cleveland diary

Sometimes ignorance can be a bliss. Thats precisily what i experienced couple of weeks back when i went to attend Cleveland Thyagaraja Sangeeta Aradhana.I am not a compulsive carnatic music enthusiast.So, i donno much abt the stalwarts in that field. This ignorance is what saved me from being overawed in the presence of the greats of carnatic music.
For the 2nd year in a row, i made it to Cleveland for the Tyagaraja Aradhana.Its an annual 10 day carnatic music concert held in cleveland for the 29th year in the running ! It has concerts by well known personalites and also by some budding and aspiring talents.My cousins sisters have been performing violin there for last 16 yrs or so and my uncle is an active volunteer of that.So, last year my sole purpose of visit was just to meet my relatives, which i lived upto by sleeping thru most of the concerts :) But this time, may be coz i got a taste of the music 2nd time around, or may be it was much better tis time (first one seems to be more probable), i enjoyed it throughly.I got the oppurtunitu to listen live to eminent figures like Sudha Raghunathan,Aruna Sayeeram,Dr.Ramani,Ravi Kiren,Ranjini & Gayatri,Umayalpuram Sivaraman etc.Also there were superstars like Sanjay Subramaniam,T.M.Krishna,Papanasam Sri Ashok Ramani etc. which i missed.
I am not an expert in this field, neither i have any previous reference of their concerts attended...but indeed it was enjoyable.Though i had heard of Sudha Raghunathan and Ravi Kiren, the other icons were ,to be honest, completely unknown to me.Its only after my return to UC, that i go thru net about them and realised their stature.Indeed it was a priviledge for me to see them perform live.But the stand out even for me was the bharathanatyam performance by Sujatha Srinivasan.It was too good.Even a completely stranger to dance would have been captivated by there 'natya'.And equally excellent was the mridangam demonstration by Umayalpuram Sivaraman assisted by Chitraveena Ravi Kiren.His dexterity on mridangam was magical.
I think even i hv started developing taste for carnatic music.i am the only odd one out in my family- each single member in my family is good in some form or art, either music or instruments. though my parents and others desperately made me learn mridangam,i was lazy enough even there to be a 'drop out'.If I say that I attened all the concerts of all artists even without dozing off even once, then that speaks a lot about how much i enjoyed it ( people who knw me will understand, hw easy i sleep if made an audience-be it class,seminar, concert or anything).
I still donno any nuances or technicalities of carnatic music, i still manage to fit all songs in my 'adi or roopaka thalam'(only 2 i knw), but i think i hv become more receptive to this kind of music.It has become like how english movies were like to me till sometime back-its hard for me to sit thru the first 15 mins, after that i will be completely engrossed! Am already looking forward to next years concert.And i hv promised my cousisns that i will be better equiped with the technicalities so as to enjoy it more.
It was refreshing to see how many kids and youngsters here in US devote much of their time and energy to indian music when its facing much neglect from youngsters in india (that includes me too!).I met 2 youngsters coming all the way from UK and Ausralia just to perform tere...thats for dedication and commitement! Maybe its another case of we indians need to learn abt India from NRIs!

AVS

travail of a scoprio

Being a scorpio, its in my stars that i am sensitive. Not that i will be distured easily, but even small incidents, at times,refuse to go away from my mind.again, not tat it haunts me or so, but time and again, it just reminds me that they r still alive within me.

