InDepth

I am a bit cluttered in my head at the moment, and I need sleep as soon as possible. But I have somehow gotten into a daily habit of expressing myself. Hence I must get those words out of my head to feel decluttered again. So let me start with a conversation I had once with my cousin sister. We were talking about stages of life in business and academic fields. While I come from technology and business side of the story, she is a sparkling talent in the field of education and academics. Obviously, the charters of our respective lives are different, we have different pursuits in life and we sometimes see the world differently. But we have one thing in common. Stay curious, stay updated, question the very existence of certain things, have a scientific temperament to things around us and above all, continue on the path of a growth mindset. The last aspect is essential for survival. While taking shower this morning, I was thinking, how my life has unfolded so far. When I look back, I find t...

Today I would like to elaborate on the topic of asking questions. Actually I want to start from where I had left the last post. After coming abroad, among other things, I learnt the art of asking. Especially at my work place. In a rather complex technical project, it was obvious to do this. However, there were always a few things that was hindering me in the beginning - We might be having a strong hierarchical structure, the subordinates should not at all ask questions. I should try to get some documentation to read, learn the stuff alone by myself and get the expertise sorted out. I was at a place of safety and I had earned a reputation for myself. By asking questions, I could end up putting myself in an awkward situation. It might become evident for others, that I had lack of knowledge in certain areas.  Which questions were the ones to ask? Which were the stupid ones? Should I be avoiding the ones that were obvious to ask but it might be the case that it was only me who did not ...

Let me trace today the act of engaging in dialogue, by reflecting on parts of my life. Childhood and pluralistic views I have never been exposed to "otherisation". What does that mean? That means, I had never heard something like - "we" are better, smarter, superior, more civilized and "they", who are the "others", are inferior, uncultured and irrelevant people. I remember I had 3 drawing teachers in my childhood, belonging to different religions, a perfect Amar-Akbar-Anthony scenario. Once it so happened, that I passed a class in the drawing school, with good grade. In utter excitement, I touched the feet of all three of them. Later on, I told my grandma about it - she hugged me and said, a teacher is a God, no matter which religion, caste or creed they belong to. Dad would always say - difference of opinion is never bad, but not listening to any contradicting opinion is terrible! He told me - take a stance, stick to it harder than you can, beli...

Early morning and waking up with sound of breeze, chirping of birds and some screeches of hens. The house that I have rented has some poultry farming downstairs - kind of good when I think that this world is not just meant for humans. There is place for other animals, and it is our responsibility to give them that. As a matter of fact, it is the more powerful that should take care of the less powerful. Here comes the topic of today's discussion. In a society, family, friendship, company, team, in every constellation of people, it is the people in power that should extend the hand and offer help to the people that need help, to the people that are weak. Sounds rather one-sided, or? You are right. I need to finish myself. The power should extend their hand of support and the weak should clutch the hand of the power. It must be a two way game!  Let me brain-dump my thoughts - When we are little child, it is the parents that guide us, teach us and train us. Imagine a situation when a t...

It dates back to the time when I was hardly 14 or 15 years old. One day I ran up to my mother and said - I want to drink a cup of tea. I want to taste it. My father was a chain tea-drinker, and I want to imitate him. Obviously, I was big fan of my dad and as a matter of fact, he had great qualities to create several fans across generations. One of the ways he connected to people was through tea. He drank tea in the morning over a conversation and flipping through the newspaper, he would drink again at his office, at the community club or purely when relaxing with his friends. I liked the first tea, so much so that I started drinking it often. It helped me to concentrate on my studies, spend quality time with my parents and also be by the side of my grandma. My grandma liked tea, and we could bond over it! Years passed, the context kept changing, but drinking habit did not. First with high school friends, then with college friends, finally with office colleagues. During these phases, a ...

Today was an odd day. I got late to wake up again. I had dreams too, that of having a pain on my knee. But nothing too scary. I think it sometimes can be due to overwork or over-reading. Today let me focus on my habit of reading. I try to meditate through reading. I like all kinds of books, suspense thriller, fact-based, investigative journalism, or the odd short story collection. When I read I am deep into it. However, when I am done I still a bit in trance - thinking of the content. Finally I get a bit restless - can I be good enough to write something worthwhile one day? These days one such book is making me restless. It is Malgudi Days written by R K Narayan. I have not yet gone deep into his childhood and upbringing, but reading the short stories I can get a feel of the person behind the author. This is actually also a tip for someone wanting to read or starting to read the works of an acclaimed author. Actually his or her works reflect the personality behind the creative talent. ...

Today I have promised to write about the World Championship of Football. So, I would quickly wrap up the otherwise simple day and switch over to the "Beautiful Game". Today morning was ordinary - I woke up late, as late as 8:30 AM! In total, I lost 3 hours of productivity. The early riser that I am I had a rather slow start due to the early delay and the slowness. One good thing of Bayern and Germany is - we love our food here. I had bought a full corn sliced bread from the local supermarket, Aldi, the other day. To my surprise, I found it tasty and healthy. Healthy I can imagine but tasty? That too the corn variety? A bit unthinkable, but it was rather good. Once food was done, I took myself to the Danube river. The river was calm and serene today, it was not the usual tom-boy kind temperament. By the way, a small tip to people going to the part of the river just opposite to the Stadttheater, the parking rules are as simple as that. You just drive in, park the car within the...

