A surge in Carnatic music?

You often hear that India is bemoaning the westernization of its youth – MTV, attire, V-day etc. While that certainly may be the case, I see one encouraging sign of progression of Indian culture – the boom in young Carnatic music talent.

A lot more parents of my generation seem to be encouraging their kids to take up music even if they themselves did not learn it as kids. Initially, I thought this was a US phenomenon (as a way for first and second generation Indian-Americans to pass on heritage), but there has been a growth of talented young singers in India as well.

While I was growing up, I was not much into Carnatic, and neither were most of my friends. Hearing the occasional songs on radio (my dad is an avid listener) or at my cousins’ houses was the extent of my exposure.

Fast forward to today – you see kids on Indian TV, participating in different Thyagaraja festivals. Not just any kids, but ones who sing very well for their ages. Even at the pro level – Sanjay, TM Krishna, Gayatri V, Ranjani-Gayatri …. and so many more who make songs literally come alive. Accompanists as well – everyone jokes that the audience used to heave a sigh of relief when it was time for the mridangam solo (tani avartanam), because that meant it was a trip to the cafeteria. Even that seems to have changed.

Is the boom in youngsters taking on music as a potential career because the financials have improved? Is it because parents are more culturally aware? Maybe there’s some truth in these, and maybe there are other reasons as well. Whatever the reason, it is pretty cool.

The level of interest is also greater with the average fan – discussion forms such as rasikas.org have an amazing amount of discussion going on all the time.

From a personal standpoint, I owe most of my current interest in Carnatic to Usha. It still amazes me that relatively speaking, everyone sings the same songs that were composed – in many cases – hundreds of years back. In western music terms, everyone is a “cover” artiste. So, while I still enjoy the occasional Led Zep or Dire Straits, the level of expertise in taking the same song that anyone can sing and making it your own is in a different realm.

Until next time… Sam

A 7 hour window

Said the doc’s office: “We will see you on the 20th sometime between 1 and 5 pm, but can’t guarantee when.”

A meeting invite on Outlook at work: “Let’s meet in Conf Room 1A at 10 am, will be there before noon.”

Alright, you get the point – the above sounds ridiculous and rightfully so. If we were in the 19th or early 20th century, this might make sense – for instance, the doctor’s horse might have needed to stop for a break on the way to your farmhouse. But in the 21st century?

When I needed the electric company to check the meter at our other house, the appointment window was between 8 am and 3 pm! Not only could they not provide a shorter window, the tech could not call me before he left from his previous appointment. Apparently the concept of cell phones are still alien.

So, I got up bright and early, went to the gym (yes, still…), and was ready on time. Drove over, and being a nice day, parked on the driveway, rolled down the windows and waited.

9 am – Finish my breakfast sandwich while listening to a couple of sports shows. In a relatively good mood (sun was just starting to come out.)

10 am – Complete the first couple of chapters of an interesting book called “Zero day threat” – Usha brought this from a Gartner conference. Was starting to get warm, so opened the window a little more.

ZERO DAY THREAT book link here

11 am – Feet beginning to cramp up and sun up in the sky. Moved to the back seat to stretch out.

Noon – Pangs of hunger creeping in (and just realize that I may be a little hooked on to caffeine as well.) Went back to the book for a little distraction – while quite interesting, I’ve now read 150 or so pages of different things that have gone horribly wrong due to cybercrimes, but not much insight into what to do about it.

1 pm – First signs of frustration and anger.

2 pm – Call Usha to vent.

2.30 pm – Aha, spot a utility company truck coming down the street. Truck passes the house without stopping. It was the phone company, probably for a FIOS appointment with another poor sap like me.

2.45 pm – A Jeep pulls up outside the house, and finally, the tech is here. I wonder if he has been sitting around the corner all day, laughing hysterically.

Finally, the appointment was over – and my anger at losing the entire day under control (mainly because the tech helped identify things that I could do to cut the electric usage by more than 50%)

As I slowly made my way back home, I was filled with wonder that someone could still get away with this in the current day and age. I guess these companies know you don’t have much of a choice but to put up with them.

Until next time … Sam

Going to a better place?

In Hinduism, the concept of life after death is a central one.  While I am certainly not an expert on this subject, I’ve recently been reading about this through books and online sources (no, no, no impending sense of doom or anything like that.)

The essential idea is that humans go through cycles of life and death until they fulfill all the duties that God intended for us.  When all our duties are done, we can attain eternal salvation (that is, freed from having to go through another lifecycle.)

Each time we die, Lord Yama (the God of Death) is supposed to go through the list of our achievements (good and bad), and decide if the soul needs to go to hell (to be cleansed) or heaven (or I guess sent back to earth to start the next life.)  An illustration of Lord Yama’s court (from wikipedia): 

I tried to imagine what it would be like for me to be in this state:

Me: “Hmm… Contrary to what I’ve heard about Lord Yama, he seems like a kind and gentle older person.  Yes, the noose in his hand and the huge buffalo he is seated on does look a little scary, but all in all, not as bad as I had feared.”

Lord Yama: “Son, sorry about having you spun around multiple times by the tornado before being struck by lightning, but I was kind of in a hurry.  So, as you know, it’s time for us to review your life.”

He leads me to this IMAX-like screen and signals to His minister, Chitragupta, to turn on the film.  I wince as stuff that I am not very proud of flash through.  Do I have enough good things in there to avoid walking across hot coal or get dipped in oil?  At the end, He puts an arm around my shoulder, and says, “Wow, that was a close one.  I am happy to say that you avoided Hell.”

