Saturday, December 31, 2005

2005 - over and out!

Its 2006 :)!!!! Hope atleast this yr, I dont make a mistake in writing the date..Its 01/01/2006 today!!!!

2005 - recap...a few things that I will remember for a long time!

- Got an award in my company!! I quit that company few mnths later tho

- Friends' Wedding reception - the whole wing went to trichy...

- Had to swap my mobile with my friend's... and ended up losing her's! Got a new one tho', but that was for me ;) !!

- My 'career planner' tried hard to find someone for me(was for fun tho)!!! ... which finally led to coffee day, a movie n a good friend...

- Moved to a new company as part of an acquisition; Had (or rather have?) a huge crush on someone there...

- Work sucked!! Spent all the office hrs playing pool and chewing mints!!

- Muthathi trip... bike ride with wing! was pretty adventurous!!! Almost slided down the hill! Forest Fire! Trecking! Unforgettable!

- A Y! interview again! A flop again :(

- Became a SUN Man!!! Back to Divyashree! But obviously missed the i2 cafeteria and the pool tables @ 8th floor...

- Got stuck in the chennai rains, met friends after a long time..walked on roads with almost knee level water :)!!

- CATted...jus gave the test...dont ask me anything more!

- Rediscoverd my passion for carnatic music, thanks to jugofalltrades and apursansar

- Started blogging again in REFLECTIONS!

- Started cooking @ home!!! kudos to KIKO!!!

- Never got unconscious !!! GOD's grace!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

December 31st... again!

All,

~ 20 mts left for 2006!!! So, heres wishing you a great year ahead, full of happiness, peace, good health and all success!!!

Lemme begin the new year with this quote!!
"To get started at something, you need to stop talking and begin doing!"

Have fun all u guys!!!

Cyu next year!!! :)

Friday, December 30, 2005

The Letter... continued (and reworked!)

15:00

He drafted the e-mail... thinking of her as always...

From: rohan@gmail.com
To: mailmeswathi@gmail.com
Subject: Do read this...

I am not sure why Im writing this one... may be because I lost my mind to my heart... People say this is the find-your-love-online age and may be now I think I will have to accept that!! Honey, ever since I met you three months back, I have always liked everything about you :) I feel you are definitely a part of my life....Im feeling good!!!.... Does this happen with everyone?? Or is it just me?!!!! I dont remember how we met, but all I know is ... it was destiny that made us meet :) and we jelled together very easily, dint we!!! Everytime you come online, I feel like Im meeting you & am near to you....Hey n btw, why aint I able to find you online these days??? May be u r busy missing me ;) I know you have been a perfect friend and I hope you will also be the perfect woman for me. Im sayin this from the depth of my heart...I love you...


- Rohan


15:20

Send it Rohan! - He said to himself... He was looking at the send button...a couple of mts passed by... Okie..this isnt going to help... I love her and I should let her know...Am going to send it now!

15:22

Send - Click - Oof..Done! - Message Sent!!

He knew she was there at home checking her mails..
-Lemme wait.. or..may be..lemme come back after 10 mts...Where did I keep the remote...
Oh! Here ... below the newspaper...


15:32

Three Thirty!! Lemme check it out... Oh God! Please... I love her so much!

- 1 New message -
From: mailme_swathi@gmail.com
To: rohan@gmail.com
Subject: Hi!!


Hi...

Howz ur day? hectic day here today!! my manager is bugging me like hell!
askin me to come to office on saturday!! jus hate him..

new yr plans???

n btw, I got an email from my sis' friend...a love letter!! just hate that!!!
dot guys have the guts to come n tell this direct?? just hate them!

okie..leave that.. i want to meet u today at 5... its something important..that I have been thinking abt...for quite some time now..

Bubye,
swathi.

15:33

What the fck!! She doesnt like love letters!!! Damn!! May be when I go to meet her ..shud tell her something... - Tell her it was just for fun, to test her reaction?! .. n may be tell my love later.. - Screwed it all... shucks!!!

17:00 - The Cafe

Hey!!! Meetin u after a week na... this week has been damn borin :(

Yea..mine too.. okie.. what do u want? me a cafe latte!

Hmm.. Lemme have a black forest :) n u know what! im supposed to be dieting !!!

N.. u said u wanted to tell something rite..what.. anything important?? dont tell me mom has found a guy for u!!! ha ha... (Is sarcasm soo important now...u...)

That was a close guess da... I have found one!!! ............... Okie listen, I dont know what you are gonna think abt this.. I think Im in love with you...You know na.. I tell things straight...I dont know what else to tell.. I love you..

..........

....Hey..whats this... jokin?? tryin to see my reaction eh!! (or have u seen my mail?? cudnt ask her too.. what if she hates it!! or is she serious?)

