Amazing Western Classical concert

It hasn't been even a week, and I was still trying to chew the cud reminiscing the good time I had at the bluegrass concert, when I heard of a western classical concert being held at the same venue. I decided to take the plunge, not because I am a serious fan of western classical instrumental music, but because I have cherished the dream of seeing, or rather listening to a live western classical orchestral concert for a long time.

The concert was on last Tuesday, and was being conducted by the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra. They performed Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 and Mahler Symphony 4. The former featured Beethoven's virtuoso piano composition played by Timothy LeVan and the latter had a soprano voice rendition by Kaitlyn Lusk.

The concert was top-notch. I don’t mind using the word ‘impeccable’ here, as me, a person who doesn’t know anything about western classical music, am too far from nit-picking their performance. The only gripe is with the seating position. Not able to spend too much on the ticket, I gave in to the $14 ticket, and was ushered to the balcony, about 500 feet away from the stage. And to my dismay, I realized they do not use any loud speaker system, and we had to depend upon the acoustics of the theatre to hear anything. I could hear most of it, but the volume was a tad too low for my comfort. Because of the low volume, I didn’t have the feeling of being part of the whole ambience. I felt thrown out. But otherwise, the clarity was excellent, and I could hear every little note played by every instrument.

Now I’d like to talk about a few things here. I discovered that arts like classical music get the recognition they deserve here in the US. People here know the importance of taking the culture forward through to the next generation. I saw so many kids and young crowd at the concert. Parents here do a commendable job trying to get their kids interested in classical music. I do not see that happening in India. Back in India, a local orchestra trained in classical music wouldn’t dare to hold a concert in a theatre with a capacity of 3000. You would probably see 300 enthusiasts there, out of which 270 would be aged 60 and above.

The second point is here now. This is, after all, a symphony group of a small town. Williamsport is not a big city like Philadelphia or Boston. It makes sense to understand that big cities have cultural societies that are nurtured by a large community. But I was really taken aback by the professionalism with which the show was run in such a small town. I was truly amazed at the quality of the performance, the costumes, the theatre, the audience, in fact, everything present there was top-notch. Such a measure of quality, that is hard to expect at a concert by a local group supported by a small community, in a small town.

Another very interesting thing that I observed here is the kind of silence people maintain here when the performance is on. The entire theatre, filled with about 2000 people, just goes dead silent, except for the odd cough or sneeze from some corner of the theatre. And when such a sneeze does come in, it reverberates along the entire theatre. I can very clearly hear and distinguish even the sound of a plastic wrapper that rattled far across the theatre. Now, it is time for an astonishing discovery. None, I say again, none of the mobile phones in the theatre ever made a sound for the whole duration of the concert. Will this ever be possible in India?

Bluegrass bonanza

"There are two types of people in the world, those who love Bluegrass and those who don't know it yet." - some bluegrass fan

This seems to be the philosophy of a band called "The Backwaters Experiment", a bluegrass band playing today at the Bullfrog in Williamsport. I find it hard to disagree, and this is why.

We had been to a St.Patty's day bluegrass gathering today held at the local community arts centre. This concert featured several local bands that played bluegrass.

Before I move on to the musicians, let me talk about Bluegress. Bluegrass is one of the genres of American music that features acoustic instrumentation with roots in traditional irish and scottish music. They feature all sorts of acoustic instruments like guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, bass, dobro etc., and the music is typically lively, fast and foot-tap-inducing and enjoyable.

There were several bands that played today. I couldn't listen to all of them - I had to come away. I did listen to three bands - the Lockport Drifters, Stained grass window and the Hillbilly Gypsies. They were really good.

The Lockport Drifters started out with a bang. The music was lively and entertaining. Everyone played good, but a special mention goes to Lucy McLaughlin who played the Mandolin. The way she played the mandolin was just amazing. She would step into an interlude, and take the crowd away to a different world.

Then played the Stained Grass Window. This was the band that we were looking for, coz one of the members of the band, Ken Shafranko, who plays the dobro, or the resophonic guitar. They played well. We know Ken at work, a guy full of enthusiasm, and a lot of witty laughables up his sleeve. He invited us to the concert, and that's how we were there. This band played an instrumental number to start with, and then spread out. I liked the way Ken sang "If I were a suoerman...". The band was pretty enhanting, but I thought they lost a bit of attention from the audience when they played a couple of sorrowful numbers, which didn't fit into the joyfull mood of the spectators, even though they were good. You could listen to a couple of numbers from this band here.

Then played the Hillbilly Gypsies. Wow... weren't they a treat to watch and listen! Theirs was a unique performance. They were a band of 5 musicians, but played with a single mike. The players that need to perform at a particular moment would come forward and perform. Then, immediately, they withdraw and make room for the one to perform next. These guys play fast, and you your foot wouldn't stop tapping. They're a fun to watch, and received such a royal encore that they had to return back and play an extra number to pacify the crowds.

