Check
http://roughinhere.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/happy-birthday-nimmi/
for some of the first songs I remember and hope to listen again.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Dirac's advice to Nehru in 1955
From page 354 of The Strangest Man:
"A common language, preferably English. Peace with Pakistan. The metric system."
"A common language, preferably English. Peace with Pakistan. The metric system."
Frank Close interview on the Infinity Puzzle
Can physicists crack the big puzzle?.
Somewhat technical book but still can get the gist of it.
Reviews The Infinity Puzzle by Frank Close in "Uncertain Principles" and The Infinity Puzzle in "Not Even Wrong".
Somewhat technical book but still can get the gist of it.
Reviews The Infinity Puzzle by Frank Close in "Uncertain Principles" and The Infinity Puzzle in "Not Even Wrong".
Monday, February 13, 2012
A Guru-Shishya interaction
From Annapurna Devi - Lady Shrouded in mystery:
"Pradeep Kumar, a sarod exponent at the Films Division, and a student of Annapooma Devi relates his experience which throws some more light on her eccentric behaviour, if one may call it that. "ln 1974 I started learning the sarod from her. For five years I tutored under her and she became very fond of me. To such an extent that she even started teaching me Ustad Allaudin Khan's style of playing, the Dhrupad Ang. Around '79 my parents fixed my marriage and at a quiet ceremony I was engaged. I did not tell her this and one day suddenly I told her that my marriage had been fixed. She took it very calmly and told me that it was time I took a break and that she did not feel like teaching me! I was aghast! Why, I asked her. ' It was your duty to tell me about your engagement, wasn t it? A guru is not a simple word, it means more than you imagine it does,' she said sternly. I realised it was entirely my fault.
"After this I kept visiting her, pleading with her all the while to take me back but each time she would tell me that she was not in a mood to teach me, 'dil nahi karta hai' (I don't feel like it). >From '79 to '86, seven, yes, seven yes, I kept visiting her from time to time but to no avail. My parents also came to plead with her a couple of times but she wouldn't yield. She never once said she won't teach me, it was always 'I don't feel like.' Then one day, last year, I went to meet her once again and asked her to teach me. She gave me her usual reply. And that was it! I couldn't take it any more and burst out crying. oh, how I wept! I was sitting in the hall and she was in her room. She came out and scolded me, 'kya aurton ki tarah rote ho. Chooriyan pahen lo (why are you weeping like a woman? Go wear bangles). And then she relented 'I never said I'll never teach you, did l? I just kept postponing it. okay get up now. Come tomorrow with some flowers, garlands and a box of sweets we'll begin again. "That's how she is. The way she is with her disciples she will be the same with her son too, if it comes to that. To me she is the ultimate, a maun saadhika (silent saint). But a very hard taskmaster. In all the five years I was with her I learnt only two ragas, Bhairavi and Yaman. Her favourite phrase is: 'you people want everything in a short time.' "
It seems that Namita Devidayal(the author of The Music Room) had an easier time.
P.S. More about Annapurna Devi in Notes from behind a locked door)
"Pradeep Kumar, a sarod exponent at the Films Division, and a student of Annapooma Devi relates his experience which throws some more light on her eccentric behaviour, if one may call it that. "ln 1974 I started learning the sarod from her. For five years I tutored under her and she became very fond of me. To such an extent that she even started teaching me Ustad Allaudin Khan's style of playing, the Dhrupad Ang. Around '79 my parents fixed my marriage and at a quiet ceremony I was engaged. I did not tell her this and one day suddenly I told her that my marriage had been fixed. She took it very calmly and told me that it was time I took a break and that she did not feel like teaching me! I was aghast! Why, I asked her. ' It was your duty to tell me about your engagement, wasn t it? A guru is not a simple word, it means more than you imagine it does,' she said sternly. I realised it was entirely my fault.
"After this I kept visiting her, pleading with her all the while to take me back but each time she would tell me that she was not in a mood to teach me, 'dil nahi karta hai' (I don't feel like it). >From '79 to '86, seven, yes, seven yes, I kept visiting her from time to time but to no avail. My parents also came to plead with her a couple of times but she wouldn't yield. She never once said she won't teach me, it was always 'I don't feel like.' Then one day, last year, I went to meet her once again and asked her to teach me. She gave me her usual reply. And that was it! I couldn't take it any more and burst out crying. oh, how I wept! I was sitting in the hall and she was in her room. She came out and scolded me, 'kya aurton ki tarah rote ho. Chooriyan pahen lo (why are you weeping like a woman? Go wear bangles). And then she relented 'I never said I'll never teach you, did l? I just kept postponing it. okay get up now. Come tomorrow with some flowers, garlands and a box of sweets we'll begin again. "That's how she is. The way she is with her disciples she will be the same with her son too, if it comes to that. To me she is the ultimate, a maun saadhika (silent saint). But a very hard taskmaster. In all the five years I was with her I learnt only two ragas, Bhairavi and Yaman. Her favourite phrase is: 'you people want everything in a short time.' "
It seems that Namita Devidayal(the author of The Music Room) had an easier time.