When my mother was with me in Sweden between 2020 and 2021, we did two things almost everyday - talking about life, and spending time together while doing long afternoon walks. Mom used to say - look, you people in Europe can accomplish many things during the day and the reason for that is the favourable weather and access to a car that you own. I cannot comment much on the weather nowadays! After she had left me in 2023, the world has seen more wars, and more extreme weather conditions. However, on the other front, which is the aspect of owning a vehicle, I can agree fully. Today proves the point somewhat. I do not even know how many tasks I managed to accomplish today, only thanks to the hired Volkswagen car I got here at Ingolstadt.  Ok but lets switch back a bit to the early morning. In the new house which I have rented since a few months, I am blessed to wake up with chirping of birds and a smiling greenery covering the entire periphery of the house. After a nice early breakfa...

There are some subjects which need further research in my opinion. Like for instance, what effect can a singer's voice have on a particular generation - like Elvis had on the youth of his times. Or, a Sinatra had over generations. Or, a Kishore Kumar had over multiple generations and continue to have. Another instance - which I want to talk about today is - the effect that a football has on the mind and soul of a spectator. Especially when it goes past the goal box and gets caught up inside the net. In short, what kind of psychological effect does a goal have on us? Interesting isn't it?  After I had a terrible night with practically no sleep, with bouts of doubts and a basket of anxieties, I went to my balcony and looked at the clear sky. It has stopped raining here in Bayern and the temperature is rising again! WHO has said, Europe is warming up faster than other continents. This, despite the fact that Europe takes care of its greenery arguable the most, its fuel consumption...

Let us now talk about a few unique characteristics of English language. English is a so called Subject-Verb-Object language, which roughly means, in most cases, the most important information comes right at the end. English is also very structured. There is hardly a scope to change or alter the format. "Mr Brown went down" & "Down went Mr Brown" - if we look at these two sentences, both are correct. As a matter of fact, something similar to the second one is actually available in a very famous English grammar book, by Wren and Martin! But hardly anyone uses the second version.  This means, however, that English is a very reliable language. One can never play with misplacing an adverb, or misuse a preposition. It is like driving on a road in Europe. Everyone follows rule, so if you too follow them, you will be fine. The issue happens when you do not follow them, or when someone breaks the rules. The entire chain falters and falls flat on its face. Just take this ...

Before starting today's blog post, I want to lay down a few beliefs with regards to films and filmmakers. First, films reflect society and cannot essentially change the norms of a society. It can put a mirror to the society and thereby we can see the evils, the darkness, the prejudices, but when it comes to correcting those problems in the society, films fall short. I am not a firm believer of this argument. Second, a film is a portrayal of a filmmaker's own views, ideas and ideologies. The storytelling, the scenarios and dialogues, together with the overall treatment of a film, is very much a projection of his or her way of thinking about life. I partially agree to this, I think a filmmaker might "learn" to say few things differently, but predominantly, he or she stays true to his or her version of how life flows. Third, a film is edited reality. A film cannot depict all, but it can reveal a big deal of what happens in real lives. Not just in the context of the overa...

  I recollect my early days in my English-medium school. Surrounded by brilliant classmates and guided by some of the best teachers, I was lucky to have got enrolled in that school. The only issue was my aptitude in the language, English. If there was one thing in my little world which scared me the most in those days was the feeling of communicating in that language. I was terrified and felt nervous to even place myself in the class, I felt I did not belong there! In my class we had a small desk and a chair, fitting to the size of a 6/7-year-old. “Miss, may I go to the toilet?” – this was the question my classmates would ask to the teacher, but for me, to say this one single sentence was as difficult as getting an injection (I got quite a few of those in my childhood, due to health reasons!), or getting a boil (I do not know why, but I would get one every month when I was little!), or missing my dad (he was away with his job to different cities in India!). I would clutch the s...

To continue from the last part, children learn the most from their parents - good or bad, all things. And when it comes from learning a language, it is mostly from the mother. No wonder why this first-learnt language is called the "Mother Tongue". So, for a kid, it is important to listen, grasp and follow the way the mother speaks. For the mother, it is important to speak softly, calmly, clearly and informatively to her kid. As a primary caregiver, the mother has a role to play to shape the quality of language the child can eventually embrace. Of course, the father too has a role to play.  At home the child learns the most. After home, the other place is of course the school. A good environment is essential there. Today, we are reducing our vocabulary set. We are somewhat diminishing the vernacular local languages at the cost of English. This is not correct - both should exist. When language shrinks at home the tendency will spread to schools and to societies. Words and expre...

A confused boy, early morning wake up calls, he has to go to school. The boy asks his mother, have you put all my books and copies correctly inside the bag? Mom says, yes. The boy goes to school and finds out the books for one of his primary language periods are not there! He comes from a pre-school where this language was not taught. Also he is yet to communicate properly in English - he fails to tell his teacher what happened here. Neither in the mother tongue Bengali, (the reason for which I will state now) and nor in English, which I was just getting to learn.  The above is an incident from my life, it was way back in 1987.  (Back in the age of the dinosaurs - even though I had heard that computers could play chess with humans already back then.) The thing is - language was created as a tool of communication, but it has ended up being a blocker for communication. My struggle with languages started early, from the pre-school. It was a setup where the primary language of com...

[Concluding part]                             So, how can one assess Naushad-Sahab's work and what were the aspects that were his trademarks? Well, to start with, it was his knowledge about the various Indian traditional instruments. His orchestration inevitably contained flavours from these different instruments. While using these, he kept in mind the situational demand as well as the overall musicality of the song. To elaborate more on this, he never composed any song that had a musical instrument that felt out of place with the situation of the song. He never composed any song, the orchestration for which became over-the-top and killed the subtleness of its melody. Next, he had a terrific knowledge and conception on the Indian classical music. The fact that he understood the semantics of various raga- s was beyond any doubt but what strikes me more is the fact that he understood the mood, feel and complexity of the...