Enriching my hobbies

Inspired by one of the blogs that I found on the web, I thought I'll upload a couple of my sketches. The first one is actually drawn from a photo. It matches 80% to the photo. :-) There's a lot of learning while sketching this. There's another picture which I drew, inspired by R K Laxman's cartoons. I am not sure if it will have any copyright issues. Please let me know if it does, so I can remove it.

If I ever do a concert.......

Being a worshiper, admirer and a blissful learner of carnatic music, I find utmost happiness and immense pleasure in singing. Needless to say that music is boundless and learning music is never-ending. Although there are 72 Melakarta ragas(Parent ragas) in Carnatic music, there are more than 2 million janya ragas(child ragas) that evolved from these. Each raga is unique in its own trait or lakshana.

There are a few ragas like mayamalavagowla, sankarabharanam, etc....which are fairly easy for beginners to sing. There are ragas in which the same note can be rendered differently according to the context. Hanumathodi ragam(commonly known as Thodi) belongs to this set of ragas.

There are several scientific researches on the frequency rendering of this raga. All the notes in this ragam have lower frequency range which makes it difficult to people who can not sing lower notes. Of late, I learnt a varnam (Era napai..) in Thodi. Although after learning Bhairavi, I should have been in a better position to learn Thodi , I found it very difficult to hold on to Ni (Kaisiki Nishadham) and it's neighboring notes. I started disliking it owing to its complexity in singing. After learning a few songs in Thodi, I started developing an involuntary liking towards it. There is a lot of scope to produce several intonations in just two notes Gandharam and Nishadham. Renditions by famous musicians like DKP (D K Pattamal), GNB (G N Balasubramaniam) on Thodi alapana last around 1 hour.
There is a lot more about Thodi than what I can write here. If I ever do a concert independently, I will start with Thodi.

Time to cast (y)our vote

The 14th Lok Sabha elections is all set to go with the campaigning ending today. Like many others, I have been often perplexed to choose the right representative having been exposed to various manifestos. I don't have any inclination towards any particular party which makes my job tougher. Trusting one's candidature is the only option left. One of my criteria is how well can my representative represent my constituency and prioritize and debate on important issues. A statistics goes that around 80000+ issues were discussed in the parliament this year. While working on the imperative national/international issues, the issues that I am directly affected with are more likely to be sidelined. Another statistics states that, while parliament is supposed to meet for 180-220 times an year( a minimum of 130 times), they met only for a dismal 32 times in 2008, the shortest duration of parliament in its history. It is highly unlikely that local issues can get any attention in this time. While it is necessary to debate on the national issues, there will however be hardly any progress towards the perennial problems. Well, I don't claim to be an expert to comment on this more.

There are a bunch of resources in the web to help us choose our representative. Visit smartvote.in to know your constituency, candidates and their records, voting details, etc.

Slumdog Media maniacs

I am planning to offer a sanity tonic to the Oscar panel members. I am sure most of you agree with me. I happened to watch the Slumdog millionaire, after repeatedly getting infected by the "Golden globe" hype by the media. I came out and wondered what's the movie all about. It started off with portraying bombay slum life, communal riots, social evils and then suddenly took a turn towards a love story. The director Danny Boyle's derogatory approach towards India itself is upsetting. It is ironical that we agitate when an Indian director does it and honor the same when a foreign director does it. Slumdog is an abusive word in its Hindi translation "Gali ka kuthha". If he is so interested in showcasing his skills, there are many places in other parts of the world like New Orleans, etc which might be of a great subject on "Who wants to be a millionaire?" for him. Why doesn't he do that? Well, everybody knows why.

Rehman's himself might know that his composition is definitely is not worth an Oscar ( I still believe Oscar is an prestigious award). There are many movies in which he played better and worthwhile music. I would have been happy had he admitted that. Errrr, Why would he do that? :-)
I definitely would like to appreciate the stupendous efforts put in by the media folks to create hype around the movie. I did not have any desire to watch the movie for the second time. My dear friends, please stop encouraging such mediocre(Yes, it was a mediocre movie) movies to get any recognition. Indian directors are equally or may be much better than any foreign directors.
However, the only good thing is, the movie gave break to a lot of blooming talent.

Well, to him, his own!

In awe of the andamans

This blog does not contribute more to the scenic beauty of the andamans. I am too naive to eulogically describe God's incredible creations. But I will try to be informative to the aspiring visitors of Andaman.

I've had this wonderful opportunity of visiting and (not a great opportunity of) staying(you will know why..) for 6 days in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A little on the history and geography:

Andaman and Nicobar islands are located towards the south-east of India in the Bay of Bengal.
Andaman, as one of the verses goes, was named after "Handuman" as in "Hanuman", (the Monkey God of the famous Indian epic Ramayana), as he used this island as a stepping stone while landing on Lanka (yester year's Ceylon, today's Sri Lanka). The island is famous for its' exotic beaches, cellular jail, coral reefs and above all the equatorial very known tropical climate. This island is the most inhabited region between the two(A&N). And which is why tourism is promoted only in Andaman islands. Nicobar is mainly inhabited by various sects of tribes, some of them being hostile tourism is not predominant here. To reach Nicobar, one has to sail by ship for 160Kms(approx. 2 days) from Port Blair(Capital city of A&N).

