Of M.S. Subbulakshmi and Sudha Raghunathan

Well, if the names of the above two female personalities are unknown to you, then allow me to do the honors of enlightening you of whom they are. Who can imagine a world without music? Be it pop, rock, folk, classical, melody, rap or metal (I got a list as far as I know), if its going to give you all the peace and harmony it can, then undoubtedly, that's your choice of healing power. It is in a form of music that these 2 women provide immense satisfaction to the people around the world. Down south of India, a popular music form is "Carnatic" music, that is rich in tradition, culture, devotion and patriotism.

Very interesting facts about "Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Nee" & "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti" are available in the following link "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege"

Now that we know these 2 personalities are well renowned in the arena of Carnatic Music, a narration of experiencing the feelings when you hear their honeycombed voice is literally impossible. I suggest that experience to be felt by the individuals themselves.

M.S. Subbulakshmi is more popularly called as M.S and her immortal songs like "Kurai Onrum Illai", "Kaatrinile Varum Geetham" and "Bhaja Govindham" are world famous. Her "Vishnu Sahasranamam" and "Venkatesa Suprabhatam" are still the first song that many homes starts the day with. As for Sudha, her "Enna Thavam Seidhanai", "Valli Kanavan Perai" and "Thunbham Nergayil" are any music lovers "Must Have Collections".

Music, be it vocal or instrumental, is ocean deep and many gifted personalities who have taken a dip in it, share their gift and give the lesser gifted the joy of feeling it. Of many such personalities, I have dedicated this blog write up, to 2 of my favorites...

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Pride & Prejudice

It was the novel that happened to be part of our eighth grade syllabus. A captivating romantic drama, so filled with life and charm that it would become part of your "Many a time read". It’s not the thrilling page turners of Sidney Sheldon or Ken Follet, rather it is a page turner where in, in each page you would want the pride and prejudiced lovers to get engaged!

Elizabeth Bennet the heroine and Darcy the hero are definitely made for each other. Their love for each other is so powerful that you could feel that right from the beginning of the novel. Whose says only murders need a strong motive? This novel is filled with every motive for a couple to fall in love.

"You ought to have got this in your eleventh grade syllabus - You will enjoy this more, 3 years later" - This was what my English lecturer told us when she started off with the first chapter of this novel. Being a very obedient student ;) I preserved that novel and read that many a times before I stepped into my eleventh grade!

Eight grade or eleventh grade or college or work, a book filled with such realistic human emotions and study, would live forever with book lovers. It’s just not the love between the hero and heroine that fills this book. It shows an absolutely awesome relationship between the eldest 2 daughters in the Bennets’ family. It comes with the strong love of a father for his intelligent daughter, a mother’s worry about her daughters’ marriage, the responsibilities of an elder sister and a good share of friendship.

The way Darcy wins his pride and Elizabeth realizes that her pre justified notion of Darcy is everything but correct are so heart warming. There are now 2 films taken based upon this novel. One in 1940, starring Greer Garson and Laurence Oliver as the lead pair. The next make of the film was released in late 2005 starring Keira Knightly and Matthew MacFadyen. The earlier version had few variations from the novel, however the latest version stuck truly to every page.

Book or Film, the story of Jane Austen is undoubtedly a winner of hearts.

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The Fabulous Las Vegas

When the so called “Sin City” is just a 6 hour drive from your house, who would not contrive to go there to get their share of the sin for a long weekend? So off we went not by the 6 hour drive, but by the 50 minute flight journey. Must I repeat that I hated the take off and the landing? (Isn’t there a better non dizzying way for these 2 process?)
So at about 4 in the evening, Las Vegas time, we reached an absolutely hot Vegas – Yep the temperature was close to 110 F.

So there we were in an ordinary Travelodge hotel which was about a mile from the Las Vegas Boulevard (aka “The Strip”) and not knowing that such a long walk in the hot Nevadan sun would be very tiresome, we ventured to explore “What is there in the strip after all?” By the time we reached the Strip, we were so tired that the first place we went was the Fashion plaza and had a good cup of tasty ice cream. This refreshing piece of food gave us the energy needed for the long walk in the boulevard!

