NirNaya

Decision making is such an integral part of life. It has always been tightly coupled with our day to day life and yet has been so subtle, that we hardly notice. I have subjected my mind to considerable exercise recently and it has been difficult.

The most difficult decisions are those which get you out of your comfort zone. I know that every active human entity must do this frequently, to keep themselves on their toes, but it is something I realized recently to be the most difficult decision to make. I was young, when I was comfortable with my watch on the left hand. I decided to change it, started wearing it on my right hand and eventually got very comfortable with it. For various reasons, later I just got averse to wearing a watch and I do not remember when I wore it last. I should get back to my watch wearing days, just to get out of my confort zone, again.

But these were easy decisions. I am settled in my job, in a company which people dream of getting into, liking it, working with great collegues, nice boss and what not and I decide to move on. My parents are soon going to have a life, where they will retire at home, enjoy the relaxation and can go places, where it would be all the more nice if I could take them around and I decide to move on. My house is renovated, I will be in a european styled closet regularly after 24 long years, transitioning from mosaic to athangudi, my bathroom will have high flow showers, I will have a beautiful high terrace where I can laugh

to glory with friends and I decide to move on.

I have decided to move on, to go back to school. I have increased my chances by faring well in my entrance exams although I was only partially motivated. I know I will get to a place where education is reasonably enjoyable and have fun there as well. I am only waiting for the day, where I make the decision whole heartedly and say this is what I want and go for it. I am happy to be uncomfortable again !

Chikmagalur - Thogrey Hunkal Thota

Well the title of the blog is rustic , but we were off to the place which is more " poshly " known as Hunkal woods. 17 adults and 3 kids. Now , with families , you must be wondering , how a youngster ( although I don't look like one :-) ) had fun. I learnt one thing , people who entertain , always entertain , irrespective of age. I was glad I was amidst people who savoured humour and fun as much as I did.

After a journey which went by all the while changing DVD's in the van we hired , we reached Maurya , a Govt run restaurant on the Mangalore-Bangalore road fo

r breakfast. Everybody was very sleepy since we started early. Nothing very eventful happened in the onward journey , which I somewhat regret , but I guess the law of averages kicked in , in our return journey. We picked up some soft drinks at Chikmagalur , our last touch with civilization and hit our destination.

This view is the most eye catching part and this is the very bunglow where we lived. Apart from this place there were some cottages which w

ere newer and more luxurious.We were welcomed with some tasty coffee and then we had lunch , which was very nice. Homely is probably a better word. 

Heavy lunch , nice kesari baath for desert and it was time to relax a little bit. We went outdoors , sat on the grass and had a nice chat.Some climbs on the trees , chatting , laughing , clicking photographs , sleeping on the hammock and we were ready for a game of cricket. 

They provided us with some good bats , we had carried tennis balls and we lost / broke a couple in the woods. There is also a good picture of me , playing a very flamboyant late cut , but fortunately it was clicked early enough to hide that I was bowled clean :-) There is however , a video which caught me getting out :-( 

Others were either playing badminton , went for a stroll or went cycling ! It was a fun couple of hours when the local care taker said we should be leaving to Mulayangiri , if we wanted to be there for sunset. So , we had some refreshing coffee the second time around and set course to Mulayangiri.

Mulayangiri it was , the highest peak in Karnataka , though it did not seem so high. The route was narrow and Tarun was very scared. He probably was on the verge of calling his insurance guy to increase some stakes :-D. We were on a roll , with Anthakshari , for the entire 30 Kms. Jyothi, Amit and Swathi , as usual , in full form , with the others pitching in here and there. Time flew and we were there. We moved quickly and were just on time for sunset. We saw part of the sun go down quickly and experienced the chill on top for a while. We started back towards Hunkal woods , camp fire and tequila was waiting for us :-) or was it ?

Back at the camp , singing all the way till the camp fire. I smelt alcohol. There he was, Rajulu , with legs folded , sitting like a guru , and serving people "theertha" from the "kamandala" made of glass :D It was a very funny sight.  Shots were gulped in and unlimited chilli bajji's were coming from the kitchen. Yummy !

