Curious about carnatic music

Ladies in my in-laws' family are experts-of-sorts in carnatic music. Actually they are experienced academicians too, but so are gents in that family. So that doesn't count! :) To the contrary, I am almost a zero. I say "almost" because, my sister had trained as carnatic singer for a few months and I learnt one song from her! So that counts!

Anyway, their presence has brought me in proximity to a lot of carnatic music as they watch all the music concerts in TV and start discussing its nuances and technical details. That has made me notice a few things that I would otherwise never notice and ask questions that I otherwise wouldn't have asked. I surprise myself with my power to observe and surprise them with my power to question. It gives me a "second to none" feeling. Here is a sample of a few such questions.

• "Why don't percussion artists ever sit in the middle and lead the concert?"
• "How do they select those people sitting behind everyone with the tambura? Do they actually know carnatic music or do they pick anyone from the studio at the last moment?"
• "Do the string instrument players bleed through their fingers?"
• "I have never seen a "naked" mruthangam.Why is the mruthangam always wrapped in a cloth?
• "When the Veena artists wear the metal thing on their fingers, do they miss to vibrate the string because they don't get to feel it with their fingers?"
• "Why do the artists always appear in traditional sarees and dhotis for the concerts? Why don't they even wear a salwar or a kurtha?"

Off late, I find that my wife tries to stop me from asking questions to my mother-in-law. I think she is getting jealous of me getting closer to her expertise in carnatic music. Something reminds me of the famous Sidhuism. "Wickets are like wives, you never know which way they will turn"

Prayer and Belief

Today so far has been a typically busy day with customers kicking my butt all over my company (not allowing me to have a good afternoon siesta with my head monotonously banging on my keyboard). But only so far. In comes a forward from J that made my day much better. This one is cool! So, read on...

In a small town in America , a person decided to open up his bar business, which was right opposite to a church. The church & its congregation started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayed daily against his business.

Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the bar and it was burnt to the ground. The church folk were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the bar owner sued the church authorities for $2million on the grounds that the church through its congregation & prayers was ultimately responsible for the demise of his bar shop, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons to the bar shop's demise. In support of their claim they referred to the Benson study at Harvard that inter-cessionary prayer had no impact !

As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork and at the hearing and commented:

'I don't know how I am going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire church and its devotees that doesn't.'

Remembering the travails of a South Indian male

This article was introduced to me by a childhood buddy of mine and boy I almost soiled myself with laughter. I could only relate to this more because I am one of the "Venkatachalapathy"s myself, but could still take heart from the fact that there are still "Blossom Babykutty"s to who I can point my finger at laugh. Oh it does give so much fun to laugh at others especially when you are not much better off than them!

I read this article much before I started blogging and since then I find that this article has spread across the web like H1N1. It would be a pity to have a blog dedicated to comedy without talking about this one.

If you feel like a child lost in a pub, read the article.

Ethiopia

These days no matter what I do the conversation naturally slides to how I am lost because I am preoccupied with something (rather somebody) else in mind. :D I try to fend them off as much as possible. But it is only a matter of time before I give up and let my colleagues walk all over me with their taunts! What is the point anyway? They are not always wrong quite honestly! :)

But today was a little different and for once I got off the hook fast! I was having lunch with three of my colleagues over some trivial matter when I got a reminder from my mobile. As I paid attention towards it I fumbled up with a reply. Assuming that to be an SMS from "Her" my colleagues grabbed the chance.

"Now there is no point talking to Badhri", mentioned JJ

"Ya, he is in his own world", giggled RS!

"Ya, Ethiopia", said RVD

I said, "Its Utopia not Ethiopia! and look who is lost!" :)

Prasing her or picking on her?

