Victor Wooten

Bass, played on a lower key, generally provides a harmonic/rhythmic support.
When Victor Wooten is playing, bass gets a whole new meaning. It does not support, it IS the music.

Today's Victor Wooten trip includes:
The Lesson
Joe's Journey
Sacred Silence
Yin Yang
The Vision
What you won't do for love
On and On

More music streaming here: http://www.victorwooten.com/music.html

A post for: Music of the Heart and Bach

Yesterday I watched the movie Music of the Heart. This falls in the categories music and inspiration. The movie is a sure #win for several reasons - the main ones being Meryl Streep, the music, the true storyline. Meryl Streep is a versatile actress. Be it her role in Devil wears Prada, Julie and Julia or this one, so very different - yet so well adapted.

The movie is about Roberta Guaspari. When her husband leaves her, Roberta's mom and friend push her into pursuing her passion - teaching music. Roberta teaches in a school at Harlem and life is a struggle. When the music program at school is cut due to budget constraints she fights back and wins.
Roberta later went on to found Opus 118 - Harlem centre for Strings.

At the very end of the movie, a charity show to be hosted by Roberta is almost scrapped due to non-availability of venue. That is when her friend arranges for musical greats like Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern help conduct the concert at Carnegie Hall. The finale gave me goosebumps when these musicians along with the children play Bach's double concerto. Such beautiful music.

Since last evening, I have been listening to classical music specially Bach's. These are in my current playlist:
Double concerto
Prelude - Cello Suite No. 1
Toccata and Fugue in D minor
Brandenburg concerto No. 3 (Allegro)
Cantata No. 29 Sinfonia

First Impression

The last day of my life - Jim Moret

(Long time overdue post)

I was reading this book during my trip earlier this year and remember tweeting one quote from the book that caught on with friends:
"Who are the few people you can really count as your friend? Have you made sure they know how you feel about them?"

Last day of my life is one of those books that as you read through - you nod, you smile, you are saddened, but at the end of every chapter you are inspired to think and act differently.
Jim Moret, the author is a TV correspondent who has hosted/anchored shows on CNN, Fox, MSNBC. Most popular of his work is his coverage of the OJ Simpson trial.

Jim starts the book by saying all his life he has been telling other peoples' stories and he reached a point in life where he stopped to think about his own life.
"I issued myself an unusual challenge: to imagine that I had been told in no uncertain terms, that I had only 24 hours left to live. What would I do? Who would I want to see? where would I choose to spend my last hew hours? Would I make apologies or offer forgiveness? Would I use it as a time to seek out one last great adventure?"

Jim breaks up the book into chapters with titles like Friendship, Gratitude, Love, Sacrifice, Commitment...
Below are some interesting quotes from the book, each followed by a story from Jim's personal experiences:
~True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it is lost - Charles Caleb Colton
~Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else - Mitch Albom
~Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do apologize, you apologize for truth - Benjamin Disraeli
~How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong - because some day you will have been all these - George Washington Carver
~If at first you don't succeed, before you try again, stop to figure out what you did wrong - Leo Rosten
~After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music - Aldous Huxley
~Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face - Victor Hugo
~The most wasted of all days is one without laughter - E.E.Cummings

Agnee

Accidentally landed on the official website of Agnee, while searching for Agni (an older Indian band that a friend had mentioned about)
Each song is a world apart in theme, tune and the final presentation. It's been long since I heard so many good songs from a single band (may be I'm not listening to the right kind of music?). Anyway, felt the need, so jotting down what I feel about the songs currently playing in a loop.

Sadho Re: The initial strumming of the guitar is interesting, but the vocals make all the difference. The video may be disturbing to some, but the theme of the song isn't a very pleasant one either. Overall, very powerful music.

Splitsvilla theme: "Edgiest TV show in India"? or so the website calls it. Forget the show, focus on the music. Simple guitar strumming in the background and some humming in the foreground, throw in a few violins and the result is a brilliant melody which leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling. Definitely deserves an #ilike tag

Shaam Tanha: At first, the starting of the song seemed a bit artificial. Don't ask me how music can seem artificial, it just does, at times. But listening to it completely, a couple of times made me change my mind. This is a very light, simple song. Perfect for an evening (or does the name already suggest that).

