Frozen Parathas and Vairagya

I was chatting with a friend the other day, while she was munching on frozen parathas (that's not technically true. It was not frozen at the time of consumption.. भावनाओं को समझ लो :P). I amicably expressed my solidarity with her erstwhile pursuit by wishing she enjoy the parathas. I am very much in favor of the concept of the paratha, and have on various occasions, indulged in its consumption myself, achieving much joy on most such occasions.

It then occurred to me, that if I were chatting with a friend going on a drive, I would not wish him/her enjoy the fuel! Of course, in the case of the drive, the "fuel" is the paratha of the vehicle, not the person. The person has entered the deal for the joy of the ride. The person's paratha is the bellowing wind in their hair (unless they're bald :( ); the fresh new landscapes they encounter; the fascinating new people they meet; the exciting new activities they partake in; and of course, the novel culinary delights they get to gorge on (more parathas ;) :P ). The fuel is an essential facilitator for this wondrous pursuit. The vehicle itself, is an irremovable core necessity. We love and respect the vehicle with all our heart. We treat it like family. We take care of it. We  wash it regularly. We ensure the engine's health is good. We regularly change the break oil. We regularly tighten the odd bolt here and there. In return, the vehicle does the magical task of converting the stored chemical energy in the fuel into kinetic energy for us, and takes us places!


What is the paratha? Isn't it but fuel for our body? Are we our body or is our body our vehicle? Where are we driving to? What's the various sensory inputs we encounter? Are they nothing but fuel? Can the "body" really feel joy? What is the "joy" that we derive from eating the paratha? What is the "joy" that we get from looking at a beautiful sight? What is the "joy" that we get from a fragrant odour? What is the "joy" that we get from a soft pleasing touch? What indeed, is the "joy" we get from a mellifluous voice? Are they just the fuel, break oil, tires etc for our vehicle? Or is this really something different?

Is it appropriate to take the beauty out of everything that gives us pleasure in life and dismiss their indulgence as immature distractions? Maybe we can find a way to see the magic in the processes of the vehicle too. We don't really need to form an unhealthy attachment with the car wiper to love it for its existence and to take care of it most effectively. If we lose the wiper, we can still see the larger picture and find a way to go ahead on our pleasant journey. Because it is ultimately the driver who is capable of, and is responsible for the manifestation of the experience of the joy, that is, indeed, the ultimate ideal! 

The Chilla Experience

A couple of months back, I had undertaken what is called the “Chilla”, which involves a 40 day commitment under specific contexts and circumstance. It was one of the most momentous experiences for both, my musical journey, and the larger journey of life in general. I've been wanting to pen down my experiences of and around this, but it was very challenging to find words to describe such an experience. But after postponing it for 2 months, I'm now writing down whatever I can to share the essence of the 40-day journey. The written language is just too limited to do justice to the entire experience, but we try to make the best of what we have available.

A brief introduction to the idea of “Chilla” - It is an esoteric concept to say the least, and most of the people I've spoken to hadn't even heard of such a concept. The fundamental idea is for the practitioner to take 40 days away from all interactions with society, and immerse himself/ herself into a chosen practice with all their physical, mental and spiritual energy through a disciplined framework. It is difficult to say where this concept came from, but some believe that it originated in the Sufi spiritual tradition, where the saints would spend this time in deep meditation and contemplation, whilst abstaining from all human interaction. The idea captured the imagination of some serious practitioners of Indian Classical Music too, and I was introduced to the concept after reading of a senior musician who had undertaken this endeavour. The choice of duration to be 40 days makes physiological sense, as there are studies that indicate that neural patterns take that long to form, and constant focussed mental association for this duration enables very effective internal development. The idea of isolating oneself from all societal interactions makes sense, as it facilitates deeper levels of focus free from communication & societal responsibilities, enables at least a transient awareness of the futility of individual identity, and in turn, a complete involvement in the chosen practice.

The idea of not even making eye contact with another person for 40 days, let alone remaining in total silence, was daunting to say the least. But I had been wanting to take this up for quite some time. On the more pragmatic end, my motivation to take this up was to engage in an intense practice routine and challenge myself to maintain self-discipline without any external motivation/ incentives. Maintaining discipline is easier within a community, as there is peer based motivation as well as awareness through training. Living in a Gurukul, where I have a class with my respected Gurus almost everyday and my fellow students are practicing regularly and intensely, it is not too difficult to push myself to be disciplined in my own practice. The motivation to be disciplined isn't too hard to find. However, being in an active community setup also brings a lot of distractions through non-practice related responsibilities, contrasting communication models and various logistical constraints. Life in the Gurukul is extremely rewarding and highly conducive to growth, not just Musical; and one cannot progress by living in isolation or running away from the “distractions” throughout. Taking up such an endeavour on occassion however, can potentially add great value to the individual, and also enable him/ her to better engage with regular life and maximise value-adding exchanges.

I was also strongly motivated to take up this endeavour for certain intangible, and rather inexprissible intents. Dhrupad Music, especially the framework in which my Gurus are training us, is an extensively spiritual pursuit. The brilliance of my Gurus' music shines forth through the state of mind, and the almost yogic coordination between their varoius internal and external faculties that they access. The training for this lies not in the activities themselves that one performs, but in the awareness & experiential knowledge that one develops, as one moves ahead in life. I wanted to take this opportunity to remain only with myself and my Riyaz throughout this period, and without getting ambitious, engage with myself in as undistracted and honest a setting as possible.

The experience was quite challenging. The intense mental involvement led to a lot of body heat, resulting in acidity, ulcers, incomplete sleep and joint pains. There were a couple of times when my voice just stopped functioning and I was very scared of having caused permanent damage to my vocal cords. Thankfully, on both occassions, I recovered in a day or 2. I was constantly tempted, more so when I had lost my voice, to skip certain practice sessions and just relax/ sleep. It was quite interesting to see the various logical arguments my mind would generate to convince me to relax the discipline. Given that there was absolutely no kind of monitoring, I had no external reason to continue waking up at 4.30 AM everyday and practicing till the night. It was an important lesson to me on the nature of the ego and its role in maintaining discipline. The ego generally becomes relevant only in the context of external interactions. I realized it is possible to manifest even internally, and the ego is probably the strongest accessible motivator for humans. This internal manifestation of ego was quite fascinating, as it then gave an insight into the self, independent of human identity – which the ego provides. It certainly cannot be categorized as exemplary spiritual realization. However, for me, it was a very deep insight into the inner human mechanisms, and its application in frameworks of discipline, love, compassion, creativity, anger, joy, depression, gratitude, fear and all the other emotional experiences we go through. In between alterations from heavy internal dialogue to deep silence, I'm happy I was not swayed and managed to maintain full discipline throughout. Even on those occasions when I lost my voice, I sat through every practice session as per schedule, running the practice mentally and humming along where possible. I most certainly reaped strong benefits from this, a lot of which I can probably still not even perceive. I cannot claim to have made exceptional musical progress, or to have understood “Bhairav”, my chosen Raga for this practice. I can however say with certainity that I managed to overcome major mental blocks/ barriers that were blocking my direct technical growth as well as creative growth. I am sure as time passes, I will continue to see more and more of what I actually did gain through these 40 days. 

A musician is made by an incredibly large amount of factors, not all of which are under his/ her own control. I got to see this clearly in the Chilla itself. So many people contributed immensely in making this possible. My parents who have always encouraged and supported me in whatever I have wanted to do, even if they couldn't relate to it themselves, and still doing all they could to help me. My Gurus for their extremely patient, yet dynamic and particularly skillful training, that they impart with such precision – encompassing the best Dhrupad training, both musically and otherwise. My incredibly kind hosts who took care of all my needs through these 40 days, and managed to devise a set up where everything could be managed without needing to meet or communicate with anyone throughout. My friends and well wishers for all their assistance and moral support, encouragement which helped in no small measure to push spirits high when needed. Technically good music comes through the rigours of disciplined practice. But the artistic brilliance that separates the geniuses from the merely "technically brilliant", comes from all other aspects of how the individual chooses to live his/her life.

