churake dil mera goriya chali

WoW!!!!! WoW!!!!!!!!
Damn!!!!!!!!!!

Just played the above song before some 100 guys.
In case you guys don’t know, I can play keyboard very averagely. I have always had a love-hate relationship with the keyboard. I love to play the keyboard. But the keyboard hates me. Each and every time I try to play something good in the keyboard, it gives me giving really bad or sometimes horrible sound.
Still this has made our relationship stronger.

This is not the first time I am playing keyboard before an audience. In-fact this is the second time.

The first time I played, I was in 12th standard, and I was learning keyboard in Sathangai in Madurai. It was a summer course and by the way Sathangai is a musical institute associated with our local church.

So we learn the keyboard starting from CDEFGABC to some chords and notes. This thing went on for 2 months, and at the end of 2 months, we were supposed to perform in front of our family and friends.
I fortunately didn’t take any one from my family, as the event was a total disaster.

We had a tabala master to play the background. I and another girl were supposed to play the treble or the foreground, and two other guys were supposed to play the bass or the background.
It all started when one of the bass guy screwed up a note. He panicked and he forgot what was going on around him. He forgot what beat was being played and after that missed note, perfectly played his part, but in a different note. The tabala guy could have stopped and caught up with him. He didn’t. So when the treble part came again, I told the little girl who was also playing treble with me to stop. But she would not budge, and she was also playing in a different note than what was supposed to be played. Frustrated, I too started playing in my note, forgetting what was going on around me….
The worst part was I got the best student award in that keyboard class. I seriously detest myself when ever I see that heap of wood in my home.

This time, I was very fortunate. I was in the hands of experienced persons. Our lead singer have learned karnatic vocals for 17 continuous years, and we found out that in-fact she can play keyboard much better than what I can. Our guitarist is a self taught genius, who have taught himself guitar for the past 3 years. Our drummer calls himself novice as he is learning drums only for the past 1.5 years. I on the other hand, have learned keyboard for a combined time of 8 months. 2 months in Sathangai and 6 months during my tenure in TCS and while I was in Trivandrum.

I had to give the start, and as expected, I screwed it up. But as usual, I didn’t panicked, and I found the correct chord and I started playing seamlessly from there on. I had to sync up with the leading vocals, and unfortunately, we played really well that, the crowd was roaring at their best. Fortunately, I made out her voice in the noise, and I was able to play properly. I had to give the end, and the roar was such that no one was able to listen to my tunes at the end.

Really a nice feeling indeed. Of course I feel that I could have done way better. But still I held it off, and was able to survive due to the experts covering my potholes

Nobel laureate Barack Obama?

Like many people in the world, I am also shocked to hear Barack Obama granted Nobel peace prize. This should definitely be the most scandalous Nobel peace prize of the century.
The Nobel committee has awarded the peace prize as he has 1. worked great deal towards climate change, 2. bringing muslim world closer to the rest of world and also in 3. reducing the nuclear weapons stockpile through out the world.

Seriously I am sure the Nobel committee does not read news papers daily.

1. Regarding climate change, I seriously dont know what Obama has done to change the world. Other than fleeting talks which even George Bush can give, he has not done anything more.  The UN international conference on climate change has not yet convened in Coppenhagen. Without even deciding on what the world is going to do about climate change, awarding a political leader the fruits of working towards climate change is simply stupid.

2. This is the most comical point which is given by the selection committee. US army is still in Afghanistan and in Iraq. They are thinking of getting them back to US. But thought has not been supported by action. Obama being half muslim doesnt prove anything. Nobody cared about his race. So I think even religion should not come into effect.

3. I never read any news saying that the US nuclear weapons stockpile is being reduced. Forcing other countries to sign NPT when they are the guys who have done more than 50% of the nuclear tests is pure hippocracy.

So I totally think Obama does not deserve the peace prize. Norway has yet again aligned to the strong arm of the west and have sided with the US president. It is the same committee which did not give peace prize to Gandhi, but had Hitler and Stalin as nominees for the prize. By awarding peace prize to an unworthy candidate, they have proved the world that words are in fact better than action.