P.S. More about Annapurna Devi in Notes from behind a locked door)
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Jonah Lehrer on colloborative work
Just one aspect of colloboration from the interesting article Groupthink:
"Jones’s explanation is that scientific advances have led to a situation where all the remaining problems are incredibly hard. Researchers are forced to become increasingly specialized, because there’s only so much information one mind can handle. And they have to collaborate, because the most interesting mysteries lie at the intersections of disciplines. “A hundred years ago, the Wright brothers could build an airplane all by themselves,” Jones says. “Now Boeing needs hundreds of engineers just to design and produce the engines.” The larger lesson is that the increasing complexity of human knowledge, coupled with the escalating difficulty of those remaining questions, means that people must either work together or fail alone. But if brainstorming is useless, the question still remains: What’s the best template for group creativity?"
The artcles different types of colloborative work in different fields from science to art and even measuring the efficieny in some cases. In my own case, out of forty years in resarch, I colloborated mainly during the last years. I found it certainly beneficial both in terms of learning and solving problems that bothered me.
P.S. See the discussion in http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/creative-groups/
"Jones’s explanation is that scientific advances have led to a situation where all the remaining problems are incredibly hard. Researchers are forced to become increasingly specialized, because there’s only so much information one mind can handle. And they have to collaborate, because the most interesting mysteries lie at the intersections of disciplines. “A hundred years ago, the Wright brothers could build an airplane all by themselves,” Jones says. “Now Boeing needs hundreds of engineers just to design and produce the engines.” The larger lesson is that the increasing complexity of human knowledge, coupled with the escalating difficulty of those remaining questions, means that people must either work together or fail alone. But if brainstorming is useless, the question still remains: What’s the best template for group creativity?"
The artcles different types of colloborative work in different fields from science to art and even measuring the efficieny in some cases. In my own case, out of forty years in resarch, I colloborated mainly during the last years. I found it certainly beneficial both in terms of learning and solving problems that bothered me.
P.S. See the discussion in http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/creative-groups/
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Some books and articles that I have been reading
mostly picked up through John Harriss papers, trying to understand development in India in rural and urban settings and how caste, class and power work. The articles of Jeffrey Wittsoe mentioned in a previous post give some idea about how things work in rural settings. The papers below by Benjamin, Roy, Harris discuss various aspects of functioning in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai respectively. It is interesting that some of the topics like caste which are frowned upon in polite company are openly discussed in some of these articles. So far the impression is that apart from power relations however they might have arisen and attempts to preserve or perputate them, the actual working vary greatly from place to place and rural to urban settings and changes over time. All this is preparation for the coming trip to India since usually I do not seem to understand from discussions with Kamma relatives or academic friends.
Power Matters:Essays on Institutions, Politics, and Society in India by John Harriss From the review Politics, power and society :
"There is an increasing tendency today among international organisations, some sections of academics and policy makers to regard politics as dirty, not truly representative, and of course as an inefficient system for delivering development. There is growing emphasis on civil society, social capital, and participation. Against this backdrop, this volume strikes a very different and refreshing note. It is fundamentally a vigorous defence of the issues that are coming to be sidelined by mainstream development literature — politics, power relations, culture, and class analysis. "
Governance, economic settings and poverty in Bangalore By Solomo Benjamin(April 2000)
Representation and Development in Urban Peripheries: Reflections on Governance in Ahmedabad Suburbs by Indrajit Roy (October 2006)
Antinomies of Empowerment:Observations on Civil Society, Politics and Urban Governance in India by John Harriss (June 2007)
The next two are books that came out in 2011 probably based on earlier seminars.
Understanding India's New Political Economy: A Great Transformation? Edited by Sanjay Ruparelia and others, also available in Kidle books.
A Companion to the Anthropology of India edited by Isabelle Clark-Deces , seems available through Wiley online.
Power Matters:Essays on Institutions, Politics, and Society in India by John Harriss From the review Politics, power and society :
"There is an increasing tendency today among international organisations, some sections of academics and policy makers to regard politics as dirty, not truly representative, and of course as an inefficient system for delivering development. There is growing emphasis on civil society, social capital, and participation. Against this backdrop, this volume strikes a very different and refreshing note. It is fundamentally a vigorous defence of the issues that are coming to be sidelined by mainstream development literature — politics, power relations, culture, and class analysis. "
Governance, economic settings and poverty in Bangalore By Solomo Benjamin(April 2000)
Representation and Development in Urban Peripheries: Reflections on Governance in Ahmedabad Suburbs by Indrajit Roy (October 2006)
Antinomies of Empowerment:Observations on Civil Society, Politics and Urban Governance in India by John Harriss (June 2007)
The next two are books that came out in 2011 probably based on earlier seminars.
Understanding India's New Political Economy: A Great Transformation? Edited by Sanjay Ruparelia and others, also available in Kidle books.
