Spandan

Relationship between 'Music' and 'Human brain'

2006-09-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered about the puzzling relationship between music and a typical human mind? I am sure you must have because music is such an inseparable thing in a human life. At least I have; a lot.
No matter how much I try, I have not been able to figure out the answer to why almost every human being in the world loves some or the other form of music. I know you can come up with a lot of exceptions but I am pretty sure they will constitute an ignorably small percentage of music lovers.
I have not read a lot about the workings of human brain but as far as I remember there are some kind of waves (alpha, beta, gamma etc) which our brain emits or responds to. Sometimes I think there is a strong correlation between these brain waves and the waves which make music or come out of it. But I haven't found any literature on that.
Sometimes I think that it is just our environment which makes everybody interested in music. Today we can see music everywhere. A child grows up in the sea of music. There is no way he can remain unaffected by this(leave extreme cases out). So may be it is the social circumstantial conditions which make music so popular.
I can't think of any other plausible reason and I don't know if the reasons stated above are correct or not. Any suggestions??

Voice against reservation

2006-05-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

A lot has been written and said about the ongoing reservation issue in higher education in premier institutes. I am just adding one more raised hand against quota system.
Being myself an IITian, I know the performance level of the guys who enter in the college through quotas. High CGPA is a rarity amongst them. Failing the courses is very common for them. Most of them usually take more time to pass out than the assigned term which is already relaxed for them as compared to the general category. Except some sincere guys, most of them just try to somehow get the degree without a will to learn.
And the main basis which is cited as the provenance of all this quota system, namely economic backwardness because of which they dont get enough opportunities to get proper education, to progress, itself goes down the drain when we find out that most of them own bikes and computers in college which we, general category students who are supposed to be much better than them financially, dont posses.
I really have not understood how this reservation is helping in their progress and lifting their self esteem. Even if due to this quota system these guys can get degrees from premier colleges, it does not enable them to get good private sector jobs because everything comes out in the interviews.
Only if some politician would agree to sit in a plane driven by these pilots, live in homes built by them, walk on the flyovers erected by them...
In my opinion instead of reservations, they should be provided with free basic education and strongly competitive environment so that they can justify their admissions to premier institues for higher education. They should not be treated like they are not capable of doing anything on their own and whatever they have got in life is through reservation. It is humiliating for a human being and completely deprecates their self-esteem.
I hope that these guys only will rise up against it and join the hands with all who are already fighting for it.
The whole issue so clearly reminds me of Atlas Shrugged and the theory Ayn Rand supported so vehemently. I only hope that Man never compromises on his will to excel by true, honest and hard work and refuses to live on alms.

Hum tere sanam hote!!

2006-02-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

Hum tere sanam hote!
padha tha maine teri aankhon mein, aansuon se labaalab bhare samandar ki satah par.
sah na paayee thi mera pratibimb tum, moond li thi palaken, utar aaya tha vo ashkon par.
chaaha tha sahej kar rakh loon, un motiyon par sirf mera hi to haq tha.
par tumhare chehere ko chhoo na sakta tha, vo kisi aur ka ho chuka tha.
katra-katra samandar teri aankhon se bahata raha, laal jode ko bhigo gaya.
bas karo ab aur nahin, main tumse kahata raha, vo mujhko poora dubo gaya.
donon chup the, but se, dekhate rahe, mazaal ki ek shabd bhi goonja hota.
gar ye taale pahele tod diye hote, aaj apna ye haal to na hua hota.
tum jaanati thin, main jaanta tha, kahane ki kisi mein himmat na thi.
lekin mere khuda, itne se gunaah ki, itni badi to keemat na thi.
patthar ho gaya hoon, khada hoon tere saamne, kuch nahin soojhata, bas ek khayaal hai.
tu jahan rahe khush rahe, main khush rahoonga, pata nahin, bas aakhiri ek sawaal hai.
kya ye pal aisa hi hota, agar tum mere sanam hote?