I was extremely sleep deprived for the last couple of days. When everybody went for dinner , I grabbed the oppurtunity to take a nap. One hour it was and I was back , fresh. For the campfire discussion. It was one of the funniest discussions I have ever been part of , mostly thanks to Haridas Pai , who would probably be a standup comedian if he were not in IT. We discussed a lot of things , a lot of absent heads were hillariously discussed ( especially Praveen ) , including Gandhi and Nehru :-)  , a lot of grass was pulled and thrown into the fire because Kaushik thought , in the state of mind he was , that it would keep the fire alive :-D

Rise and shine , it was coffee time. We were all up by about 6:30 AM , had coffee and set course at about 7:30 for what was s'supposed' to be a small trek. It was a nice walk through the coffee estates , but it was not planned well enough , so we did not carry anything to eat / drink. As we went higher and higher people got frustrated and they wanted to turn back. But , the view was beautiful. We were climbing a hill , which was part of the estate and hence private , beautiful grass all around and beauty all around. We even sighted the Mulayangiri peak we had been to just the previous day. All together a tiring experience. We came back in the Gypsy. had left over breakfast , which was also quite good. Rava Idly and Vada. Freshened up and got ready for lunch. We had nice lunch , with Gulab Jamuns. We then celebrated Kishan and Soumya's anniversary. They cut a cake , we ate it and set course to Bangalore. 

All was quite initially. Most were tired. They slept till Hassan. We stopped for Tea and snacks. When we started again is when the fun started. Dum charades. Awesome game to be playing while travelling. Initially , the game was mellowed down , with difficult movies names. Then Hari calls me. Whispers a name in my ear. I enacted darkness. I asked Tarun to say it in Hindi. He said ' Andheri '. And , immediately , Voila , with an Einstein look on his face said , " Andheri Raath mein , Diya tere Haath mein ". Boy , that was the biggest mistake he did in his life. People started asking , is that the kind of movies he watches :D The answer was right though. There it started , a spree of funny movies and even funnier enactments.

We stopped only when we reached kamath for dinner at CR Patna. Post dinner , the fun continued. Until it all ended in Kanakapura road. Trip was done

Everybody back home and back to work the next day , stretching their bodies. I'll append some more photos later on.

e-Rendezvouz

An attempt at a different form of writing. I would like to term it discontinuous writing, on a nascent development in my day to day life. Boy , it has been long since I enjoyed reading an e-mail thread which started out so casually :-)
I hope you understand what you are reading subsequently, if you don't , All the best ;-)

-- An Orkut friend request
-- an exclamation in my mind followed by a question mark
-- an e-mail , requesting clarification
-- a vague clarification
-- clarifications from background enquiries
-- request for some more data , with a flirtatious attempt at a meeting
-- redundant data provided , with some positive responses for the second half of the request
-- stern request for data

Story to be continued.Keep a watch on this blog for more. There will be a contiguous version if this has an interesting ending ;-)

Adios, amigos.

Bandhana

Now, that's the title of my blog. What am I going to talk about today ? Well, just another dissection of an eventful day.

There were two forms of Bandhana's today - 

1) The binding of Balakrishna, Carnatic music and a Dias , which happened for the first time.

2) Madhu is now clear to get married :-)

Here are the details :

1) The event was conducted in Bharathi Vidya Bhavana , a landmark by itself on Race course road , Bangalore. The programme was delayed a little bit. It started with a 16 year old Anjali Sriram singing her way through the hearts of the audience with her mature and seasoned voice. There were hardly any flaws and the Vaagadeeshwari rendition was my favourite. We soon went on stage, and sang some rare and difficult compositions of Uthukaadu Venkata Kavi, a blind carnatic composer who existed prior to the carnatic trinity. We performed in a group of eight , and there were a lot of synchronization flaws , but it was OK in the end. Srinath , also joined the audience for the last 4 songs ( out of the six we sang ).

2) Both of us, set course towards Deve Gowda petrol bunk in a hurry. We were thinking all the way which route to take , and ended up probably taking the shortest path :-) We reached there and congratulated Manu and Preethi, Madhu's brother and to-be sister-in-law, a wonderful couple, on their engagement and just sniffing our time away waiting for Madhu to accompany us for lunch :-) I wish the couple a wonderful time ahead in their lives. We had an amazing course of lunch, I dropped Srinath off and came home to sleep. I just had to sleep after that lunch. My bellywas bulging after that lunch even though I was wearing a Kurtha - Pyjaama :-)  

At about 6'O'clock in the evening I was woken up by a Mosquito , singing in my ear. I waved my hand and it went away. Assuming mosquitoes don't have any brains, I assume it would take it a while to re-locate my ear. 

It woke me up again at 6:10 , presumably by the same mosquito and here I am writing into Bandhana, my blog.

