The search of a high

If you grow up in a society which values your achievements as a kid and frowns upon any sort of failure, you probably will develop this lifelong obsession for a public achievement and a fear of public failure. That's why I loved people from Goa. There were quite a few of them in my very first job, and they all seemed extremely self assured, without the kind of pretense of self assurance, that you get if you grow up in a certain city in Maharashtra. They seemed genuinely at ease with themselves. Or maybe it was just me, who thought that they were, and internally they were paddling like those ducks, just trying to stay afloat. But I have seen that a lot with people who come from coastal areas, not coastal cities, just smaller coastal areas. Maybe it's the sea that teaches them to take things easy.

There is a very thin line though between this easy and too easy though. I don't always get myself to respect people, who take a bit too easy. I had no respect for someone like a Vinod Kambli, no sympathy for his so called bad luck. Yet I struggled to empathize with how much pressure Tendulkar put on himself, to live up to his Bharat Ratna status. Often in first impressions, it's hard to judge whether a person understands the consequences of taking it easy and still takes it that way, and a person who just doesn't know stuff. It's hard to comprehend if a person has been - for the lack of a better phrase from the social circles that I grew up in - "good enough" to be on the other side, and yet chooses to remain on this side, and a person who just doesn't even know that other side exists. It tends to be a very Seinfeldish situation, where Kramer, in a weird way, ends up being a sage.

And hence begins the search for that public admiration, which as you grow older, turns into a fear of public failure. It's often hard to do things the way you want because there is this fear that you may do them wrong and then the public, which has been waiting with a bated breath for that one wrong move from you, will execute you. Life is often this struggle between not giving this f**k and still producing results. And then there are times when you hit equilibrium in your mind, but your dear ones pull the rug from under your feet. Maybe life is just a simulation which is designed to not be able to achieve the equilibrium. It's like a game of Vikram and Vetaal.

Well that post did not make much sense.

Things where the process of learning is contradictory to natural instincts.

1. Changing lanes while driving - the natural instinct is to slow down.
2. Belaying/ rappelling down - the natural instinct is to stay vertical and not let go of your weight.
3. Catching a cricket ball in cold weather - the natural instinct is to go tentatively thinking that it will hurt your fingers. It's less likely to hurt if you commit fully, as it's more likely to hit the palm in that case.
4. Swimming - the instinct is to keep the head up. But that's dead weight, as soon as you immerse it in and hold your breath, you have a better chance of floating.

Neun la leya

As one of the comments says, Jaffer's voice is really like honey, thick, sweet and soothing. The lyrics are also very beautiful, especially the line "Nadiyo paar, raanjhan da thana".

Strangle who?

Have you ever felt like actually strangling someone? But don't know who? Because mostly you are the reason why you are feeling that way. And you don't want to strangle yourself? But then how did you get there? And are you getting in even deeper? Is it a deadlock? That only you can break?

Often times there are problems. Big and small. Big ones are motivating, but very very hard to solve. And the motivation ebbs and flows. Mostly connected to how much breakthrough you are making at that point. But in the end they are really tough to solve. And if you actually solve them, by the time you have solved them, you are so exhausted, that you forget to celebrate. And smalls ones are easy to solve. So easy that you are not motivated to solve them. And so you don't solve them. And they make the big problems more complex. So what's the point of anything?

It's a curse to have empathy and analytical ability. Because when people are wrong, you will empathize. And when you are wrong, you will analyze. So where is the vent?

PritamDa Unplugged

My favorite movie. Starts off with my favorite track. And an unfulfilled desire...

Blue angels

T.S Special - "ब्लू एंजल्स च्या दारावर अशी पाटी लिहिली असेल - आमचे इथे कोणत्याही पद्धतीने विमान उडवून मिळेल."
We imagined that there is an old "वाडा" in Sadashiv Peth, that might have this door with this signboard. Simple joys of life :D

Memorable quotes

"A car that drives together, pees together." - Somewhere in Indiana, on the way to BOS from SEA

"देख P, क्या वर्षा हो रही हैं, ऐसे लग रहा हैं की वर्षा उसगावकर नहा धो के निकल रही हैं।" - On a typical rainy Seattle morning at the office.

"उसने अभी cover मांगा?"…. "अरे वो छोड, उसने cover दिया" - a conversation between the wicketkeeper and first slip in an ARCL game.

"तुम दोनो यहां खडे हो जाओ … मैं तुम्हारा लेता हूँ।" - 2 guys asked to be photographed next to one of the finger lakes in up state NY.

