Visceral Musings on the... dammit It's just a post about drumming and music :|

They say the first experience of a child with music is listening to the mother's heart-beat. Then I think that each and everyone of us have an inborn sense of rhythm and time. And it's visible in our most trivial of activities, like walking and clapping of hands.Now I think that's good enough for a cinematic intro. Now let me get to the matter.

   The drum or 'percussion' in technical words was the first instrument ever used by man. I think the reasons are pretty obvious. It is the most basic way to make a sound using your limbs. And still today it is the basic thing that is needed to produce rhythmic music. But what has attracted me the most about it is it's versatility. You can just implement the features of any genre of music into what you're playing, to create stuff of your own in an instant. Whereas I'm sure you'll be finding it quite tough to create an original guitar riff of some decent quality( Well, you may disagree and happily think that you're right). No, I'm not saying that drums are better than guitar( In fact I like listening to good guitarists more), but just that the complexity factor in learning it is much much less. That is why I think they're are a lot more self-taught drummers than guitarists.

   Now everybody has drummed at some point of life. If not, then you're lying. It might have been with Pepsi bottles, or on the bench on an afternoon class at school, or on a proper drum-kit. But i think it's all the same. A more appropriate person to ask would be the drummer Sivamani, who uses plates, briefcases and god knows what else in all his 'big' stage concerts. It's all about the sound and the rhythm. You may use drumsticks, the bare hands, feet, chopsticks, or some goddamn twigs,and if you can make something listenable out of it then you are a drummer. Some guys even start drumming on a guitar. Now that's quite an irony. Well I started to learn to play a drum properly when i was 9 or 10 (can't remember properly). It was the south Indian percussion instrument, the mridangam. Then i started playing on the drum kit when i was 13 and it still gives me a beginner's excitement to play it .

   There's this thing (especially among young people) about musical tastes that seperates musicians into the cool and uncool territory, which I find is totally annoying. Don't know about others, but I respect every genre of music that's out there. Not that I like listening to Vuvuzela's all day, but just the basic respect for all kinds of good music. And another thing is that you never know where some influence kicks in. I listen to everything from Indian classical music to death metal, and it really helps me sometimes to merge stuff together and play something new. The Indian music scene would have been much better if everyone had been true to themselves in appreciating good music. With the vast amount of talent if different genres of music that we have in our country, I find it very hard to believe that musicians don't work together with someone of a totally different genre. Had it been somewhere else, we would have seen a local rajasthani singer performing along with Motherjane (check them out now if you haven't yet) or something of that sort.

                  I had to somehow write these things down in here. They have been lingering in my mind for so much time now. May not make much sense to you, but still you read it till here, so that's good enough for me :)

P.S. -- Next time you are bored and find your books sitting jobless in a corner with lots of dust on them, keep them on a table , and start drumming on them. And take books of different sizes because they give different sounds and give you a great feeling when you find that cool new rhythm.

And it's another year gone by..

The last 4 and a half months I was BUSY with what they call the 1st semester of college life, and one that most people can never manage to obliterate from their minds. It was not very different for me. My first taste of ragging, washing clothes, digesting inexplicably horrible food just for the sake of appetite, and most importantly , having a sense of time without the help of others. In hostels, the residents decide their own day and night( as in, the time for work and the time for rest) . The falling of sun's rays on the Goan sands is no criteria for it.
Oh and btw, I'm studying in 'BITS Pilani Goa Campus' .The name may be confusing, i blame you not, but for some weird reasons it's located in 'Goa', the Las Vegas of India and is part of the Bits Pilani university started by the Birla's.

The first month or so in the place mentioned above went at jet speed. Life was so hectic and full that I just seemed to release all those containers of slackness that were stored in me during the 2 month period of vacation just before the initiation into the place mentioned above. But then it all began to take a swift turn. Just after a month, dates were announced for the first test towards getting my B.E Mechanical Engineering Degree. And I happily turned a blind eye to it. After all, I had survived two years of rigorous testing for some random tests which did test my patience for freedom. It felt nothing more than a routine procedure. But then it was not at all the way to be. I had placed my foot on unknown territory. These were not people you could put your money on for not studying. These were SUPPOSEDLY the smartest folks of India who abide by the greatest dogma in this country that a high cgpa in engineering and a Post Graduate MS/M Tech/MBA from the nerdiest of universities are the only means of attaining Nirvana in the life of Homo Sapiens. I had to greatly increase my standards to survive in this raging tide towards academic excellence. The teaching Sapiens (no disrespect intended ) did not offer much of a help in this regard. Finally I had reasons to admire some of my school teachers in 12th whom i had guiltily disregarded as bad instructors.