A Companion to the Anthropology of India edited by Isabelle Clark-Deces , seems available through Wiley online.
Susarla Dakshinamurthy RIP
Tributes from TV-8:
TV9 - Sangeet Samrat Susarla Dakshinamurthy passes away at 90
Tv9- Chit Chat with Swara Brahma Susarla
and also సుస్వరశాల "నర్తనశాల" సృష్టించిన స్వర బ్రహ్మ శ్రీ సుసర్ల ఇక లేరు.
Some of his early songs like Challani Vennelalo can be found in Susarla Dakshinamurthy : Artist and oldtelugusongs site.
A cinemachat write up on the blockbuster Narthanasala contains many dance songs including Raaga Sudhaa Rasa Saaram.
Like Samudrala Sr., Kasinathuni Viswanath and many others Dakshinamurthy was born on the banks of river Krishna in Pedakallepalli. Many others are from Godavari delta. Perhaps the agraharams and temple towns contributed to the preservation of various art forms in Andhra Pradesh. Now they may be shifting to metropolitan areas like Hydrabad as it happened with the shift to Madras in Tamilnadu, but I do not know.
TV9 - Sangeet Samrat Susarla Dakshinamurthy passes away at 90
Tv9- Chit Chat with Swara Brahma Susarla
and also సుస్వరశాల "నర్తనశాల" సృష్టించిన స్వర బ్రహ్మ శ్రీ సుసర్ల ఇక లేరు.
Some of his early songs like Challani Vennelalo can be found in Susarla Dakshinamurthy : Artist and oldtelugusongs site.
A cinemachat write up on the blockbuster Narthanasala contains many dance songs including Raaga Sudhaa Rasa Saaram.
Like Samudrala Sr., Kasinathuni Viswanath and many others Dakshinamurthy was born on the banks of river Krishna in Pedakallepalli. Many others are from Godavari delta. Perhaps the agraharams and temple towns contributed to the preservation of various art forms in Andhra Pradesh. Now they may be shifting to metropolitan areas like Hydrabad as it happened with the shift to Madras in Tamilnadu, but I do not know.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Corruption as power, studies from Bihar by Jeffrey Witsoe
Everyday Corruption and the Political Mediation of the Indian State: An Ethnographic Exploration of Brokers in Bihar (February 2012
An earlier article covering some of the same ground:
Corruption as Power: Caste and the Political Imagination in the Postcolonial State (January 2011)
P.S. Usually, the links seem to disappear after a while and EPW articles are available without subscription only for a few weeks. I will post passages from the two articles ( I think that they are excellent and I will come back to them several times later on) so that it will be easier to find them somewhere. From the first article:
"But what exactly is the role of politics and politicians in the everyday functioning of the Indian state and how does this relate to what is commonly called “corruption”. This article will examine the role of politically-connected brokers in mediating many people’s access to state institutions and in shaping everyday administration– what I term the political mediation of the Indian state. I focus on brokers as a window into political mediation because they are the visible face of this process – it can be much harder, for instance, to see behind-the-scenes control of the local Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). I argue that taking brokers seriously changes the ways in which we think about the Indian state and reveals some of thecomplex causes of corruption in Indian public life."
From the second (earlier) article:
"The image of a postcolonial state based on the promises of nation building, development, and rule of law but governed through networks of patronage that re-inforced upper-caste dominance (effectively undermining these promises) clashed with a politics of caste empowerment that sought to weaken development and law-and-order-related institutions thought to be controlled by upper castes, replacing them with alternate networks of lower-caste politicians, mafia figures, and an emergent class of political brokers. I argue that these two radically divergent modes of governance reflect very different ways of imagining the postcolonial state, representing alternative forms of political subjectivity."
An earlier article covering some of the same ground:
Corruption as Power: Caste and the Political Imagination in the Postcolonial State (January 2011)
P.S. Usually, the links seem to disappear after a while and EPW articles are available without subscription only for a few weeks. I will post passages from the two articles ( I think that they are excellent and I will come back to them several times later on) so that it will be easier to find them somewhere. From the first article:
"But what exactly is the role of politics and politicians in the everyday functioning of the Indian state and how does this relate to what is commonly called “corruption”. This article will examine the role of politically-connected brokers in mediating many people’s access to state institutions and in shaping everyday administration– what I term the political mediation of the Indian state. I focus on brokers as a window into political mediation because they are the visible face of this process – it can be much harder, for instance, to see behind-the-scenes control of the local Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). I argue that taking brokers seriously changes the ways in which we think about the Indian state and reveals some of thecomplex causes of corruption in Indian public life."
From the second (earlier) article:
"The image of a postcolonial state based on the promises of nation building, development, and rule of law but governed through networks of patronage that re-inforced upper-caste dominance (effectively undermining these promises) clashed with a politics of caste empowerment that sought to weaken development and law-and-order-related institutions thought to be controlled by upper castes, replacing them with alternate networks of lower-caste politicians, mafia figures, and an emergent class of political brokers. I argue that these two radically divergent modes of governance reflect very different ways of imagining the postcolonial state, representing alternative forms of political subjectivity."
