Hi Guys,
It is the last few hours of 2009 before the eagerly awaited 2010 takes over. The reason I coined the phrase eagerly awaited is because 2009 indeed was not a memorable one. There were some patchy good pieces of news here and there but on the whole it was a below par year. The year was already in the jaws of Recession and therefore most of the year was spent facing the consequences and trying to find the solutions. Recession had the adverse affects on all growing economies and it is not a surprise that we have not done well in this year.
Coming to India, the only happening news was the thumping victory of Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. Apart from that most of the year was spent on scams, scandals, misuse of power and politics. As the saying goes "Absolute power corrupts absolutely". Power holders proved the statement right by their conduct and demeanor. Of course these things are pretty common and we all have got used to it. The new way to disturb the peace among the people was by using the ancient British method of Divide and Rule. The peace of the land was disturbed by dividing the people based on boundaries and languages. MNS have their local and non local issues, same as in MP , Bihar and other states. AP is still coming to terms with the unwanted division issue. As long as we are wasting our time and money on these insensitive issues we are not going to move up the ladder of growth and development. We are still far far lagging in terms of infrastructure, technology, construction , R&D etc etc.
Let me talk some spirituality here. Why don't we all understand that we are all essentially children of God. That is the fundamental and the biggest truth. We are all the reflections of that One. If we realize this fact then there will be no difference amongst each other and we all will strive to live for Brotherhood of man and Fatherhood of God. This is what was preached by Shankara and Vivekananda. This is exactly what is preached by Baba. How lucky we are that these souls have walked the earth. Why cannot we try to follow their teachings and make our lives more meaningful. We have to give up our false egos and realize the true identity of ourselves. That will give us Peace and that will put the country on the right path, for it is we who make the country. Hope 2010 brings joy and peace to all of us.
Signing off for now,
Krishna
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Hi Guys,
It is Christmas time and there is fun, celebration and joy in the atmosphere. The best part is that it is snowing heavily. A white Christmas is always a special one. What could I do other than listen to my favorite songs to pass my time. So, I decided to come again with a new post.
I am a big fan of classical Carnatic music even though I don't have any knowledge about it. Its my hobby to just listen to keerthans by various composers. I came across a complex keerthan a few months ago. It was Kurai Onrum Illai sung my the great MS Amma. The song gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it. It is amazingly different from all the other Keerthans I have heard before. The devotee has no regrets and accepts everything as Lord's Grace. The song got etched in my mind and therefore I tried researching on it. This post is therefore dedicated to the idea and the man behind Kurai Onrum Illai.
The song was written by Chakravarthi Rajgopalchari (CR). CR was a freedom fighter, politician, lawyer, writer and leader of Indian National Congress who served as the last Governor General of India (21 June 1948-25 Jan 1950). He served as the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (14 July 1937-9 Oct 1939), Chief Minister of Madras State (10 April 1952-13 April 1954), Governor of West Bengal (15 Aug 1947-Jun 1948), Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union (26 Jan 1950-1951). He was the founder of Swatantra Party. I don't think anybody's resume would get better than this. Fittingly, he was the first recipient of Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. CR was an accomplished writer both in Tamil and English. He wrote the abridged versions of Mahabharata and Ramayana in English. In 1955, he translated Kambar's Tamil Ramayana into English. In 1965 he translated Thirukkural into English. Gandhiji once described him as"keeper of my conscience".
Kurai Onrum illai is a unique composition where the devotee has no regrets in his life. He accepts everything as God's Grace. Only a man with complete surrender and faith in God can pen anything like that. Truly, CR was a devout Vaishnavaite. Only a man who is completely contented and happy with his life can write about not having any regrets. But CR's life was far from happy. Death stalked him at all stages in his life. He was a widower by 37, lost his daughter aged 3, lost his son and both his sons in law. But even after experiencing so much pain in his life, he still penned the words Kurai Onrum Illai. It amazes me as what this man was made of ? Kurai Onrum Illai is a master piece from a complex mind, a mind which had its share of human sorrows but had the strength and wisdom to accept the higher truths of life.