Day-1: We flew from Chennai to Port Blair and landed on a bright sunny afternoon at Veer Savarkar Airport (named after the independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who was an inmate in the cellular jail for 14years), Port Blair. It was a stunning view of the islands from the flight with a beautiful blue color palette spread across the earth's surface.
I had least expected the extremely humid climate in December whilst most parts of the world are either cold and/or freezing.
There are not many great hotels out there as I could observe.


In the post-noon session, we started for the Viper island which is right across the Port-blair city. Viper island has the old jail used by Britishers to harbor convicts before cellular jail was constructed. You can see wreckages of Tsunami here.

In the evening, we had been to the cellular jail or Kaala pani(Black water) in the city. A "sound and light show" showcasing the heroic struggle of freedom fighters and independence activists under the british colonial rule, attracts the tourists of Andaman. The show refers to the journey through the period where freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar, Ullaskar Dutt and many others faced unthinkable miseries and stood undeterred with courage fighting for freedom for as many as 14-20 years.

Day-2: North-bay island is famous for its wide spectrum of under water corals. This island is again very close to the capital city. A variety of activities like snorkeling, scuba diving, etc are available here. A view of coral reefs from a glass-bottom ferry comprises the basic package with other activities included at an added price. We could not see many colorful corals as we opted for a glass-bottom ferry ride. Water-proof sandals, capris/shorts and cotton floral tops will make the best attire for this place as it is very humid out here. The light house at north-bay gives a good view of the near-by islands.

In the evening, it was again a visit to the cellular jail in day-light. The jail initially had six 3-storeyed blocks with a pyramid-shaped central tower to monitor the movements of prisoners. Some of these blocks have been demolished with only 3 buildings standing now. Each block could accomodate 700 prisoners in them. It had the gallows where prisoners were hanged to death every day.

Day-3: We took a cruise to the Havelock island which is around 4hrs journey over the sea from Port Blair. The cruise was well organized with seating arrangement and food court inside the ship. It costs Rs.800/- round-trip per person to the Havelock. The Havelock island had some mesmerizing beaches, one of them being Radhanagar beach. I was awe-struck to see the unspeakable view of the Radhanagar beach.
A picture's worth a thousand words.
It being a sunny afternoon, I could not savor those great moments at my favourite place on earth, the beach. 8hrs of round-trip cruise is definitely worth an hour's stay at the Radhanagar beach.


Day-4: By this time, we were enervated to visit any more islands. The visit to the Ross island could have been arranged on one of the previous days. But the package organizers do not like to think the way we do. Do they?
The Ross island, bearing a deserted look now, was the Administrative HQ and also a residential site for the chief commissioner under the british colonial rule. A beach on the other side of the island is the only the respite for the soul.
In the afternoon, we visited Wandoor, which falls at the tip of the Andaman island. One has to travel by road to reach this place. It is famous for it's awesome Sunset. This place is one of those affected due to Tsumani. I heard several experiences of Tsunami from the vendors out there.




Day-5: Mount Harriet is the highest point in the Andaman island. One has to go by road, then by sea and then by road to reach this place. The ship services carry motor vehicles along with passengers to reach Mount Harriet. You will find typical tropical vegetation on the way up the hill. The thick forests lure the tourists for trekking for as long as 16kms down the other side of the hill just to find "Kala Pathhar" or Black rocks. Well, I could not locate those stones or may be I did not realize I saw them. :-). Mt. Harriet had relatively better temperatures due to the elevation.

Day 5 ended visiting some archaeological museums which had information about the various sects of tribes prevalent in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Day-6: Started back from Port Blair to Chennai.

Overall, the trip was good if not the for the humid climate(Sun screen lotion is an essential commodity). The place is only worth staying for 4-5days, unless one wants to spend a day in Havelock. Best season, as they say, is December. I was told that it rains 7months an year in the Andamans which makes the other seasons less accessible to visitors.

Restaurants: Ananda (Veg/Non-veg south Indian[average rating]), Annapoorna(Veg South Indian) and some small tamilian chettinad style fast food centres in Aberdeen bazaar, Zaika(North Indian, the best one I found) in the Phoenix bay area.

Please write back to me if you find this useful. ;-)

First, but not first

This is not my first ever blog, but my first blog at blogspot. I named my blog as "accelerandos" as I intend to gradually increase my speed out here unlike the case of my previous blog. I am always amused by this little piece of wonder, blogging, which was only at the professional writer's workshop, started as one's online dirary and now again being made a profession. Well, let me see where this culminates for me.