Me: “That’s great – does that mean I am off to Heaven, to enjoy eternal peace?”

Lord Yama: “Not so fast, buddy.  That was just Part One.  Now, we need to look at all your prior lives.  Chitragupta, go ahead.”

The screen buzzes back to life.

2000 years back: I am a foot soldier in the great epic war “Mahabharatha” – unfortunately, on the bad (and losing) side.  End up getting trampled by an elephant.

A few uninteresting lives later, am a jealous Carnatic musician competing with Saint Thyagaraja.  Final tally – Thyagaraja (2000 plus songs), Myself (15)

And so on.  While this is going on, there’s a big cosmic clock that keeps track of my overall duties – if it completes a full cycle, then I am done.  The hour hand slowly creeps towards 12.  Almost there.  Suddenly, the screen and theater and everything else turns black.  Lord Yama fades from my sight.

Woof, woof - I wake up as a labrador.  So close!

Until next time… Sam

Batting .500

Carrying over from last week, Clemson lost (in the first round) but on the positive side, my treks to the gym continue. Hence, the title.

I attended a course at work this week on “building trust.” According to this, the two main ways to gain someone’s trust are by sharing (your thoughts, rationale and feelings) and listening (with empathy.) Other things such as being consistent, truthful etc. are trust builders. The focus was on building professional trust (between leaders/managers and staff), but I think you can apply the same to personal lives as well.

Let’s consider sharing first. Thoughts and rationale are much easier to share, feelings less so. I can only offer the male perspective here – but I don’t find it easy to share feelings with too many people. Obviously, if you want to share your innermost feelings, you have to really trust that the other person will understand, not judge, and not reveal them to anyone else. I wonder how this is for others – are feelings something that you share easily, and with many people (both at work and home?)

Listening is something I think I am reasonably good at (Usha will roll her eyes when she reads this) – well, OK, more so at work maybe. We need to try to listen to others without trying to solve their issues for them (unless they explicitly ask us to). Often times, people tell us things only to get it off their chests.

Among other things discussed, one thing stood out – the concept of “micromanaging” – that is, as a leader, do you trust your staff to do their jobs without having to stand over their shoulders and constantly telling them how to do things? As a manager, it’s a fine balance between delegating to your staff without micromanaging while still knowing enough to ensure that the work is getting done effectively and on time.

The question to think about is – do you trust the people you interact with, and do you think others really trust you? If not, how can you go about trying to build this mutual trust?

Until next time… Sam

At least the weather is getting a little warmer

I thought I had covered the (cheating) bases with my three scenarios from last week’s post. As a reminder:

• Cheating (a la Clinton)
• Cheating… and paying for it (a la Spitzer)
• Cheating… with a man (a la McGreevey)

But, as we found out this past week, our politicians have apparently been in very frisky moods in recent years. So, to continue with the list of unfortunate situations a wife may have to face:

• Cheating in own house … while wife is also in the house (a la Clinton). Note: average Joes have a low chance of pulling this off unless their home is comparable in size to the White House.
• Cheating with multiple women (a la our new guv’nor Patterson). Heard on the radio – “Hey, I am legally blind. I thought I was with my wife.” (The real excuse was that his wife cheated first.)
• And the latest – Cheating… with a man… while his wife was in the house… and also in the same bed (a la McGreevey). Another headline from the creative NY papers – McThreeVey. I guess this technically does not constitute cheating (though you’d have to wonder whose idea it was to invite another guy into their bed).

All right, think we’ve had enough of this topic (for now).

Looking at more encouraging news, the stock markets rebounded a bit last week. Unfortunately, with continuing issues with housing, consumer confidence, company earnings, layoffs… hmm, actually there is no other good news… which makes you wonder if the rebound is only temporary. Below is a cartoon by Gary Brookins:

For NCAA hoops fans, the next few weeks ought to be paradise. While not a big basketball fan, I am psyched that my alma mater Clemson is a #5 seed. Let’s hope they are still around by the time I write another post next week.

Also, I finally joined a gym near my house last week… and have been able to make it there everyday around 6 am. For those of you looking to work out, but not wanting to spend a ridiculous amount of money, check out Planet fitness (www.planetfitness.com) – it’s $10/mo. with no annual contracts. Granted, there are no fancy amenities like pools, racketball courts etc. but the workout equipment is brand new. Let’s hope I am still as committed when I write another post next week.

Until next time… Sam

It’s been a quiet week in NY

For a city that is usually buzzing, this has been a pretty quiet week. Weather was relatively mild, nothing happening on the political front, business going on as usual.All right, who am I kidding? How many states can boast of a high and mighty guv’nor falling from grace in less than a week? Actually, that’s not quite true – our neighboring states of Connecticut and New Jersey set some precedents here.

So, as a New Yorker, what affected me most about the Spitzer scandal?

• How politicians can be two-faced – fighting corruption while indulging in the same
• Spending $80,000 for extra love(rs)
• Flushing a promising career down the drain

None of the above. The most disturbing aspect was his wife, Silda, being dragged along to his press conference(s) with her blank shell-shocked look.

In the past few days, I have read three points of view on this – feminists lamenting her lack of self-respect, others saying she is doing this for the sake of her family/future, and political pundits professing that this is a way of depicting the matter as private. I still cannot make up my mind on this – guess the next few weeks may shed some more light.

My last (as of now) thought on this is – if someone were unlucky to find themselves in one of the following situations, which would be the worst?

• Cheating (a la Clinton)
• Cheating… and paying for it (a la Spitzer)
• Cheating… with a man (a la McGreevey)

Hope this upcoming week is as calm.

Until next time… Sam