Some more with touch of Urdu

2006-02-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

yaad mein teri sanam, hum khaak ho chale the,
ab to giriyaa pe bhi, ikhtiyaar kho chale the!
ek lamhaa raha gayaa thaa, tumne phir aawaaz di,
varnaa hum to khwaahish-e-hayaat kho chale the!!

shayad mein zindagin mein tere sang chal na paaoon,
shayad mein apne hothon ko sil hi jaaoon!
shayad mein tujhse phir kabhi mil na paaoon,
ya phir shayad mein tujh mein hi mil jaaoon!!

Some tidbits (in hindi only..:o))

2006-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

patjhad kaa gumaan hai, na hosh hai bahaar kaa!
jaane khatm hogaa kab silsilaa ye intezaar kaa!
ab aalam ye hai, dost rakeeb ho gaye hain,
kaun marham-e-gam banega, is dil-e-bekaraar kaa!!

agar dil ki jaanib nigaahen jhukaate,
humko na paate to phir kisko paate!
na ho payee itni si koshish bhi unse,
ek hum hain jo iljaam sar pe uthaate!!

lo aa gaye phir se vahi mausam suhaane,
dil ne phir dhoondhe tumse milne ke bahaane!
ab sochataa hoon, kaash kaha diyaa hotaa,
jis baat se tum ho ab tak anjaane!!

Do you know the gender of your block??

2005-06-09T02:48:00.000-07:00

I couldn't control and slept off. It is really very challenging to remain awake for 15-20 minutes after the lunch when you don't have much work at your desk. I could not stand the challenge and slept off but in not a very obvious position. After approx 20 minutes, I woke up still feeling sleepy. So I thought of having a cup of coffee..went to cafeteria..bothered the coffee machine..wasted a paper cup and started sipping that tasteless coffee. After a minute, my colleague came and asked about the block I was working on,"Is Hybrid looking good?". Hybrid is an Analog block of the Ethernet systems. Please don't scratch your heads(analog designers excluded) if this doesn't sound familiar. Treat this as a black box. OK.
I answered,"Yes!". He got excited with positive answer and asked again,"Is it really looking beautiful?".
I said,"Yes! Do you want to marry Hybrid?". It was kind of an impulsive answer without really giving a thought to the meaning of what I was saying. Then suddenly another guy popped up,"Hey, how do you know the gender of your block?". And this thought occured in my mind. Do all the engineers(both sexes) know the gender of the blocks they are working on no matter whether it is VLSI design or programming or building a bridge or making a car or anything. Does anyone even think about it? I haven't till now. But from that moment I started to figure out some characteristics of Hybrid which can be helpful in determining its gender. Analysis is not finished yet...:o)
What say guys..Som, Anant, Jlal, Abhaya....

Marathon(hindi mein)

2005-05-26T02:51:00.001-07:00

aao bachchon tumhen sunayen ek kahani,
mat poocho, ye gatha humne kaise jaani,
kitne-kitne kasht sahe hain iski khatir,
chodi humne neend ke choda khana-paani!

ek saheb the, bade josh mein vo rahate the,
kuch bhi kar sakta hoon duniya mein, kahate the,
sabko tha maloom, hai kitna hosh, josh mein,
jaan ke jwala aur bhi bhadkaate rahate the!

naya-naya ji unko phir ek shauk chadha tha,
dum na ratti bhar ka, lekin khwab bada tha,
kitna samjhaya sabne, ab bhi ruk jaao,
lekin akal pe patthar nahin pahad pada tha!

