Flamenco Puro

Flamenco Puro by  Rafael de Utrera on Saturday was so much fun. It was such an impressive performance that made the crowd go “Oley” every few minutes. “Oley” seems to be the Spanish equivalent of “Wah wah” or “bale” (Tamil). There were 5 artists, the vocalist, a guitarist, a dancer who also played guitar and sang when she was not busy dancing, a percussionist and a violinist (or was there one? )

The concert was mind blowing. The high pitch and voice control required for singing flamenco is amazing. Rafael had so much control, a voice with no shrill and a lot of passion for his music.  The program started with a very important announcement. No, not just to keep the cell phones off or silent, they asked us not to clap with the artist in his rhythm. A normal applause was okay but not a rhythmic one since the claps are important to maintain the artist’s rhythm. Made me wonder if flamenco had something similar to the claps (taal)  of Indian classical music.

My bit of copy paste from WIkipedia here: Apparently Flamenco is music form which developed only in the late 18th Century. And flamenco’s home town is Andalusia. It looks like there has been a lot of influence of Muslim and Spanish folk (Christian) influence in the development of this music form. The history of Flamenco seems as complex as the music itself.

There was an opportunity for everybody to showcase their skills except for one person. Rafael started with a small but dramatic piece setting the tone for the evening and getting all audience excited. The guitarist played a couple of excellent pieces. And the dancer was exceptional. She played the guitar for a couple of pieces and she danced amazingly well. Her feet were weaving magic on the stage. I could not believe feet could move so fast with such amazing rhythm complementing the music so well.

The percussionist was giving the necessary rhythm for audience to tap their feet with the dancer.

They closed the program with an impromptu piece with Rafel singing and the others joining him with their rhythmic claps and the dancer joining them with her awesome feet tapping to their rhythm. Flamenco dance is damn passionate for sure. I loved watching the dance. Rafael also danced impromptu for a couple of minutes and was really good.

Over all it was such an awesome performance by great artists. Now,  the standard nonsense that came to my mind

1) Every song in Flamenco seems to start with “ee yayee yayee ouuu”

2) I sure did feel there was Muslim influence in the music since sometimes the high pitch sounded like the prayer from a mosque.

3) The percussionist had a drum like the Djembe in front of him but he rarely used it (was it just twice and both for less than a minute?). He was sitting on something like a box speaker and drumming on the speaker. Why did he even bother to bring that Djembe kind of thing? Why would you park yourself on a speaker and use that as the percussion instrument too. Irrespective of that, the percussion was awesome.

4) The Spanish conversation between the audience and Rafel was nice to listen to in spite of the fact that i did not understand a word of it.

5) Only the people performing for the piece were in the stage.and the rest of them moved out. They came only when they were needed.

6) Now, coming back to the violinist. I had a feeling that i saw him walk in the middle of one song and play for about 3 or 4 minutes and i did not see him afterwards. I thought he was just an illusion and the reason lack of blood alcohol in my body since it was a Saturday evening. I picked up a beer in the break and after that i did not see the violinist. I saw the same guy at the end of the performance. After all i just had one beer which could not have kept blood alcohol level for long so the illusion came back.

On a serious note, he did his job well when he played for the few minutes.

7) Someone must have told Rafael his clothes looked very odd in America. When he came back to sing after the few minutes break he came back looking a little more American than he was at the start  :)

8) With a high heel shoe like that the dance must have been extremely hard. The woman did not seem to feel sorry for her feet and was tapping them so hard with those high heeled shoes. I had a doubt if she had some kind of a wooden leg fixed just for the performance. Man! What a dance. It was a pleasure to listen and watch, but surely not something feet are going to like.

On a serious note, the woman was full of grace and elegance in her dancing.

That sums up my great musical experience at the Kirkland Performance Center. Oh that reminds me. The place was just wonderful. One of the best performance halls i have been to.

Technorati Tags: Flamenco,world music

God’s Sense of Humor

God is like Russell Peters. Well, in a way. God makes fun of people and enjoys himself, as does Russell. Russell has a big audience for his shows but i don’t know how big is God’s audience. But one thing is for sure, God is a male.

Now, imagine this

You are  in Houston and had to return to Atlanta. Your flight is at 7:45 in the evening but you have to check out of the hotel at 2:00. You land at the airport at 4:00 PM hoping you would be able to catch an earlier flight to Atlanta

1) You don’t get tickets in the earlier flights even if you are willing to pay $50 to upgrade to business class.

2) You are told that the weather in Atlanta is bad and hence some flights are cancelled and one of the flights also has a technical snag.

