Ideas & Views

while listening to the album "Impressions" , i could not avoid pondering over the recent explosion of fusion albums ventured by carnatic musicians. the hindustani instrumentalists had taken the shastreeya sangeet abroad to the Western listerners long back and also performed jugalbandhis with Western performers. though carnatic music had been known to the Western world through individual performances by vocalists and instrumentalists, a joint performance or collaboration by carnatic musicians with western performers was not much in the game apart from one or two like L.Subramaniam. then came 'Sangamam' of maharajapuram santhanam and m.s.viswanathan. the songs rendered were untainted carnatic krithis on an apt background of MSV's orchestral talents. needless to say, we have not heard anything like this before. when the fusion comes from two rich musical minds, the outcome is nothing but a masterpiece. slowly and unconsiously, a craze for fusion music has taken roo

J.K.Rowling seems to have been blessed ( or charmed , to say) with a knack of telling youthful tales that the world has never heard before. Long ago, when Disney took the wand for cartoons and animation, the writer's block for children's books died. Over a period of decades, the very need for children's books was pushed to the last in the list of entertainment for children. Rowling has given a spirited life to children's books that was badly needed and hardly realized. In the process, she has also given a wizarding world the world will cherish for centuries. The Half blood prince volume of Harry Potter series, to me, seems the best of all the six volumes. The plot as well as the narration, is thrilling, gripping and finally moving, more than just compensating for the let down of the Order of the Phoenix. I was not at all satisfied after reading Order of the Phoenix. With the adrenaline rush of the Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, there were hu

The raga Yamankalyani, over the recent times, has become the standard raga for bhajans. Be it hindustani vocal, carnatic vocal or instrumental, the artists, invariably many of them, have caught the Yaman fever. To the not-so-khayal-liking minds, Yaman brings the cheer of listening after an hour long rtp!! Though initially, the raga used to soothe me , repeated rendition of bhajans by many artists in Yaman left me thinking. Its not that I have developed a dislike for the raga. But there is definitely a concern. Aren't there other ragas suited for bhajans? Can only Yaman convey the romance of krishna?? Cannot the artists impress the audience with other ragas? Why Yamankalyani? The old timers like M.S, Balamurali, etc have tried bhajans and concluding pieces in a plethora of ragas. They have not restricted to Yamankalyani, Behag, Desh, Mandu, Darbarikanada and the like. Bhajans are so synonymous with meera bhai and tulsidas that a hindustani raag seems befitting. At the same time,

Recognize this poem ? ---------------------------- Scintillate, scintillate Globule vivific Fain would I fathom Thy nature specific Loftily perched In the ether capacious Strongly resembling A gem carbonaceous. ????Guessed it ???

I recently read an article in IEEE Spectrum. the article talks about implanting transducers (plain 'sensors' for the non-techy normal man) in the stomach. the sensors make the obese person feel stomach-full for a longer time and makes him crave less for food. after few years over which the obese person really becomes trim, the implants are removed. now, what is the reaction of the stomach? does it crave for more food or does it retain the full-feeling after a few-mouthfuls? i suppose, the technologists playing with obesity can answer this question only after some guinea pigs are sacrificed. playing poker with the brain signals is not a joke. there could be serious side effects of implanting as well as removing the sensors from the stomach. human physiology is a marvel. it is one of the highly complicated systems which has and still mystifies man. there are many diseases which do not have a cure yet. obesity is the concern of the hour. but, can technology provide solution for ev

"Art makes a man a better human being" once when chatting with my friends after a vijayadasami day, the discussion somehow led to the latest trends in kutcheris and finally about performers. one of the seniors commented that " Art maketh a man a better human being". all of us unanimously agreed with some disagreements. there was an M.S.Subbulakshmi, who donated liberally for charities. we can quote many others too in similar lines.(but, to be honest, does any other name really strike you immediately ?) . there is also a Michael Jackson, whose court trial never seems to end. it is a different story to wonder if his music background is saving him from severe penalty or if the juries are trying to save the art from him. <> <>the real goal of art is art itself. only when art is pursued with pure dedication for the art, does it make the person a better person. today's scenario seems to be far from this. though hard to digest, it is a fact that art is se

the sight of the dead and the plight of the injured in london blasts was pathetic. it gives a sick feeling even to read the news from websites and watch the aftermath in TV. its hard to imagine how the people there faced it. but there is lot to think on how to avoid such incidents in the first place. for petty business interests, the fanatics of a particular religion have been infuriated. and they want a revenge on the whole world. looks like a possible war against the planet.am i watching star trek??!! though there was technology and man power to dig Saddam out of his hole, huge batallion of soldiers have been landed in iraq and millions of innocents killed in the process. the retalliation in terms of london blasts only goes to prove that there is an inevitable need to refine the defense methods and devise clever strategy for fighting terrorism. the innocents,again, bear the brunt of war, no matter which side they belong to. the argument just seems to prolong with injustice on either

