes correctly brings a smile to your face. But violin is not for the occasional fun-seekers. You gotta be extremely serious about your practice and the initial depression will soon fade away once the initial sqeaks slowly turn into more meaningful notes. For beginners, I'd confidently recommend a key-board. Go play it away.

Bad Sad Mad Fad

I stay away from commenting about fashion trends. But what I saw deserves a mention. I am unable to stop lamenting about the preposterous ideas people get.

Maruti Swift is one car that’s close to my heart. Why? Not really because I consider it worth every penny. And neither does its looks manage to mop off other cars in the market. It’s just that this is one decent car that has taken birth at a time I started eyeing the car market.

Since this bloody car is close to my heart, I keep noticing every damn Swift on the road. Today I encountered one such Swift. I was petrified to see bullet holes on its body. Quite a lot of them, in a random fashion. These holes are like the holes that the “Liquid Metal” man in Terminator II gets when he is shot at.

I took a closer look and then things started to get apparent. These are not holes. These are just some sort of crazy accessories that you stick to the body of the car.

Maybe if I get to like this kind of fashion and I have a lot of money, I will go to a plastic surgeon and get a hole surgically made on my forehead. I’ll be the man who got shot in the head and lived to tell the tale.

But as of now, even an act of ear or nose piercing will be attributed to manifestation of madness. So, the sight of this car with artificial bullet-wounds hurt my feelings.

My English

This thing has been bugging me for some time now. For some unknown reason, the quality of my English dropped considerably. Not sure if that's because of reading too much of machine-translated englished in Japanese bugs. Whatever the reason may be, my english is in an appalling state.

I was trying to ignore such thoughts for quite some time. But whenever I get a chance to re-read whatever I wrote, I feel a pang of pain in my heart when I realize that king-size blunders are common-place in my English now.

A few years ago, I was extremely proud of my English. I used to sneer at every bad usage. My friend knows about it pretty well and this would always be the favourite topic in our endless conversations. But that was the time when I felt that a better English was the first thing that will convert a person from a "qualifier" to a "winner". Now, I know a lot of other parameters that can distort the selection criteria.

Can anyone here help me get back my English? Atleast help me get back my penchant for better English?

Shankar Mahadevan

This happens to be a very old story. During the first week of October, there was a week of celebration in Hyderabad for the 50th year of AP formation. As part of this, Shankar Mahadevan had come down to Hyderabad to enthrall a packed audience at the Taramati Baradari open-air theatre.

This was a shot I took. Probably one of the best out of about 40-50 shots that my camera captured that day.

It doesn't matter how many shots I've tried. For people of poor knowledge of photography, I got to explain that this shot is not that easy. If you think it's easy, the only remark I pass is "go try buddy!".

Leaving the camera aside, another point I wanted to make is about Shankar Mahadevan himself. His voice is extremely melodious, and his command over music is exemplary. I don't consider myself capable of "reviewing" his performance.