There is another incident that happened in 1925 which might have triggered his mind to write the great song. The Congress had decided to boycott the British Courts. Rajaji was a loyal Congressman and there was no chance that he would take up any case. But a situation arose and CR responded. He acted according to his conscience and against the boycott. A person who was born in a lower caste was convicted by the sub-magistrate of Tirupathi for the man had entered the shrine of the Mother in Tiruchanoor. CR took up the case and fought for the man. The man was duly acquitted. Therefore, in my humble opinion Kurai Onrum Illai is a complex piece with more than one interpretation. Composed by Kadayanallur Venkatraman who set the song into three ragas namely Sivaranjini, Kapi and Sindhu Bhairavi and aptly sung by MS Amma, the song haunts the listener to this day. The last words spoken by CR at his death bed were "I am happy". It is almost impossible to emulate people like CR but we would do ourselves great favor by taking a leaf or two from his life and put that into practice. This post has come at the right time as Christmas also coincides with Rajaji's death Anniversary.
Signing off for now,
Krishna
It is Christmas time and there is fun, celebration and joy in the atmosphere. The best part is that it is snowing heavily. A white Christmas is always a special one. What could I do other than listen to my favorite songs to pass my time. So, I decided to come again with a new post.
I am a big fan of classical Carnatic music even though I don't have any knowledge about it. Its my hobby to just listen to keerthans by various composers. I came across a complex keerthan a few months ago. It was Kurai Onrum Illai sung my the great MS Amma. The song gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it. It is amazingly different from all the other Keerthans I have heard before. The devotee has no regrets and accepts everything as Lord's Grace. The song got etched in my mind and therefore I tried researching on it. This post is therefore dedicated to the idea and the man behind Kurai Onrum Illai.
The song was written by Chakravarthi Rajgopalchari (CR). CR was a freedom fighter, politician, lawyer, writer and leader of Indian National Congress who served as the last Governor General of India (21 June 1948-25 Jan 1950). He served as the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (14 July 1937-9 Oct 1939), Chief Minister of Madras State (10 April 1952-13 April 1954), Governor of West Bengal (15 Aug 1947-Jun 1948), Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union (26 Jan 1950-1951). He was the founder of Swatantra Party. I don't think anybody's resume would get better than this. Fittingly, he was the first recipient of Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. CR was an accomplished writer both in Tamil and English. He wrote the abridged versions of Mahabharata and Ramayana in English. In 1955, he translated Kambar's Tamil Ramayana into English. In 1965 he translated Thirukkural into English. Gandhiji once described him as"keeper of my conscience".
Kurai Onrum illai is a unique composition where the devotee has no regrets in his life. He accepts everything as God's Grace. Only a man with complete surrender and faith in God can pen anything like that. Truly, CR was a devout Vaishnavaite. Only a man who is completely contented and happy with his life can write about not having any regrets. But CR's life was far from happy. Death stalked him at all stages in his life. He was a widower by 37, lost his daughter aged 3, lost his son and both his sons in law. But even after experiencing so much pain in his life, he still penned the words Kurai Onrum Illai. It amazes me as what this man was made of ? Kurai Onrum Illai is a master piece from a complex mind, a mind which had its share of human sorrows but had the strength and wisdom to accept the higher truths of life.
There is another incident that happened in 1925 which might have triggered his mind to write the great song. The Congress had decided to boycott the British Courts. Rajaji was a loyal Congressman and there was no chance that he would take up any case. But a situation arose and CR responded. He acted according to his conscience and against the boycott. A person who was born in a lower caste was convicted by the sub-magistrate of Tirupathi for the man had entered the shrine of the Mother in Tiruchanoor. CR took up the case and fought for the man. The man was duly acquitted. Therefore, in my humble opinion Kurai Onrum Illai is a complex piece with more than one interpretation. Composed by Kadayanallur Venkatraman who set the song into three ragas namely Sivaranjini, Kapi and Sindhu Bhairavi and aptly sung by MS Amma, the song haunts the listener to this day. The last words spoken by CR at his death bed were "I am happy". It is almost impossible to emulate people like CR but we would do ourselves great favor by taking a leaf or two from his life and put that into practice. This post has come at the right time as Christmas also coincides with Rajaji's death Anniversary.
