Dheeme se naseem mein aagaz hai teri,
Samandar ki mauj mein ehsaas hai teri;
Kaliyon ke rang mein muskaan hai teri,
Mere in lafzon mein hi pehchaan hai teri..

Memoir in six words

Celebrating the vacuum between insanity and illusion..

Silsila Suron Ka

I experienced a rare treat yesterday, two of the greatest instrumental maestros of Indian Classical Music performing together after seven long years.
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on the Santoor and Pandit HariPrasad Chaurasia with the flute created magic yet again like in their album "The Valley Recalls".
It was quite by chance that I was able to go and I really thank the heavens for it. Each of these maestros are synonymous with the instruments they play. They have elevated the status of their respective instruments and classical music world over and also retained the sanctity of their art.
The performance was organized by CRPIM(Center for Research and Promotion of Indian Music) along with Perfect Octave at Shanmukhananda Hall, Matunga. The program was divided into three one hour segments.





First there was performance by Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma on the Santoor accompanied by Ustaad Bhawani Shankar on the Pakhawaj, a percussion instrument- ancestor to the tabla. The rippling river like sounds of the santoor and the resounding sharp beats of the pakhawaj complemented each other beautifully reminding one of a river with a rocky bed close to a waterfall.
Shiv Kumar Sharma started an aalaap in raag Madhuvanti which Ustaad Bhawani Shankar built up to a jod, slowly leading the concert into a beautiful cresendo.







The second performance was by Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia accompanies by Vijay Ghate on the tabla and Santosh Shank supporting on the flute. Panditji played a beautiful composition in raag Maruvihaag, which he jokingly proclaimed as "mera vihaag". The bansuri (flute) sounded like molten jaggery with all its sweetness overflowing. He led tabalchi Vijay Ghate a merry dance when they began the jugalbandi, but the latter manfully held his own to hearty applause.

The third and final segment was indeed a treat like I have earlier called it. Shiv Kumar Sharma began, sitting beside Chaurasia, dedicating the jugalbandi and performance to their age old friendship, claiming that it was not restricted by mortal life. There was an expectant taste in the body of the audience. The stage looked like a gathering of old friends, Sharma, Chaurasia, Ghate and Bhawani Shankar, great instrumentalists in their own right playing together creating a symphony, yet giving each other space. It was an hour and a half of pure rapture indescribable in words. They played primarily in raag Khamaj keeping it lightly classical with a little mixing of raagas. They teased, challenged and complimented each other drawing the audience completely into their performance. They enjoyed themselves thoroughly and that same joy was transmuted to the audience.
They received a unanimous standing ovation from an audience of around 15oo.
This was undoubtedly one of the most memorable evening of my life.

Someting about a few things...

Strange title though my post possesses it does originate from someplace in reality.
After a long spell of a relaxed time wherein the most taxing thing I would have done would be to simply get myself to college ( in which also, records say I defaulted by more than 40%......OMG!!! I'm sooo dead!), I was suddenly plagued with what I call quite a bit of work yesterday.
Though I'm still in my final semester my training for my future job in Convonix has begun. As a part of the evaluation process we have to complete an assignment in the each week before we met for the training session again.
Well can you guess what my assignment for this week was???
Writing articles for BlOGS!!!! Cool na?
My deadline for the articles was Thursday before midnight. Only thing was I knew nothing about the topics. But everything considered not too bad.

Yes, thats what I was beginning to think as well when I realized on Thursday morning I had a project presentation and report due Friday morning 9.00 am for which I had to actually "CREATE" the project to present!
ALSO I had an article due for a magazine!!

My day went thus-
Thursday 6th March 2008
8.00 am:
Woke up with a nightmare. Got bathed and dressed.

9.00 am
Assessed exactly what had to be done and got started.

11.00 am
1 trigger of project complete(please I deserve applause for this one!)
An article on Personal Loans Complete.
Rush hurriedly for driving class.

1.00 pm
Enter home.
Gobble down lunch.
Get back to work.

4.00 pm
1 entire module of project completed(yelled-"Yaayy!!I have something to present!!")
Article on Home Loan complete.
Researching Video Game consoles(I know naught about them!)

7.00 pm
Article on Video Games complete(I actually know the differences and features of Wii, PS3 and XBOX now...theoretically of course)
Article on fractal theory complete.
Begin report of project.

8.00pm
Salsa Class.

9.30 pm
Devour dinner.
Continue Report.

11.00 pm
13 pages of the report done.
Begin Powerpoint presentation.

1.00 am(7th March 2008)
Compiled report and ppt ready.

1.30 am
Study 25 pages for test which is scheduled in 8 hours.

3.00 am
Drop into bed exhausted.
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I'm sorry I bored you'll with my entire day's timetable. But its been a long long time since I'd done so much work all in one day and I learnt a little about so many diverse topics.

1. Personal loans
2. Home loans
3. Use of fractals and applications
   
4. Video games
5. Insurance
6. My own final year project(lol...)

Now, thats what I call a satisfying day!