Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Salzburg festival 2008

In the land of Mozart, every year during the months of July-August, there takes place the festival of music and drama.
These are images from the Salzburg Festival Official site:

The director of the Salzburg festival says that they have to plan 2, 3 sometimes 4 years in advance, so that they can have all the artists perform at the festival.
With such a perfect location and the best artists in the world... the festival must be an 'out of this world' experience!

Here's an interesting video link from the Credit Suisse newsletter.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Yanni voices

Just went to Yanni's official page and was shocked beyond belief at his new look. For a moment, I had to stare hard at the photo to confirm it actually was him.
"The human voice is the most expressive instrument known to man... it can evoke an enormous amount of emotion"

This is his new venture, taking his music to the next level with human voices and the featured voices are:
Chloe
Nathan Pacheco
Leslie Mills
Ender Thomas

What voices!!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

crazy week - crazy me

You know how it is, when life goes completely berserk, things that you least expect are thrown up your path. Duck and avoid as best as you can - you may be lucky, you may not.
Those are the times when the slightest things/gestures/words make a world of difference.
In case you have no clue what I'm talking about, good for you :)

I'm currently reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This book recommended by one of my NY colleagues and I'm so glad she did. Just a few chapters into the book and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I cannot point out if it is the simplicity, the reality, the thought process or the word play that makes it such a joy to read. So typing out this post real quickly, so that I can get back to the book :)

Has has it ever happened to you - that you are in a negative mood - be it feeling low, depressed, frustrated, angry... whatever, then all of a sudden - something makes you feel just the opposite? It could be anything, in this case I'm talking about a hello tune on a friend's phone :) which currently is 'naan paadum' from the movie Duet. The first time that I heard his tune I asked him to cut the call and not to pick it up until I told him to. Just listening to the tune was so refreshing and happy. Through the week, whenever I felt I needed a break from my mundane thoughts, I'd call him up just to listen to the tune. This, I think is one of ARR's best albums. the combination of the saxophone and the keyboard is amazing. The way Kadri's sax pieces take you on an emotional ride depending on the situation in the movie is just mind blowing.

Ok so we've done book, music/movie and now to television ads. Watched this one a couple of times today and really liked it. I don't understand why Aamir is doing an SRK i.e. appearing in so many ads, but still this one's worth it.

Be born everyday:


Ending this post with a snippet from the book:
This is the part where the writer wants to learn Italian but is trying justify if its going to be of any use, learning a language just because you like it. In the end she says:
"Why must everything always have a practical application? I've been a diligent soldier for years - working, producing, never missing a dead-line, taking care of my credit record, voting, etc. Is this lifetime supposed to be only about duty?"

(I know someone would intervene to say - no its not, that's what I've been telling you all along...)

That's something to chew on ...
Happy weekend!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

To blog or not to blog

That is definitely not the question.

Why I blog or what my blogs are about, that is the question.
I don't know about others, but for me, my blogs are my space - my space to think out loud, to put across points, to tell the world how I feel, to vent my frustrations, to cry out in joy, to whisper in sadness. Its my space - where I can express my feelings, my point of view, things that I strongly feel about - be it people, events, organisations, activities, music, movies, books or just plain nothing at all.
This is the place where I've made innumerable friends, learned from people (learned what to do and also what not to). It has taught me things I didn't know about myself. I can always come back to my blog and relive moments from the past (even if reliving means reading about) :)

This is my space. I hope I am able to keep it this way.

Tune for the day: Back together

What's with this attitude?

Aren't doctors meant to be life-savers? Aren't they regarded equal to God?

Background - Amma regularly goes to a school for the mentally retarded, to spend time with the children, keep them occupied with various activities including singing. There's this one kid who is 5 years old, who had a problem walking. She needed special shoes which she'd outgrown and amma wanted to help out. However, upon speaking to the kid's parents and looking at her reports (which were 4 years old), it was realised that it was the lower part of her body that had been affected at the time of birth and not her brain functionality. Since she was slow in learning, her parents being poor didn't get her checked up with any doctor, and got her admitted in this school.
Amma got P (my brother's friend) and R (amma's student) to try and help out this kid.
R is studying medicine, so just looking at the medical reports, she explained that it was the lower limbs that were affected, not the brain. In such cases special exercises would help strengthen the limbs and thus help her walk.
P took on the task of calling up a Neuro Surgeon, to confirm that the kid was not mentally ill and that she could be shifted to a regular school.
She explained to the doctor - this is a poor kid and we are trying to help the family. Would you please be able to take a look at the report and confirm that she is mentally fit.
The reaction of the doctor was this - I know how all you NGOs work. But tell me, when whole of Bangalore does not have water, what difference does it make to fix the problem only in your area?
Is this reaction acceptable? I was so furious when I heard this.

So today, the reports were taken to another doctor. Explaining that all that he was required to do was advise on what needs to be done and if the kid can be put in a regular school.
The reaction this time - oh.. well.. she should been treated early on
Yes, we know that. Nothing was done then, would exercises help now and what about putting her in a regular school, can that be done?
Oh - I don't know, for that you'll have to check her IQ
OK - do you know where that can be done? do you think an organisation like Mobility India would be able to help?
uh... ho... hum... may be
The end!

Here are people who are trying to help, trying in their own small way to make a difference and if this is the response...
My question: Would the reaction of the doctors be the same, if it were their own child?

Song for the day: Khuda jaane from Bachna ae haseenon.
Don't know why, but I really like the chorus... so the song's been playing in a loop.
and yes I like the Ahista Ahista song too for the guitar and the peppy rhythm/pace.

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Godse version

Why they killed Gandhi...