Last few days have been good...

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the past few weeks. This was the first time in years that I had 'vela' time...I made good use of it...I have been gymming regularly and my trainer (Former national Champ) taught me some great things about keeping fit....His one liners:
"Weight uthana aasan hai..weights se fayda uthana mushkil"
"Fit dikhna to zaruri hai...par usse zaruri hai asal me fit rehna"
"Dabba kha ke koi strong nahi banta" (Discouraging use of dietary supplements which I never took, anyways....
I feel much more fit already .... And 2 packs have come....4 more to go :)
Then the Music Stuff...
We (My sister and I) were able to record sm of our original compositions at a studio...Considering what a meagre amt i had to spend and that the studio artists are accustomed to arranging music (Instrumental part) for regional movies like "Mitwaa pardesi" "Balma anari" and for artists(?) like Manoj Tiwari and Chaila Bihari :D , it has come out reasonably well....
Soon to be uploaded on Youtube :)
And then my efforts to learn the Synthesizer and teach it 2 my sis...has been fun. I have met my friends and relatives as well...Not to mention the countless movies I have watched....

Only thing I have not done is reading the jornal papers sent to me by my PhD guide... :(

Inspired by life.....

Yes...it does end today....I am leaving Manipal for good.
All of us love our alma matter and so do I. Sometimes its just blind love. You curse your institution a great deal, but when you meet some arbit "unclejee"or "auntijee" on your way back home in the train, who talk ill of your institution, you get annoyed.
But now that I look back, I ask myself if it was a right decision to come so far....what did i seek...and what have i found?
Seems a natural question now...
A good decision is based on logic and rationale. It may not always yield the best result, considering the chaotic world we live in...so many parameters...a million choices..and sometimes even choice, is an illusion.
What have I done here that deserves mention? I have done practically everything that i could have, and have been through almost all situations....sometimes shitty and sometimes pleasant.
Perhaps i could have done it differently and perhaps better. But I see myself in the mirror and what I am today, I owe it to this institution. What if i had been somewhere else? What and who would I have been? Maybe someone better....more successful, and maybe worse....But I would not have been what I am today- I would have been someone different.

In all second tier (Non IIT) engineering schools in india life starts this way: You enter, cursing the college and think that the institution does not deserve you. Thats what I thought. I was foolish as always. But I did learn soon that for the motivated, there are many opportunities here, a few of which, probably even much more reputed institutions cannot boast of.
But that does not count...To everyone who joins an institution, learn to respect the institution, feel proud about it. Without pride, nothing can be achieved. If you are gripped by the" I deserve better" syndrome, think if you are the best ever to have joined the institution, and think honestly. If you are, do what you please. But if you are not, then there is no reason why you cannot belong there. I say this because this is a suicidal tendency and it leads you into chaos. After 4 years, you will end up in some worse place and crib again. "Vicious cycle".

I have learned things the hard way. But yes, I have, in the end. Yes like all systems, this system has its own flaws. It has all the sham, drudgery that we all hate. But its not any different else where. Trust me, it isn't.

I saw some friends here who keep blaming the system. But in the end its just what you do with yourself. No doubt the system needs to be improved. But did u share your ideas with the management? Did you make a small effort to help out your juniors who are in the same soup now as you were in the past?NO. So lets stop all this and get on with it. Lets give back more than we took from our institution, help it grow. Because its yours. By choice or by chance, but you belong here. It made you what you are.

As i leave this place today, I will miss it all. Not only the respect and the affection, also the cheapness and jealousy.
It has taught me all what i know today. I raise a final toast to my institution : I indeed am, "INSPIRED BY LIFE" ..

Pumping Iron :)

Yes! its true....let me end all speculation about the topic by asserting proudly that i have indeed been sweating it out in the gym :) This blog is not about Arnold Schwartznegger (Dunno if i spelt it right) and though i have been lifting modest weights....u got 2 admit it still is iron....
(The assertion is needed as when i told one of my buddies about this....he couldn't help laughing )


When i was heading for Switzerland, i had promised people, that my physique will be all built up, by the time i get back. (Well building a castle in the air is always a pleasant experience ) I had pictured myself running miles through the swiss streets just like Rocky Balboa darting across the streets of Philadelphia.....you wont believe it, but i had bought a similar pullover for the added effect :) And not to mention myself running in knee deep snow like Stallone in Rocky 4 and Cliffhanger :)

