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!

Recap of My 2005

Year 2005 was a higly eventful one for me. Right from making a job in Wipro to Sangamam to getting chucked out of my dear BITS to getting relocated to Pune, so many events and incidents happened. Here's a quick recap into the last 365 days of my life.

• Got placed in Wipro. - Though not exactly a life-altering event I consider it a pretty important one considering the fact that I was worried 'bout not a making a job at all! With my CG, even you would have doubted it.
• Auditioned for Dance Workshop...and got through!
• Got drunk and made some really stupid phone calls.
• Psenti First Music nite.
• SANGAMAM '05 - A very memorable 45 odd days and an even more memorable 3 days.
• Psenti Bitsian B'day
• Psenti Apogee - played for a song I love!
• Green Green Grass makes another entry into my life.
• Dance Workshop Demo - my second ever dance performace on stage.
• Psenti nite - my last performance in the Audi.
• Psenti Concert - my last performace as a student in BITS.
• Rag and MC farewells - finally got chucked out of campus.
• 1 month of job hunting in Bangalore - nobody wants a mechanical engineer fresher. Damn!
• Trip to Chennai to meet friend(s).
• Finally joined Wipro after a 4 month long wait.
• Two and a half months in B'lore - Drunk weekends; Rediscovering my passion; Concerts, Concerts and more Concerts!
• Two and a half months in Wipro - IBM-Mainframes rules! (That was sarcastic btw)
• Disaster strikes - Got relocated to Pune.
• Started blogging.
• Second Christmas away from home - training the whole day on Christamas Sunday. Why me??!! :<

Going to IIM-Indore for the New Year weekend to meet a friend. Gonna get WASTED!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Party hard!

Don't drink and drive though. :>

God bless you all.

And a Year Later...

Its been one year since the deadly Tsunami struck South East Asia and destroyed the lives of thousands of people. Rendering many homeless Tsunami has become a household term in this part of the country, synonymous with death and destruction. But if there's anything to be learnt from this past one year, it is that whatever adversities the killer waves may have brought upon them the courage and spirit shown by the people in battling them never waned once in this past year. The Tsunami took away many lives in its wake, but it could never take away the spirit of the people. The way people have rallied around inspite of all the hardships and threat of epidemic outbreaks is awe-inspiring to say the least.

I remember sitting in the Marina beach on Dec 25th looking at the waves, the kids playing with the sand, mothers anxiuosly looking out for their kids, dads making mud-castles for their kids...thinking that even amdist all this, there is tranquility. Then to come home the next day and awakening to horrifying news of the calamity was most shocking.

Over the past one year the media has been tracking all the 'destruction' stories. But taking the cue from the Times of India which has done a special post under the guidance of our president APJ Abdul Kalam, the rest of the media should highlight the stories of people who rallied around and brought back their lives to normalcy and showed an amazing sense of grit and determination.
In sharp contrast to the incidents which happened when Hurricane Katrina struck the US Coast (yes, I am referring to the riots which broke out!), the people of India, those who were directly hit by the disaster and those who readily helped those in need, have indeed shown the world how unity and spirit in heart can restore happiness and joy under any adversity. This one year anniversary is indeed a celebration of unity and brotherhood. I bow to them. To call them Victims is wrong, they are Survivors.

Peace.

Merry Christmas!

The holiday season is heare upon us, which brings me memories of Christmas at home. When I was a kid, we used to be in Karaikal where dad was the Revenue officer and pretty much well known to most of the crowd there as the town was a very small one. We used to get a lot of cakes during this time of the year. We even used to make wine at home. But all that was ages ago.

A year back I was in Chennai trying to get the artists booked for Sangamam, and trying out all means possible to get sponsorship for Sangamam'05. I was not at home for the first time in my life for Christmas, but being in the state that I was then, it was pretty chill. And one year later I am not at home again. But for whatever reason I am feeling home-sick now!!! The first time ever in my life I m actually longing to be with my family!!??!!

I'd planned on meeting my friend in M'bai during the weekend atleast. But fate, when it decides to screw you over, does it royally I must say! Our Project Technical Architect has arranged a stupid training session on the Christmas day!

Man, When you think life can't get any suckier it does! But I have decided to not let these things worry me and spoil my mood. Its Christmas for crying out loud!

So, here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas! Have a great weekend!

A Phenomenon that was PMI...

After reading my friend's post on Palghat Mani Iyer, I had this urge to write 'bout this percussion genius myself.

Now to call PMI a genius is an understatement. He was much more than a genius. He was in another plane altogether! His uncanny knack for anticipating what the singer was going to sing next and playing the song itself on his instrument...pure brilliance!

Having learnt under Tanjavur Mahavaidyanatha iyer and having shot to fame at an early age of 14, thanks to the titan of Carnatic Music, Chembai(both literally and figuratively!) he had developed a unique style of playing which would take the concerts in which he accompanied, to greater heights than the main artist could possibly imagine.