"मुझे बहोत proud feel हो रहा है की मुझे detergent लेना याद रहा।" - At Walmart en route to Lake Tapps

"Does the eggplant parmesan have egg in it?" - at Cafe Veloce, Kirkland, WA

"तुमको वो लिंडिया का मेल आया क्या?" - a question about some mail from MSFT HR at Glacier National Park

"आता आम्ही इथे वर चढून नाचावं अशी अपेक्षा आहे का यांची?" - reaction to the incessant Punjabi songs at Punjab sweets in Kent, WA

"सामने वाले चीनी को भी बुलानेका ना बर्थडे को" - birthday celebration at the Lakes apartments, Bellevue, when चीनी meant a lot of things.

"भगेंद्र सुट्टा... ज़िन्दगी धुए में उड़ा दो" - a tagline that came up at Anjappar restauarnt in Bellevue, WA

"ए.… उगी उगी उगी" - a sudden inspiration from the Saathiya song at the back of the bmw in Bellevue, WA

"तू इसे मराठी सिखा सकता हैं, पर मराठी बना नही सकता… वाह क्या line हैं।"… "अरे K, तू शायर तो नहीं… " - Udupi Palace, Bellevue, WA

"काय YZ आहे google! मेरी कॉम search केलं तर कुठल्या तरी बाईचे फोटो येतायत!" - while searching for showtimes for the movie Mary Kom

"सांग बघू … अल्डॉल कंडेन्सेशन काय असतं?" - Anonymous.

"आते टाईम पे app लिखने वाला था... जाते टाईम तक rap लिखने वाला हैं।" - how aspirations for "कुछ तो भारी" changed within a half an hour discussion.

"मैं बेड पे बैठा हैं। जो सोफ़े पे बैठता हैं उसको दरवाज़ा खोलना पडता हैं।" - twisted logic for who should get up to open the door after an accidental 911 call.

A sense of deja vu

I missed this year's Football world cup final. I later caught the highlights to see Germany steal it from Argentina. What will remain in my memory forever though, is the presentation ceremony. A young man, short in stature, carrying the hopes of his country on his own shoulders, stood defeated, while he was being honored as the best player of the tournament. His critics were already getting ready for the attack. His face carried a familiar pain, because his genius was not enough to conquer a much better team. And I was left wondering where else I had seen that!

Her

I watched this movie on a late evening coast to coast flight a few months back. There's something about movies of separation/longing and long distance late evening flights. Spectacularly acted by Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams. And of course the incredibly desirable Scarlett Johansson. And what a soundtrack!

A good season

In remembrance of a good season at tennistour, which ended in a lot of wrist pain, rather prematurely (by Aug 5th, I had already played 28 matches, what else did I expect?).

Rahmanography

The frequency to blogging seems to be increasing[1], as I am forcing myself to write down some of the things that I keep thinking about. Just to keep a diary of what I was thinking at a point in my life, if for nothing else.

So here goes, my list of 20 best movie albums of the maestro. To keep this exercise manageable, I have only included his Hindi movie albums, as barring Thiruda thiruda, I haven't heard any of his work solely (not redone/ dubbed in Hindi) in southern Indian languages. And I am not sure if he has done more English language movie albums apart from Slumdog millionaire, Couples' retreat, and 127 hours.[2]

20. One two ka four: Osaka Moraiya was the first time I became aware of the base guitar. Udit Narayan was so refreshing in "Sona nahin na sahin" and the title song was another gem. Overrated: "Khamoshiyaan gun guna ne lagi"

19. Netaji Subahshchandra Bose: Two of Sonu Nigam's best songs form the crux of this album. The heights Sonu reached singing "Ekla chalo" and "Des ki mitti", he came close to only with the title song of "Saathiya" and "Abhi mujh me" from "Agneepath".

18. Guru: Rahman is unquestionably at his best while composing ballads. Some of the ballad from albums even higher in the list ("Nahin samne", "Kahin to hogi woh") cannot beat the 2 masterclasses here. For some inexplicable reason, maybe Gulzar's words, the accordian sound and Hariharan's voice, "Aye Hairathe" conveys a matured love of the middle age, as much as "Tere bina" conveys the longing of much younger times. And though "Maiya maiya" and "Jaage hain" are not at the top of my list, I had never heard their sound in Bollywood before.

17. Pukaar: The album has one of the many times when Rahman has discovered Udit, through the extremely innovative, "Humrahi jab ho". The accordian sound and the symphonies just rock. Madhuri deserves as much credit for making "Kay sera sera" so lovable. "Kismat se", "Ek tu hi bharosa" make up the rest of the soundscape, along with the one that I don't like - "Sunta hain", a dumbed down retake of "Chanda re" from "Sapney".

