Vizianagaram - Maharaja Music College

There are certain places worth visiting when one visits a town or city.
The Music College at Vizianagaram is definitely one such.
I touched the ground and the steps before entering and saluted the place.

Illustrious is a word that loses meaning when used in some instances.
Look at the list of the Principals who served at this college and you would be dumbstruck.

The list reads thus!

1. Harikatha Pitamaha Sri Ajjada Adibhatla Narayana  Dasu

2. SK Padmasri Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu.

3. Sri Dwaram Narsinga Rao.

4. Sri Dwaram Bhavanarayana Rao.

5. Sri Nedunuri Krishna Murthy

6. Kum Srirangam Gopalaratnam.

7. Sri Dwaram Durgaprasada Rao.

These are the maestros who were at the helm at this place from 1919 to 2000!

The place still has the charm and the system of open class rooms still continues there.

I was wondering the kind of the music the trees there might have listened!
They grew real tall and lush!

Friends - A few Ideas

Meeting new people and cultivating friendships with others is something that we all do

Throughout our whole life. For some people making friends comes naturally and easily, for others it is a difficult task. Whether you are a ‘social butterfly’ or lonely, or any shade of grey in between, you will benefit from reading this article. The suggestions in the article help you maintain the friendships you already have in your life, as well as giving you a ideas on how to strengthen the ones you already have in your life.

1. Don’t Judge People: Treat everyone you meet with dignity and respect. Accept that everyone is different; we are all individuals all with different backgrounds and experiences. The people in your life don’t need to share exactly the same values, beliefs and behaviours as you do in order for you to be friends with them. Don’t be narrow-minded! That is, don’t be too picky in the beginning with the people you engage with and don’t restrict you to just one group of people. Doing so could lead you to missing out on opportunities for meeting new people and forging new friendships. It can also limit the amount of fun you experience.

Every person is important and has their story to tell and after all, it takes many different people to make the world. It would be a pretty dull world if we were all the same, we would have nothing interesting to talk about and nothing to learn. So the message is clear, if you allow yourself to mix with a variety of people and are accepting of them you open yourself up to the possibility of engaging in interesting and fulfilling conversation as well as an increased opportunity to forge many great friendships.

Another important pointer to keep in mind is, you may not like or agree with everything your friends do or the choices they have made, but don’t judge them for that! After all, you too have done things you are not proud of and have made bad choices. Think about how you would want to be treated and offer that to the people in your life. Do you want the support and understanding from the people in your life, or condemnation and criticism? In other words, if you want a friend, be a friend because you only get what you give away, or you reap what you sow.

I would also like to say that the common grounds we have with people make forming a bond with someone easier, giving you both something to talk about. And the differences we have are just as important. For, they are what makes us all unique and interesting, important and beautiful human-beings. Use the differences in others as an opportunity to learn something and to express your understanding and compassion to them. Make your goal to make others feel better and happier every time you see them, spread the joy and sunshine around from your heart. By following the above advice, you will be an invaluable friend to everyone you meet everywhere you go.

Ideas - My Stance!

I don’t mind begging for something, if I am convinced that I need it. If and when I have it, I don’t mind sharing it with the others. Share food and you may be left with none for you. Share an idea and it may grow. Share happiness and it only grows.

There are many who have excess food with them and it does not even occur to them they could be sharing it. Those who have just enough for them know what it is to go without food. So sharing would still be an option with them.

Ideas do not grow on trees. Even if you buy them, it may so happen that what is bought is not exactly what is sold. Unless you buy the seller too along, that is! Even if you buy him or her, the interpretation would depend on how one treats them. History talks of ministers who helped kings and those who cheated them too. A minister was a kind of hired brain. The ministers were the real kings in many instances.

One who comes up with fresh ideas would think hundred times before selling one and a million times before selling the self.

Thus, many ideas go waste at their root. More of them would whimper for lack of understanding. An idea is to be validated. It can never be valued though. There lies the hitch. I can always tell you, I already have the particular idea.

I have an idea. Are you prepared to buy it? If you are ready to buy it, am I ready to sell it?

If both of us strike a deal, can you really understand my idea? Can you give me the indication that you understood it? Can you really use it?

Ideas do not grow on trees, I say again. They grow in some brains. Those brains are really precious.

I don’t mind begging for an idea. I don’t mind accepting the origin as my teacher since I may not understand the idea as it is!

When an idea is understood by at least a few others, it is heaven for the one who came up with it! Most of the unusual ideas face unusual resistance. If not resistance, it would be at best a blank face.

I almost sell ideas. I share ideas. I charge for that process. It amounts that I sell ideas. At the end of the session I see bright faces. Once in a while I even get some feedback that my ideas really worked and people made use of them. There is a trick here. I don’t sell a single idea at a time. I sell a package of ideas. People pick up what is useful and what they understood. Out of the bunch, even a single idea was sued by the buyer, my day is done, and the buyer’s day is also done.

