Thursday, March 25, 2010
Some nostalgic memories
One more interesting contribution from Ms.Sivapriyakrishnan which will take many of us back to 70s
People who grew up during the 70s and well early eighties in middle class India ....
1 Though you may not publicly own to this, at the age of 5-8 years, you were very proud of your first “Bellbottom” or your first “Maxi”
2 Phantom & Mandrake were your only true heroes. You can also nod your heads to names like Chandamama, Champak, Lot-Pot, Nandan. The brainy ones read “Competition Success Review”.
3 You took pride in turning to the back page of your latest Amar Chitra Katha and ticking off yet another title. How many ever you ticked, you still had many to go.
4 Your “Camlin” geometry box & Flora pencil was your prized possession.
5 The only “Holidays” you took were to go to your grandparents’ or your cousins’ houses.
6 Ice-cream meant only - either an orange stick, a vanilla softy in a cone or at most – a Choco Bar if you lived in a swanky town. Coke was an immense luxury, followed by Thums Up !!
7 Your first family car ( and the only one) was a Fiat. Or an ambassador. This often had to be pushed by the entire family to get going.
8 The glass windows in the back seats used to get stuck at the two-thirds down level and used to irk the shit out of you! The window went down only if your puny arm could manage the tacky rotary handle to pull it down. Locking the door was easy. You just whacked the other tacky, non-rotary handle downwards.
9 Your mom had stitched the weirdest lace curtains for all the windows of the car. They were tied in the middle and if your dad was the comfort-oriented kinds, you had a magnificent small fan upfront, below which screwed to the board was the cassette player.
10 Your parents were proud owners of HMT watches. You “earned” yours after 8th or the 10th standard exams.
11 You have been to “Jumbo Circus” ; have held your breath while the pretty young thing in the glittery skirt did acrobatics, quite enjoyed the elephants hitting football, the motorcyclist vrooming in the “Maut ka Gola” and it was politically okay to laugh your guts out at dwarfs hitting each others bottoms!
12 You have atleast once heard “Hawa Mahal” on the radio.
13 If you had a TV, it was normal to expect the neighborhood to gather around to watch the Chitrahaar or the Sunday movie. If you didn’t have a TV, you just went to a house that did. It mattered little if you knew the owners or not.
14 Sometimes the owners of these TVs got very creative and got a bi or even a tri-coloured anti-glare screen which they attached with two side clips onto their Weston TVs. That confused the hell out of you!
15 Black & White TVs weren’t so bad after all because cricket was played in whites.
16 You thought your Dad rocked because you got your own ( the family’s; not your own own!) colour TV when the Asian Games started. Everyone else got the same idea as well and ever since, no one came over to your house and you didn’t go to anyone else’s.
17 You dreaded the death of any political leader because of the mourning they would announce on the TV. After all how much “Shashtriya Sangeet” can a kid take? Salma Sultana didn’t smile either during the mourning.
18 You knew that “Indira Gandhi” was somebody really powerful and terribly important. And that’s all you needed to know.
19 The only “Gadgets” in the house were the TV, the Fridge and the Mixie.
20 All the gadgets had to be duly covered with a crochet covers and sometimes even with ingenious, custom-fit plastic covers.
21 Movies meant Amitabh Bachchan. Before the start of the movie you always had to watch the obligatory “newsreel”.
22 You thought you were so rocking because you knew almost all the songs of Abba and BoneyM
23 You had a turntable “stereo” and a collection of LP Records. Your hormones went crazy when you bought “Disco Deewane” by Naziya Hassan & Zoheb Hassan.
24 You couldn’t contain your happiness when you suddenly had knowledge of Grammy awards and Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper & OMG even Michael Jackson became familiar names.
25 School teachers, your parents and even your neighbours could whack you and it was all okay.
26 Photograph taking was a big thing. You were lucky if your family owned a camera. A reel of 36 exposures was valuable hence it justified the half hour preparation & “setting” & the “posing” for each picture. Therefore, you have atleast one family picture where everyone is holding their breath and standing at attention!