No da... nejama....I dont know..but I keep thinking I want to be with you...I somehow feel that you too feel the same...n may be you arent willin to tell.. am serious..

Hmm.. may be we should talk abt this later.. I dont know what tell ...(What the fck..has she read it or not!) ... n.. u know I love u!! mind reader eh!! how did u know that [;)] ... (temme temme temme)

something told me thats all.. may be love! okie.. lets talk abt this later...
just felt like telling u... okie.. lemme leave... i wont know what to talk if i stay here.. mail me..


17:15

What..she asks me to mail her?! what should I!!! may be.. will tell her a big Yes! anywez.. she loves me..so.. no big deal tellin her that it was the greatest co-incidence....wait...shudnt get screwed up this time too...hmm..but who cares.. she said she loves me na..big deal!! or.. yea..may be i will tell her that I shud have told her direct instead of sendin her that mail..will come up with some good reason for mailing her...

Hi,
you knw what.. I too feel you are the right person for me... a great co-incidence na... guess u wud have got my first mail.. I thought i wud express my love throught the way we met - online! Only after you told me abt ur sis' friend, I realised that you dont like such stuff!! Thought u wud hate me after readin that mail... but that day at the cafe was a sweet surprise!!! anywez.. am happy that Im in love, with my love!
love u,
rohan.

15:20

okie ..send it ..send it..no screwing up this time!!! :) oh wait

1 New Message received

Maier-daemon@gmail.com

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
mailmeswathi@gmail.com
Email id does not exist.



What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ooooff.. wud have screwed that up yet again!!!!! than god.. but hw come that mail dint reach her.. ooh!!!!! missed the underscore!! Thank God!!!
U fcker! change that mail now!!!!

Hi,

You are right! I too feel you are the right person for me..
u know what! now that you too are in love, u shud stop hating love letters!
only then can I write u one! ;) .. he he.. kiddin..

Love,
Rohan!

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Thoughts are changing... Web Wise!

Web 1.0 --> Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> syndication

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Terror Again :(

There was a terrorist attack in IISc today a couple of hrs ago; a professor shot dead and few others injured; God knows what these guys' intentions are! May be they themselves dont know what they want to achieve by such madness... More on NDTV

Monday, December 26, 2005

Remembering the Wave


It's hard to believe that a year has passed since the boxing day tsunami devastated large parts of southeast Asia Srilanka and Tamil Nadu and destroyed the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog and
World Wide Help
are observing Disaster Remembrance Week to mark what has been an horrific year of natural disasters. For all those who want to help the tsunami victims, this is a good place to find aid agencies - Tsunamihelp wiki

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas!!!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Carnatic Music - II (Raga)

Raga is a combination of the twelve swaras which forms various tunes or melodies. All tunes in a particular raga would contain the same set or subset of swaras that form the raga. However, ragas are not simply collections of swaras that produce melodies. There are various factors that together identify a raga.

Factors that form a raga
--------------------------------
Every raga has a schema associated with it -
Aarohana - the ascending series of swaras Eg S R G M P D N S
Avarohana - the descending series Eg S N D P M G R S

When playing a raga, if the artist wants to keep the pitch rising, he has to follow the aarohana pattern and vice versa. Ragas might have the same set of swaras but in a different order which when played might result in completely different ragas

For ex, Raga - Shankarabaranam and Kadhana Kodhookalam have the same swaras S R2 G2 M1 P D2 N2 S. If one sings these swaras in the order given above, it is Shankarabaranam. If the order is changed like S R2 M1 D2 N2 G2 P S, this is Kadhana Kodhookalam. Nowhere when one plays Kadhana Kodhookalam, should there be a sequence of S R2 G2 M1 !!

Gamakas - They give life to the ragas. Ragas when played just with the help of the aarohana/avarohana pattern would result in lifeless and meaningless music. The gamakas define the mode of moving from one swara to the other, which swaras to give more stress on, etc. Gamaka patterns are different for different ragas.

When a raga is played by adhering to all these above rules, one can sense a unique melody in it. Ragas have been designed to bring in emotions to listeners. There are ragas which sound joy, fear, sorrow etc etc etc..There are ragas which have to be played in mornings, evenings. There are ragas which bring rain too!!

Types of Ragas
---------------------
The Melakarta Scheme - The mekarta scheme is the fixed set of ragas that contain all the 7 basic swaras both in the aarohana and in the avarohana. There are 72 such melakarta ragas. Melakarta Raga List

Janya Ragas - These ragas are derived from melakarta ragas. One simple way to form a janya raga is to leave out one or two swaras in the aarohana/avarohana! Ex : Leaving out M1 N2 in the aarohana of ShankaraBaranam gives Raga Bilahari (My Favourite!! and the raga pattern denotes melancholy and heroism)!! The aarohana/avarohana of a melakarta when twisted also forms a janya raga (Eg, Kadhana Kodhookalam that we saw above). Swaras from different melakartas can be mixed to form janya ragas! One can now imagine the thousands of ragas that can be formed!!!!