Marathon dauden, unki ichha ho aayee,
bole sab, lo uski to ab shaamat aayee,
samjhaye koi, pahale seedhe to chal len,
unke purkhon ne bhi hai kya daud lagai!

na ban paati kahavaten jo maan vo jaata,
kahane se kumhaar gadhe pe chadh na jaata?
naach na paate to, tedha na aangan hota,
bhor ka bhoola, saanjh dhale ghar aa na paata!

phir unki aukaat kisi ne jab dikhlayee,
jaise-taise baat unhen phir samajh mein aayee,
ghabraye phir taanon se duniya ke kyonki,
bol chuke the 'pran jayee par bachan na jayee!

jab unko haalaat samajh mein aaye asli,
gayee shaan gaddhe mein, aur hui haalat patli,
koshish karte the chalne ki taan ke seena,
lekin lagata tha ke nikli bas ab nikli!

aakhir vo phir sah na paaye bhaar ye bhari,
utri sar se phir hoke laachaar khumari,
Marathon vaale din ghar se nikal na paaye,
kyonki shauchalaya mein saari raat guzari!

utar gayee saari izzat aur hui burai,
pakade donon kaan, baat ye samajh mein aayee,
kaha loki kaviraay, ki bolo soch sahajh kar,
varna pachtaoge, hogi jagat hansai!

Marathon

2005-05-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

Took part in international Marathon in Bangalore. had mixed experiences..
We had to report at 5:30am on Sunday 15th May around 10Km away from my house. On the day before, we, me and Anant Kamath, my friend-colleague, went to the venue just to clear some doubts
about the route. We were planning to take part in half Marathon. There we were told that no parking will be allowed near the venue on Sunday. That seemed like a very serious problem to me. I didn't want to walk even a bit before the marathon started so the possibility of parking my bike little bit far from venue and come walking from there was out of question. Then the only resort was to turn to Abhaya, my roommate who recently bought a magnificient Honda city. I thought it would be very hard to get him agreed to wake up at 4:45 in the morning and drop us. But to my surprise, he readily agreed.
We reached the venue exactly at 5:30am. I don't know why we were called at 5:30am when half Marathon was to start at 6:30am. And we did what we expected. Just wandered around. The full Marathon was scheduled to start at 6:00am. O man! what a crowd it was! more than 200 people should be there for full marathon. I could not believe that. It is after all 42Kms yaar. You need enough guts to even think about that. I had thought I would see only proper athelets in full marathon.
But that crowd consisted of almost every age possible. Khair, it started with a gunshot in the air and the huge crowd moved. It was really amazing to see so many people running out there for no medals, no prizes, just for sheer joy of running.
After some time the participants of Half Marathon started assembling on the tracks inside Kanteerva
stadium. There were more than 500 people out there. I was really thrilled to be a part of the event.
Again at the gunshot, half marathon started. Our target was just to complete the full distance of 21kms.
We were obviously not in medal race. So we were running very slowly, may be 8-9km/h(this no I got from the time in which we completed the race..:o)) Initially I was not happy with that pace but very soon I realized, that was the properly calculated pace by my little bit more experienced friend, Anant so that we don't get exhausted very soon. We were going on such a pace that we could easily talk without panting.
At every 2kms there were water stalls. And sporadically we encountered some very enthusiastic viewers cheering the runners at the peak of their vocal strength. That was really touching. They didn't know us. We didn't know them. They were not going to get anything out of this. We were not any big shots whom they could shout for. But even then they were there, supporting us with full enthu.
We crossed Raj Bhawan, windsor manor, Mekhri circle and reached Hebbal flyover, the half way point from where we had to turn. But the difficult part was, we had to climb up the flyover then go down, touch the outer ring road and then again climb up the flyover and get down to come to our original route. I don't know this flyover business was put there in the race just to make it more interesting or to suck out more and more energy out of us. C'mon yaar. After 10km of jogging you are asking us to climb up a flyover twice, running and that to when we know that we still have 10kms to finish the race. But we were at the mercy of the organizers, couldn't do anything but what they wanted from us. Then we did that going up and down business and were back to the route from where we came. Still 10 more kms. But somehow we were not feeling so drained out, may be because of slow and steady pace. We kept running.
Then after some time I kind of started slowing down. Started feeling the toll that 13-14kms running had on me. Anant was undeterred. His pace was constant. I asked him to move on. From that point I started repenting my decision of taking part in this. It was really becoming tiring. I am not the kind of person who likes jogging a lot. In college,I could not complete 2 rounds of our football ground without panting heavily. The max distance I had covered recently was 10kms, I don't know how, when I jogged from my house to MG road and that to only once. Before that, max was 5 kms on our company's gym's treadmill. Why the hell I thought I could complete 21kms. But there was no looking back now. I had to complete it, no matter what. So I went on running on a very slow pace. Some guys were walking instead of running. They could compete with my running speed.
I didn't give a damn. I just wanted to complete the race, kept telling myself again and again, just few more steps. Finally I, don't know how, reached back to the Kanteerva stadium and completed the half
marathon. I got so thrilled and satisfied, I can't tell. Anant reached there 15 mins before me.I complete it in 2:30 hrs. But that didn't matter. We completed it and were finally happy to be a part of that maga event not just as spectators but as participants. It was really an enriching experience.
Will be there in my memory forever.