I couldn't catch the rest of the evening as I had to come back. But I guess everyone there had a great time enjoying the music.

Bluegrass is a type of music that appeals to young and old, and is like a tradition that needs to be preserved, like the classical music in India. Tbe younger generation must wait for a minute and listen to this genre before they get overwhelmed with the electronics of contemporary rock.

Bullfrog Brewery

I've heard that Bullfrog Brewery is renowned all over North-East USA for its local brews - mostly ales and beers. And it happens to be right here in Williamsport. Locals seem to like its ambience a lot, and they often play live music. So, I've decided to check out the place over a weekend, and I did check the place out the last weekend.

The image on the right is one of the photos I have clicked there, and I like it. Hope you like it too.

The place is about a five-minute walk from where I stay, and I went there with my friend at about 9pm last Saturday. The place was pretty packed-up, and we were ushered to a small table next to a window.

The whole area had the usual pubish look to it, and the colour resembled a mix of red wine and beer. Unfortunately, I am not the best person to judge the food here, as I am a vegetarian, and the menu is very limited to vegetarians. Thank God they had an appetizer and an entree for vegetarians. The appetizer was good and filling, but the entree, which was made of pasta, was pretty bland. See the photo of the appetizer I ordered here. The photo is not good, but I guess, you will like the starter if you see it yourself. The starter tasted more like a very bland mexican salsa.

Now, we had to order some beer. Yes, this place is famous for its beer, but I never liked it. I have had a couple of sips before, and I always wondered how people liked beers so much. I've ordered some Red Inspiration here, and the situation was no different. I didn't like it much. But I guess beer lovers would have been absolutely fascinated by the poor drink.

Then came the part I liked the most. Live music performance. This was by a blues trio called "Blind Chitlin Kahunas". One played an electric guitar, the second played a bass guitar, and the third played drums. The electric guitarist was named Chris Bovard I guess, and he's the best guitarist I have seen. He's even better than Susmit Sen of Indian Ocean. Well, I shouldn't actually compare them. Both of them are the emperors of their own genre.

The music went on from 10pm to 12pm with a 10-minute break in between for beer. Of all the aspects of this place, the live band was the best.

Remember, this is a subjective review of a person who neither likes beers nor dark pubs. So, take it with a pinch of salt and a shot of vodka.

As white as driven snow

Every blog has its day. Today is this blog's day, and so this blog is being revived to its original glory. Better late than never. This blog smiles at every reader who considered this blog dead. This blog rised from its apparent grave.

While the blog was busy in its deathbead trying to decide whether or not to die, I was busy playing with my life. Yes, my life has taken a major turn, or rather I've turned my life around. I had blissfully positioned myself in the laid back city of Hyderabad (laid back in every sense except for its traffice sense) and suddenly I find myself in some remote town of Pennsylvania. How did that happen? Well, all that (hi)story is not worth studying. As per my policy, there's nothing you can do with History. So, leave it at that.

Now, I believe this town has a lot in store for me to see, do and experience. Let me describe the first of such experiences. Its the snow. I saw it snowing for the first time in my life. Yes, when I had been to Shimla, I could have a glimpse of snowy mountains from quite a distance, and we did play with some stagnant ice at a picnic spot. But here, it was real snow, and atleast 18 inches of snow, as pure as it falls, all of it in a span of two days.

When it snows, a dreamland opens up in front of your eyes. Everything is pure white, and the entire ambience lightens up your heart. Its probably like the feel you get after you've quickly gulped in multiple of shots of vodka. You forget all your worries and concerns, and smile at the beauty of life for a couple of minutes. I stare into the white snowland that has enveloped my vision, and drink in the spectacle, and then someone taps on my shoulder and reminds me that it's time to reach office.

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.

A comeback from the abyss

Hello the multitude of eager squirells waiting for a post from me, I am back. And really, I am back from the abyss, and am currently soaring high. Tell you the truth, I never felt better than this for a long time during new years eve.

Not that something out of the ordinary happened. No, I haven't fallen in love yet. I'm the same ofd guy whose priorities are so out of place that, strangely, love doesn't figure in the list.

The last couple of months went wasted with me working at office. I was going down the abyss where I was getting more and more dependent on the daily activities at office. I suddenly felt that I'd start feeling better if I do something different. Splurging about 50 grand on a new computer triggered a flurry of interesting things in my life.

I'm currently fighting it out with installing Ubuntu on my system. Not that there's a probkem using the ubiquitous WinXP. Not that I hate products that seem to work straight out of the box. Its just that I wanted to take up a challenging task and complete it. A task that's obviously difficult, but a task that makes you feel that all your effort was worthwhile. Once everything is up and running, I will let you guys know.

Let me conclude by wishing all my fans spread out accross every nook and corner of the world, a happy, healthy, prosporous and fun-filled new year.