Friday, December 23, 2005

Su-Do-Ku!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The latest craze.. the major buzz word after 'blog' - sudoku!!! The whole world seems to be solving this place-the-number puzzle!!!

For those unfamiliar with the game, Wikipedia tells us sudoku "is a placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The aim of the puzzle is to enter a numeral from 1 through 9 in each cell of a grid, most frequently a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids (called "regions"), starting with various numerals given in some cells (the "givens"). Each row, column and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. Completing the puzzle requires patience and logical ability. Its grid layout is reminiscent of other newspaper puzzles like crosswords and chess problems. Sudoku initially became popular in Japan in 1986 and attained international popularity in 2005."

To my mind, sudoku gained popularity early this year, when newspapers started publishing sudoku puzzles. Today I find sudoku everywhere even in the local kannada or tamil dailies!!

I AM addicted to it!! I think the biggest plus in it is anyone can solve them! It requires no knowledge like some weird crossword where you gotto know the colloquial french equivalent of a word as simple as 'please'! ("S'il vous plait" , it is! Now, how did i know this!!)

Well, some say they dont get satisfaction solving the puzzle. "Oh Cmon! All that you have in the end is 1 to 9... it sucks!!". Dont worry guys, you will be joining me soon!!!!

My blog will now have a link to sudoku-for-the-day!!!!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Carnatic Music - I (Swaras)

SWARAS
-----------
The most basic unit of music is the swara (or note) which simply indicates the pitch of the sound. The vedic chantings used to be in three swaras which later became seven and thus was born Carnatic Music. These swaras form the pillars of Carnatic Music. There are seven swaras namely

Shadjam (Sa)
Rishabam (Ri)
Gandharam (Ga)
Madhyamam (Ma)
Panchamam (Pa)
Dhaivatham (Da)
Nishadam (Ni).

The seven swaras are mythologically associated with the sounds produced by certain animals and the names of the swaras are related to the names of these animals. However the name Madhyamam also appears to be derived from Madhya - the centre position in the octave.

Some of these seven swaras have more than one frequency associated with it, thereby forming twelve SWARASTHANAS (frequency positions). Out of these twelve swarasthanas, there are four pairs of swaras that share the same frequency. They are given different swara names based on the raaga(to abide by the rules of the raaga).
This leads to a total of 16 swaras

7 basic swaras + 5 swaras having two frequencies + 4 pairs of swaras sharing the same frequency = 16

This final swara list is as follows...

1 Shadjam Sa
2 Suddha Rishabam Ri, Small Ri
3 Chatusruthi Rishabam Ri, Big Ri
Suddha Gandharam Ga
4 Shatsruthi Rishabam Ri
Sadharana Gandharam Ga, Small Ga
5 Anthara Gandharam Ga, Big Ga
6 Suddha Madhyamam Ma, Small Ma
7 Prati Madhyamam Mi, Big Ma
8 Panchamam Pa
9 Suddha Dhaivatham Da,Small Da
10 Chatusruthi Dhaivatham Da, Big Da
Suddha Nishadam Ni
11 Shatsruthi Dhaivatham Du
Kaisika Nishadham Ni, Small Ni
12 Kakali Nishadham Ni, Big Ni

This might be misleading as one might think that there are sixteen different positions in an octave. But there are only twelve. Just that four pairs swaras-sthanas mentioned above share the same position. Ex: Shatsruthi Rishaban and Sadharana Gaandhaaram. This can be well understood with the help of a piano/harmonium/veena where every note is distinctly played.

To easily understand the swaras in english, they are labelled as
S1, R1 R2, G1 G2, M1 M2, P, D1 D2, N1 N2. Doubling the pitch of a swara gives the same swara belonging to the next higher octave!!!

The combinations of these swaras give rise to melodies which can then be classified on the basis of the swaras that are used.

Still to come..
GAMAKAS
RAAGA

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Hello World - II

I'm back ...after a long break!!! Its been almost 8-9 months now, since I stopped blogging, and my life has undergone many many changes since then; the most important thing being, me shifting job to become a SUN man!!! Its a nice feeling to work in a great company with your close friends and relatives around!!

Now that I have reincarnated my blog, (for those who remember, theres a new name n a new template now!), most of my blogs would fall into the follwing categories..

Carnatic Music

BITS Pilani, Need I Say More?!!

Thoughts of a SUN Man!!

...and more to come... Stay Tuned!