16. Bombay: I wasn't much impressed by "Kuchi kuchi rakma", or "Din hua hai deewana" more due to their awkwardly dubbed lyrics (which in reality might be a reason for a lot of his early songs to get noticed, and become hits). But "Kehna hi kya" had a magic moment, prior to the first antara, while he is singing the sargam, there is a rhythm/ base guitar note, which got me hooked on. The harmonium sound was a precursor for many more of his gems of the quawwali genre.

15. Meenaxi: The reason why this album is up here and not some others like "Thakshak" or "Zubeida" is once again a Sonu Nigam song. The string section of "Do kadam" is quite epic. So is "Yeh Rishta" and the till then unheard sound of "Chinnamma Chilakamma". "Noor un allah" is as badass as a qawwali can get.

14. Humse hain muqabla: Talking about awkwardly dubbed lyrics, this album comes close to beating Hindustani. But what a magnificent soundscape it has! The obnoxiously penned "Premika ne Pyaar se" has that Udit rediscovery moment again. A review of this album is incomplete without mentioning the many poetic masterclasses (btw this is sarcasm if you are Sheldon Cooper) such as  "Kaluraam bhi hain theek pyaar me" and "jo mithai ek rupaiyya tune mooh laga ke mujhko di",  "picasso ki painting etc", all of "Urvashi Urvashi". The flute in "Sun ri sakhi" deserves a mention as well.

13. Jaane tu ya jaane na: "Kahin to hogi wo" is again that Rahman territory, the kind of song that he will spin out in his sleep. But it's the incomparable "Tu bole" that makes the album special. I am sure he worked with some hardcore jazz artists to make this happen. His retake on MTV unplugged was even better than the original from the film. The soundtrack was a major reason why I loved the film. Well that is true about most films that I like. If I am asked to compile a list of best Hindi films released in my time, a lot of the films in this list would make it.

12. Saathiya: The title song is enough to make you fall in love with this album. It's Sonu again, and although I still have an argument with friends about whether Gulzar really meant "Sabz-e-lawn", lawn being an English word cunningly fitted in, the rest of the lyrics are silky smooth. The term "farvari ki sardiyo ki dhoop me" got me hooked onto "Chupke se". But my favorite from this album is "Jhoot kapat" for that extremely minute oft repeating base guitar note. What got me going on this song was a beautiful rendition by a friend, at one of our casual singing night outs, during my college days.

11. Swades: I love this album for what's on it, as well as a lot of things that are not on it, i.e. the background score of the movie. There are a couple of cinematic magic moments, one while SRK's plane is about to land at Delhi for the first time and the camera pans from outside the plane window. And the other on his way back on a small sailboat from the village, just prior to the iconic "Paani lo paani" scene. And Rahman's contribution to both is massive. Nobody played the string section in a Hindi movie like that sailboat scene. Alka Yagnik is in top gear in "Saawariya saawariya", which has a really catchy guitar like interlude prior to the second antara. And a special mention for Udit, who owns the top 2 songs.

10. Yuva: "Dhakka laga bukka" wow! There is a base guitar piece, which is played like a melody line during the "hat ja hat ja re" of the second interlude. That's a change that Rahman brought through many of his songs, i.e. playing the base as a melody line rather than just as part of the rhythm section. I am sure his presence in "kabhi neem neem" was composed completely organically, where he just started shouting a free form melody during one of the takes. The best one is "fanaa" though, sargams were never heard in a dance floor song. And also a special mention for "dol the dol paape"!

9. Delhi 6: The album where Rahman met Mohit Chauhan! I remember watching the very first teaser of this movie, with just an aalap by Mohit Chauhan from the incomparable "Masakkali". And I couldn't believe it was Mohit (I am fairly good at recognizing singers), and equal credit must go to Rahman's recording crew. I doubt whether it's all Mohit though, I get the feeling that Rahman mixes his own voice with Mohit to create a unique sound, a technique that I am sure he has used for some of Rockstar's songs. I fell "dafattan" for "Dil gira dafattan" (I remember googling the meaning, the word also heard on a Ghulam Ali gazhal that I heard later). Ash King, with bagpipes to boot. It's again the string section though, that comes in during the last "teri khamosh julfon ki" that takes the cake. Rekha Bharadwaj is in top form in "genda phool" and so is the slightly repeatative combo of Kailash kher and Javed Ali in "Arziyaan".