Small snippets about the Large Casinos –

So off we went to the first casino, “The Venetian” and enjoyed the artificial sky line that changed from dawn to dusk. We were lucky enough to spot a lovely newly wed couple in the Gondola Ride and hear the deep pitched Italian songs! What a feast to the eyes and ears after filling our stomach! The slot machines were not that interesting to me, however I tried my luck and lo and behold, I won $10 and I think I must have played for around $2. So with a net profit that the Venetian gave us, we moved on to the awesome “Ceasers’ Palace”, which had its moving and talking statues that looked almost real. The laser show just above these talking statues is worth watching.

We had a wonderful dinner of potato pancakes in the Cearsers Palace and we were served and attended to, very well by the waitress there! Its very difficult to see a waiter/waitress who really care for what we eat. Being a vegan, I was very picky and she helped me with so much of patience, that I felt I was at a place I knew very well! Well Well!! Then we went off to check out the penguins in “The Flamingoes” and the Volcano that was simulated in front of “The Mirage”. What a contrast – I am talking about the hot volcano and the cool penguins in the same road and that too in the casinos lying opposite to each other! Oh! That’s Vegas.

The most beautiful show, I would say is the “Fountains of the Bellagio” – My my, what a beauty it is to see those musical fountains and it becomes even more breathtaking when viewed from the top of the “Eiffel Tower” in the Paris casino. New York casinos roller coaster and the hair raising rides at the top of the 109th floor at the “Stratosphere” are meant for the dare devils. Have I left something for the jumping Jacks? Well yes, you have the ultimate bungy jumping too!

That’s enough of adventure sports. Lets move for my favorite - the kids zone(perhaps for adults too , I would say!) we have a circus show! And some eye catching Hawaiian dance in the Hawaiian Market place. The food at the nearby Tamba restaurant would bring disasters to the dieting damsels!

The lights, the shows, the casinos, the clubs, the people and the joy know no bounds in the fabulous city that never sleeps!

And here I really am back in my home sweet home at the Salt Lake City enjoying the home made food, watching my favorite shows in the television and writing down my thoughts! This is fabulous too!

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Herzlich Willkommen!!!

Ich lerne Deutsche!!! – Hold on! If this sounds as Greek and Latin to you, you are little away from the country that speaks Deutsche – In other words German! I just mentioned that I learn German!

Learning foreign languages have always been my vision! It opens an arena of the rich culture of the people who speak those languages. Coming from a country that is rich and diverse in culture, it is no surprise that I was interested in learning more about the cultures of other countries too. The European culture is one that always fascinated me. Right from Greek to Roman to the English to German and French, the culture is diverse and captivating.

Language makes us know more and feel closer to the culture of different people and countries. One of the inspirations to learn foreign languages was my aunt who happened to work for Mitsubishi (Perhaps Mitsubishi’s Lancer cars will throw light about the company!), who had some Japanese books in her shelf and the language and the script never failed to intrigue me. Nevertheless, I understood not a single character in that book! However though, it was a book filled with pictures and Japanese characters.

My uncle who has traveled to many European countries has been an inspiration to know about France, England and Germany. It is these interests that were sowed, made an attempt to choose French as my second language in Higher Secondary Education (Hmmm – Now I hardly remember any word there in French!). It was the lazy days post college final year days, awaiting my day to join the software company, I happened to see an advertisement for enrollment to Learn German in the Goethe Institute. This Institute is a world known organization for teaching and certifying German to people. The Goethe Institute in Chennai is called The Max Mueller Bhavan – honoring the German who was responsible for spreading Indian culture to the West, by translating Vedas and many of our consecrated texts!

The proximity (about ½ hr travel and 15 minutes walk in the not so hot July sun of Chennai!) was fine enough for me, that I enrolled along with my best friend to learn Deutsche. Learning German was such fun and the lecturers were the best I had ever come across. It was the type of teaching and learning that inspired me so much – There was so much of interaction between the 20 odd people in our class, the bunch being between 18 and 25.

There were so many songs, videos, small plays, dialogues, audio quizzes, crosswords, picture matching and what not that we came across as a tool to learn! It was learning with fun and there are so much that I still remember in Deutsche, even after 4 years of no Deutsche! I happened to attend the weekend classes and I would expect with child like eagerness who waits for chocos and toys, for the weekend classes to come. Such was the people who learned with me, such was the ambience, such was the lecturers who taught, such was the method of teaching – Also to mention the wonderful hot snacks that we had for breakfast on our Sunday mornings – The whole group would chit chat and there was a variety of people from different stages of lives. Few were working, few were still in college, some in their schools and few were waiting to join work – It was an enthusiastic mixture of people.

