Malhar..

San-diego weather is excellent these days.. summer time.. but occasionally going thru May gray.. June bloom period..

Any way, during my last india trip, 4 months back, I bought bunch of Indian classical records, but I didn't get a chance to listen to them all.. Yesterday I opened Sanjeev Abhyankar's Miyan Malhar.. ...and guess what... despite the clear sunny weather since last 3 days, it rained today.. heavily !! It didn't rain since last 3 moths and suddenly it poured today..

Its surprising.. possibly coincidental.. probably foolish to say, but... Malhar indeed brings rain :) !!

"Umad Ghumad Garaj Garaj Barsan Ko Aayo Meha"

Phoenix Touchdown..

Phoenix has landed.. This is first time I tracked Mars probe landing "Live".. NASA tv was broadcasting activities in JPL mission control room during phoenix landing... Commentator was mentioning the status of phoenix probe, its location, trajectory, signal strength continuously ... Tension in the control room and the excitement after flawless landing was indeed breathtaking..

This Hollywood style video shows the Phoenix landing drama !!

Phoenix is already active and sending photos.. Lets start digging.. let's quench our thirst, hope we will find "water" !!

नसतेस घरी तू जेव्हा..

One of the masterpieces by Salil Kulkarni and Sandeep Khare॥ The poem does magic with simple words.. music is fabulous.. and Salil's voice is indeed touching !!

Listen here..

नसतेस घरी तू जेव्हा..
जीव तुटका तुटका होतो
जगण्याचे वीरती धागे
संसार फाटका होतो

नभ फाटून वीज पडावी
कल्लोळ तसा ओढवतो
ही धरा दीशाहीन होते
अन्‌ चंद्र पोरका होतो

येतात उन्हे दाराशी
हीरामुसून जाती मागे
खीडकीशी थबकुन वारा
तव गंधावाचून जातो

तव मीठीत वीरघळणाऱ्या
मज स्मरती लाघववेळा
श्वासावीण ह्रुदय अडावे
मी तसाच अगतीक होतो

तू सांग सखे मज काय
मी सांगू या घरदारा ?
समईचा जीव उदास
माझ्यासह मीणमीण मीटतो

ना अजून झालो मोठा
ना स्वतंत्र अजुनी झालो
तुजवाचून उमगत जाते
तुजवाचून जन्मच अडतो !


- संदीप खरे, सलील कुलकर्णी
आयुष्यावर बोलू काही (२००३)

Into the wild

Into the wild.. The movie..story of Chris McCandeless indeed appeals to me.. not literally, but philosophically.. A wild landscape without traces of civilization are spiritually necessary, but Happiness is only real when shared.. so there should be balance of both isolation and society/relationships in human life..

I want to experience this "wilderness" by myself.. philosophically.. but I guess I am too weak to start my search.. Someday I will !!

Eddie Vedder's music & words precisely reflects this philosophy in the soundtrack..
"Don't come closer or I'll have to go
Holding me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
It would be you..."

Checkout the complete lyrics..

Also checkout the soundtrack.. Guitar piece is simply too good to touch your heart.. It won the Grammy !!

NY times review and "Chris's" character analysis is indeed thought provoking..

Tilak Shyam..

Attended an Indian classical concert by Pt Vishwa-Mohan Bhat today.. He played for almost 3.5 hrs. A great feast after a long time... To my surprise, Pt Ravi Shankar ji showed up for the concert, probably being native San Diegan. As per his request, Pt Vishwa-Mohan ji played a composition in Raga "Tilak Shyam".

"Jaane Kaise Sapanon Mein Kho Gaee Aakhiyaan
Mai To Hoo Jaagee, Moree So Gaee Aakhiyaan"

He mentioned that the piece is composed by Pt Ravi Shankar himself and whenever he played that tune, he always cried. I didn't understand what he meant by that... Initially, he sang for couple of minutes and then he played the whole composition for a while. But, at the end of it, Pt Vishwa-Mohan ji literally cried. I was really shocked by what I was witnessing.. I have attended so many concerts, I have seen/heard/read, artist describing the philosophy and emotions in a composition.. but this is first time I witnessed a big-shot being so heartfelt. Probably, Panditji must have plucked few notes deep in his heart, Old memories must have popped up in his mind and he just wasn't able to control himself in the end !!

It was truly one of the best concerts, I have ever attended in my life. I guess, "Tilak Shyam" is now imprinted on my brain for lifetime now..

> The "Tilak Shyam" song originally composed for movie Anuradha, sung by Lata: Here on YouTube
> The "Tilak Shyam" composition played by Pt Ravi Shankar: Here on MusicIndiaOnline.