kash tum mere hote!!

2005-05-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for one more Hindi post...not getting any time from vollyball, dance classes, some office work and of course a good sleeping habit which is one of the most relaxing, easily acquired, nice to feel habit with many more other advantages which I can write in fairly detailed manner but when I get some time from sleeping....:o)
The following poem I wrote a few years back. No, in fact, if I come to think of it, it was written long back, around 9 years. Please don't try to guess my age with this number..:o). I am still below the limit of "Brahmacharya Ashram" and the most eligible bachelor in the group which consists of me and my married colleagues and married friends..:o)(O god, please don't let me make this posting junk).
I won't write anything now except the poem(thanks, god. you are so quick to work on my requests) which can slow down your speed of reading a bit, but please bear with me. I am not writting full poem just not to let you get bored due to reading a hindi poem in English alphabets. I have written 2 stanzas out of 5.

main janta hoon, main tumhen pa nahin sakta,
phir bhi kabhi-kabhi sochta hoon,
kash tum mere hote!
man chanchal hai, sarp sadrash hai,
man mein tumhari chhavi hai, parantu adrashya hai!
yatha koi pyasa marudhar mein jal khojta hai,
tatha mera man ekaant mein tumhen dhoondhta hai!
tumhen na paakar man adheer ho jaata hai,
aur mujhe apni akshamta ka bodh karaata hai!
main janta hoon, mera man tumhen khoj nahin sakta,
phir bhi kabhi-kabhi sochta hoon,
kash tum mere hote!
main ek atal kinara hoon, tum nadiya ki dhaara ho,
main khud ko nahin kahata, par tum mera sahara ho!
tum chal ho, main achal, tum gatisheel, main isthir,
ek pal ko chhookar sukhad ehsaas deti ho, badh jaati ho aage phir!
is kshanik isparsh se vichlit ho uthta hai man,
ro uthta hai is niyati par, kyon hai tumhara pravahmaan jeevan!
main jaanta hoon, main tumhen rok nahin sakta,
phir bhi kabhi-kabhi sochta hoon,
kash tum mere hote!

Birth

2005-04-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

manthan,
jab karta hai man,
chitra jo ankit smriti-pat par,
phir se rangon ko unmen bhar,
kar deta jeevit kuch aise,
ghate, hua ho jaise pal bhar!
haath uthte phir kalam ko,
aur gati dete hain man ko,
thaam lene ke liye phir,
mit rahe us ek pal ko!
chahata tab, man, ki chun-chun,
smriti-veena ko sun-sun,
rok de badhte samay ko,
karde har ek pal ka varnan!
bhoot kshan jo ho rahe mrit,
unko phir se karne chandan,
ye liye uddeshay sang mein,
lo hua jeevit SPANDAN!