A quick succession of blogs

I think the blogger in me has been denied outlet for too long now, so there is a quick succession of blogs. Blogging is a great way to let out feelings. After all, a blog cannot talk back at you. And it is free ;-)

Half-Bohemian, Half-Bourgeois

Is it possible to be half-artistic and half-materialistic/capitalistic ?
An artistic person has moments of great joy - moments whose joyous intensity
can never be reached by a materialistic person. At the same time, a highly
artistic person can never be assured of the steady and respectable life
of the bourgeois.

Is it ever possible to strike a perfect balance between these two ?
If someone does manage to achieve such balance, his/her life would be
infinitely blessed.

Is it possible for one person to achieve excellence in both the material
and spiritual domains ? I personally know of a few people who have effortlessly
achieved this happy marriage of success in both domains. And I think there is a
really simple way to achieve this.

Mohanam - the aural delight

One of the more famous carnatic ragas is Mohanam. The grandest of
the Carnatic ragas are the so-called ghana ragas - Kambodhi, Todi,
Kalyani, Bhairavi and Shankarabaranam. These ghana ragas lend themselves
to elaborate alapanas and are vast in terms of the potential for
exploration. On the other extreme are the so-called vakra ragas like
Anandabhairavi, Sahana etc, which are limited in their potential
for elaboration, but are nevertheless quite pleasing to the ear.

Mohanam is somewhere in between on this scale, if I may call it so.
It is a pure carnatic raga, but has a "light-music" flavour to it.
Shankarabaranam and Kambodhi are majestic in a royal sense, Todi and Bhairavi are
soul-stirring, Kalyani is majestic in a sweet way, Sahana is sensuous,
Subapantuvarali is melancholy, Mukhari is plaintive, Bilahari is brisk,
Nilambari is soporific, Kedaram is lively.

As opposed to all these wonderful ragas, Mohanam is joyous. The key word
that comes to mind upon listening to Mohanam is JOY. Pure sowkyam and
santhosham.

Carnatic Music, Management and Life in General

Carnatic music is a wonderful subject/skill/art whatever you might call it.
It involves discipline and precision to a great extent, and at the same time
involves arbitrariness, imagination, voice control, feeling and emotion (bhaavam),
spirituality and other such intangible things. Thus, it is a combination of
tangible precision and intangible factors blending in together. And this is exactly
what makes it so beautiful..and difficult to comprehend for an new learner.

For a vocalist, it is well-nigh impossible to explain to a student how to get the
sruthis (frequencies) right. The seven swaras Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni are just
aliases to represent different frequencies. These seven frequencies have a precise
relation between them. But the starting frequency(Sa) itself is completely arbitrary and
can vary from one vocalist to another. But no matter what the starting frequency,
the vocalist must preserve the exact relationship between the seven frequencies, if
he/she is to meaningfully produce a raaga vocally. Preserving the relationship between the freqencies is the key to generate pleasing music.

The difference between a trained/talented singer and a non-musical person is the ability to preserve the relationship between frequencies.

This is the "precision" part of carnatic music. However, there is more to Carnatic
music than just precision. Western music is all about precision. While sruti precision is undoubtedly the basis of carnatic music, there are factors that go beyond this. For example, gamakas (or overtones) are used to embellish the notes. Without gamakas, the music would be very bland, even if grammatically precise. It would be like reciting inspiring poetry in the style of a newsreader. In addition to gamakas, there are factors like voice quality, raaga knowledge (depth or raaga gnana - which allows a singer to generate sangathis of wider variety for the same raaga)

And on top of all this, there is the most intangible of all factors - bhaava (or feeling). This is exactly what makes the difference between MS Subbulakshmi and yours truly. Also, this is the difference in character between different raagas - why it is pleasing to listen to Bhoopalam in the morning and Sahana at night. So there are several aspects to bhaava - the nature of the raaga, the nature of the singer and the nature of the listener.

A lot of this applies to management, as every manager would testify. Even for a technical manager, the work involves precise and intangible factors. Precise things are the ones that can be documented and clearly quantified. Intangible factors are like motivation (or the lack of it), frustrations, likes, dislikes, etc. which are often the most important things. Even a project plan can be seriously influenced (for good or worse) by unexpected factors and intangibles. It is important to act quickly and decisively on the precise things which can be clearly controlled. It is also important to manage the intangible ones.

And in both Carnatic music and management, a positive and happy mind maximizes results. And as in life itself, it is all about maximizing sowkyam.

The Common Man

I always like to think of myself as an average guy..
This sets expectations low and takes the pressure off.
In fact it would even better to be an underdog.

A person who thinks of oneself as a high achiever expects
success all the time, and puts an unnecessary and undue
pressure on himself/herself. An average person is more
likely to treat success and failure with equanimity.
Personally, I think that an "average" guy has a better
life and long-term success than a dazzling high-achiever.
Sustainable success and a balanced life are more important
than flashes in the pan.

Abraham Lincoln once said "God must have loved the common men-
He made so many of them"


I am OK with success or failure. No issues.