Tributes to a Great Musician

(Preface: A Malayalam article written by me titled 'Sangeetha Sagarame Sthuthi', was recently published in the annual edition of E-Mashi, the magazine of Malayalam bloggers.  It was on the life of the legendary musician Sri. V Dakshinamoorthy.  When I posted an image of the same on my face-book page, a large number of my friends wrote complimentary comments.  But I realised that most of my friends in facebook do not know Malayalam.  So, I decided to write a translation here.  However, this is not a verbatim translation)

With the passing away of Sri. V Dakshina Moorthy, an era of classical music in the Malayalam film world has come to an end.  Dakshina Moorthy, popularly known as 'Swamy' could be described as the 'mobile encyclopedia' of carnatic music.  It is wrong to confine him to a mere film music director; he was much above.  He had profound knowledge of even the finer aspects and nuances of carnatic music.  Most of his singers say in one voice that his compositions were complete in all aspects of the 'raga' on which they were based.  They were not just film songs; but almost like a small 'keerthanam' (kriti).  

Born in 1919 to Venkiteswara Aiyer and Parvathi Ammal at Alappuzha in Kerala, Swamy completed his schooling at Thiruvananthapuram.  His mother was his first 'guru' (teacher).  She was a good singer and spotted the talent in Swamy at a very young age.  She taught him many popular compositions in carnatic music.  At the tender age of six, Swamy could sing close to 20 compositions, including some of the famous ones by Saint Thyagaraja.  Recollecting his schooldays, Swamy has written that he found no interest in subjects like history, mathematics, geography etc. and he was not a good student.  Since he did not know the answer to any question in the final examination of 10th standard, he wrote two carnatic music compositions in the answer paper!  The result was as expected; he failed and that was the end of his formal education.  After this, he started learning music from Sri. Venkitachalam Potty at Thiruvananthapuram.  Potty was a loving teacher who taught Swamy with great interest and encouraged him to learn new things.  

Later, when Swamy was staying at Alappuzha, a friend took him for a concert to Vaikkom.  (Vaikkom is a small town in the Kottayam district of Kerala.  It is famous for an ancient and very popular temple of Lord Shiva.  Here the Lord is addressed as 'Vaikkathappan'.)  This was his fist visit to Vaikkom.  He started teaching music to few children there.  During this time, a friend suggested that Swamy should start praying and singing regularly at the Vaikkom temple starting with 'Nirmalya Darshanam' early in the morning.  (Nirmalya Pooja is the first pooja offered to the deity in a temple, which is usually held before the sun rise).  Swamy was convinced of the benefits of doing this and started it the very next day.  Swamy continued this for the next three and a half years, every day, without a single day's break! This was probably the golden period in his life, when he was completely immersed in devotion to Vaikkathappan and dedicated his music to the Lord.  It is said that every evening his friends from the temple would surround him to listen to his music.  He would sing till late in the night, and after this, when his friends go to sleep, he would take bath and proceed to the temple to have 'Nirmalya Darshanam'.  There were days on which Swamy sang continuously for 18 hours!  Looking at his staunch devotion, many considered him the incarnation of Lord Vaikkathappan. 

Swamy moved to Chennai in 1942 for a programme in All India Radio.  His career in Malayalam films started in 1948 by composing music to the songs of the movie 'Nalla Thanka' produced by Kunjacko.  This was the beginning of a career spanning six long decades.  The combination of Dakshina Moorthy (music), Sreekumaran Thampi (lyrics) and the gifted singer Yesudas's voice gave birth to some of the ever lasting melodies in Malayalam movies.  He composed music for more than 800 songs in close to 125 movies.  Swamy is probably the only music director, who could make singers from three generations to sing for him.  He has given music to songs sung by Augustine Joseph (Yesudas's father), Yesudas, as well as Vijay (Yesudas's son).  He was not in favour of the modern system of setting the tune first and then writing the lyrics.  He strongly believed that every good poetry contained some musical characteristics and once, the lyrics were in his hands, the appropriate tunes just emerged from within.  He was teacher to many legendary figures like Yesudas, Ilayaraaja, P Susheela, P Leela etc.  

Simplicity was the mark of this great man.  He never took credit for any of his achievements. He kept saying that 'I don't know anything, all that I have is Vaikkathappan's blessings'.  He believed that it was Lord Vaikkathappan who sat within his mind and suggested the appropriate music for each song.  This simplicity, ardent devotion and boundless love to everyone kept him happy and healthy till the last minute.  On 2nd August 2013, an 'Ekadashi' evening, he passed away at the age of 93, without being bedridden even for a single day.  