3) You are also told that your flight will depart at 8:15 instead of 7:45

4) You come to know that there is no Starbucks in the airport. Your experience with some other coffee shops except Seattle’s Best Coffee has not been good. So, no hope of coffee.

5) You find that your internet service provider has a service at the airport and try to connect. You cannot connect and the customer service rep tells you that the Bank, for some reason had rejected the last payment to the provider. You can update the payment by going online. Isn’t that why you called him the first place that you were not able to get online?

6) You buy a 24 hour internet connection and start working/browsing.

7) You hear CNN going on and on about the meeting of Obama with a Professor and a Policeman from Boston. They really make a big deal out of a matter that should not gain this kind of importance. This annoys you further.

8) You start developing a headache

9) Your flight time has changed from 8:15 to 9:07.

10) Your headache grows worse and the airline crew announces that the  travelers have to get a new boarding pass but they don’t say for which flight. One flight is stranded due to technical snag and you have no clue about the flight you have to travel in.

11) You are getting desperate to get some sleep and the headache is getting worse. Exactly at that time a friend from India asks “Haven’t you slept yet”? You give a very frustrated answer which upsets him and you pacify him saying you are tired and will talk to him later.

12) Your flight is delayed further and is expected to start only at 9:50. Frustration and headache increase.

Finally the flight is announced at 10:15. You go “Whoa!! Finally!!” and board the flight and settle down to get some sleep.

A sigh of relief and you thank God for finally sparing you. But He has not had his last laugh yet.

He puts a bunch of noisy school girls in the seats right behind your seat. They start playing cards, taking photographs with flash and scream ALL the way to Atlanta.

When all the above happened to me and i finally reached home

1) I realized God is male. Women cannot do this. They have a different way to irritate you. All the above is purely male characteristics.

2) I started laughing out loud. I really did not know what else to do about my frustration and anger.

3) I wanted to say “Sankara” before i hit the bed but i ended up saying “Sankata”

Trust me, God has a great sense of humor. I can’t imagine how much he laughed yesterday.

Shopping in the US

Its been a long time since i posted Venkata’s Sankatas. I have been kept busy in trying to figure out my job and how i can be of some value to my employers.

Any case, here are some of my thoughts on shopping in the US. Even if i don’t trust myself usually, you can trust me on this. Shopping in the United States is awfully hard. The reasons:

1) The amount of choice you get. I have never had to think more than once about buying milk in India. All i had to decide was if i am buying a pack of GoodLife or GoodLife Slim. That is all it is. You go to a store here you will find

a) Full Milk

b) Half and Half

c) 2% fat

d) 0% fat

In the above you have a subset of other choices like Organic or regular, you will find Soy milk, flavored milk and a ton load of other choices. It took me 2 weeks to figure out which milk i wanted and since then i close my eyes when i see other kinds of milk except for the pack i want.

2) The stores have so many items that you don’t need but end up buying.

3) Huge stores mean you walk much longer, you spend more and you are tired.

Good enough reasons for me to find shopping very hard and wastefully expensive.

On the good side, i must also accept that they have some very simple and useful things which are probably not available in India yet. For example, i really like the food wrap, a simple plastic wrap that sticks to the container and can be effectively used to cover the food.

One small advice, Never! Never go shopping with a desi who has been in the US for more than 5 years. They are so badly outdated about India and think that India does not grow at all. About 75% of items that they go “Do you get this in India?" are available in India these days. It is so irritating when they say “I can’t live in India because i am so used to all these things”. Man! i might just strangle someone one day.

I recommend that if you plan to buy a specific item like a GPS, let’s say, do your research on the internet and order from internet. You want to know why? Because every shop attendant  in the US has an opinion about the products.

So, you go to the store spend 45 minutes walking up and down the GPS section and decide on one. You are looking at the features, price and you have almost made up your mind. The shop attend would appear from nowhere like Lord Shiva in our movies of the 60’s.

Att: how are you man?

You: Very well! thanks

Att: You find everything okay?

You: Oh! yes. Thanks. I am just buying a GPS

Att: Yeah! We have all these models here man and i personally like this one here. Let me know if you need anything

He would walk away saying this. Now, you chose a GPS after 45 minutes of careful consideration and confusion. He comes from nowhere and says that he likes another model. You are confused again and you start your research all over again. In another 15 minutes, you are tired of standing and chose something that you did not want or you just decide not to buy the GPS.

Trust me, shopping in the US is not so easy. You need skills, patience and most important of all you need to know the trick of the trade…just order online!!!