Signing off for now,
Krishna
Friday, December 18, 2009
Hi Guys,
The fall semester is up and it is break time. I have loads of work to finish but I doubt whether I would do any of it. It is extremely tough to work on a vacation. You need tons of passion and dedication which I totally lack in me. So, I will write my views on various issues of my concern. This is slowly becoming my favorite pastime but I do admit that it takes lot of time to publish each post. Anyways, coming to the point....I was reading an interesting article in Times. I had a good laugh after I finished reading the article.
Some of us are aware of Haagen Dazs. It is an ice cream company and is supposed to be world famous. Frankly, I had not heard of the company till date. But I checked later on and indeed it is a world famous ice cream manufacturing company. So they opened an outlet in Delhi and it created a furor in a short time. The banner boasting of the brand had a few stupid and senseless ways to promote it to the international tourists. The banner said that " access restricted to holders of international passports". I could not believe that a firm in India would not allow Indians into it. This was the most bizarre incidents of 2009. I am in fact glad that the year is over.
I thought about the incident later and I was convinced that it was just a case of
miss-communication. I don't think anybody has the courage to not allow the natives. It was a way to promote the brand to the international tourists as we are not very much aware of the brand. We are happy with Arun ice cream and we are right about our choice. But I am shocked by the way the company is being run. You cannot allow something like this to happen. It will not only bring disrepute to the organization but also to the person who is running it. I don't know how many years it will take for the firm to cover the lost ground.
Of course media intervened and gave the much needed promotion to the issue.The politicians joined the debates and finally the MD of the company announced that the company was open to all and duly apologized for hurting the local sentiments.
Signing off for now,
Krishna
The fall semester is up and it is break time. I have loads of work to finish but I doubt whether I would do any of it. It is extremely tough to work on a vacation. You need tons of passion and dedication which I totally lack in me. So, I will write my views on various issues of my concern. This is slowly becoming my favorite pastime but I do admit that it takes lot of time to publish each post. Anyways, coming to the point....I was reading an interesting article in Times. I had a good laugh after I finished reading the article.
Some of us are aware of Haagen Dazs. It is an ice cream company and is supposed to be world famous. Frankly, I had not heard of the company till date. But I checked later on and indeed it is a world famous ice cream manufacturing company. So they opened an outlet in Delhi and it created a furor in a short time. The banner boasting of the brand had a few stupid and senseless ways to promote it to the international tourists. The banner said that " access restricted to holders of international passports". I could not believe that a firm in India would not allow Indians into it. This was the most bizarre incidents of 2009. I am in fact glad that the year is over.
I thought about the incident later and I was convinced that it was just a case of
miss-communication. I don't think anybody has the courage to not allow the natives. It was a way to promote the brand to the international tourists as we are not very much aware of the brand. We are happy with Arun ice cream and we are right about our choice. But I am shocked by the way the company is being run. You cannot allow something like this to happen. It will not only bring disrepute to the organization but also to the person who is running it. I don't know how many years it will take for the firm to cover the lost ground.
Of course media intervened and gave the much needed promotion to the issue.The politicians joined the debates and finally the MD of the company announced that the company was open to all and duly apologized for hurting the local sentiments.
Signing off for now,
Krishna
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Hi Guys,
The newspapers and TV channels have been extremely busy for the past week and in the process would have made millions. At the same time there are people and the Government which have lost millions . The schools and colleges have been closed. The situation is extremely tense as there are lot of agitations, strikes, property losses, loss of lives.... However there is one man who has made history. He is Mr. K.Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). The scenario was a threat call to fast till death by KCR for a separate Telangana state.
I bet ,even he would not have expected this from his spoofy act of fast to death.The reason why I call his act as a spoof is because I believe that not everybody can undergo a fast till death. It needs great discipline, dedication and character to do that. Discipline and dedication are not achieved overnight. It may take years of self control to be like that. Some exemplary individuals who have done that before are Mahatma Gandhi and Potti Sreeramulu. Their lives are a testimony to the fact that I have mentioned before. I am afraid to say that Mr KCR has neither Discipline nor Dedication in his life. He just tried a gimmick (spoof) and surprisingly enough became a national icon. Government at the Center should or should not create a separate state is not my concern. I neither have the knowledge nor any right to argue about that. The decision should be based on the interest and needs of the people of the state and not because of somebody's fast. And that somebody should not be definitely KCR??????