“The tide recedes, but leaves behind bright seashells on the sand;

The sun goes down, but gentle warmth still lingers on the land;

The music stops, and yet, it echoes on in sweet refrains;

For every joy that passes, something beautiful remains”

How true.  Though Swamy is not with us, his music continues to take us to the higher planes of devotion and happiness.  Salutations to the memories of a great soul.

'Copying' - A Different Type!

I had been to the Tumkur branch of a leading private sector bank last week for transferring funds from my account to a friend's account through NEFT.  I am a customer of this branch ever since the branch was opened a couple of years ago.  In fact I have been a customer of the same bank, having an account with their Bangalore branch, for more than 12 years.  I walked into the branch premises and met a 'Personal Banker', who asked me to fill the necessary details on the NEFT Application Form and give a cheque for the amount of money to be transferred.  I did so, and affixed my signature on both the form as well as the cheque in front of him.  I was asked to wait for a couple of minutes, after which I was handed over an acknowledgement for the transaction.

As soon as I got back to my office, I received a telephone call from the bank that there was a mismatch of my signature and I had to report back.  I drove back to the bank.  When I reached there, the staff in the concerned section told me that there is a mismatch between my signature in the documents that I had submitted and the original signature as per the bank's records.  Since, I did not notice any deviation, I asked him what the 'difference' was.  He told me that the 'curve' in the second part of my signature was not matching!  I was taken aback as the difference was minute.  I never knew that the 'curvature' of a curve in my signature had so much of 'importance'.  I was really annoyed for two reasons.  In the first place, when the account holder has submitted the documents in person and that he had affixed the signature in front of the staff member, why was he so sticky on such a minute deviation in signature.  I would have appreciated the bank's alertness, had the cheque been presented by a third party.  Secondly, when I was waiting in the branch for taking the acknowledgement, why did he not check the same; which, had he done, would have saved my time and energy.  Then the staff member slipped a white paper to me and asked me to give an undertaking that I have submitted the documents myself in 'person'!  This was the height of stupidity and I refused to do so.  I shouted back at him "can't you see me standing in front of you? and you want me to write the same and give it to you?!"

By this time, a lady, who was in-charge of the branch, as the manager was on leave, came rushing.  She took me to her cabin and told me that I could give a 'change of signature' application and solve the issue!  I asked her, when I haven't changed my signature, how would I give a 'change of signature' application?  I also told her that I am not a machine and minute variations in signature are quite possible.  Since, the transaction was very urgent, which could not have been postponed, unwillingly I agreed to give the above application.  This was the funniest moment.  The form had two adjacent columns, 'the existing signature' and 'the new signature'.  I asked her "when my 'existing signature' and 'new signature' are the same, how would I fill this form".  She told me that the 'existing signature' should look exactly same as the one available in the bank's records and the 'new' one should be the way it appeared in the documents submitted by me that morning.  To help me, she turned the screen of her computer towards me, on which my 'so called' original signature appeared.  Now I had the daunting task of 'copying' my signature.  I said, a bit loudly, "madam, during the  last twenty-five years of affixing signature on various documents, this is the first time I am asked to 'copy' my own signature from another document".  Hearing this, everybody, including that lady burst into laughter.  I managed to do a reasonably good job of 'copying' my signature!  An experience, that comes, but rarely, in one's life, I suppose!

Mr. Pai: A Role-Model

Today morning, while reading a report in a local newspaper regarding the coming monsoon, my thoughts traveled 24 years backwards.  I was a student of Pre-Degree (equivalent to Plus-Two) in the Cochin College.  Mr. Sivananda Pai completed his M.Sc (Physics) with first rank from the Maharajas College, Ernakulam.  Hailing from a small middle-class family of Kochi, Mr. Pai had become the University topper.  This was an achievement, big enough for friends and well-wishers to celebrate.  The local news-papers covered the story of his achievement and many organisations felicitated him.  I was a member of two organisations, Saraswath Youths Association (SYA) and Gowda Saraswath Students Organisation (GGSO), with which Mr. Pai was also associated.  I was involved in organising a function to felicitate Mr. Pai.  He was a big source of inspiration for all young students like me.  We had many role-models whom we never met; but to have a person amidst us, whom we could look forward to as a role-model was something great!  'Pai D', that is how he was known among his friends.  Our parents started showing Mr. Pai as a benchmark for our academic achievements.  Though I haven't had much personal interactions with him, 'Pai D' was always an exemplification of hard work, determination and success for me.  Soon after this, I came to know that he had moved to Delhi for higher studies.  I changed my course from science to commerce; went on to complete my post-graduation; and moved out of Kochi in 1996.  Since then, I have been living outside Kerala.

