getting along by my rules

As I sit down now to publish after about a fortnight, I can't find a unified theme to talk about. So, I guess I'll write about everything that's been going through my head these days.

There is something about poets. They are those humans of the rare breed who have an extremely simplified way of looking at the world. I was listening to Nuvvostanante Nenodantana songs yesterday and for the first time I paid attention to Ghal Ghal. Trust me I almost wept and if I can meet Sirivennela now, I'd fall on his feet straightaway. I mean see this,
"premante emante cheppese maatunte
aa maataku telisena premante
adi cheritanu saitam chadavani vainam
kavitanu saitam palakani bhavam".
The day I heard Enthavaraku, I was hooked to Sirivennela. Infact even chakravarthiki from money is like awesome. And then there are always the likes of Veturi and Athreya. It always makes me smile at Arudra's irony when he says,
"Ee punya bhoomilo puttadam mana thappa
Aavesham aapukoleni amma nanna de thappa."
The problem with people of my age is that we consider anything foreign to be cool. Fortunately, the trend's changing and more than a few people are acknowledging listening to Indian music. Something to be proud of ain't it. Because,
"Ye kulamu needante, gokulamu navvindi
Madhavudu yadavudu maa kulame lemmandi."

Infact, talking about songs reminds me of the music I grew up listening to. A lot of Indian film stuff. Right from Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh to KV Mahadevan, Ilayaraja, Rahman right to our very own SP Balasubramaniam. I feel so proud acknowledging the fact that I'm lucky to have been born in a kind of lineage which produced geniuses like Bapu, Viswanath and Jandhyala. We were talking about it today. Yashaswini is really good to talk to about topics like these. There is a lot of romanticism in the voice when she's talking about her language, heritage and kind of upbringing. I'd say Bapandanam. And yeah, before I forget, thank you Gummaluru Shastri and Jandhyala for giving us Padamati Sandhyaragam. I feel so good about being a bapan and all whenever I watch Jandhyala or Viswanath at full flow. That Kanyasulkam dialogue, "Prathi gadida koduku naa intlo thini nannanevalle." And Padamati's
"Thalli dinam ento thaddinam laga." and "Tindam nanna. Intikellaka iravai kilola biyyam mingudam. Mee amma hidimbi..." Look at these terms, 'Sarva Bhakshaka'and 'Suputra, Saindhava'.

There is something about Kaushik that is refreshingly honest. He isn't brutal but he's powerful. He is on-the-face but also polite. Ages after we last spoke, I didn't think we'd hit off as well as we did. Behind that image of a carefree, another-guy image lies so much passion and restlessness. To the unknown genius in you, Kaushik, let me tell this, I admire you.

I know this post is rather wayward. Taking me a long time to finish this. I don't feel like writing but I do want to write.

By the way, I got into metal this week. Kaushik's influence. Iron Maiden, Slipknot, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard. Interesting but not my type. But then maybe it'll take me sometime to like it. Downloaded Pearl Jam's Ten, having loved Into the Wild OST and boy, Vedder doesn't disappoint. That rage, torment, pain in his voice is so raw that its almost seducing. And am watching this Sam Dunn documentary on metal, will write about it soon. Been planning to write a lot of things. Both for Vidyouth and here. But am not. I'm writing everything down on my new Linux terminal and on a scribbling pad. Will post all the finished works soon. Hopefully.

Talking about Linux, I did install Ubuntu on my other computer and trying to act all programmer like. Really intellectual and all. Been fun. Reading a lot of stuff. Everything from Economics, Game Theory, Music, Gogol, a bit of Telugu literature and everything else. I drew myself a GRE chart. 100 days left for my GRE. And next to it, I have a young Venkatraman Ramakrishnan photograph. I was reading his autobiographical essay and boy, does he inspire me. So, am reading A Beautiful Mind to get a hang of numbers and ideas. Anything to get a good score in GRE. More importantly, to go places and do work that really matters.

I guess that's it for now. Have been doing a lot of things but I want to focus at one thing at a time. Kinda hard for someone like me to do. Got back to my guitar. After that breathtaking experience in Ciencia Viva. Hope I'm gonna stick to it atleast this time around. And have been writing quite a few story ideas. God, wish I could stop postponing stuff. Off I go then. To CN(which I'm loving so much. Thanks mainly to Ram Mohan sir). Will try solving some algorithms. Probably Spanning Tree or the Distance Vector Routing now.

God Bless.