Javed Akhtar on Spirituality

A good friend e-mailed me the text of Javed Akhtar's talk on Spirituality at the India Today Conclave of 2008.

You can read the text of the talk here. Brilliant.

While looking for more information on the subject, I came across the apparent response of Ravishankar of the Art of Living Foundation.

The response sounded insipid and defensive and often self-contradictory to me.

I sent the text to some friends who practice their respective religions. They all came back and said that the talk was very good. That has left me almost confused, but happy.

At one point in his response, Ravishankar challenges - does anyone criticize (Mother) Theresa or Dalai Lama. ( Well, I do.) This is a very well worn ploy of "(poor) us against (the evil) them" used by many to garner support. Christopher Hitchens even wrote a book about Theresa - provocatively titled "The Missionary Position". You can get a taste of his views here.

I hope you enjoy the read.

Jeffry Archer in Bengaluru

Jeffry Archer in Bengaluru

I got off the office bus and walked to Reliance Timeout to see and hear Jeffry Archer. I had wondered if it was worth the trouble after a particularly tiring day at the office and my feet hurt in the hard soled leather shoe - a far cry from the sports shoes that I normally wear.

It was. It was great fun to listen to him speak and act. Yes, act. He regaled the audience with stories of some TV interviews that he did in the US - acting various parts of it. Very funny.

He said things that impressed me very much. It was about talent and hard work. He gets up at 5:30 every morning and writes for two hours. Then takes a break and writes again from 9:30 for two hours. This write-and-break routine goes on the whole day. He said talent is one thing but you have to work to make something out of it!

I hope young and old, who aspire to do something and get better at it, are listening.

Some snippets:

He often writes about Polish people because he likes and admires the Polish "race". (The last

word sounded odd to me) The reason he gave was that Poland was the first country to bear the brunt of Hitler's Germany and many Poles came to England and became air force pilots to fight Hitler. hmmmm

His favourite artist is Caravaggio and favourite sculptor, Bernini. Interesting.

"Indian women are so pushy!" he says to the men in the audience, "You are finished! You are done for. Beware! Run!"

Like a true showman he answered the question, "What inspires you to write" you! (Applause) What drives him to put in all that hard work is that he reads Steinbeck, Graham Greene, R K Narayan and knows that he has to get to be like them and that he is not. The aspiration to "get there" drives him.

He finally said that he will be "here" until the last person had his autograph even if it meant that he will go directly to the airport tomorrow to catch the flight at 9. (Applause) And he insulted Indians. And we deserve it. He promised to autograph the book of every last man (woman) provided, "You do something that you are not accustomed to do at all! Stand in an orderly queue, you guilty lot" he roared!

(These white men do not get it. The Japanese use fuzzy logic to do anything and everything - wash clothes, take better pictures, sweep the floor, flush the toilet and what have you. We Indians form a fuzzy queue, and spit all over the place while we are at it, as long as we are not busy honking the horn at all impediments in our paths including road humps.)

Here are some pictures of the event and a video too - for those who wanted to or would have liked to be there but could not or were not.

Workshop on Watercolour

Here comes a workshop on Watercolours, in Bangalore.

It is conducted by George Supreeth. To know more about him just google with "george supreeth" (with the inverted commas) and you can see a wide variety of his works.

I have to juggle stuff, but attend it I will. If you are even a wee bit interested in doing watercolours, you should attend it too!

A Day at the Museum

Today:

I was in the Government Museum on Kasturaba Road, Bangalore. A few other members of the sketch club called Pencil Jammers of which I am a member, were with me. We stood there sketching some of the 10th and 11the century sculptures on display there.

The guards, one a Bengali and the other an Assamese, were very curious about what we were doing. They kept watching what we did and gave their opinion on how we are doing. But, they are highly appreciative. They are so impressed that they found some folding chairs and offered them to the the couple of girls in the group. That was awfully nice of them.

Then comes an officer of the museum and challenged us about what we were doing, almost offensively. "Shouldn't you come and ask for permission before sketching?" I am asked. I explain about Pencil Jammers patiently. I say that the two of the girls are students in a premier, internationally esteemed educational institution in Bangalore and also where I work. I also say that our interests are purely artistic. We are finally allowed to continue.

There is a "No Photography" rules in many musea. I never understood why. Flashes can ruin the pigments in paintings. So, a "No Flash" rule is understandable. Why no photography?

Flashback 1985:

I was in the Birmingham Museum. I was ill prepared for the visit and I wanted to make some notes about some interesting exhibits - Degas' Ballerina - for instance. I went to the reception and asked hesitantly, if it was possible to get some paper. Pronto comes a clip board, five sheets of paper and pencil to boot. It was not a dream. I am told, "Just leave the pad and the pencil here on your way out please?". Thank you very much.

