Palinchu Kaamakshi Pavani...

Palinchu Kaamakshi Pavani is a Madhyamavathi  krithi of  Shyamasastry who is one of the Carnatic classical music trinity.  In this krithi Shyama Sastry prays to mother Kamamkshi devi (presiding deity of Kanchipuram) to rule him or take care of him.  She is very sacred and pious. She is also the papasamani who can extinguish all the sins. This is one of the very beautiful krithis we have learnt from our Kamakshi mami who became one with the 'Meenalochani' who is also the Paasamochani (one who can release us from bondages).  Mami taught us this krithi of Dikshitar (Meenakshi memudam dehi) on the presiding deity of Madurai, the one and only Meenakshi. She also narrated an anecdote.  Dikshitar sang this song once and when he started repeating it, his disciple pointed out.  He smiled and sang ‘meenalochani paasamochani’ and left for heavenly abodes.  Incidentally, mami’s guru was Madurai Mani Iyer who gifted her a Tanbura.  We are so lucky that mami has gifted that tambura to Sravya and adores in my house. It gives us the feeling that mami is stationed here.  While learning and singing these two songs we always invoked mami and she was, its our feeling, synonymous with these two forms of Devi. 

We met Mami way back in 2008 when we were looking for a music teacher for my daughter, Sravya Varali.  My friend Srinivas Sripada took us to her house which was just a few yards from where we were staying then.  She stopped taking classes by then. But, fortunately, she agreed to teach Sravya and the music relation between mami and our family strengthened day after day since then.  As a buy one get one, we  requested mami to teach our son, Sourya too. In later years, even after he stopped attending classes, she used to remember him often with love especially whenever songs containing words related to the dhatu Sourya such as Shoure occurred in the songs. Later, though not very soon, I became her student too.  I was  mami's choice as she offered to teach me after overhearing my singing Matangi Sri Rajarajeswari of Dikshitar, in Rama Manohari which Sravya was learning then.  At that time, we were staying in the guest house of Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Hyderabad as we took mama and mami for the concert by Sravya in Hyderabad. Even after coming back almost for over an year I did not take it seriously and finally one day I joined her class and never looked back till I was transferred to Lucknow and Manipur.  I have tried to learn music since my college days and classes with mami gave me a big push towards more confidence and enjoyment.  I really enjoyed every class with mami and we have learnt many songs.  

Mami is a different teacher. Her philosophy was that any teacher can teach a good student.  Teaching a 'besur' student is a challenge and she has taken up this challenge several times in her life.  I too saw one girl,  who used to miss sur easily, having improved over a few classes.  Mami used to sing along with us the same song several times and after a few days she will chip in whenever we required. She knew when we may have doubt or may faulter.  My understanding of chapu tala improved after training under mami and now I am very much comfortable.  Of course, Sravya has acted as mami's teaching  assistant to help me at home. 

We enjoyed music with mami.  Learning new songs has been a very interesting while exploring meanings.  Due to my knowledge of Telugu, being my mother tongue, mami used to ask me meanings of several songs.  We used to discuss the better way to split the phrases and the essence of what the Saint Thyagaraja was communicating in the given song. She encouraged me a lot and every class used to be heavenly. 

More than the music, we enjoyed a special bonding with mami and mama. My wife was mama's pet.  Mami has been affectionate to all of us and  blessed us profusely all along. Stories and anecdotes she had narrated class after class used to be very instructive and offered life lessons.  Mami has  some supernatural powers, we used to feel.  Often, whatever mami talks on a given day used to be answering issues/feelings bothering us that day.  Whatever songs Sravya and I wished to sing on a given day, mami would make us sing them that day without our revealing.  We had experimented on occasions when we will think a sequence of a few songs in our mind and will sit  quiet.  It so happened mami asked us to sing those songs in the same order.  We often wondered how she will know our mind. Music is her spiritual Saadhana and meditation. 

