Music is no child's play

I am trying to learn some movie songs. This time, with a difference, I want to learn some Kannada songs. I have listened to many of the Kannada hit numbers before - ranging from melodious songs, romantic, sad ones to item numbers. But I had never tried to sing them myself. I attribute it mostly to my North Indian friends' influence. I have always had tremendous respect for the lyricists, singers, directors(though not the film stars!!!... I apologize Kannada enthusiasts). This is probably the first time I am trying my hands on learning Kannada songs. Now, I really admire the songs in a different way. I have started to admire the beauty of the songs, the complexity involved in learning, singing and above all getting them perfect.

Now, I have come to realize that, music no matter which ever language it is composed in has its own complexities. I envy those singers who sing with such profound skills, who can make wonderful impact on people like us with their impeccable voices... Jai ho :)...

Sajjanpur rocks

Atlast I watched the Hindi comedy film - Welcome to Sajjanpur. The film as a whole revolves around the social issues - like widow remmarriage, eunuch fighting for social status, a mother's concerns over getting her manglik daughter married. But Shyam Benegal is a mesmerizing story-teller. He has taken the movie in such a way that, you never feel bored at any point in the movie though it is completely about the social issues. He has made a comedy film with serious topics to keep the audience occupied. Kudos to him :)...

It is hard to come up with such movies these days. This is neither a parellel cinema nor an entirely commerical one. Shreyas Talpade has done an incredible job in his role of Mahadev. Amrita Rao is the perfect match for the innocent village girl Kamala... The other members in the cast too have done justice to their roles... Overall, it is a perfect movie for a weekend :)

Weekend...Yippie!!!

Finally my much-awaited weekend it back. This week was perhaps one of the most boring ones. Though I was busy the entire week and kept myself occupied, I felt the days were moving quite slowly. Anyway, today is Friday afternoon, that means, I can take a break from kitchen for sometime which means I get to savor a plate of set dosa at Bangalore Cafe tonight. I am so tuned to the custom of eating out on Friday evenings. I had hardly eaten set dosa when I was in Bangalore. I mostly ate masala dosa. It is only after coming here that I have started enjoying set dosa...

My blog has readers :)

I am happy to know that many of you follow my blog. Though nobody has ever commented on any of the posts I have posted, you all have managed to read it and ping me about the same on g-chat or yahoo...

This is driving me to update my blog and share my random thoughts with you all... Now I really feel inspired to blog :). I shall try to keep you entertained with some interesting posts from now on...

Thank you readers!!!

happy :)

Yesterday when I spoke with my mother, she gave a big suprise. I had not even imagined in my dreams. She said she found my Bharatanatyam costume in an old suitcase. I had tried so much to locate it when I was in Bangalore. I was extremely fond of my costume and was alwyas elated to be in that attire. Unfortunately while moving to a new house, I had packed it in the old suitcase and had completely forgotten about it. I tried so much in vain to find it and even hired a costume twice when I had to give performances.

I had almost decided to give up thinking about it. Now that, it is found, it has relieved me from the burden of undergoing the entire process of getting a new dress stitched, which involes selecting a fabric that looks attractive on a stage, finding an experienced seamstress who can stitch it since it requires painstaking efforts to accomplish and the expenses associated with them. A thousand thanks to GOD :):):)...

Disclaimer: The costume and the person in the picture above bear no resemblence with my costume or me :P

Hurting others??? - Bad manners

I was thinking about how one feels when teased. If it is something on a lighter note, obviously one can take it easily. But there are certain levels of pulling others' legs. Not always can one take everything easily. One shouldn't pull others' legs at the cost of hurting their feelings.

It might sound boring if I write that on a blog post. But, if you try to think about it deeply and remember one of those incidents when you were the victim, you will realize the magnitude of it. It is easy for those who tease others to have fun, but difficult for the ones being teased to accept it. The smallest example could be - when you work with lot of interest and dedication and the others ridicule it easily without understanding how much efforts you have to put in to accomplish that work.