Monday, February 06, 2012
John Harriss on poverty research
Building on the earlier work of Chambers and Jodha Poverty in India: concepts measurement and reality John Harriss argues in Bringing politics back into poverty analysis: Why understanding social relations matters more for policy on chronic poverty than measurement :
"If only – the implicit reasoning runs – ‘we’ can build a good scientific understanding of poverty, then ‘we’ will be able to solve the problem. But the reality is that poverty knowledge is profoundly political, as the contemporary debates over poverty trends in India in the 1990s so clearly show (Deaton and Kozel 2004). The problem is that even in the most sophisticated poverty measurements, long chains of assumptions are necessarily made so that these are always open to question. And the assumptions specialists most readily accept depend on value judgements. As O’Connor argues, poverty research, dominated in the case of international development by people educated in a small number of mainly American universities, is an exercise in power. This has been recognized in recent years at the centre of poverty knowledge, the World Bank, in its celebrated study, Voices of the Poor. But that study, which argues for a different model of knowledge as the basis for poverty action, has been ignored. Poverty research seems to indicate that the social sciences should not try to emulate the natural sciences (Flyvberg 2001). They are more effective in generating the kind of knowledge that develops from familiarity with practice in particular contexts, helping people to question relationships of knowledge and power, such as those giving rise to poverty, and subsequently to work to produce change. Such a view has quite profound implications for the design of poverty research."
Similar questions have arisen in the micro-finance debates In Which I Am Exposed As a Double Agent
P.S. N.S Jodha's article referred to above has appeared in EPW under the title "Poverty Debate in India A Minority View", vol.23,no. 45, November 1988. There iaalso anther article "Poverty Debate in India" vol.34, no.31. 1999 respondind to comments to a working paper from the Institute of Development Studies.
"If only – the implicit reasoning runs – ‘we’ can build a good scientific understanding of poverty, then ‘we’ will be able to solve the problem. But the reality is that poverty knowledge is profoundly political, as the contemporary debates over poverty trends in India in the 1990s so clearly show (Deaton and Kozel 2004). The problem is that even in the most sophisticated poverty measurements, long chains of assumptions are necessarily made so that these are always open to question. And the assumptions specialists most readily accept depend on value judgements. As O’Connor argues, poverty research, dominated in the case of international development by people educated in a small number of mainly American universities, is an exercise in power. This has been recognized in recent years at the centre of poverty knowledge, the World Bank, in its celebrated study, Voices of the Poor. But that study, which argues for a different model of knowledge as the basis for poverty action, has been ignored. Poverty research seems to indicate that the social sciences should not try to emulate the natural sciences (Flyvberg 2001). They are more effective in generating the kind of knowledge that develops from familiarity with practice in particular contexts, helping people to question relationships of knowledge and power, such as those giving rise to poverty, and subsequently to work to produce change. Such a view has quite profound implications for the design of poverty research."
Similar questions have arisen in the micro-finance debates In Which I Am Exposed As a Double Agent
P.S. N.S Jodha's article referred to above has appeared in EPW under the title "Poverty Debate in India A Minority View", vol.23,no. 45, November 1988. There iaalso anther article "Poverty Debate in India" vol.34, no.31. 1999 respondind to comments to a working paper from the Institute of Development Studies.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Ken Grenda's gesture
From Meet Victoria's best boss who gave his staff a $15m bonus :
"A MELBOURNE boss has stunned his staff by giving them a staggering $15 million gift -- the ultimate pay-off for their hard work and loyalty.
Workers at bus company Grenda couldn't believe their good fortune when surprise bonuses averaging $8500 were paid into their accounts - with some staff receiving as much as $30,000.
....
But Mr Grenda, the major shareholder, modestly played down the "best boss" moniker, instead paying tribute to his staff.
"A business is only as good as its people, and our people are fantastic," he said. "This is to recognise that. We have had people here who are second generation, and one fellow in the same job for 52 years.
"We have grown from just four bus routes in Dandenong in 1945 to operating 1300 buses in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. You only get there if you have good people."
The family has been swamped with about 100 emails and countless phone calls of thanks from staff, who will all keep their jobs under the new owners.
Mr Grenda, who was awarded an AM for his services to the bus industry, said the gratitude was humbling."
"A MELBOURNE boss has stunned his staff by giving them a staggering $15 million gift -- the ultimate pay-off for their hard work and loyalty.
Workers at bus company Grenda couldn't believe their good fortune when surprise bonuses averaging $8500 were paid into their accounts - with some staff receiving as much as $30,000.
....
But Mr Grenda, the major shareholder, modestly played down the "best boss" moniker, instead paying tribute to his staff.
"A business is only as good as its people, and our people are fantastic," he said. "This is to recognise that. We have had people here who are second generation, and one fellow in the same job for 52 years.
"We have grown from just four bus routes in Dandenong in 1945 to operating 1300 buses in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. You only get there if you have good people."