This is about a highschool mate of mine and this incident took place long time back when i had just joined engineering.This guy was pretty close friend of mine.Like, one with whom i used to do homeworks,play games and all.He was one my closest buddies.Since we both had names with A, we often fell in same groups in most of the group activities (u knw, all those roll no.wise classification of teams).But after highschool, due to the lack of developments in e-communication at tat time and lack of privilage for free use of telephone, i lost touch with him.So, there was tis new hindi movie released which we all had been anticipating for a while and so, we friends in the engg. college went for FDFS.We went tere about 3 hrs in advance (given only collegiates fight for first day first show for hindi movies in kerala,3 hrs was good enough time in advance!).But when we reached tere,i realised all youngsters in all enginnering colleges in tat town think alike-just like us!Since the ticket counter hadnt opened, we all were hanging out, chattering, bird watching etc and then i happen to see this friend of mine with his college mates.I called out his name -he didnt seem to notice. I thought,ok may be he didnt hear me so i frantically waved my hands along with shouting his name.He did see me, but his reaction was just limited to a smile.As soon as the counter opened, there was tis sudden gush of junta. Since i was standing near the door, all i need to do was just to stand relaxed as i was just pushed right to the front of the counter and managed to in the top 10 in the queue.and i cud see this serpentine queue to some distance beyond the reach of my vision.Suddenly, this friend of mine came near me and "Hi aravind,how r u?"."Am good", replied me.Before i cud ask him wat he is doing he asked "could u get me 5 tickets?" I didnt have to think twice before shouting back "NO". But being inherently diplomatic, i somehow managed to curb my instincts and reasoned him that i already hv more than 10 tickets to purchase... and he vanished amongst the crowd.What hurt me most was hw 'matlabi' he was.I would hv still got him tickets had he been courtious enough to enquire about each other before asking for tickets.I am someone who cherishes friendship a lot and who believes good friendship lasts for ever.Its absolutely fine with me, if people wants to move on with their lives, but what he did that day was quite ignoble.I wonder, wont he himself wud hv realised how improper he was?. I wish he did, so that he doesnt repeat it.If i happen to meet him again, i dont think i can treat him the same way as my close friend. I am not upset coz i lost a friendship, i am upset coz he lost my trust.

I donno what reminded me this incident.Maybe i wud hv thought or tried to act the same way as my friend.Or, maybe i have had mostly pleasent memories of my friends, that such incidents stand out as sore thumb... i am not sure.I donno, if I am just making a heavy weather out of such a small issue.But i cant help it, it doesnt quit my memory. I am helpless....i am a scorpio!

AVS

influential problem

seems me and ash have trouble with the same !
:)
AVS

priceless moment

Going to cleveland to attend Thyagaraga Sangeeta Aradhana............$70

Getting to meet your uncle and family ............................$100

A friend asking if Thyaragara would be performing this year........................Priceless

(when it comes to expertise in carnatic music i am not any good than my friend. But i feel I am better of the worse)

AVS

a story for motivation

Do you feel you r worthless? Are you frustrated in life, with your work, feeling abyssmally low and depressed feeling you are heading no where? Does ur future looks as blank as a printer paper? Do you see a question mark infront of you when you think "what's next ?" Ok, in short - are you a grad student?....May be this story would help you feel better...atleast it did for me!

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $100 bill. In the room of 50, he asked, "Who would like this $100 bill??
Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this note to one of you but first let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the note up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his Shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $100.Many times in your lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.You are special. Don't ever forget it!

(Courtesy: Sundeep Kasimsetty)

AVS

mile sur mera tumhara...

I have been hearing this song on national integrity since my childhood.This one,which used to be a pain at that point of time when it used to be telecased every 5 mins. in Doordarshan, has now been etched in my heart for ever. Infact,I used to claim i knew most of the indian languages and used to sing this song for the skeptics (oh! how trivial!).I never bothered to know what those lyrics meant,but had byhearted it (including the interlude music) which a bit of my own lyrics!. So, here is the original song lyrics which those celebrities sung on screen.

Mile sur mera tumharaa, Thoo sur bane hamaraa.... sur kee nadhiyaan har disha se behkee saagar mein milee. Baadalon ka roop leiker bharse halke halke... Mile sur mera tumharaa.. thoo... sur bane hamaara.. Mile sur mera tumhara...