*****

Flash forward:

Here are some of the sketches I made at the museum yesterday.

Tara, Bihar, Ca 10th Century

(Not sure if it is Brihaspatacharya's wife Tara or Vali's wife Tara or the female Bodhisattva or the form of Shakti)

Teerthankara, Ca 11th Century AD

Black Magic

A unique workshop is coming up. A workshop on Black Magic!

Ah! If you have visions of revenge and harming your boy/girl friend who ditched you or your boss who did not promote you, you are out of luck.

This is black because it uses charcoal. And magic because you can learn to create something

beautiful/powerful/haunting

with it!

The workshop is conducted by Priya Sebastian.

Read more here.

A Giant is no More - A Personal Tribute to Bhimsen Joshi

What a singer he was! (It hurts to use the past tense)

The first time I heard him live was in Bombay. 1980, I think. Until then my exposure to his music was only through the radio.

The concert was in Birla Mathusri Sabhagar. As I remember it, it is huge - at least compared to the smaller auditoria I was accustomed to in Mysore. The auditorium and and the stage dwarfed the man. My first thought was, "How is he going to fill this place?"

He took his time settling down. Fussed about the Tambura. Passed it on to the tambura player when he was satisfied. Then he sat facing the audience. Eyes closed. Back erect. Meditative, it looked. He cleared his throat vigorously, raised his right arm pointing N-W and elevation of 45 degrees and held Shadja.

It was time for the hall to be dwarfed. Make no mistake, there was electronic amplification. That amplified the volume, not the capacity to fill the auditorium.

I have forgotten what Raag it was. Purya Kalyan, perhaps. I remember that the petite girl friend of my friend closed her ears in awe at the first note, shivered, with eyes wide open in amazement. How the next three hours or so passed is not known.

That is what I will always remember whenever I hear him sing.

Another time, I heard his famous Daasa Vaani casette and in particular Karuniso Ranga Karuniso. When it ended, I noticed my shirt front was wet with tears. (1986, IIT Kharagpur, VS Hall)

Among the many greats that the small area of North Karnataka around Dharwar has given to Hindustani Music, the most famous was, perhaps, Bhimsen Joshi. I have heard some learned musicians say that he never achieved the real musical greatness that he was capable of and so on. His repertoire of Raagas and "chees" was limited, they say. For me and many many others none of it mattered. When he sang, we were transported. At least here, we can use the present tense. When he sings, we are transported, thanks to the many recordings we are lucky enough to have at our disposal.

I heard this today and it gives a good glimpse of his singing.

Recently, someone mailed me about him referring to him by the community he belonged to. That reminded me of this I wrote about Gangu Bai Hangal some time ago.

Anna Turns Ninety

I had a very different and very pleasant beginning for this year - 2011.

My father (J R Lakshmana Rao) turned 90 today (21 January, 2011) and my mother 84 on 1st. We celebrated the occasion on 1st January. We had an informal get together. No speeches, no programme. All the invitees - mostly those in Mysore - met my parents and we all had dinner together.

We launched a website on the occasion. Please visit the site.

My son Maitreya did most of the creative part and the hard bull work part of the website and his friend helped in going on line with it.

In some ways this is still WIP. We hope to add some more features by and by.

Here are some photographs from the occasion.

I have had a long break from this blog. I hope to write more in futuiure.

The url of this blog is safetvalve pronounced safe-t-valve to indicate that it helps me let off steam. I have a more regular valve now - my artisitc pursuits.

You can see most of it here.

Gayatri Mahesh at Renaissance Gallerie

Looks like it is the season for exhibitions by Pencil Jammers!

Today, I visited the group exhibition at Renaissance Gallerie in which Gayatri Mahesh participated. I photographed only his corner and here are the photographs.

The Left Corner

Pencil Jammers are already familiar with some of his works and here they can take a look at them in the exhibition setting.

The Centre

I hope that other Jammers visit the exhibition and encourage a fellow Jammer, of course!

Click on the pictures to view bigger.

The Right Corner

Priya Sebastian

I visited Priya Sebastian's art exhibition that I blogged about earlier. It was a great pleasure seeing her works for real. Apartfrom the time when she took part in a Pencil Jammers jam, I had seen her works only on the net.

The venue and the arrangements were also a pleasant surprise.

The exhibition was held in the Boutique "Plantation House". It is run by Shalini, an alumna of NID. The silky blacks of Priya's art were complemented by the dark cloth and their varied textures. The boutique, I was told, was designed by Shalini and other alumni of NID.