I was unable to continue the second level of German, however some day I really want to join and go up ahead in completing the 7 levels (It had 7 levels for completion then!).

As an appendix perhaps, here are some beautiful words/sentences from the language

Herzlich Willkommen – Hearty Welcome – This was how my teacher welcomed as we entered the class!

Guten Tag – Good Day!

Danke – Thanks!

Wie ghets – How do you do

And most importantly

Ich liebe dich! – I love you!!! – My my, what uproar it caused when my teacher wrote these words within a heart shape and translated it!!! – Those are ever green memories…

Auf Wiedersehen…(See you again!)

Greek Mythology

Myth is generally termed as a traditional story accepted as History; It serves to explain the world view of a people. It so happens that we sometimes feel that why should few Myths not just be real and not reel. I still remember the day when a colleague friend of mine introduced me to such a Myth, which I really am sure that many would feel that it is real or would atleast wish them to be real! This myth was known world wide by the famous poet Iliad’s two most laudable works in literature – Homer and Odyssey. The “Godly” world of Greeks, the life, the death, the relations of mortals and immortals alike plays a crucial portion of the Greek Mythology.

It was a “thought munching” and “digesting” time, post an important conference call, that this friend of mine explained me about some of the key personalities of Greek Mythology. I was so fascinated that I browsed a lot about this subject and gained little knowledge by the end of that day itself. Some of the most intriguing characters in Greek Mythology are the God of Gods “Zeus”, his wife “Hera”, Zeus’ twin kids “Athena” and “Apollo”, Hercules the Hero, The Goddess of Love “Aphrodite”, and of course the very famous “Helen of Troy!”

The mythology is so powerful and an interesting read, that the tinsel world went ahead to make movies out of the myth, the latest being the hit movie Troy starring none other than the American heart throb “Brad Pitt”. The episode of “Helen of Tory” (Or shall we say “The Trojan War”?) is definitely the most interesting piece of Myth. There are of course funny moments in the Greek Mythology and one of the best happens when the Sun God Helios finds the secret relationship between the War God Ares and Love Goddess Aphrodite and summons everyone including Aphrodite’s poor husband “Hephaestus”, who comes to know of his wife’s paramour.

Lovers of literature will always honor exceptional works like Iliad and Odyssey. It is not needed to go to the depth of literature to relish the intricacies and beauty of any mythology. Hearing, discussing, reading small snippets, watching movies about such Mythologies itself grabs our interest and attention and we land up loving and adoring them. I am one such person who does not go into such great depths, however enjoy learning them in bits and pieces.

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The Not So Long Saunter

Every morning, rather most of the mornings, I happen to go to the Office by walk. It is definitely not a long walk, however long enough to satisfy my own self, as back home in my country I would never have walked this long. Of course to be honest, I feel very bored and lazy, when I realize that I need to walk early in the morning for twenty five grueling minutes. However, by the time I come out of the apartment, I generally feel “It is not bad after all Ram, you know you can make it”.

The last two thirds of the walk is the portion that anyone can enjoy, provided the person is a nature lover. I would not call it the most scenic place in the world, nor are there an assortment of greenery and flowers. However, the little change from the sheer buildings in the first part of the journey to a wide spread of greenery and the increase in the number of tress would make you feel better. Also a particular small portion where an awesome mixture of colorful tulips is a must see sight. You can never admire the beauty if you travel in a car. It is in such walks, that you get time to enjoy nature. You will have to leave alone all your issues and troubles and devout your sight and thoughts to Mother Nature.

I really am a great lover of flowers and those botanical beings which are of all sizes and colors never fail to attract me. It really does not matter if the flower has an associated fragrance! I know not the names of all the flowers that I see, but I know to smile back at them, when they bloom and lay in the ground waiting to be admired.

The sun comes out very fast in the June sky, here in Utah and nowadays it is hotter. However it is not too hot to relinquish your morning walk. It is no longer the season of tulips here, but it is of roses. You name a color and I will show you a rose flower in that color. Oh! Yes, such is the diversity of their colors. Many gardens have a potpourri of roses and most commonly they form a sort of a separation between houses!

