Waiting for the Salary...

Salary Day! Yippppeeeeeeeeeee!

Behind the 'Wall'...

I got this link when I was browsing through the blog world from a fellow blogger. This is for all the Floyd fans out there. Not saying nething more. Just check it out!

THE WALL

The Rock Star of Carnatic Music

No No No. This post is not 'bout any rock star who came to learn Indian classical music and so not certainly 'bout George Harrison or Jon Higgins. It is 'bout one of most prolific vocalists of Carnatic Music of the yesteryears, the one and only GNB.

Sangeetha Kalanidhi G.N. Balasubramaniam shot to fame in his early twenties which was rather late for a vocalist during his time. But shot to fame he did. He became famous overnight. His meteoric rise to fame, the extravagant life he led, and the immense popularity he gained and along with that the envy of certain very prominent of his colleagues and a rather early death is very similar to any average Rock musician I guess and that's the reason for the title.

GNB did not learn Carnatic music the usual way in gurukulavasam as was the norm of the day. His father was a prominent music promoter and used to conduct numerous concerts by eminent artists. GNB grew up listening to all the great music, observing and learning. He used to practice without the knowledge of his father, who was of the opinion that Music was not an apt career for his son, though being a great fan and promoter himself. And thus heeding the wishes of his father, GNB joined for literature degree.

But fate had other plans for GNB. A chance came his way when the main artist for a concert didn’t turn up and the organisers asked GNB's father to depute his son to take the stage. That was all that needed for GNB. There was no turning back after that.

Some of the characteristics of GNB were the fast gamahas laden swarams and the exquisite delineation of ragas. His voice would race away in quick bursts of beautiful and intricate patterns of swarams. He also promoted the Swarabedham during his concerts where he would bring out the facet of another raga within the main raga he was elaborating by singing the second raga using the notes of the first raga itself but by shifting the base note to bring out the second one. Hope that was not confusing! Now contemporaries who were jealous of him saw that as an opportunity and made a big controversy out of it. But GNB prevailed. In present times O.S. Thyagarajan is the big gun who does Swarabedham during his concerts.

Once GNB had caught the attention of the music lovers, numerous concerts came his way which resulted in his constant travels to all parts of the country. These frequent travels coupled with his irregular diet and food habits had a toll on his health. He passed away at an age of 54 which was quite early at that time.

During his heydays, GNB lived life king-size moving houses for the most trivial reasons, living a very extravagant life. GNB was one of the most handsome singers around during his time and women flocked to his concerts just to see him! All this popularity did not go well with some of his prominent contemporaries, who were quite envious of his overnight rise to fame. During the latter part of his career GNB had problems with his voice, when he would be heckled by the loyalists of those contemporaries right during the concert. GNB would be greatly troubled by this and this might have contributed to his declining health then.

GNB has composed many krithis, varnams in various ragams. He had groomed some prominent musicians of the generation next to his. Some of his prominent disciples include M.L Vasanthakumari, Trichur V.Ramachandran among others.

One of my favourites of GNB's is the Abhogi varnam, one of my personal favourites. GNB was truly an inspired genius and one of the leading musicians who gave the Carnatic world some breathtaking music!

It's always a pleasure to write 'bout such titans esp the fav ones. Happy weekend all of you.

Of Fingers and Pointing!

Disclaimer: The post below is 'bout things which happen in my office and is not intended to portray yours truly as an avid gossip monger. So if you get any such thoughts please 'delete' them from your memory. This post is also not intended to hurt the sentiments of any software professional in general. :)

Hello guys! It’s been a long time since I posted anything here. Well, I have been getting work on and off and I am going to be shifted to another team soon which is a bit of a bother 'cos I was just settling down with the present team. For a long time I didn't know what to write 'bout. My mind drew a blank I tried to think of writing 'bout something. Then I looked at my work-life and said Hey! There is so much going on here waiting to be written 'bout. Hence this post.

One and a half months have passed since I became a corporate ass and more than once I have seen how the other corporate asses who work with me behave. Well, I am not trying to make derogatory remarks here 'bout my colleagues but whatever I saw, I thought it ridiculously funny.

Well, there have been umpteen weekly status meetings which have been happening right from the day I joined my team till last Friday. The fact that these meetings are all 'bout a bunch of software professionals right from the Project Manager to the Developers sitting around a table and cribbing 'bout the lack of coordination between the offshore and the onsite teams apart from a million other things and at the end of it all everyone being satisfied that they have made their points however unproductive they may have been, is just another matter altogether. Though the points made may not be entirely unproductive (this is my be-fair-to-all part of my persona talking), there is nothing much done 'bout it after the meeting.

Anywez, I m digressing. Well, these meetings are very funny. Everybody who has responsibility is on the defensive mode right from the word 'GO'. What happened last week was one of the module leads had promised to finish off his module by that Friday, the day the meeting was held. This had come as a surprise and a good news to our PM who had later informed 'bout this good news to his superiors. And imagine his surprise when the module lead told the entire crowd that there would be a delay of 'bout a week or so! The PM was very much shocked; you can empathize with him I guess...I mean he had told his superiors 'bout the promised delivery. But the calm fella that he is, he asked what had happened. There the finger pointing started.

His team had apparently not given him an honest projection 'bout their work deadlines, and when asked at the meeting pointed finger at some of the team, who not having an option had to stutter out lame explanations which ofcourse nobody bought. Seizing the opportunity our team lead started pointing finger at the onsite coordinator who was apparently not 'coordinating' stuff as much as the offshore team would have liked her to do.

And not just during meetings...the team I am in has two modules with leads for both. While both of them are smart, they are at extreme ends when it comes to dealing with the team lead. The team lead in the first place talks a lot, and is kinda aggressive to which my module lead just nods his head; but this is not tolerated much by the other module lead who expects people to be rather precise and to the point. And they both usually end up disagreeing and blaming each other, when the PM finally comes to the scene and makes peace. Though all this happens very discreetly and most people do not notice much (it is either that or they are just pretending, as is the case most of the times!!!) it happens.

Sometimes I feel like I am in the middle of an Ally McBeal episode!!!

Life's been good so far. Getting shifted to another team by this Monday most probably. Hope they don’t shift me from this one!

Work makes Jack a DULL DULL boy!

Its been a long time since I posted anything here. I have been a little busy on the work front! Well, I have been getting work off late and though its not all that hectic it is always better to show everyone that you are really busy so that you dont get more work in the future. And that's exactly what I have been doing and it's quite tiring I must say. But I dont think I can keep up this natak for long. I keep getting the vibes that I AM gonna be loaded with work! :((
So till the next break, Peace!