8. Taal: This is widely recognized as very best of Rahman and with good reason. As a whole soundtrack, it had the full gamut, from ballads like "Nahin Saamne" to instrumental classics like "Taal se taal (western)". It had Alka Yagnik at her best with the line "Haaye meri laaj ne mujhko dubo diyaa" dragging the "diyaa" word out like an aalap. I was tempted to rate this album higher, The only reason I have rated some other albums above this is they had a cinematic moment of awe which was intensified by Rahman's music. Btw, one of the things that remains on my bucket list is to be a part of a band that can perform "Ramta Jogi" live, even if only as the guy playing the bell.

7. The legend of Bhagat Singh: Just as one of Bhagat Singh's inmates is about to break his Bhook Hartaal and drink up the pot of milk, he resists and breaks the pot instead. Right on cue, in comes Sonu Nigam's magical voice in Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna. It's all goosebumps territory. And a punjabi song like "Pagadi Sambhal"? I always thought they all had to sound either like Daler Mehendi-Gurudas Mann or like a Yash Chopra wedding. When I listen to this album, I don't even get to "Mera Rang de", because I am stuck on either "Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna", "Des mere" or "Mahi ve".

6. Rang de basanti: "Roobaroo"... what a badass song! You can pickup a guitar and sing that song all day. Rahman's recording crew again deserves a mention, especially on "Luka chhuppi". No one records the tabla like he does. I generally judge an audio system by how well it conveys the sound of "Luka chhuppi". It feels like the song covers most frequencies, apart from the array of emotions that it covers. Although Rahman's hindi pronunciations in this song are up for ridicule, they become charming after repeated listening. And I almost forgot about "Khalbali". If one ever had to show a middle finger to the world, they should sing this song, just to add more style to their salute.

5. 1947 Earth: Haunting is one word for the album. And it has Hariharan's "dheemi dheemi" in it. Every song deserves a mention. I have used almost every one of its instrumental tracks as a background score for the plays that we stage. There are so many great things about the album, the very uncommonly high note where Sukhwinder starts on "Raat ki daldal",  puriya dhanashree re-appearance in "Rut aa gayi re" or the one time Rahman got lazy while recording/mixing in "Dheemi dheemi" (more details). But the cinematic magic moment comes after "that" scene between Rahul Khanna and Nandeeta Das. Just as a distraught Aamir Khan walks away having seen the horror of his life, and puffs up a few smokes, Sukhwinder's voice sings "Aise barse gum ke teeshe, toote saare dil ke sheeshe". As Aamir wipes away his tears, you just know where the film is heading.

4. Rangeela: Ram Gopal Verma has said (during his saner days) all that I wanted to say about the best song from this album right here. It's because of Hai Rama, that Puriya Dhanashree happens to be one of the only 2 raagas (other being des) that I can identify :) The soundtrack contains two more Udit classics, "Yaaron sun lo zara" and "Kya karein". The most talked about thing of the album at the time though was rediscovering Asha Bhosle. It has to take some work to rediscover an artist like that.

3. Dil Se: I did not like this album when it released. That's because I had heard it only in bits and pieces on tv with low quality audio systems. It took me a few years to be eventually blown away by "Chhaiyya chaiyya". Yet again Dil se has Udit's rebirth in "Aye ajnabi". The song haunts you every time it appears in the movie. And it took me opening up my sensibility to finally appreciate what Rahman had done with "Satrangi re".

1. Roja: It's still up for debate in my mind whether I should rate his first or his last (at the time of writing) album as his best. And I could not arrive at a decision, so I have left them both at the top. Everything that can be said about an album has been said about Roja. Never has any composer made such a dramatic entry. And if someone has, never has he been able to churn out an album that matches that quality every 2-3 years for more than 2 decades. A typical pattern with a lot of artists is that they emerge with a bang. And then they become repetitive. It's rare for someone to compose 2 albums so good, 20 years apart. Like Roja and ...

1. Rockstar: If you listen to Roja and Rockstar, you wouldn't be able to tell they are by the same composer. There are some traces, but the albums are genuinely different. A bit like The Beatles of "Please please me" and "Sgt Pepper". The identifiable traces are in "Kun faaya kun" or "Tum ho". The jump to a different soundscape comes in "Sadda haq" or "Jo bhi main". The operatic force comes through "Naadan Parindey", what a powerful song! And someone please tell me how one can compose "Phir se ud chala". The song just flows, there is no composition to it. I am sure the first thing they came up with was the guitar riff. Then Mohit and Rahman sat down and hummed something. Then Irshad Kamil wrote some random words. Then Mohit and Rahman hummed those words. Then Irshad rewrote those words to make some sense. Then Mohit and Rahman recomposed the entire tune. And then they orchestrated the song. Of course all of this is pure conjecture.