Share an idea, free or for a fee, you would be happy to see the smiles on the face of the taker. If the other side is unresponsive, you would feel like never ever telling the world what you are thinking about!

Beg for an idea, think about it, and meditate on it. If still you are not able to see the value, try talking to people about it. Not all ideas are great. An idea is great only when we understand it. It should either be interesting or useful to us. If the idea is ours, the same goes the other way! Not all of my ideas are great, not because they are mine! They must be understood and be used. They must be good enough that people can understand them. If they can even use them, they would be further valuable.

Dorai Brothers - Violin

Do we know more about them?

Sri Dorai Swaminathan and Sri Dorai Balasubramanian - Violin

Dautyamu - An old work of art

Dautyamu is an act of sending a message.
Indian poets imagined that a swan could be a go between for two lovers.
The image is a visualisation of Hamsa Sandesham, The Swan message!

This is picked up from a really old issue of a Telugu magazine, Bharati.
Veeraraghava is the artist.

(Click on the image to see it bigger)

Mali - Evarani - Disc

Shravanam

Mali's old disc with Evarani and Magudi

I converted this disc recently and felt people would like to listen to it!

Tree of Life - Masnavi

Knowledge is the fruit that we must be searching for!

(This is a real big image. Copy and use as desktop background)

THE STORY OF THE TREE OF LIFE

A wise man once told a person, just to test him that in India there is such a tree, that whoever eats of the fruits of that tree, never dies. When the King heard of this, he fell in love with it. He immediately sent a messenger to India to search for this tree. The messenger wandered around in India from place to place in search of this tree. He wandered about in quite a distressed state, but nowhere did he find such a tree. Whenever he enquired from people, they would tell him: "Only mad people look for such a tree". They used to jeer and scoff at him. At last when he had become tired of roaming around like that in a foreign country and exhausted by the difficulties of travel, he decided to return home. He was very disappointed. On his return he met a "Qutub Sheikh" along the way.

He said to the Sheikh:

"O Sheikh, this is a time for mercy and benevolence.

I have become helpless and disappointed in my quest.

This is a time for your kindness".

The Sheikh replied:

"What is your disappointment?

And what is the nature of your quest?"

He replied:

"My King has given me this job to search for such a tree in India

That whosoever eats of its fruits will live forever.

I have wandered around in India for years and searched everywhere

But no sign of it did I find. People jeer at me and consider me a mad one".

The Sheikh listened to him, laughed and said:

"O Saleem, this tree is only the bounty of knowledge.

Through knowledge a person finds everlasting life

And one without knowledge is a dead one.

You have searched for the outer form of knowledge and therefore lost the way.

You have been deprived of the form of knowledge too, because you failed to understand the inner meaning".

Gurajada House at Vizianagaram

I made it a point to visit the house where the one and only Gurajada Appa Rao garu lived.
Can you imagine the house is bang on a main road with lot of traffic.
The road is not even wide.
Interestingly the house is being maintained well and there is a library there.
Here are some photographs I took there.

(Click on the images to see them bigger)

The house! I cannot even take a photo from the front!

A bust in the front room

The Master Writer!

A young girl, I am told,  made some paintings on Kanyasulkam. 

They are on display in one room there!

The room where the genius penned his works!

His table and the chairs.

My Chips are Down! - Poem

This is a poem I wrote a few days back!

Do you also feel or felt like this sometime?
You must have!

My chips are down

My chips are down, I know!

I know, I have to lift them up and that

No one else can do that!

No one would even notice and worry that my chips are down.

My chips are down

Not because of me but the others.

The others who say and do things to me and about me.

The others who do not say are do not do things to me and about me.

I forgive them since they do not know what they are saying or doing.

I forgive them that they do not know what they are not saying or doing.

That they do not know what they are doing to me.

My chips are down since I think.

I think and think.

I also think that the chips are down.

If I don’t, also they are down.

So, I think and think.

I also think about the chips being down.

My chips are down.

It is good if I do not know that they are down.

It is good if I know that they are down.

It is good if I know that I can lift them up.

It is good if I know that only I can lift them up.

When I know all these things, are my chips really down?

My chips are down.

Who cares if my chips are down?

When I am happy, may be the world, if there is one around me notices it.

That too, if I allow it to look at me.

If I keep quiet like always, no wonder no one notices.

My chips are down not for others to be noticing them.

I am not seen even when I am shattered and scattered.

I am not seen when elated either.

In such a case what does it matter if the chips are down or up?

But, all the same, my chips are down.

My chips are down since I am the way I am.

I know that no one is responsible for that.

I know that and that is the fun!

Balamurali on TV

Here is a short performance of Dr Balamurali on TV long back.
Thanks to Sri Jayram Sataluri for the recording.

Dr Balamurali on TV

Endaro Mahanubhavulu Andariki Vandanamulu!