27. When you really counted down days to "Diwali" every year.
innocence was natural,
when getting high meant on a swing
when drinking meant rasna
when dad was the only hero , when love was mom's hug When dad's shoulders was the highest place on earth,
when worst enemies were your siblings, when the only thing that could hurt were bleeding knees,
when the only things broken were toys, and when goodbyes only meant till tomorrow.....
life has changed quite a bit since then......
life has changed quite a bit since then......
Many more nostalgic memories hidden there….get them out!
The photo on the top is one I got out
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
To get more things done in less time - Part 2
What is man's best friend ( besides the dog) ? The waste basket ! - Business week
Your work space
Get rid of that paper. Shuffling and reshuffling paper from pile to pile or file to file wastes time and keeps you from focusing on what needs to get done. Find a gigantic waste basket and fill it up. The larger the waste basket, the more you will use it. Throwing thisngs away then becomes an art. Enjoy !
Files should not be an obstacle course. Put your most often reviewed files at the front of the cabinet. Here is a test to see if your current filing system works. Within two minutes, can you retrieve any paper you need? Go. If you failed the test you are wasting time searching through your files.
Never clear off your desk by randomly throwing things in a drawer. You will eventually have to go through that drawer. Instead, create a logical system for storing these items in your desk.
A picture or two on your desk is probably not distracting, but limit pictures to a special few. The more pictures on your desk, the more distractions and interruptions you invite.
Organise your desktop. If you are right handed, make sure the phone is located on the left side of your desk. You have to keep the right side of the desk ( and your right hand) free to take notes. Just opposite for the lefties. Right handed people should place the calculator on the right side of their desk. Ditto above for the southpaws, the proud and under represented.
Avoid glass desktops. They glare and hard to keep clean, You don't need to spend your valuable time wiping off finger prints.
If a report comes across your desk that you can't use, notify the sender and ask to be deleted from distribution. The key question to ask is " would I pay for this report if I had to?" If not, get rid of it.
If you only use four lines of a report, ask for reformat, if possible. Four pages when you need four lines just does not make sense - does it?
If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keeping putting off doing it
The work Environment: Make it productive !
Take the time to understand the role of every department in your organisation. This time invested up front will eliminate your
" panic" when some one has an urgent request outside your department.
" Perfection paralysis" is expensive. Sometimes it is not worth the effort to make things " perfect" . Take a look at time costs involved and weigh these against the benefit of perfection. Many times second best in operation is better than first best on the drawing board.
Copy the world every time you send a memo? But, realistically, does " the world" really care? When writing a memo or sending an e-mail, only distribute to the people who really need to know the information. Some of " the world " feels obligated to respond and then evey one's time is wasted.
Want to get your written point across - fast? Limit your sentences to fifteen words.
Are you really listening? Every time you say, " But I thought you said" you might as well be saying, " I wasted all this time doing, the wrong thing." Listen, clarify, and make sure you understand the task before going forward. It is good time investment for both the parties.
Is it your job to pick up every ball that some one drops? Avoid the label at all costs. Think about it !
Don't try to solve other people's problems. You may be empathetic to their situation, but if you spend your time solving their problems, Surprise! Their next problem will become yours, too! The best thing you can do is, help others learn how to solve their own problems.
Interruptions.....
" Got a minute?" never means just one minute. Before you answer, always ask " What is this about?"
" Hey, you got a minute?" . That is a question, not a demand. Don't get angry with the interrupter if you answered " Sure" to their question. General rule. If you cannot eliminate the interruption, make the interruption as short as possible.
When people arrive to interrupt, meet them at the door and talk outside your office. Letting them in may add minutes to the interruption.
Signal the end of the time allotted by politely saying " One more thing before you go" . Be respectful but take control. Remember that this is your office and you are responsible for the time here.
Get rid of extra chairs in your office. You can always pull one from somewhere else if you need it.
Arrange your office so that your desk does not face the door. People are less likely to interrupt if they can't see your face.
Keep track of the origins of your interruptions. Don't be surprised to find your biggest interrupter is your boss ! After getting over the shock, sit down with your boss and see if you can find ways to decrease the number of interruptions so that you can be more productive.
When you don't want to be disturbed, put you candy dish away. It is an interrupter magnet.
Give yourself a break! You can accomplish 60 minutes' worth of interrupted work in just 20 minutes of non interrupted work. Is there better investment of your time?