Raanjhan Yaar Di / Keh Lene Do: The guitar, the voice, the tune - oh what a combination
Plus point for RYD: The chords
Plus point for KLD: The voice modulation

Karvan: The minor chords/notes that the tune touches from time to time, give it it's intensity

Music inspired by movies

Today's theme is music. Well, the day began with music (that's a whole different story and it's best to not talk about it).
Anyway, watched the trailer of Black Swan. Seems to be an intense movie, but the music is equally compelling. Then went on to listen to a whole lot of good music from Vitaliy Zavadskyy's MySpace page.

2012
Inception
District 9
Avatar

Also including here some music from OSTs by Clint Mansell, which were playing in a continuous loop some time back. Music has such power!

The Fountain
Requiem for a dream
Smoking Aces

A Thousand Suns - Linkin Park

This is not your usual Linkin Park album. The band seems to have gone on a tangent here. A whole new sound and a world of meaning in the lyrics. Most of the songs talk about the past and learning thereof. The album's also got some voice tracks that are readings from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Will get to that later, let the music begin!

Day 1 : Favorite tracks (so far)
Waiting for the end
Burning in the Skies
Robot Boy
Iridescent

MySpace Page
Youtube Channel

What is your happy place?

This may be what people generally do, but the thought occurred to me only recently. I needed to find my happy place - A place in my mind, in my thoughts, that nurtured happy memories. Visiting such a place would make me smile and take away the low of the current time. A memory that would instantly take away pain and transport me to a world so far away, making me forget present woes. When something happens that brings your spirits down, but there are so many people around, that you cannot react, this thought should be a means to distract.

I thought hard for a couple of minutes but couldn't find the place, but I did think of a happy song (a recent favorite) that kind of worked. Need to make a list of my happy places, who knows when it may be needed next.

Favourite routines from SYTYCD

Nigel once hosted a special episode featuring his favourite routines from the previous seasons. This is my list of favourites. Many of these are of the contemporary style. I think, since this dance style is not bound by rules/definition/discipline it makes it so much more expressive.

No Air

Calling you

Sweet Dreams

The Chairman's Waltz

This woman's work

Bleeding love

Hometown glory

Hip Hip Chin Chin

If it kills me

2 Steps Away

Watcha say

Movies, Books

Frost/Nixon:
Though the movie starts off like a documentary, expect nothing but sheer brilliance from director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Da Vinci Code et la).
The movie revolves around the interview of President Richard Nixon by a British TV show host David Frost. After the Watergate scandal that lead to the president's resignation, Frost wants to interview the president and get him to admit the truth to the public. He finds it difficult to get American producers to back him. How he prepares for the interview, how every question of his is shot down by the president with a very politically correct answer and how one telephone conversation turns things around... is the flow of the movie.
A good movie to watch for the brilliant acting and great dialogue delivery.

Milk:
After watching I Am Sam, I'd close my eyes and choose a Sean Penn movie over any other. In Milk, Sean portrays the role of a gay rights activist. All through the movie, Milk talks into his dictaphone giving a recorded account of how things are progressing on the personal front, the political front, the problems faced by the minority group, issues that he faces being the fore runner for the cause. Not just another weekend movie. Its an inspiration.

After two serious topics, moving on to comedy...
Sidin Vadukut's DORK is absolutely hilarious. From start to finish, the book puts you on ROTFL mode. This is Sidin's blog and @sidin is his twitter handle
Am now reading No Onions Nor Garlic. Though this is also of the humour genre, it has way too many expletives for my taste. But this is just me :)

Make every action count

Date: May 6th, 2010
Place: Nightingales Trust (Sandhya Kirana)
Agenda: Visit the day care centre for underprivileged senior citizens. Participate in their daily activities and help in working out a marketing strategy for their hand-made products.