 

Today morning, I was reading an article in the online edition of 'Mathrubhumi', where it was mentioned, "the monsoon would reach Kerala by the first week of June, says the IMD Chief Forecaster, D Sivananda Pai".  Within no time I realised that it was the same 'Pai D', who was my one-time role model.  I immediately searched for more details on Mr. Pai and I was extremely happy to know that he continued to scale newer heights.  He completed his second post graduation (M.Tech) from IIT Delhi and Ph.D in Atmospheric Science from University of Pune.  He has been a Scientist with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) since 1993, and is currently the head of the Long Range Forecasting (LRF) Division.

 

Mr. Pai has many international research papers to his credit.  He was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Government of India for his outstanding contributions in the field of Atmospheric Sciences.  He developed a new Statistical Approach to forecast the arrival of monsoon over Kerala; and this system is said to have increased the accuracy of Long Range Forecasts.  It is also reported that the forecasting system that he developed was the world's first such system.

 

In a country like India, the livelihood of majority of the population depends on agriculture.  Though the share of agriculture in GDP has gradually fallen over the years, it continues to be the sector providing employment to the largest share of population, directly or indirectly.  It has also been observed that even a small percentage point increase in the agricultural output is enough to kick start an overall growth-cycle in the economy.  Since agricultural output is heavily dependent on the arrival and the patterns of monsoon, the increased accuracy in forecasting becomes important.  In this context, the research of Mr. Pai and his contributions assume greater significance.

I was extremely happy to know more about Mr. Pai and was inspired by his success story.  I immediately thought of sharing my memories, because I strongly believe that Mr. Sivananda Pai is a great source of inspiration for all those (especially the youngsters) who dream of scaling newer heights.  His life is a perfect example of what one could achieve through hard work and dedication.  When I am writing this, it is raining heavily in Tumkur.  I feel something special about today's rain; when I look through my window, a thought fills my mind, that sitting in Pune, 'Pai D' is monitoring this rainfall !!

Note: Photo courtesy: India Today & IMD.
I have used Mr. Pai's photographs without his permission, and I hope he wouldn't mind.
Please see the following sites for more details:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/indian-scientists-at-forefront-of-research-d.-sivananda-pai/1/150711.html
http://www.imdpune.gov.in/achivements2.html

Jugaad - A Wonderful Book

Few months ago, during a casual visit to a leading book store in Bangalore, a book titled 'Jugaad' caught my attention in the 'New Arrivals' section.  Though I have come across the term 'Jugaad' (a term used to describe frugal innovation), and read few articles on the same, I had not read any book on the topic.  In the first glance itself, I could conclude that the book was a well researched one.  Moreover, the book starts with a mention of the authors' interactions with Prof. Anil Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad.  I am a big admirer of Prof. Gupta and his work on grass-root level innovations.  So, I picked up the book immediately.  Recently, I finished reading it and let me tell you my first impression was completely right.

Written by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja, it is a wonderful book that takes the readers through various aspects of frugal innovation.  To quote the authors, "Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi word that roughly translates as 'an innovative fix; an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness'.  Juggad is quite simple, a unique way of thinking and acting in response to challenges; it is the gusty art of spotting opportunities in the most adverse circumstances and resourcefully improvising solutions using simple means" (Chapter 1, page.4).  The book is full of various stories of frugal innovation, drawn mainly from developing countries like India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Argentina etc.  In Chapter 9, quoting Paul Polak, the author of 'Out of Poverty', the authors write: '90 percent of the world's products and services are designed for 10 percent of the world's population - to meet the desires, rather than actual needs, of the richest people on earth'.  This is where the significance of Juggad lies.  It plays a crucial role in designing products to address the actual needs of the people at, what Prof. C K Prahalad calls, 'the bottom of the pyramid'.  The book identifies six principles of Jugaad and explains each one with many real life examples. The six principles are:

1. Seek opportunity in adversity
2. Do more with less
3. Think and act flexibly
4. Keep it simple
5. Include the margins
6. Follow Your Heart

In a world, where billions of dollars are spent on research and development for creating products and services aimed at the elite class or the upper middle class, Jugaad is the need of the hour.  The authors have explained the concept in the most interesting manner through simple, yet attractive style of writing.  Lot of research has gone into this book and I strongly recommend this book to all my students and friends.

