Monday, April 19, 2010

Native and Noble Man

My native Kunnam and the great Kunchithapadam iyar

In our days most of city dwellers visit their native villages for vacation. Most of city people have hailed from villages and they have migrated to different parts of the country for economic reason. Big houses, farm lands, Temples, tanks, water pump sets, and mangroves are the attractions. There were lots of downsides too.

We, some of my brothers and some of my cousins, were lucky enough to visit one such place, to go on vacation every year till class X, (my father’s native place) Kunnam, a small village near Sirkali. It was affordable tour and whatever the city children had to spend, came our way for free of cost. i.e swimming (big temple tank – my cousin Sridhar taught me swimming , Gardening - we used to compete among cousins to water the plant and plucking the flowers, take rest in a resort. (house itself is very big – we could take rest and play the whole day). We play cricket, hide and seek, cards, Kavai and kitty pul (game played with sticks) seven stones etc and it was all fun.

Even, reaching the village itself was fun travelling by ‘Day express’ ( it used to be called Cholan express) up to Sirkali, and from there, we had to go by a horse cart for about 8 km. I have seen and enjoyed the horse’s ability to run backward as well, (as if, to convey I too have a reverse gear) with the same speed.

It was such a good experience that any material/comfort like good food, tender coconut, fruits were available in plenty and timely coffee, good bath, early bed, listening to stories or radio & early rise were daily routine but what is scarce was the paper money or coins. Our grandparents had hardly any money with them. But they were very happy indeed.

They did seek happiness without money. In contrast to the present condition, they always experienced happiness directly, not thru money.

There were so many green memories that flash as a colorful breeze in the mind but there are two things which is always in the top of my mind. One is an activity and other is about a great person.

The Activity:

The activity was going to post office every single day with the expectation of receiving a letter. One person from every house would be there for about 45 minutes in the post office to receive the letter directly, as soon as the mail arrived, thus making the postman’s job easier .People who did not have any possibility of receiving letter also would be there in time. Some people would receive letters and the rest would go back home only to come back with same expectation the next day.

What is fascinating with this routine was, no one would feel disappointed or dejected. Generally, when you have expectation, most of the time, you end up feel disappointed.

The process, as such, (with expectation, joy, receiving or not receiving letters) was continuous and daily routine and the enthusiasm never diminished.

Those 45 minutes, people enjoyed together and used to crack jokes and pulled each other’s leg by making sarcastic comments. The time would go, irrespective of age difference among the crowd, as if everyone was at the college campus. This routine made them feel young.





The Person:

There used to be one great person called Kunchidapadam Iyer and he was quadriplegic. (is paralysis caused by illness or injury to a human that results in the partial or total loss of use all of their limbs).
He used to be in a sitting posture with the minimum cloths covering the abdomen area. At any part of time, there would be at least 2 or 3 youngsters, who were on vacation or unemployed, then. The youngsters of couple of generations spent their time with him either talking or did some work by following his instructions and in the process learnt so many things. To put generation in to perspective, my father when he was young learnt many things from him and I have learnt as well.

One can wonder, a person who did not have any touch sense or feel below the neck, what could he teach or instruct. Any one on earth would get amazed with his knowledge in areas spreading cooking, simple machine, pluming, investigating, literature (Tamil, Sanskrit & English), lateral thinking and what not.

When a person knock his door, he would ask who and upon hearing the answer he would move his hand to pull a rope near to him and the door which is 30 feats away would open. It is all simple machine technique (like the one used in Tamil movie aboorva sahotharargal in which kamal would place a ball in one place and in couple minutes one arrow would pierce thru Delhi Ganesh’s body.).While the visitors go out, he would request them to close the door and go. After they leave, he would pull another rope and the wooden latch would close the door.

My father told me that he learnt various techniques in cooking, book binding and art of packing from him.

Once, I wanted to put a exact hole in iron sheet (old Biscuit tin sheet ) to make washer kind of a thing . He asked me to put a cycle iron ball in the place where I want to put a hole and he asked me place a nut below it .He asked me to hit exactly on the iron ball with the hammer once. To my surprise, it was just like hole made by a punching machine.

What is more astounding is the way he was instructing in a most accurate flow with an adequate timing. For every work, only through his mouth he has to make the other person do whatever thing he wanted to do. Most of the time, he may not be able to see the doer’s face, as he could not turn or change his position himself. So, he has to give the flow of instruction absolutely spot on, all the time.