Sandhya Kirana has about 60 senior citizens, of which 50+ are ladies. They stay at a walking distance from the trust. After breakfast every morning (that is taken care of with the money received from donations) they spend the morning at the tasks assigned to them. This would mean making plates/cups/pens/candles/jewellery/doormats. They break for lunch, which is provided by Iskcon's Akshaya Patra programme and then they resume their work until four, when they get back home. Every Saturday, they are paid a small token amount, based on their output.

Having someone to talk to and to share one's thoughts, is the need of the day

Even in despair, we seek each other's company and create happiness

The lady on the right said "We come into this earth alone and when we go from here also we are alone. Only in between in a temporary phase, we have someone for company.... what do you say, am I correct?" "Absolutely!" is all I could say.

From the attitude, it is very clear that they haven't given up

This lady weaving a mat, is 70 years old and the eldest here. She's from Nellore. She speaks Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and a little bit of English. "My daughter-in-law works, I have a grand daughter who goes to school, I don't have a son you know... " she says as she smiles sadly. It was very touching.


This is the machine with which plates and cups are made from the bark of the arecanut tree. This gentleman is trying to fix the wires as the hot-plate isn't working. "We have 2-3 hour power-cuts daily. It becomes such a problem" he remarks.

Spread the word and make a difference
~ There is a lack of basic amenities at the trust. They need financial help
~ For the products made, there is a need for a steady market. Awareness is key here
~ The trust also provides medical facilities including dementia treatment. They need support

Of classics, literature and other things

I enjoy reading fiction. Its been ages since I read a novel but there used to be a time when I devoured books one after the other. In this quest, I have often picked up a classic, only to put it down too quickly, for its language was too heavy on my brain.

Shakespeare's works - I have only read the abridged version (Tried reading his sonnets and original works, only to give up in despair). It would be great if some one could read out the original text, the way it was meant to be read and explained what the underlying intent of each statement was therein. Wonder if we have any reading sessions of such works...
And yes, when I think Shakespeare, I'm also thinking Danny DeVito in Renaissance Man... one of my favourite movies :)

In the movie 'Definitely Maybe' there is a character who owns multiple copies of Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte). She explains that every time she reads the book, it gives her a different meaning. Instead of picking up the book, I downloaded the audio book and have been listening to in parts over the last couple of weeks. Charlotte's style of describing the smallest of details, words/comparisons she uses to express emotion is very impressive. The words play with your mind and torment it, making you want more and seek to now what happens next... thoroughly enjoying it.

Flashback again: When we were kids, thatha had bought us audio story books. I remember my favourite story was that of the Alhambra (red fortress in Spain). The entire story was read out, along with background music and sounds to go with the words. Made such an impact on the story-telling. Not sure if they make these any more.... Need to find that tape and make a digital copy of it for keepsake....

Ending the post with this piece from Jane Eyre.
Context: Jane finds out that her master (who she has fallen for) is getting married to someone she does not think fit. She plans to leave her place of work. Before she leaves, she expresses her feelings thus:

Blurry

There have been many situations (almost every time) when I've put other people's interest ahead of my own, because I thought that was the right thing to do. Like everything else in life, there is a limit to this also.
Recently, someone 'higher up' told me, "its time to think about yourself now, you've done enough for others". That - coming from such a person made me think twice, thrice.. no - I'm still thinking.
So how does one say No - enough is enough, I'm done with my share of waiting. Its my turn now!
So many people around, cannot be wrong, maybe it is time.

Long time since I heard this song, used to be a favourite at one point of time.
Blurry by Puddle of Mudd

Tuesdays with Morrie - Part 1

Morrie was Mitch's college professor and mentor. After college, Mitch plunged into work and was 'busy' with life. He had forgotten who he was, what he liked doing, had lost contact with his friends and mentor... until one day nearly twenty years hence, he saw an interview of his mentor on TV. Morrie was dying, but he wanted to make the best of the time he had left.