The story is not a new one. The fight for Telangana has been going on for several decades. On 1 st October, 1953 the state of Andhra was established with Kurnool as its capital. However the Telangana state existed before as a separate state before it was merged with Andhra forming Andhra Pradesh with Hyderabad as its capital on 1 st Nov 1956 . This merger was done against the States Reorganization Commission Report(SRC). The SRC was constituted by the Central Government and consisted of Hon Fazal Ali, K.M.Panikker and H.N.Kunzru. After taking all the factors into consideration they concluded that in the interests of Andhra as well as Telangana, it was proposed to have Telangana area as a separate State, which may be known as the Hyderabad State with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections in 1961.
The reasons why the Central Government went against the SRC report is not known. More recently,in a fervent bid to come to power in 2004 assembly elections in AP, Congress joined hands with TRS and promised a separate state of Telangana. But with the years gone by and Congress in a super position the promises seems to have been forgotten.Anyways these are politricks.....Beyond the understanding of a common man.
The worst things are yet to come. There are already talks about separate Vidarbha and Gorkha lands. I believe in the idiom " As you sow, so shall you reap". The future looks very interesting for the time being. I am sure there will be more turnarounds and suspenses. Let us hope there will be a fair decision and people will not be affected.
Signing off for now,
Krishna
The newspapers and TV channels have been extremely busy for the past week and in the process would have made millions. At the same time there are people and the Government which have lost millions . The schools and colleges have been closed. The situation is extremely tense as there are lot of agitations, strikes, property losses, loss of lives.... However there is one man who has made history. He is Mr. K.Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). The scenario was a threat call to fast till death by KCR for a separate Telangana state.
I bet ,even he would not have expected this from his spoofy act of fast to death.The reason why I call his act as a spoof is because I believe that not everybody can undergo a fast till death. It needs great discipline, dedication and character to do that. Discipline and dedication are not achieved overnight. It may take years of self control to be like that. Some exemplary individuals who have done that before are Mahatma Gandhi and Potti Sreeramulu. Their lives are a testimony to the fact that I have mentioned before. I am afraid to say that Mr KCR has neither Discipline nor Dedication in his life. He just tried a gimmick (spoof) and surprisingly enough became a national icon. Government at the Center should or should not create a separate state is not my concern. I neither have the knowledge nor any right to argue about that. The decision should be based on the interest and needs of the people of the state and not because of somebody's fast. And that somebody should not be definitely KCR??????
The story is not a new one. The fight for Telangana has been going on for several decades. On 1 st October, 1953 the state of Andhra was established with Kurnool as its capital. However the Telangana state existed before as a separate state before it was merged with Andhra forming Andhra Pradesh with Hyderabad as its capital on 1 st Nov 1956 . This merger was done against the States Reorganization Commission Report(SRC). The SRC was constituted by the Central Government and consisted of Hon Fazal Ali, K.M.Panikker and H.N.Kunzru. After taking all the factors into consideration they concluded that in the interests of Andhra as well as Telangana, it was proposed to have Telangana area as a separate State, which may be known as the Hyderabad State with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections in 1961.
The reasons why the Central Government went against the SRC report is not known. More recently,in a fervent bid to come to power in 2004 assembly elections in AP, Congress joined hands with TRS and promised a separate state of Telangana. But with the years gone by and Congress in a super position the promises seems to have been forgotten.Anyways these are politricks.....Beyond the understanding of a common man.
The worst things are yet to come. There are already talks about separate Vidarbha and Gorkha lands. I believe in the idiom " As you sow, so shall you reap". The future looks very interesting for the time being. I am sure there will be more turnarounds and suspenses. Let us hope there will be a fair decision and people will not be affected.
