தமிழிசை

I always had interest in classical music ,in fact attended violin class for more than one year. We started with basic sarigamapathani but until today i dont know what that exactly means. Atleast now came to knew the abbreviation of this. Another interesting part is to know the tamil music equivalent of it. There are lots of books about these two musical system.  Im starting from the basic and i hope it will be a great journey to read about our musical history.

	தமிழிசை	கர்நாடக இசை
1	குரல்	ஸ (ஸட்ஜமம்)
2	துத்தம்	ரி (ரிஷபம்))
3	கைக்கிளை	க (காந்தாரம்))
4	உழை	ம (மத்யமம்)
5	இளி	ப (பஞ்சமம்)
6	விளரி	த (தைவதம்)
7	தாரம்	நி (நிஷாதம்)

Song Of The Soul And The Bridegroom - St. John of Cross

Another wonderful poem by the great mystic . I always love St.John of Cross writings. This is one of his best.

SONG OF THE SOUL AND THE BRIDEGROOM

I

THE BRIDE

Where have You hidden Yourself,

And abandoned me in my groaning, O my Beloved?

You have fled like the hart,

Having wounded me.

I ran after You, crying; but You were gone.

II

O shepherds, you who go

Through the sheepcots up the hill,

If you shall see Him

Whom I love the most,

Tell Him I languish, suffer, and die.

III

In search of my Love

I will go over mountains and strands;

I will gather no flowers,

I will fear no wild beasts;

And pass by the mighty and the frontiers.

IV

O groves and thickets

Planted by the hand of the Beloved;

O verdant meads

Enameled with flowers,

Tell me, has He passed by you?

V

ANSWER OF THE CREATURES

A thousand graces diffusing

He passed through the groves in haste,

And merely regarding them

As He passed

Clothed them with His beauty.

VI

THE BRIDE

Oh! who can heal me?

Give me at once Yourself,

Send me no more

A messenger

Who cannot tell me what I wish.

VII

All they who serve are telling me

Of Your unnumbered graces;

And all wound me more and more,

And something leaves me dying,

I know not what, of which they are darkly speaking.

VIII

But how you persevere, O life,

Not living where you live;

The arrows bring death

Which you receive

From your conceptions of the Beloved.

IX

Why, after wounding

This heart, have You not healed it?

And why, after stealing it,

Have You thus abandoned it,

And not carried away the stolen prey?

X

Quench my troubles,

For no one else can soothe them;

And let my eyes behold You,

For You are their light,

And I will keep them for You alone.

XI

Reveal Your presence,

And let the vision and Your beauty kill me,

Behold the malady

Of love is incurable

Except in Your presence and before Your face.

XII

O crystal well!

Oh that on Your silvered surface

You would mirror forth at once

Those eyes desired

Which are outlined in my heart!

XIII

Turn them away, O my Beloved!

I am on the wing:

THE BRIDEGROOM

Return, My Dove!

The wounded hart

Looms on the hill

In the air of your flight and is refreshed.

XIV

My Beloved is the mountains,

The solitary wooded valleys,

The strange islands,

The roaring torrents,

The whisper of the amorous gales;

XV

The tranquil night

At the approaches of the dawn,

The silent music,

The murmuring solitude,

The supper which revives, and enkindles love.

XVI

Catch us the foxes,

For our vineyard has flourished;

While of roses

We make a nosegay,

And let no one appear on the hill.

XVII

O killing north wind, cease!

Come, south wind, that awakens love!

Blow through my garden,

And let its odors flow,

And the Beloved shall feed among the flowers.

XVIII

O nymphs of Judea!

While amid the flowers and the rose-trees

The amber sends forth its perfume,

Tarry in the suburbs,

And touch not our thresholds.

XIX

Hide yourself, O my Beloved!

Turn Your face to the mountains,

Do not speak,

But regard the companions

Of her who is traveling amidst strange islands.

XX

THE BRIDEGROOM

Light-winged birds,

Lions, fawns, bounding does,

Mountains, valleys, strands,

Waters, winds, heat,

And the terrors that keep watch by night;

XXI

By the soft lyres

And the siren strains, I adjure you,

Let your fury cease,

And touch not the wall,

That the bride may sleep in greater security.

XXII

The bride has entered

The pleasant and desirable garden,

And there reposes to her heart’s content;

Her neck reclining

On the sweet arms of the Beloved.

XXIII

Beneath the apple-tree

There were you betrothed;

There I gave you My hand,

And you were redeemed

Where your mother was corrupted.