The family has been swamped with about 100 emails and countless phone calls of thanks from staff, who will all keep their jobs under the new owners.
Mr Grenda, who was awarded an AM for his services to the bus industry, said the gratitude was humbling."
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Saptapadi, telugu film
from 1981; I just came across it via Minai's Cinema Nritya Gharana. By the time these films came I already got bored with repetitive themes and acting from the earlier Telugu films. Moreover I thought these were 'go back to our culture' kind of films. I watched recently three such because of they were mentioned in the above site. They seem pleasant and actually questioning some of the traditions, with quotes from scholarly sources (very nice sounding Sanskrit quotes with Vedic Sanskrit sounds rather than classical Sanskrit sounds, see Vedic Sanskrit: "Vedic Sanskrit had a retroflex lateral approximant (/ɭ/) (ळ) as well as its aspirated counterpart /ɭʰ/ (ळ्ह), which were lost in Classical Sanskrit, to be replaced with the corresponding plosives /ɖ/ (ड) and /ɖʱ/ (ढ). (Varies by region; Vedic pronunciations are still in common use in some regions, e.g. Southern India, including Maharashtra.)). Minai also links to an article in which the producer Bhimavarapu Bucchi Reddy explained their difficulties getting pundits to do the vedic chants for the film. Some of the personalities are too good to be true. The dances are not heavy and there seem some innovations to make them more palatable to the public (the main dancer seemed to more keen about classical dances and did not continue in films or dance but became a data base manager, according to the same article). The movie was made in Amaravati not too far from the director viswanath's native place Pedapulivarru which is also on the banks of the river Krishna. I was born on a small island in the river about two miles from Pedapulivarru. May be such things in the background helped in enjoying the movie.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Manto's prayer
“Dear God, Compassionate and Merciful, Master of the Universe, we who are steeped in sin, kneel in supplication before Your throne and beseech You to recall from this world Saadat Hasan Manto, son of Ghulam Hasan Manto, who was a man of great piety. Take him away, O Lord, for he runs off from fragrance, chasing filth. He hates the bright sun, preferring dark labyrinths. He has nothing but contempt for modesty but is fascinated by the naked and the shameless. He hates what is sweet, but will give his life to sample what is bitter. He does not so much as look at housewives but is entranced by the company of whores. He will not go near running waters, but loves to wade through slush. Where others weep, he laughs; where they laugh, he weeps. Evil-blackened faces he loves to wash with tender care to highlight their features. He never thinks about You, preferring to follow Satan everywhere, the same fallen angel who once disobeyed You”.
from the excellent article Ludhiana Personality :: Saadat Hasan Manto . I first came across Manto in Daisy Rockwell's posts Particularities of Partition II and The Reluctant Feudalist. His stories of Bollywood stars Stars from Another Sky too seems to be draing some attention.
from the excellent article Ludhiana Personality :: Saadat Hasan Manto . I first came across Manto in Daisy Rockwell's posts Particularities of Partition II and The Reluctant Feudalist. His stories of Bollywood stars Stars from Another Sky too seems to be draing some attention.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Three of my favourite Telugu film songs
which I remembered on the Republic Day. The only common thread seems to be that they are written in 'more or less' spoken Telugu. From వాడుక భాషలో తెలుగు కవితావికాసము by జెజ్జాల కృష్ణ మోహన రావు :
"నాకు ఛందస్సు అంటే ఇష్టం. తాళవృత్తాలు, మాత్రాఛందస్సు నాకు ప్రియమైనవి. ఈ రంగంలో కొన్ని ఏళ్లుగా నేను పరిశోధన కూడా స్వతంత్రంగా చేస్తున్నాను. ఐనా కూడా, నా మనసు లోతులలో ఉండే కొన్ని భావాలకు ఆకృతి ఇవ్వాలనే అపేక్ష కలిగినప్పుడు, గేయ కవితనో లేక వచన కవితనో ఎన్నుకొంటాను. ముఖ్యంగా, హృదయాన్ని స్పందింపజేసే శక్తి ఈ మాధ్యమానికి ఉంది. ఈ ఇంటర్నెట్ యుగంలో మనం దైనందినం మాట్లాడే వాడుక భాషలో చాలా మంది కవితలను రాస్తున్నారు, అంతకంటే ఎక్కువగా చదువుతున్నారు. ఆన్లైన్ పత్రికలు, బ్లాగులు కూడా వీటికి ప్రోత్సాహం ఇస్తున్నాయి. ఈ విధంగా ఇవి సామాన్య ప్రజానీకానికి అందుబాటులో ఉన్నాయి. పాతంతా మంచీ కాదు, చెడూ కాదు. కొత్తంతా చెడూ కాదూ, మంచీ కాదు. ఒక్కొక్క దానికి ఒక్కొక్క గుణం ఉంది, ప్రభావం ఉంది. కవి యోచించి మాధ్యమాన్ని ఎన్నుకోవాలి."
Karulo shikaru kelle paala buggala (Lyrics) video కారులో షికారుకెళ్ళే..
