Shyam's Blog

Back from Shimoga road trip. Agenda of the trip was: 1) Participate in Dasara festival and Chandi Homa. 2) Visit Jog Falls. 3) See how Shimoga looks after 21 years. It was an eventful trip. On the way, visited 'Amrutheshwara Temple' at Amruthapura. It is a beautiful temple of the 12th century built during Hoysala rule. On the 2nd day of the trip was the Chandi Homa. Coconut decoration using 2000 coconuts was a sight to watch. On the third day, visited Jog Falls which is 103 Kms from Shimoga. Though water was less, it was a nice short visit to Asia's biggest water falls. In Shimoga, there is a palace of Shivappa Nayaka. This palace was a timber yard till a few years ago. Recently, Archeological Dept. is maintaining that premises neatly. There are also lots of sculptures stored here which belong to 10-15th century. I also hunted the two houses we lived in 1987-1988 period. Even though I was happy in finding out those houses, I really felt sad to see them in a very poorly main...

"Touch-me-not" flower taken from the new camera (Canon SLR)

!! Happy Dasara !!

Performed at Veda-Nada during the weekend. It was a very good experience to practise and present Devi Krithis of Muttuswamy Dikshitar in this concert. End of the program, like always, I thought that on-stage performance is not my cup of coffee :( With hectic work schedule, I hardly get time to rehearse. When I do plan to rehearse regularly, I can't spend time with the family for any shopping or outing. Bottomline - There is always a trade-off.

It has been something like Philately season for me these days. Brother sent me 4 albums full of stamps which we have been collecting for more than 2 decades. Those 4 new albums are really better compared to the ones we had earlier. Also, my FIL and MIL returned from a visit to Switzerland. They gifted me a stamp collection of all the releases made in 2008. Switzerland stamps have their nation mentioned as Helvetia which is the female personification of Switzerland. Similarly, there are few other countries that mention their native names - one more eg., Nippon for Japan. In our collection, there are many sections which are my favorites. Infact, each section is unique and distinct. Below are the some of the themes which we have right now: 1) Flora 2) Fauna 3) Pisces 4) Indian Monuments 5) Bollywood 6) Children"s day 7) Freedom fighters 8) Mount Everest 9) Festivals of India 10) Arts of India 11) Anniversaries of India - Republic Day, Independence day 12) Indian Postal Dept and India...

I have been rehearsing for the upcoming concert and it has been a wonderful experience to sing krithis of Muttuswamy Dikshitar. Nearly 12 songs are packed for the 3-hour duration concert. I will be starting off with a krithi in GowLa on Lord Ganapathi. Selection of songs has been made keeping in mind the variety and tempo of each song. A song in 'saama' (Annapurne..) will follow the first Ganapathi krithi. Theme of the concert is 'Devi Krithis of Muttuswamy Dikshitar' and sticking to that, 3rd piece will be a 'hindoLa' one (neerajaakshi kaamakshi). I have planned to elaborate the anupallavi with neraval and swara-prastara. 'Shri Bhargavi' in 'mangala kaishiki' will be followed by a song in the raaga, 'jyoti'. Main piece of the evening will be in 'purvikalyani'. This song has a story behind it. On the chaturdashi day of 1835, Dikshitar told his students to sing a song on Devi. They sang 'meenakshi me mudam'. Dikshitar tol...

I was watching TV and saw one Ad in which I saw this Magnetic Hill in Leh region. Vehicles which are parked in neutral gear move uphill. Be it a two wheeler, a car or a truck - they move uphill at 10 Km/hr speed which defies gravity! Search online for "Magnetic Hill, Leh" to watch videos of travelers trying this out.

All are welcome Venue: Ragigudda Sri Prasanna Anjaneya Swamy Temple Premises

It has been a hectic week (week+weekend) and is expected to be a very busy week ahead. When a team upgrades and releases a new code to customers, I think it is expected to get tested in the first week. This is exactly what happened on my side. There are lot of 'take away'-s for me with this. If everything goes well, it is a 'smooth release', if not, it will be, 'tough, yet successful' one. Release started on Wednesday and completed on Friday night. Weekend was the 'post-operative period' (a term mom often uses just after a surgery). This is the time when system has to be carefully monitored. In my case, there can be margin for errors (unfortunately, there were many). But, in case of mom's surgery, there is hardly any scope for things getting wrong. There are no 'patches' for medical surgeries! On these 2 days, I was supporting the system and moral of the story is - Ergonomics at home was not planned. My sitting posture was bad on a couch and ...

Somehow, this Ad irritates me a lot. It comes 100000000000 times a day. Dad has not seen this Ad. I am sure he will hate the concept ;). His argument is, 'if you don't answer your cell phone, you better don't subscribe to it' In the ad, a) everybody sings in their own style - voices are crude to listen 10000000000000 times. b) The gym-guy does too much of acting. He is cycling and eating one big bowl of junk. He shows over acting when he says, "just working out".