Will come out with some interesting post tomo :)

Gandhi Bazaar to El Camino

Whenever I remember shopping in Bangalore, the most common hang-outs that come to my mind are - Gandhi Bazaar-DVG Road, Garuda Mall at MG Road, Bangalore Central, 4th Block Jayanagar, Commercial Street. I didn't really used to hang-out in Malleshwaram... or it didn't require me to go there. However Gandhi Bazaar was my most favorite hang-out. I remember going there everyday during my vacations. One of my friends had even asked me - Do u own some shop in Gandhi Bazaar??!!!!!... After having lived in the nearby area for nearly 18 years, I can proudly say that - I know every nook and corner of Gandhi Bazaar.

But here, I think, the road that makes me nostalgic is the Historic El Camino Real. Right from day one in Santa Clara, we have been shopping only in the Indian Stores, or some American stores in this street, with few exceptions. Even the Urgent Care I went to when I injured my palm was located in this street. The plants we bought were also from a shop on the El Camino...

Now, can I say, El Camino is Gandhi Bazaar's counterpart here???

Sometimes yes... sometimes no!!!...

Is it really different?

I was reading some post on Aamir Khan's blog sometime back. His blog is quite simple, down to earth. His star status is not evident from his blog. This is what is more appealing. But what struck me the most was the number of comments he had received. The most simple post, like - will keep you all posted and such dull posts too have recevied atleast 500 comments. But is it really worth commenting? Why do so many people follow his blog or rather a film star's blog so seriously?

I initially brushed aside thinking - people are mad. I guess, by commenting, people feel they can get to communicate with their star. But then, does he really have time and patience to look into their comments? Is it because of the big names he uses in his blogs. I went through some of his posts randomly where he does mention some names like Genelia, Imran Khan and few names of some big directors and producers. So, I felt, probably this makes people follow his blog so ardently. I guess people are curious to know about his life-style, what he does etc.

At the end of the day, if people like you or I have team meetings or talk to our colleagues, managers etc, Aamir Khan talks to his co-stars, and directors who are some of the big names in the tinsel town.

Missing Amma's kitchen

I have been feeling something odd about my eating habits. It didn't take me long to realize what exactly I was feeling. I have to eat whatever I cook. Probably this is what is troubling me the most. Few months back, the situation was completely different. I never had to enter the kitchen. I was always served with varieties of dishes by my sweet mom. With my cooking, I feel happy to cook for others than to cook for myself.

When I initially started feeling this way, I thought, I had to take a break and eat out. But however things didn't work. Inspite of eating some specialities like kadai paneer, pizza, etc., I still feel the same. Probably, I need to eat my mom's food. But right now, since it can't be accomplished, I feel, I should eat some home-made food not cooked by me. At present, this looks like a better option.

Now, I can use this as an excuse to let my husband do the cooking :P

Confused :(

I am confused :(... I have been working on the sound editor software Audacity to modify some of the music files. But the rm files are a big problem. These rm files are precluding me from using the Audacity to perform some changes in them. I hope to come up with a solution in a day or two. Till then, I will have some, head-scratching, nail-biting sessions, with multiple windows opened in my browser. Above all, the google chrome, too is inclement - one thing, it crashes all of a sudden. Next, it lacks the feature Firefox provides when you accidentally click the close button. It closes immediately without asking the user, whether or not to save and quit, or directly quit. I have to remember all those windows that I had opened and again need to open them.

I guess, I need a break. I won't be able to achieve anything in this utter confusion. I need to resolve few things.

Smile :-)

The 2 plants in my what I call my garden in the balcony bring me a wide smile on my face whenever I think about it. I become so happy when I talk about it to anybody. I attribute that happiness not just to the plants but to the flowers they produce. Those flowers are more than enough to decorate the "devaramane". However, the central idea of this post is how small things can bring happiness in us...

Even now, when I am writing this post, I have those cute flowers settled in my mind and I can't stop smiling. If we really need to be happy, we don't have to await something to happen that can affect our lives. If we can start looking out for happiness in every small things around us, then we can be happy and make others happy too.