I got introduced to Hindi when I was in my fourth standard (I think), but then for as long as I was in Chennai, my Hindi hadn't matured so much to understand movie songs right out of the player. It needed offline processing. But remember your school prayer or the "India is my nation" pledge? Honest to god, when was the time in all your 12 years of school have you stopped to think "What the hell is the meaning of what I am saying? Does anyone even know or am I the only dumbo?". For the privileged Tamilians like me, a lot of Hindi songs fit the category too! There are always exceptions, and you do sometime get the meaning of what Udit Narayan is trying to tell Alka Yagnik. But the funny ones are the songs that leave you confused! For example,  this song is from an absolute box-office smasher that catapulted Shah Rukh from a chocolate hero into a bitter-sweet anti-hero. The cause for the confusion though is the South Indian heroine, the only one for who a temple was built, if romours are anything to go by.  This extract from the song has always left me wondering if the hero is praising his sweet heart or making fun of her for being excessively fat. Here is the extract..

"Jadooooo teri nazar...Khusbhoo tera badan..."

Luck-broker analysis

I visited one of the most famous Shrines in Kamakura, Japan last weekend and found a fortune card on sale. The Japanese, it seems, are not exempt to believing that a certain members the animal kingdom bring or take away fortune from humans. That these luck-brokers live out their lives aiding the human luck-transaction is amazing. I wonder if all of them specialize only in human luck or if they work on luck of other animals too? Do they only do transactions or do any of them specialize in luck-market analysis? I guess I would never know. But this luck-broker, Mr. Turtle clearly stands out among others. He doesn't waste his time on luck market analysis for transactions. He just uses good old magic to get his job done! And his magic, one must admit, is like no other! Afterall how many magicians you know has a shell on his back and can make you a long and rich LIVER?? (See picture!)

Just a thought!!

Now that I 've got a tail bone fracture, I can only wear loose clothes and it made me think of this..

"What if we had a tail now? .. What kind of clothes can be designed?.. A wrap around the tail ?..
In that case, how can we wear it?.. A cylindrical cloth can be pulled over on tail like how we put the pillow cover over a pillow??!!..or.. a rectangular cloth with hooks on one side and loop on other side? No no..It will take hell a lot of time to put all hooks into the loop !!
Well.. the best is having a welcro on one side and sticky thing on the other side of the cloth !!
And we can call the guy who stitches as " Tail Tailor" :)- "

wow.. what a great line of thought when I have thousands of things to study for Ph.D and exams !!

Well, if this post provokes your thought, give your suggestions :)

Already arranged interview....???

Well, I get email requests...for employment possibilities..but this request is one of its kinds.... :D

Dear Employer:

I am responding to your advertisement in website, regarding openings in Development Engineer. Please find enclosed my resume showing my education, experience, and background.

I have around 2 years experience in the software field. May I arrange an interview to further discuss my qualifications? I am available for an interview at a mutually convenient time.

Thank you for your time and consideration...
Ms. R

Badhri... what do you have to say ;-)

Toilet technology

"Around this time of year, it would be warm in Japan man! You lucky fellow, you will escape the Hyderabad summer", my friend envied me as I was about to leave for Japan!

Only god knows how much my friend cursed me for the supposed luck. But if he did, his curses sure worked! As I arrived at Tokyo airport, I was in for a cold and windy surprise. Literally! I had to take a bus to get to the city where my apartment is located. The ten minute wait with summer cotton clothes on a windy day was terrible. As if the cold is not enough, within minutes my bladder got full! I risked missing the usually punctual bus and ran for the washroom. It was a much needed relief, but a short-lived one. I managed to come back before the scheduled arrival time of the bus. The bus was late by about three minutes and I was back to square one. I felt like a pregnant lady ready give birth to a liquid infant! For the second time with in a span of ten minutes!

Narita airport is about half-an-hours drive from Tokyo. By the time, I unlocked my apartment door, I was so full that I could have put out a Californian forest fire twice! I got into the washroom for the much needed release. Engrossed in the happiness I first didn't notice it. But as I grew leaner and relieved, I noticed that there was a tap atop the flush tank, only there was no way to turn it on!

Now that I had served my sentence for committing the crime of not packing winter clothes, I started exploring. I slid my hands right under the tap to see if it has a motion sensor, but the tap didn't respond. I groped behind the tap feeling for a push button. Still nothing. "I guess the tap is just for a show. Japanese probably spend their lifetime making cars and ASIMOs that they just didn't have enough time for taps!", I thought. I reached for the flush, pulled it up (not push down) and voila! along with the flash the tap vomited copious water!