Video Dongaramudu-chigurakulalo chilakamma
Lyricsచిగురాకులలో చిలకమ్మా
Palukaradate Chiluka
Lyrics పలుకరాదటే.....చిలుకా
Two of these are also available at http://telugu-good-lyrics.blogspot.com/
I notice a coincidence. J.K. Mohana Rao mentions 'karulo shikaru..' in his article. Both he and the lyricist Athreya are from Nellore area. The lyricist of the next two songs Sumudrala Sr, was from Pedapulivarru. I was born in a village two miles from there and studied in Pedapulivarru-Guttavaripalem school for an year. The only time I saw Ghantasala was also in Pedapulivarru, the village of his wife, I think.
"నాకు ఛందస్సు అంటే ఇష్టం. తాళవృత్తాలు, మాత్రాఛందస్సు నాకు ప్రియమైనవి. ఈ రంగంలో కొన్ని ఏళ్లుగా నేను పరిశోధన కూడా స్వతంత్రంగా చేస్తున్నాను. ఐనా కూడా, నా మనసు లోతులలో ఉండే కొన్ని భావాలకు ఆకృతి ఇవ్వాలనే అపేక్ష కలిగినప్పుడు, గేయ కవితనో లేక వచన కవితనో ఎన్నుకొంటాను. ముఖ్యంగా, హృదయాన్ని స్పందింపజేసే శక్తి ఈ మాధ్యమానికి ఉంది. ఈ ఇంటర్నెట్ యుగంలో మనం దైనందినం మాట్లాడే వాడుక భాషలో చాలా మంది కవితలను రాస్తున్నారు, అంతకంటే ఎక్కువగా చదువుతున్నారు. ఆన్లైన్ పత్రికలు, బ్లాగులు కూడా వీటికి ప్రోత్సాహం ఇస్తున్నాయి. ఈ విధంగా ఇవి సామాన్య ప్రజానీకానికి అందుబాటులో ఉన్నాయి. పాతంతా మంచీ కాదు, చెడూ కాదు. కొత్తంతా చెడూ కాదూ, మంచీ కాదు. ఒక్కొక్క దానికి ఒక్కొక్క గుణం ఉంది, ప్రభావం ఉంది. కవి యోచించి మాధ్యమాన్ని ఎన్నుకోవాలి."
Karulo shikaru kelle paala buggala (Lyrics) video కారులో షికారుకెళ్ళే..
Video Dongaramudu-chigurakulalo chilakamma
Lyricsచిగురాకులలో చిలకమ్మా
Palukaradate Chiluka
Lyrics పలుకరాదటే.....చిలుకా
Two of these are also available at http://telugu-good-lyrics.blogspot.com/
I notice a coincidence. J.K. Mohana Rao mentions 'karulo shikaru..' in his article. Both he and the lyricist Athreya are from Nellore area. The lyricist of the next two songs Sumudrala Sr, was from Pedapulivarru. I was born in a village two miles from there and studied in Pedapulivarru-Guttavaripalem school for an year. The only time I saw Ghantasala was also in Pedapulivarru, the village of his wife, I think.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Changes in micro finance activity in India
In response to the new regulations briefly outlibed in The RBI will now directly regulate microfinance sector, MFIs seem to be shifting their focus to better income groups. Some of the possible changes are outlined by M Rajshekhar & John Samuel Raja in ET special: New journeys, new challenges as India's microfinance promoters sail into new lending areas:
"MFIs are taking one of two approaches. Some are restructuring to exceed this 15% norm - legally - and still be eligible for priority-sector loans. Take Equitas, which has three businesses. Both its new businesses, vehicle loans and housing loans, are 100% subsidiaries of Equitas Microfinance.
Further, Equitas has acquired an NBFC, to which it will transfer all its microfinance assets. This will become the third 100% subsidiary of Equitas Microfinance, which will then be renamed Equitas Financial Services and become a holding company. Since the 15% cap will apply only to the microfinance subsidiary, all three businesses can expand without limits.
The other approach is to stay within microfinance, but tweak products and operations. As Ujjivan Microfinance, which is moving into individual loans, is doing. Managing director Samit Ghosh agrees the microfinance business is not as profitable as before, but doesn't think it makes sense to diversify.
''''''''''
IS THIS A MISSION DRIFT?
All these years, the microfinance industry promoted itself as a potent means to pull people out of poverty. But now, in its bid to survive, the industry is looking beyond the poor. Is this mission drift? Ujjivan's founder, Samit Ghosh, thinks so.
......
Says Ramesh Arunachalam, a rural finance consultant: "If they wanted to make a dent on poverty, they should have developed post-harvest loans for farmers, etc." Such loans, he says, would have enabled farmers to wait for prices to improve before they sell their produce.
Most MFIs looking to diversify say they are doing so out of duress, not because they see an opportunity. But, in doing so, they are giving up the poor plank they grew themselves and their reputations on."