The Banyan Tree of SIT

Dr. M N Channabasappa, the Director of Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT), Tumkur is a renowned Mathematician.  Before joining SIT, he was the Dean and Head of the Mathematics Department at NITK, Surathkal.  His colleagues and well wishers organised a function to felicitate him on his 82nd Birthday recently.  A souvenir was brought out on this occasion and I wrote an article  titled 'The Banyan Tree of SIT'.  The same is given below.

My first visit to Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT) was in June 1998 for attending the interview for a faculty position in the newly established MBA Department.  After the presentations in the morning we were taken to the Basaveswara Hostel Block for lunch.  A huge tree near the hostel caught my attention.  The shade of the tree was covering almost the entire ground in front of the hostel block.  I got selected in the interview and joined the Institute in September 1998.  Within no time, I realized that there was another huge banyan tree in the campus, providing shade, support and encouragement to all, who was none other than Dr. M N Channabasappa.

Since the MBA Department was relatively new, and there were only three full-time faculty members, I got opportunity to interact with Dr. M N Channabasappa on a continuous basis, who was the Principal of SIT at that time.  He was 68 and I was less than half of his age!  In spite of this huge age difference, he always treated me with great amount of warmth and grace.  One day I was in his cabin along with an administrative assistant, correcting a report that we had prepared, he suggested some changes and told the assistant ‘make these corrections and show it to Prof. Ajoy Kumar’.  Should I say, I felt extremely happy or a bit uncomfortable that such a senior Professor was addressing me as ‘Professor’?  Such is the respect that Dr. MNC gives his colleagues, irrespective of their age, designation and qualification.  When I reach 68, I am not sure whether I would be able to treat a person less than half of my age with the same grace with which Dr. MNC treated me.  But I consider this as a great lesson that I learnt from him.  What is more important is that he continued to shower on me the same affection throughout the last 14 years.  I still remember what he told me during my initial days as a teacher: “The students would evaluate you during the first two to three sessions and make an opinion about your teaching.  Once they put you in a pigeon-hole, they rarely take you out and put elsewhere”.

My interactions with Dr. MNC became more frequent when I got involved with the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), for which he was the Project Authority.  This was a World Bank funded project which required lot of documentation and transparency at every stage.  We, the TEQIP team, never had any difficulty as he was at the helm of affairs and he always insisted on a completely transparent and systematic work culture.  His style was to handpick the right kind of people and give them full freedom to work.  He never interfered or created unnecessary pressure. 

I would like to share few interesting experiences during the implementation of the project.   Once, a high-level committee from New Delhi visited the campus to inspect the progress of civil works funded by the project.  The construction was behind schedule due to various reasons and the committee was a bit unhappy.  At the final meeting attended by Dr. MNC and all other senior professors, the expert said he would like to have one person taking the entire responsibility, who would ensure completion of the work at the earliest and also would keep in touch with the authorities in Delhi.  After a minute of silence, Dr. MNC raised his hand and said “I take the responsibility”.  I could see a true leader here.  He could have turned to any senior professor and asked him or her to take the responsibility, and I am sure, no one would have said ‘no’.  But he rose to the occasion; and the expert could not have asked for anything more!  The project was completed soon.

When we were preparing for submission of the proposal for the second phase of TEQIP, an expert from Delhi told us that the proposal should contain a detailed ‘Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)’ document and it would be better to outsource the services of a consultant to prepare this document.  Hearing this, I told the Project Coordinator that we teach SWOT in MBA and it would be possible for us to do it internally.  He immediately informed this to Dr. MNC, who in turn, directed me to take up that assignment.  What surprised me was the speed with which he took the decision and the confidence that he had in me.  He created a team consisting of the Principal, the Dean and the Project Coordinator to help me in the process and made all necessary arrangements for conducting a series of meetings with various departments.  We thoroughly enjoyed the process of developing the SWOT document for SIT and also won appreciation from the authorities in Delhi.

SIT has a system where the students give feedback on faculty members at the end of every semester.  Whenever faculty members get below average rating, a group of senior professors provide counseling and suggestions for improvements to such teachers.  However, there is hardly any system that recognizes the star performers.  During a recent review meeting of TEQIP, the expert, while enquiring about the faculty feedback system asked “what do you do with the teachers who get excellent rating?”  Immediately Dr. MNC replied ‘we ignore them’.  The entire group burst into laughter.   I was witnessing another quality of a good leader.  He never hesitated to accept any limitations or lacunae on our part and always indulged in self-criticism with a pinch of humor.