"Wow! What washes your hands can still wash of your liquid baby! Japs are cool", I thought. Little did I know then that I was barely scratching the surface of truth. The next morning, I covered the two minute walk to my office and I was full again.

"I never understood the biology. Why should my bladder hyper react to cold?", I thought as I started looking around the office building for the familiar match-stick man. "Its not that I will drown in my own urine if I don't pass a litre of it every two minutes! In fact how did so much water get into my body in the first place! Ah there he is" I spotted the match-stick man hanging from the ceiling and into the entrance under him.

After an eternal minute, I was relieved again. As I reached the wash basin, I started wondering if all the Japanese toilets had a tap over their flush tanks. So, went to the toilet door, and slowwwwly pushed it open and peeked in with curiosity. I saw no tap on the flush tank. In fact, there was no flush tank.

"Hah, it's not a Japanese thing after all, just the apartment guys, trying to impress".

I pulled the door to close it. Just as the door closed, I noticed that the toilet seat had an arm jutting out from its sides.

"What the...", I opened the door and found tiny buttons on the arms. I moved closed to observe them. They are electronic controls for the flush. Four small buttons to control the force of the water jet and four more to control the warmth. "Holy shit!", I thought. I felt as if I just got one on my jaw from Evander Holyfield and stammered out of the bathroom.

It is about a week now and I thought I got used to the best of toilet technologies. I realized that I was wrong yet again. The best just got better. Here is an article from The Economist.

Nature of job 2 of 3

Following happened to other colleauge (Vijay) yesterday :-

Somebody happened to have visited him, I'll call him Mr. Dingu.

Mr. Dingu got interested in the kind of job that we do at Synopsys.
To make it simple, Vijay replied " We work on chip design and related softwares ".

Mr. Dingu inquired with genuine curiosity - " so what's hot in chip design these days ? "

Vijay actively replied - " Power !!! Now a days low power designs are critical . Power seem to be the key challenge for the chips to come !! "

The discussion went on for around 10 mins and Vijay was very happy to have found some one who actually understands "nature of his job" !!!!
but he was taken aback by this statement of Mr. Dingu after a long discussion on low power design challenges in VLSI

" Oh Now I understand, why Reliance Power is investing so much money in Taiwan "

Nature of Job - 1 of 3

With IT revolution in India, one thing that has become difficult is " how do I explain my job to others ? "

Especially with the job that I do at synopsys that entitles us as " Support Center Engineer !!!"

Few days back one my collegue's wife recommended him to quite Synopsys and rather join a Call center like Wipro or ICICI !!!!

for most of mortals, all support centers are call centers....

Innocent Prayers....!

1. "Dear God, thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy" - Joyce
2. "Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it. " - Nan
3. "Dear God, If you watch in church on sunday I will show you my new shoes" - Mickey
4. "Dear God, if you give me genie lamp like Alladin I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set. " - Raphael.
5. "Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones why don't you just keep the ones you got now..?" - Jane.
6. "Dear God, Are you really invisible or is that just a trick?" - Lucy

:-)

Innocent ……….Kids at their best ;-)

While heading towards our most important task of the day…i.e.…having “Tea” at ground floor stall, two kids were playing with a basketball. I snatched & asked playfully…”Kiska hai yeh basketball? The kid answered in true hyderabadi style.....”... hai to ye Big Bazaar ka…humne sirf khareeda hai” …!

Precocious !!

Frankly speaking I had to rack my brains to write something here. Not that I do not laugh but then most of times they are either situational or they cannot be written about here ;). Here goes my first contribution.

This is my nephew and like all kids of today's generation he is ahead of his time. I am happy he is taking this seriously and is getting ready for the life ahead.

Click on the picture to get a better view

In case you are wondering, the headline says

"Sex Education in classes from next academic year"

Comedy of Reflection!