I was filling a form in one of the counters in my university. The lady across the counter was surprised to see my handwriting. A student from non-English speaking country writes so neatly, legibly and smoothly with moving fingers!! I told her " One advantage of being from a not-fully developed country is that we retain a good handwriting. We are not fully computerized." She gave me a beautiful smile in turn, which I doubt anyone in indian government offices can match. Trained to hold a pencil at three, I spent one hour daily writing on 4-lines "Handwriting Notebooks" starting from age six. I had no idea of ball pens till I completed high school. Ink pens were supposed to take your handwriting to great heights. With a beautiful handwriting, you are bound to get high scores on exams even if you write utter rubbish. To test the verity of this much-believed phenonmenon, once I wrote the same paragraph twice in my English Essay. Dont ask me what happened. Then came the

Recently found this following web site's ad in www.wordsmith.org Then came an idea, a funny one though. Namix, providing smart naming solutions for products, services, and businesses: http://namix.com just felt that if i should start one such service for naming hindi and tamil movies, may be i cud land few bucks. ;-)))

- I am myself Carbon. I need no more of it. ( i've been strictly avoiding any kind of soft drinks that is a sweetened carbonated water....one litre of it made from four litres of precious pure water) -Engineering is all about managing time and Management is all about engineering time - God is a concept. He thrives in our minds. (some say heart, agreed!) - God is a term invented by man to explain those phenonmena beyond scientific reasoning. -An educated fool is that which justifies its stupidity -When someone calls you a Star, rethink.....a star,after all, is made of dust! -Revolution is the aim; Resolution is the path -As time passed by, Dogmas were conveniently renamed Human tendency -What matters is not how smart we are but how we are smart -Its easier to quote an example than to serve as one - There are some things which nice only to be given to others for free and not to be received: Advise is one of those - We are where we don't know where we are(on the stand of U.S afte

works by women authors are read only in the context of being written by feminist writers or womanish-writer (with a pun "what else can women write about except feminist rights and lamentations of male-dominated world ?!"). in the same pretext, when a man writes, especially on issues relating marriage, he is immediately crowned a master philosoper. "Ah. Another Socrates is made". he becomes a 'realized man' there after. people always look at what they want to look at and turn away from reality. when will a writer and the writings be seen free of gender?

How many of us have the guts to follow our heart?And to fulfill someone's dream; someone whom you have not met! Sahshi Tharoor has it. Recently I read an article from his website. He had written about his visit to a not-much-known place in Spain, called Huesca. What is astonishing is not the arduous journey but his reason for it. Reason - Pay homage to writer George Orwell. Orwell dreamt of having a cup of coffee in Huesca after the Spanish Civil War. But he did not live long enough. Many years later, a literary fan of his, visited the place and had That sip of coffee there at Huesca. Accompanied by an equally crazy, I mean, a supportive wife, Tharoor did what he felt important. Life is only once and much too short to live all our dreams. Atleast lets start now. And live it one by one.

everybody has a wish list. or atleast assumed to be having one. and here is mine. - to chase a cop and give him ticket !!! - to drag the status line at the bottom of an internet browser and get 60kbps on a 36k modem !! - to find a parking spot closer to the Times Square on a New Year's Eve !! - identify my car in the IKEA parking lot without searching !!! ....more as i dream ...............Zhhhh

the arrest of swami sri jayendra saraswati and the consequent news reports and coverage of the case had made me rethink some notions i had held about our indian society. while the spiritual considerations still prevail, i should not be mistaken here for an anti-hindu or for that matter anti-anything. can all those who had put their faith in the sanyasin be totally sure that he is not involved in the sankararaman murder even 0.01%? if the saint-fanatics rule out all possibilities, then we need to be ashamed that we are worse than those fighting from across the border. let us question ourselves honestly before pledging our support and shouting in front of the jail. what if he is really involved? do we have the sophistication to forgive the saint ? can we be like the americans who forgave Clinton in his sexual affair in the White house?? (now, the analogy may sound poor to some but dont chide away the issue in context) let the faith be more on the institution than on the person. let

The tsunami that struck the asian coasts is no story, it happened. Tsunami has struck the unprepared coastlines along the Indian ocean. An unprecedented event. Now, welcome to the fiction tsunami. State of Fear, the latest novel/book/work by Michael Crinchton, is a long environmental science lesson. For the usual readers of Crinchton and the casual fiction freaks, the book is a big bore!!! There is a group of environmentalists, who, for appropriating money from rich, environmentally concerned and charitable people, create a state of fear. This is a Fear of the drastic effects of global warming, abrupt climate change, sea level rise, deforestation, land slides etc. The recent asian tsunami and the landslides in california could turn out to be a big push in marketing the book but for the message Crinchton tries to convey is quite contradictory to the real picture. However, the book is a bold venture to spread the word that nobody actually understands the environmental changes and their e