His Tanis were gems and one of a kind! I had the oppurtunity see one where he had accompanied T.N.Krishnan...it was sheer genius! The joy one gets in watching him is undescribable!

Musical phenomenons like PMI happen once in a lifetime and the carnatic Music world is lucky to have seen such a stalwart!

Memories from a Desert...

Fresher - ANC - Intro - BITSian Salute - GymG - Controls, Soundz, Lights - Music nite - Lachcha - Fresher's period - DTC - Registration - GSu - Ragging - BOGS - BOSM - ANC - Fried Maggi Boss!! - C'not - Acads - B'day Bumps - Fresher's Welcome - Room Ransacking - S-9 -Controls - Structure:Welding - JudgeSheet Room - FrontD - Dance Floor - Nite-outs - OASIS - Graveyard Shifts - Volunteers - Heirarchy - Combined Crash(CC) - Compres in winterCGPA! - TN Express - Nagpur:not a very good station! - Audi - RAF - D-Lawns - Gandhi Bhawan - Bhawan's nite - Workshop - Dual Degree - Pilani-Delhi Sumo Trips - Group Leader - Ragging Banned! - Volunteer recruitment - Ragamalika - Fresher's concert - Dikshithar Aradhana - Padma Ma'am - Vyas:the spirit never dies - Pachyderm Conversationalists(yuk!) - Winter Nite Rum Sessions - Contessa(YUK!) - Guitar - G'n'R - Mech Sol:E - Sangamam '02 Inaug - First Tyagaraja Aradhana - Vyas nite - SymLog:A:First A(yippee!) - Badri(shock!) - Core - Music Club audition - First Music nite - Amma Dekh - Trinity Day - Oasis '02:Drink, Drink, Drink! Cash Accounting - Fusion '02 - Manga Thanni - Aandholikha - Budh enthu - SKY - Back Sky Latcha sessions - Veti Gang! - F.R.I.E.N.D.S - Pappu - Chemistry CDCs - Guitar lessons from Pritish - Apogee'03 Vodka's Karaharapriya fusion - Sangamam '03 - Umayalpuram - Grass! - 2000th Batch Splits - Bagh - BITS LAN - Mech CDCs - Fusion '03 - Tarang '03 - Kalam Kalam - Fusion Nite outs - Guitar debut - Prez, Ragamalika - Jaundice - Jug's play - Apogee '04 Vodka's Chakravaham fusion - Rakkamma - BITS Library Inaug - L.Shankar's Savitri Krithi:fiasco - the enthu after - Mech CDCs down the drain! - Controls' Farewell - Batchmates' Ragamalika farewell - Dualites spilt - IFB APL - Lakshmipuram - Jug's place - PS:Drink, Drink, Drink! - Spons hunting - artist booking - Psenti Sem - RP Redi - DW Auditions - Psenti First music nite - Sangamam '05 Coord:what a fuck-up! - Sangamam '05 Work sessions - Sangamam '05 inaug - Dhwani - TVG, the senile old man's koothu - Apogee '05 Hemavati fusion - Ennavale - Indian Ocean - Dance Workshop Demo - Psenti Nite - Ragamalika farewell - Music Club farewell - Psenti C'not session - 2000 Batch ROCKS!

These are some memories from the 5 years of my BITSian life!!!! This post was trigerred by this article, which I read recently! Waiting for such a reunion to happen... on a larger scale!

Peace!

My dream!

My dream - to have one of these Fenders soon!

These violins are have some awesome craftsmanship! But unfortunately they cost quite a lot 2! :(

High Hopes!

My induction into the world of Rock music happened in my 2nd year, thanks to a certain wingie of mine who liked to think of himself a rock afficionado then. He was huge fan of hard rock, thrash metal! And I was like...wtf?! Till then, i had heard of only pop and had been listening to Back Street Boys and Celine Dion (I still like Celine Dion, mind you!). Well one of the first rock songs he made me listen was 'Estranged' by Guns'n'Roses. I fell in love. He had a semi-acoustic guitar with which he would be standing outside his room, the music system blaring out songs, and he would be imitating Slash!

He was the one who introduced me to Metallica, Dream Theatre and one of my most favourites, Pink Floyd. Well, have you ever felt that you liked a song better every time you heard it? Or you appreciated something better, the more you came across it? Pink Floyd was something like that to me. Coming Back to Life, Comfortably Numb, Brain Damage, Another Brick in the Wall, Shine on you crazy diamond,Sorrow, Wish you were here and finally the song of songs- HIGH HOPES!

I am relatively new to the song, I hadn't known of its existence till my psenti sem at campus, and it was thanx to another crazy bloke in my wing that I got to hear it! Man, I was blown away...as was another friend of mine, and mind you, we were already a little blown thanks to the cheap spirits we get in the desert campus! The song has been written like it was meant to get us into a high, and the guitar lead at the end by Gilmour is one the best I have ever heard in my life! The way the lead takes the listener on a roller coast ride is simply amazing! Mind blowing piece of music! Me and my friend make it a point to listen to this song after every session, the song seems to take us into a new dimension each time! Pink Floyd rocks!