My real learning has been to towards enjoying music. I could also get confidence to participate in music competition organised by Shanmukhananda Sabha affiliated college, Mumbai for 40+ students and received first prize from Sri T V Sankaranarayan.  Previous year I got third prize in the same event. Credit goes to her and my second guru, my daughter, Sravya. 

Mami has been into a traditional family and her husband and mother-in-law did not approve of her singing especially going out. She lost touch with her music for many years and late age, she practiced again and regained he form.  She gave a few concerts also. However, for the prowess she possessed, mami could have given tough days for many contemporary accomplished musicians.  She had met and interacted with top class musicians of her days like Maharajapuram Santhanam, D K Jayaraman, M L Vasanthakumari and is up-to-date with music related news. They all revered her.  Mami, I feel, is one of those talented musicians who could not rise enough in life. May be she is one of the cursed Gandharvas.  

She truly loved us and longed always to see us and sing with us. Days will roll as it is the duty of the nature. While we miss her in  physical form, I feel she will be with us always, in our memories, our music, and in the lessons she taught both in music and life. 

The day (5 Feb 2023) we heard the news about mami’s mahaprasthanam Sravya got a dream where mami asked her sing for some visitor. Sravya was trying hard to sing and heard mami advising her to practice. Sooner she came to know of the news.

Mami reached heaven in the same week as Director of the musical cult movie Sankarabharanam, K Viswanath and Vani Jayaram, the accomplished singer also reached there. May be Viswanath may plan a movie on Mami there.

Link to a few reccordings during our classes are here:

Were you alive last November?

Often the government processes like filing life certificate are cumbersome and time taking, giving a sense of achievement once we complete the task.  Its no more so with many digital interventions launched over the years. Jeevan Pramaan intervention for filing life certificates is one such intervention. It is one of the best digital interventions 'this government' has brought in for pensioners. 

Producing life certificate has always considered a big hassle. There is an old joke on life certificate. One person submits life certificate in November after missing for an year. The clerk asked him to produce previous year's life certificate to regularise the pension to be doubly sure that the pensioner was also alive last November too. 

Earlier I used  to send my mother to Tanuku subtreasury every year for filing life certificate. Then, as she was getting too old, I used to accompany her for next few years. I was spending huge amount annually and travelling has been troublesome even if it's by flight since it involves long road travel too from Vijayawada. Last amount I spent was about 20K for travel to submit the life certificate.  The real trouble was that her fingers were too worn out for the finger print reader to recognise. Option was to file physical copy submitting oneself before the STO which is sometimes very intimidating for old people. That means, even the bedridden have to somehow travel and visit STO for filing life certificate.  

When finger prints did not work, STO staff suggested iris reader which was not available anywhere.  then I purchased one from Amazon which costed me around ₹6500.  I downloaded the Jeevan Pramaan app and filed my mother's life certificate in a whiff using iris reader.  It hardly took a few minutes. Straight away I saved ₹13500 in a single year and got my full investment back in first instance itself.  Then I continued this for next 3 years or so. 

This year my friend Srinadh informed me of Jeevan Pramaan Face app which doesnot require finger print or iris reading.  Its just capturing the face on camera which requires the subject to blink once. The very next moment, your certificate is filed.  You will get the JP ID number which can be used to download the certificate from Jeevan Pramaan web site.  

The JP Face app can be downloaded from: https://jeevanpramaan.gov.in/package/download on your mobile. We have to also download AaadhaarFaceRD from Google Play store. First step we have to register as the operator with our Aadhaar number and then we are ready to issue life certificates for self or others. 

Cannot imagine a faster, simple and better way to fulfill one mandatory annual excercise. 