Doors of his office as well as his residence are always open for everybody.  He doesn’t even expect people to knock on his door before entering.  Anybody could just walk in at any time and he was available and accessible for all.  Many a times I have accompanied faculty members who had already left SIT to his room and saw him welcoming them with the same warmth that he showed while they were working for SIT.  Many of us, with very little experience in our lives, take great interest and pride in talking endlessly about our achievements; and exercise greater care to avoid talking about our mistakes and follies.  Dr. MNC is just opposite.  With six decades of professional experience to his credit, I have never heard him talking about his achievements to anybody.  At the same time, he would not hesitate to tell others about some mistakes that he had committed and how he came out of such situations.  I have often seen him waving his hands in a denial mode when somebody praised him in a function.  He once told a visiting delegation, ‘I don’t do anything.  I just come and sit here.  I am surrounded by lot of good people who keep doing all the work’.  This humility is what makes him stand apart.  I am reminded of an old Arabic prayer:

“When you give me Strength, take not away my Sagacity.

When you give me Glory, take not away my Humility.

When you give me Humility, take not away my Dignity.

And take not away my Grace, when you give me Authority”

I can not find anyone better than Dr. MNC who has lived according to the true spirit of the above prayer.  I have never been his student, but I can’t express in words what I have learnt from him, just by observing him and working with him during the last 14 years.  I can go on sharing my experiences.  But I would end with what Dr. MNC likes the most – playing with numbers.

When I joined SIT the difference between my age and his was 43 years.  This difference continues to be same even now; and would continue so forever.  But the difference between my age and half of his age has been gradually coming down.  I haven’t touched half of his age yet, and I need to wait for four more years for that to happen!  Though I would never be able to catch up with his age, I sincerely wish to surpass half of his age and continue growing this difference for a long, long time.  Let the almighty give him good health, so that he continues to remain a huge banyan tree, providing shade to all of us at SIT.  I can’t pray for anything else for him, as I am sure he doesn’t desire any materialistic comforts any more.  Thank you, Dr. Channabasappa for all the care and affection that you have bestowed on me.

The 'Great' Indian Railways

The Indian Railways has been my preferred travel partner for over a decade for obvious reasons.  Though I have always enjoyed my journeys and often wondered about the mammoth structure of the organisation that keeps moving people along the length and breadth of this country, I have had my own quota of disappointments and distresses.  Let me share some recent instances here.

In September 2012, I booked tickets for a Kerala trip scheduled for January 2013, because the Railways expects people to plan their journey 120 days in advance!  As per the schedule, we boarded the 2-tier AC coach of the train at Bangalore.  We felt the temperature inside the coach to be more than the temperature outside.  While the weather outside was pleasant, it was very suffocating inside and everybody was sweating as the air-conditioning was not working!  We could not find any technical staff in the compartment.  After about 20 minutes of journey, when the ticket examiner came to check the tickets, people complained to him and made their disappointment known in strong words.  He was forced by the passengers to summon the technical staff and switch on the AC.  In fact, the staff were supposed to keep the compartment cool even before the train is pulled to the platform.  But they just did not do it, and this is how the passengers travelling by the highest class were welcomed on board, that too, having made the payment 4 months in advance!

The next day I wanted to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam and boarded the Mumbai bound express train at Thiruvananthapuram at 9.50 a.m.  The train was supposed to reach Ernakulam at 1.50 pm.  In between, the train was stopped in a small station, where there was no scheduled stoppage, for almost 25 minutes for allowing a slow-running passenger train to cross over!  As if this was not enough, the train was again stopped in a small station for 15 minutes to allow a goods train to cross.  Finally, the train reached Ernakulam at 2.30 p.m., a clear delay of 40 minutes.  Remember, this was a long-distance Mumbai bound express train!  With the latest and most advanced communication and signal systems, I don't know how railways decides on the priority of train movements.

As if the above experiences were nothing, we were in for a bigger shock when we boarded the train for the return journey.  We had reserved the return journey tickets also four months in advance and were allotted berth/seat numbers 46 and 48 in the 2-tier AC coach.  When we boarded the train, we found that the coach had only 46 seats and seat number 48 simply did not exist!  After about half an hour of journey, another family joined us from the next station who were allotted seat numbers 45 and 47.  When, this was brought to the notice of the ticket examiner, even he seemed lost.  However, he comforted both of us saying that he would contact the reservation authorities and get us a solution.  When I asked him whether there were any unreserved berths in the compartment, he said 'No'.  After two hours, he came back to us and allotted berths elsewhere in the same compartment.  Out of my curiosity, I asked him, how he could manage two berths in an otherwise fully-reserved coach.  He told me that the reservation office had already noticed this flaw and blocked two seats elsewhere.  But the same was not communicated to him!  I had a sigh of relief that at least they realised it well in advance.  Otherwise, I really don't know how they would have found a solution.