Tuesdays with Morrie is about Mitch and Morrie's last sessions, where Morrie teaches Mitch how to live. A true story, the experience in writing...
Thought I'd read the book completely and then jot down the points that I liked. Going by the amount that I'm jotting down, I'll have to repeat the entire text :) So breaking up the post into two. Here's the first part:

What happened to me:
Back in my university years, when I thought rich people were evil, a shirt and tie were prison clothes, and life without freedom to get up and go - motorcycle beneath you, breeze in your face, down the streets of Paris, into the mountains of Tibet - was not a good life. What happened to me?

Tension of opposites:
Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. you take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull of a rubberband. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.

Find meaning:
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing something they think is important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Self Pity:
"I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things in my life... I don't allow myself more self-pity than that. A little each morning, a few tears, and that's all"
How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day.

Belief and trust:
Sometimes, you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel.
And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too - even when you're in the dark, even when you're falling.

Interesting videos

From TED:
Shashi Tharoor's 'soft power' talk
Keith Barry's brain magic demo

From youtube: Great short films
Signs
Strangers

Some commercials

Some commericals make lasting impressions. Its sometimes the emotions and at other times the concept. These are my favourites from the latest ones aired.

Tata Indicom for the emotions

Airtel - Despite the celebrity, the emotions play their role here

Saint Juice - Forget the logic, the visuals are superb.

Preparation for SBI exam - Part 2

So much for thinking Science questions were difficult to attempt.
Who invented the elevator - We see Otis written outside the lifts that we use day in and day out, bit difficult for someone who cannot see it.
Who invented pneumatic tyres - We see ads for Dunlop tyres on TV, easy for us to remember. Hm.. not so easy for others

Next came Economics:
2003-04 what was inflation rate? what percentage of land is covered by forest area? 9th five year plan what was the total outlay.. blah blah blah ...
Came to one question, What was the per-capita income of Punjab in the year... and he promptly said 325. I was stunned as it was the correct answer.
"Mohan - how did u answer that, did you know the number or was it a guess?"
"Ah, that was just a guess" he said and both of us burst out laughing :D

Then came the terror of all terrors quantitative reasoning. Question 1) 786 * 64 / 48 = ?
Time for the expert, my mom - to take over.
It took about 5 minutes to get the braille board set. Another 2 to figure out how this equation was to be written. Then was the hardest part, how to solve!
Class seven was the last time that Mohan had studied mathematics. So we had to go back to the basics. Took examples of 2*15/10. Considered multiplication tables, discussed the concept of cancelling common multiples in the numerator and denominator to finally solve the problem.
This week, after work everyday, Mohan will spend revising tables. More mathematics next weekend.
He is such a bright candidate, I want him to do well. Lets see.

Preparation for SBI exam

No, I'm not preparing for the exam, but am helping someone.
Time period - 3 weeks until the exam
To be covered - A 400+ page book with multiple choice questions in topics including Indian politics, Science, Mathematics, Verbal English, Geography, Computers.
Agreement - Due to the time constraint and the vastness of the topics, we (Mohan and I) have agreed to skip all topics that involve anything diagrammatic or require visuals (You will know why soon).

Mohan, currently works in Medical Transcription in one of the local hospitals. Being visually impaired does not deter him from dreaming big. He would like to take the bank exam and hopefully do well. A clerical post at the bank would get him a permanent posting ensuring job security and income flow.

We covered 100 questions in Indian Constitution and 60 questions in Science today.
Of the former 100, I barely knew the answer for about 15 (such a shame) while Mohan got almost 75% right - good for him :D this is why we breezed through this section.
When we switched to Science, I realized how difficult it was for him to grasp the difference between mesosphere/stratosphere/ionosphere or even between electron/proton/neutron - not the concepts but who discovered them. At least here, I guess I was more familiar with the terms. So we spent some time going over the questions, then revised the answers for previously discussed questions and finally chose questions at random from everything that we had gone over. This is the reason for the lesser number of questions covered.

Another thing I realized was, in order to answer, one must first understand the question. I had to explain what words like impeach, encompass and envisage.
In the science section I tried to help him relate answers to questions by explaining concepts of vitamins/sources, tides/gravitation and scientist names with their inventions.

