What God Wants

I finished reading Neal Donald Walsch's "Conversations with God" - parts I, II and III with a scientific curiosity bordering on religious fervour. 

His latest is "What God Wants" billed as the "most dangerous book you will read".  All his work is highly recommended reading for anyone who aspires to being secular, fair, open-minded and spiritual. Check in your notions at the cover of the book and proceed.

It is exciting to read his work, because it is a journey through uncharted territory. He is drawing on the common denominators of human perception and understanding when writing on such subject matter. His writing is truly non-denominational - truly secular. What fascinates (me), then, is that this is a trip through the collective conscious. Reporting a conversation with God is as exciting as it gets - this is the granddaddy of any close encounter of the Third Kind.

His claims ring true and feel perfectly logical possibly because its all based on some kind of collectively agreed upon knowledge. 

How does one conduct a discussion about something of which the participants have no direct experience ? You have to draw on something akin to "common sense" - a set of beliefs or logical notions that are common to the vast majority - I want to call this principle "symmetricity". Living beings seem to be soothed, calmed and regaled by a certain underlying universality of proportions - of "form"; Maybe the golden ratio of the Vitruvian man is part of this paradigm.

Apparently, a certain "symmetricity" of outer and inner forms (inner forms - of which musical cognition, thought and pattern recognition are subsets) produces a strong validating experience. For good or bad this is highly valued by human beings, and Walsch could be using this to make such a far out premise sound convincing.

Head over Heels

That elegant, fleet-footed doyen of french football Zinedine Zidane went "down" in history for acting upon one of the oldest directives known to man, woman or child...

"Use Your Head!"

He used his head - too forcefully and in the wrong context. 

(I) he succumbed to a wily war stratagem.

(II) His experience should have told him what was going on - he should have kept his eye on the bigger award instead of the immediate visceral pleasure of decking Maserati. Or Mazzerati. Whateverrrrrr.

Top Ten Egyptian sights

According to a BBC travel programme I watched today, this is the top ten list of sites for a visitor on a tight time schedule in Egypt.

1. Cairo Museum - this has artifacts from all the sites listed below, and more. Reputed to be one of the best museums in the world.
2. The Great Sphinx, 240ft long, 65 ft high. - when napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, it was buried upto its shoulders. His men excavated it, so we are indebted to him for it in modern times.
3. Giza Pyramids - within sight of 20 million strong Cairo. The Great Pyramid is 481 feet tall...Pharoahs Kufu, son Kafra , and grandson (?) built these pyramids.
4. Darshur (this has the world's first TRUE pyramid - aka Red Pyramid, built by Snafaru. )
5. Saqqara (step pyramids built by Imhotep &.... early trials at pyramid building)
6. Amarna - birth place of Tut Ankh Amon
7. Abydas - very well maintained relief work in an ancient temple
8. Valley of The Kings
9. Luxor
10. Mt. Sinai

Going from 10 to 1, this is a travel northward up the Nile.

Let us have a minute of silence in observance of the superhuman feats of imagination, architecture and engineering these people achieved. Even viewed on my moderate 32" television screen - Karnak, the Sphinx and the Pyramids are awe inspiring. It is all very humbling, so let us be humbled.

see-saw

Adrift on sinusoidal waves of Passage
bottles and corks searching for a Message,
Surfing the swells of a Moebius strip
Past, Present and Future are on a trip.

Within the alabaster oysters of our minds
are colliding reveries and memories
and memes from forgotten times.
The pearl spawned there from froth and fume
is but a precious fork out of tune
not yet struck by its creation myth,
riding the crests of nadir and zenith.

Sick from the seas' pendulous rise and fall
the pearl turned inward and made a call -
"What i see is but the present of a past that I saw,"
And lo (and behold) -
that calmed the seas and stilled the see-saw!

Serve our Masters

Life was raised by mother Evolution to probe, question, think and look under the hood. To listen for loose tappets in the engines around them, for signs of impending failure. And to boil it all down to a neat cause-and-effect continuum in our minds.