Want to make a positive difference in the time investment of your company? Ask your peers and subordinates, " What do I do that wastes your time and hinders your performance?"
Henry Ford was always dropping into the offices of his company's executives. When asked why he did not have them come to him, he replied," Well ! I will tell you. I have found that I can leave the other fellow's office a lot quicker than I can get him to leave mine".
Guard your own spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Introducing Raagaas through Pallavi
This link was sent to me by Mr. Parameswaran from Bombay, This is also available in Sangeethapriya. I thought this will be useful to my readers also; particularly to the beginners of Carnatic music.
r b subramanian said...
hvaidya said...
Anonymous said...
hvaidya said...
aravindan said...
hvaidya said...
r b subramanian said...
Dear Sri Hariharan,
I am not able to down load the following items.
No.68,69 & 70 . Can you please check it up?
Regards and thanks
r b subramanian
I am not able to down load the following items.
No.68,69 & 70 . Can you please check it up?
Regards and thanks
r b subramanian
hvaidya said...
Dear Mr. Subramanian,
They are all working. Perhaps, there might have been server problem when you tried. Please try again and confirm. If the problem persists, let me think of uploading it again.
They are all working. Perhaps, there might have been server problem when you tried. Please try again and confirm. If the problem persists, let me think of uploading it again.
Anonymous said...
Dear Mama,
Namaskarams
I have been following your blog for the past 3-4 months. My kids who are learning Mridangam and carnatic music are listening to the songs downloaded from your blog, all through the day and definitely before sleeping. Listening to songs of different raagams and talam helps them to develop interest. As far as music is concerned, I can call myself a laywoman(?!!). My sincere heartfelt thanks to you for this incredible work. Thanks and namaskarams once again.
chandra
Namaskarams
I have been following your blog for the past 3-4 months. My kids who are learning Mridangam and carnatic music are listening to the songs downloaded from your blog, all through the day and definitely before sleeping. Listening to songs of different raagams and talam helps them to develop interest. As far as music is concerned, I can call myself a laywoman(?!!). My sincere heartfelt thanks to you for this incredible work. Thanks and namaskarams once again.
chandra
hvaidya said...
Thank you Ms. Chandra for your kind words. I am keen on helping the learners and that is why posted Varnams, Melakartha raagaas, Thillanas also in addition to this. I am happy this blog is useful to your children. I am also a layman as for as music is concerned. Please be in touch
aravindan said...
sir i am not able to download the link. can u do something?
hvaidya said...
I have refreshed it Mr. Aravindan.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Concert - Chembai
Friday, March 19, 2010
Concert - G. N. Balasubramanian
-
Anonymous said... - The song number 6 is missing so rest of the songs also have wrong numbering. Thanks Raman
hvaidya said... - Thanks Mr. Raman for pointing out the omission. I have included the wonderful Bhairavi now. Thanks once again. Please continue to point out the omissions and errors if any without any hesitation.
- Anonymous said...
- Thank you for uploading a wonderful concert of GNB (concert no 90). COMMENT 1: The item 09 RTP in Shanmukhapriya (playing time 59:57)is empty for nearly 50 miniutes. (Kindly look into this as the performance and the recording quality is very good) COMMENT 2: The following songs are not opening and are directed to the mediafire page with the comment that they are not to be found. 06. Balagopala (Bhairavi) 10. MaaRamanan (Hindolam) 14. Radha mukha kamalam (Kapi) K.NAGARAJAN
hvaidya said... - Dear Mr. Nagarajan, Thanks for pointing out this. I am negotiating with Mediafire, for missing of more than 150 files suddenly.They were asking me the URL of missing files. I was not able to locate the missing URL out of 7800 files. Now you have helped me to find few of the missing files so that I can take up the matter with them. However, I have uploaded fresh the missing files. ( Baala gopaala, Maa ramanan and Raadha mukha) RTP Shanmugapriya is very much working and once again I downloaded on another computer and heard the full song without interruption.About 175 have downloaded and I have not received any other complaint. check once once again and let me know to help you further
- jhggbkh said...
- I was unable to download No. 6 Bhairavi in GNB Concert No. 90. Could you pl. email it to me. Thanks. SV
hvaidya said...It is very much opening. please try again and let me know
Why should you believe somebody else other than yourself?