I am immensely fortunate to be training under respected Gundecha Brothers. In an age of fragmented families with siblings at each others' throats, fighting over mundane issues, here are 3 brothers all living together with their families and parents under the same roof in complete harmony. One can see what it means to “live” Dhrupad in their day to day lives. Through the Chilla, I got a deeper understanding of various things Gurujis have spoken on different occassions, in class or out. Everything seemed to make deeper sense in the context of the music practice; and interestingly, also in a broader sense of life itself. I am quite new to music, having had absolutely no association with any kind of music until 3 years ago. For me, every aspect of Dhrupad, be it the philosophy of Naad, Sur, Raga, Laya or anything else, relates to a philosophy of life itself. And I realized how rare it is to be with Gurus who impart the finest of musical training, and at the same time, facilitate realization of more subtle aspects of music & life.

This Chilla was definitely a major landmark along my artistic journey, and I look forward with all eagerness to go further along this path.

Skill vs Talent

"Skill is a hindrance. Looking good is a hindrance. Balance is a hindrance.
                                      You work hard to get skill so that you can efface it."

                                              -Kazuaki Tanahashi, "Brush Mind"

I never liked the concept of talent. Talent is usually associated with "gifts" from nature. The idea of people being "inherently good" at certain pursuits.
The reason I never liked it was because I always felt one's attention should not be on things beyond our control (if at all they exist. There are many contradicting studies about the existence of the concept of "inherent" talents), and only "skills" that have been earned through effort must be recognized and encouraged. There is a very obvious conundrum presented by such a stance. How does one differentiate between a "skill" and a "talent"?

That's not an easy question to answer. And in the context of categorization of external observations, probably not even one one worth pursuing. It however does have significant value in an introspective and/or educational context. Leading contemporary pedagogical studies strongly prescribe usage of praise as a motivational tool for "work put in/ efforts taken" vs "talent". As such advocates conclude, the former approach leads to proactive growth in the individual, while the latter leads to complacency. This does make sense, and is what led to my bias against the idea of "talent" in the first place.

We cannot deny differences in "inherent skills" of individuals. Such "talent" does certainly give a boost in the beginning. But eventually the playing ground evens itself out. Inherent talents are in themselves quite specific and limited, and need to be applied consistently to a relevant pursuit to grow into something meaningful. One could then quite justifiably argue that these "talents" are subsumed under the domain of "skill"; i.e. that which is cultivated through work and effort.

So is excellence all about cultivating "skills" then? Most certainly not. As a student of Music, I can say for sure that extensive practice alone is not what makes a brilliant musician. There is almost at least (oxymoron intentional :P ) just as much space for something very subjective and individual about those who have achieved brilliance in any field of Art. The line between distinctive practice methodologies and individual attitude/ subjective application is not very clear. Subjectivity is what elevates a technically correct piece of work to a work of brilliance. Is this "talent" then? Do we have no control over it?

Well, even if we concede that some of it is beyond our control and can only be attributed to Karma/ Luck (based on one's Theosophical bent of mind :P); there certainly is at least some portion of this "talent" that can be cultivated. Otherwise, a brilliant musician would not be a generally inspiring person to talk to. An exceptional painter would not be able to charm a lay person even without his paints & easel. A genius mathematician would not be able to trigger a quest for meaning through a general conversation. The very fact that pioneers of a specific domain move and inspire even in contexts unrelated to that domain shows that there is more than just skill in making them truly outstanding.

I'm extremely fortunate to be training in the Dhrupad form of Music under Gurus who are undoubtedly exceptionally "skilled" and also amazingly "talented" (Padma Shri Gundecha Brothers). In the 3 years I have spent with them, I have seen how their approach to living life in general itself is so inspiring, which certainly has some causal link to their music, that literally sparks of genius. They have undoubtedly toiled for thousands of hours to develop their skills. But that is only one part of what makes them so phenomenal. Explaining what this is, is almost impossible. One progresses along this elusive path through continuous exposure to the thoughts, philosophies and experiences of great artistes. Spending time in person with such people is ideal. My Gurus spent a large amount of time with their Ustads when they were learning (and a lot many other outstanding artists of all forms in their time), and are now passing on the same experience to their students. Their teaching is not solely focused on developing the skills of their students. Through life in the Gurukul, with its various tasks and challenges, living & learning amidst various contrasting individuals from very diverse backgrounds, they bring in a considered blend of focused music training, allied philosophies, experiential training in virtues like responsibility, commitment, discipline, empathy, compassion, leadership and facilitate a particularly holistic growth of each individual. Even though it may not seem so at the moment, every aspect of life in the Gurukul is actually a direct contribution to the growth of either the "skill" or the "talent" of the individual.

Skill certainly arises out of the rigors of discipline and intense practice. Cultivating Talent probably calls for a very high level of honesty & awareness that demands immense courage. It is quite elusive, misleading and possibly hence, fascinating!


Ending with another quote from the same book as the opening line -

"Profundity and uniqueness: undeniable qualities of outstanding art. Profundity comes largely from discipline - learning techniques, copying ancient works, repeating the same things over and over. Uniqueness comes from freedom, which means to keep on learning from ourselves. discarding things we have learned from others. Here, classical pieces are not the ultimate goal; they are guideposts, sources of inspiration."

                                              -Kazuaki Tanahashi, "Brush Mind"

Evolution and Hairfall

Disclaimer 1: The phenomenon outlined here may or may not be based on credible science.. Feel free to accept or reject it based on the position of your hairline..
Disclaimer 2: Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read the offer document carefully before investing.

Those of you who have had the good fortune of seeing me; or more importantly - my shining scalp - in the near past know what has prompted the upcoming revelations...

Nature is without doubt a force greater than any than man can contemplate.. Evolution has taken single celled blobs of protoplasmic jelly and created the homo sapien... Of course, the breed is not uniformly evolved.. We have all encountered numerous homo sapiens less evolved than us.. Some of us have had the sense to meet more evolved members of the species too!

Is evolution subjective? I wish I had wings... Humans are considered higher up in the evolutionary ladder.. Why were the wings clipped off from the birds? Somewhere, few million years ago, creatures branched off into land/ sea/ air categories and evolved accordingly I guess... Sad na? Some of you are probably as sad about the remoteness of the chance of your grandchildren growing gills and surviving underwater... But come on.. Humans with wings would have been really cool!!!

What about non-physiological evolution? Physiological evolution happens in a very functional manner... If I try everyday to jump higher and higher, flap an imaginary set of wings, train my children to do the same, they train their children to do the same and so on.., maybe after a few lakh generations, my lineage will sprout functional wings!! Very nice description of evolution...

Don't mind the expletive usage.. 

Non-physiological evolution is more subjective.. The goal, or direction of evolution is not defined very clearly.. Which is why we have so many viewpoints, languages, religions, branches of science, sport, art & craft, countries etc... Makes life fun.. If we were all evolving uni-directionally, how boring would existence be! 

Point of this discussion is, no matter what the form of evolution, it is definitely a sign of a step forward.. Scientists claim the vermiform appendix will cease to exist in humans in some thousand generations' time... Evolution?! Yeah... :D

During the stone age, when humans were basically monkeys with straighter backs and less body hair, we lived out in the open, well exposed to the elements of nature... We needed that body hair!!! See, monkeys still have them.. They don't build houses with air-conditioning units etc... We don't.. Hence, unless you are related to Anil Kapoor, you have much lesser body hair than the common baboon... Evolution?! Yes!! Congrats... :D

Similarly, the hair on the head... Have you seen Robin Sharma's shining scalp? Now that is a sign of a truly evolved soul... Humans are slowly progressing towards this ideal, and hence, evolved souls experience the "problem" of hairfall... Blame society and its ignorance of true progress for the existence of Dr. Batra! The more your hairline has receded, the more evolved you are! Poor female homo sapiens have a longer way to go.. I hear of the existence of shampoos to stop hair breakage... Hair breakage is not a problem.. It is just an extra step that long-haired, yet evolved being must go through, before they start balding... So chill.. Society shall one day realize that bald is beautiful and treat us with the respect we deserve, for we are the next stage in human evolution! Not Professor X and his mutants.. It is us.. Silent bearers of universal truths, contained in our exposed scalps... 