The results of the testing procedure were not appreciable by any means . And very soon, I had the opportunity to take another test, this time for a radical spread of the Yellow Fever in our SUPPOSEDLY new and hygienic campus. I despised taking the test but the Almighty thankfully gave notice to my willpower and saved me from the disease which rendered about 300-400 Sapiens in the campus bed-ridden for about a month or so.

The two week break declared by the college due to the Yellow Fever was a pleasant gift and I welcomed it with both arms. Coming home felt good and refreshing after some hectic and chaotic days. The next big thing in our campus was our cultural fest WAVES WINTER 2009 (Although winter virtually doesn't happen in Goa). The event was just a pass off for me. Nothing special except the 3 nights, when dj suketu ,kk, and parikrama brought out the hardly evident life in the campus.

And after that it was back to the testing formalities again and I won't elaborate because of the sheer boredom associated with the topic. And right now.. at 9: 32 PM ,on 29th December 2009 , at my sweet home , 2 days away from 2010, I am listening to the live streaming of the sunburn festival at Goa where my favorite and the best DJ in the world , Armin Van Buuren is doing a complete Awe-Inspiring show. How could I not be at Goa at the exact time when he's playing ?! Well I certainly did miss it badly but feel not much regrets as I am enjoying being at home . I'll try the next time he shows up in India. And day before yesterday i met up with my old friends from school. It was a really cool get-together as finally we people had a lots to talk with each other , cursing and praising the various aspects of each one's college life. So that's roughly everything which has happened in the last 5 months in my life.

So that's it for now,and something will be put up at write at a later time , as and when the nerves in my brain connect properly again to post a blog. Talking about nerves, I need to tell you this that I had to mug up even my most dreaded subject of BIOLOGY in the last semester! Much needed for my thought that engineering was all about amazing things like automobiles and aircrafts . It's the BITS way of education , as some say. Although I'm a great lover of nature and take so much pleasure in doing something to protect it (See my WWF banner :) ), studying BIOLOGY is definitely not coded into my DNA. Think this is enough for now, feeling really hungry and got to go and have my favorite DOSA. Meanwhile Armin has pushed up the tempo and God this is just so splendid to hear. Now Playing: Burned Desire by Van Buuren. Sayonara.

Back to being a Slacker

Being utterly jobless is quite a strange situation . The freedom that you have in hand gives you a delusion that you are truly happy with yourself. But at the end of the day when you look back at it, you feel a bit guilty of wasting one precious day in life. In the other case, when you have been working all day long with a hope that some day you will become a free bird, then at least you have some reason to cheer about at the end of the day , that you have one day less to go through this torture.

Anyways i'm very much better off with the first case .It really is an ecstasy to doze off for those 10 hours a day, mostly even more with the rain bringing back the much needed cool weather at night.

And to wake up and just take time to do anything you want, take those long showers, watch all those tv shows which i had been missing consistently for some stupid reasons ( all the important shows, either the final of a major sport tourney, or some good movie, always used to be on the day before an exam or an important test , and it used to really piss me off ) . I had a trip to Bangalore during the 1st week of june, well for about 3 days . Stayed at my friend varun's house there. Really envy him for having gone there after 10th. The road traffic is definitely a bit worse, but the place just has got so much to offer. I've visited B'lore a few times but this is actually the first time that i saw the city in detail,it's development, malls and stuff. For a chap from our great city of cochin which consists of only one main road and two malls , B'lore is really big deal. Not that i'm a shop-a-holic or anything. It's just that one doesn't have to hangout at the same place everytime, like the case here.

After going there i had to see a film, obviously. The only theatre where hindi films release in ernakulam has speakers which are worse than a home theatre system. So i went for this movie , 99 with my friend .There were few other choices(thanks to some film producer's strike ) , and the critics too seemed impressed with it. So we went ahead. But just 10 mins after the movie began, we were sure that the money did not go waste. It was absolutely 'hilarious' all the way . And it wasn't some trash comedy you would normally expect in a hindi film. The humour was embedded in the story itself . Each character in the film contributed to the laugh riot. Even the bad guys! But Cyrus Broacha was the one who kept the comedy going throughout the film. Kunal Khemu also does a brilliant job and Boman Irani again proves his comedy prowess . Soha Ali Khan hasn't got much to do but she does her part well. And all the other actors were just perfectly suited for their roles. Overall i think it must be one of the best comedies in recent times in bollywood.