Chaain taraj tahin nyay tarajek but baniye saayen taraj

Tera sur mile mere sur de naalmilke bane ek nava surtaal

Mile sur mera tumharaa....tho sur bane hamaara..

Mohnja sur tohi desa pyara mile jadein geet ashaanjo madhur tarano bane tadein

Sur ka dariya bahte saagar me mile badlaan da roop leike barasan holle haule

Isaindhal namm iruvarin suramum namadhakum.. Dhisai veru aanalum aazi ser aarugal Mugilai mazaiyai pozivadu pol isai ...Namm isssaiiii.... Thik thakida thathikakidA....thaka thimi thaka junu

Nanna dhwanige ninna dhwani-ya, seridante namma dhwaniya..

Naa swaramu nee swaramu sangammamai, mana swaram ga avatarinchey

Ende swaramum ningalude swaramum otthucheiyum Namudeya swaramai....

Tomaar shoor moder shoor srishti koroor koi ekshoor[2]...

Sriishti karoon woi katha

Toma mora swarer milan srishti kare chalbochatano

Male sur jo taro maro, bane aapno sur niralo

Majhya tumchya julta tara madhur suranchya barasti dhara

Sur ki nadiya har disha se behke saagar mein mile...

Baadlo ka roop leke barse halke halke..

Oh...Mile sur mera tumhara tho....sur bane hamara...

Mile Sur mera tumharatho sur bane hamara tho sur bane hamaratho sur bane hamara

AVS

a riddle

Some years back,my rudram mama (one who thought us rudram, chamakam etc which r sanskrit vedic hymns) asked us this tamil riddle.

It goes like this:
One day Deepa was sitting infront of her house with a small kid on her lap. Came in Divya and enquired: " yaar intha kuzhanthai? " (who is this kid?)
Deepa replied: "Intha kuzhanthayudaye thahappanar yaarukku mamanaro, avarudaya thahappanar enakku mamanar" ( The father of the person, to whom this kid's father is the in law, is my in law)

How is that kid related to Deepa?

Though it doesnt sound that complicated to crack now, at that age (12- 13 yrs) it was an unsolvable puzzle for us. Now i feel it was more because of the heavy tamil (given, how much adultrated the tamil i use in kerala) he used rather than the intricacy of the puzzle. Infact,I still feel it will take more than a single attempt for any to crack it!

(I had forgotten this one for sometime now, so jotting it down when remembered)

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a milestone

hey! just now noticed a thing.......its been 1 yr since i started my blogging...........uh! so soon?and also this marks my 50th blog posting (if i dont take into account a couple of drafts i have).ie, just above 4 blogs per month or roughly 1 per week...not bad going at all given how much i hate writing ( it reminds me of the horrendous days in high school where i had to write page after page of essays and my animosity goes back to those days!) and how much little i have tell the world through print media. I am a practitioner of the school of thought that tongue is much powerful than sword and not words!Summerizing, i hv managed to survive whole one yr in the blog world! This gives be enough conviction and courage to keep going!

AVS

state of mind

I am suffering from asyncronism... an internal mismatch......i am in one of those states in which ur mind urges u to work whereas the body refuses to oblige.I hv a whole lot of area to cover in my research work and it is likely to take up my 15x7 devotion if i am to finish off my research in stipulated time (which i must honestly admit seems more of a hypothetical scenario than a reality).So when your body and mind refuses to work in unison,what to do? solution is simple- let out ur feeling. Let that part of u which wants to work to work on something else which doesnt take much of physical movements, which ideally leads to highly stressful yet strainless processes like surfing the net,reading books, watching tv, listening music etc. In short, anything other than my experiments classifies into the abovementioned catogory for thats the only work involving physical labor that I care to do now a days.To add to the misery, comes the best of winter (ironically at the beginning of the spring) with its timing as perfect as the cover drive of sachin tendulkar.It makes even the best insomnia doze off; so one can imagine what it will be with the i-can-sleep-anytime-a day kinda people.I can easily put the blame for all these chaos on the research ,say it is sapping all my energy and ethusiasm etc.But it doesnt hold good here for you should do atleast an iota of work in your research to point it to be the culprit.Again this has not been a good month for me; everything has gone awry so far.I am a believer of destiny and its fowlplays. May be its one of them. Atleast I found someone to put the blame on. I hope no one will have any complaints........its my internal affairs u c!

