Unreal Reality shows!!

Reality TV shows are no longer a sure-fire hit. The names of the expensive flops may not trip off the tongue, but there have been plenty. Many a times, a complete list of reality shows that have failed to grab enough viewers, despite the millions of pounds lavished on them, continues to grow. Little coverage is directed at the flops, but even reality-show producers accept that simply watching people in contrived situations has lost its novelty edge.

Innumerable testimonials and complaints have been lodged against the issue that popular reality TV shows being aired these days are either scripted or completely biased. Trampling over the hypes of media, reality TV shows dont exactly play fair.
It's not that the shows have line-for-line scripts; there are many ways of using footage to shape a story. But at this point it should be clear that the reality TV "fad" is in fact an intentionally-engineered ploy by show hosts and Channel owners together that could prove beneficial to increase the TRP of their program.
Success of reality shows in India can be attributed to a great extent to this weakness of ours. Apart from this, the relief that these shows provide from the saas-bahu soaps, which currently dominate television, is another reason for their immense popularity.

The craze for reality television hit India when channel V came up with Viva, a band of five young singers. When channel V announced the auditions, young dreamers gathered in huge numbers to give their luck a try. They cried when they failed, celebrated when they triumphed. The audience, on its part, lapped up this overdose of emotions thrown at them by the channel. The show was a big success and an inspiration for both the shrewd business minds and also for the young dreamers waiting for their share of fame.

Reality shows are extremely popular these days. However, there is no way to guarantee success. Just because these shows are popular with people it doesnt mean that anything and everything that will be served to the audience in the name of reality shows will be relished.
Reality shows have come under a lot of criticism. Questions have been raised over the authenticity of the voting system on the basis of which the contestants are voted out. Prominent names like Lata Mangeshkar have raised fingers over the very method of selection that is used on such shows.
Throwing contestants out on the basis of the votes cast by people sitting at home with hardly any knowledge about the technicalities involved in a contest like singing or dancing has been questioned.

Cons of Reality Shows:

1. Queues - Television auditions are popular and you can expect to wait several hours or even all day before getting through the doors, let alone being seen!

2. Contestants - May be eliminated on looks whilst waiting in line - all that time waiting and no opportunity to audition!

3. Audition - Contestants are usually screened by the shows producer, a representative from the management company or other personal and may NOT be called back for an audition with the celebrity judges (who you may not see at all until the night of the show).

4. Cameras - The advent of 'Reality TV' means that the contestant must be prepared to be filmed during the whole process.

5. Performance - Be prepared for criticism! Celebrity judges held no punches when it came to their opinion of the artists performance.

6. Contracts - Contestants must sign a contract with the show which may tie them into a label or management company that has little or no interest in promoting them and may include terms which are detrimental to the performer i.e., minimum royalties, low or nonexistent performance fees and deductions from earnings even when no longer with the company.

About those buddies who made a difference to my life!

Hitarth Parmar aka $€thji

Just one word for Sethji---Awesome!

Talking about him in detail,He is a champ! Total ROCK FREAK! Loves people with good looks,good english and good attitude. And for those who don't match his criteria,better stay away! A sweet friend who is very loyal in friendship and Down-to-earth guy!

Mind you well guys...he is EXTREMELY RICH!! :P Loves sports! He's a scholar! In short a perfect guy! Shy when it comes to girls. But i'm sure he's gonna get a beautiful Gf!

He's my Bestest Buddy and one of my biggest secret holder! I'm sure he would never spit out anything about me to anyone! I trust him a lot!

Purvam Parmar aka Rankee

One word for Rankee----Artist

This guy has so much potential.A very good Poet,Writer and Painter. Science is not his cup of tea just like me! A Ready-to-help guy! Any problem,any difficulties..just go to purvam and you will find a way out!He has helped me a lot in my tough times and i can never forget that! He's my second bro and a part of my family! Loves Flirting and he masters this art too! :P

Very Lazy! He's never on time.So i request all the girls out there to call him half an hour early than the preferred time! :P

Keep Rocking dude!