Quincy Market - Boston

I was at the Quincy Market in Boston on Saturday. I must admit that it is the most liveliest place that i have seen in the US so far. The market has open air restaurants, wonderful shops for all wallet sizes, street performers who are awesome. I rate it better than Times Square, NY too.

Things that impressed me the best

1) The old world charm

2) A performer who was using buckets and vessels to play his drum beats.

3) The vegetable market.

I used to go by train to school for a couple of years. Near the railway station is a vegetable markets where the vendors would shout out loud with their offer prices for the vegetables. We would go there on Sundays to buy vegetables and bargain with the vendors till the point of the vendor getting wild enough to kill us. It would be a 2 hour exercise to search, pick, bargain and buy vegetables. The vegetable market reminded me of the Ambattur railway station market in Chennai. It was awesome.

 

Innovative Names in US

 

1) That’s not where i go for my hair cut

2) I don’t know what kind of hair cut they give

No more comments from me :) More photos to follow :)

The Great Indian Life

I was initially planning to write my goof ups in a sequence. Now i am breaking the sequence after this weekend.

This weekend has been damn adventurous. I had rented a nice house alright but it was totally empty without even a chair to sit. So, i decided to pick up a small sofa cum bed for the living room and a bed for me to sleep in.

So, the great idea was to go to IKEA to pick up these furniture. For those who do not know IKEA, its a wonderful shop for buying anything you want to setup a house or an office. Its cheap, they have everything you want and it is an adventure. If you are ever in the US, you should visit an IKEA store for sure. The added advantage of visiting IKEA is you can skip your gym for a day or if you don’t go to the gym, you get a good day’s exercise totally against your will and you have nobody to sue.

So, IKEA basically lets you go and get all the furniture (apart from other things) you want. You identify all the furniture you want and note down the Aisle and the Bin where you would find the furniture. When you go to the Aisle and Bin, you see boxes of furniture components. You can pick all the components, get it home, assemble it with the tools and instructions that you find in the box. Thankfully a very nice friend offered to help me and so i manage to sleep on a bed now.

Before i came to the US, i had no clue what components you need to set up a bed. I found that i need the Bed Base (which consists of a headboard, footboard and the side bars), the bed slate or the box spring and the mattress. I identified these items and a sofa cum bed, brought them home.

We initially assembled the sofa as per instructions and when we were about to finish we figured that we assembled it wrong and the way we had done it, the sofa would not open up into a bed. Great! we thought and we reassembled it and it was all set.

The next adventure was the bed itself. We assembled the bed frame only to figure out the bed slates and the mattress were of a smaller size while the base was larger. It looked like we had brought the larger bed frames than i wanted. Feeling lazy to disassemble the frame, we decided to go and get the bed slates and the mattress of a larger size. Once back in IKEA, we found that it was indeed the bed frame that was wrong. The head board and foot board were of the “Queen” size while the side frames were of “Full” size. Essentially, this meant that if we changed the slates and the mattress, they weren’t going fit ie. they would be longer than the frame.

Now, this was no fault of ours since the bed frames were packed together. IKEA had goofed up in their packaging. So the bed slates, the mattress and the new bed frames were taken back home. Then we re-assembled the entire bed and heaved a sigh of relief.

It was not over yet, we had ripped off the packaging of the bed frames we brought earlier, so, we were worried if they would take the frames back. But thankfully they accepted the package back. Basically, the IKEA adventure took almost the entire day

All of Sunday, i was pressing all my clothes. I have never pressed my clothes in my life. Twice a week the laundry guy would come home pick up the clothes , press them and bring them back. So forget pressing, i have not even taken the clothes to the laundry ever.  Wow, pressing those machine washed crumpled clothes is not funny at all.

The weekend reminded me of the royal life in India. It was so easy. I want a bed and sofa in my house, i go, choose and they are brought home and kept where i want them. I never go out but the clothes went out and came back pressed. Wow!!! what on freakin’ earth am i doing in the US?

New Orleans

New Orleans was quite uneventful. I stayed in a very old hotel in the French Quarter area. The hotel was a minute away from the famous Bourbon Street. But no point. This was an official visit with the vice president of sales, a 40 plus gentleman, accompanying me. I had no choice but to behave decent. Well, would it have been any different if i were alone? Probably not. Any different if any of my friends were with me? Probably yes.

New Orleans has a convention center which is about 1.5 miles long. The event that i had to attend was organized here. The interesting part is the sessions were scheduled in hall D, exhibition in hall I, food in hall C. So, if you were at the exhibition hall and you had to go for lunch, you would have to walk about a mile before you reached the lunch spot and if you had to come back to the exhibition hall after lunch, you are hungry again by the time you reach the exhibition hall you are hungry all over again.

