Yaan!

Manidha! Nee yaar?
Uruvam ondru uyir ver ondru!
Inaippil kavidhai...
Inaippil oviyam...

Kalaiye! Nee enna?
Pirappil uruvam mudivil uyir!
Ondril kavidhai...
Ondril oviyam...

Kaadhale! Nee enna?
Oruvagai uravu oruvagai uyir!
Inaikkum kavidhayai...
Inaikkum oviyangalai...

Kalaiyum Kaadhalum kalaindha kalavi
Manidhanul undaana deiveega kalavi

Random!

Adhocism vs Structure!

One finds that innovation, radical thought processes, etc work far batter in a system of adhocism as opposed to one with structure. Age teaches you that consistency is better maintained through structure.

Man is inherently adhoc! Man's creations are structured to facilitate culture and well-being of all! What then happens to man? As one ages, man tends to align himself to his own creations by building in structure into himself.

This transformation causes a change in the entire life style of the person. It is therefore obvious that man, in general, becomes more serious and loses his "childishness".

This is often noticed even in the kind of music that one listens to!

There might be another reason to the change in musical inclinations. It might also be attributed to the fact that the more music one listens to, one's musical inclinations also change. From pop to rock to progressive to classical to jazz to carnatic and what not!

The stone is as true as what it stands for!

There have been millions of those so called "unconventionals" who believe that effigy worship must be eradicated and call it a bane to the world as the stone hides the truth that it stands for!

But the fundamental reason for the existence of the stone is that the need for it exists. Not everyone can understand what the great Vedas say! But order needs to be imparted on earth. How then would it be possible! The only logical conclusion would be a certain level of abstraction. Abstraction, for the uninitiated, means that only enough information is supplied that is absolutely necessary. The rest of the information is available on request only.

What that facilitates is effective functioning of systems without the need to understand how the system functions. But one would find that to be able to make best use of the system, you would have to know how it functions, hence one takes some extra effort to find out the nitty gritty. With some difficulty, he does figure out a certain information set that he can leverage to his advantage!

The parallel drawn involves the effigy that represents the abstractions and the underlying truth of the Vedas that requires the extra effort to understand!

Music & Theoretical Musings!

What the hell is this idea / concept / phenomena, music? As much as one may ponder about the above, the conclusion that is likely to come out of the sequence of thoughts is that it is absolutely redundant to classify it in one of the above. Although, personally, I would call it a phenomenon as the other two would generally refer to something that is inherently humanly created, whereas, music is something that is inherently natural. The sounds around one in nature (stress on the word nature, which by itself is a rarity) is pure and pristine – easily the highest form of music.

What is it that draws us to music? There are multiple reasons, tune, rhyme, meter… what not! Let us take a look at each of the above one at a time shall we…

Tune! There is little that is more prominent in music than the tune of the number. There are multiple levels at which this tune exists. Most people hear only the lead. The lead may be either the vocals or the major instrument. For all you guys who are at this category, I beg of you to pay closer attention to the sounds of music (actually of silence as well!). Should one notice, the beauty is in the nitty gritty. Believe me guys, sometimes I feel that there is an entire universe in each song. Songs are inherently layered. The lowest and most inconspicuous level is that of the bass line. Modern day music sees this as the product of the bass guitar. Of course, there are multiple purposes to the sound of the bass guitar, but it is majorly used as the filler in a song. It is that part of the song that adds depth to the song. It also goes without mention that several instruments apart from the bass guitar may be used for the same. It generally holds what we call the root note or the most prominent note around which that segment of the song is centred around. Then comes the layer of chords that sets the progression of the tune. The lead tune is usually split into segments of a certain underlying progression. These segments are defined by chords. Then of course the top layer of the lead tune. This is only a broad basis for the split and is far from sacrosanct.

Rhyme! This will be majorly determined by the poetic capacity of the lyricist. This post is intended to center around music rather than poetry and lyrics. I could although tell you that a song is also centred around music rather than its poetry, although the poetry is nevertheless an integral part of the song for that is the first thing that one notes in a song. Does poetry support the music? Or does the music support the poetry? This is something that first timers at music composition generally have a problem understanding. First, the theme of the song is frozen. Then, the music and the poetry are created almost in parallel. Music is frozen and the poetry is suitably modified to fit the tune and more importantly, the meter!

Meter! This is the part of the music that is to me most fascinating. Here too, I’d like to look at it at different levels. The simplest is that of the beats. There is a misconception that beats are generated by percussion only. Percussion only assists and makes the meter prominent. Orchestrations of the western classical origin are brilliant examples of how beats are not necessarily originated in percussion. It must be noted that meter is an inherent in music and can almost never be escaped. If meter is completely absent, one would not call it music, but merely noise. There is another form of meter. The most fascinating numbers (classics) created have repeated strings of notes at regular intervals. Symphonies of Beethoven and the like again, serve as examples.