XXIV

THE BRIDE

Our bed is of flowers

By dens of lions encompassed,

Hung with purple,

Made in peace,

And crowned with a thousand shields of gold.

XXV

In Your footsteps

The young ones run Your way;

At the touch of the fire

And by the spiced wine,

The divine balsam flows.

XXVI

In the inner cellar

Of my Beloved have I drunk; and when I went forth

Over all the plain

I knew nothing,

And lost the flock I followed before.

XXVII

There He gave me His breasts,

There He taught me the science full of sweetness.

And there I gave to Him

Myself without reserve;

There I promised to be His bride.

XXVIII

My soul is occupied,

And all my substance in His service;

Now I guard no flock,

Nor have I any other employment:

My sole occupation is love.

XXIX

If, then, on the common land

I am no longer seen or found,

You will say that I am lost;

That, being enamored,

I lost myself; and yet was found.

XXX

Of emeralds, and of flowers

In the early morning gathered,

We will make the garlands,

Flowering in Your love,

And bound together with one hair of my head.

XXXI

By that one hair

You have observed fluttering on my neck,

And on my neck regarded,

You were captivated;

And wounded by one of my eyes.

XXXII

When You regarded me,

Your eyes imprinted in me Your grace:

For this You loved me again,

And thereby my eyes merited

To adore what in You they saw

XXXIII

Despise me not,

For if I was swarthy once

You can regard me now;

Since You have regarded me,

Grace and beauty have You given me.

XXXIV

THE BRIDEGROOM

The little white dove

Has returned to the ark with the bough;

And now the turtle-dove

Its desired mate

On the green banks has found.

XXXV

In solitude she lived,

And in solitude built her nest;

And in solitude, alone

Has the Beloved guided her,

In solitude also wounded with love.

XXXVI

THE BRIDE

Let us rejoice, O my Beloved!

Let us go forth to see ourselves in Your beauty,

To the mountain and the hill,

Where the pure water flows:

Let us enter into the heart of the thicket.

XXXVII

We shall go at once

To the deep caverns of the rock

Which are all secret,

There we shall enter in

And taste of the new wine of the pomegranate.

XXXVIII

There you will show me

That which my soul desired;

And there You will give at once,

O You, my life!

That which You gave me the other day.

XXXIX

The breathing of the air,

The song of the sweet nightingale,

The grove and its beauty

In the serene night,

With the flame that consumes, and gives no pains.

XL

None saw it;

Neither did Aminadab appear

The siege was intermitted,

And the cavalry dismounted

At the sight of the waters.

Drawn to a Great Truth - Brother Jacopone Da Todi

I came across the name 'Jacopone Da Todi' in an article about Christian poets . He was a Franciscan Friar. I searched and found some of his poem and found very interesting and started liking it .

Drawn to a Great Truth

...if He should call you,

Let yourself be drawn to Him.

He may lead you to a great truth.

Do not dwell on yourself,nor should you

A creature subject to mulitiplicity and change see Him.

Rest in tranquillity, loftier than action or feeling,

And you will find that as you lose yourself

He will give you strength.

Be pleased to remain where it pleases Him to place you.

Straining to find Him is of no avail;

Be at peace with yourself. If He embraces you,

Return His embrace, but do not feel wronged

When He absents Himself. Give no thought to yourself;

If you love as you should , you will be filled with joy,

Because that love in itself

Glows with a light that does not fail.

You know that you can only possess

To the extent that He will give ;

What He withholds you cannot acquire;

Nor can you hold onto what you have

Unless He grants you that grace.

Your path from beginning to end 

Lies beyond your power;

The choice is not yours but the Lord's.

Hence, if you have found Him know in truth

That it was through no power of yours.

The good that is given you

Comes out of charity; it is a gift,

Not the fruit of your own efforts.

Let all your desire, then 

Be directed toward Him,

The Infinite One, Giver of all good.

The Accidental Prime Minister - Sanjaya Baru

I never read any book about current Indian politician written by themselves or by others. I bought this book just to know why Congress is opposing this book- Curiosity made me to read this book.

After reading this book I realized that there was nothing new the book says about its subject - Mr.Manmohan Singh . I really don't understand the Congress party's opposition to this book .Yes , this book says that the real power lies with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi - every Indian knew this.  Instead the Congress Party should have used this book to portray the strong characters of Mr.Manmohan Singh. Of course, we all knew there is a Gandhi scion Mr.Rahul Gandhi whom the party sides with.