Around the world to your next house

Has it ever happened to that you will think a lot for something and will even do something really complicated, only to find that, the same thing can be done in a really simple way, sometimes even in a single step.
It happened to me today.
I did really cool, complex, annoying code, which ran for hours together to get an output which could have been done in a single line and that too taking less than half the time which it took for the original complex stuff.
The worst part was, the complex stuff was not what I wanted and I am right now running the simple stuff which I didn’t know in the first place and am waiting for its output.
I seriously laugh at people when they say you have to think out of the box where you can go to your destination in a really simple straight line.

PS: I am pissed off really.. 2 days of my work = 1 single line of configuration file :X

New Blog

Hi all.
I have created a new blog exclusively for photos. It can be called as a photo blog.
The blog’s address is

http://djs1dslr.blogspot.com

The address can be read as DJ(Thats me)’s one DSLR.blogspot.com
I will try to update that photo blog on a daily basis, and the blog will be informational in nature. I will explain how I have taken the picture and small things which have to be taken care of while taking a pic. If you are reading blogs through RSS feeds, do add that blog too, as you will get daily updates of how to take photographs .

Tamilian spirit

I can make a fairly simple guess of what Tamilians are famous for outside Tamil Nadu. That is mainly for the opposition of Hindi language. People normally relate Tamilians to Hindi ignorant.

True till now, learning Hindi has not been made compulsory in Tamil Nadu and if you go to Chennai, not even a single person will be talking to you in Hindi unlike Kolkata or Mumbai or even Bangalore.

Still people in Tamil Nadu do learn Hindi, even though this population count for a very small number.

I am basically a pro-hindi learning person. I totally accept the fact that as Hindi has been made as our national language, it has to be made compulsory for every one to learn. But today, an article in the news paper totally made me mad.

That is about some DMK ministers not given the permission to answer a question in Tamil in the Parliament. True, the ministers like Azhagiri does not deserve to be members in Indian parliament. But when the prime minister of our country can address UN in hindi, why can’t a minister from Tamil Nadu can’t address the Parliament in Tamil? Keeping a translator will not be such a hard thing in the Parliament. We can’t say that a person can’t serve the nation as he does not know a language. More over Tamil is also an official language of India.

So seriously translators should be kept for all the official languages at least in the parliament. This should make the Tamilians feel that they are also given the respect which is due to them in this beautiful country.

The Brothers Karamazov

So I have finally finished reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Now I am typing this post from a location which is less than ideal to type for a blog post. I am sitting in the upper berth of a train compartment with an unbelievably hyperactive kid showing off all his activeness just in the lower berth. I thought it is better to hold off how I felt about the novel and write it at some more appropriate time.

But the human mind hardly feels much emotion as I feel now after reading a novel. With this, I am jolting now how I feel about this novel.

By the way if any of you have not read the novel “The Brother’s Karamazov”, I sincerely recommend you to close this page and buy a copy of that novel and read it. ‘cos I cant hold myself from giving off some bits and pieces from that novel.

No I am not going to rewrite what the story is in this post. But I am going to rant about what that novel did to me!!

I can say I am a sucker for classics. The best novel I have read till now has been “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens. Incidentally, that was my first classic which I read the unabridged version. That novel has been my most favorite novel for many long years.

After reading the novel The brother’s Karamazov, I seriously think “The Great Expectations” has got some tough competition.

The problem with these novels is that once you read these novels, you cant read stuff like Sidney Sheldon or Jefferey archer. The above said authors will explain a scenario and will say that so and so has done this and that. But you will not be able to relate with that character and you will not be able to understand why this guy did that.

Once you read the classic authors, you will understand for certain why some thing happened in first place. These authors analyze the human mind inside out. You will be so related to the characters shown that you will feel like the character, love them, hate them and even judge them.

The only downfall of the novel is that, the author has not explained the character of Smerdyakov to the fullest extent, and thus I was not able to understand why Smerdyakov committed the murder. I should say Dostoevsky has failed in the characterization of Smerdyakov. He was just like Sheldons and Archers of today.