Once, one of my uncles was pumping the water thru hand pump for him. He had asked him to throw 3 to 4 buckets of water. My uncle, puzzled by his instruction asked him for what. He said because of his handicap there is a possibility that someone could have poured poison in the pipe. So he is not only intelligent but extremely cautious too.

Every person in the village went to his house again and again to spend time with him, thus negating the economic theory “Diminishing Marginal Utility”.

Lets us analyze the challenge in two angles. One, from his, he had to have the best of patience to instruct. He had to test the doer’s understanding and test the level of progress, time to time. Above all, he had to keep his enthusiasm and interest at its peak to do different activities with different people.

The other being the doer wanted to kill the time hence he had gone to his house. Unless, the activity, instruction, purpose, result interest him, he would not go again and he would not let his brother or his family member go to him.
The Great man with voracious knowledge took sanyas and died at the same village. His Samadhi is beside my great grandfather’s Samadhi.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Words & Bhavams (expressions)

Every language has words for every bit of emotions and expressions. It is obvious that the human has constantly found or created words to improve and differentiate the change of emotions. Like Music, plain words without any expressions (bhavam) will not get registered in the listeners/reader’s mind.
Communication will serve its purpose if only the listener or the reader receives and visualizes exactly.
If there are no words in the communication, it will be only a sign language. It reminds me of a game called dumb charade.
Dumb charade is a game, wherein the team is divided in to two ,one gives the clue in sign language and the other to find the words.
The corporate world encourages this, among its staff to play this, as a part of training program. The modern trainers believe that this game , improves understanding and communicating skill among the team members. It will surely make them to improve their body language. Because it is believed that the body language should be around 60 to 70% of our total communication.
Generally, in a life full of clutter, making the ears to listen or making the eye balls to stop is a real challenge for the speaker or the writer, respectively.
There are so many words are being used to convey the expression or interest the listener. Apart from adjectives and adverb, there are oxymoron, euphemism and jargon.
What interest me the most is oxymoron:-
Oxymoron is a figure of speech, wherein two separate contradictory terms appear side by side. It is gives a very different expression and yet it is acceptable to everyone. Indeed, it draws a very good attention.
I have given below some very popular expressions:-
Open secret, clearly confused, found missing, act naturally, near miss, almost exactly, same difference,
Minor crisis, peacekeeper missile, crash landing, old news, silent scream, almost there, only choice,
Working holiday, constant variable, pretty ugly, free trade, exact estimate, virtual reality, original copies



In most of the corporate training program, you find an exercise on it. The trainers believe the usage increase their creativity and dramatization.
I see it, as a metaphor with co-exist principal of two competing entities. Now a days, lot of big companies selecting another company to pitch for 2 different type of business. Ie Company A and B together pitch for big business wherein whichever company gets the contract for software the other company gets the hardware business.
It is great isn’t. two different companies exist together and make a business out of it instead of fighting for business.
Euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the receiver or to make it less troublesome for the speaker.
It may also substitute a description of something or someone to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated.
Lot of friends from Kerala, use a word “ blade” for finance company and “award” for reserved person. Blade for its sharpness and in award movies there are hardly any conversation.
Some good examples are bath tissue for toilet paper, differently abled for disabled , legal action for sue, enhanced interrogation technique for torture.
Every Marketing person wants to use this to convey subtly and to draw attention.
Jargon
is a word mostly used among the people in particular trade/area or who have a common interest. Just imagine, there 5 doctors and 3 auto mechanics in a party . The terms often used by the doctors, the mechanic will not understand and vise versa.
It is advised that the jargons should be avoided when people from other group are present.
Adjectives and adverbs describe and quantify the noun and verb respectively. It adds value so that the person describes the noun and an action and the listener can visualize it.
Without these, any conversation will be mere words and it won’t draw a picture in listener’s mind. Every copy writer is fascinated with the words and readers reaction to it.
Even today word of mouth is the powerful medium and always the book is more interesting than the movie taken on the book. The reader actually draws a picture in his mind with bound less imagination, whereas the movie is restricted to the Director’s imagination.
In the market place, unlike the past, where only marketing department used to have meetings and presentations, now every professional has to conduct the meeting and put across the point of views and debate and convince to get going.
Among next generation, reading habit is diminishing rapidly, and youngsters are busy sending message like this.
U r back, gr8, c u 2morrow ( when a friend comes from abroad) & the reply is “k” (ok)
I read one anchor story in the newspaper that hundreds of languages are vanishing every year and that made me to think how words and expressions are changing in the surviving language itself.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Hamsanandi and Sohini