From a review of David Roodman's new book on micro finance A voice of reason amid the sound and fury of the microfinance debate:
"In one sense another nail in the coffin for claims that tiny loans can end poverty, the book is also a humble manifesto for reform. While Roodman insists financial services are no likelier to "lift" people out of poverty than clean water or electricity, he argues that the thriving microfinance industry can still deliver crucial services to millions in need of better ways to manage their money."
I have not read the book but read some posts in his blog David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog
. The post Finalized Brief based on Due Diligence says a brief and the draft of the book are available online.
"MFIs are taking one of two approaches. Some are restructuring to exceed this 15% norm - legally - and still be eligible for priority-sector loans. Take Equitas, which has three businesses. Both its new businesses, vehicle loans and housing loans, are 100% subsidiaries of Equitas Microfinance.
Further, Equitas has acquired an NBFC, to which it will transfer all its microfinance assets. This will become the third 100% subsidiary of Equitas Microfinance, which will then be renamed Equitas Financial Services and become a holding company. Since the 15% cap will apply only to the microfinance subsidiary, all three businesses can expand without limits.
The other approach is to stay within microfinance, but tweak products and operations. As Ujjivan Microfinance, which is moving into individual loans, is doing. Managing director Samit Ghosh agrees the microfinance business is not as profitable as before, but doesn't think it makes sense to diversify.
''''''''''
IS THIS A MISSION DRIFT?
All these years, the microfinance industry promoted itself as a potent means to pull people out of poverty. But now, in its bid to survive, the industry is looking beyond the poor. Is this mission drift? Ujjivan's founder, Samit Ghosh, thinks so.
......
Says Ramesh Arunachalam, a rural finance consultant: "If they wanted to make a dent on poverty, they should have developed post-harvest loans for farmers, etc." Such loans, he says, would have enabled farmers to wait for prices to improve before they sell their produce.
Most MFIs looking to diversify say they are doing so out of duress, not because they see an opportunity. But, in doing so, they are giving up the poor plank they grew themselves and their reputations on."
From a review of David Roodman's new book on micro finance A voice of reason amid the sound and fury of the microfinance debate:
"In one sense another nail in the coffin for claims that tiny loans can end poverty, the book is also a humble manifesto for reform. While Roodman insists financial services are no likelier to "lift" people out of poverty than clean water or electricity, he argues that the thriving microfinance industry can still deliver crucial services to millions in need of better ways to manage their money."
I have not read the book but read some posts in his blog David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog
. The post Finalized Brief based on Due Diligence says a brief and the draft of the book are available online.
Rereading John Harriss
A few years ago, I read a couple of papers by John Harriss which seemed interesting THE GREAT TRADITION GLOBALIZES: REFLECTIONS ON TWO STUDIES OF 'THE INDUSTRIAL LEADERS' OF MADRAS (http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/pdf/WP/WP17.pdf )and Middle Class Politics...An Exploration of Civil Society in Chennai. When I was trying to find them again, I realized that he has written much more extensively about India and plan to read some more of his work. here are some random pieces, possibly parts or beginnings of larger work, mainly chosen because they are short and I am not sure of the dates. Thinking abourt 'development' or lack of it in India, one wonders about caste, class, religion etc. The first is a quick description of literature on such topics and one instance difference in red and clay soil crop up. I do not know the title of the second; it may be a discussion about the book "Depoliticizing development: the World Bank and social capital." The third is a review of a book which I have not seen. All the three are full of neat ideas, are short and I enjoyed reading them.
Notes on Village Studies from an Anthropological Perspective.
Remarks on Social Capital.
How and Why Does Culture Matter?.
Notes on Village Studies from an Anthropological Perspective.
Remarks on Social Capital.
How and Why Does Culture Matter?.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Two free courses from Udacity
From Want to program a self-driving car? Stanford’s AI guru says he can teach you in seven weeks
:
"After leading Stanford’s robotic car effort to first and second place finishes in the DARPA [1] challenge, and launching the now famous Chauffeur project at Google, Sebastian Thrun broke more new ground by teaching a Stanford computer science course online to 160,000 students last fall. After his invitation for anyone, worldwide, to audit the course went viral, registrations went through the roof.
Inspired by the class’s success (248 students achieved perfect scores — none of them enrolled at Stanford), Sebastian has taken online education to the next level, starting a free online “university” named Udacity, through his startup, Know Labs. For now, Udacity only has two classes, but they are both likely to be very popular.
The first is a basic programming class, Computer Science 101, “Building a Search Engine”, which aims to teach anyone eager enough to do the work how to program a search engine in just seven weeks. I wouldn’t count on displacing Google right after finishing, but knowing Thrun, he is quite capable of imparting an amazing amount of knowledge in a short time.
The second — probably more interesting to the many of our readers who already know a lot about programming — is Computer Science 373, “Programming a Robotic Car,” which aims to teach you to do just that [2], also in seven weeks. It is likely to be a real eye-opener, and quite a lot of fun, but please don’t take your final project out on the street near my house!"