மதிப்புக்குà®°ிய கவர்னர் சல்லாபத்தில் ஈடுபடுகிà®±ாà®°். மக்கள் நம்பிக்கை வைத்து வாக்களித்த அரசியல்வாதிகள் ஊழல் புகாà®°ில் சிà®±ைக்குச் செல்கிà®±ாà®°்கள். கடவுளை பூஜிக்க வேண்டிய à®…à®°்ச்சகர் கோயில் கருவறையில் பெண்களுடன் உறவாடுகிà®±ாà®°். மன à®…à®®ைதிக்காக மக்கள்
செல்லுà®®் ஆசிரமங்கள்சர்ச்சைக் கூடாà®°à®™்களாக à®®ாà®±ுகின்றன.
இப்படியிà®°ுந்தால்........ மக்கள் யாà®°ைத்தான் நம்புவது?
"A respected Governor is enjoying with women. The politicians on whom the people have faith are getting involved in corruption and go to prisons. The priest who is expected to worship God is having illicit relation with women in Sanctum. The Ashrams where people go for peace of mind are becoming controversial tents.
If this is so................whom the people have to believe?"
This is the translation of above mentioned statement made by a Tamil weekly "Kumudam" after stopping the articles published regularly for more than two years, written (?) by Nithyaanandhaa.
I was surprised at the last line. Why should you believe somebody? Through out my life I was pondering over this subject,whether you have to believe always in somebody to guide you or live on your own decisions. I arrived at a conclusion, that only if you have no confidence in yourselves, you need some body as your guide.
Of course, you need advice and guidance until the age of sixteen or eighteen from your parents, elders, teachers etc, because you may not be intelligent enough to decide what is right or wrong. Once you reach that age and had basic education to understand and analyze matters, you alone have to be your master. I am not telling that you should not seek any body's advice in matters you did not comprehend. But, however after getting advice and guidance, it is you, you alone, should take decision and you should not be influenced by others advices.
You may face failures on account of your own decisions. But failures do happen when you act as per others advices also. It is better you fail on account of your own decisions than spoiling the image of the persons who advised you and claim themselves, that they are more knowledgeable than you.
You learn things from others! But, you be the judge on your acts after learning the subjects. It is the lack of confidence in self alone, make people go to some persons who claim that they are great, Guru, Swami etc. Let them teach anything. If you have time hear or read their preachings. But, is that necessary that you should become his disciple or follower? Don't you have the capacity to think over them and take the best things out of it and apply in your life and proceed? Is that necessary, you should go to them, every time to make any decisions on any issue. If you are taught to ask, "What, when, Why, How" on every subject you hear, and you have acquired sufficient knowledge to arrive at answers for these questions, why do you need some body else to do this job for you?
Vivekananda said , " The God for whom you are praying in temples, and crying in churches and mosques is your own self." If you are God itself, why do you need God-men? Have you ever thought over, "when these people claim they are God, Guru and Master for all of us, why can't I be God, Guru and Master at least to myself."
I respect women a lot. I admire them on many aspects of qualities. But it is they, in majority, who fall prey to such Swamijis, Gurus, and masters. Men also go, but very few of them become their devotees, and those who become the devotees are with ulterior motives, such as, the advantages of their company. They think of God-men only when they feel, that they are not able to achieve certain things on their own. Whereas women start thinking of these people, seek their blessings, even before they attempt something of their own. Even certain women, who are educated and independent from the influence of father, brother, husband and son are succumbing to these outsiders.
People are forgetting that these God-men are no way superior by education, superior in knowledge or experience, except they talk as though they are teaching something which was never told or written in our ancient books and literature. When we question our relatives, neighbours, friends turned out to be rich and possess huge wealth and properties, we never question these so called God-men acquiring wealth more than required for anybody, leave aside they preach detachment. Nobody thinks, why these God-men require so much of money and properties. "They are not asking, devotees are giving and they are running lot of institutions to help poor" is the statement by the followers of these God-men. In the process of this claim, they live in luxurious bungalows, have air-conditioned rooms and cars, consume drugs and enjoy women and what not !
