Digital 2 Film

When everyone in the world of photography is upgrading to digital, I kind of downgraded to film :). Said goodbye to my Nikon and got a new Canon Elan 7N and a 100-300 mm lens. Choosing the camera body was easy. The lens took me sometime. Oh the camera is awesome. I still need to buy a good tripod, a slide scanner and a few more lenses. Thats still a long way though.I could'nt find a better way to kick off the summer holiday season :).

Carnatic music - A new found obsession

Ever since I was a kid, I've been obsessed with music. During childhood it was the all time great music of the 60s and 70s ( cos my dad would mostly listen to them ). During high school and college it was Pop and Rock and eventually rock dominated the scene.As I got to work, my music folder would have only old hindi songs along with Metallica and Pink Floyd mostly. Some off beat pop would fill in some gaps.
In the recent past however, I've been obsessed with carnatic classical . It all began with BalamuraliKrishnan and his 'Jagadaananda kaaraka'. This was sometime in early 2000 or late 1999 I guess. Then I gradually began listening to U Srinivas and yesudas. A couple of years back, I happened to listen to Maharajapuram Santhanam, and I was totally mesmerized. I accidentally heard his 'Raghuvamsha Sudha' in one of my friend's house and I was like wait a minute this voice cannot be so captivating. I literally hunted for that particular CD, got it and the first day I listened to the song all night continuously. My dad was shocked. Till then I would just listen to Pink Floyd or Metallica and piss him off :). Gradually I started listening to other singers but mostly stayed with Santhanam.
Couple of weeks back was in my aunt's place. A good feel about my family is that everone has got some or the other penchant for music. My aunt has passed vidwat in vocal, my mom has passed her senior in vocal, one of my uncle's is a vidwat in Mandolin etc etc. We got to sit and chat about carnatic music and she has such a magnificient collection. Name the musician and u'll find the cd. The greatest fun was to listen to a single song from all great musicians. Since I was the guest I got to choose and I wanted 'Raghuvamsha Sudha' a Patnam Subramaiam Iyer composition in kadhanakutoohala raaga. Instead of fumbling for cd's we found an easier way to listen on musicindiaonline. What a delight to hear to all maestero's playing the song one after the other.
Kunnagudi Vaidyanathan - Violin
U Srinivas - Mandolin
T R Mahalingam - Flute
Nikhil Joshi - Guitar

Here are the links to Raghuvamsha Sudha by
U Srinivas
MS Subbalakshmi

Two varying forms of the same song, same raaga and same thaala.

It is now I regret not having taken any lessons in carnatic music :) but I guess its never too late to start.

These days my work schedule is something like this: Monday 4 AM wakeup and catch a 6.30 flight to Kentucky. With a 3 hour time difference the travel costs me 8 hours. For the next 3 days work like hell from 8 to 5. Evenings, grab dinner with friends, watch TV and crash. Friday afternoon take the dreadful flight back home.
In spite of bieng a travel freak, this travelling is hitting me hard. On some fridays, I avoid getting home and go to some nearby places.
The good part about travelling is I get time to read and sometimes have a chat with feloow travellers. An interesting book/magazine is the best travelling companion. When am not reading,I'll have some brief conversations with someone sitting next to me. It's good fun to listen to their travelling adventures. Sometimes I get to meet oldies who'll be fascinated to talk about India. Most of the topics of discussion revolve around travelling: which hotels to stay, which airports to avoid, which cars to rent etc etc.
The sad part about travelling: flight delays, baggage loss, last minute gate changes and crying kids. Most of the times, I have to travel through Atlanta, the busiest airport in the world. Whenever bad weather hits Atlanta, most of the flights get delayed and in my experience it has happened thrice. My worst delay has been for 12 hours ( 9 pm to 9 am ). I dont really bother about baggage loss cos most of my clothes are inexpensive and in the pretect of losing baggage I get to buy more clothes :). Crying babies are a nightmare on flights. In one of the flights there were 3 babies crying in competition with each other. The babies cry for several reasons, darkness, pressure differences, turbulences, time differeneces, lack of space etc etc. Somehow the parents will try to calm them down but that'll take hours.
This travelling spree will probably continue till July and hopefully I get to stay at home for atleast a month before I take off again.

Rwandan Genocide

Last night, I happened to watch a documentary on the Rwandan Genocide. It doesnt feel good to see around 800,000 people massacred by their own country men and the whole world watching the horror in mute silence. I was totally horrified.
The entire episode of the genocide is a result of bitter hatred amongst Hutus and Tutsis, two prominent tribes in the nation. What instilled this hatred, I dont know. It all began in April 1994 with the killing of the then Rwandan president Habyarimana (a leader focused on ensuring peace between Hutu and Tutsis ). The Rwandan army and the Hutu Militia go on a killing spree and literally pull out Tutsis from their houses to be shot in masses. The killings continue in an unprecedented manner. The Rwandan Patriotic Forces, an army unit of the Tutsis though small in number tried their best to protect their sect/tribe. Refugee camps were used as safe havens by the killers, students were killed in schools, hospitals were set on fire and what not. The documentary depicts these killings as is, Hutus treating the Tutsis like roaches. Theres a scene in which around 200 girls are shot in a school and one of them happens to survive the slaughter, She wakes to find herself in a sea of dead bodies.
The most disturbing fact of the genocide is that the whole world watched this horror for 100 days and practically did nothing. The UN deployed 5000 troops and pulled back leaving only 270 at the peak of the genocide. The US, did not deploy any troops at all during the genocide. The worst part, every country airlifted their country men but left the Rwandans who worked for their corporations/embassies. After the genocide ended, all that the rest of the world had was 'apologies' and support on reforming the country.
Isnt that hysterical for a country like US which projects this image of 'policing the world' not to have done anything about the massacre and now, they are fiddling around with Iraq and North Korea. Nothing was done in Rwanda, why ? because there was no oil, no communism, they are just another 'African nation'. I just happen to correlate this to another African nation, Sudan has been literally brought down by the Oil czars who call themselves Exxon Mobil. It was no massacre that they did but the company has successfully ruined the Sudanese economy for its own benefit. In that regard, have absolutely no doubt in terming the present day US government a czarist regime of the Oil Barons (Chevron Texaco, Exxon Mobil, BP etc) whose only concern is amassing billions of dollars at the cost of less powerful nations, environment and of course common people. It all finally boils down to dirty politics :).