But when i reached there, food was a big prob....for a vegetarian...and for a month, i survived on cheese and chocolates....which were not too helpful for my six pack :)
And yes...i did try...swimming quite often...and also went jogging a couple of times....but soon the subzero temperatures made my soul freeze and the sole of my 'Made in India' shoes crack into shreds. So did end my odyssey through the Alps:(

My motivation was almost dead...but then one day, the Corporate Research and Technology Dept. celebrated its anniversary in the most unexpected fashion. We were told to wear good shoes and be prepared for the surprise celebration the next day. (I borrowed the shoes...and was expecting some picnic of sorts...but i was in for a surprise!) Next day an army of 100 volunteers swarmed an orphanage in Austria, (Armed with bulldozers, shovel trucks, wall saws chain saws etc!!!) and we were made into teams....each led by an orphan child....and our aim was to build them a park, which we called "HILTIANA".....we all worked for 12 Hours ...with just a 30 min lunch break in between, for that....I was in the carpentry section and at the end of the day i had...with the help of my team...built 24 park benches!
I saw all of the teams working in unison, from unit head to the delivery guy.....as if they were competing against each others....wow! and not surprisingly....by the end of the day, we had moved 200 tonnes of material and made a theme park from scratch! The manager of the orphanage told us that they had planned to do the same job over the course of 3 years! but here it was: done by a team of 100 ppl in 12 hours!
I did learn a lot that day......(No I am not talking about how good a carpenter I am now :))
about the swiss way...their teamwork, dignity of labor and their way of giving back to the society...the day was followed by a musical concert and dinner which we all loved.
But you may be wondering where does gymming come into picture in this incident that i've narrated....well there is a specific connection....it was warm and sunny that day (20 degrees-ya thats hot for these guys!!) and soon these guys removed their shirts...to reveal washboard abs...and many guys also had six packs!! Now i know why these guys took to the stairs while i waited for the lift :) These guys are insane-i thought...the head of my unit must be over 50...but he jogs 50 km every weekend!! and you can see grannies cycling dressed up like Lance Armstrong!!
So thats wen i decided i got 2 give it a try....not that i wanna look like hulk hogan (I know i cant....even if i want :) ) but yes, just to feel and look fit.
So i've been putting the plan 2 practice since last 20 days in Manipal ....and while the much hyped six pack may be six years away...i am seeing some results already :) ahem ahem.....

So all weaklings (like me )...get up and get going..... :) to the neighbourhood gym of course !

Musings about music:

In my last post perhaps i took too pessimistic a stance it seems..... i do defintitely agree that india has talent and perhaps i was wrong to say that music here is dead......but in the quality which is inherent in the indian tradition should reach the masses and the taste of the masses should improve....As my friend Keshav comments.....a revolution is due in indian music...if it be so...i will hope that it sure comes to the mainstream...............

Music is dead....

I had heard somewhere...
"bullshit can take you to the top, but cant keep u there..."
When it comes to the music scenario of India....i cant say the same....
Am not on a vacation now but can recall my ordeals last summer as i switched on the idiot box....now i know why it's called the idiot box...atleast wen it came to music, it had nothing to offer. I have been an ameateur composer myself and met many others like me...from various parts of india and though we have no dearth of talent, i have no reason not to assume that the future is goin to be worse....
Lets analyse the scenario step by step....first comes our own tradition of indian classical music.... Which unfortunately is like chess....u cannot enjoy the game without knowing the rules of it....as u become familliar with it it starts enchanting you like nothing that you have heard before.....
On my wayto mumbai in train i met 2 young musicians (like me...[:)]) Damien from australlia and Rastalucia from italy....they were country/ jazz artists and were trying to explore the depths of indian music....trying to acquire that 'critical mass' of knowledge that would enable them to fathom the depths of indian music.....They were a delight to talk to ....they were composing a song on GANGAJi... that was very touching to kno....
I am not trying to impress u with my appreciation of classical music but trying to bring home the fact that even ppl. from atotally different musical background can like and appreciate the Indian Classical music...because they want to know the rules of the game....they do not dismiss the game simply without trying to play it even once.....Sad is the state that we have rejected anything even remotely associated with classical music....but it is a fact that whenever these classical maestroes have come upfront commercially, they have created magic like never before...(remember shubha mudgal in ab ke saawan or ustad sultan khan in piya basanti?)
Sans appreciation the line of classical musicians is dying out in a country where music is not even a commercial sellout...but is commercial bullshit....
Now consider the folk legacy we have....artists like sharada sinha and the mangniyars of rajasthan....But when it comes to regional music....say a bhojpuri song.....'chailla bihari and manoj tiwari" with their shameless songs is the pick. I remember sitting with my sis after a long jog in morabadi maidaan in the nearby rama temple....They turned on the loudspeakers for the 'bhajans'.....shocking it is that instead of playing an Anup jalota or Hariom sharan song, they play some stupid parody of A himesh song...... urging God " Ek Baaar AAJA AAJA......SSSSS"
Now if i was God.... i wud have come "ek baar" so spell doom upon that stupid pujaari with my teesri ankh....
How can youth even like a song of folk genre when he/she is exposed to such crap in the name of folk music? So u kno what...ppl assume that folk itself is crap and reject it....'

