Warrier's COLLAGE August 23, 2021

Welcome to Warrier's COLLAGE On Monday August 23, 2021 Readers' Edition III Good Morning Nice Day M G Warrier A M G Warrier : Author Pages* a) Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/M-G-Warrier/e/B079ZC3JKX%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share b) Notion Press https://notionpress.com/author/m_g_warrier *These links are introductory. Buy books online only from outlets which you usually access. My books are available at major online outléts like Amazon.in and Flipkart. B Grandma's Musings A GRANDMA SPEAKS FROM HER HEART : Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai I am neither a performer, nor a music teacher, but a septuagenerian music lover. From childhood I had enjoyed the concerts of almost all the senior vidwans conducted in our local temples. Each concert was mesmerizing ,unique in style, captivating, reverberating yet unswerving from tradition. Private music tuitions were common in those days.The plight of music teachers was horrible beyond words. With a meagre income, many lived in thatched unelectrified houses with a big family to support. Music teacher bridegrooms were of a neglected category. All girls were taught a few songs to enable them to sing during the customary 'Girl Seeing' ritual before marriage. Oft repeated listening enabled many mamis sing beautifully, even better than performers. Our neighbour having an idli shop for livelihood invariably sang touching kritis during her daily ritual of grinding idli batter. What an amazing change after 1970! Thanks to the advancement of technology and flooding of tapes, cassettes, video recorders, I-Pods and the computers. The present day performers are the luckiest having benefitted through direct coaching as well as recorded performances of senior artists. Music became a covetable profession having enviable opportunities throughout the globe, not to talk about their demand in marriage market too. As music is becoming more and more commercialised, it carries along, some of the negative attributes also, a fact that may not be acceptable to musicians. Traditional concerts running for long hours provided not only entertainment and relaxation but an opportunity to witness and appreciate the nuances and musical genius of the performers. It was a delight for the elite and the peasants alike. Today as the Kutcheries last for less than two hours, the vidwans are unable to do full justice to the tradition and paddhati and are in a hurry to reach the next venue. The blame is easily shifted to the impatient audience. The earlier vidwans were 'mastery’ oriented whereas many of the modern musicians, though as proficient as seniors, are‘performance' oriented and seem to be interested in giving maximum number of performances within the shortest duration possible. Amidst their tight schedules how are they going to pass on the rich legacy to the budding artists? Further there are many talented performers, but a few teachers to train the younger generation. Of course there are some teachers who are paragons of perfection. They insist on the parents’ attendance in the class, expect 100 % purity, but the responsibility is more often shifted to the parents. Malcolm Gladwell brought forward the idea that expertise in music is more a case of practice as opposed to natural gift and that anyone having persistent practice amounting 10,000 hrs at 3 hrs per day for 10 long years can become a top class performer. This idea has somehow gained momentum with many teachers around the world. Merely stressing on hours without focus on vital issues may not help. With so many diversions as video games, internet and TV ,too much stress may make music a drudgery rather than a joyful experience. It is the duty of music teachers to ensure that goals set are reasonable, relevant and just right to the student concerned. As musicians are busy in their global performances, 'Skype' has become a handy tool of music learning. As music is primarily taught as an oral tradition, skype learning is a boon. No hastles of travel, the child can start practice soon after the session when the lesson is fresh in memory. Yet the sound disturbances and inability to supervise the essential aspect of talam prove to be discouraging. The greatest concern is that focus of children is mainly shifting towards competitions, prizes and awards. Over ambitious parents wish to see their children on the stage unconcerned of the real skills.No doubt, a deadline or goal makes the children work harder, but many talented children cannot perform under pressure. Is music a source of delight or depression? Why this‘win' veri? My heart longs for the restoration of the original glory. Yet it is a fact that“Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson. You find the present TENSE and the past PERFECT.” Yes,as long as“ Music gives soul to the universe,wings to the mind,flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety to life”( Plato), why worry about intricacies? Vamana Avatar too is equally glorious. We are witnessing grand ONAM Celebrations throughout the globe. Vathsala Jayaraman ( This article of mine was published in the Hindu in Rasikas' Take Column a few years back) C Onam Story : V Babusenan As a steaming cup of 'kapi'is delectable to a South Indian, so is a song in the raga 'Kapi 'to him. Such a song is Papanasam Sivan's 'Enna thavam saithane Yesoda' which Shri Subbaraman has referred to in his write-up on Onam. How he has looked at Mahabali and his hinting at the exceedingly good fortune of both the Asura King and Yesoda, the foster mother of Krishna,are