I learnt today that the president gets a salary of Rs.1.5 lakhs per month and the governors of the state Rs. 1.1 lakhs per month per the recent pay revisions (legal salary on paper - I mean)
I also learnt that Streptomycin was discovered by Walkman (the only walkman I knew until now was the Sony kind)
We had discussions on declaration of President's rule in certain states and the dissolution of assemblies, trying to find a rationale/reasoning for it all. In cases where we couldn't, we just took the book answer to be the truth as is. (so much for civics)

We've just scraped through the surface of these 2 topics.... there's long way to go!

Live Mocha

I always believe in learning something new at any point of time. It could be academic or just plain out of interest. My learning experience over the last couple of years includes music, more music, Internet/computer related, finance, photography related and the list thus goes on....

Current focus: New languages.
Tool: livemocha.com
This site helps you choose:
~The language you want to learn
~The level that you want to learn basic/intermediate/advanced
~Learn words, pronunciations and sentence formations
~and learn learn at your own pace.

The best feature according to me is review of submissions. After each lesson, you are given exercises to complete - in both pronunciations and writing skills. This gets reviewed by real people. If I want to learn Spanish and I am fluent in English, I would get my exercise reviewed by someone who knows Spanish... and I may help them learn English. So you learn and you also help others learn.
People reviewing my work have told me my pronunciation is good. I have no complaints :D
So much to learn and remember. For the past one week, I've been spending about 2 hours every night on this... and I realize 24 hours is just not enough for all that I want to do :)

Am so glad my brother told me about this site. People at home have been warned... around midnight, if they hear some blabbering in unknown languages... then know what it is :D

A day well spent

August 12th was the day of my Community Team Work (CTW) this year.
70 Children + Teachers + 20 volunteers = A Big group to handle and a lot responsibility. It took a lot of effort from my co-team captain (my good friend and namesake) and my side to plan, organize and execute the project. It helped us discover that we were brilliant together :D jokes apart it made us aware of our great planning and organization skills.

Our Planets - Was the project. We were to take the children from the slum school to the planetarium. More details here...
2 months before the project we had made calls to enquire show time/ticket price/availability only to be told that the Planetarium would be closed on that particular day. That gave us enough time to reach out to all the parties involved (volunteers, project manager, charity) and re-schedule the project.
The show at the planetarium show was for an hour. Next round planning of revolved around what activities we could have for the children after the show. We wanted to make it fun and also a learning experience. Based on the age groups, we had planned for a quiz, painting and street play activities. Street play - was a request from the charity. The older girls being very talented did not get a chance to perform and be appreciated so this was an opportunity for them.

4 days before the actual project, swine flu panic spread like crazy. Volunteers were now worried. We faced a lot of questions on what precautions we were taking, if the children would be checked for illness before they were sent with us etc. Contacting the internal wellness centre, we understood that it would be best to cut short the project. Having the many children in an enclosed space for a long time would only increase the risk. We spoke to the charity and expressed the concern and told them to ensure that any child with even the slightest sign of cold/cough should not be sent on the trip.
Again, change in plans - meeting held, everyone made aware that the project was being cut short. Not all the volunteers were happy with this. Cutting short the project meant spending lesser time with the children, but we had no choice :(

August 12th: We left from office after breakfast in 2 buses. We had to pick-up points for the children and teachers. We made most use of the time we had in the bus to interact with the children and ensure they had a good time.
T planetarium was a real hit with the children. They had never witnessed anything like that before. When initially the lights went out and the tiny stars started peeping out, they were so thrilled that they started clapping and hooting :) Every new picture displayed was followed by a WOOOOW. Was such good fun being a part of this :)
After the planetarium show we spent time with them in the playground outside, as they ran around and screamed their heads out :D
We then headed back to the YWCA centre where all of us had lunch together. One group here (from one bus) lost its way and took time to reach, by the time we'd served lunch to the younger kids. Less space, well managed... thanks to lost directions? :D
The children were thrilled with the trip, the teachers were happy, the YWCA members were glad that the children had such a good time ~ most of all it was a satisfying experience for all of us.
Though just for a day, however small it may have been... we had made a difference.