The days I scare me....
I have recently noticed that I have grown increasingly brazen in my statements these days. I gave an extremely pathetic rendition( read "trying to ape my teacher") of Pantuvarali today. Sad part is I didnt even know it was Pantuvarali till we started to sing " Siva siva siva". Thought on my head - " Great! Another great day to cry through my nose. Wonder which new disaster he is teaching me now". He taught me Pantuvarali months ago and I managed to deliberately forget it!Since childhood, I could identify ragams like Kalyani, Sankarabharanm and Mohanam and every other ragam in the likes of Revathi, Mayamalava gowla and Pantuvarali was identified as "sad ragam". I had always managed to steer clear of "Sad ragams" that is, until now.
Conversation between my music teacher and me today after a reasonably good "aping" of Reethigowla:
Shyam sir: So you do listen to Reethigowla- no wonder you are good at it.
Me: Oh well I hate Pantuvarali..who has the time to listen to something that depressing?
I was shocked. I wished I could take it back. That too even after knowing very well that my teacher thrived on ragams like this one.Thankfully he didnt react.
" But I will start from now". Moment salvaged- or so I thought.
Conversation at the end of class:
Me: "Sir, do you know the song, Varugalamo in Maanji?"
Shyam Sir: "No. Never heard of it. Did Krishna( TMK) sing it"
Me: " Yeah he did but stay away from it. Krishna sucks in rendering emotional ragams like maanji and reethigowla or anything close.You have to listen to KVN's rendition on sangeethapriya"
I closed my eyes and wished I vanished. I wish I kept my opinions to myself.....
How to isolate unread mail in gmail
This might seem silly to a lot of people but I have always wanted to have all my unread mail in one place once in a while and unlike some others, gmail doesnt have it categorized that way on the side. Just discovered that if you type is:unread in the search box and hit search now - ta da! all unread mail in one place! If you enable "Quick Links" from the "Labs" tab, you can add a Quick link at this point and name it "Unread mail".
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - tragic humor
Disclaimer: This is a personal rant of a person appalled at the insensitivity of the movie. I am no movie critic and this post is just to show a perspective if it werent obvious already.
The movie was predictable as a clock from scene A-Z..no surprises and I could count the genuine jokes on my fingers- in fact there are 3. The star of the movie is neither Genilia nor Imran Khan but a rather unlikely Ratna Pathak Shah. The freshness of her presence deserves an applaud. Even Naseeruddin doesnt measure upto her- probably not his fault that his humor was too slapstick to digest.A.R.Rahman seems to have been either bored or disinterested in composing for the movie which is surprisingly uninspiring- not too sure if it was uninspired though. The incomprehensibly sung Kabhi kabhi aditi song does strongly resemble "appudo ippudo" sung by Sid in Bommarillu.Sid did do a great job on the song come to think of it.The kabhi kabhi song was supposed to cheer Aditi who was mourning the death of her "dear" cat whom she seemed to forget the moment she saw another one!FYI its unimaginable for any person to find any person/creature one truly loves to be replaced- so easily! It probably would have sufficed if Aditi did just smile as requested in the song instead of leaping and hopping for joy.
It is also apparently very funny for someone(Savitri) to be mad at a ruthless brute of a police officer and also for guys who simply cant get into a jail despite committing one crime after another because ahem..ahem....their parents got elected to the parliament. Is this supposed to be funny in any sense? At all?? Jai was adequately adorable till the moment he sneaked out of jail cos his uncle "got elected to the parliament".Probably this is some kind of an acquired sense of humor rubbed on by repeatedly watching of senseless "bollywood" flicks- I honestly dont know.
Anuradha Patel looked beautiful as ever and it was interesting to see Kitu Gidwani and Jayant Kriplani after a while. The movie did have a hip feel to it although scenes like going "shopping" for a girlfriend in a pub were seriously lame.The girlfriend by the way was a really goodlooking one and perhaps with more screen presence than the lead actress herself.
Overall, a very passable movie...I probably wont remember watching it until I visit this blog again!
composer's day and beyond
So I finally performed for Composer's day this year.It was the first time I had a violinist accompany me and although that threw me off the line a few times, I think I did a decent job trying not to listen to it while singing.Still, it feels great to sing with a full fledged accompaniment.And hence, Maakelara vicharamu?( Why would I worry?)
Newfound heaven!
Just discovered a completely addictive dessert that passes off as a breakfast item- the yogurt parfait! Tried it twice at Starbucks and I am hooked..creamy vanilla yogurt, strawberries, blueberries and toasted granola- can it get any better??
diet diet diet
For the past few months( or was it years??) I have been trying hard to lose some weight and thanks to a colleague of mine, I had gained a lot of insight into health and nutrition. He recommended a diet called the Fat Flush Plan by Ann Louise Gittleman. I was extremely impressed by the principles of the diet but could never follow it real close as it was designed for meat eaters and I am a vegetarian.The diet targets the liver as the fat burning device in the body and aims at detoxifying the body to take off the detoxing load off the liver and direct it's efforts to fat burning.
Diet, anyway, was never my thing. I always lost weight when I stuck to a frugal diet and indulged in frequent and satisfying workouts.Although I loved working out, the hard fact, as my personal trainer put it, was that losing weight was 75% diet and 25% exercise.
After many months of trying this and that I have come to a conclusion- losing weight was all in the mind. Not in a diet or exericse forced on you, but the simple, real simple task of really really wanting it and let your body and mind work together to tell you what you exactly need to do to achieve your goal.Once you have set your mind on it, its amazing how things work your way.
Its ironic when people say I want to lose weight but feel like eating all the wrong foods. Do you really want to? The problem at its root is not losing weight, not looking good but is all about the ability to control your senses.Its not about losing weight its about gaining control. And thats what everything hinges on- thats should be the focus.
Labels: Diet and exercise
amazing salad
I am a typical rice and sambar type south-indian who used to dismiss uncooked raw food as food for people from the stone age but had to change my opinion after being influenced by a lot of American company."Nutrients are lost after frying and cooking and are best preserved raw or after cooking once they are sprouted.Baking under 300F is the closest to eating raw vegetables heath-wise", a colleague of mine at work strongly believes.After a couple of salad trials at restaurants trusting his wisdom, I have finally turned a salad-fan and have just made the most amazingly tasty self inspired salad I think I could make.It has cabbage(cos I didnt have lettuce) ,cucmber,onion,tomato,marinated olives,garlic and cherry peppers with parmesan cheese, lemon juice,olive oil, zesty italian dressing, salt and freshly ground pepper for dressing.Tastes and looks amazing..try it all ye hitherto salad haters!