From "Five-point Someone" by Chetan Bhagat(dont remember the exact thing) -

"The thing 'bout Vodka and Pink Floyd is that they sound better with every drink, its like the singers designed it for alcohol. Like Samosa-Chutney, Rajma-Chawal, Vodka and Pink Floyd are in a combo-class of their own!"

High Hopes - the lyrics

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young

In a world of magnets and miracles

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary

The ringing of the division bell had begun

Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway

Do they still meet there by the Cut

There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps

Running before time took our dreams away

Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground

To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener

The light was brighter

With friends surrounded

The night of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us

To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side

Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again

Dragged by the force of some inner tide

At a higher altitude with flag unfurled

We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition

There's a hunger still unsatisfied

Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon

Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener

The light was brighter

The taste was sweeter

The nights of wonder

With friends surrounded

The dawn mist glowing

The water flowing

The endless river
Forever and ever

Rediscovering my passion!

A word of caution before you start: this might be a little boring! I am writing this one, out of sheer boredom, not knowing what to do at the office!

Music is a passion of mine. And this passion is esp more so for Carnatic music. Ofcourse, I do listen to a lot of other music...from soft to hard rock, a little pop, Ilayaraja, Rahman etc. But the joy in listening to a varnam/krithi/RTP sitting in a cutchery, getting carried along with the musician be it during the alapanas or the swaras or the neravals, all the while keeping thalam: the experience is intoxicating and cannot be expressed in words!

I grew up listening to Yesudas' recorded concerts and light music and Dr. L. Subramaniam's fusions and Shakti majorly. I started learning the violin at the age of 7, though I was very much adamnt on learning either the Mrudangam or the Tabla after having heard Zakir Hussain from one of my dad's collections!

My first guru was Nellai E.Shanmuganathan under who I learnt for more than two years, till my 5th when my father was transferred to Pondicherry (We were in Karaikal till then). I never got a good teacher while at Pondicherry for quite sometime, and till then, I used to go to my guru's place in Karaikal during those Quarterly and Half-yearly hols, and stay at his place.Learning music during those times was major fun; being one of the favourites, Sir and Akka would fuss over me, akka esp more so!

This went for two years after which finally I did get a teacher in Pondicherry, my second guru, Kolachal Srinivisan, under who i learnt for more than three years. The 5 years in BITS,Pilani after that was very much a learning experience, in terms of music. I had two big inspirations while at campus. One was a senior, a vocalist-violinist-composer, who has a band making hiw own music now. The other was a batchmate,a vocalist and a traditional one at that. One was brilliant and known for his amazing improvisations. The other was a stickler for sampradayam and stuff; well, he did change towards the end! Though their styles were different, the knowledge in music which they had was really worth killing for, not that I would!!! I certainly learnt a lot by just listening to them!

Well, the best way to learn music is to listen a lot of it people say! And as I said before, the joy and the things one learns while at a live concert is something invaluable! My interest in Carnatic which had been dormant till recently, was aroused thanks to pal Jaggu, with whom I had performed God-only-knows how many concerts! I started listening to Chembai, Lalgudi , GNB, MMI, Palghat Mani Iyer etc. He had suddenly developed a huge interest and it affected me too. We started jamming together after a very long time, wherein i discovered that I had forgotten much more than what I had imagined and I started going for more concerts than I had in the last five years of my life!

The latchas after that 'bout raga and tala fundas, 'bout RTPs and their the different themes under which they were sung, the Katri swarams of Chembai, the 7-stringed violin of Mali!!! I had rediscovered the joy in listening to the music which I adored, the discussions enlightening and all the googling 'bout fundas, all the more so! I had rediscovered my passion!!!

What's in a Name??!!

This is my first attempt at writing, and mainly 'cos of that I m gonna keep this short! :)
Well, when i was creating this blog, I was thinking of what to write for my first post! And all the while tyring out URLs. Every url I could think of was taken. Tried my name even, didnt work!!!
That started my train of thoughts, the reason behind my name. I think almost every parent would have had a reason for the names they choose to give their sons/daughters, just like my dad had!

My dad is a big fan of the genius film-maker Satyajit Ray. So he named me Apu, the protagonist in Ray's movie Apur Sansar(The World of Apu), the final movie of the Apu Trilogy. My sister's name too, is from the same movie. Though I have never actually seen the movie or any of Ray's movie for that matter, I have heard and read a lot 'bout him; I would love to watch his movies some time!

When I was born, I was baptised Sebastian, after Saint Sebastian, whose corrupted form Battan forms my surname and my dad's as well! :) Sebastian was also my paternal granddad's name; it is a mallu christian custom to baptise the son/daughter after the paternal/maternal ganddad/grandmom or the godfather/godmother!

Been sitting in the office till almost 8 now! And it's Friday evening for crying out loud!
Seeya all...