Ideas & Views

Venue: SSVT, Maryland Date: Oct 16, 2010 - 5pm Accompanists: H.N.Bhaskar (Violin), Delhi Sairam (Mridangam) I had gone gaga over Ranjani Gayatri's concert few weeks in advance as this would be my first RG concert in person. But as the concert day was nearing, I could not decide whether I should go. After much dilemma, I made it to the concert carrying my newborn. I realized within few minutes that it's not easy sitting in a concert for three hours with the baby. I was physically present but all my attention had to be on the baby. She would start screaming every time a new song would begin or the mridangist would bang a beat and I rushed outside to calm her. I was hearing the songs, enjoying some, not focusing on some. The songs and ragas that I missed were filled in by asking around. Song list: [1] Eranapai- Todi Varnam [2] Sri Saraswathi Namosthuthae - Arabhi [3] Enathu manam kavalai enum irul sooznthal - Harikambodhi, PapanasamSivan [4] Alapana by R followed by Ammaravamma -

Miles traveled and Miles to go The West has always been calling us developing country. We are still a long way to be as developed as the US or Europe. But, we are essentially a developed country. With our huge population spreading across all social sectors, advancement is a constant process. It cannot be a complete statement. Infrastructure cannot be built as sophisticated as America or Europe. We have to set realistic goals. The goal is to support and create livelihood for 2 billion people cramped in a small geography of limited natural resources, water being the most scarce resource in cities and rural areas alike. Progress has been and is happening daily and slowly. There is more awareness now than ever about everything. Globalization has brought many advantages to the country, the country as is is yet to make full use of it. Cell phones to vendors and street sweepers! Cell phones to vendors is a progress while Street Sweepers still existing in a modern world would be a question

The aging group The primordial fear of man is the fear of death. So said Dr.Parthasarathi during his Bhagwad Gita lectures years ago. I witnessed the truth of this statement during my visits to few relatives who are septuagenarians. All my father's cousins and siblings are in this age group. The primordial fear was written all over their faces, explicit in all their daily activities including how they carried themselves about. Life is full of uncertainties while Death is certain and absolute. Why fear the certain then? We, the mankind, does things that are a wonder. Contradicting beliefs and practices. Age is only a number. In India though, it is a reason to worship. The higher the number, the person deserves more respect irrespective what he is. The person would have led a really bad life, done everything wrong and would have gone astray. He would have simply lazied about his entire life and still lazies around. Such folks would survive only in India owing to joint family system.

Nieces and Nephews I have many cousins, all of them elder to me. The last time I saw my nieces and nephews, they were toddlers and newborns. They are now fluently using Google for their school projects and leaving comments on social networking sites!!! Soon they will walk into our offices and replace us! One of my nephew is very interested in history. He reads only history comics (about Indian history, various rulers, dynasties, wars). He accompanied me to Spencer Plaza. I was quite nervous because he was brimming with questions and I never liked nor was good with remembering names and dates. He started. I swallowed a gulp. "Do you refer to cities in US by any nick names? Is New York City referred to as anything else?" I explained to him that not all cities have nick names, some have, like Chicago is called Wind City, Boston is called College city, New York City is the Fashion Capital. States have names, for example, Connecticut is called Constitution State, Delaware is cal

City infrastructures There are many stretches of roads in Chennai that have been built new and still maintained very neatly with regulated traffic. At other places, (just step outside airport), the condition of roads remain the same as before or even worse. The same people form the state government again and again and still there is no persistent progress. " singara chennai" says the bill boards but the spirit is forgotten or purposely ignored. Every wall in the city carries a political flavour - Self praises and birthday wishes for their thalapathys and varungala muthalvars . The phrase 'painting the city red' doesn't mean this sort of scribbling! I have never lived in Chennai for long so my observations with respect to any specific landmark is limited. The boom of software services industry from the 90's has increased the inflation tremendously. To me, who is not a software person, prices of commodities came as a shock. I am glad I am able to provide for m

The land of dreams, the land of dream come true, the land of yogic knowledge, the land of secular tolerance, the land of a mosaic of traditions, the land of a billion opinions, the land of ever rising Sun, I could go on, such is my mother country, India. To add further, India is a land of possibilities, talent, potential, capabilities, miracles always happening and waiting to happen - all mixed up in a quagmire of narrow-mindedness that impedes complete advancement in any field. This is what instantly struck me during my 3 week trip to few places like Chennai, Bangalore and my hometown. Been to India from US in February 2009 after five long years, first time after I had come to US. A long gap that was unplanned and unintentional. Got stuck because of visa regulations , et cetera. It was a much awaited and eager trip.

I have not written about two books that touched me very deeply and dearly. I have read them years ago but the essence of the book flows in my veins. I prefer and make a personal choice on it everyday. 'The Zahir' by Paulo Coelho and 'From Science to God' by Dr.Peter Russell. 'The Zahir' (along with another book of Osho, forgot the name) opened my mind to appreciate people, places, culture and life in its broad sense; that love is not a structured element, it plays a bigger role than what I had thought; that every person has different colors and shades and to accept a person as is means accepting all aspects of his/her personality. Life is not a hard and fast set of rules or procedures. It truly made me appreciate and respect all thought systems. Life is a whole lot of possibilities, all permutation-combinations of ways of life exist. The book invoked a giant leap in my thought process. Life can be possible in very many ways. A broader-minded person I am after t

The book is a collage of microeconomic reasoning behind, well, (writing in their own style), very many things in life. For an engineer (that is, to me), it is simply a common sense analysis, a down to the scratch practical and logical way of thinking for why things are the way they are. This book is a continuation of Freakonomics. Freakonomics being new in the author's style of writing was an instant hit. the first book's success has prompted the authors to write one more after few years of gathering new ideas to analyze. Anyone who has been closely reading everything that Malcolm Gladwell writes would notice some of the thoughts and points in Superfreakonomics coincide. The authors have mentioned this too and given due credits to Outliers. The chapters could have been titled better or simply numbered. Definitely the read is better than watching some imbecile video in Youtube simply for the sake of entertainment. There is nothing more to review. If you have the time, read it.

Review of Salem Sriram's carnatic music concert Time: 5pm, Jan 09, 2010 Venue: SSVT, Maryland Accompanists: Violin Sandhya Srinath, Mridangam Jayanth, Kanjira Vivek Chellappa Occasion: SSVT's annual Tygaraja Aradhana Festival, 27th year celebration Song list: 1. Telisi Rama, Ragam Poornachandrika 2. Dinamani Vamsa, Ragam Harikamboji 3. Bantureeti kolu, Ragam Hamsanaadam 4. Seethamma Mayamma, Ragam Vasantha 5. Bairavi Ragam, Tanam, followed by Koluvaiyunnade Kodandapani 6. Viruttam "Illaga Vilakku Adhu" in Ragamalika (Kamalamanohari, Sahana, and one more ragam) followed by Navasiddhi Petraalum, Ragam Karaharapriya 7. Muruga Muruga ena nee sol, Ragam Hamsanandhi, lyrics by Gomathy Ramasubramaniam 8. Gangadeeswaram Sankaram, Ragam Sindubhairavi, lyrics by Swami Surajananda 9. Jagadodarana, Ragam Kapi 10. Kumaran Thiruvadi Kaithozhuvaaye, Ragam Yamankalyani 11. Sri Tyagaraja's Mangalam This was the second opportunity for me to hear Salem Sriram in concert at the same