Orbital views...

I lived in London for a few months in 2011 and had the opportunity to see the Orbit being constructed at the Olympic Village. To me it looked like a twisted radio tower, and reading about it I realised that it was supposed to be a "sculpture" by the renowned artist Anish Kapoor. Many Londoners were criticising the Orbit being an eyesore, and a waste of money (20 million pounds funded by Laxmi Mittal). But the creators' justification was that people said the same about Eiffel tower when it was being built, and that it takes time to appreciate the beauty of a creation. A few months later, I visited Paris and while looking at the Eiffel, I couldn't find any reason why the Orbit should be in the same ball park!

I saw a couple of other installations by Sir Anish Kapoor in the following years - The Bean in Chigaco, and The Sky Mirror exhibited in Sydney. 

Both these were far more appealing to me than the Orbit, for obvious reasons. Reading up, I realised that these were created in the early 2000s, much before the Orbit. Would that be a reason for its appeal - that enough time has passed and our sensibilities have changed? 

I remember a scene in the movie The Fight Club where a corporate art installation is destroyed by the "club members. I am very sure that majority of the viewers chuckled at this sight, thinking "Yeah, we never got it, anyway!" I definitely did.

If you have been to Melbourne, one thing that strikes you immediately on the drive from the airport to the city is the number of modern art installations. It is a bit overwhelming, it was for me at least. Is it because these are too abstract? Or is it that the engineering marvel that these constructions are overrides the creativity or aesthetics behind it? Is construction art?

(to continue)

But, one band...

Taking cue from a facebook post by film maker Jaideep Varma, I watched his 4th full length documentary “Par Ek Din” today. With a foot note specifying that it was shot in about 4 days under a budget of 1 lakh rupees, and about a band that has not released any music so far – you pretty much know what to expect.  But having watched all his previous films, I couldn’t wait any longer.

15 minutes into the film, I felt the same enthusiasm as watching a “Classic albums” documentary, which had a more generous production backing. I had watched a couple of these, and the documentary on Steely Dan’s Aja is exceptionally filmed. But then, a realisation struck me – the making of music that I had watched on Classic albums series were of albums that I had listened to at least a thousand times before I watched the documentary, which made that watching extremely engrossing. However, Par Ek Din was about a band I had not even heard before, and the music was all new to me. Still, I was hooked till the final cut!

Par Ek Din covers the story and music of the band CityHaze based in Mumbai, members with an average age of 25. From the first song featured, you know that you are in for a different sound, and utterly fresh and beautiful, but rather “gloomy”, lyrics. I wouldn’t say that the sound of the band is completely original or fresh. While I was debating this in my mind, my wife who heard one of the songs asked me whether they were covering Wilco, which pretty much made me conclude that they did not have a very original sound, but then again I was thinking about the definition of originality. You could see a lot of influences, especially that of Lucky Ali which is mentioned in the movie, and through a poster in their bed room – but the way the whole thing came together, there was magic! I felt better when I remembered something that I had read in the liner notes of an Amit Chaudhuri album, written by Prof Anand Lal:

To tell the truth, all music is fusion. No musical form remains untouched by acculturation, though classical pundits still turn up their noses at the perjury committed by colleagues who jam with jazzmen. To pin those purists down on hybridization, just ask them how their ragas Kafi or Miyan ki Malhar got their names, or how violin found such a hallowed place in south India.

Hence, I find it absurd to classify a particular artist into a specific genre, or to judge the originality of the sound – it is just the working of various things that goes into music making that defines what it really is.

One key element that stands out in the film is the band’s honesty. I was very impressed by their view points, and seriously doubt whether I had that much of worldview when I was 25! Speaking of honesty, they were not shy to tell you about their shared interest in watching WWF wrestling! I remembered with a smile what Frederick, a serious painter from Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, said:"Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling?" 

It was really heartening to see these five individuals striking a path to their calling, than be forced to comply with the society’s rules – perhaps a message that this film delivers apart from the sheer joy of watching music making.

Watch Par Ek Din here:

The Big Picture view

Second post in Notes from the Key of Life

The procession to Cavalry by Pieter Bruegel (1564)

The brilliant 3 part TV programme Stargazing Live (Australia) was broadcast on ABC a few weeks ago. Dr. Brian Cox opened the show by quoting Carl Sagan, reminding us how astronomy can be a humbling and  character-building experience. Carl Sagan wrote in his book A Pale Blue Dot:

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

It took almost 17 years of my existence to realise this. I was finishing my senior secondary school and subjected to immense pressure to perform academically in an admission test for professional courses at the university. One night I happened to look at the sky and had shivers up my spine when I thought about the vastness of the universe and the origin of life on earth. And then on evolution and how mankind has created countries, societies, and economy -  which pretty much drives everything that we do in our daily lives - including the admission test. This big picture view, as Sagan said, was a humbling experience, and did put me at ease, at least to some extent. 