Cheers!

The Purpose of Arts

I'd answered a question on Quora on this, and some people wanted me to post this on my blog too.. So here it is..

My Background:
I am currently a full time student of the Dhrupad form of Indian Classical Music (The oldest surviving form of Indian Music..). I live in a Gurukul run by the Gundecha Brothers, Padmashree Award winning artists (Padmashree is the 4th highest Civilian honor in India. It's quite a big deal!) learning from them in the traditional Guru-Shishya style of learning.

I also did my BTech from IIT Bombay (passed out in 2013). Yes, I have made a HUGE shift in life. And NO, I did not have any background or prior training in music. I started as a hobby while in IIT, and now here I am.


Okay. Before going into the purpose of art, lets see what the purpose of anything we do is. A broad and universally applicable answer is happiness. We do what we do, because it makes us happy (or atleast we think it does/ will). This happiness could be associated with fame/ popularity for some, money, a huge house etc.., good relationship etc.. Different people have different things they associate with happiness and strive for. Having a tangible material goal is very good and necessary to keep one active and focused in life. But what is it that truly makes us happy?

When I got my JEE results, I was happy. Really happy... There have been many such instances in my life.. When I look back at these instances, after a while I realized that I was happy here, simply because the heat of the moment made me forget all reasons for unhappiness.. For example, when India won the cricket world cup in 2011, I was really happy. At that moment, my grades, pending assignments, arguments with a few people, worries about where my life was headed.. etc.. all dropped out of my head; and I was happy!

In a way, emotions are all relative. Conversely, it can be argued that during my really low moments, I forgot all the good things in life. My point is that, real happiness is not about feeling ecstatic about a certain event in life. Real happiness is in the ability to move beyond these plays of the mind, observe its ups and downs from afar, and live life as a game.. Enjoying every moment inspite of the circumstances.

The arts require the individual to do this exactly. The journey to becoming a true artist is scary. One must confront all his/ her inner demons as a sort of job requirement. When constantly finding ways to express yourself, your thoughts and emotions better, you automatically are on a journey to know yourself better.

In Indian Music, there are hundreds of Ragas (Anup Jalan's answer to Hindustani Classical Music: What is a Rāga? How do we distinguish between different Rāgas?) When I hear each of these different ragas, it has a different emotional effect on me. And the effect of each raga is different each time, depending on my prior mental state, the approach of the artist and other factors, like company, atmosphere etc.. I have never been able to satisfyingly identify or name the emotions that arise in me listening to any raga. I can just observe, and at times, immerse myself in it. The same happens to me even when I am doing my practice and singing myself.

What is happening is, I am being made aware of the different facets and depth of my being in the most objective manner possible. Emotions can be very very intricate at times, and difficult to quantify.. I am now accustomed to observing them, without the entrapping attachments that come with a personal involvement. This enables me to become aware of an existence of my self, beyond petty emotions, and become a true observer to all that is occurring in universe within my mind and without. This leads to the true happiness I spoke about earlier. 

This is also why artists are placed a notch above others, and are respected immensely. They bravely take out the time and efforts to master the grammar and language which they use to create the chosen form of art. And it is truly a form of service to themselves and society.

I urge all of you to engage in some artistic hobby or the other.. It's amazing!

Biking in the Konkan

Imagine riding a bike through that for like 12 hours straight! It is bliss, I tell you.. :D

7 of us took off on 4 bikes from Pune to a place called Dapeli, nestled in between the beautiful Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. The Konkan belt is amongst THE most scenic routes one can take for a bike trip. And we had amazing weather too! We did get a bit of heat for few hours over the 2 days, but it was very very pleasant for a lot of the trip..

Biking is an amazing thing to do! This was my first long bike trip, and it was one of the best experiences in my life.. One of my good friends who is an amazing musician/ endurance sports enthusiast put it this way, "long distance biking is a kind of active meditation." That may not be a very musical statement, but I tell you, that is one of the truest things you will hear.. 

"Active Meditation" is probably the most brilliant way to describe the experience of long distance biking. It felt like experiencing a beautiful piece of art. Different kinds of terrain evoked different emotional flavors in me, some discrete and tangible, while some very abstract. These would sometimes come up as pleasant recollections of some of the better moments in life with loved ones, sometimes bring visions of previous moments spent in the cradle of nature in all its resplendent majesty and beauty, sometimes a peaceful and somber realization of some particular aspect of life and many more that are very difficult to put in words. The most fascinating thing is that, while biking, your mind is forced to remain fully engaged in the present moment.. Your life depends on it! It just does not wander. All the previous described mental activity occurs as a sort of automatic process where a small part of the consciousness just acts as a witness, and you go through all these subjective experiences in a very very detached state of mind, which sort of frees you from many many impressions. Hence, I say it truly is a meditation!

And after all these hours spent on the road, I can confidently say that biking is only as risky as you want to make it. If you keep your head in place and not attempt unnecessary showmanship, the risk of fatality is no higher than any other means of transport. Yes, on a dark night, and on a thin poorly made path, biking is riskier.. But otherwise not. Oh, and all said and done, it is a bit tiring on the lower back and the region further south, but that is just a small opportunity cost for the immense joy it has to offer. Plus, you could get a Thunderbird-like vehicle designed for ergonomic comfort and save on that too! :D

We stopped for the night at a beautiful beach near Dapeli, swam in the Ocean for a few hours, chilled and relaxed for the night (really deep sleep! :D ) and drove back to Pune the next day by a different and equally scenic route..

All in all, an amazing trip and the beginning of my enthusiasm for biking! I am eagerly looking forward to my next such trip.. :D

The Habit of Excellence

"It's not that I am more intelligent. I'm just infinitely more curious,

 and stick with a problem much longer"

-Albert Einstein

One of the more profound things I have realized over the past few years of existing on this planet, is that intelligence is a habit; that is consciously and painstakingly developed. So is excellence of any other form. Be it mastery over an Art form, a branch of science, a sport... Anything...

Lets talk about the quote this post opened with. Einstein is undisputedly one of the most brilliant minds this planet has seen in recorded history. Yet, I believe this statement of his. His intellectual prowess was a choice he consciously made, and not a "gift from God" or any such other similar cause. Lets now describe what exactly this choice is, and how to go about making it.

The first step is to actually realize that intelligence (or any skill) is a choice. Many fail to pass this preliminary stage itself. It is convenient to dismiss off higher order skills as individual greatness. When my gurus (The Gundecha Brothers... I am learning the Dhrupad form of Indian Classical from them at their gurukul in Bhopal ) sing, I naturally tend to fall into a state of wonder at their sheer brilliance and mastery, and  I switch into a sort of "worship" (for want of a better word) mode.. It is very convenient to think of them as superior beings, probably granted a boon by some astral being. This is fine to a certain extent, but it is very important for me to remember that they were not musically gifted. Rather, they were gifted with sincerity, a capacity to persevere and keep moving in face of complete lack of motivation too.These gifts, they translated into the amazing musical ability they possess today, over a period of many years of dedicated effort and hard work. And these gifts that they have are ones that we all have access to. The problem is not in a person not being talented. The problem is in the definition of "talent" and a failure to see that the basic ingredients are present in all of us.

At the darker end of the spectrum, this lack of understanding manifests as a self-assumption of mediocrity and lack of enthusiasm to begin acquiring something new, or giving up what has been begun. Lighter shades of this phenomenon manifest as frustration, a sense of stagnation, lack of stability and focus, loosing the mind to distractions and so on in varying magnitudes.

To achieve excellence in any field, one must spend immense amounts of time with the pursuit, understanding it, communicating with it, analyzing it, and internalizing its characteristics to the extent where he/she begins to feel it strongly as a heightened sense of intuition. Classical musicians use the term "Riyaaz" to mean exactly this. While doing Riyaaz, I go through all that mentioned in the previous paragraph. The mind wanders, I get frustrated attempting to understand a particular task. All the frustration is on failing to do a particular task. I have seen that when I take a pause for a few moments, remind myself that I simply have to choose to do what I am trying to do, and then push through with systematic and preconceived effort, I manage what I am trying to do. The challenge is to keep reminding myself of this. It is not an easy task. My mind wanders when I do not fully make the choice to concentrate.