Rohan Shotriya aka Monu

Monu-my lookalike! haha

Rohan is the very first friend of my life! We are friends since we were in our "Langots". So he's my "Langotia yaar" in true sense!Very supportive and encouraging! A scholar in academics! Loves hangouts with friends!

There were a few elements who tried to create problems between us but fortunately they failed! Rohan is also like my bro! I call his mom "Masi" and he calls my mom "Masi".

A very good Soccer player.I'm sure he would do good in this field too! :D We both enjoy eyeing girls and giving them points on the basis of their face,figure and dressing (ryt monu?)! ;)

Hope this friendship stays as it is till eternity!

Mehul Surti aka A.R Rahman!

Mr.Rahman of gujarat!

Mehul Surti is one such name that will surely rule the hearts of thousands one day!Extremely talented being! Creates magic in music!Amazing personality! very very positive and Happy-go-lucky types!

I love working with him and talking with him about various aspects of music! I love his studio.It's the best i've seen till date!

Looking forward to many thousand songs from him!

Praher Vora aka The mimic

Mimicry expert Mr.Praher vora!

A very very good friend of mine! An awesome singer,composer,Music arranger and an Excellent mimic! ;)

I love going for long drives with him listening to some amazing creations and doing mimicries! We enjoy staying up late nights and making music!

Hoping for some great albums from him! Wishing him all the luck!

Himalee Vyas aka Ben

The Ben of gujarati Light music (I know u would kill me after reading this ;))

Himalee ben is an amazing person with a gifted voice! Melodious singer!Extremely talented and a very jolly person!Love her company! And Specially the Italian food! haha

Very humble and polite in-spite of her achievements.Once she starts laughing,she jus cant stop! :P Loves literature and books!

Be the same forever!

Wish you happiness forever! xoxo

Satvi Choksi aka Kareena kapoor

Satvi--Kareena lookalike!

Satvi is a great actor!My cutest friend and a great human being!very very innocent!Loves surprises and jokes! :)

Shes like my lil sister!I'm always there in her tough times and she stands by me in my tough times!A gem of a person!Just love her company!

Everybody around her becomes happy because of her nature!Very childish and very cute!

Always be like u are dear! :)

Vinit Parmar aka Mr. Technical

Vinit bhai--The guide!

Vinit bhai is one of the most genuine person I've ever met! He is a true friend and a great guide!Loves technical things! My maths tutor!

Loves Poetry and sufi music!Very honest and lovable bro! Germany is his second country! :P

Passionate about everything that is dear to him!

Bro! U rock!

Amrita aka Zindagi

Amrita is one such gem whom anyone on this planet would want. One should learn true meaning of friendship from her. She is a real sweetheart. Always there at any damn time.

She is multi-talented and can give complex to anyone. :) One thing i like about her is that she is not a typical girl of her age.Least interested in all those silly stuffs.She is a woman of substance.I love her nickname "Zindagi".

I'm lucky to have her in my life :) Love ya Amu :)

How Indian music is better than Western music?

The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, it remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as sources of spiritual inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment.

What is american (of the United States) music ?
The relationship between music and race is perhaps the most potent determiner of musical meaning in the United States. Through the verbally passed on slave songs and learned church music, African American musical styles became an integral part of American popular music through blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and then rock and roll, soul and hip hop.
Whereas country music and upper class patronized symphonies etc are seen as typical white music. Present day popular american music is just an unplanned/unscientific amalgamation of notes.

Comparison of Indian music with its classical, folk and pop components with american music which is mostly just pop is therefore heavily one sided in favour of Indian music.


From purely listening pleasure point of view, I find that Indian music is deep, meaningful, spiritual, pleasurable to ears and stresses on vocal presentations. American music is more instrument oriented and repetitive. Take away the orchestrations and there is nothing left there. There isn't even any melody to sing it.
Occasionally, a Daniel Bedingfield, Dido or a Joey Macintyre comes along and proves to be a one song wonder.

