I want to do something like this real soon. Ryan did it alone, I don't mind having company.

****

I watched Woody Allen's latest movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It is beyond imagination how much similarity the story bears with my life right now :-). You should check it out.

My new apartment is now arranged. A new life like this started afresh many years back. Then, I drowned everything in psychedelia. I am too old now. After several months, I am listening to Jaijaiwanti. It's a sad Raga for the first time. I cannot listen to Ulhas or Shahid Parvez again. The tears that did not flow till now, flow with the music. Unstoppable. My room has two Ragamala paintings - one on my right and one at the back, beside the two windows. Through which I watch the quiet neighborhood in Squirrel Hill. The cold fall breeze enters through one and exits through the other. The wind carries the tune of the bandish away, I can imagine, attenuating close by. Wish it could reach you. Wish it could bridge the disconnect that words could not meet. We do not deserve this sorrow.

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can't buy her.


In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.


The cloak and dagger dangles,
Madams light the candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother,
She knows too much to argue or to judge.


The bridge at midnight trembles,
The country doctor rambles,
Bankers' nieces seek perfection,
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.
The wind howls like a hammer,
The night blows cold and rainy,
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.


- Bob Dylan.

Major phase of grad school ended yesterday, and hence time for documenting my activities, which are really few. I never imagined I would be at a stage in my career when I'd think that every moment spent not working, except spending time with an important person, of course, should have been utilized in doing useful work. Who knew that the famous line from Hirak Rajar Deshe would become so so true? But anyway.

I should get an electronic tanpura and a tabla this summer when I go to India. After I shifted to the Mac last fall, I have not been able to use the tabla software for accompaniment and that has stopped giving me any incentive to practice.

In general, people generally share apartments at the start of grad school and then move out to studios or efficiencies. I decided otherwise. Since I hardly spend time at home, I decided to save about a hundred bucks, and am moving in with a batchmate and department-mate from college who's coming here for an MBA. Will be back in touch with college a bit. Also, confining myself to only to computational linguists and machine learning people is a BAD idea.

Who knew Sohini will be a Raga that would tell me stories? It had always been Yaman. However, the two renditions of Sohini by Ulhas, both at UIUC a few years back have been THE Raga for a while. Jaanu Main Sab Tumhari Baat is definitely one of the best bandishes I have heard in my life. My association with music has mostly been just for the music, the state transitions that happen when the artist moves from one note to another, making patterns, repeating segments or stressing on phrases that signify the grammar of a Raga. That's why I like lyric-less Jazz, Blues and at times Indian Ocean. (For example, Melancholic Ecstasy is my current favorite by the band. I preferred the songs with lyrics however back in college, because I had to sing a customary Indian Ocean song at Foundation Day or Spring Fest.) But these two renditions, highly unlike all my other favorites in Indian Classical Music, makes me think of the Raga, not through the notes, but through the refrain or the Mukhda of the Vilambit.

I have several books that are lying unread. Of which, I started reading Unaccustomed Earth last week. The first two stories and very good, and I recommend all people who have visited Seattle or have heard stories about the place, to read the first one. Her narrative has improved since The Namesake. I hope to finish the book real soon now.

Very good friend and his significant other are moving to Singapore, and I am really happy for them. From recent stories by friends who visited the place for a conference, it seems the place has got good research culture, and is really close to Calcutta :-) Really a potential place to explore, and I hope to be there in 2009.

Will be home in a few weeks, and hope to write something really soon.