I have now begun to understand that excellence is just a choice. The next challenge is to start making that choice. This statement may seem very silly. After all, who would "not choose" to excel at something he/she could? If only things were that simple. Many times, we don't even want to do what we are doing. Another tendency is to settle for less than the best. Now if 70% truly and sincerely pleases you, it is fine. In fact, we pick up certain pursuits with no intent of mastering them, just as a hobby or to satisfy a mild curiosity. Here it is absolutely fine to settle for mediocrity. But otherwise, it will just not do. We need to decide to settle for nothing less that 100% and keep pushing until we get there.

Many factors influence the ability to make this decision and cultivate this habit we are discussing. The more prominent ones are the company one keeps and the lifestyle one lives. Whatever little I have managed to do in my life, I owe entirely to the support of an amazing set of friends and mentors I have been blessed with. So too do others claim, who have achieved in life. Good company keeps the mind from sinking into the many many traps that lie lurking within, and help one choose to aspire for the highest. Lifestyle enables one to execute this decision. Lifestyle, to me, is just a matter of balancing priorities. Giving due importance to physical fitness (includes exercising, diet control etc..), assigning time wisely to the various tasks that the individual is committed to, taking just enough (both too much and too little are very dangerous :P ) time to relax and charge oneself, basically to chill, and time to meditate (much needed relaxation for the mind).

With my limited, but growing understanding of life, this is the recipe to excellence I have come up with. The dish is still in its initial stages of preparation. I hope the output comes out really tasty... :D

Differential Calculus, Archery and HDTV

What is artistic beauty? The perspective of an engineer cum full time student of Indian Classical Music...

In differential calculus, we look at any quantifiable entity that has a direct or indirect relation to other quantifiable entities. Given an overall picture of the trend of this entity, we attempt to glean more information about it by performing the operations that are made available to us with a functional knowledge of Calculus. In differential calculus, given the profile of the basic entity under study as a function of another quantifiable entity, we attempt to obtain the rate of change of the entity with respect to the other.
In a linearly varying situation, it is fairly straightforward. But life is seldom linear. The basis of differential calculus is in splitting the whole picture into much smaller ones, and approximating each to be a linear scenario. If the interval taken is infinitely small, then the end points become adjacent and a linear approximation leans very very close to the actual situation.

What now? This understanding opens up a whole new galaxy of possibilities. With knowledge of certain elements, we can begin to uncover and understand a whole set of new elements, which could (and has..) lead to path breaking innovations in various fields. The quality of the output of any application of this principle of differential calculus depends on one thing. The size of the interval under consideration. The smaller the interval, the closer one gets to reality, and obtains a truer understanding of life as it is.

If tomorrow, I decide on a momentary whim to learn archery as a hobby, after a couple of weeks of training, I would probably be able to hit a target placed at reasonable distance. Friends having no exposure to archery would probably applaud my skills as an archer. But then, I would be hitting the center of the target if at all by just a lucky chance, and not by a manifestation of skill. But someone of the likes of Jayanta Talukdar (Indian Olympic Team- Archery) would fire arrow after arrow into the center of the target by intention. Even a small displacement in final position, or a slight offset in the delivery would not go unobserved. So too, would he draw appreciation from his friends and peers only at the highest levels of perfection.

Some of my friends, who are huge movie buffs, watch exclusively HD or Blu-Ray prints. They just cannot tolerate a low video quality. The resolution of their cognition instruments has increased by continuously being exposed to infinitesimal perfection in quality, that the flaws that may not be so obvious to the general observer get magnified.

Now, is this heightened sense of perception always good? On the face of it, it would appear not so. The other side of the ability to understand finer aspects of any activity is that its flaws, if any, get magnified. A well trained classical singer would not be able to enjoy a beautiful but not wholly perfect melody the same way I or a not so experienced musician would. So is it then a curse to develop a heightened sense of perception? Again, no. This sense enables the connoisseur to access previously unknown realms of joy and the level of immersion in the field tremendously increases. That's why the role of a "rasika" is sometimes treated almost as important as that of the performer in the Indian tradition. The rasika too has the same level of cognition abilities, and achieves the same spiritual state as that of the artist. He/ she just has not spent time in honing the instruments used to deliver the same material, the same way the artist has.

This heightened sense of perception, when restricted to strictly its own domain, could come with its disadvantages. But once it reaches a level so high that it begins to seep into the entire character of the person, one gets the ability to see beauty in the perfections as well as the imperfections of life. My gurus teach horribly out of tune (i'm sure that's how we sound to them :P) singers like me day after day and never get fed up or tired. They still show excited signs of appreciations at those moments when we manage a good delivery during our time with them. I know of highly skilled movie makers with an amazing repertoire of skills still sit back and enjoy a presentation of poor external qualities if the content has great inherent beauty. I've seen great artists enjoy music delivered with feeling even when not perfectly in tune. Their perception, once matured enough to capture the niceties of emotional appeal, can observe from afar the musical imperfections, but still appreciate the beauty in delivery and lyrical content. Artists of one genre after a certain stage begin to enjoy and appreciate art of any form.

In the long run, obtaining this heightened sense of perception, increasing the resolution of the cognition instruments pays off amazingly well. I've heard PhD students in my college share experiences of an increased sense of focus and ability to delve deeper into the intricacies of their field after having actively studied classical music. This makes perfect sense to me as one who is beginning to dive into the deep ocean of Dhrupad himself. This is probably why having an artistic hobby is highly recommended by experts :D

Rock Climbing and Raag Sangeet...

This post draws on a personally observed analogy, and is not a scholarly study of two activities. It attempts to unravel the intricacies of classical music using that analogy and can help the uninitiated understand and appreciate classical music to some extent.

I'd spent a month in the Western Himalyan Mountain Ranges about 3 years back professionally learning mountaineering. Few of those days were spent in learning rock climbing in some depth. I was struck at the extent of the analogy that can be drawn between classical music, which I'm learning now and a completely unrelated adventure sport like rock climbing.

In rock climbing, the first thing we do is study the rock and become one with it. Identify the path to be taken, locate holds, cracks, ledges and the like, most of which would be almost invisible to the untrained eye. A rock climber before climbing first builds his/ her finger/ toe strength with specialized exercises apart from those for general fitness and stamina. Then he/ she learns to identify different types of holds and supports to use for climbing, in the rock and also techniques to hold onto different types of holds and ways to support the weight on them. Also to be practiced are ways of moving efficiently and gracefully from one support to another.

The rock climber before climbing the rock does what is known as eye-climbing. Here, he/ she identifies a path to be taken and simulates the entire climb, identifying all supports and planning the techniques most suitable to be used on them, to avoid getting lost midway. There could be many paths to climb the same rock, each one with its own set of challenges. Paths could be easier and smoothly flowing in the beginning or at some other time, have a certain type of hold being more prominent and requiring extra command over and others being not so important for that particular chosen path, there could be various actions (in terms of choice of hold to catch onto, or approach to anchoring yourself onto a chosen hold) that could be taken on a chosen path to continue the ascent and so on... Its basically about making few big choices at the onset and then making many many small choices as you go on.

In Raag based music, the tanpura substitutes the rock as an independent and complete entity. Before synchronizing oneself with the tanpura and interpreting and presenting the melodic structures that a trained singer reads from it, one must first build the strength of the throat and vocal chords with some specialized techniques. In Dhrupad (the oldest surviving form of Indian Classical Music), the extent of emphasis on proper voice culture techniques is truly exhaustive to the point of being extraordinarily difficult and even at times painful; but once mastered, the voice is then able to deliver really beautiful and rich harmonics with the notes being sung, which in the layman's language translates to an extraordinarily rich sounding, resonant, powerful yet amazingly mellifluous voice. Once this is done, the reading of the tanpura begins. We start to learn to recognize the various notes and microtones (shrutis) that slowly uncover themselves from within the demure folds of the drone. Then we learn to anchor ourselves onto these 'holds' and play around with them, move from one to another, make long and short jumps and basically gain control over their delivery from within ourselves.