[1] I started the post last Sept, when I did write a few other posts. Only finished it about a year later :)
[2] Highway had come out between the time I started and finished the post, I decided to keep the original list.

Waah Ustaad!

Whether it's about the barbaric ritual, or another claimed meaning, burning down one's sins, this is the best song of Coke Studio season 3 so far. The effect is extremely graphic. As Taufiqbhai says in the BTM, it feels like "एक कोहरा हैं! मैं उस कोहरे में से एक रोशनी को देखता हूँ, जो एक बहुत बड़ी आग बन जाती हैं!"

I wish he did more mainstream work. Until he does that, do yourself a favor, the next time "Masters of percussion" visits your city, go watch it. As much for Taufiq Qureshi, as for Zakir Hussain. You will be entertained and inspired, irrespective of whether you are musically inclined.

The first mountain

(Disclaimer: People's definition on climbing and hiking may vary depending on their skill levels. A friend, who was about to climb Mt Rainier, got this message from an office-mate who had summitted Mt Everest - "Best of luck on the hill!". The point is, the terms I have used in this post are based on my own perspective.)

Being a hopeless romantic with stats, I have kept an account of all the hikes I have been on. And I recently finished 50 unique hikes, Bandera mountain being the 50th. The hikes have included some simple ones, like Delicate Arch in Utah, to relatively tougher ones, like Mt St Helens and hiking to the bottom of Grand Canyon. (Here's a link to all the hikes with the stats.) A common theme has been that they were all day hikes. The highest I had gone was to Camp Muir at 10k feet. The most altitude I had gained was at Grand Canyon (5k feet), so never had to break it up over 2 days and carry camping stuff. And although it's most advisable, the only one of the 10 essentials we carried without fail was a reservoir full of water. So as long as I could have the stamina, the hike was done.

Some of the memorable moments of these hikes have been getting lost on the hike to Goat Lake after sunset. And getting extremely dehydrated coming back up on a baking afternoon at Grand Canyon. Also not having the right footwear while hiking up Rattlesnake mountain, so slipping and falling down 11 times over the 11 miles. The point is - our hiking equipment, if any, was quite primitive and that's the way we intended to keep it.

Every hiker in Seattle at some point has thought of going up Mt Rainier. But to me it has always looked intimidating and a little out of my league. So when some friends mentioned attempting to climb it this season, I was not convinced. My approach has been to learn the things that are required for mountain climbing and see how it goes. Besides for somebody who has only been a hiker and not a climber (more on the distinction later), climbing Rainier in summer requires a spring-wide weekends worth of commitment. And while I was not averse to hiking all throughout summer, having just committed 2 months worth of weekends to staging a Marathi play, I was just not up for another commitment. Nevertheless, some friends decided to commit to a charity group organizing and training for the climb. And given the kind of competitive spirits I have to deal with, I just had to at least do everything else that they did barring the actual climb to Rainier.

So we started with Mt Hood, a 11k+ slightly technical climb close to the Columbia River Gorge. Let me try to define "slightly technical" here. Any snow hike would require some of the following things -
1. Microspikes - would have been awesome to have them on that Rattlesnake Mountain, would have prevented a sore backside
2. Crampons - optional, only work when the snow is hard enough to sink them in. Snow would ball up into them if it's not hard. Also you would want to glissade on slushy snow and you have to take them off, otherwise you could end up with a broken leg.
3. Ice axe - generally useful in place of a hiking pole. Useful for self arrest if you slip and lose control, also on fast glissades.

A technical hike is the one that requires you to be roped up. Either long roped, for something like Mt Rainier, which has large glaciers, and possibility of crevasses. You typically have 3 to 6 people on a rope, with enough distance between them, so that not all people fall in the crevasse at the same time and someone is up to rescue. Or short roped, like we learned on Mt Hood, where there is not as much danger of glaciers and hence crevasses. Since the mountain is steeper, if someone happens to slip and fall down, a short rope would allow him to be arrested quicker. Mt Hood is a little more technical than that, as the old chute part of the Pearly Gates right prior to the summit, requires a technique called belaying. The rope leader climbs up without any help (so obviously any climber requires an extremely proficient rope leader), just on the insurance of being roped up to the other guys, which is not great insurance as a slip would cause him to fall some distance before an arrest, if not a complete free fall. Once the leader is up, you have to pull yourself up with the ice axe. The thing that makes a difference is the leader holding you up (not pulling you), making sure that you don't slip and lose the elevation that you have already gained. A technique where you will be well served by some weight training in the gym, (something that I had done rather belatedly in my life, over the prior 6 months). The good thing was that the Timberline Mountain Guides, the company we climbed with, trained us in snow skills for 4 hours on the day prior to climb. The bad thing, the training did take a toll and we got to bed at 7pm, which is later than what I would have liked.