By now readers would have realised that this posting is published out of vettiness rather than any real purpose. Just another mean to let my mind work while at rest!

AVS

navarasa-1

This is what I am attempting to do - inspired by one of the comments i myself wrote in a friend's blog - write stories based on navarasas.
This is the first one in the series:

KARUNA

He never takes that route.Usually Arun prefers the main road.A road accident abt 6 years back had left a scar in his forehead which never let him forget the perils of dark woods.But that day he had no choice.Inclement weather had uprooted that old mango tree right on to the middle of the road. "Damn it" cursed Arun, "not this one please !". Chousier Woods have a reputation of making the safest of drivers lose the poise. The narrow road with literally no light was any drivers nightmare.Going back 8 kms to take a better exit was out of question for Arun as he was driving at the mercy of reserve petrol tank."Not everyday is a friday", consoled himself as he switched on the right indicator and drove along.

He wasnt driving fast.But a reflex application of sudden brake would jolt a person even at that speed."Oh my........" a sudden chill went right up his spine, for what he saw about 2 feet infront of him,as his head lamp cut thru the pitch black darkness, was appaling.The car skidded to the right , made almost a complete rotation before coming to complete rest hitting the near by tree.Those dreaded moments 6 years back flashed infront of his eyes his mind as he got out of the car and rushed back to the road.There lie infront of him right in the middle of the road all soaked in fresh blood was a woman in her mid 30s struggle for her last few breathes.In the fading light of his car, he could she her clasping tightly on to her chest a wet rugged bundle of cloth with a small 5 month old baby inside it. She tried speaking some words.....but the sounds had already left her body.Arun couldnt make anything out of her shivering lips. She loosened her grip of the bundle as Arun tried to take it from her."Goodness gracious, the baby is alive". Arun told her as she took the child from her."Lemme........" Arun didn't complete when he saw that she had given up the struggle. He couldnt but notice a faint smirk on her face.Her child was alive and safe. That pacified mother had a peaceful death.As he walked backed to the car with that rugged bundle of cloth, the woods were reverberating with the cry of an infant.

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if they can, so can I

.......was the first feeling I had when i read a blog for the first time about an year back. Realised that you dont have to care a damn about anyone or anything in blogging. It gives the same thrill and satisfaction as shouting at the top of ur voice (or singing for the more sofesticated ones) in public. You rule this part opf the web and you call the shots here. A similar feeling came back to me when i read and heard the movie reviews of a recent movie.......everyone had their own take on it . tat same old feeling was back.......if they all can, y not me too.So here I am........

This is my first attempt in movie review in blog.Though I have done it umpteen times about innumerable number of movies released in all the languages i understand,they have all been verbal.This is the first one to be penned down and hence I am keeping it short (I feel mouth is the most powerful weapon and not pen or keyboard)
Atlast saw Rang De Basanti last weekend.It was a well crafted out film though, to be honest to myself,I must confess that I didnt enjoy it as much as thought I would.May be it is yet another case of "much-hyped-much expected-so-dissapointed" film. I felt that the content of the movie was a bit overblown.Seems director wanted to force his message on the public and hence he went into the extreme while scripting. Also the second half of the second half starting from the assasination of the defence minister was not upto the build up it had created.Is it so easy to kill a minister of a nation? That too in a country like India and escape scotfree?? If so, I would love to kill a few! Also the movie was moving in a lethargic pace in the first half. Even after all the lead cast was introduced and their charecters well established, the movie seem to head no were.The 2 aspects of the movie that stood out were the direction and the acting of the lead cast.Rakesh Omprakash Mehra has done a commendable job behind the camera and has managed well to extract the best from those infront it too.The scene which sticks to my mind is when the heroes (i feel all 6 lead actors were the heroes and not aamir alone) decide to murder the minister. The shuffling b/w the present and the past was good example of the command te director has over his craft.Overall, this film was watchable for me for being hatke-both in context and in directionI would have loved it had it shaped out well .....may be it did in the director's perspective!
AVS