The brothers Karamazov made me feel the importance of life. It has made me realize that everyone and everything is just a memory and that the life goes on. Most importantly, I wanted Dimitri Karamazov to be sentenced and not let free even though he is innocent. Was the novel reflecting my character? Was I able to look into my inner self through that novel? No one can tell but me. But the novel is definitely a spiritual experience. The last chapter of the novel was definitely a fitting end to a great novel. Even though the novel “Great expectations” made me cry while I was going through the last 100 pages and the brothers Karamazov didn’t make me cry, you can relate the persons in the novel to yourself. For me, I saw my character in Ivan Fyodorovich. He was the most learned of those three brothers, and the ranting which Ivan gave off could well have been mine.

So guys, in most probability, if you are reading till here, you have not read that novel, as very few have given time to read classics – as they call it “Classics is one which every one appreciate and no one reads.”. Please do get a copy of the Brothers Karamazov and read it. Definitely you will enjoy reading it.

I am feeling real bad that I am not able to get the end part of the story, as in the novel Brothers Karamazov is the first part of the two novel series which Dostoyevsky planned. Unfortunately Dostoyevsky died before he could complete the second novel. With his death, the secrets of what happened to Katya, Alyosha, Dmitri, Ivan, Kolya has remained a secret to every one. Now may be I am angry in not knowing the fate of the novel’s characters.

I loved the court scene in a novel for the first time in my life. It showed me how a same situation can be interpreted in two different ways, even though the arguments which are put forwarded by the defendant were rather weak.

One more thing is that, the novel is kinda long. I was impatient that I went through the index and got a general understanding of how the story will go. But still Dostoyevsky manages to surprise you in places. Death of Smerdyakov is one for sure. Still I feel Great Expectations is better than the brother’s Karamazov. May be because that is the first time I got introduced to the world of classics.

So guys you can definitely put your money on “The Brothers Karamazov” and enjoy the experience.

PS: A long ranting after a long time

Devil’s advocate

I have one basic question in my mind.

Why do we always think that God is all good and devil is always evil? I think it is a great prejudice against the devil. In fact, the question should be is God all good for you, as you can see in many religions, whether it is Christianity or Hinduism, we can see God taking sides and you being on the wrong side of God. The religion teaches us that God can in fact hate you.
Take the example of Ravanan in Ramayana or Egyptians in Christianity. God took the side of their enemies and helped their enemies to destroy them.

Theist put forward the theory of “Greater good”. I interpret Greater good as good for others and not for you. This can be seen through the example of Bhisma in Mahabarata. He was killed as he was in the side of Kauravas so as to uphold a greater good. But still if you consider Bhisma’s perspective, God has been against him.

One thing is true for sure. Every thing depends upon the perspective.

But consider this scenario. If the God is all good, then if something bad happens to some one, then God doesn’t like that person at that particular time, or he has fallen from the good will of the God.
So here comes the question of is good really good? What if God just wants to play with his favorite pet and is spanking him just for the fun of it? Definitely he will throw some biscuits at the end of the day for sure.

One more thing to consider is whether you really want the good as which is considered in the conventional terms. Consider the story of Jonas. A great saint once promised Jonas that if he walks around the world a thousand times, the doors of the heaven will open to him. So the very day, Jonas started his walk. But unfortunately he died before he could finish it.
Even after his death, he became a spirit and continued walking. One fine day, he completed his quota and the heaven’s doors opened. So with great joy, he went through the doors of heaven. But alas. Heaven was not what he expected heaven will be. He felt the expectation of seeing heaven was better than the heaven itself. So he asked Peter, the great angel who was guarding the gates of the heaven to open the gates again for him if he walks around the world a thousand times more and he left the heaven and is still walking. The crux of the story is, Jonas didn’t want the good as considered in conventional terms.

What could be considered as a good life could be frowned upon by another sect of people. Rock music entices some and creates headaches to some other. Classical music can bring tears to some and sleep to some other. Good food could bring ecstasy to some and agony to size zero models. Heaven could have been amazing to angels and boring to the devils.

So there is no absolute good and bad. So is absolute good God and absolute bad devil.

But if the devil is good for you, then most probably you are bad

PS: The story of Jonas is a modified version of story told by Doestovsky in his novel “The brothers Karamazov”.

Dont Jaswant me!!