All this said, it is in the confluence of the detail that music is made! But unless the details are noted, the full flavour of the song is still left untapped!

Whats in the url?

What is life? What are we here for? Why do we exist? Is there a bigger scheme of things?

Sometimes I feel may be I am a little too young to think about stuff like this. But I cannot keep myself from thinking about it cuz it is just far too interesting a topic to ignore or shy away from. It is almost a rhetoric that keeps running through my head. It am told that great philosophers of the world have spent entire lives thinking about this, effectively lives wasted. Lives wasted? I disagree. It was their goal in life to try to understand the meaning of life. They did try to understand the meaning of life, the best way they knew how to. They, I believe, have achieved more than what most people do.

It is interesting isn't it..... that you think best when you converse, converse either with yourself or with others. I wonder why that happens. I feel that it has something to do with "living in the now". the concept of ridding your mind of thoughts that are irrelevant to the current, of the now, where the mind is in a state of absolute consciousness, with the mind active, full of thought of nothing but the current moment, "the now" - source : what little I understood of the first few pages of "The power of now" by Eckhart Tolle.

Going back to where we started: Life! Life is that energy that distinguishes a carcass from a living being. Now what sort of energy is that? It beats me! But it sure is intriguing.

The Gita says, just like many other religions suggest, that there exists a certain phenomenon (I can’t find the right word) within us called the soul. Now is this soul that energy? The Gita says so. The Gita calls it the Jeevathma. This Jeevathma is described as the light within us. It is common knowledge that many religions/cultures associate light as the symbol of purity and energy. The Gita also explains the Jeevathma as a drop of the ocean Paramathma. Somehow, this makes profound sense to me. I associate with it in a way that I feel comfortable with and it makes sense to me.

There is energy all around us. There are several kinds of energy, Gravitational, Nuclear, electromagnetic, etc. The Unified Field Theory, though not complete yet, suggests that there must exist a certain rule of Physics that unifies all of the phenomena that happen in the universe, so as to imply that all these energies are merely different forms of the same energy. It is the same energy that flows through our body; the same energy that makes us think, through neurological electrical signals/pulses; the same energy that makes the heart beat; the same energy that provides us with motor skills. This is pretty much the same energy that is all around us. Now, does it not make sense that this energy, the soul or the Jeevathma is but a part of the energy that is all around us.

This energy that is around us is referred to as Paramathma in the Gita. Effectively, it makes sense that the Jeevathma is a drop of the ocean, Paramthma. It also makes sense that when a living entity dies, the energy (Jeevathma) within the body that has hitherto kept it alive escapes the confines of the body and becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the energy around us (Paramathma). “The soul leaves the body of the dead and becomes one with God”. Familiar concept isn’t it! So what I am ultimately arriving at is that God is energy and vice versa.

A parallel school of thought: It is common belief that matter and energy are two totally different things. This, despite Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc². The fact that one is can transform into the other suggests that they are both different forms of the same thing. So to say, that energy and matter are the same and as established earlier, energy is God. Therefore, so is all matter. We are therefore, in effect, surrounded by God.

“God is on earth.”

- P. V. Ashwin

www.godsonearth-peevs.blogspot.com

People and Me!

My world revolves around me as much as it revolves around the people around me. In fact, my world revolves as much as their worlds revolve around me.

Need I say more? Well, I am an extrovert!

Hot Young Blood, they'd say!

I am all of a sudden filled with a sudden anger for something that I admired, adored and worshiped only a few months ago!

Every company works within a certain system that it designs for itself. Here is a company that has its foundations set firmly on a base of hypocrisy; a company that strongly believes that one can make ends meet by merely pressurizing it's workforce, in particular, the executives; a company that states that all systems must be made man-independent when "percolating pressure" is the motto for the day; a company that bewilders its employees as to how it managed to credit itself with a Deming Award with a supplier base so incapable; a company that brands its executives incapable of performance when actually it is the company that is incapable of finding adequate resources that enable commendable performance; a company that supports its shop floor operators no end; a company that does so not in altruistic motives but with a motive to hold a firm grip over the activities of its worker union; a company that achieves this at the cost of the shop floor executives; a company that has a zillion schemes for welfare of operators; a company that seems to assume that workers and executives are motivated by the same scheme of thought; a company that seems to have no means to recognize talent and appreciate a hard day's work; a company that fails to see that greener pastures are available to its employees; a company that expects its executives to work as bonded labourers do; a company that has excelled in the art of powerpoint presentations; a company that seems to recognize the talent in people that involves the showcasing of illusionary talents; a company that i find myself fondly thinking as one that will be a shady haze of the past in less than a month's time, at least as far as I am concerned.

As for the people who intend calling it their livelihood, my message to you... GET A LIFE!