There are times when you jus feel happy just to witness an historic event... The occassion is even more special when your idol is a part of that history....It was for me and for other thousands of fans around the world when Roger Federer won his 14th grand slam...And what a way to reach the mark....Winning his first French open title thus completing career slam; only 6th in the history of open era tennis to do so...

The records go on... like 15 of last 16 grand slam finals and 20 consecutive grand slams semi finals... But it is not just about the records....it is his love for the game more than anything....and the humility that accompanies it....the way he gracefully executes his game...vehement blows with a touch of tenderness.... The way he fought in every round of the French Open...he is like a great motivation to looot of people including me...It is just a privilege to be witnessing the great player arguably the "greatest" player in action...

David Foster Wallace reflected the above and more in his excellent tribute to Federer, "Federer As Religious Experience" with an insight into the future of tennis past Federer's retirement: 

You should have seen, on the grounds' outside courts, the variegated ballet that was this year's Junior Wimbledon. Drop volleys and mixed spins, off-speed serves, gambits planned three shots ahead; all as well as the standard-issue grunts and booming balls. Whether anything like a nascent Federer was here among these juniors can't be known, of course. Genius is not replicable. Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform and even just to see, close up, power and aggression made vulnerable to beauty is to feel inspired and (in a fleeting, mortal way) reconciled.

A Night to Remember....

There are moments in life which you carry with you forever...The concert in Delaware day before yesterday was one such...The greatest reward for a band or for a musician is the appreciation the people give...Not every show does a band get a standing ovation....

The Oct 11 show in New jersey was also well recieved...but due to poor audio engg the first half show was a mess...though we got out of it and made the 2nd half of the show great, the shadow of the first half loomed large on our heads...we needed one opportunity to break out of it...we did it in the TAGDV (Delaware) show and we did it in style....

The show scheduled to start at 7 PM started at 9 PM, thanks to some lengthy speakers who were eager to get their share of people's patience...They tested our patience too..but I think we owe a little thanks to them bcoz the more they made us wait, the more we were pumped and eager to rock...so when "finally" it started we went through 19 songs NON-STOP in one amazing flow....there was stunning energy frm all the singers n instrumentalists....the flow was so gr8 we did not even bother to stop n get ourselves introduced...of course who would want an introduction when music is all the identity there is...

The show ended shortly before the hour n minute hands met...It was amazin how people stayed till the end of the show and even after we were done the crowd jus stood there applauding and giving a standing ovation...elated is not the word...that is when a greatest sense of achievement sinks in and you feel happy to be just a part of the entire thing how big/small your contribution is....





our official blog: http://blog.jerseyrhythms.com/

Other Videos of the concert @ http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=151701B035CEB386

Looking forward for another such experience at Harrisburg this coming weekend...

Its been a long time since I put in a post...my last entry was after Fed lost Wimbledon...Not that it had anything to so with my not writing though....Too much of work and too much of making "a mountain out of a mole" things took up most of my time during last couple of months...Well now having addressed most of my professional commitments for now I have some time in my hand left so I am using to write this post...of course both time and the hand...Here are some crucial updates from my side since my last post

- Roger won the US open...yeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh!!!
- fell in love
- my parents came down to visit me....
- Trips to Niagara, NYC and DC with mom n dad....gr888 time...
- work pressure mounts...
- fell out of love
- my first concert in NJ...second in US (1st was in NYC)
- Project delivered successfully under tremendous pressure....
- way back into love...
- mom n dad left bak to India (miss em a loooot :( )
- managed to get rice....(to those who dont know too much of demand for rice here)
- celebrated Diwali with friends....

Well u can count out the ones with "love"...jus added them as fillers...else the list seemed small...

The King...Forever...

Words falter...A battle that lasted for 4 hrs 50 mins and as the cruel gameplan of fate unfolded, the world witnessed the defeat of the greatest tennis player ever who ruled the Centre court...I really did not watch the match completely, to be honest I could not...I had to deliberately switch channels just to avoid witnessing the defeat...

Roger Federer - The name rules tennis courts..Even the players idolize Him...His play is flawless...He is a champion even though he lost today...The fact that he battled 2 Championship points and fought to win 2 sets with tie breakers proves the material he is made of...This loss just proves one thing...That he is a human...Noone denies that...But he is the King and shall reign forever as one...Afterall one lost battle does not prove otherwise...

Dasavatharam...

Firstly let me put in a disclaimer that I am not a movie critic and have no intentions of putting down someone else's hardwork. Having said that, I take the liberty of penning my opinions of the movie Dasavatharam as a regular movie watcher.