Then starts the raag itself. The raag is like the path chosen by the rock climber. It will have certain notes being more prominent than others, movements particular to its own realm, and moods associated with certain parts/ phrases and so on. This task becomes more daunting because most of the notes exist only as probabilities and not discretely. The skill and dexterity required to move in the right manner from one note to another while still maintaining an aesthetic appeal is incredibly high, and doing it successfully is a task that requires hours of 'riyaaz' or time spent dwelling on each note of each raag independently and then travelling along with them based on the structure of the raag aided of course by individual creativity and imagination. Here too, it is a game of making few big choices and many smaller ones at an instantaneous level. Spontaneity plays a major role in Raag based music as the possibilities are almost literally infinite and too much of planning and fixed structures could end up being redundant and irrelevant to the moment.

In rock climbing, if you do not anchor yourself properly, you plummet down to be jerked up by the safety rope tied (the absence of which could lead to a sticky end.. :P ). In classical music, though one does not literally plummet to his physical downfall, incorrect positioning of the note invites severe criticism from listeners and an abrupt severance of the deep spiritual connection that gets established in the course of the recital.

An experienced rock climber climbs so gracefully and seemingly very effortlessly navigates the subtlest and most complicated of paths with such ease, that it is a real pleasure to watch him/ her in action. In my opinion, it is an art form in its own right and can give great joy to those who dive into the depths of the stone...

The analogy being drawn here of course has its boundaries, and a complete parallel very obviously cannot be drawn between two completely different endeavors. However, the extent to which the analogy could be drawn seemed to satisfactorily explain some of the intricacies of classical music to a newcomer.

Hope it helped demystify to some extent the esoteric world of Indian Classical Music :D

The aura of a classical musician

I've always wondered why classical musicians carry that presence and have that aura that I've only seen in very few people, mostly those who have been meditating for many years. While always generally aware of the rigors and discipline involved in become a good classical singer, it didn't make sense why others who work just as hard in whatever they are involved in do not achieve the same spark in their eyes.

Living in a gurukul for Dhrupad, probably the toughest (widely considered so because of the rigorous voice training it involves and the near inhuman levels of perfection and understanding of "sur" or musical notes and 'shrutis" or microtones) and most puritan form of Indian Classical music still in existence today since the past two weeks, I am beginning to understand why.

For one, we work really hard. My official schedule involves getting up at 4.15-4.30 am every day and developing the lower octaves of my voice and going to bed by 10- 10.30 pm after about 7-8 hours of direct vocal practice apart from which I have my class with my gurus (The Gundecha Brothers, Padmashri award winning artists, amongst the senior-most dhrupad singers today) for a couple of hours, spend another hour or so listening to dhrupad recordings of my gurus and other senior artists of today and yesterday, occasionally read about music and discuss music with the other musical aspirants of the gurukul. But then, all those I know in the corporate sector including many friends, my father and sister and other acquaintances also work really hard. My mother works really hard at home. A lot of people work really hard at what they're doing. What makes classical musicians different?

The nature of the art is extremely introspective. We spend hours listening to the tanpura and synchronizing our body, mind and soul with it, and in the process achieve unknown levels of insight into our own consciousness. When asked why dhrupad is so difficult, Ustad Fariduddin Dagar, my gurus' guru replied saying "Who says it is difficult? In dhrupad you have to be able to tell the truth; that's it". Its a way of life. The other day while trying to stabilize my voice while singing in tune, I went deep in and discovered deep rooted traces of impatience that was manifesting as an unstable voice. My voice stabilized to a significant extent after that. Each note of the octave has so much to reveal. Just yesterday our guru showed those present the difference in the shades of the "Re" or the major second note in two different raags and how the exact same notes in two different raags sound and are different. For those initiated, he sang Yaman and Bhupali. Yaman was sung omitting the Ma' and Ni to make the notes technically same as the ones in Bhupali. But the flavor and sound of each note was very different.

A senior classical musician is one whose level of awareness to such minute and minuscule changes in frequencies and tonal projections is just so far advanced that it naturally seeps into other aspects of his/ her life and brings them to a state of a generally heightened sense of being and hence they manage to command that presence that they do and have that aura around them at all times. Its amazing.

When I landed here, for the first few days, I couldn't understand the demand to increase/ decrease the pitch by my guru while teaching other students, let alone my own. After two weeks of intensive practice and listening, I am now able to identify the minute frequency differences that they point out so obviously. The next step is to identify these same flaws in my own singing and correct it, followed by a stage where these errors (however minute) do not occur at all. The entire process will easily take a few years at least, and I'm looking forward to all the learning and growth I know is in store...

Jumping into a well...

When I was standing at the edge, with nothing to do but take the plunge, it was scary. I knew more or less what the experience was going to be like. I knew it could be done safely(I saw a person jump in before me)... But I was still apprehensive. The second time was a piece of cake.

In my childhood, owing to the nature of my dad's job, we would shift cities every 2-3 years and I would have to join a new school each time. The first day was scary in the same way. I knew more or less what school would be like, having been in one before too :P But it would still take a few days to be at ease. Venturing into the unknown, while always generating feelings of apprehension and fear, also gives a sense of excitement and enthusiasm. It keeps one alive and helps one live in the moment. I've gone through many such experiences of stepping into a dark room with a torch, fumbling until I find the light switch, yet its amazing how each new room comes with its own fresh thrill of excitement and apprehension. A new school and new residence (new social group, new place etc...) every 2-3 years, my time in Vijayawada for my JEE preparation (one of the tougher ordeals I've been through), my admission into IIT, travels and experiences acquired while volunteering with the Art Of Living Foundation, social and cultural activities in and out of campus through my college life, internships and summer travels in various cities of the country ranging from Kanyakumari to Jammu, including 2 Himalayan summits in between and various other instances.

In all of this, I've always had amazing people helping me through various stages and also a fair share of sour grapes, making each journey more interesting, challenging and more memorable.

Recently, I shifted to Bhopal to study Classical Music at a gurukul in Bhopal. It being a completely new city (its more of a large town actually :P) to me, my initiation into the "Bhopali way of life" was made much easier by Rini (friend and co meditator from IIT) and her family. My life in Bhopal started amazingly with a superb Mrityunjaya Homa early in the morning at her home, followed by a short and sweet satsang. Then after a day of chilling, I visited my home for the next phase of my life, a small ashram-like setting seemingly in a different planet, far far away from the entropy of the city with almost no physical connectivity to the outer world. Though I was a bit apprehensive about the complete lack of external connectivity, I was looking forward to start my musical journey. After visiting a friend in Indore for a couple of days before my gurus could arrive, I returned to the Gurukul and it began...

Stranded in Jammu...

I wasn't really stranded in Jammu. It just felt like such a catchy title... :P More about that incident in the post.
Let me start at the end. The end of my BTech from IITB. 4 amazing years... Made some really amazing friends, met some amazing people, went through some amazing times... Learnt a lot. Saw a lot. Felt a lot.

After I was done, I had around 2 months without any agenda before I had to leave for my education in music. So I decided to make use of these 2 months as best as I can. And I'm happy to say that I did do this. I climbed snow clad peaks in the Himalayas (escaped the Himalayan Tsunami by just a few days.. Thankfully), traveled with friends around Mumbai, Bangalore, Punjab, Delhi and even Jammu, worked with the Art Of Living rural empowerment team in an intensive training program in Maharashtra and even went on two mini pilgrimages with my parents and sister.

These last two months were very very active, with a lot of travel and I had great fun and again met some awesome people and saw some amazing things. Travel is an amazing thing to do. Especially if you are on a low budget and without any fixed plan and not afraid to rough it out. You get to see the country in a different light, understand how her people live and what they go through, see all the beauty she truly has to offer and fall in love with her, her people and her places. About the time in rural Maharashtra with the Art of Living team, I'd written a post before. If interested, do check out this.