I am an accidental prime minister -Manmohan Singh

The author explains how the Gandhi family and his supporters took all the credits for Manmohan Singh's governance and blame him for all the failures. The author gives various examples for this including how the MNREGS started at Manmohan Singh's place . The book also says how Manmohan Singh kept himself away from Congress party politics. According to the author , Manmohan Singh should be given full credit for the nuclear deal with US and for almost bringing timeline for settling Kashmir disputes.

‘I dream of a day when, while retaining our respective national identities, one can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul. That is how my forefathers lived. That is how I want our grandchildren to live.’- Manmohan Singh

I always wondered why Manmohan Singh never resigned over his ministers corruption charges on moral grounds. Baru gives this "Dr Singh’s general attitude towards corruption in public life, which adopted through his career in government, seemed to me to be that he would himself maintain the highest standards of probity in public life, but would not impose this on others”  and  “Should he have resigned at the first whiff of scandal, owning moral responsibility for the corruption of others, instead of defending the government? Perhaps. Could he have resigned? Maybe not. The party would have hounded him for ‘letting it down’. It would have then accused him of trying to occupy the high moral ground and quitting in principle to avoid being sacked for not ‘delivering the goods’. When the horse you are riding becomes a tiger it is difficult to dismount” . 

‘There cannot be two centres of power. That creates confusion. I have to accept that the party president is the centre of power.’ Manmohan Singh, 2009

Baru's account gives an idea of how government works and how politicians use their power to do things and claims credit for others work. Very interesting. Some raised questions about the author's credential but no one concretely denied it. I hope those civil servants and politicians will come up with their part of the story specially Manmohan Singh himself.The book clearly explains to Congress Party that the two power centres of governance will not work. The irony is one of the honest Indian politician is leading one of the most corrupted Indian government ever! The blame should be on Congress Party and Gandhi family for not uprooting the corrupt ministers .

Good read!

The authors interview 

With Karan Thapar

The Circle - Dave Eggers

I read lots of good things about this book. Even before i knew the number of pages , I decided to read it in one sitting.  I do 'one-sitting' reading now and then just to refresh the slow reading books.  After reading the book I had a horrible night. I kept on thinking about the possibilities of the world portrayed by Eggers. And i have so many questions :

1) Will an IT company(The Circle) rule the world - meaning everything through them , including voting in near future? Will people allow something like that to happen?

2)The Circle makes mandatory for the people to have an Circle account and ties them down by integrating their credit cards , Tax etc.. with single password. Is this possible? may be possible  but the programmer in me says it makes easy for the hacker to break in and takes everything. But the author thinks other way around "“the era of false identities, identity theft, multiple user names, complicated passwords and payment systems was over.” Seriously ??

 “A circle is the strongest shape in the universe. Nothing can beat it, nothing can improve upon it, nothing can be more perfect. And that’s what we want to be: perfect.”

The Circle is a mix of "Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest ,Paypal and everything social" .

This is a story of Mae Holland ,college graduate who lands a job (Customer Experience(CE)) at The Circle, an ground breaking and innovative IT company. The circle was founded by three , called 'Three Wiseman'.  It all started with "Unified Operating System" which allows the user to do everything with one account - TruYou.  But the company do not want to stop there.  Mae Holland suggests an idea for making Circle account compulsory for all the people which allows the Circle to control (?) everything .

Most of the time the employers are not talking to each other in person even though they are sitting just next to them . And Mae realised it soon that  the work is focused mainly on digital interactions and she quickly adapted to it. Her life completely changes after she started wearing camera as part of Circle's drive for transparency. Even after loosing her parents (not dead but they are not same as they were) , her ex-boyfriend Mercer, she did not realized the devastating effort of 24x7 sharing(monitoring??!!) of herself as well as others.

"A secret between two friends is an ocean. It's wide and deep and we lose ourselves in it."

There are some similarities between this book and Orwell's 1984- both talks about totalitarianism. In 1984 - Patrol Police and Thought Police and in Circle SeeChange and Clarification. The description of the Circle buildings gives an idea of glorious past and transparent future. Do we need to take 'The Circle' seriously? Yes and No. Yes because our free time is becoming unpaid labour and No because its just impossible in near future.

"ALL THAT HAPPENS MUST BE KNOWN.
SECRETS ARE LIES.
SHARING IS CARING.
PRIVACY IS THEFT."

The author gives the idea that people are not good  but they become good when others are watching, may be its true but we can not live like that . I felt the same thing as Margaret Atwood -"To live entirely in public is a form of solitary confinement." I truly believe that other than in toilet and sex, one needs private time for oneself to do things which one like.

Good read but lacks clarity..!