Hari + Hara

Bala's blog without the word Hariharan is deemed incomplete. All those who know me well, will already know this. I can probably be accused of conversion, since I know a few who have become big fans of Hariharan, after I have spoken about him.By the way, I was converted by my sister. Another importance of siblings ;-)

If God exists, especially in two forms, Hari and Hara, they will both be more than pleased to hear Hariharan sing. I have been an ardent devotee of Hariharan for quite sometime now. I have only relished, thus far the nuances he brings into the film hits he has been singing all these years and a little bit in his Ghazals. But, the Star Vijay concert he did for Diwali 2007 ( I think ) blew my brains. I watched the video recently, and payed more attention this time. These were the songs:

1) Bahut bechen hai dil - Ghazal in Kalyani ( Yaman )

2) Ehde masti hai - Ghazal in Jog (I think )

3) Suttrum Vizhi Chudartdaan - A tamil poem by Bharati, also in the album Kandukonden Kandukonden, 'tuned' by ARR

4) Krishna nee begane baaro - Kannada Devara naama ( Yaman )

5) Nila Kaigiradu - A song he sung for ARR in Indira

The post's purpose is to just voice my opinion on each of these. I had to write about it, since it has been an addictive concert:

1) Kalyani, the raaga ( a collection of notes in music ) which can be sung at any time of the day and in any part of the concert. This is what Hariharan starts off with. The name of the show in Star Vijay is called Sangeetha Sangamam, which means the merger of (forms of) music. The Ghazal was rendered in ( not so typical ) carnatic style. He started of with an Aalaap, which is an introduction of the raaga and it's notes. It was made very evident that it was Kalyani , very quickly (very typical of carnatic). After the demonstration of climbing octaves and ranges, he rendered the notes of the raaga explicitly. Again, this is not typical of a carnatic concert. That's probably Hariharan's style, of clarifying the Raaga, very enjoyable, especially for amateurs of music like me. He would stop at the note Ma, to show you that it was one of the important notes. The highlight of all this was his voice quality and ability to stay at a single note for as long as 10-15 seconds, absolutely still, without an iota of variation. A result of pure hardwork. What followed was the Ghazal itself , rendered typically. At the end , just as we have kalpanaa (imaginative) swaraas(notes) sung at the end of a carnatic song, Hariharan did the same, but at his will,  for singing the swaras and ending it at Bahut bechen or Suhani Raat

There was a conversation between the two songs where he expresses his glee about lot of people being present. The accent is a litlle funny , Iyer tamil from the mouth of a Ghazal guru who mastered the Urdu dialect.

2) Ehde masti hai is one of Hariharan's popular Ghazal numbers. Very typical of Hariharan , the rendition this time was very different. He started like a Classical Rock Star (Ironic ?) . He used the notes Ga Ga Ni Ga Ni Sa (there are two Ga's in the Raaga, don't know about the numbers) and made the crowd sing along with him. A very innovative beginning. He was  literally showing off his capabilities in this song , which could probably be rated the best song of this Ghazal. He was spontaneously experimenting a lot in this Ghazal and it did come out very well. He did go off beat at some places , but he was experimenting :-) "Maut sasti hai" is something nobody else can sing like him. "Kya kare mehavashon se pyar adham" was sung so any times , so differently that I lost count. The expressions were jaw dropping. The best song in the concert , but not by far :-)

Another conversation with the audience , about the importance and profundity of classical music. There is a baby crying in the audience and Hariharan just mimics the cry in such a manner that it sounds like the baby was singing Yaman.

3) Suttrum Vizhi , a Bharatiyar poem was to follow. No rythm , no beats , just Hariharan and some chords. It was as beautiful as the original song he recorded for ARR for the film Kanukonden Kandukonden. The only different aspect was the hindustani flavor he gave for the line   "Saathiram pesugiraai Kannamma, Saathiram yeDukkadi ".

4) Krishna nee begane baaro , a kannada devarnaama in the raaga Yaman. Not the best of pronunciations , but one of the best renditions I have ever heard. He said before in the concert that if you strike the right chords while singing, the language becomes irrelavent ( I don't quite agree  with that ). But nevertheless, it was still the best rendition I heard. There are a lot of reasons I could possibly feel this:

a) I have heard Krishna nee begane baaro rendered so many times , by so many people, mostly in the typical carnatic style. There might have been minor variations , but this one was mostly in a hindustani style and was hence a good change.

b) I am just biased towards Hariharan

Don't tell me it's just b) :-)

5) Nila Kaigiradhu in the album was far better. The tabala should not have come into the picture , Hariharan should have just sung at his own pace. This probably was by far the worst song in the concert, by Hariharan's standards. I am sure he will agree too :-)

PS:- I found the picture at www.giftofvision.org , due credit to them.

Bottomline: Breathtaking concert.