the great escape

"You have any last wish?" asked the officer. Manish didn't hear the words, he was lost in his thoughts.Life has been nothing but a hell for him ever since he was thrusted into the world.His mother who went out with a different person every night; his life in the slums; his younger sister who was forced into 'taking over' from their mother;his wife who was gang raped infront of his eyes and the his massacre of all the 5 culprits.......all flashed infront of his eyes one more time. He grinned.. "this is the last time i will be reliving those dreaded moments",he told himself."I asked if u have any last wishes", repeated the officer."Hang me posthaste" answered him sounding confident as never before.His most awaited moment life had arrived and he didnt want to delay it further.Death was not a punishment;it was an escape for him......the great escape

AVS

the fallen name

The name had fallen on him - thief.He was never one. An innocuous act taking home an orfan lamb was good enough reason for the people to rechristian him."But once a thief,always a thief" went the village. Stories of great robberies by him flourished in the village.Blame for anything absconding, living or static, was always on him.One day his own sheep went missing."He would have taken it" dismissed the village.It didn't really matter who had stolen it......the name had fallen on him!

AVS

it makes me think....

I am a born frugal. Me spending on some luxury has as high probability as an indian winning an oscar.So, it came to my self surprise when i really bought a Motorola ROKR (with iTunes) spending a pretty solid amount from my pocket. Still donno hw i managed to convince and commit myself into purchasing one. may be i was too much confused wat to do after my mobile contract expired.Or may be i was lured by this step sister of iPod.I am resisting myself from singing praises about my new 'weapon of mass nuisance', but it looks gr8. Right now i am filling it with songs.Makes me think........how the priorities of people (read "me") have changed over the time.May be sometime back (when i had no idea there was mp3 player cell phones) i wud have gladly settled for any normal phone which wud have served the purpose (making and receiving calls) as competent as any other with extra facilities or features. Wat is the necessity of a LCD display? or a camera or a voice recorder in a cell phone?Does it make my calls more clear or easy to connect or less expensive? I dont think so!This is a simple exemplification of human nature of never to be content with what one have.........always need more........a greed for materialistic pleasures. I dont think this is gonna change..........may be this is wat makes people what they are...........and i dont want to be an exception!

AVS

a bit of filmi gossip

latest buzz in town.........AB jr to soon get married to Ash!!!I thought it was one of those usual gossips that mashroom in the tensil town every now and then.......but this one seems to be really happening .not that i got any inside info that made me believe it now.....but the more I hear it from various sources, the more I tend to believe it.Ab jr and Ash??? cant take it......i mean......i say this not just becoz i hate Ash, but from the very beginning , i had this feeling that AB jr and Rani wud end up together. they are a really good pair together (if u dont see the diff. in their height as a hinderence).In a way its good.............. Rani is still free ;)

AVS

mother hilton???

hahahaha........quite an incomprehensible news.
given the director is a mallu and having seen many of his movies knowing how good he is,its quite baffling to me.
beloved mother........safe us from the suffering of seeing paris portray u!!

AVS

chiranjeevs

hindu mythology is one of my areas of interest and expertise (preceeded by cricket and movies).

while expanding my knowledge in this field, i came across few trivias which i knew;but had forgotten. one of them is the 7 chiranjeevis (immortals) in purana.interesting names in the list, given that many of them were not on the 'good side'.