At the end of the concert, I got a chance to look at his "Mohan Veena", slide guitar.. I never got a chance to look at it so closely.. I knew that it has 20 strings, unlike regular guitar of 6 strings, but I was unaware abt the complexity of the instrument itself. These strings are not just parallel but in mesh format. Out of twenty, 7 strings are in parallel (like regular guitar), while remaining 13 strings are tiny in length and in a mesh format running diagonally, to upper 3 strings. All these 13 strings have a small stone woven in it, which can slide on it. It must be really heard to control these stones to play notes on that string... With an impulse, I really wanted to touch panditji's guitar, but... :) !!

Along with "Tilak Shyam", he played "Maru Bihag" at length, a composition in "Des", piece from his Grammy award winning album "A meeting by the River", and one of his latest composition recorded in LA.

Rounders..

These days, I am really hooked to the game of poker.

Around six months back, Shaan gave us first glimpse of poker.. Obviously at that time, we didn't know anything abt it.. and we kept on loosing... but more you play or more you loose, then more you grasp the game.. and now.. we are not doing bad...

Qualcomm had a poker tournament last week, and all of us played there.. Around 200 people signed up.. and guess what... I survived in top 40 people. :) .. thats not bad considering only my 6 months poker experience.. Infact my buddies Dilip and Sarath were in top 10 players... that was simply unbelievable... I am sure, if Shaan would have been there, he would have been a champion :) !!

In AZ, I used to browse thru some poker games on TV, but I always felt that who the hell watches these things? what's so interesting in it? Or whoever watches these games, probably they don't have nothing better to do... but guess what.. my perspective is totally changed now.. Its not only the cards or money you are looking for, but its the psychology, with which these poker geniuses play, is worth to watch...

Poker is indeed one of the best psychological games of life.. probably like Chess...but in Chess, Strategy outplays the Psychological aspect.. In poker, I think, playing cards is just a backdrop.. Its the mentality of your opponent you are indeed dealing with... If you can judge your opponent.. Bingo.. you have earned yourself a "Big Pot"... But if you have mixed your emotions, grudges, vengeance in your play... then..Oh Boy.. you are in trouble.. Poker "Tilt" always "sucks" you in the game towards devastation... and I have experienced it closely...

If you haven't played poker yet, then you are indeed missing something in life... At-least start with Rounders and get inspired :) !!

Sometimes I feel that, God (??) is playing poker against us... against all of us... He not only knows his own cards, but he knows my cards also... so obviously he can not loose in the game.. He is already aware abt the outcome of the game, but its me who is fighting for my own survival.. and keep on trying to make a good judgment to find out the outcome of this play....

Somewhere I read abt an essay, where Author successfully compares the teachings of Aristotle with Poker.. "The correct approach, whether it's to poker or life, is to focus on making correct decisions rather than on favorable outcomes that may be dependent on other factors"

Indeed...... These days God (??) is playing heads-up with me... trying to put me in "Tilt", but.... any way.. Let's not get into details :) !!

Here is the video of last few rounds of championship in Qualcomm tourney.. Audio is intentionally disabled.. You can see me and Dilip standing behind the dealer.

Sunset with "Green Flash"

Hiked to Torry Pines hill, on Saturday. Its just a mile walk.. but gains elevation pretty quickly.. Wide view of ocean from top of the hill is indeed marvelous.

I was just in time to see sunset. On west side, near horizon, there were few clouds and beautiful "red ball" was passing through it. Obviously there wasn't anything different than usual sunset, until I pointed my binocular. Binoculars revealed a totally different view of sunset. Because of clouds on the horizon, top part of the red sun had a "green tinge". The green tinge remained for 5-10 seconds and vanished.. Again, when sun passed through next layer of clouds, the green tinge reappeared on top part of sun above clouds.. Seemed like for every layer of clouds, green tinge appeared..

when I was a kid, I remember reading an article in physics magazine about: how a scientist caught a glimpse of violet color in the setting sun. To have a longer view of that "violet tinge" during sunset, he drove from mountain top, downslope, watching sun. Thus he saw the violet color for almost a minute. Obviously the article was pointing to highly improbable view.. means.. first of all its really difficult to see violet color in sunset because of our eye limitations (RGB sensors in retina) and additionally catching the glimpse for a minute and driving at the same time is hilarious :) ... but still... it made me realize that you can see different colors in sun other than typical red and yellow during sunset.. So out of curiosity, at that time, I also tried to see violet color in sunset from a nearby hill across my home in Pune, but I never saw any colors other than red and yellow.

..and today, unexpectedly, I saw green tinge in the sunset.. With naked eyes, I didn't see anything, but binocular revealed this green tinge. To confirm that it wasn't binoc optical aberration, simple google search revealed wealth of information.. People have not only seen green tinge, but they have witnessed "green flash" and "blue flash" ..

Indeed a "earthly" event to witness..

PS: Think before pointing your binocs to the Sun.. With normal Sun, it will surely damage your eyes, but I felt the brightness of Setting sun also, through binocs.. but "green tinge" sight was too beautiful to control myself :)

(Photo credit : Galax Lux, Mario Cogo)