Life did this because it lead to understanding, and understanding lead to a greater chance for survival, of seeing another sunrise. These organism strains survived and thrived, and spawned more like themselves, that were driven to understand, dissect, analyse and model with ever increasing efficiency.

Evolution was on its game - the creatures were reared to be hunters on the great plains, to kill when called upon - for providing food, for protecting kin, or for sport.

Somewhere along this path humankind took an exit to Neverland - they stopped being nomads and settled down, because agrarian. Brains gradually became less preoccupied with thoughts of the next meal or the next predator. All the spare time started being employed in self indulgent pursuits such as greed, depression, sloth, envy.. (wink wink).

How do we serve our only real master, how do we serve Evolution? Are we to continue the push upwards, ever onwards, faster, sleeker, stronger, longer - is this instruction wired into our genome somewhere? 

All of Creation serves Evolution - but in two diametrically opposite ways. One group is sacrificed, the other does the sacrificing.

Is Selection still operational, or have we stifled it with concrete housing, health -care, creches, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION? 

2 days, three movies

Some friends are leaving for India on a 3 month long vacation, so there's an urgency to fill every passing day with lots of family time and togetherness. This has translated into me watching 3 very agreeable flicks in the last 2 days (don't look now, but that is the title of this post....!)

One down, two to go -
Cars:
Watched last night in the neighbourhood strip mall, was John Lasseter's version of "how green was my rally" - a very adult film with adult themes like the pangs felt over the contemplation of a lost way of life, a soliloquy aobut "how good it is to slow down sometimes" - all encased in an extremely photo-realistic kid-friendly veneer - such as cars with homologous appurtenances such as eyebrows, eyes and mouths - and of human feelings behind said appurtenances - such as loneliness, friendship and love. A story about a small town - Radiator Springs - that was once the jewel along the necklace that was Route 66 (where America once Got Its Kicks). This old route did not cut through the landscape, but flowed with it, curved with it, stopped to gaze, went uphill and went downhill with it.

Route 66 was bypassed by an outpost of the Interstate system - I-40, and suddenly Radiator Springs was literally dropped off the map. This is a nice piece of nostagia, in that it has more than self-indulgence. Its a reminder of when people took to the roads to "have a good time, and not make good time". One thing to be said about the "good old days" - if ever they existed in reality - they cost the earth a little less in carbon emissions and non-degradable junk than the current day.

But lets not get misty eyed about any industrial era, people - after all, do you prefer rat poison in Rocky Road or Vanilla - or do you prefer (as I do) the wonderful aftertaste of NOT having eaten it at all?

Two Down, One to go -
IMAX 3-D short feature called "Deep Sea" - a spectacular of underwater life - jellyfish, starfish, sea anemone, manta rays, sharks, and the "creatures of your nightmares" - squid. Simply superb. There is lots of violent animal-on-animal action, with realistic sound effects thrown in, and scenes of squid in a frenzy attacking anything and everything that moves, including each other. These squid weigh 130 Lb and change colour several times every second.

Three -
Poseidon - a very expert remake of the "The Poseidon Adventure" of a ship that turns turtle after being hit by a rogue wave. Lots of tight claustrophobic water logged rooms with breathing room for nose-only situations, the inevitable heroic death, the inevitable leader, and the inevitable whimpering women. Why, why, why??
Well made, superbly crafted, worth a watch - a notable addition to the genre of water-bound disaster movies.

Yellow & Pink

Yellow & Pink
Originally uploaded by prakar.

My first attempt at super closeups, with a tripod and decent natural light. Loved the result!

And its so simple, too. You will see more of this,

The Origins of Vegetarianism and Cremation?

Recent events have exposed America's, and the World's, unpreparedness for disastrous events .
As a consequence, second-guessing the Next Big Bang is a major preoccupation for certain cells of the government. The next big thing could be a disastrous avian 'flu pandemic.