As a person that has studied both Indian and western classical music, I can objectively say that Indian music is far superior.
1. It allows for creativity & flexibility instead of rigidity of written western music.
It encourages mastery over music whereas w c m encourages ability to adhere strictly to the written score.
2. Concept of ragas with assigned notes for ascending and descending scales (aaroh/avaroh) creates a permutation that creates infinite possibilities. It is thus, more scientific and structured while still allowing the freedom of creativity so important in music.
3. Ragas are assigned time of day, moods, locales, settings. These have a unique rendition effect.
Some baroque music can be tranquil.
4. Gradation of scale, notes, tones etc is scientific in both types of music, but more sophisticated in Indian style.
5.Beats - (tala) plays an integral role in music. In western, it is like a forced merger.

There are many differences that are very technical in nature. My western music teacher often comments on how Indian music spans all scales (low- Kharj to highest), is set in various speeds (vilamb to drut) and is beautifully set in minors. Most western music is set primarily in majors thereby restricting it. It takes a connoisseur of music to understand the subtleties.
An Indian classical singer can sing ANY type of music - western classical included. The same can not be said for a person trained in western form of music.

Although lyrics are becoming more and more mundane and pedestrian day by day everywhere.......yet Indian music (not necessarily bollywood) has still retained a semblance of poetry and depth in expressions.
American lyrics ("shake your booty/ I wanna F*** you ???") are just sad. Even the worst B grade Indian film songs are often an ode to love (not lust), beauty (- of eyes etc ) and deep emotions !
The poster that talks about exploring divinity is right. Music is seen as something that has the power to put you in a transcedental state and is an integral part of faith for that reason.

Difference between a Tanpura and a Sitar!

Today I’m going to write about Tanpuras (or Tamburas) as these instruments are often confused with each other. In my highly prejudiced opinion, every Indian who is able, i.e. has access to this knowledge, should know the difference between these instruments. The Tanpura is the backbone of Indian music, Sitars have brought it fame, and the Veena is one of the most ancient instruments in the world. After all we can recognise pianos, and will probably be able to tell that an organ is not a piano, though it may look similar and though we may not be able to name it.

I know that for those not interested in music this may be boring. On the other hand it is likely to be boring even for those who are interested in music, because this is very basic. But I hope those who are not interested, or vaguely interested, do read this post and forgive me for being a little obsessive about wanting us to at least recognise the different instruments if not to hear them. There may be concepts that are difficult to understand, if you want, you can explore them further by clicking on the hyperlinks, or just ignore them for the time being and simply get used to what the instruments look like and sound like so you can tell the difference. There are many video clips (hurrah for youtube!) and it’s not necessary to play them for their full length or to play them at all-they are for the purposes of illustration only.

It’s probably not your fault if you don’t know the difference between these instruments-all three look similar, they have many variations (particularly Veenas), and Indian classical music has often been inaccessible to various groups of people; Gender, caste, social status, language, religion, class and education have all acted in complicated ways to exclude people from learning it or knowing about it. Or it may simply be that one just doesn’t know about it, so let me evangelise (imperfectly).

Tanpura or Tambura:

All Indian classical vocalists, of the well-known styles of Indian classical music i.e. the North Indian style of Hindustani music (further subdivided into the quite distinct Dhrupad and Khayal styles) and the South Indian Carnatic style of music are accompanied by a Tanpura or Tambura (there are other less well-known forms of Indian art music that I shall not refer to here). The instrument is called Tanpura in the North and Tambura in the South. Instrumentalists are accompanied by Tanpuras too, though they often use a smaller version called a tanpuri or tamburi.

There are “male” and “female” Tanpuras-female ones can be smaller and they can be tuned to suit male and female voices (the tuning depends on the strings-so a female can use a “male” Tanpura, with strings suitable for her pitch)

Here is a picture of a North Indian Tanpura:

And here is a picture of a South Indian Tambura:

Though they might look big and heavy, they are actually quite light and quite fragile.

The North (Miraj) and South Indian (Tanjore) versions are constructed slightly differently and produce a slightly different sound though they perform the same function, that is to provide a “drone” to help the musician sing in pitch (sruti). Maintaining sruti, or singing in pitch is very important and therefore the Tanpura is absolutely essential in Indian classical music. Essentially, the Tanpura sings a recurring melody.