A group of us from IIT had gone a 11 day trek to a place called SarPass in the Parvati Valley region of the Western Himalayas. Having done the Basic Mountaineering Course, I had spent a month in the Himalayas few years back and was already smitten by the beauty there. The life is terribly difficult in the mountains; more so than one can ever imagine or expect. But it still captivates and calls back those who have been there. You get closer to nature than anywhere else in all its beauty and glory and a newfound respect for nature is born in you. You also get glimpses of nature's fury and majesty and learn not to mess with her. If unlucky, you get more than a glimpse... We had a bit of trouble with the weather, though now we realize we got away with very very little hardships, compared to what we would've had to go through if we were even a few days late.
After this amazing tryst with the beautiful Himalayas, 3 of us went on to Chandigarh and Amritsar with a couple of other friends. Punjab is an amazing state. The people there live straight from the heart and make you feel at home right away. And the Golden Temple in Amritsar is a must visit for all. The energy and spiritual ambiance there is simply amazing, and I have had some of my deepest meditations sitting in the courtyard by the pond there.

Then 3 of us went on to the famous Vaishno Devi temple in the state of Jammu. Visiting the temple involves a 14 km trek up a mountain and back. The purpose is so that if you walk so much uphill, all the restlessness in the body and mind get finished and you become mentally and physically calm when you reach up. It is then much much easier to get into a meditative state near the shrine and experience the joy within. While climbing, it was very sunny. But when we reached the top, the skies were covered and we were caught in a really heavy downpour for a couple of hours. It was freezing cold and the really heavy winds made it even more tough to bear. But the rain eventually let away and we were able to resume with just a small experience of the fury of the mountain monsoons. One of my friends (Tau a.k.a. Sumit) whose dad is in the army got us in through the army line, and saved us almost 10-12 hours in all. Thanks to him, we could return the same night. I had to be back in Chandigarh to see off a close friend who was leaving the next day, and this wouldn't have been possible if not for "Tau"!

Now coming to the "title story". We reached Katra (the town at the base of the mountain of Vaishno Devi) at around 1 am and found that there were no buses to Chandigarh/ Delhi. At the bus stand, there were buses leaving to the town of Jammu, about an hour away and the conductor very convincingly assured us of buses to Chandigarh and trains to Delhi from there. On reaching jammu, Tau proceeded to the station to go to Delhi and I got down at the "bus stand", a stretch of road beside a bridge, with a few buses parked for the night. On asking around the few people who were loitering there, I realized I was not going to get any buses to Chandigarh until the next afternoon. A few private car owners offered to take me to some other place from where there were assured buses to Chd for a few hundred rupees, but they seemed to just be running their business. After interacting with few people at a shop that was still open and a police officer, and validating data from different sources, I boarded a Roadways (the government bus service. Not very comfortable, but very very reliable) bus to Jalandhar, got down at a place called Dassuan at around 4 am, and got onto a bus to Chandigarh from there at around 5 am. For the benefit of all those reading this, know that you will never be truly stranded in North India thanks to the amazing Roadways there. At about 1 Re per km, these buses connect the entire North India if not directly, atleast with a few changes, throughout the day and night! But just be aware and ask the right people for information.

After spending a couple of days at Chandigarh, I went on to Delhi, spent a couple of days with friends there, visited the beautiful Akshhardham temple there (another must. Its amazing!). Stayed with a senior from IIT who quit a high-paying job in a top tech firm to prepare for IAS there. Then it was back to Bangalore; home after a long trip. Spent a lot of time with my seniors from IIT here and Art Of Living volunteers. We had a lot of fun here too. Early morning Yoga sessions, bike trips around the city and to the ashram to meet Guruji, organizing courses in the city and our own personal masti around the city.

Now I'm relaxing for a few days at home, still spending time with friends and volunteers in Bangalore, getting ready to go to Bhopal to learn music and begin the next phase of my life. All excited... :D

8 Days...

"YLTP is my heart; and Yuvacharyas are my heartbeats"  - Sri Sri

Today I know why... The Youth Leadership Training Program of the Art Of Living Foundation is an 8 day journey that focuses on uncovering the tremendous leadership potential and skills required to effect transformation in society in those already passionate about contributing to their nation. A special YLTP was organized for graduates between the age group of 20-40 with a very senior teacher (Jayantji Bhole.. More about him in the end.. I could write pages about him!) and focused on creating an intellectually equipped team of Yuvacharyas with a practical and wholesome understanding and experience of service in rural India; to give a technical lead to the YLTP.

These 8 days were the most empowering of my life. They gave me an in depth (theoretical and practical) understanding of leadership, responsibility, service, empowerment, presentation, communication, practicality in service, environment and spirituality like nothing or no one ever has. I've been involved in service projects and spirituality since the last 4 years. But compared to the energy, commitment to work and implementation of knowledge I saw here in the YLTP, the last 4 years feels like just a trailer. The workshop contained modules and sessions that very concisely and directly drilled into me, made me understand patterns in myself and more aware of my actions. 

The first couple of days were completely about empowering us to come out of our comfort zone and taking action. Coming out of one's comfort zone is not easy. It requires immense courage. But then, transforming the society is not for the weak. With a very clear sense of purpose to serve, all the knowledge and wisdom that I learnt and assimilated in the past 4 years came to the forefront and I understood it at a level I had not contemplated before.

The next few days contained more activities to take us further away from our comfort zone, field work with an elevated sense of awareness and enthusiasm (which active Yuvacharyas live in day in and day out) which led to an amazing revelation of the leadership potential within each one of us and also the ability to bring about change if we wished to. There were also more processes and activities to enable a deeper understanding of our mind, intellect and ego. To those who know what they are, YLTP includes processes and activities from Part I, Part II, DSN and even TTC apart from of course its own uniquely brilliant content.

We met some amazingly crazy people, people so passionate about service, that even with 300 armed gundas behind them threatening to take their lives, stayed on and took down one of the biggest real estate giants in the country with just a team of 12 odd people "ordinary" people. We met people who even on being discouraged by their own beneficiaries, converted villages rampant with political rivalry and substance addiction into a thriving empowered society free of alcohol, with numerous self help groups, means of financial sustenance, chemical free organic farming and lots more...

Finally, we had an opportunity to take up a massive undertaking as a group and effect transformation in hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. This project which our team took up involves empowerment of 14 villages and study followed by execution of an eco-friendly, organic solution to preservatives, insecticides, water body cleansing and many more applications. Since this is in progress, I will write more about it once we develop it and work on it further.

I learnt a lot these 8 days, grew as a person, a leader and a sadhak. I am extremely grateful to all those who made this happen.

Jayant Bhaiya: In the realm of the human, I have come to respect this man more than anyone else I know by a huge margin. In a way, the whole effort was worth just to spend some time with him; learn from him. He knows SO MUCH about SO MUCH. We would have special sessions with him where he would reveal amazing insights into topics ranging right from astrology and palmistry (where he brilliantly sorted out the scientific principles) to amazingly innovative techniques in agriculture, to cultural and political strategies that lead to social and economic degradation or enrichment of society as a whole. He literally has infinite energy. He would sleep after 3.30 am, be up by 5 am every day of the course, take all our sessions with the same energy and passion, lead projects (really big ones.. impacting thousands of lives) and give guidance in between, spend some time after the day's work on his own personal business and repeat the same thing the next day without a single sign of wear! While we had to run through a pretty rigorous schedule these 8 days, for him it is the same every single day of his life! He spearheaded the Vidarbha project, a region where one suicide occurred every 8 hours.. 518 villages were adopted and in 2 years, total transformation has occurred. For the past 8 years, not a single suicide has occurred in these 518 villages. They are self sustainable and empowered. This is but one of his undertakings. One can see him living every principle of spirituality and service to the fullest, every moment of his existence through every cell of his being. He drilled in us a holistic approach to service where we empower the beneficiary to help themselves long term, and maintain a practical and sensible mind while taking up new undertakings, yet not losing the sensitivity and awareness that makes us loving and caring humans. It was truly an honor doing a workshop with him, and he will continue to inspire me and lakhs more for ages to come. Any chance anyone reading this gets to interact with him in any way, grab it! You will relish the opportunity. 