Now it is not these wonderful natural beauties alone, that make your walk so amiable, but also the man made jog track. Most of the mornings I see few people walk or jog in this jog track that lies only a few feet away from the pavement. Sometimes you do see people who smile at you, some say their Good mornings and few others with a charming “How do you do? I am doin Good”, conversations. These are very small things, however it makes you feel so much better. A stranger wishing you a very good morning, asking how are you doing, the flowers smiling at you, so much of greenery and the wide range of trees, they do give you a peace of mind and they make your heart light.

If you happen to find a not so long trail to saunter and enjoy, do not fail to make it a habit to walk – and if you have your loved ones near by accompanying you for the walk, I would re quote an apple a day saying to “A walk a day keeps the doc away!”

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Picture Perfect

One of my room mates/friend has recently purchased a Handy Cam. It’s a Sony DVD writer Handy cam and this is the first time I have operated a Handy Cam in my life. This lifeless piece of electronic device that captures our life comes with us in almost all our outings. Atleast to begin with, when it arrived, we carried it to the nearby grocery shop and clicked a couple of snaps in front of it! We walked around our very own apartment and took 4 dozen snaps. And to top it all, we even took a cool snap of the blender that we just purchased. I really wonder if there is a person who takes snaps of their cars and here we are, two eager, ebullient adults, taking pictures of every small thing that might excite them.

It’s just not the snaps that I am going to write about. It’s also about the short video films that we took. My friend here took a very interesting video and the hero of that film was none other than me. The only difference being, I never knew he was talking a video. It was a short one, which captures my rule in the kitchen and that day I was making a side dish with cauliflowers. My ignorance about the fact that he was taking a video made this a very natural film that came out very well. It is these films that one would really love to save, cherish and feel happy about even after many years.

Capturing precious moments have always been an integral part of everybody’s life. And happiness knows no limits and bounds, when we share those moments with your near and dear ones.

My friend is calling me now, to capture few more elements that surround us. I am going off for taking every Picture Perfect.

Eating Outside India

Has the word “Vegetarian” become so complex nowadays? Or has it been always like that? I don’t think any dictionary can give an exact meaning of the word vegetarian! To some people it is eating anything other than meat, eggs and milk. To few others it can include milk and for some the subset extends to egg products like ice creams, cookies and cakes. There are some elite groups, who dare to extend this list to fish varieties and claim themselves vegetarians. Whew! With so many different people claiming their own synonym for the sensitive word vegetarian, it’s not surprising that, it has evolved to become a complex word.

This writing is for the non meat eating, including fish and the non egg eating with the exception of ice cream and cakes, people. It is these people, irrespective of the synonym for the word vegetarian, suffer a lot, as the variety for them is shrunk, when they land up in a place where the synonym for vegetarian, includes the ultimate word MEAT itself!

So here I really am, in a land where vegetarians are very rare and you cannot find a hotel that is purely vegetarian (Not that I know of – as the hotels will run into bankruptcy, as the majority of the population is omnivorous.) I have frequented many a hotels here at Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, both Indian and American types.

Let me begin with the first hotel that I visited and that too on the day I landed in SLC. It’s called the Olive Garden. Considered to be a little expensive by some of my American colleagues, (Yep – they call it very expensive and I know few Indians, who pay this Garden, a visit for their Saturday dinner – Now let’s not argue if us Indians are profligate.) has a variety of great food for Non Vegetarians. I had to choose (Oops there was only one vegetarian soup as far as I could remember) from one vegetarian soup and 2 vegetarian dishes. I was thinking, I had more choice back at home, where only one cooked for just 3 persons and the variety was definitely more than 3 on a Saturday. Should I say that, I missed my dear folks back home, during the first dinner that I had at SLC?

There are about 3 Indian restaurants which I have visited and they do have quite a variety for my palates. Indian restaurants here always have both the names and the menu pertained strictly to North India, despite the large percentage of Indian population being South Indians. All the more, a valid reason, why I long to eat south Indian recipes like Dosas and Idlies with Sambar or Vadas.

One of my colleague and his wife invited a selected lot (I would call the lucky lot) once for lunch and once for dinner (Of course both the lunch and the dinner were on different dates). The menu to my surprise included my favorite Dosas, with varieties of chutney and Bajjis. Those were happy hours!

Hmmm – I still miss the wonderful Idli sambar that my mom used to prepare. However strong I convince myself that the recipes that I cook, has come out well, I must admit that they are nowhere near the delicious food that my mom prepares for me. The secret behind that is that, she adds some more ingredients to the recipes that she prepares, like love, affection, blessings, goodwill and what not? It is these that make the food that she prepares very special and a taste that fails to accompany in every other food!