One of the biggest challenges for climbs is alpine starts. The scheduled start was at 2.30am. We had to be at the Timberline Lodge, from which they were going to hoist us 2500 feet via a snow cad, a fact for which we got ridiculed a lot within friends with no hiking credentials and friends with climbing credentials alike. So we had to wake up at 10.30pm and get ready, for extremely time consuming things such as wearing gaiters, crampons, helmets etc. But that's not the real problem of alpine starts. It's adjusting the body cycles. Convincing your body that it's 7am when it's actually midnight is a hard task. And then you have to toil at a time when your body is generally programmed to rest. The alpine start allows you to hike with no sun on your back, which is a big deal, as your stamina is going to last longer, and also through compact snow. However, since the body clock has gone for a toss, you are going to struggle with a sick feeling.

After some added drama with a broken snow cad, which caused a 1 hour delay, we got going in a blizzard. I kept wondering that there was no way we could have taken this on, without a guiding company. But given the kind of protective gear we had, it wasn't that bad. First lesson learnt, get good gear, especially for a not so mundane activity like mountaineering. Actually the realization about gear isn't very new and can be related to the first time you come to US and see freeways and understand how they function, or move from a keyboard that you used to call as "Casio" to a digital piano with touch response and weighted keys. It's a feeling of more empowerment, of an opening of a pandora's box with more possibilities. This was especially true as we had hiked up mailbox mountain in a snow/ rain storm with little visibility, in primitive rain jackets, soaked up by the time we got back, wondering why we did it. Things like waterproof seems, breathability just began making sense. We were told to report any sort of numbness in the hands, and I duly did as I couldn't feel one of my fingers. Turned out I had put 2 fingers together, so there was one empty finger on my glove that I couldn't move. To add to the drama, we were walking in a line, with one guide behind me, and the rest of the group ahead of me (8 of them, 3 of my friends, 2 guides and 3 other random people), and there was this constant H2SO4 smell that was causing nausea. We kept whispering to each other (in Hindi) that someone up ahead in the line was suffering from an upset stomach, the result of the above mentioned alpine start. So finally one of us dared ask a politically correct question to the guide- "Does the mountain always smell like sewage?" where what he meant was "Who the heck is spoiling our experience?" And then it dawned us that the mountain, being a volcano, was at fault, and all the hikers were clean.

The blizzard relented around sunrise and after a plain hike to the hoggsback, it was time to rope up. The criss cross technique, the rest step, all of that helped up to get to the old chute, after which we just belayed up to the summit. Having forgotten how easy the belay down technique taught on the previous day, I could not enjoy the summit as much. I was worried about having to get down the treacherous path that we had just come up. When asked what path we were going to take back down, Nick, our guide, chuckled and said "The same one, that's the easiest one anyway!". So I wasn't the usual photo model at Summit that I generally am at other picturesque places. All I wanted to do was take a couple of pictures as a proof of summitting and get back to the bottom of the old chute.

Turned out, the belay down the old chute was the most pleasant time of the hike. It's a bit like rappelling, with the leader actually feeding the rope and all you have to do is put your weight on and descend. The face to the mountain technique of descending was also very useful, much like climbing down a ladder, the difference being you also kick in the steps in the snow.

After getting to hoggsback, we took off the helmet, the ice axe, crampons and started doing the plunge steps. The guides didn't allow us to glissade, which was a disappointment as it is fairly high on the list of things that climbers look forward to on a snow clad mountain. The other frustrating bit was that I tied my rented helmet to my backpack, ignoring the advice of the guide and it fell off somewhere up the mountain, costing me $59. Descending down the 5200 feet through complete slush was such a tedious job (it wasn't hard, it was just tedious, with no motivation, a feeling that mountaineering books tell me that every mountaineer suffers on the descent), that I really didn't give a damn about the $59. We kept cursing all the way down for taking up this challenge and were convinced that this would be our first and last snow climb. Much of the same discussion (barring a refreshing bit of mimicry of Amitabh Bachchan singing "Choli ke peechhe kya hain") continued on the 4 hour long drive back fighting off sleep (as the guides had told us, it was a task as difficult as the mountain itself, since I was the driver).

