Salaam Bombay Bangalore!

My parents move again, this time for personal reasons! As a Central Govt Employee, my dad has always had a tranferrable job. The whole family has been kicked around every 3-4 years – a few years in Pune, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, and a lot of years in Dombivli. I have always considered Dombivli home – we have family there, I spent most of my childhood there and after I moved to the States all my India trips have been to Dombivli. My parents have finally sold our 1BHK we’ve had since 1984 and moved to Bangalore.

Every proud Mumbaiite knows how heart-breaking it could be leave Mumbai. I’ve had several enquiries from old buddies asking me how I feel.

from Jacklin:
Don’t know whether to feel happy or sad. You don’t live in India but still hoped to see you at avp some day and we all meet up like old days. I suppose your parents are happy with this move.

I spent a week in Bangalore this January and the city has changed a lot since my last trip in 1995. New roads, new buildings, a lot of new people and lots & lots of new cards, and a good number of foreigners (mostly South East Asians, Africans and Europeans). Some things are still the same – cheating Rickshaw drivers, “slow” localites and riders parking their vehicles in the middle of the road to piss on walls in public.

While my parents are no strangers to Bangalore, this is a big change even for them. So here’s hoping they like the new place and are happy with the move. I definitely love our new house, lots of rooms for visitors and guests :)

Datta Meghe CoE: What’s up with the board of directors?

I never paid attention as to who’s on my school’s board, not when I enrolled to Datta Meghe College of Engineering (DMCE) for my Bachelors or at NYU Stern for my MBA. I don’t think any student ever does. But I would imagine the board of directors/trustees are important people entrusted and responsible for the management of the school.

So as I was randomly clicking around on the newly redesigned DMCE website, I was surprised at the composition of my alma mater’s board – 5 business men/women, 1 Advocate, 1 Hotelier, 1 Farmer and 1 Fashion Designer. You have to wonder, isn’t this an engineering school? So what are these people doing on the board? Shouldn’t there be any active or retired senior managers from engineering companies and academic scholars or professors on the board?

Did you ever wonder who’s on your school board? Do you think it matters?

Indian music and the Bagpipe

If you follow Bollywood remotely, you couldn’t have missed reviews for Shankar, Loy and Ehsaan’s scores for the multi-starrer Salaam-E-Ishq. Rediff describes it as awesome and IndiaFM calls it innovative.

Everyone is raving about the “unique” blend of bagpipe and punjabi dholak. I personally felt the music was so-so and forgettable, but I couldn’t resist doing more research on the use of bagpipe in Indian music. Especially since I was blown over by the excellent use of the bagpipe by Yuvan Shankar Raja in his track Nenjodu from Kadhal Kondaen.

When it comes to experimentation in Indian music, there’s only one name – R.D.Burman. As far as I can tell, he had used it back in 1971 for the ever-popular Caravan. I’m sure you all have listened to Daiyan Yeh Main Kahan Phasi many times, but listen again to the prelude.

Any other desi soundtracks that make use of the bagpipe?

Leaving another footprint online…

Why blog? And why blog now after leaving a trail of 3 abandoned blogs.

For one, in the past it was simply cool to have a blog. Now I believe it is necessary for one have an online presence and footprint.

Secondly, my deeper involvement with blogs at work require me stay at the forefront of the blogging curve.

Thirdly, and most importantly, my tech-averse father needs a strong reason to boot up his PC and go online.

Here’s hoping that my renewed blogging adventure lasts longer than my previous aborted attempts.