Before I could say anything else, hats off to Kamal for daring such a movie. His performance is excellent in the whole movie especially in the roles of Poovaragan, Balran naidu and to some extent in Fletcher's role. The voice modulations, accent and body language are more than impeccable. The other roles I felt were overkill mainly Kalifullah, Patti and Avatar Singh, aleast the make up part of it.

Kamal as an actor is brilliant as ever and has put in a great deal of hardwork. It is evident from the way he has metticulously portrayed each role with great attention to minute details. That is all the more the reason why I feel he should have restricted himself to that area which he does the best. Agreed he is a great script writer and director which he established in movies like Hey Ram and Anbe Sivam. However just because he is all over the movie in 10 different roles it is hard to do justice to each area and there he fails.

The movie starts with Kamal's speech about Chaos theory. To be honest I got the wind that the movie is based on the theory before I actually watched it and had built an expectation. May be that is the reason for my disappointment but then again I was prejudiced. The 18th century nambi is tied to Vishnu idol and drowned in the sea. People say this is the initial condition for chaos that resulted in Tsunami in the last scene. My question is the role of Nambi in that. I feel Nambi's presence or absence neverthless would have resulted in the idol being pushed in sea. So the significance of that role is not justified.

Chaotic systems are dynamic systems which evolve dynamically with the progression of time and are sensitive to the initial conditions. Having defined that, my question is what is the chaotic system under question in this movie. Tsunami?? In that case the movie just shows the initial condition of the Tsunami (if you can accept that an 10 feet long idol can cause plate tectonics to change to trigger an earthquake and eventually a Tsunami). After that nothing in the movie really shows the evolution of that chaos. To make it simple, none of the events happening in the current state of the movie per say affects the happening of Tsunami. We cannot just say its chaos just because it is sensitive to the initial conditions as many dynamic system (tending to infinity) can be built based on mathematical model which can be deterministic and need not end in a chaos.

The events that go on with present day Kamal seem to be more a stochastic system rather chaos. Even if it can classified as chaos what is the relation between the Tsunami and this. Just that the time of both these chaotic systems converges which more simply can be referred as coincidence. There are such loose ends which is little haunting considering the intellectual movie maker Kamal is.

Again I'd like to reiterate that it is one of the good movies released in the year (not just because others were bad) and a very brave effort. But the screenplay is too soggy and is surfeit with complications. Though Kamal's 10 different roles were innovative and a treat to watch one fails to understand the rationale behind doing so with such a storyboard.

Walking in the rain on a drizzly evening

First drops of rain hitting the ground,
Like jets of silver lilting down,
People around rushing for shelter overhead,
I start out my stroll in the beauty ahead.

Heavy droplets of rain falling with verve,
Yet so gentle not to make me wrench,
Like the care of a mother this rain descends,
Even in the might, its love transcends.

Through this runny curtain with head high,
Tiny droplets kissing as they drop-by,
With the trees swaying in the occassional wind,
The black clouds making the vista much more adorned.

Each droplet in itself purity personified,
Despite the humble sources from it has been drained,
These waters from heaven fervent to cleanse,
Dirt in air, land and minds alike.

Walking through this bliss of harmonious chords,
I feel like wordsworth, just without the words,
Realize there are miles before I sleep,
But I'll take a minute, for this moment to seep...

Mood Kaapi....

I am one great personification of mercurial interests on the face of this earth...My interests shift between poems, technology, books based on time...even in books I oscillate from Relativity to Robin Cook...

Having said that my latest pick is carnatic music although I should admit music has been my one greatest love throughout....Carnatic music as opposed to common notion is a delight to learn...It has so much intricacies in it that you might be overwhelmed at times or worse demotivated....However it is arguably one of the best schools of music...

Coming to the topic under study...I was listening to Mood Kaapi orchestration by Illayaraaja yesterday and obviously I was very much heaved into it...Kaapi is a raaga derived from the Melakartha raaga called Karaharapriya...The whole family of raagas branched out from Karaharapriya are very expressive and has that emotional touch...

The signature of the raaga is S R2 M1 P N3 S.. S N2 D2 N2 P M1 G2 R2 S...In Raaja's composition I hit across a particular alaap of swaras which goes something like R R G R M G R G G M G M G R...I found this not right as according to the signature of this raaga, G should not follow R and M after G...However considering the novice I am in carnatic music I am not sure if my judgement is right...I doubt if Raaja has diverted from the raaga which is not unusual in film music or is the pattern right....Any inputs will be greatly appreciated....