Until the next day of course, when a summit shot became my most "liked" facebook photo. I realized what a sucker I am for public praise, much like any other modern human being. Also that this is probably just the beginning of a pursuit of a very curious and expensive sport, well illustrated here.

Link: Mount Hood Climb on Flickr

A win like no other

For some reason, this win almost brought me to tears, something that Dhoni's most famous sixer could never manage to do.

Memoirs of an amateur...

So it's over, with a bit of relief and some contentment. It's the longest stage time I have had over my fledgling amateur acting career. And I was surprised by how many new things I learned all this while.
I am trying to enlist them now, because I tend to forget lessons learned in life too soon, and have a tendency of making the same mistakes again and again. At least this note should serve as a good reminder before taking up a new challenge.

Lesson 1: I cannot act: Before I did this play, I was fairly confident that I was a decent actor by amateur stage standards. During the play I realized that it's quite the contrary. All I have is some command over spoken Marathi (by Seattle standards anyway) and a decent stage voice to go with it. Now I know that I can mimic better than I can act, and hence when time comes to play a normal person, who has no identifiable characteristics, I struggle. But then at some level, I probably knew that before we began, which is why, I wanted to do this play at my own pace, with maybe 3 months of practice, as opposed to the 40 days that we gave ourselves. I can see a pattern emerging here, because after we won a regional cricket league here last year, I realized through it that I cannot play cricket.

Lesson 2: Acting picks up rust faster than other skills: I had to pretty much re-learn looking up at the audience, or the black line as they call it, and avoiding bending my knees leading to awkward postures. As someone once said, you can forget acting, unlike swimming or biking. On that note, writing picks up rust fast as well, as I am realizing while writing this post.

Lesson 3: It hurts to be the slowest in the herd: Until now, I can safely say, that I have always acted in plays with other actors, who were either less experienced / had not so well written characters. So it was easy to avoid being the one who is always picked on. It goes for many other fields, e.g. hiking (pick up someone who is slower than you, so that if a bear is on the loose, it catches someone else before it can reach you). I completely realized this time that being the slowest in the herd is not enjoyable.

Lesson 4: It would have been nice to have trained: While working as a teaching assistant at my grad school, I realized how awesome it would have been had I trained on Computer Science with focus during my undergrad years. I had a similar realization this time around, while diving on stage, eating stuff, drinking and staging mock fights. I would have hurt my knees less, and not broken the other actor's glasses.

Lesson 5: Acting is all about making unnatural things look natural: There were parts of the play, which came naturally to me, given the kind of people I have been around. But that created a huge confusion about the definition of acting. A good actor would appear natural in settings/characters that (s)he hasn't seen in real life. But is that humanly possible? Paresh Rawal was really really good as Baburao Apte, but watching him as a Marathi guy, I was still not convinced. My mind is all messed up now.

Lesson 6: Stage acting is all about keeping the audience interested while staying in character: What's more important, risking the audience's disinterest or staying in character? There will be moments when you will have to make a decision one way or the other on stage, but you may not realize that (that you have to make that decision) until you have played that character a few times before a live audience. And the unfortunate part for an amateur actor is that a few times is all that he has got.

Lesson 7: A big part of acting is looking the character: It was a 2 characters play, inspired from an English play. This was made in an English movie twice (35 years apart), with 1 actor being common to both casts. This actor played the 1st character in the first version and the other in the second version. I had watched only 1 version of this movie. So when our director suggested that we should present this play such that we alternate between characters over different shows (ala Sanjay Mone and Girish Oak in Kusum Manohar Lele, incidentally another play we performed here and when we thought we should implement the same), the idea seemed outrageous. But as soon as I saw the 2nd version of the movie, I saw the director's point. You cannot look younger than you are, but you can definitely look/portray older characters. We never got to it due to time constraints, but I must confess, that I tried acting out a few scenes as the other character once, after our show was done.

Am I qualified enough to write about acting? What the hell, I have a lot of respect for my director and he showed faith in me to play such a big role in this play. The least I can do is have faith in myself to write about what I felt.

I have had to force myself to write this, especially when I had the options of -
1. Listening to Norah Jones on youtube (watching rather).
2. Going out for a run on a rare sunny Seattle day.
3. Playing tennis.