Back to kerala and i was back to my old friends tv and comp. 'Facebook' took most of my hours away, and the time left i spent on some kind of rigorous exercises like pressing the buttons on the tv remote. And sometimes i do some research on colleges and stuff... it's really interesting to read those forums on some of the websites. The word fights between the jobless students of different colleges are really worth wasting your time. Another important thing that i did was that i had an experience of the famous 'ambalapuzha paal paayasam' from the temple there. If you haven't come to know about it yet, well all that i can tell is that it is the best paal paayasam(I guess it's a kind of rice pudding.. in english) you'll ever get to taste in life. The sweetness of it..it was truly magical. Just penetrates into your head and you won't feel like stopping.

After that.. i havn't done much other than seeing some horrible films. Well i had bought a dvd from b'lore (obviously pirated ) which said in it's cover that TERMINATOR 4 was included. But what was there was a similar sounding movie called THE TERMINATORS!!, and it was crap to say the least.The rest of the films in the collection were not much better, except maybe 'The Shinjuku Incident'.

I also had a jam session with my friend and bass guitarist Peter. We rented a drums kit( i play it btw) and played out for some 4-5 hours .

vanished iit dream...

Well, yes. The dream sadly did not become  reality. The jee results were out 2 days before. Didn't even get through in the merit list and came at around 1700 in the extended list ( well, this is a completely misleading list which was just for the sake of consolation to some aspirants who just couldn't make it , and is also for some non iit institutions ). And yes, i'm feeling sad too. But i won't go into scrutinising the cause of my failure . Because i feel it's plain impossible. I felt around 2-3 years before, that getting into iit means is the sole meaning of schooling and any kind of study ! But that pereception has changed completely. There is a whole lot of meaning to iit preparation than to clearing the exam. Many feel it's a waste of time to prepare and not clear but i don't. I may be right or wrong but that's what i feel. I'm just looking it from my perspective. That of one who has lost the IIT race to others .  

There are thousands of articles on the newspaper, internet, ..etc .. which tell many ways of IIT preparation, but i bet you not a single one helps. When it comes to entrance exams , i think there is no written, or spoken way to success . It all just happens as such. I think there is no better application of the saying, " take care of small things, and the bigger things fall automatically into place ", than entrance exams.Well I'm able to say this now only as i did not clear jee.  A few months before nothing like this would come to my mind, and i think it wouldnt have to anybody else who are like me. I would suggest to any aspirant that always work to become rank 1 , whatever be the competition and however small the test is . The mentality that being in the top 10 is good...is extremely fatal. It'll gradually come to top 20..then 50..then 100.... and it never ends.

Well , all that's my point of view. And as i said before, no point of view of entrance exams is perfect. It just goes like that. You think you've done well enough and you end up at the trench. You mess up with something and you go up the mountain. It is really a strange sort of thing. You just have to do one thing well. Learn what is required. Again the question is ,how much is actually required! Yes.. this q & a session would never ever end..

And about what i said.. about how preparing to iit never goes waste.. here's something on it.

First, you learn how to learn the hard way. for eg :on the way of preparing , you realise how badly has those spoonfeedings at school affected you. Now there's no way you can STUDY the whole thing.U gotta to use those things inside your head to a much greater amount. This might be the first experience of 'learning the hard way '.

Secondly ,  With these things you can never say, Okay ..i've done enough..One will realise there are just no limits to learning .

and there are much more. you learn how to inspire yourself to come up from uncomfortable situations. You learn how to deal with different people differently. You learn to become a nerd at home and a dashy teenager at school. You realise how much things are out of control. Your favorite club's football match is enough to get you on the bottom of the rank list . And more often, fate starts playing games. You lose an important notebook with so many notes, you write it down all over from your friend, even though you have to study for a test paper at school the next day. So you have to sit very late into night and sleep for some 4-5 hours. You go to the test next day, feel sleepy and write some bullshit and comeback. And when at home you see that your note book is there under a pillow. But then you don't even have time to get angry, cuz you have to leave for the coaching class! This is it.. Things like this can happen..and will happen , esp in 12th. You'l atleast think a hundred times about giving up, but if you even get conviced once, then you will be gone for nothing. 

Like this... one learns a million things in these 2 years of preparation for the entrance tests.. 

and whatever you learn.. it's just an addition to your personality.. so i think i have no need to feel dejected about effort getting wasted .. and neither do others like me.. there's always something up for grabs.. 

So that's it.. that's something i feel about ' entrance ' exams.. from whatever i've experienced..

but for good or bad 11th nd 12th years are rely different from anythin before that.. i'm sure about that..

 

ITs 3 Am !!