Now coming to nON FILMY- INDIPOP\rock GENRE.....We were exposed to the wave of remixes, where a song was not known by the singer, but by the item girl who danced in it.....I am not totally against remixes....liked one or too long back like 'parde me rehne do" by asha bhosle and 'Noorie' by Baali Sagoo.... But what was served on the platter later was simply unacceptable....It is such a disgrace that i better not talk about it....
We do not have the BAND culture here in India, Unlike pakistan with notable exceptions such as euphoria and the Indian Ocean....but how much does quality music sell? It is restricted to the classes andf the masses donot appreciate it because their conception of music has been made so warped by what they are frequently exposed to in the name of music.....What sells is soulless music by JAZZY B, some stupid anglicised pseudo indian Rappers and stuff? It is a torture to the mind, body and soul to listen to such 'acclaimed' artists.....
Now coming to filmi music.....ya its big....so big that it has cast its shadow on all types of music prevalent....whatever i write may not apply to some great musicians who are a saving grace...the last hpoe for hapless music starvrd people....
First of all, no orignality..... I heard the music of the movie gangster and liked it....but alas, such has become the state of our industry that if something is good, i get suspicious.... mOST SONGS FROM GANGSTER ARE BLUNT COPIES...EVEN THE POPULAR SONG FROM WOH LAMHE!!!! Better not talk about it ....so lets talk about quality....
Firstly, lyrics are lame..... was watching a song from movie VIVAH in the mess recently....
Wanna write a song? technique#1:
The lyrics of a romantic song:
"Mujhe haq hai, tujhe dekhoon...dekhta hi rahoon...
piya piya boole mera jiya"
Now this song is from a big banner movie...the song and the video must have cost half a crore to make!!!! with such banal , cliche lyrics? Even my mallu friend from saudi arabia can write better lyrics in hindi!!!!!
And i am not joking....people with no formal training write such good songs in bands, but here we have a famous...professional lyricist??
Technique#2 for lyrics....dont have any lyrics...just repeat the same damn word for one whole line of the meloday; as in( "junoo jonooo junooo junooo)(multiplied by three) or "tera tera tera sasur" .....
Technique #3 Write hinglish songs like "Crazy kiya re" and "my love 4 u is not a one night stand"
Technique #4 Howl with meaningless sounds for the entire melody: eg"
OOOOOOOOOOOO ASHIK BANAYA...."
there are many more....but there are limits to my typing speeed...
Lyrics are important...just see a part of the lyrics of the great song by bob dylan

Like a rolling stone:
"Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall
"You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown'
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it fee
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

