Shyam's Blog

Fall has come! Fall 2007 Visited Timpanogos Caves today. It is a nice place to visit - one can get both hiking and scenery. Hike is 1.5 miles up which is a bit tiring if you are not used to hiking. Tour inside the cave is really worth. To enter the caves, one needs to buy the ticket at the visitor center before starting the hike. Once you reach the start of the cave, you will join a tour guide who will take you inside the caves with full explanation and commentary. In our tour, there were 5-6 lovely kids who asked the guide questions all the time - questions ranging from, 'why is that lizard shaped?' to, 'will the rocks crack and fall on us now?'. Once, in the middle of the cave, tour guide wanted us to experience 'pitch dark' and announced that he would turn off the lights for a moment. It was just wonderful to experience it. Another trick he did was, he asked, 'does any of you ladies have a diamond ring?'. Actually, a real one! One lady turned up who w...

Bhavani Kangan Stores, Jayanagar, Bangalore. It is a three storeyed bangle store which my fiancee and I visited couple of weeks ago. The floor size of each floor is around 20 feet x 10 feet and each floor is filled with dozens of people in such a small area. Each floor is categoried into specific items. For example, one floor is full of bindhi-s, while the other, artificial jewels. We first went to the top most floor. I could hardly walk around and with much difficultly stayed with my fiancee. Once she got the item she wanted, she was given a token and told to go to ground floor to collect the item after payment. We then moved to the middle floor. By this time, I was sure not to get into the crowd and told my fiancee to get in alone and buy whatever she wanted. There too, she was given a token. Finally in the ground floor, we went to the counter and gave our tokens. Soon, our items were handed over. I just wondered who is that 'carrier' person who keeps going up and down to co...

India won the Twenty20 World Cup! I can't miss blogging this win. India scored 157 and Pakistan were all out for 152. It was a thriller and my heart was pumping in full speed when India were bowling the last over and Pakistan needed 12. Misbah was batting with 3 sixers under his belt. He scored a six in the second ball of the over. Pak needed one more six to win in 5 balls. 6 off 5! Very easy equation. One would have thought, atleast take singles and go near to the score and try for a two to sneak in. But, Misbah went for a six behind the keeper. Sreeshanth made no mistake to take the most important catch of the World Cup. What would it be IF he had missed it? Let me not ask that!!!!!!!! Congrats India. Match ended about 9:15pm India time. I am sure, all night, India will be awake and whole India will be in virtual bright day light all night. One thing still rules - India has never lost to Pakistan in the World Cup! It was overall a team effort by India. Many had good contributions...

Movies with Sports theme: It all started with Lagaan - a full cricket match in a movie. Now, there is Chak de India - Hockey team. There is also soccer - Don't forget - Bend it like Beckham. Oh! A smaller commercial movie - Iqbal, again cricketing dream of an young boy. Recent movies: I think, Bollywood is trying all new things and trying to stay away from same old romantic melodrama. Time has come to show stories much more realistic. There are couple of movies which show the rise and fall of politicians. Recently, there was a movie based on life story of a business tycoon. Gone are those days of simple romantic musicals of the Khans and Kapoors! But, some of those movies are always worth watching. Next, Bollywood will bring a movie of a Software engineer ;). I think some spice can always be added to that storyline.

Yashoda and Krishna Rama & Sita Above sketches were done by my fiance when she was in school! I captured them on my camera during my India visit.

My India visit was eventful with loads and loads of fun and masti. 1. Got engaged! 2. Enjoyed singing at 2 concerts 3. Good food on all days whomever I visit. 4. Ate at Vidhyathi Bhavan - Rs. 17 for 1 masala dosa. 5. Watched Mungaru MaLe in PVR Cinema - Super theatre and super price too. 6. Did a bunch of shopping In the theatre, it was full maza. My fiance and I sat down at the start of show. A lady came along to ask for, "What can I give you sir? Tea, coffee, juice, ice cream, popcorn?" I was surprised to see the service and I spontaneously asked for, "popcorn and 1 water bottle". After few minutes, there arrived our order - Rs.80 only :D. hmmm ie., less than $2. In short, it was two weeks run in fast forward mode - I now need to sit down and recap slowly to enjoy more :).

Sept. 9th 2007, Vid. T S Krishnamurthy on Violin, Vid. Anoor Dattatreya Sharma on Mridangam, and Vid. A Somashekar on Ghatam. This concert was at Shivam, Padmanabhanagar, Bangalore. Like the previous evening's concert, this too had a very good set of artists with me. The concert was a marathon three and a half hour one with nearly 15 items in the list. Most of them who had made it for the previou's night's concert, were here! So, no repeats from me! I sang 'bhakthi bhikshameeyave' in Shankarabharana. 'ninna nOdi dhanyanAdheno' in Pantuvarali was put in the main item slot. This concert was more of a chamber music with close interaction with kids and their parents who are into music. My message to them was to keep the music along in their lives and not let it dry out in the long run. If they move abroad, they need not think that there is no music in that part of the world. Music is within us, deep inside our heart and mind, and we carry it wherever we go. We n...

Sept 8th 2007, Manandhi Hall, Jayanagar - Vid. Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma on Mridangam, Vid. Shrishaila on Ghatam and Vid. Charulatha Ramanujam on Violin. It was my pleasure to perform with great artists like these. The evening started with Veeriboni varna in Bhairavi, followed by ShrimahagaNapathe in Naata. I also sang MalayamArutha with improvization in the end. The main item of the evening was Todi's Koluvamaregadha; nevarval at 'thambura chEkoni'. Singing was really made easy by such a wonderful support from all the artists on stage. They made my music come out with free flow and made everything look simple. In the audience, I had great musicians sitting in the front row - Vid. Ramachandra Rao (an octogenarian and a very scholarly person), Vid. R K Padmanabha and ofcourse my guru, Vid. D V Nagarajan. The event was organized by Om Sumsthe and Balaji School of Music.

Arrived in India last night. I am feeling like I am in a 15-day fair with people all around and vehicles coming in from all directions. But, Sunday night was supposed to be a sample of what would come on Monday during peak hours of traffic. I am sure it will be more fun. On the way from Airport, listened to "sakkath hot maga" channel on radio - radio mirchi! Some RJ was talking bla bla bla in Kannada with full artificial accent. I thought that she learnt Kannada after becoming an RJ. On flight, one uncle-auntie were returning back to India after their first visit to the US. I asked them, "How was it? What did you feel about America?". Their answers were so simple and straight forward - "Cleanliness and discipline and good there". Add these two to Indian land and India will surely be on par with the West in all fields. How is it so easy? - you must ask. Just put the word discipline to all Officers, politicians, traffic, etc. That part gets better automatica...

Flight from SLC to LA was kewl . I just missed my camera in hand during the ascent. It was a beautiful sunset with lake in the background. LA is sooooo big! The city's view from above was endless. On flight, there were thunder strikes in far distance. I just dreamed (is this past tense of dream? This passed the spell check! I didn't know that) seeing clouds below the flight and shower beneath. It was dream come true - the flight was above a cloud bundle and it was raining from that cloud! It was spectacular to see that fuzzy hazy picture below that dense cloud. OK. I am in LA airport online browsing the net. One old chinku passes by seeing me and my browsing magic. He asks me, 'is internet there?' - I say, 'yeah'. He started asked me some more questions which I didn't understand. I just asked him, 'Do you have a laptop?' He said, 'I have microsoft'. I was stunned with the answer. I thought, 'Microsoft's some new thing... similar to ...