One has to understand , learn and master something to write about it, is a general process. The kid while learning to walk (toddler) scribbles on the wall with whatever object in hand and the parents used to be happy about the kid’s drawing ability. I am exactly doing that while I write about Music . I request the readers to take the parent’s role. As a novice and a listener , I write as I see it and as I read it.
In my teen age, I liked all the A M Raja’s song so Kalaiyum Neeye Malaium Neeye attracted me for its strong base , karvai etc. Through that song I got attracted to raga Hamsanandi. I followed this raga with similar songs in Hindustani – it is called rag Sohini.
Hamsanandi is the janya ragam of 53rd Melakartha Gamanasrama and it is evening raga .
Sohini is the janya of Marwa Thaat and it is a pre-dawn raga
Hamsanandi is a shadava shadava raga ( 6 notes) in arohana and avarohan
S R1 G3 M2 D2 N3 S
S N3 D2 M2 G3 R1 S
The swaras are Shudha Rishabham, Antara Gandharam, Prati Madhyamam, Chatushruti Dhaivatam and Kakali Nishadham.
In carnatic music there are only few compositions so not much of scope for listeners. The few are Needu Mahima – Muthiah Bagavathar, Tirupathi Venkataramana- Purandara dasar, Pavana Guru-Lalitha dasar, Srinivasa Thiruvengadamudayan-Papanasam Sivan.
In cinema, there are lot of compositions (apart from Kalaiyum Neeye) and all of them are very popular.
Vedam anuvilum – salangai oli, Vaanam Niram Maarum- Dhavani Kanavugal,
O Poo Malai- Iniya Uravu Poothadhu, Raga dheebam Yetrum –Payangal Mudivadhilai, Rathiriyil Poothirukkum – Thanga Magan,
thesulavuthe then malarale in manalane mangaiyin bagyam

There are lot of compositions in hindi cinema too, but I am giving below the two best songs I have enjoyed:-
Kuhoo kuhoo boley re koyaliya- Swarna sundaree
Prema Jogana bana key- Mughal – e- aazam

In Mughal –e –aazam , the music director naushad wanted the best singer to sing for the role Taan sen in that movie and he had selected Bade Gulam Ali Khan, who did not want to sing for cinema. So, instead of saying no, he asked for Rs.25000/- per song then , when lata was given Rs..250 per song. Naushad gave that for 2 songs in that movie and one of the songs is Prema jogana in Rag Sohini. Similar thing happened in Tamil Cinema as well. K B Sundaramba did not want to sing for cinema at one time and she had asked for 1 lakh then for the movie Nandanar. She did sing and the success of the movie etc are historic record..

I am giving the link so that you all can listen .
I would have listened to Kalapini Komkali several times .great ! Ultimate ! wow!
I would travel any distance to listen to her.
Raag sohini by Kalapini Komkali
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU7G0uL3QGo&feature=fvw

Do I have to tell anything about Balachandar. The speed , the best veena player available today will tell you, he has to take 100 years to get .

veenai balachandar - hamsanandi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2be-QXe5moo

pavanguru by Trissur Brothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B9vsfDh9M&feature=related
Srinivasa _-Papanasam sivan by Ranjani & Gayathri
they are great singers and i am sure you all will enjoy as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvKwaKgd0RM
Pahi jagaj janani- Swathi Thirunal by Priya sisters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvsmAK3JsUk

very popular song.
Rafi & Lata - Kuhu Kuhu Bole Koyaliya - Suvarna Sundari [1957]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCRaxeEe2IU
Ustad Raza Ali Khan Raga Sohini

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9guLXYGj_Zk

historic
ustad bade ghulam ali khan-mughal-e-azam –prem jogan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wie2DTVt_FM&feature=related

great composition
vedam anuvilum – salangai oli
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hKqr0ngftg
Kalaiyum neeye -A M Raja
http://www.ragasinfilmmusic.blogspot.com/2010/01/kalaiyum-neeye-thaen-nilavu.html
http://www.chandrakantha.com/raga_raag/film_song_raga/sohini.html

Readers feel free to correct me to understand the music better.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

LOGIC , ELIMINAITON RULE & DIAGNOSIS

I was amazed and astonished the way the problem was analyzed in two incidents , wherein the problem was zeroed down and found by eliminating n number of factors . One, I read in Akbar and Birbal stories and the other, I heard about Dr. Rangachari’s diagnostic ability. ( Dr.Rangachari’s statue is there in GH, Chennai).