Discussion by Felix Salmon in the post Udacity and the future of online universities
:
"After leading Stanford’s robotic car effort to first and second place finishes in the DARPA [1] challenge, and launching the now famous Chauffeur project at Google, Sebastian Thrun broke more new ground by teaching a Stanford computer science course online to 160,000 students last fall. After his invitation for anyone, worldwide, to audit the course went viral, registrations went through the roof.
Inspired by the class’s success (248 students achieved perfect scores — none of them enrolled at Stanford), Sebastian has taken online education to the next level, starting a free online “university” named Udacity, through his startup, Know Labs. For now, Udacity only has two classes, but they are both likely to be very popular.
The first is a basic programming class, Computer Science 101, “Building a Search Engine”, which aims to teach anyone eager enough to do the work how to program a search engine in just seven weeks. I wouldn’t count on displacing Google right after finishing, but knowing Thrun, he is quite capable of imparting an amazing amount of knowledge in a short time.
The second — probably more interesting to the many of our readers who already know a lot about programming — is Computer Science 373, “Programming a Robotic Car,” which aims to teach you to do just that [2], also in seven weeks. It is likely to be a real eye-opener, and quite a lot of fun, but please don’t take your final project out on the street near my house!"
Discussion by Felix Salmon in the post Udacity and the future of online universities
Sunday, January 22, 2012
A survey paper on corruption
Corruption in Developing Countries by Ben Olken and Rohini Pande(a short summary in Lifting the curtain on corruption in developing countries) has the following intriguing passage:
"In some cases one can use the theory of market equilibrium, combined with data on market activity, to estimate the amount of corruption. In a pioneering study, Fisman (2001) applied this approach to estimate the value of political connections to Indonesian president Soeharto. Specifically, he obtained an estimate from a Jakarta consulting firm of how much each publicly traded firm was “connected” to Soeharto, on a scale of 0-4. He then estimated how much each firm’s price moved when Soeharto fell ill to estimate the stock market assessment of the value of those political connections. If the efficient markets hypothesis holds, then the change in stock
market value surrounding these events captures the value of the political connection to the firm. Since investment bankers in Jakarta estimated that the total market would fall by 20 percent if Soeharto died, he can calibrate these estimates to estimate the total “value” of the connections to Soeharto. On net, for the most connected firms he estimates that about 23 percent of their value was due to Soeharto’s connections.
The Fisman market approach is replicable in any case where one has data on firms’
connections to prominent politicians and when the politician experiences health shocks. For example, Fisman et al (2006) has replicated the same approach for the United States, looking at the value of connections to former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, using shocks while he was a candidate and while he was in office. In a marked contrast with the Soeharto paper, he finds zero effect of Cheney’s heart attacks on the value of Cheney-connected stocks."
P.S. 'Intriguing'? Halliburton, KBR, and Iraq war contracting: A history so far via TomDispatch
"In some cases one can use the theory of market equilibrium, combined with data on market activity, to estimate the amount of corruption. In a pioneering study, Fisman (2001) applied this approach to estimate the value of political connections to Indonesian president Soeharto. Specifically, he obtained an estimate from a Jakarta consulting firm of how much each publicly traded firm was “connected” to Soeharto, on a scale of 0-4. He then estimated how much each firm’s price moved when Soeharto fell ill to estimate the stock market assessment of the value of those political connections. If the efficient markets hypothesis holds, then the change in stock
market value surrounding these events captures the value of the political connection to the firm. Since investment bankers in Jakarta estimated that the total market would fall by 20 percent if Soeharto died, he can calibrate these estimates to estimate the total “value” of the connections to Soeharto. On net, for the most connected firms he estimates that about 23 percent of their value was due to Soeharto’s connections.
The Fisman market approach is replicable in any case where one has data on firms’
connections to prominent politicians and when the politician experiences health shocks. For example, Fisman et al (2006) has replicated the same approach for the United States, looking at the value of connections to former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, using shocks while he was a candidate and while he was in office. In a marked contrast with the Soeharto paper, he finds zero effect of Cheney’s heart attacks on the value of Cheney-connected stocks."
P.S. 'Intriguing'? Halliburton, KBR, and Iraq war contracting: A history so far via TomDispatch
Saturday, January 21, 2012
A Bhanupriya dance
I seem to be coming across Telugu films after 1960 through blogs like Minai's Cinema Nritya Gharana. Here is a dance and song that I enjoyed Aakasana Aasala Harivillu ; the description of the film and several other dances, I found from the link above.
Lant Pritchett Interview
Lant Pritchett talks to us about education, migration and development (via Chris Blattman)
Some earlier posts about Lant Pritchett here and here
Parts of his coming book on education available here and some of his work on India; see in particular his paper "Is India a Flailing State? Detours on the Four Lane Highway to Modernization."
Some earlier posts about Lant Pritchett here and here
Parts of his coming book on education available here and some of his work on India; see in particular his paper "Is India a Flailing State? Detours on the Four Lane Highway to Modernization."
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