Signing off for now,
Krishna
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Hi Guys,
Its been again quite some time since my last post. Frankly I am preoccupied with few other things which gives me less time and motivation to jot my views. Apart from that the winter has set in and the atmosphere and the mood has made me very lazy. Again, I did not find any interesting current affairs happening around us which could draw my attention. So for this post let me club few feel good things of the past week.
The first is of course a feel good home series victory for the Indian cricket team and a formal ranking of No 1 test side. The test series win is a pain relieving balm which the team can rub on for the pain inflicted by the brutal Aussies in the recently concluded ODI series. Of course the test matches were more one sided, but I think few individuals made it look like that. Rahul Dravid was at his best in all the matches, Sehwag was brutal in the third and all other batsmen contributed towards the team cause. Sreesanth was superb in the second test and Zaheer had a good third match. Overall it was a satisfying performance by the hosts.BCCI has to take care in preparing better test wickets rather than having to play on placid typical subcontinent tracks.
Coming to the No 1 status..... It all started under the aggressive Ganguly and the cool John Wright. Dravid, Kumble and Dhoni have done well to maintain it. The 2000 home series win against the formidable Aussies under Steve Waugh was the stepping stone which led to several test wins in Pak, Eng, SA , Aus, NZ and WI. Its been a consistent performance by the team and a few individuals and has taken 10 years to get this result.
Saina Nehwal was awarded the Sportsperson of the year. It is gladdening to hear that we are indeed looking beyond cricket. The shuttler is currently ranked 6 in the world. Its a great achievement and with the way things are going for her, she will be going up the ranking ladder.
The third interesting thing is Paa. It had a grand premiere and I also guess a great opening in the first week. I watched the movie and frankly speaking was not very much impressed. Amitabh is the heart and soul of the film. If you remove the character Auro from the movie, then Paa is just an ad for safe sex (I am sorry....thats my view). Tons of movies have been made about children with various disorders and Paa is no different. In my view TZP (Tare Zameen Par) was a better movie than Paa. The positives of the movie are superb performance by the legend AB and a sensitive and almost silent score by Illayaraja .
Well that's all from me....
Signing off.....
Krishna
Its been again quite some time since my last post. Frankly I am preoccupied with few other things which gives me less time and motivation to jot my views. Apart from that the winter has set in and the atmosphere and the mood has made me very lazy. Again, I did not find any interesting current affairs happening around us which could draw my attention. So for this post let me club few feel good things of the past week.
The first is of course a feel good home series victory for the Indian cricket team and a formal ranking of No 1 test side. The test series win is a pain relieving balm which the team can rub on for the pain inflicted by the brutal Aussies in the recently concluded ODI series. Of course the test matches were more one sided, but I think few individuals made it look like that. Rahul Dravid was at his best in all the matches, Sehwag was brutal in the third and all other batsmen contributed towards the team cause. Sreesanth was superb in the second test and Zaheer had a good third match. Overall it was a satisfying performance by the hosts.BCCI has to take care in preparing better test wickets rather than having to play on placid typical subcontinent tracks.
Coming to the No 1 status..... It all started under the aggressive Ganguly and the cool John Wright. Dravid, Kumble and Dhoni have done well to maintain it. The 2000 home series win against the formidable Aussies under Steve Waugh was the stepping stone which led to several test wins in Pak, Eng, SA , Aus, NZ and WI. Its been a consistent performance by the team and a few individuals and has taken 10 years to get this result.
Saina Nehwal was awarded the Sportsperson of the year. It is gladdening to hear that we are indeed looking beyond cricket. The shuttler is currently ranked 6 in the world. Its a great achievement and with the way things are going for her, she will be going up the ranking ladder.
The third interesting thing is Paa. It had a grand premiere and I also guess a great opening in the first week. I watched the movie and frankly speaking was not very much impressed. Amitabh is the heart and soul of the film. If you remove the character Auro from the movie, then Paa is just an ad for safe sex (I am sorry....thats my view). Tons of movies have been made about children with various disorders and Paa is no different. In my view TZP (Tare Zameen Par) was a better movie than Paa. The positives of the movie are superb performance by the legend AB and a sensitive and almost silent score by Illayaraja .
Well that's all from me....
Signing off.....
Krishna
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