According to Hindu mythology, the Chiranjeevins (Sanskrit sing. ciranjiva)

Mahabali , a righteous demon king who conquered heaven, earth, and the underworld, but was forced to give it back by Vamana.
Parashurama,the sixth avatar of Vishnu.
Hanuman, a monkey demi-god who served Rama.
Vibhishana, a man made King of Lanka (now Sri Lanka) by Rama.
Vyasa, a sage who narrated the Mahabharata, he was also a sage in the epic.
Kripacharya, a teacher of the princes in the Mahabharata.
Ashwathama, a man "sentenced" (actually cursed) to immortality and eternal suffering without love from anybody for his role in the murder of the five sons of the Pandavas and his attempted murder of Arjuna's grandson.

AVS

what goes round comes back

Was away on vacation for more than a month. dial up is pain........it pains more when all u have ia a old antique piece which was once upon a time called laptop.it took me 3.5 hrs by the time i checked my 3 mail accounts and 2 other sites. And hence no posting.made an india trip, and boy! hw much i enjoyed it.a quick update:visited thirupati for the first time in life. surprising tat i cud go their only now, givne that most of my 'family trip have been rather pilgrimages, its somewat late in my life tat i have visited Balaji.The temple was nothing short of spectacular!......cudnt believe my eyes when i saw the whole gold gopuram and temple!but to be honest i didnt like the basic administration of the temple.........gave me a feeling i was more of a commercial establishment than a sacriligious one.I cudnt comprehent people sleeping in a whole having foods and refreshments and directely rush into the temple as if the first day ticket counter of a rajni movie.yeah, i too agree that it can be argued philosophically that the purity of heart is more important.....but still, my heart refuses to accept it.anyways, it was a good experience.....next time i will be more 'equiped' to face the 'mass'. (it will no be fair from my part not to mention here that,even after all these, i was the one who managed to ran inside the temple first once the gates opened.....yeah i am a bit hypocratic at times ;)

I could meet many of my undergrad gang! many of them whom i didnt expect to be in town.

managed to attend the marriage of a undergrad friend.It wouldnt have been worth mentioning was it not for the fact that it was a MALE friend! Thank goodness that he got a job 2 months back. I wud have shocked to death if he hadnt finished his mtech. Anyways my good wishes to the couple.also it was a kind of reality check for me.It became more pronounced when my aunt asked my opinion abt the marriage of by brother,inspite of his vehement opposition. Surprisingly, I support him in this case.........he being their as bachelor is always a buffer for me.

then.......landed in US 2 days back and i hate to even speak abt it!...........over and out

AVS

fall quarter

Ok, lemme come directly to the point - I fell down twice within a span of 15 mins last saturday- once on my back and next chest on - got a cut in between my right eyebroes and the eyelashes.

Initially i thought of blogging extensively about it-how severe hunger prompeted me to go to chipotle when there was warning about inclement weather and slit ice formation; how i fell first while getting down stairs near TUC and then insanely still carried on my trip only to fall chest on near CCM; blaming my stupidity on unconquerable hunger and thus earning the sympathy of readers etc
Then i realised that i was just one of the many who has brought down to earth on that eventful day - even an UCPD who came to help me fell on the way- (though i was the winner of falling competition,if there was any,with 2 falls and a cut ;) .My hope of earning some sympathy is thus eliminated even without consideration.So I stop.Period.

About the title of the blog, doesn't 'fall quarter' makes sense now?

AVS

narcissist

R: This looks good
Me: Thank you
R:will sent this to J now itself
Me: Is this fine enough? Or should I modify this?
R: No need, this is fine.
Me: *grins*
R:This is really good.Infact, much much superior than what he has done
Me: *exagerrated grin*
R: *sighs* -(looking on the computer screen)-I donno what he has done here.Anyways, forget about his, yours is correct and i am going to sent yours
Me: (with mouth full of smile).........Thank you so much

I just love appreciations, call it a narcissistic graving for compliments ! *wink*

AVS