A suggestion to terrorists

This is in response to a report in the newspapers that the terrorist group that blew up innocent people in New Delhi did whatever they did to prove that terrorists weren't buried in the recent earthquake and also to prove that the security cover on important cities isn't a match for their bombs.

Well here's a suggestion to them from me.

The point that you fail to note is that you are hurting people who really have no real grudge against you. You're killing people who do not care much what happens in Kashmir. Some of them might want to be up-to-date on current affairs and read newspapers a lot, but they actually don't do anything more than "reading" or "knowing".

By killing them, you will not see a "change of attitude" or a "change of opinion" in the crowd. They will still get back to their own business, and the survivors keep mourning their relatives who happened to fall victims to your bombs.

If they want to prove that the security is no match for them, do something like

1. Releasing chemicals that smell like "dead rat" when the parliament is in session. Good way to prove that you could have released any other deadlier chemical.
2. Spreading a lot of smelling filth on the speaker's table in the parliament (good way to prove that you can reach that place without security noticing it)
3. Blowing up a diwali pataka right inside Rashtrapathi bhavan (you will see a dozen security officers suspended for their careless patrolling)
4. Geting into a high-security area heavily armed, threaten to kill a VIP around, and escape without getting hurt and without hurting anyone.

There are ways to pull a good one against security. You get a lot of recognition by claiming that you did it, and people will have a good laugh and love you for it.

We're lacking people with a good sense of humour around here, and someone who can put national security to shame with a funny incident is the real terrorist we need.

You have another advantage. You don't have to live in the forests hiding away from civilization. If you are caught pulling a nasty pun over a VVIP, you mjght be imprisoned for a week or a month, but the security will let you go without blowing your head to pieces in a "false encounter".

Kandisa

After spendning a long time listening to this music for about 50 times now, I am not bored. There's always something new in this music. There's always something more you can yearn for, there's always something more to look for.

Kandisa is this piece of incredible music created by a band called Indian Ocean. and I like every bit of it.

I've been ignoring stuff from these guys as I more or less avoid folkish music. But I first got pulled towards folk music after listening to Shubha Mudgal. She has such a magnificent voice, and she renders her notes in such a sonorous way that your heart yearns for more of it. Please note that there's a lot more to Shubha Mudgal than her pop albums, and that those little pop albums were some of her "forgettable" works.

When I was in such a mood, Indian Ocean performed in Hyderabad. I was listening to most of the songs for the first time, and any songs that I might have heard never registered in my mind. But their performance on stage replenished all my energy and left me feeling much beeter about myself. I should really thank Shamnu for talking me along on his awesome Avenger.

Now, don't start assuming that this is a folk-music band. The band is comprised of 4 self-taught musicians. Since they are all almost self-taught, the music is unconventional. It doesn't fit into any genre. Listeners need to approach it without a pre-conceived notion. For those who insist, I'd take liberty to classify them as a hindusthani classical folk group with rock overtones.

I especially liked the way Sushmit played his guitar. Now-a-days, I listen to Kandisa just for Sushmit's guitar. (For those who can't identify Sushmit's guitar, here are the steps - in a typical song of this band, you'll hear two guitars, one is the bass guitar, which will sound more or less like a western guitar with low-pitched sounds, and another guitar which feels more or less like a very indian instrument, like probably a modified veena or modified mandolin. I am talking about the guitar).

What's so good about the music? The sound. I like the way they sing and I like the way they play their instruments. There's peace and there's excitement. There's just plain expression of joy and deep thought. There's rock and there's hindusthani classical. And the instruments are different and they're played differently. And the way they play it is impeccable.

Where do you find indian classical drums on a 7 or 14 beat scale when great drummers are still exploring the good old 4 or 8 beat scales? Do you find him play rithm on a bass guitar? And do you see people manage all that while still singing with a voice that feels like the smells like the first rain of the season?

Where do you find a western drummer play flute and folk instruments?

Where do you find a bass guitarist sing hindustani classical while hitting chords to match the notes?

And finally, where do you find a guitarist who can churn out melodies after melodies in such a speed that you'll be gasping for your breath trying to follow his notes? (I find it increasingly difficult to describe Sushmit... heck! - throw my English to the dogs!)

Look no further.

US of A again

Picture-perfect
Originally uploaded by saisrujan.

My friend asked me what my plans are for the weekend. I said that I pray for no P1s and laze around in the house.

He asked me "Don't you have any friends from college-days you'd want to catch up with?"

"Yeah, but most of them are all scattered around"

"Then, why don't you just arrange with them to meet up some nice place like Goa?"

"Well, most of them are on the other side of the hemisphere."

"Oh!!!..."

"Anywayz, I have a couple of friends coming to Hyderabad, I'll probably catch up with them."

"Hmm.. ok...".

"What are your plans for the weekend?"

"Not sure..."

Why do people fall silent when I talk about friends in the US?

By the way, here's a picture I had taken in SFO. The roof, seen in the picture, was good. The wall wasn't. So, I captured only the roof.