How can somebody predict what is going to happen to you, when himself does not know what is going to happen to him? How can a person cure your decease without even going nearer to the compound of a medical college? How can any body teach you or preach you how to be successful in life without studying anything on the subject what you are in? To sort out a problem in your business or profession will you consult your servant maid, gardener or driver? They may be excellent in their profession and their limitation is only that much. To solve your tax problem, you go to a Chartered Accountant because he is expert in that. You do not go to him when you get chest pain or even stomach pain, but only to a qualified medical practitioner. Similarly to your legal problem, production problem, marketing problem,administrative problem, psychological problem, family problem and for everything there are experts in the respective field. Then why do you need somebody to give you peace when everything is looked after by experts? How do you expect somebody who has not even completed his matriculation or school final to teach you to solve your income tax problem? If you feel that he is capable of solving that problem, it only shows that you have not thought over your problem properly to sort it out and so you become desperate to go to any body without even thinking whether he is qualified or not..
Believe in yourself ! That is what our literature is teaching. We claim to have read all these things, and still go to somebody else, saying that I am searching something. Why do you search for something which cannot be attained? Do not believe when some body says that many people obtained some thing superior than what you have obtained. The best quote in Tamil is "கண்டவர் விண்டிலர்: விண்டவர் கண்டிலர்." The truth is nobody found God and that is why they have not said it. Those who found God in themselves are the real founders. You do not need some body to guide you what you are, if you are intelligent enough to know that. So, to attain that intelligence is the search of life and you alone can do it.
I will not be surprised after reading this, somebody writes to me "Swamiji ! Please guide me to find myself and the God in me !"
இப்படியிà®°ுந்தால்........ மக்கள் யாà®°ைத்தான் நம்புவது?
"A respected Governor is enjoying with women. The politicians on whom the people have faith are getting involved in corruption and go to prisons. The priest who is expected to worship God is having illicit relation with women in Sanctum. The Ashrams where people go for peace of mind are becoming controversial tents.
If this is so................whom the people have to believe?"
This is the translation of above mentioned statement made by a Tamil weekly "Kumudam" after stopping the articles published regularly for more than two years, written (?) by Nithyaanandhaa.
I was surprised at the last line. Why should you believe somebody? Through out my life I was pondering over this subject,whether you have to believe always in somebody to guide you or live on your own decisions. I arrived at a conclusion, that only if you have no confidence in yourselves, you need some body as your guide.
You may face failures on account of your own decisions. But failures do happen when you act as per others advices also. It is better you fail on account of your own decisions than spoiling the image of the persons who advised you and claim themselves, that they are more knowledgeable than you.
Vivekananda said , " The God for whom you are praying in temples, and crying in churches and mosques is your own self." If you are God itself, why do you need God-men? Have you ever thought over, "when these people claim they are God, Guru and Master for all of us, why can't I be God, Guru and Master at least to myself."
People are forgetting that these God-men are no way superior by education, superior in knowledge or experience, except they talk as though they are teaching something which was never told or written in our ancient books and literature. When we question our relatives, neighbours, friends turned out to be rich and possess huge wealth and properties, we never question these so called God-men acquiring wealth more than required for anybody, leave aside they preach detachment. Nobody thinks, why these God-men require so much of money and properties. "They are not asking, devotees are giving and they are running lot of institutions to help poor" is the statement by the followers of these God-men. In the process of this claim, they live in luxurious bungalows, have air-conditioned rooms and cars, consume drugs and enjoy women and what not !
Believe in yourself ! That is what our literature is teaching. We claim to have read all these things, and still go to somebody else, saying that I am searching something. Why do you search for something which cannot be attained? Do not believe when some body says that many people obtained some thing superior than what you have obtained. The best quote in Tamil is "கண்டவர் விண்டிலர்: விண்டவர் கண்டிலர்." The truth is nobody found God and that is why they have not said it. Those who found God in themselves are the real founders. You do not need some body to guide you what you are, if you are intelligent enough to know that. So, to attain that intelligence is the search of life and you alone can do it.
The ultimate in life is that you should be happy and you alone can make yourself happy.
I will not be surprised after reading this, somebody writes to me "Swamiji ! Please guide me to find myself and the God in me !"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)