Shalini and Priya

On the whole, I had a great time.

!! Tomorrow is the last day !!

Priya Sebastian's Art

Another friend from Pencil Jammers, Priya Sebastian, is holding an exhibition of her works!

Here are the details in the invitation designed by "none other than" (as Priya put it) Prabha Mallya, another Pencil Jammer.

Do visit the exhibition!

(Click on the image to view larger)

A Wrong Number is Never Busy?

"Ever wonder why a wrong number is never busy?" goes a question in a chain mail. It immediately strikes a chord in you. You feel, "Really! How true!"

You hear this sob story. "Whenever I miss a call from an unknown number and call back, I find it to be a guy who called a wrong number". That strikes a chord too. "Happens all the time".

He got an engaged wrong number didn't he? You know what I mean?

Two Art Exhibitions

I had been to two art exhibitions recently. One was, of course, that of Prabha Narayanan that I had already blogged about.

Here is she is, between two of her paintings. Large canvasses, acrylic colour portraits of people from the Kumaon region. She called it the drip series. You will know why, when you see the paintings. (See below) These paintings were very different from the line drawings and watercolours of hers that I have seen. Completely new and in unchartered territory for her. In order not to sound too much like an art critic, let me say, I enjoyed and admired her works!

The other exhibition was that of Amrish Malvankar's abstract paintings. I am not a great fan of abstract art. So, I was surprised that I liked his paintings. Even at the risk of sounding like an art critic, I would say that the colurs are bright, many or most of his paintings exude optimism and serenity, I felt. Or was I biased by the three Buddha images at the very beginning of the rows of paintings?

It really does not matter. As for me, I enjoyed my time watching the paintings.

Prabha Narayanan's First Solo Show

A fellow Pencil Jam member (Pencil Jammer), Prabha Narayanan, is holding the first solo show of her art in Chitrakala Parishat, starting tomorrow.

I admire her art a lot.

I am sure you do too. Please do visit the show!

Murder

What do you want,

by burning books?

The glory that covered

the perpetrators of "Kristallnacht"?

The cloud off the flames -

the book's truth to permeate the world.

The dust that falls - a culture's ashes

that saw in a book, Saraswathi herself.

The pile you burn,

her funeral pyre, nude or not.

No Comments

There are 365 days in a year.

That means there are 365 X 24 = 8760 Hrs in a year.

It amounts to 8760 X 60 = 525600 Minutes a year.

In 30 Years there are 525600 X 30 = 15, 768, 000 minutes.

Mata Amritanandamayi is supposed to have hugged 29 million devotees in 30 years, according to a news report.

That amounts to 1.84 (~2) hugs a minute, every living minute of the last 30 years. No sleep, no food, no travel and no other engagements.

In lieu of in lieu of in view of

Does the title of this post look as if there is a typo?

Actually not. It can be parsed to mean something.

The reason for the title is this.

"An architectural milestone in lieu of the Commonwealth Games" declares a headline.

What it means is in view of. This seems to have become a very common mistake.

Atheists Better at Religion

Here is a news item I read on Spiegel Online and translated for my own pleasure and thought others might be interested in it too.

**** **** ****

Non-believers Know Religions Best

Where was Christ born? What is the first book of the Bible called? People who do not believe in god are most likely to answer such questions. A survey in the US showed that atheists and agnostics knew all about religion.

Washington: According to a recent survey in the US, non-believers know the most about world religions. In a survey of the renowned opinion survey institute PEW about religious knowledge confessed atheists and agnostics the averaged best.

The researchers interviewed 3412 adults in the US about world religions. On an average, atheists could answer correctly 21 out of 32 questions about beliefs, history and representatives of world religions. Protestants knew, on an average 16 correct answers, Catholics only 14.7. Jews came up, on an average, with 20.5 and Mormons with 20.3 correct answers.

Even with questions about Christianity the non-believers averaged better than Catholics and Protestants. In this case, only the Mormons were ahead of agnostics and atheists.

Among the residents of the US, the majority of who identify themselves as Christians, was the lack of knowledge about their own religion clearly noticeable. Only 71 percent of the surveyed knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Only 63 percent were in a position to name Genesis as the first book of the bible.

If you are interested, you can see some of the questions of the survey here.

*** *** ****

Interestingly I, an atheist, answered 13 out of 15 questions right. 87% and I was rated to be at 93 percentile. I knew that I would be marked wrong on one answer but the official correct answer is disputable. A catholic colleague of mine answered 13 questions right too. So, it is neither here nor there!