This shows man can never conquer the nature. No matter whatever he does to outsmart the nature, he can never potential enough to be superior than it. If it takes hunderds of reasons for we humans to be happy, nature can do the wonder with such minute things :-)

Titles can be misleading

I watched 500 days of summer today. Overall the movie was good. It was simple except for the fact that, during the entire course of the movie, one goes through the numbers (here I mean to say, day 1, day 2...) from 1 to 500 not necessarily in a order. The movie begins with some day in late 200s, comes back to 1, again to some 200s. I was wondering whether or not the movie ends with 500. Hopefully it did. The most misleading thing (perhaps I was misled because of my lack of experience in watching movies), was about the title of movie. The summer in the title I thought was in reference with the seasons - summer, winter, spring and autumn. But I was taken aback to know that, the leading female character's name was "Summer".

This was perhaps the first "angrezi" movie I liked which I watched in theater after coming to US.

A journey from Army to Corporate Sector

I was reading an article in a newspaper. This was different from the usual ones, - no politics, no crime news, no page 3, no sports... This was purely an article on ISB - however again not to do with the placements. http://www.hinduonnet.com/2009/08/13/stories/2009081361020500.htmThis one was about the army and navy personnel having worked for 10-15 years, joining ISB. Most of them seem to have a solid experience of 10-15 years and have quit as Major or Lieutenent Colonel. A new innings for the Army men and women. Though the two areas, - army and corporate sector are like two different branches, they have common roots. Leading the army troops, commanding fleets of vehicles and soldiers would have given ample opportunities to showcase their leadership qualities which is the basic necessity of a MBA. If it is all about winning in army, here it is maximizing profits. At the end of the day, both of them boil down to leading and winning in their fields.

A great example for career changers :)

Happy Birthday Krishna

Today is Krishna Janmaashtami, Lord Krishna's birthday, 8th day in the Krishna Paksha of Bhadrapada masa. This is one of those festivals that include doing aarti at night... It is celebrated in various parts of India in different ways. In South India, it usually includes doing aarti to Krisha, and making varieties of mouth-watering snacks. One thing which people strictly cook is the avalakki or poha. This was the favorite dish of Krishna. This is also evident from the fact that, Sudama, Krishna's poor friend who went to meet him had taken avalakki or poha since he had nothing to give. But surprisingly, Krishna was overwhelmed and ate with utter happiness. In Maharastra, people celebrate with the dahi-handis, where the handi or the pot filled with butter-milk is positioned at a particular height. People group themselves in the form of pyramids. While the pyramid tapers along the length, the topmost person breaks the handi and the buttermilk spills over the entire group... This is in remembrance of Lord Krishna along with his friends who did such attempts to break into every kitchen to get butter.

Today, I made some poha too at home. With little facilities here, I did some pooja and aarti. My desire to celebrate every festival with equal enthusiasm has driven me high in this festival season :P

A perfect beginning

I am posting my first post today with the intention to continue blogging unlike how I did start blogging a year ago and lose interest after posting 3-4 posts.

At this point in time, I am a home-maker, student, trying to keep myself occupied in singing, cooking, reading novels and any random thing I am coming across. Right now, I am learning a song sung by SPB and Janaki http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgPUvHyYOVc. I am trying to concentrate on the nuances of the song which I am currently learning... It involves a number of swaras. I surmise that it is composed in raaga shivaranjini, one of the ragas which music directors have always used to compose touchy songs.. like tere mere beech mein in Ek Duje ke liye, mere naina , which are difficult to erase from one's memory. However this song is special in its own way. A sculpture or an idol is just a posture made by carving the rocks... The poet thinks of these sculptures singing... which is impossible... but he imagines how it could be when they sing... it sounds fantastic...

I am listening to the original song as well as one of the competitors in a competition. Her rendition too is excellent.. since it showcases her ability to render such a complicated song without making mistakes on a stage peformance... Also, listening to stage performances enable to focus more on the nuances of the song unlike a studio recorded one which includes multiple effects on the song. On a stage, a singer sings more slowly in order to allow the audience to get the lyrics and the tunes properly.