Hariharan ge Jai !!

Navaraathri

I spent the pooja holidays in a lot of travel. I am surprised that me and my relatives actually *DID* it. Wagon-R, a small segment car from the popular car manufacturer Maruthi was our 'Vaahana' :-) Why I was surprised we did , because we were 5 adults and 1 kid with the boot so full, it was blocking the rear view. One of them was the driver ( he hardly drove ). To start giving you an idea about what we covered, we did about 1500 Kms in all.

Me and my cousin left from Bangalore in his car to Salem. We stopped over at my aunt's place, woke up the next morning and left straight to Rameshwaram. Visited a couple of popular temples on the way, one was called Araikasiamman. Apparently, if we pray to this Goddess and offer her some jaggery when something is lost/missing, you will find it immediately. The other popular temple was Pillayarpatti and I swear to God, this was the most handsome Ganesha - the elephant God, I had ever seen. A very old temple and needless to say very beautiful. Needless because the temples in Tamil Nadu are far beyond comparison to anything else in this world.

We skipped lunch, drove straight to Rameshwaram, and settled in a hotel there. Before this, we stooped to see the awesome view of plain blue from Pambam bridge. The ocean was all around. Infinite water is an amazing sight to watch. We woke up the next day , early, had bath in the 21 wells inside the temple and went for the darshan. We had the darshan of the Linga ( a form of Lord Shiva) made from a transparent stone known as Sphatika. This is where Lord Rama did the 'parihaara' (an act of apologizing for a past crime - did not know how else to describe this) for killing Ravana, who was a staunch devotee of Shiva. This is something that amazes me. The universal protector ( Lord Vishnu ) bows to the Universal Destroyer ( Lord Shiva ). I have never seen this happen the other way round. The only justification seems to be Lord Rama , was after all human. Complicated hindu mythology !

We set course along the coast to Thiruchandur , another temple on the beach. The road from Ramanathapuram to Tuticorin was bad. Had darshan of Lord Subramanya and had fun in the beach. This beach was clean and great fun to play in.

We drove further south to Kanyakumari, stayed there for the night. Woke up for sunrise the next day, saw one of the most beautiful sights in this world, went back to the hotel and freshened up. We visited the temple of Goddess Kanyakumari and started travelling back up north.

Next stop , Sucheendram. Amazing temple. Huge Hanuman ( Monkey God ), Navagraha ( Nine planets ) on the ceiling and Shiva and Vishnu as a single God were the attractions. 

Further north west to Kutralam water falls was a disappointment. Not much water in the falls. 

Back North east towards Madurai. We visited Srivelliputtur , the gopuram of which is the symbol of Tamil nadu state. Huge and lovely temple.

Next stop Madurai. Murugan Idly shop. Awesome food for the night. We went to sleep and had darshan of Madurai Meenakshi (Goddess whose eyes are shaped like a fish). This temple needs no description. I have no words to say anything about how marvellous this temple was.

Madurai to Karur and thats were I broke off from my relatives. Had to be at work. Synced up with Mohan, (yes the same guy I visited in my Karur trip) and got back to Bangalore by bus.

Huh !! That was tiring. I skipped so much detail and yet so tiring. Will append the photos soon.

Unitl then...

Milana

I said to Suraj, "Finally ! ". We have said finally before, but that probably signified the end of the ever tormenting examinations. All the more, because it was prolonged because of some back logs. But, this time, we said finally, not because it signified end of pain, but it signified the beginning of hopeful pleasure. We were off to Coorg, finally.

We have been planning something of this sort from quite some time. It happened because, this time, we did not wait. For others. We just went ahead. Being too sensitive to somebodies presence can get depressing at times. We just got on with life. To summarize, we had a lovely drive, we sang along the way, trekked to the most beautiful, secluded (probably that's why it was so beautiful) waterfall I have ever been to, suffered from indigestion, played cards, got high, did some senti talk and most importantly laughed a lot, after a long time. I don't remember the last time when I was holding my tummy and laughing. It was probably when we were preparing for those dreaded (or not so dreaded) examinations. What a trip ! I well and truly realised that I missed these guys so much in my life. They are still around, but what's the point. It's not the same any more.

It is so sad that we have twined ourselves to routine that we are not able to make time for natural fun, which we relish so much. It was unfortunate, in a way that it was not like our last Ooty trip. This was different.  I guess we have tuned ourselves to having smaller number of people. 

Suraj, Adarsh, Rohan, Shetty and Bala - I miss you guys. Yes, you read it right. I miss Bala too. 

Hoping for the next trip, to happen soon. Before life changes us further.