Yes it is..nd im still awake enuf...to write a blog. Dunno frm when this habit of sitting late into night came into me..but it just came..   so now what im doing? well i was downloading the mp3 of the film dev d..nd at dis time it is unlimited download on net.. nd just came to know that results of an entrance exam had been declared..shit!.. they had said everywhere that it would only come out by 9th may nd its here now!.. for good the site's down now...the last thing i need to c before sleep is an EXAM RESULT . yeh there was a splendid real madrid vs barcelona match. It really looked like a sunderland vs barcelona match but.. barcelona all over real's defence. seemed they were enjoying messi's movements! :P... 6 - 2 ....is that a result one normally see's for a match btw championship contenders?? ..nd without casilas' bloody brilliant saves..it could have been 10 - 2..well..barcelona do play devastating football at times..hope dey dont perform like THIS against chelsea.. nd den..,,

kk...leme stop here...going sleepless doesnt do any good ...so lemme hit the pillows right away..

So.. huh!..finally wrote the IIT JEE exams today.. . many consider it the ultimatum of all the xams in the country. It's almost lyk a lottery for life. You crack it , or get cracked . Yes, i too had the dream (..nd still have ) of makin it into iit, but trust me it's hell preparin for it. This yrs paper..in my opinion wuz purely constructed.. The first one wuz quite easy nd most were like cbse sorta questions .. but the 2nd one was quite of a high standard .. I think the thing lackin in this yr's paper wuz the range of the portions asked from.. many marks were concentrated on some partic. topic. But anywayz its IIT JEE nd ur supposed to be expecting the worst! nd talking abt the way i have done it... i wud say i put in a 75 pc effort.. cudve done it a lil bit btr..lyk i made silly errors as i always do. nd im expectin the score to be somewer around 200.. i hope... . anyways the next one AIEEE is my final resort.. It's now do or die situation.. An NIT is the least thing you need to go to for decent engineering studies...or dats wat everybody says.. whatever.. I have to put all my efforts on it.. It's the one last chance now.. so again i ought to do the same old boring thing i have been doing for a dozen of years... STUDY. All this just for my love of cars nd machines.. There's absoutely nothing else which cud inspire me for this. btw. BRAWN GP is seeming pretty dangerous. Hope FERRARI catch up quickly..

Today is the eve of another Christmas, and my last one as a school student. So nothing big about it.
Describing my life these days would be like quite boring to u as well as me, because that's how things are going. Day by day work is keeping on increasing. More worksheets on the table, more portions to complete. Its just a race against time now. And now entrance classes are there almost everyday, atleast 3 hrs. Last week I made a blunder in the AIEEE form by pasting a photo without my name getting imprinted on it, which was supposed to be, and then we had to buy another form from chennai. So 500 rs to gaya. And rather UNFORTUNATELY , I have begun to feel the old hunger to watch movies . I had quite controlled the tendency for a long time. But now its hitting back . I ve already watched 2 this week and dunno for how many more i'm going to waste my time. Its very strange . Really. The determination i had for studies suddenly has gone down in a couple of weeks. Im again feeling very lazy to work any more!. And at a dangerous time too. I know i really cant afford time to slip away now, but once i start with the books, i just keep falling asleep!. I got to do something on this from tomorrow. Really cant let this happen for more time.


AND Then about the Mumbai Terror Attacks, about which i havnt put my thoughts on the blog yet.
3 days. Some 10 terrorists. Capturing one entire city. That too, The financial capital of the nation. In a city of such importance, how could this have possibly happened. I mean, if we cant protect MUMBAI , how the heck can we say the rest of INDIA is safe?
The incident was terribly unfortunate and my deepest condolences to all those who died in the attack , and the martyrs of the NSG, navy , police and other security forces. It was really brave from their part to encounter such heavily armed terrorists.
And what does India do immediately on Pakistan? Put the blame on them. "hey look its you who nurtured these terrorists and caused this damage " . Why dont we just think about the severe lapses in the seccurity of our country first. If the same had happened in the US the FBI would have arrived at the scene in about 10 mins. What happens in India. It takes hours for some well armed forces to reach the spot. And the ones who reached first, THE POLICE could not do anything, why? They had just hand held pistols!. And to fight these Ak 47's with Pistols, what madness is this? The FBI would have had even better equipments. Well the country really needs to wake. For a country with one of the biggest armies in the world, we need to make sure that even the police is given the best possible equipment. And the setting up of a an agency to fight terror at the 1st symptom, is the NEED OF THE HOUR. We cant just go on blaming some one else for this. Terrorism wont stop suddenly if pakistan takes out all the groups there. It is still growing. And what we have to do is to make our nation protected to the core from these inhuman acts. So thinking about security matters over fighting with pakistan. Only the second step is to destroy the terror outfits. For this we have to do research and set up secret intelligence agencies to find out and root out the epicentres of terror.