With BJP removing Jaswant Singh for praising Jinnah and pointing the negative points of Nehru, BJP has shown the whole nation that it is still in its dark ages.
The act of BJP can be compared to that of Bloody Mary – a tyrant Queen who ruled over England. She became famous for burning people on the stake for heresy.
BJP is almost following the same principle by removing whomsoever analyzing the situation and coming up with an academic view of any issue.
The hold which RSS has on BJP and the fact that BJP is just the political face of a religious fanatics has been put out in the open through this issue.
I am sure BJP will go nowhere sticking on to a stupid concept which is called as Hindutva.
In a secular nation which has got some 1.2 Billion people, they are really stupid to assume that the majority will be fanatics who just worry about whom they are worshiping over their daily bread.
I am sure if BJP carries in the same way it is carrying its affairs now, it will pass on to oblivion in a record breaking time.

Innocent?

Have you ever read the news section where the editor ponders about how terrorist have killed innocent civilians?
Almost every one of us must have read an article like that.
But do you know any one who is really innocent?
The guy who got killed might be a kanthu vatti money lender and may be few hundred people might be happy due to his death.
He might be even the local goon.
Even if he is not a bad person per se according to the social norms, he can be a normal person, but not innocent after all.
Seriously I have not known a single person who is completely sin free. Even Jesus Christ committed the sin of getting angry with people (John 2, 13-25) and Buddha committed many sins before his salvation. You can call a child as innocent, but almost all the kids I have seen so far can be termed as innocent brats.
We never call an army official as innocent, even if he has never killed a single person in his whole life and even if he could have left an enemy free without killing him.
Thinking more about it, we can see that army personnel, politicians, and police are the only guys who are termed not innocent. Some times even the government employees are termed as not innocent.
If you say that the above personnel have some way triggered the terrorist response, the trigger could have been just the good living condition of people in the country for God’s sake.
So I seriously think the term innocence be taken out of the current lingo and just be replaced with terms like “10 people killed” instead of “10 innocent civilians killed”

Religious?

Has anyone though about the positives and negatives of all the religions?
Wait Wait.. I don’t want to start a debate on which religion is superior or which religion is bad. Each and every religion has its mixture of good and bad.
If you are a heavily religious person, you would most probably argue that your religion does not have any faults or defects, but accept it. Nothing can be perfect right. More over, I am no religious scholar. So most of the comments which I make might be or most probably amateurish. But I feel, I being an amateur, I can give an unbiased comments on good and bad of the religions.

I will start with Christianity, the religion which is followed by many countries all over the world. But the problem with it is that more than half of its holy book – The Bible is dedicated to Jews. So as a christian, you should first ask yourself is this the right religion for you. Even in new testament, there are references of non Jewish being treated as second class citizens. The best reference of the same is given in Mathew 15:26, where Jesus says “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” to a Canaanite woman. Even though Jesus told this to test the faith of the woman, prejudice was still there. I don’t think he would have said the same to a Jewish woman.
But, if you just look at Christianity as a whole, you can realize that Christianity, like many other religions, tells us to follow the path of righteousness and universal brotherhood.

Next, we come to Islam – my favorite religion. Favorite because it almost always gets into the middle of some controversy. It could be the most misunderstood religion in the world. But thinking about the time Islam came into existence, you can say that the ideas given in Islam was really radical. But unfortunately, in Islam, women are not given equal importance as men, and slavery was still accepted in Islam.

Then we come to Hinduism – The religion followed by the majority of Indians. Hinduism also preaches the righteous way of life, but unfortunately, caste system is a part of it. Considering Brahmins to be made from the head, Kshatriyas from shoulders, Vaisyas from thighs and Sudras from feet itself shows us the caste discrimination which is shown in hinduism.

Buddhism, followed by few in Tibet and many in Srilanka is the most softest religion in the world. May be Jainism can come in contention with it. But the way Sinhalese are treating tamilians in Srilanka, I am not so sure Buddhism has reached its objective.

So as a whole, you can see that almost all the religions have its drawbacks. Then if you consider that being atheist is a better option, just see how Stalin murdered millions of his own men in the wake of his crazy principle.
I think it is better to choose the things which you feel are right for you and for the society and just follow them, instead of just sticking on to a single religion.