The last pandemic proved to be more harmful than the World War itself, and certainly deadlier than all the quakes, storms, and bombs of recent history PUT TOGETHER. Read more about that mostly-forgotten episode here:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/

There is little doubt that the easiest way to contract a "crossover" disease is eating a carrier animal or bird. The most obvious counter-measure is burning infected livestock and poultry. The next logical steps would be 1) cremating bodies that die from such diseases and 2) stopping the consumption of non-vegetarian food. These two measures will possibly restrict the spread of avian flu dramatically.

Excavations show that the Harappa civilisation simply ceased to exist one day as did early Indus Valley civilisations, with no sign of violence or invasion (the so-called "Aryan Invasion"). It could have been caused by a combination of circumstances (like the drying up and shifting of the Saraswati river) or even a deadly viral outbreak - that fits the evidence.

These early indian cultures (the Indus Valley civlisation too) probably found the connection that is so evident now, made the change to vegetarianism and took to cremating bodies after death. Layer upon layer upon layer of this practice, and it is now inextricable from "Hinduism" itself. Of course, these practices are now seen with the "benefit" of much latter-day embellishment and justification, but maybe it started as a survival measure.

Soundtrack of my life

It is a truism in the music industry that Rahman is a "master arranger". What is this "arrangement" I speak of and how does it complement composition?

De-Composing

From my amateur perspective, "composition" is the melodic structure..the series of notes that make a tune, stripped of details like "what words will this be sung to" and "who will sing it" or "how many instruments will play this line". Since the composition is independent of these things, it can be recognised instantly by any one in any part of the world even if represented by different agents. This is how we recognise "Dil Mera Churaya Kyun" from the baton of RipMaster Anu Malik as a rip of "Last Christmas I Gave U My Heart..." by Wham!, even though the singer, language and instruments are all different. Capeesh ?

The arrangement then refers to the choice of instrument and effects that become the vehicle of the composition. Musical arrangement contributes a subtle but very profound effect because it is a complex gestalt - there are cultural shades, personal inflections, and the unique timbre of the instruments themselves that paint an emotional landscape. Rahman's compositions are therefore so evocative and unforgettable. His craft marries inspiring melodies with powerful musical arrangements.

Influences...

I'm a big fan of Joseph Campbell - specifically his "Power Of Myth" that airs on PBS regularly - his persuasive work has altered the way I think about Life, the Universe and Everything. Myths explain why we like what we like and dislike what we dislike. I mean "Myth" in a larger sense, not just classical myths, but rather the underlying principle of a *myth*.

Denouement

My thesis (finally) is that Rahman uses arrangements that evoke our "aural mythology". This ability raises the songs from being "pop" to exuding immense anthemic proportions. A caveat here is that the arrangements do not meet with resonance in all listeners. A certain well-roundedness is required to better appreciate what he is driving at, because he draws on aural myths from all cultures. Those who do not revel in this aspect however still benefit from the melodic beauty. I am also not implying that he's the first to do so, but he's the best and most effective.

Here are a few examples - feel free to post more.

• Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera: The other day I was listening to "Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera" for the umpteenth time on my train commute...drifting in and out of sleep induced by the seductive swaying of the train; a very potent state for subtle realisations, that. The percussive "line" (taal) of the song has a rowdy bunch yelling "Hoy!" at regular intervals, along with a vaguely evocative "shik shik" sound. If I had been wide awake and operating purely in analytical mode, I would have (correctly) said that the "shik shik"s are created by a bead-filled gourd, a common enough orchestra piece. In my semi-conscious state I had a subtler understanding of the sound - it reminded me of the old way in which the ladies at home winnowed the wheat from the chaff, using a handheld winnowing pan. When this realisation is subtle and "mythic" in nature it creates a nostagic longing that goes with the message of the song. The shehnai solo playing at the end also has immediate cultural resonance for indians...it conjures "auspicacity" - marriages, festivals, celebration and nostalgia. The same passage could have been played on a violin, but would not have this meaning Audio
  
• Dhakka Laga Bhukka: This song from "Yuva" is RICH in arrangement. The percussive bass-line, the sound of a reloading-gun-melded-with-smashing-glass, and the whistled interlude..those reek of energy, youth, cool and testosterone...ie. "yuva".. Audio