Dr. Rangachari -- one lady patient came to him with a severe head ache with a decade of painful experience. By the time she came to him, she has seen many expert doctors in the city . None of them could cure her , as all the available tests (eye,neuro,ent etc ) were showing normal.

Dr Rangachari listened to her about an hour and came to understand that she was going through this pain from the time she got married .While talking, the Doctor casually asked her about the costly diamond nose ring , she proudly replied that it was gifted by their in-laws at the time of wedding. He too wondered and thought the value should be around fifty thousand, then.

He gave her normal pain killer tablets for 2 days and asked her to come after 10 days. While she was leaving the chamber, the doctor asked her to wear some other gold nose ring as soon as she reached home and asked her to wear the diamond one, only for very special occasion.

The lady came after 10 days, wearing beautiful gold nose ring, only to thank him, as the decade long pain has gone even before she consumed the 2 days course of medicine.

Doctor has analysed the problem could be the rays and its angle from the diamond nose ring and it was spot on.

The other one was even more interesting to me – the Birbal’s ability in visualizing the problem:-

An old lady beggar ( begging is her profession in the city Agra) was crying and shouting that she had lost a bag full of gold coins. (equaling to couple of lakhs in today’s value) . Everyone in the city strongly believed that she had gone mad. Logically, as beggar, how on earth, she can possess that amount of money. This news went to the king Akbar and by seeing her, Akbar’s intuition was saying there was a truth in her. So he called the minister Birbal to find this, as quick as possible. He also order that the lady would be the guest in the Palace till the case was solved. Now, Birbal had to solve this hopeless case that too in a very short time because he would be the reason for keeping a ugly beggar in the palace .

He spoke to the lady and found that the lady saved money for several decades and she thoughtfully exchanged the money to higher denomination to keep small quantity but higher value ( like several bronze coins to few silver, silvers to gold like that ).She had hidden that under the vilva tree (bael , bilva) outside the city. The place which was shown by her was the beginning of the forest, where no one was there. Hopeless clues. is isn’t.

The next day he had announced the medical conference for the doctors who had cured diseases with medicines from vilva tree. He had sent all the practitioners with certificates and medals and requested the doctors who had used roots to stay for the next day. There was only one who used the root of the vilva tree. When asked, the doctor said the root was brought by the patient’s servant. He immediately brought the servant and enquired to find the gold coin bag in his house.

Birbal analysed the person who had gone there to dig under the vilva tree, could be, only for medicine. Accurate!

It is amazing because of three things .

how many factors we have to eliminate in these cases . if you put that in excel--à if command - conditions will go in pages.

In the present condition the doctors will ask for scan report from head to toe .by doing so, the patient is poor by couple of lakhs and will surely feel the head ache is lesser painful.

In the second case, the cops will put all the known thieves behind the bar and torture them while the case goes on till the lady dies happily in the palace.


Technological development should help the instinct and it should reduce the solving time and increase the accuracy instead it is making the human brain lazy. I used to remember so many telephone numbers and figures when I was a novice accountant in 1986. Today as consultant, I do not even remember my wife’s cell number. Thanks to cell phone!
In the above two cases, it is the out of box thinking which makes me wonder.
bag theft birbal eliminated thieves
head ache dr eliminated the problem inside the body
are we thinking laterally ? is technology stopping us from doing?
we just don't do it.
am I making myself clear!

Friday, March 12, 2010

PARADIGMATIC CONVERGENCE

Everyone wants to improve from the state they are in to a desired state with a defined purpose and policy . It is a continuous process. I am curious to analyse the path , process and how the purpose and policy is sustaining .when I do so ,it is amazing to know even without the knowledge of the doer, the path is not changing but the very purpose is vanished after a particular point thus making the path as circle.

Imagine in a path ( with an assumption - if you go upward the result is positive and if you go downward the result is negative ie like a curve in the graph) , you go forward with the motto in mind that whatever you are doing is right . After an era or period of time, you will realize the path was circle. That is why the process was giving positive result up to one point and after that , though steps forward was same from the start point , it went downward and started giving negative result.

This is my perception and I find the commonality in various things:-

Media : From the time it is born, it is continuously trying to update/educate people with whatever happening in various aspects of life. It also followed some strict policy like it should not publish news which are not good to see in the morning like train accidents- pictures of dead bodies etc.. not to carry obscene pictures (some papers started separate pullout to take care of this segment – without affecting the main paper and its policies). So, to do this professionally they needed freedom.