see the difference? ... music is about feelings, about revolution...and u need lyrics to convey some thing for that.
Coming to the melody, i feel sad to think that we donot have talent in the industry....Surprisingly where every other college band has a good composition of its own, our great musicians have to beg, borrow and steal for their melodies....the original they create have no original orchestration, just techno beats and lack soul...just think what the chartbuster "crazy kiya re" is like.
There is no orignality with people bound to stereotypes.
And talking of such innovative methods, one just cannot getaway without mentioning the masters of the art- the great himesh reshammia, pritam et al.....
How can people buy such bullshit crap?" today if reshammia is the king and compares himself to rd burman or brayan adams in public, who is 2 balme? its only us...sadly....
Whenever there is a talent hunt to find a good singer, i feel the twinge of the same frustration.....a singer is onlly as good as a composition....if crazy kiya re was sung by lata, even then i wud consider it the same bullshit. Why dont we have a talent hunt for composers and artists and not only for people who learn a song by rote, rewindind the tape fifty times to learn a song? These talent shows, particularly the recent ones, are filled with people who look better than they sing....If they want models and belly flaunting babes instead of singers, why not try miss India? The worst thing about the indian film music is that "na khud sudharta hai, na baaki forms ko aage badhne deta hai..."
And lastly, The western music we indians hear is mostly limited to peppy stuff like ronan keating, shakira or to heavy death metal..... we have not been exposed to mature forms...even rock music all over the world is deteriorating fast....from the age where music was salvation, music was revolution, music was life , we are drifting into an age where music is bullshit..
Jim morrison said longtime back "rock is dead now"
I got 2 say before i sign off "Indian music is dead now....."

REVELATIONS...

I heard last from ADITYA last when TECHTATVA was on... he had been with me for hardly a month but we got to know that our interests were strikingly similar....To the uninitiated, aditya Gurtu is a third year Electrical Engineering student of indian origin, from UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL, U.K (if u havnt heard of it, it is the second ranked in Electrical inthe U.K, (and above oxford and cambridge)

He was here for two month to do his summer internship under IASTAE summer exchange and was working under Prof. Satyanaranan, and we met one day , both trying to avoid the torrents , standing under the Mess shed. I got to kno all about him and his interests...he was a drummer in a rock band. I tried performing for Interaction with him as our band drummer, but sadly enough, he fell ill. But yes, we did jam and it was great.. (in their university they have gigs atleast twice every week!). I also joined his proj. and so we had lots of interaction. He later left for IIT Bombay to do another proj there.... I told him stuff about B'bay and IIT and he told me about his university and system....Tis guy also knows about RANCHI ( BCOZ OF YOGDA SATSANG ASHRAM.)

He is back in london, has mailed me now and here i share it with you ppl( dunno if it's right, but this will be an eye opener for you). We go about cursing this place but it,s not that bad....see what a brilliant student fromm a reputed foreign university has to stay about it.

Hey Himanshu,

Was just remembering u yesterday whilst looking at myphoto's! How is the tech fest going? Wish i could havetaken part in it. R U working on anything interesting?Arrived back in the UK about 10 days ago. IITB wasgreat - Prof. Gadre is such a friendly humble guy. Iwas more working with his PhD students in the DSP Lab.I worked on some basic DSP theories as well as lookinginto Software Defined Radio (SDR). It was quite toughbut intersting work. I also attended a few of Gadre'slectures & Labs.IITB seems like quite a well funded Uni. The campuswas very green (as u said) & hostel 13 had a greatview over the lake. The students there on average didseem quite intelligent - however, i was glad to see,they're not all geniuses (like my father likes to makeout! :) ).I managed to make friends with a few musicians but idont think they had much time to really practice. Theyhad exams so everyone was working hard. I definatelyprefered Manipal in an all round sense - people atManipal seem more chilled out & socially healthy. Iwas really glad I met talented musicians such as you &your friends - and was glad to see that at least Uguys have the time to pursue your hobbies. IT isimportant to keep that balance (as im sure u know) &at IIT I felt they kinda missed it. Go Manipal! ;)Also got to see the mumbai sites with my cousins wholive there. It seems like a very vibrant city - i wasthere during that Ganesh Fetival so it was a verylively atmosphere - alot of street drummers who iquite enjoyed watching.Since i returned to the UK, have been very busymeeting up with friends and going to various officialengagements run by the Royal Academy of Engineeringwhich have been great. Am back at University next weekbut have so many job & internship applications to fillout.I also have to decide whether to drop 'DigitalFilters'&'Computer arch' in place of an open module ofmy choice (I can choos anything from Hindu Monism toRussian Studies!). What d'you think?R u still working with prof satya? hows the everythingelse?Good to hear from u - stay in touch.

adi

The aftermath....

For the information of my friends who read the last blog, i won two prizes on the same proj in TECHTATVA and am pursuing the proj under another prof....(In all i won five :-))