I got my first job when I was 22, and the IT company I joined was trying to focus more on Quality Control in their processes, at that time. We were sent for a day training on Six Sigma process, a path breaking methodology that helped minimise defects. The trainer started with an anecdote soon after he introduced the methodology. I don't remember much of the details, but it went something like this:
A pet food company in the UK decided to focus immensely on the quality control of their pet food manufacturing process, with a vision to become the market leader. Huge investment was made and leading process frameworks and methodologies were applied. Improvement in the quality of the product was measured and it aligned with the company's objective. However, to much surprise, the company went bust within few months. A leading business school investigated the cause and published a case study. The reason for the pet food company's failure, though it had excellent quality controls and favourable market conditions, was quite simple: dogs did not like the food.

That said, apropos of nothing, I leave you to admire Bruegel's The Procession to Cavalry.

Mah, Who am I to judge?

Last year while visiting family, in a casual conversation with my brother, a topic came up regarding the principles that we live by. I had not thought much about it in a way I could articulate it. I remember mentioning a couple - one about relationships and another one on integrity. The more I thought about it, and with some of the recent experiences in my life, I had a desire to write them down, so that I could get others' views on these. Again, I did not want to make any motherhood statements, or be preachy, but wanted to write them down casually with anecdotes that people could relate to. Here is the first one:

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Notes from the Key of Life: "Mah, Who am I to Judge?"

In the early days of blogs, I followed Scott Adams, and there was this one blog post from 2007 that left a lasting impression on me. In this post Adams tells us that sometimes to test his point of view on a particular subject, he would take the opposite side and try to defend it. He illustrates this by making his point as to why it was a good idea for US to attack Iraq – whereas common sense told us that the Iraq invasion was a blunder.

It showed me how 180 degree thinking can enrich your point of view, and I tried to incorporate this in my professional life. In the early noughties, Times of India had a similar column on the edit page - not sure whether they still do this – where Times’ view and a counter view of a specific news item was given side by side. It was very interesting to see different points of view in one go. But at times, the counter view was so laboured that you could say that it was being done for the sake of it. But by and large it was a good exercise, along the lines of what Scott Adams did.

Over the last few years, I have tried to incorporate this into my personal life as well, especially when you don’t agree with someone’s point of view and the situation can eventually end in an argument or being sour. In such scenarios it is more like “putting yourself in the other person’s shoes” view, which would help us calm down very quickly and focus on the bigger picture.


Many people consider Pope Francis’ stance on homosexuality as a defining moment in the history of Catholic Church, when in an impromptu press conference Pope made this remark about gays: “Who am I to judge?” It actually did not change any of Church’s stances against homosexuality, but it was the gesture that mattered the most. I had already framed my point of view on homosexuality much before this remark from the Pope (I support LGBTI, but not same-sex parenthood), but it gave me a whole new perspective on humility. I thought about this further after reading a cover story on Pope Francis where Mark Binelli sheds more light into Pope’s now famous remark. In that press conference there was a lead up conversation, and it was in the context of individual gay people who are well-intentioned and seeking God, that the Pope remarked “Who am I to judge?”  Apparently, what he actually said was “Mah, Who am I to judge?” Binelli writes:

In Italian, mah is an interjection with no exact English parallel, sort of the verbal equivalent of an emphatic shrug. My dad's use of mah most often precedes his resignedly pouring another splash of grappa into his coffee. The closest translation I can come up with is "Look, who the hell knows?" 

Who the hell knows? What if I am wrong? Such an admission that even a person like the Pope is not infallible inspired me to put a similar lens on my views, even though at times I might be absolutely certain that I am right.


In Return: Just a Book is a 2016 documentary based on the bestselling Malayalam novel Oru Sankeerthanam Pole (Like a Psalm), which is a fictitious account of the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky and his relationship with his stenographer Anna. I read a review of this documentary in a magazine, which had some quotes from the book. I haven’t read the book or watched the documentary, however one of the quotes rang a bell with a situation I was dealing with in my personal life. It roughly translates like this: Before you judge a person, have you heard his story, or know what he has been through?


I have been judgemental, and also been subjected to harsh judgement by others. Whatever I have quoted above, and whatever I discover as I go, helps me in addressing such situations with much clarity, most of the time.

However, I can’t sign off without providing a counter-view! There is a risk that your inability to influence change could well be comforted by “what if I am wrong” excuse and inaction. At the end of the day, these are just guidelines and you apply them contextually and with common sense.