Media is going in the same path with freedom , recently ended up competing for viewership and readership.(Like your T20 cricket , no matter what stroke you play, get a six or a Four.) In the process teaming up with terrorist (though unknowingly- I Guess) in Mumbai attack .

Terrorists plan and execute some kind of attack and their last and important relay is to spread the fear and insecurity in people’s mind. Like any other relay race, you put your best athlete in the last part of relay to get the better result. The terrorist were more than happy, got better result than expected and got astonished the way our media performed in Mumbai attack. The terrorist even gave command to their team members just seeing the media.

If a young girl is molested by some miscreants in the middle of the road, every single media person will be rather fighting among themselves for better angle to shoot and show as live and exclusive than saving her.

If this was the purpose when it started, they would have got so much to carry then, because hundreds years ago the society would have been at least couple of percentage less civilized.






Middle class and Resources: The poor middle class family obviously had very little resources to support the big family. So young kids thought that they should study well, earn well to own a big house in order to give a better standard of living to the family. The young society went in that path and did own a big 3 bed rooms flats for themselves eventually, but only to house 2 (wife and himself) . While, the young man who is working at US time in software industry , promptly found parents a place at old aged homes, tries his best to find time to even speak with wife, as she is working in UK time in same industry .

When they set a goal they wanted big house to make the family happy . You long for it and when you reach it the purpose itself has disappeared. As I am thinking this , my mind is indexing Adi Shankarar’s Bajagovindam.




Artham anartham in bhajagovindam
artham anartham bhávaya nityamnásti tataç sukhaleùaç satyamputrádapi dhanabhájam bhètiçsarvatraiúá vihitá rètiç.(29)`Wealth is no good'; thus reflect always; there is not the least happiness therefrom; this is the truth. For the wealthy, there is fear even from a son; everywhere this is the regular mode.



FOOD : Annam cha Brahma – as per veda, brahmam is everywhere and nowhere . but, in search, every important thing are seen as brahma. So food is important indeed for anyone to exist as it is supposed to give energy and strength .

But now every single ingredient of food is acting like poison, though which is poison and which is not - varies from person to person.

Parents and Kids education:

The sloka from hitopadesh is conveying subtly the parents responsibility in educating the child.

mAtA shatruH pitA vairI, yena bAlo na pAThitaH na shobhate sabhAmadhye, haMsamadhye bako yathA

mother is enemy, father is competitor, by whom the child is not educated (who) doesn't grace the (august) assembly, as the crane amongst swans

here in this shloka from hitopadesh, of course, the king is thinking about his useless princes who are not worthy yet of being a king. and he is thinking that as a parent it is his responsibility to educate his children, else they will be like crane among swans.

The parents exactly understood and accepted the responsibility and went in that path only to end up helping the business of top 10 schools of their city. Because, they want to put their money only in the schools with the track record.(winning horse – safe bet ! is it not). Teaching profession, per se , was a service to the society has turned now in to big Industry.

Knowledge: People with less education thought had they been educated they would have got knowledge to handle many things with confidence. In that path the society studied well and got convinced about the possession of knowledge. Now , the knowledge itself is ruling human. A man does not believe the doctor ,he checks the tablets and side effects in the net or goes to another doctor for second opinion.

The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.

The man with the knowledge is today so much confused and in the beginning of the path he was longing for clarity is isn’t.

Circle – half positive and the rest negative though the path is same –when I wonder this loop, I remember the phrase from Garuda puranam which I listened some time ago:-

It is like this – when asked, the man with wants always behind material and to get that, he is doing lot of sins and he dies – so what happens ! Garuda replies “ Punar daridhara Punar Papihi” meaning again born as man with wants and again a sinner ----- the loop goes on.


To make my self clear , I certainly do not wear a mask of negativism, I only wonder the circular path, loop mentioned in the garuda puranam and so many factors of life and its commonality.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Journey starts

Hai,

I thought of writing just plain and simple only to realise, it is as difficult as singing only sa , pa ,sa for hours.

when I read one of the lectures of Sringeri swamigal wherein he has answered someone, about the mukthi, "it is the destination and you are starting the journey now and probably you may reach after couple of janma."

so i have started the journey and hope to reach the state of meaningful writing and useful writing.

hope I will think good and write good which will be atleast useful to me when I read.
please read and comment and post your thoughts to enlighten me.



Kannan.r