But I have successfully convinced myself, that writing this post, is a non-trivial task and would serve as a good reminder of this time, in the time to come. Reading my blog, I have found it very surprising what I was thinking of in the past. Many a times I have even forgotten that I ever wrote down such confessions. And maybe that's just a good thing. Maybe that's the only thing that is still telling me that I am not getting rapidly old.
(I just realized that I have used "I" in this blog so many times, it's obnoxious :))

P.S. I wrote this post on March 9th, 2013, just published it 3 months later on June 9th.

Coke studio India Season 2

The first episode of season 2 of Coke Studio India was pretty awesome. I had not heard much of Clinton Cerejo up to this point, so had no idea what he had to offer. I will keep an ear out for his music henceforth. From 2nd one onwards, every episode has a couple of great songs, but the rest feel like Leslie Lewis is still masquerading somewhere around there. Please don't force music genres to marry without their consent. Hopefully Shantanu Moitra will get rid of the unnecessary complexity in the 7th episode and give us something easy on the ear.

Talking of easy on the ear, Karsh Kale has come up with the best song of the season. The piano riff works like a magic. After getting stuck on it for a day, I was disappointed to learn that it was lifted from some American hip-hop singer's tune, but my faith was restored, when someone else commented that it's an original Kale composition, lifted by the hip-hop singer.

The 4 girls look stunning and sound beautiful, at least to my untrained ear. Monali Thakur looks the cutest. And once you know that Shruti Pathak wrote the lyrics for this one, it just adds to her turn on factor. But it's Shilpa Rao's re-entry at 5:02 that takes the cake, not least for how the drummer delays her verse by a beat. She waits midway through her aalap, and when he finally re-appears, 1 beat late, she gives him a knowing smile. Brings a smile to the guitarist as well, don't know if it was all pre-planned, but it sure makes the song interesting to watch.

Shankar at Sawai

This video brought back memories of my first visit to Sawai Gandharva in 2002. I was never really a fan of classical music until then, and I am not much of a fan even now. But I still remember Bhimsen's performance of "kanhoba tuzi ghongadi". It started around 2am and it was one of the few occasions when I have felt close to the divine being. The first time I ever felt this way was back when I was in 9th standard and visited the Vivekananda Smarak Sheela at Kanyakumari. I stood at one side of the Smarak looking at the endless waters around me and I still remember the thought of jumping in and being a part of it crossed my mind.

Coming back to that performance, I did not understand Bhimsen, the classical virtuoso, but it will be an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life.

When Bhimsen passed away earlier this year, a friend said the news brought tears to his eyes. And again I did not understand what would trigger that sort of emotion from someone, especially since I had never known him as that big a fan of Bhimsen or music in general. But when Shankar switched to "Maze maher" in the above video and the focus appeared on Bhimsen's photo, watching it in the near dark and lonely atmosphere of my office, I must admit that a lump did lodge up my throat.

KK's visualization

KK, being the only outsider (read non-maanus) in our current circle of friends, is always amazed by the complex graph that has existed in the inner circle. We always wondered why. Just to check, I decided to visualize the pre-Seattle edges. Here is the index.

* SM = Schoolmate (a rather weak relationship and hence not drawn for simplicity)
* CM = Classmate (Shown only if the relationship is not captured through a UPP or UUPP or GPP edge, also implies SM)
* UPP = Undergraduate Project Partner (also implies CM, so wherever there is UPP edge between 2 nodes, it also implies an additional CM edge, not redrawn for simplicity)
* GPP = Graduate Project Partner (also implies CM, so wherever there is GPP edge between 2 nodes, it also implies an additional CM edge, not redrawn for simplicity)
* UUPP = Under Under graduate Project partner (a rather sad relationship, drawn only on the insistence of the 2 nodes hellbent on being recognized for it)(also implies CM, so wherever there is UUPP edge between 2 nodes, it also implies an additional CM edge, not redrawn for simplicity)
* RM = Roommate
* S = Spouse (may or may not imply RM :D (Remember, this is pre-Seattle))
* OM = Officemate

click to enlarge



Turns out KK was right. We are a rather sad bunch of people.
Some interesting observations -
1. The graph is disconnected if we don't make use of the SM edge.
2. There is an overdose of AKs.
3. As suspected, KD and DC have a very tight connection.

Long time back... a rather hilarious attempt :)

A new cricket blog

Dear Readers (however small that clan might be),

Here's my new blog covering all my cricket posts!
Cricday
I will try to separate my cricket posts and miscellaneous writing here onwards.