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The Public Library

It is now a habit for me, to visit the nearby public library in the small county of West Valley City, UT, which is reachable in 15 minutes by the speed at which I walk. (I walk at normal speed – Normal speed as per Indian standards). I did not expect much from a public library, nevertheless was eager to become a member. But the moment I learnt that they had a website, I thought they must be having something more. And yes, they had a LOT. The website itself was an ultimate network connecting the libraries in the neighboring counties. Right from placing a “hold” on a book which was in any of the county, to extending the features of the library for the blind, the library offers a variety of features.

When I went to the library, I was so impressed by the way the kids use it. The Library has a complete section for the kids, which include everything from audio CDs, DVDs, to toys. The interest with which the kids come here is itself a must see sight. Who said the Niagara is the most beautiful place in the world? Now, who is that saying, have you never once been to the Disney Land? It is to those people, I ask this question – Have you ever seen a toddler come and ask questions to a librarian and then search the books and read them? That is what you should call it as “cute”.

Most importantly, since it is a public library, access to all materials including DVDs are completely free. The membership is also free. The segregation for kids, young adults, adults with respect to the Fiction works are clearly made. Internet access is also free and every Saturday, when I pay my visit to the library, I can always see a buzz of activity, with toddlers, to young adults to senior citizens.

The library here, also conducts training classes like “How to use Internet”, “Using Word/Excel/PowerPoint” etcetera. There are many volunteers for the training classes as well as for the library maintenance. The ardor with which the librarians work and help the people should be mentioned, as you can see hospitality to eagerness to sincerity in their work.

I look forward for my Saturday, not just for the weekend life, but also for my visit to my dear library, in which I am a member and for which I have planned to do some volunteer work very soon.

More thoughts…

Travel

It was my first trip in the airplane and I was pretty much excited and nervous about it. Excited, as it was my first trip to the airport itself. Nervous, as I was hallucinating about turbulence, air crash etcetera. My parents, two of my aunts, one of my uncles came with me for a heart warming send off.

A wonderful Singapore Airline aircraft was supposed to carry me till Los Angeles. It was a split journey, the first stop was at Singapore and the next was at Tokyo and the final one at LA. Way back in time, when I was young I used to make fun of one of my uncles when he used to talk about his itineraries to me. He used to travel a lot and his travel plans used to amuse me. I would tell him - "Hey! You know what? I have heard of people boarding from Mumbai and go to B'lore, via Pune or from Chennai to Delhi, via Nagpur. But you are the only guy who talks about Pacific routes, Atlantic routes, the ‘What other Ocean’ routes!". Well, here I was, telling every one of my family members about my Pacific route, when they asked me about the trip! So there was I, in the not so luxurious Economy class - well that is why it's E-Class, right? So economized that you can't push back your seats without hitting the guy (Ok - or the lady) sitting behind you. My my, those who travel a lot from B'lore to Chennai will know about the KPN travels and I will tell them and the rest, that the seats in KPN are more luxurious than the so called sophisticated, luxurious airplanes (Now who told me that E-Classes are luxurious? , Have I ever seen the First class in a flight?).

Well still more descrimination comes when first class passengers are the ones who boards the flight FIRST. Oh! is that why you call them "First" Class passengers? Besides all these cribbing, your travel will be pleasent, if you have a wonderful "Neighbor" - Its no longer Neighbour - I have shifted from Queens' English to American English. I had an amazing neighbor, whose name was Deva. He taught me everything, right from how do you call an airhostess to how to operate the remote control. It was definitely the best part of my journey from Chennai to LA.

My cousin had come to the LA airport to receive me and I bet I will be one in a million to have had a lunch in McDonalds outlet in LA Airport without buying anything from McD's. I had the delicious curd rice and onion sambar that my cousin had prepared! Apart from enjoying the beauty of Singapore Airport and the breath taking snow clad hills, when the flight descended in the cold capital of the state of Utah (For GK buffs - Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah), I really must mention the wonderful news that my ears heard. While descending the co-pilot made the following announcement: "Today is a very special day for Delta Airlines (These guys took me from LA to SLC), as today on board with us are a wonderful couple who celebrates their 50th Wedding Anniversary. There are 17 of their family members, who have joined us and we take this opportunity to wish the couple 50 more happy anniversaries". And us passengers wished the same too.

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