quite touching. TheTOI , on the Thiruvonam day, carried an article captioned ',Onam,a Festival of Cultural Rejuvenation '. In it the writer has put forth the idea that Mahabali was punished for his pride in being overgenerous! Excessive pride or vanity in anything is not desirable, but is it such an enormous crime for God to physically intervene? The stanza in the Gita that everyone knows occurs in its 4th Chapter: "Parithraanaya saadhoonaam Vinaasaaya cha dushkrithaam Dharmasamsthaapanaarthaya Sambhavaami yuge yuge". (To protect the good, to destroy the evil-doers and to establish dharma, I do incarnate, age by age) The Narasimha avatar is in agreement with this definition of incarnation, but does Vamana avatar logically fit in with it? I doubt. D Readers' Contribution Coming Home : Dr Chitra Nashik my brain and heart divorced a decade ago over who was to blame about how big of a mess I have become eventually, they couldn't be in the same room with each other now my head and heart share custody of me I stay with my brain during the week and my heart gets me on weekends they never speak to one another - instead, they give me the same note to pass to each other every week and their notes they send to one another always says the same thing: "This is all your fault" on Sundays my heart complains about how my head has let me down in the past and on Wednesday my head lists all of the times my heart has screwed things up for me in the future they blame each other for the state of my life there's been a lot of yelling - and crying so, lately, I've been spending a lot of time with my gut who serves as my unofficial therapist most nights, I sneak out of the window in my ribcage and slide down my spine and collapse on my gut's plush leather chair that's always open for me ~ and I just sit sit sit sit until the sun comes up last evening, my gut asked me if I was having a hard time being caught between my heart and my head I nodded I said I didn't know if I could live with either of them anymore "my heart is always sad about something that happened yesterday while my head is always worried about something that may happen tomorrow," I lamented my gut squeezed my hand "I just can't live with my mistakes of the past or my anxiety about the future," I sighed my gut smiled and said: "in that case, you should go stay with your lungs for a while," I was confused - the look on my face gave it away "if you are exhausted about your heart's obsession with the fixed past and your mind's focus on the uncertain future your lungs are the perfect place for you there is no yesterday in your lungs there is no tomorrow there either there is only now there is only inhale there is only exhale there is only this moment there is only breath and in that breath you can rest while your heart and head work their relationship out." this morning, while my brain was busy reading tea leaves and while my heart was staring at old photographs I packed a little bag and walked to the door of my lungs before I could even knock she opened the door with a smile and as a gust of air embraced me she said "what took you so long?" ~ john roedel (johnroedel.com) (John Roedel uploaded this 6 days ago. If you have found this interesting, follow him @ https://www.johnroedel.com/ Thanks Chitra for introducing this writer to Collage) E Blogs & Links https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/relevance-of-social-capital-28490/ Excerpts : In a broader sense, the concept of social capital covers any social interaction that allows us to build new connections and networks, developing interpersonal relationships with others that help with the efficiency of production, maybe through good relationships with suppliers, or even colleagues and employees. Such relationships may help motivate workers through friendship ties or create more flexible suppliers that are willing to accommodate. For students, elders, householders and homemakers, such networking will help them move on to other levels of “social capital formation” resulting in improving self-worth, adoption of remunerative hobbies and developing inherent talents (art, music, painting, group activities etc). A welcome byproduct will be reducing frustration, negativism and related evils in society. F Leisure Way to Heaven* A little boy was waiting for his mother to come out of the grocery Store. As he waited, he was approached by a man who asked, "Son, an You tell me where the Post Office is?"The little boy replied, "Sure! Just go straight down this street a Couple of blocks and turn to your right." The man thanked the boy kindly and said, "I'm the new pastor in town. I'd like for you to come to church on Sunday. I'll show you how to get To Heaven." The little boy replied with a chuckle. "Awww, come on... You don't even know the way to the Post Office." G Quotes about Counseling https://www.wisesayings.com/counseling-quotes/ Like : Don't let mental blocks control you. Set yourself free. Confront your fear and turn the mental blocks into building blocks. Roopleen (Dr. Roopleen is a motivational counsellor, speaker, writer, blogger, a super-specialist eye surgeon, and an author of five books. She has also contributed to several anthologies. Roopleen is a productivity enthusiast with the Kaizen mindset. She believes in the power of the written word and writes about things that are on the minds of most people, and which they can connect with and relate to. Roopleen writes extensively on success, self-development, productivity and motivation. Her writing is more than just motivational words; it touches the readers’ hearts and resonates with them. )