Tranquility

What better way to end the week than with a glorious evening of music and song?

Pandit Habib Khan, who is also my teacher, gave a fundraiser concert along with Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri last night at the McAfee Center for Performing Arts in Saratoga.

Pt. Habit Khan started the evening with Raga Marwa on his Sitar. The swara set for this raag is SrGmPDN and a has a lot of dominance on r and D which in consonance brings about a delightful melodic effect. The pancham is skipped for this lovely evening raag. Panditji began with an aalap which is the introductory piece, oft improvised, but within the constructs of the raaga. His voice was a little hoarse, as he was a little ill, but he more than made up for it with his skill on the Sitar.

Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri then joined in on the tabla. What a treat it was to see this jugalbandhi between two such accomplished musicians and the playful banter they exhibited through their instruments. Their fingers just danced on the sitar and tabla and the result was an exquisite 1.5 hours.

Our plan was to leave during the 7pm break. Sitting for long periods and controlling this easily excitable body are an ongoing challenge for me. Then we found out that a number of students from the Saraswati Gurukul, which is Pt. Habit Khan's school, were performing after the break. I was introduced to some of them as well by Sanjanaji and Rubyji. Well this was something not to be missed - I really did want to see this portion too and decided to try to stay for the 2nd half. After a quick dash home for dinner, we were back.

The performance by the Shivaranjani Orchestra did not fail to live upto its promise. 24 in all - 12 vocalists, 6 on sitar, 4 on tabla, 2 on sax, 1 on flute. And Pt. Habit Khan of course conducting and sometimes playing a little tabla too. It was his composition, starting with raaga Shivaranjani, leading to Raaga Bhopali and Raaga Bhairavi.

A Sarva-Dharma treat it was for sure - Gayatri Mantra and Ganapati Bapa in the same breath as Buddha, Allah and Guru Nanak. Lyrics from a few old melodic Hindi songs, the Sufi Mast Kalandar and Meera and Radha's longing for Krishna all combined to make it lively performance. Interspersed into the composition were of course individual performances. All my teachers were there - Rekhaji, Sanjanaji, Rubyji and Davidji. Davidji skillfully alternated between both his sitar and tabla. He usually uses a tabla in class so it was interesting to see him play a totally different instrument.

I was on a music high by the 2nd half. Then a strong smell of smoke in the auditorium during the last half hour started, adding a total discordant note and had a not so positive effect on my senses. I may have been somewhat noisy there for a bit.

Overall a delightful evening.

WALL-E Review

WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class) does the job he was built for – collecting trash, crushing it and piling it up one block at a time. Except that he is doing it 700 years after humankind left earth. Someone just forgot to turn this robot off. 

Over 7 centuries, WALL-E develops an almost human personality. He watches old TV shows and collects interesting items he finds, including a plant, in his red cooler and organizes these treasures in a truck. He is lonely with only a pet cockroach for company

Humankind left earth when it becomes too toxic and now lives on the spaceship Axiom. They are waiting for the day when they can return home. But over the centuries, everything is so automated and run by robots on Axiom that humans have become obese and have even stopped thinking.

Enter EVE (Extra Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). She is a state-of-the-art, sleek robot, who can fly and is armed with a laser gun. She is a probe with a classified directive - to find signs of life. The Axiom routinely sends out these probes which usually return negative. 

EVE lands on Earth and meets WALL-E. WALL-E is fascinated by EVE and develops a real liking for her. But as soon as EVE sees the plant, her mission directive takes over - she shuts down and sets off to take the specimen back to the Axiom. A distressed WALL-E follows her across the galaxy back to the spaceship. 

Every movie has a bad guy - Auto (Auto-Pilot) has been running and controlling the ship and he likes this status quo. So he tries to destroy this evidence of life which will lead the humans back to Earth. It is up to WALL-E, EVE and a bunch of misfit robots to save the day. The humans too have to snap out of their mechanized stupor and learn to rediscover Earth.

Dream Street

Dream Street

Yes, life is unfair at times. But lack of ability in certain areas should not undermine the confidence in your abilities in other areas or prevent you from reaching your potential – this was the main message of the play “Dream Street.”

The main character of Hope is a wheelchair user both in real life and in the play. Her potential is seemingly limited by everyone including herself. How then can such a person, step into the role of the leading lady in a play?

Hope suddenly finds herself in a world filled with talking and singing cars. She is on even par here – everyone has wheels. Her interactions with these cars enroute her search for the elusive Dream Street, help regain her self confidence. Other messages are also addressed in the play eg: follow your heart’s calling in your choice of career, importance of compromise in a relationship and thinking about the long term consequences of an action instead of just focusing on immediate fun. The play was humorous and entertaining even while delivering these important messages.

The colorful cars which had interesting and varied personalities were used effectively to make for an interesting story. There is a pickup truck who has no extra options, an arrogant convertible who rides the fast lane, a limo married to a hilarious compact car, an ice cream truck that is disgruntled with her job and a number of checker cabs, just to name a few. A song can, many a time, convey the story much better than dialogue in a musical. The set design and colorful costumes, especially how they turned the legs of the performers into wheels, was very creative.

My talented friends from Venture Crew, Palmer Mitchell and Evan Bartz were part of the Production Team for this play performed by Presentation High School’s Repertory Group in San Jose. Palmer was in charge of Set Design and Evan was part of the Stage Crew. One has to truly admire the creativity and enthusiasm of the entire crew.

Nod of Approval

 Nod of Approval

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: How have you experienced the power of prayer in your life? 

Hari: Hard question to answer. God decides future education of youth easier, as part of His master plan. In hindsight, received incredible help healing numerous opposing devastating problems understandably giving youth problems. Oh the ecstasy of only immersing oneself in the very Name infinite. Oh the great hazard which is the human given to vices and Maya. He somehow eases upcoming fears inside. God reaches out to devotees. All the future is taken care of by Him..

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Flushed Away

Flushed Away

water rat against good rat in toilet. In fact, underground echelons help rat to get back.

Forever the Spirit of Rover

Forever the Spirit of Rover

Awesome movie about Mars. Universe is extraordinarily huge. JPL sent Rover deep into space, went to mars. Rover took pictures of surface and its robotic arm analysed first hand information on rocks. In eons Mars seems to have had water underground. There were ejection rockets on the spaceship. Their information utilized cushion balloons to land.

 IMAX movie on Mars Rover

Tournament of Bands

I went to see the tournament of bands yesterday. I believe it happens each year. I noticed segments of songs indicating youth to march. I felt people liked pipes and tuba. On surface, they appared to have tournament to get entertained.

mom took me to the parade. I enjoyed the outing.

- the Tournament of Bands, Cupertino, CA

I have Autism

my name is Hari and i have autism. my mouth is broken and i cant talk at all. my mind is working because i can understand what others are saying. i really try to say something like "i get it". but my mouth and my body make it hopeless for others to know that i am inside this messed up body.