Hope you get/ stay inspired to take responsibility to develop and empower society to the extent you can. All the best!

Jai Hind!

Longitudinal Vibrations and Probability Spaces...

No.. This is neither a physics nor mathematics related post... Its about sound and music :D

Disclaimer: This post contains ideas from my limited understanding of sound and music. I'm sure these ideas will evolve with time as I progress on my journey. Please forgive any factual errors and other gross misconceptions if any and do notify me of the same... Thanks :D

Its been few years since my last post and a LOT has happened since then. Those of you who have met me in the recent past know that I'm shifting my track altogether into the field of Indian Classical Music; and I thought it would be a good idea to rejoin the blogging world with a post about my understanding of the same. One of my professors makes a very interesting statement, "Music is nothing but sound designed". All the design principles we use for architecture, technology design, ambiance designing etc all apply here. In fact, sound design is one of the most primary design endeavors of the human mind.

Sound is basically longitudinal vibrations. On the face of it, all you need to describe any sound is frequency and amplitude. But the kind of information transmitted through sound is truly mind-boggling. A simple sentence spoken contains so much information that is being sent through just these vibrations. All the different sounds of the words, modulations generated by the speaker, the speaker's voice itself which varies greatly person to person and even time to time! The same note played on an acoustic guitar sounds very different from that played on a piano or a trombone. Its vary fascinating, how all this information is encoded in the form of longitudinal vibrations and transmitted through air. We still cannot exactly replicate the natural sounds of any instrument or the human voice electronically. Even in the best and most expensive synthesizers in top studios, there is always a slight deterioration in quality when compared to the original acoustic instrument/ voice.

Sound Design in very inherent in all of us. We all do voice modulations, play around with tones based on emotions being experienced/ conveyed, modulate volume etc... You can hear a person and say if he/she is happy, sad, angry, worried etc.. even if you do not know the person in any way, or even if you are unaware of the context. Atleast to a certain extent. This means there is some sound design ideology inherent in all of us. Music is just building up on this technology.

Music is basically patterning of sounds around a reference point, called the 'Shadaj' or 'Sa' in Indian music or the 'Tonic' or 'Key' in Western music. These patterns are then used for some purpose, typically to convey an emotion or message (either using the help of lyrics or without). We all know the 7 basic notes Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni.. Some of us know the 5 other notes that come in between. These 12 notes together comprise what is known as the chromatic scale.
The most interesting thing is that every genre of music in this entire world, be it Carnatic or Reggae, Jazz or Pop, Dhrupad or Blues; they all use the same 12 notes! The approach to patterning these 12 notes about the origin varies from genre to genre. The grouping of notes, harmonies, melodic concepts and approaches all are very different. But the basic ingredients are just these 12 notes.

Then comes the idea of time. Music has a past, present and future! A note sounds different each time depending on what was played before it. And many times, by hearing a note, you can predict what will follow after it. Its like a probability space... At various points of time, each of these 12 notes will have a certain probability distribution. Western Classical music typically discretizes notes and creates beauty through exploring harmonies. Indian music does not explore harmonies. It instead focuses on creating beautiful smooth melodic curves, and you will rarely hear discrete notes sung by an Indian. The probability curve will depend on the message being conveyed and in Indian Classical music, on the raag chosen. Changing this distribution even slightly creates a whole new feeling! There are many pairs of raags which differ by just one note, but sound completely different! One could be a very serious melancholic feeling while the other could be a peppy romantic feeling...

The world of music is truly endless, and one could lose himself/ herself completely in it for few lifetimes. Not unlike any other research endeavor, it has a lot of intellectual (and even spiritual!) challenges to offer and many dimensions to be explored and discovered. I am very excited to be starting this journey into the world of music and will share my experiences and learnings better once I dive into it...

Dombivili Diaries

I just returned from one of the best weekends of my life... Full of music, learning, fun and masti :D Thanks to Krishnan Keshavan for inviting me over to Dombivili... For those who don't know, Krishnan is this really cool dude. Very very talented musician (he sings amazingly well and composes tunes that you just cant get out of your head. They send waves of bliss flowing down you every time you hear one of them...) and one of the leads of The Bhakti Band (http://www.bhaktitheconcert.com/)
Its been a long time since I last posted something here. I thought this would be a good experience to share... Life was going on as usual; same arbit schedules of the average IITian, sleepless nights, snoring in classes, hanging out in Rahul's room (amazing view... He stays in the new hostel of IITB on the 6th floor) or Mugdha's lab at night, generally running around the campus doing arbit stuff, making plans to get up early every morning and making full use of the snooze facility etc... The latest YES!+ with Rashmin Bhaiya recently ended and 25 odd people became much happier, more content and more capable of living a happy and stress free life... :D
Then came the Ganesh Utsav and a five day holiday from acads!!! (5 days assuming a friday bunk in between... Taken for granted ;) ) I had made great plans to go ahead of what my profs are teaching... :P hahahahahahhahaha :D I'll never make the mistake of making such mindless stupid hopeless plans again... Energy may or may not be conserved in this universe... But students (if this doesn't apply to you, please stop reading my blog) can never go ahead of what their profs are teaching. You just cant find time no matter how many holidays in between you get. There's probably some law preventing this. The universe will conspire against you if you make such plans. Manage your time extremely well, use all the "free time" (defined: the time when the only option you have other than sitting and studying is sitting and staring at you nails) you have to actually study and you "might" be on par with what your profs are teaching... (again, if this doesn't apply to you, please stop reading this blog... :P ) Same thing happened to me... Wednesday went peacefully. Got up late after the 6 days of the YES!+ course, played guitar, studied for "some" time, chilled with friends etc... I got a call from Krishnan telling me he needs a guitarist for a satsang in Mulund. Now, I am a beginner guitarist. The maximum crowd in which I've played is around 20 people in our weekly IIT satsangs. And that too, I only manage to play few songs and had very limited knowledge of scales. I could never play unfamiliar songs impromptu. I told Krishnan that Im just a beginner, but he convinced me to show up. I ditched the IIT satsang (missed an awesome session with Rashmin Bhaiya, I was told later... But Im still happy I went.. :) ) and went to Mulund with Pramod Bhaiya's guitar (he has a semi acoustic... I just have an acoustic guitar.. cant be plugged into an amplifier).
The Mulund satsang was a new experience for me. First time I would be playing guitar on the stage, with real professionals. There was a professional keyboardist who was hired from somewhere. Krishnan on the vocals and few other talented singers. Amazing percussionists (tabla and djambe)... Just me from the beginner category. Luckily, my guitar dint get plugged in and the mike they kept in front of the guitar wasnt so effective. I was for all practical purposes playing just for myself :P and was only very faintly audible to the audience. So it wasnt so testing and I managed to pull it off with very few glitches. Playing on stage with professionals is a really challenging task. It needs extreme awareness and immense concentration... especially with a singer like Krishnan who raises the energy of the song so high and the beats get extremely fast. The experience was very painful and rewarding at the same time. I did goof up slightly at few instances, but managed to cover it up without making it noticable, thanks to the loud cover of the keyboard :). This was my first feel of a public satsang, with new songs and a totally new atmosphere altogether. Im very very grateful for such an experience. I learnt everything the easy way without having to go through any embarrassing situations on stage. After this, I got some confidence and realized that I'm not that bad a guitar player after all :D... Krishnan called me again to a satsang in Dombivili for the weekend and I just had to accept it... :) Once again, thanks to Krishnan for giving me this opportunity.
While returning, I was at kanjur marg looking for an auto to IIT. I saw a guy getting into an auto saying Hiranandani. I immediately ran after him and asked if he would drop me at the IIT main Gate. He said yes. We had a nice long conversation during the drive. He was into analyzing loan repayment capacities or something like that. He had met a lot of IITians and had a lot to share. We discussed finance, MBA, careers, IIT life, life outside and other things. I took his card and we bid goodbye.
We (me, Rahul and others) had a plan of going to Essel World on Saturday, but it got ditched due to unforeseen circumstances. So saturday, after lunch I left for Krishnan's house with my guitar and a change of clothes (plan was to stay overnight and return after the sunday satsang). I left at 3.30, but dint get an auto for a very long time. I saw an auto outside the main gate and a guy sitting in it. Many people go from IIT go to Kanjur Marg, so I just asked him if he was heading over to Kanjur Marg. He was going to Ghatkopar. I asked him if he could drop me to Ghatkopar station... His house turned out to be very near the station. So I went with him to Ghatkopar station. Again, had a nice long conversation with him about this and that. He turned out to be a final year PhD student in IIT. He too had done the YES!+ course. He said he loved it. But he had lost touch with the practices. He was really interested in getting back in touch and said he would repeat the course whenever he got the time. After ensuring he was on the mailing list, I bid him goodbye and soon was on a slow local to dombivili. I was worried I would be late as Krishnan had said satsang was at 5... :P Finally it started at 7.45. The time given was 7.30. At 5 there were some pujas there.
In the train, I met this awesome guy from Hyderabad. He was all drunk, though he was fairly conscious. He started talking about his life, wife and her family. He spoke about his job, mother in law, his brother and many other things. He had an awesome attitude. He kept saying "life me tension nhn leneka. Me bilkul tension nhn leta hun... me aisa hi hun. meri saas ko bahut problem hota hai iske waje se..." and more on those lines.. He said," maine biwi ko bola hai ki raat ko 9 baje aunga. par 5.30 tak pahunch jaunga. sahi time batao toh message pe message aega. aur meri biwi punjabi hai. Punjabiyon ka dimag hamesha bht garam rehta hai... sambhalna padta hai..." He narrated few incidents to illustrate his points. It was fun chatting with him (though I mostly listened while he spoke... :P u can never interrupt a girl on the phone or a drunk guy talking about his mother in law... )
After this interesting experience, I reached Krishnan's house by around 5.20. There he said me that the satsang is actually at 7.30 :P We had some time to practice etc... So we jammed a little. He gave me few tips here and there. I fixed my scale and timing. This satsang, I was the only accompaniment apart from percussion. So I couldn't hide behind the keyboard like last time!!! :P
And Krishnan, like a true professional, does a lot of improvisation and nothing is really planned on paper in his satsang. He moves with the flow. I was worried how it would go... I managed to pull it off :D No flaws... Krishnan blew everyone off with his amazing energetic voice... Everyone were dancing and singing loudly... It was lovely... And after the satsang, many people came to me and praised my guitar playing... Felt new and nice :D I gained more confidence on my guitar. We returned to Krishnan's house and chatted for some time. Krishnan's mom fed us really awesome rice, rasam etc... Home made food, that too south India food :D :D :D... reminded me of my home... Aunty too chatted with us for a while... After a good night's sleep, we got up; I did a bit of studying (had to... :P lots left over), we did a lot of jamming, came up with some amazing tunes ( I got to see a lot of Krishnan's talent this weekend :D the guy rocks.... \m/ ) watched videos of masters in action (Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan etc...) chatted about this and that and then went for the satsang again in the evening. This time, I was more confident. I was able to play more fluently than before. Though, one of the female singers started singing, I couldn't identify her scale. Covered it with some other scale, but I wasn't satisfied... Neither was Krishnan... But at that point, neither of us could identify the scale. Apart from that one song, everything else was top class... :D People loved it. Again they jumped with joy, sang out, danced and rejoiced... Felt awesome to see that while playing the guitar to Krishnan's singing.
Again my guitar playing was much appreciated (turns out that glitch in identifying the scale was not noticed by people \m/ :) ) and I left Dombivili to Mugdha's house. Krishnan had to leave for another satsang immediately... I went to Mugdha's house, arrived just in time for the Aarti... :D Had an awesome dinner there with her, Pramod Bhaiya and few of her relatives. Then we left for IIT...