Collect FrESH PuK: 6 collectibles in life

Hi all. Greetings. Writing here after a long time.  I know regular posts in a blog are important to keep it live. I have several things to share but no it spending enough time on my blog.  I have a weak resolve in this regard. Anyway, today I feel compelled to share something very important. Six things to collect in our life before it's late. I happened to watch a talk by Dr.Rakesh Godhwani, IIM Bengaluru. He teaches communication and is good at communication. I am, in fact, watching him for second time, with equal interest. He elaborates on six things we need to collect in life. I list them below in a different order than what he covered to fit in a mnemonic. They are to collect FrESH PuK (mnemonic i devised). Full form of  PuK can be Personal Unlocking Key.  I list his six messages below.

1. Friends (Fr)

2. Experiences (E)

3. Skills (S)

4. Health (H)

5. Purpose and not position (Pu)

6. Knowledge (K)

These are messages for the young. He derives and explains them through a few reel or real life characters like Chatur Ramalingam, Dasarath Manji, Kungfu Panda, etc.  I feel I could have known these when i was young. Some of them I have followed, unknowingly. But not all and I wish I could have followed them consciously.  

I recommend listening to him here: 

https://youtu.be/e4Os0GGhEZg  

During the Q&A sessions he gave suggestion to talk to seniors, faculty about their life experiences so that we understand what can happen in our life in future.  I really like this idea. All of us garner lot many lessons and experiences in our life. We are all great living books. It's worth listening to people and learn. Of course, some of the books can be boring, but worth flipping at least. 

Bye for today.

Satyasai

Rural prosperity through Collective Action

In National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal I delivered a lecture on the above topic and here is the ppt of that lecture.  In this lecture I explained what is collective action, why  it is required for small producers, what form it can take and discussed two cases.
 

The Pallbearer syndrome

People having this syndrome tend to think that tye department or office is running only because of them.  Most offices will have people suffering from this syndrome. There is no 'we' for such people. You go to any office and ask who is the most redundant and work-evading person there. Go to him and talk to him. He might give you the most authentic account of his contribution and importance in the department. 
We meet these people everywhere and everyday. The worst part is that while they feel doing the most of the work around also feel that others are idling around.  These people never realise that they are after all carrying only a 'dead body'.
If you are the boss, be objective and get to know who is doing what and how. Do not fall prey to these people's briefs.  If you are a colleague keep ignoring them. But in your interest keep record of what you have been doing which can be handy at times. If you are reporting to them may God help you to get a new boss.

Plant trees and save earth : Forests and Climate Change

Hi friends
I am doing Wold Bank MOOC course on Turn Down the heat: Why a 4 degree world should be avoided?

This page is created to display my final project for other course participants and evaluators.

Pl see and give your suggestions.

Sincerely,

Satyasai 

In the artifact given here, I tried to show that forest cover acts as umbrella to mother earth to protect from CO2.  Mother earth can happily smile once forests take care of the emissions and carbon sequestration.  Plant trees and save earth from climate change.

Forests have profound impact on climate change and climate change affects in turn forest cover.  However, annual deforestation is estimated to release CO2 in more qualtity than annual emissions from transport system.  Forests act as carbon sinks and help in absorbing CO2 in large quantities due to photosynthesis.  Also, forest cover gives shade that reduce soil temperature.  The continued existence of forests is important to prevent vicious cycle of rising temperatures –melting ice cap –release of GHG-which leads to temperature rise. 

As global warming proceeds the forest ecosystems have to move to more suitable locations as the existing locations become less suitable.  It is estimated that with increased global temperatures by 3 degree by 2100, the forest ecosystemes are likely to shift 500 km towards poles and 500 m to higher alitiudes.    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that suitable climate are projected to shift in future and many tree species will not be able to change their geographic distribution fast enough to keep up with such shifts.  Often due to limited capability for the dispersal of seeds of several tree species, the composition of the forest ecosytems is likely to change.

Trees or lack of them, hence, makes a difference to our mother earth. Increased forest cover, thus, helps reduce mitigate global warming effects by acting as carbon sinks and reducing CO2 emissions that would otherwise occur from degradation or deforestation.