Spot rain and a ghazal symphony

It is suddenly raining with thunderstorm here in Delhi. It was predicted by our MET department. Satellite images are made available on their website, with periodic updates. It is a welcome respite from the rising heat, though surprisingly, it has still not got that warm here till now.

JS is going to perform a first ever "Ghazal Symphony" of some sort in Gurgaon, today. I am not attending of course, as I have resolved not to attend any of his concerts in the NCR region. Concerts here are mostly a platform for JS propaganda. JS only performs from his selected list of ghazals, which frankly look stale now. His real worth is when he picks classic Urdu poetry and renders them in perfect style, capturing the true poetic mood.

Anyways, here is a near full page add of one of the leading dailies today about that concert.

Same beher same tune

There are many instances, when I have noticed that Jagjit Singh used the same tune for the ghazals with same beher. During one of his (rare) workshops in Bengaluru he demonstrated to the audience how he goes about composing ghazals. In that, he chose a Mirza Ghalib ghazal and one another ghazal and demonstrated how ghazals with same beher can almost always be composed on a same tune. It is because of this reason, he is able to spring surprises in his concerts singing a ghazal in the tune of another ghazal, when audience demands him to sing both the ghazals!

I have remarked on this blog a number of times, JS has a fantastic ability to understand the meter of poetry. He knows exactly, how to split the misra into his tune and can thus render ghazals with same meters in those tunes.

An example below,

इश्क की दास्तान है प्यारे,

अपनी अपनी जुबान है प्यारे.

and

उसकी बातें बहार की बातें,

वादी-ए-लालाचार की बातें.

Both the ghazals are on the same beher: Khafif Mussadas Makhbun Mahzuf (2122/1212/22). They also are sung in the same tune :)

Ekta mein bal vs Managing the ekta

For a few days, an old public message that used to be aired on "Doordarshan", keeps floating in front of my eyes. It showed that a single stick by itself was easy to break, but when tied together with a piece of rope, they were impossible to break. That is, "Ekta mein bal".

Now, I have been thinking that this philosophy has an intrinsic overhead. When the number of sticks are massive, then tying the string properly to ensure the "ekta" over weighs the power provided by it. For example, consider a team of professionals. When there are few people in the team, it is so easy to manage it and the real power of "ekta" (or team work) is realised. Now consider a huge team (read as sticks), then we intend to go for multiple managers (read as strings) and managing the managers and sticks causes a massive overhead to the project, that impacts the output of the team right away.

Similarly consider the fact that as a nation we have been trying to stay united, from the time of our independence. Have our political system, politicians and administrative systems been capable enough to tie us all together?

Hello World!

Just to say, that I am once again connected to all of you, courtesy Airtel :)

Back

So my 20 month stay in foreign land is about to be over. It was a pleasant experience. I had wonderful view of the Europe subcontinent, beauty of which is so difficult to summarize in few words.

People, are the next best thing. The general courtesy, smiling faces on the streets, sense of driving on busy roads were all new experiences for me. The methodical system and the discipline to obey the rules are qualities so worth imbibing. Basic honesty in daily life too is so evident on the streets.

At work, I learned and experienced interesting ways of getting work done. Earlier I always had the notion that you needed a "Super-man/woman" to hold the project together. That myth is now blown away. Given the right amount of freedom, every member of the team works honestly towards the goals. The commercial aspects of a project should be put in the "product-backlog" in descending order of prioritization. There is a limit (physical and mental) to which a team can work in terms of number of hours, and that should be honored if quality is to be maintained.

Now, it's time to go back to my 'Karm-bhoomi'. That is the place where my duties and responsibilities lie. I am waiting eagerly for my return and to resume my life there.

Happy New Year 2011 and all that

Wishing everyone happy and prosperous new year and all that.

So, last year I fared miserably on my average on number of posts per year on this blog. I will try my best to make it up this year. Last year like the one previous to it, just came and went by. I did not even realize the "swishing sound" that it made!

This year seems to be one like the previous two again. I am set to change my geographies later this month, and hope it goes as planned.

See you all in next few days (if not months!)

Stuxnet

I have been reading about the Stuxnet virus for sometime now. It seems to be a very dangerous virus, with many of the first of it's kind features. This virus attacks SCADA systems. It installs code into the PLC and has the capability of hiding itself from detection. It then can cause the control systems to operate erratically and cause subtle but substantial damage.

Jeffrey Carr in his blog here, claims that INSAT-4B was probably brought down by Stuxnet. ISRO has claimed that Stuxnet could not have "killed" the satellite as it is not built around the PLC which the virus is programmed to attack and that it has it's own custom code to program Siemen's devices.

Obviously, the most talked about attack is the target of the nuclear reactors in Iran, the extent of the damage is yet to be fully known. It is rumored that this virus is so sophisticated that it is not possible to have been created without "state-support".

Maybe we are headed towards the first "cyber-warefare" of our times.

More information about the virus:
Symantec
Wikipedia