It was an amazing weekend for me :D I feel I have progressed a lot as a guitar player, thanks to Krishnan, for giving me the opportunity and experience and sharing his knowledge with me... I had a great time at Dombivili with the DOmbivili Idol, Krishnan Keshavan and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next time I get to play with him for a satsang :D

All the best for all your endeavors.... :D

Lunch with God!!!

Hi all :D
I got this beautiful story as a forward and just had to share it here... We don't realize the importance of the little things in life. They make life worth living and true joy can be found in these little things :) The story goes:

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was going to be a long journey, so he packed few packets of wafers and a few bottles of juice and set out. When he had gone few blocks away, he met an elderly man. The man was sitting on a bench in a park, feeding some pigeons. The boy sat down next to him and opened his backpack to have a drink, when he noticed that the man appeared a bit hungry. So he offered him a wafer. The man accepted it gratefully and smiled at the boy. His smile was so pleasant that the boy wanted to see it again. So he offered him some juice. Again the man smiled at him. The little boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating, drinking and smiling, but never said a word. Soon it become late and the boy realized he had to get home. So he packed his stuff and got up to leave. But before he could go many steps away, he turned, ran back to the man and gave him a hug... The man gave him his biggest smile ever. Later, when his mother opened the door to his bell, she was surprised by the look of joy on his face and asked him, "What have you been doing to make you so happy?". He replied, " I had lunch with God today!". Before his mother could respond, he added "You know, God has the most beautiful smile ever!".

Meanwhile, the elderly man, also radiant with joy entered his house. His surprised son asked him, "Dad what did you do today that made you so happy?". The man replied, "I had wafers and juice with God today!" Before his son could respond, he added "You know God is much younger than I expected!"

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch,

a smile,

a kind word,

a listening ear,

an honest compliment,

or the smallest act of caring,

all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

People come into our lives for a reason,

a season,

or a lifetime.

Faith... ??

Faith has always been a topic of conflict. Faith, by definition means accepting something without knowing all the facts about it. Its about belief & trust. We all have faith at various levels... Faith on our parents, friends, politicians (yeah right... :P ), doctor (if not, better change your doctor.. :P ), God (unless you're an atheist.. ), the architect and masons who built the building you're in right now (if not, RUN!!! ) etc... etc...
The most conflicting aspect of faith is faith in God or the unseen power. I for one am not an atheist & believe in God. To me, faith in the divine is knowing that life is a game... Chill maaro yaar; everything is being taken care of :) There is an up for every down. "Its the darkest before dawn"... etc... I feel having faith in the divine does not weaken you. It in fact empowers you to see things as a game; look at your problems as challenges and gives you the energy & enthusiasm to tackle them head on. I got this story in a forward. Wanted to share it... Many of you might have already read it... Here it goes anyways :

A business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said. After listening to the executive’s woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.” The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

“I can erase my money worries in an instant!” he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the un-cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

One year later, he returned to the park with the un-cashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.

“I’m so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He’s always escaping from the home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller.”And she led the old man away.

The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he’d been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.

Suddenly, he realized that it wasn’t the money that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

All the best for all your endeavors... Have fun and enjoy life :)

The Old Carpenter

I came across this short story by Swami Vivekananda.... It was amazing & I just had to share it here. Thanks to Chaitali Joshi for sending me the link to IIT Madras' Vivekananda Study Circle which you should all check out btw... http://www.vsc.iitm.ac.in/
The story goes:

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his
employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building
business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his
extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire.
They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good
worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.
The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart
was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used
inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house,
the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter.
"This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house,
he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had
built none too well. So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way,
reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best.
At important points we do not give the job our best effort.
Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created
and find that we are now living in the house we have built.
If we had realized that we would have done it differently.
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house.
Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall.
Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build.
Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be
lived graciously and with dignity.
The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it- yourself project."
Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes
and the choices you make today.

I guess we can all relate to this story at various levels. We have this amazing habit of doing something halfheartedly & then regretting/cursing ourselves after... This is probably one of the biggest impediments to us achieving happiness in life. We must give our 100% in everything we do. Then the results wont matter at all then. I guess moving under the assumption that all our duties are going to contribute to the building of our own house would take us a long way forward...
I'd like to conclude in Swami Vivekananda's own words, "Come up O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are soul immortal, spirits free and eternal "