A Z Ranjit 60

As you can see, from the badge "I wear on my blog page", I am a member of a sketch club - Pencil Jam.

One of the distinguished members of the club is Mr. A Z Ranjit, a great artist and a great human being. He is turning sixty on 19th of this month. He has organised an exhibition of his works in Chennai starting 20September 2010. Please see the invitation and the poster attached below.

If you are from Chennai, or you are in Chennai during the week starting 20 September, 2010. Please do visit the exhibition and wish him and support him. I am sure it will be a rewarding experience.

You may read a little more about him here.

Here is a brief resume of A Z Ranjit.

This and That

It has been a long time since I blogged. I was spending most of my free time sketching and hence the hiatus in the blog. I took a break from such furious 'artistic' pursuits and hence this post. (After reading this post, you may wish that I had not taken a break, but that is your privilege)

You may see the results of my artistic efforts here. Please scroll down almost to the bottom of the page and see the slide show.

I had never read a Perry Mason mystery. No idea why. I thought it was time to change it and read one. The Case of the Phantom Fortune, it is called. Now that I have broken the jinx, I might read a few more.

Some other things caught my attention once in a while.

I was amused by the advertisement for a water purifier. Kent, to be specific. The "punch line" delivered by an erstwhile Bollywood diva turned politician and member of Rajya Sabha is that the water purified by it is 100 percent pure! Gimmeabreak! Isn't there something called truth in advertising? Or is it an oxymoron?

Another ad that caught my attention is that of Fair and Handsome. (The very idea of the product and its feminine twin appears to me Unfair and Ugly) It is a real funny one. I wonder if there is any difference between the fair and lovely and the male version. If there is, what the difference is. Or is it that only the name has undergone a sex change operation? Further, the ad says that you can become fair and handsome in just 5 rupees. How many five rupees is not mentioned. I think the ad says that if you use the cream for three weeks, you can notice the difference. Does it mean that the 5 rupee packet or sachet is enough for three weeks?

It is said that a shampoo maker (Chik?) started producing sachets of shampoo that catered to the bottom of the pyramid customers. Win-win proposition. The company made money and the hygiene of the poor improved was the management speak. I wonder what benefit the bottom of the pyramid customer derives from this product. Go nearer the bottom of the pyramid, I guess.

That's it for now. The safe_t_valve has done its job, I have let off steam.

Joseph Henry - A tribute

On July 3, 2010, Wing Cmdr (Retd) Joseph Henry passed away leaving a large void in many people's lives.

How does one describe Henry, as we called him, even though we should actually have called him Joseph? A friend, philosopher, conscience keeper, one man social service organsiation, patriot, straight shooting critic of anything he found worthy of criticism and at the same time capable of large hearted, generous praise when something or someone deserved it? He was all that and more. He was someone most people would be proud to call a friend and eventually thankful that he was their friend.

When Henry joined our team, his name facinated me. What better name for an electrical engineer, I wondered.

When I met him first, his tall straight lean figure, excellent manners, wonderful smile attracted me to him right away. I thought that he looked like Omar Sheriff. I was, however, disappointed that the he did not respond warmly to my friendly overtures. He was distant and that disturbed me. I make friends easily and here was someone who was not willing. I left it at that. Later, I realised that it was a key to his personality.

I was at that time in some kind of managerial role in our team. I had no fancy title or anything. Henry, however, viewed me with suspicion or he did not want to be seen as being close to the management figure! Either way it was a key to what he was. He thawed and became a good friend later, when I no longer had that role. Then on, he was a whole hearted friend.

We spent many a coffee break together - on an average two a day. The conversation was always warm and interesting, thanks to him. He was deeply fascinated by Hindu mythology and philosophy. He was full of questions about it and trying to answer and satisfy his curiosity I learnt a lot more about it than I would otherwise have.

I said that he was a one man social service organisation. He was always at hand at occasions related to innumerable people - good, bad, sad - whatever the occasion may be. All the retired air force officers in Bangalore were practically his extended family. He would unhesitatingly go all out to help them in their hour of need. In his typical way he often referred to "vishwakutumbam" and in that spirit he was a citizen of the world.

He was a patriot in the larger sense of the word. Not the jingoistic kind. Petty regionalism elicited utter contempt from him. So did petty religious divisions and false claims of superiority because of caste and such. If he called someone a "fraaaaaud" you knew where the man stood in Henry's estimate.

He was a proud Malayalee proud of his non malayalee_ness - never wore lungis, for instance.

This is an unfulfilling attempt at describing and mourning a friend, a colleague and a good man. The last is a description that Henry richly deserved and would be truly happy and proud about.