Food in New Orleans was very close to the Indian food. Nice and Spicy. Though being a vegetarian did not help me much, whatever i got was nice and tasty.

Go around the city and you can still feel the effect of Katrina in the city. Lots of ruined buildings. Apparently, some business houses never returned to the city. It was sad. Well, it looked like India in some ways. The constructions were very different from other parts of the US. They looked very Indian to me though. Unfortunately did not have a camera to capture these pictures.

When i was leaving New Orleans to Atlanta, i had to do something that i had vowed never to do in my life. Unpack my luggage at the airport and shuffle things around. I always thought i would pay the extra cost for carrying extra luggage and get away with it. The amount they charged for 2 pounds extra in New Orleans was so exorbitant that ran from the counter to unpack and shuffle my things around to get the weight down in my check in luggage.

Then a relaxing flight to Atlanta….

Travel Horror Continues

So, stranded in London for 3 hours and i took the next available flight to Chicago. As expected this time, reached Chicago late and missed the connection to New Orleans. The worst came after that, there were no more flights to New Orleans that day.

They gave me a hotel accommodation and a ticket to the flight to New Orleans next evening at 9 PM. So, I lug around with all my luggage and try to find the Hilton hotel. It is when i stepped in to the open, i realized how bad it is going to be. It was freezing cold and i had no winter clothes.

Thankfully Hilton was right across the terminal gate but the cold was good enough to almost get my fingers frozen like frozen fries. The next good news was that i had to vacate the hotel at 1 in the afternoon and my flight at 9. I thought about 8 god-knows-what-to-do hours. Did not feel any good with that cold weather. So i did what i could do best, got a couple of drinks at the restaurant, had my dinner and hit the sack.

The next morning i found that there was a flight to New Orleans. But the time i found that out was about an hour before the flight. Here is the deal the ticketing executive gave me

“There are 2 flights to New Orleans in the morning. One at 10 and the other at 1. I will book you in on the flight at 10 but you may or may not be confirmed. If you are not confirmed, you will have to take the next flight but your luggage would be sent in the first flight. You can go to New Orleans and pick it up.”

I thought long and hard for half-a-minute and the cold weather outside made the choice. I bought the ticket. The next thing the ticketing executive had to say was “you got 10 minutes to go and get your luggage for check in”. Whew…this country was killing me. I ran (well, i actually did) and walked as fast as i can to check out and get my luggage. It took exactly 15 minutes for me to bring the luggage and 15 minutes to catch attention of the executive who blocked the ticket for me.

Thankfully she checked in my luggage and even better my ticket had been confirmed by the time i reached the gate. That was the first best thing to have happened since i left Chennai and it seriously felt good.

That's one of the remarkable things about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse. – Calvin :)

Root of the Sankata

So, here is my first post under Venkata in Sankata series. This is about my move to the United States of America, an opportunity a lot of my fellow Indians would have been very happy about. But, this is me, Venkat and i am not sure whether it was a good idea to have accepted this move at all. But anyways...this series of blogs, if i ever write regularly, would be about my life in the "Holy Land" of my fellow country men (well, at least some of them).

The seeds of this move were sown 3 years ago when i moved to my new company with an ambition of moving from delivery management to business development. Last year, the company talked about me realizing my dreams and this year they made my dreams come true. Only my dream had faded and i had forgotten about it. So, when the dream came true, it was more a shock than a pleasant surprise.And what a time to do business development, when the economy of the Holy Land is in shambles and nobody knows when it will recover.

Hey...dont get me wrong here, i am working for the best company that i have ever worked in 11 years of my career and i love working here. And that is the only reason i accepted to move as against rejecting the option when i surely had the choice.

Anyways, one fine morning, half asleep, i found myself in a flight that is supposed to bring me to this Holy Land of Software Engineers. It took me the entire 8.5 hours flight to London to realize that i was actually on my way leaving behind my parents, my dearest friends, my lovely car, Bangalore traffic, RT Kaushik (Asha..should mention him seperately..what says?), Bangalore Times (Times of India) and whatever else i have forgotten to mention. The next thing that i realized was that my flight landed late in Heathrow and i missed my connecting flight in London..

Whew...its tiring to write this...so Sankata will cotinue Venkata, oops no i mean Venkat will continue his Sankata the next post...

Till then...

PS:
The title of the series is flicked from the name of a kannada movie (Venkata in Sankata) which was aptly released just before i left Bangalore..