Everyone has a natural pitch. When learning Indian classical music, one chooses one’s “Sa,” called adhara shadja, the basic tonic note-every other note is sung relative to this note. Thus maintaining the basic “Sa,” the fixed reference point is very important, and that is what the Tanpura does (this is different to Western music).

Tanpuras usually have four or five strings. The first string is tuned to Pa (the natural fifth from the adhara shadja), the two middle ones are tuned to the higher Sa and the last, which is the bass string, to the tonic, Sa, an octave lower. The tuning of the first string may change, depending on the raga/ragam (e.g. there may be a raga/ragam without Pa) or an extra string that plays the seventh, i.e. Ni, is added, but we will not get into that here.

Nowadays one gets electronic sruti boxes and electronic tamburas that are much easier to carry around, that look like small radios. Though these are very good and have reached high standards, some people (including yours truly) feel that the traditional Tanpuras and Tamburas provide a richer sound and should not be done away with. Learning to tune a Tanpura is also considered essential in training one’s ear. For a technical view on why traditional Tanpuras sound better see this article.

Here is a link to a podcast by the Carnatic musician Vidya Subramaninan and Devesh Satyavolu that explains, very simply, the functions of the shruti box, the electronic tambura and the traditional Tambura. Vidya sings out the notes of the Tambura-this will help in understanding what’s been said above about how it is tuned.

Here is a video where you can see how Tanpuras are played and hear the rich sound of well tuned (North Indian) Tanpuras clearly. The singer is Ustad H. Sayeeduddin Dagar who sings in the Dhrupad style. He starts off here with a Sanskrit chant:

Here is a video of the Khayal singer Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, singing a bhajan. I’ve chosen this video because it has clear close-ups of her fingers on the Tanpura strings:

And finally, here is a link to a video of a South Indian Tambura being played, that I couldn’t embed here.

A Tanpura is usually held straight up in front of the singer or tanpura accompanist (people can tend to lean it towards their bodies or put it in their laps) or flat down on the floor, whereas a Sitar is usually held diagonally across the body. More on the sitar in the next post.

Here is a video I just found with an explanation of the function of the Tanpura:

Definition of a "RAAG"

There are a lot of people these days who have jumped on to the “great Indian culture” bandwagon, but sadly, there are not many, or not enough, who devote much time to this phenomenal idea, the idea of Raga. Ragas are based on those other phenomenal things-swaras (inadequately translated as notes).

Indian classical music is sometimes referred to as Raga Music.

There is no English word that properly explains the meaning the of Raga.

Raga is a Sanskrit word, that literally means “colour” or “passion.” Ragas are meant to colour the mind with emotion.

Ragas are referred to as Raag in the North and Ragam in the South. However, all three words, i.e. Raga, Raag and Ragam are understood both in the North and the South.

Ragas are made up of notes or swaras. As noted in the previous posts, there are seven basic notes (Sa, Re( or Ri), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni) known as the saptak or the saptaswaras. Sa is repeated at the end of the scale and is higher in pitch, the exact double of the first Sa. [This higher Sa will be referred to with quotation marks in front of it like this: S"]

Remember there are also “in-between notes” known as semi-tones and microtones (srutis), which are varieties of the seven main notes/tones.

Shadja, or Sa for short, is the swara that is always present in every Raga. It is the fundamental note and all the other notes are relative to it.

Traditionally, it has been accepted that a Raga has to have a minimum of 5 swaras. However, Ragas with fewer notes have been invented/discovered. The contemporary singer and composer Dr. Balamuralikrishna is famous for his Raga creations that have only three or four notes.

The reason why Indian Raga music sounds the way it does is because of the special treatment that is given to the seven notes and the use of microtones. The microtones are touched upon by using various techniques to ornament the notes, known as “gamaka,” “meend” etc.

Learning where to stress a note, where to ornament it, which one to give importance to, and which one needs to be gently caressed with a feather, so as to just give a hint of it, are things that can only be learned from a teacher and through a lot of listening.

A demonstration of some of what has been discussed above is provided in some enjoyable videos by Rama Varma, who discusses the Raga Shankarabharnam, a major raga of Carnatic music. He uses the word “gamakam” which refers to note ornamentation in Carnatic music.

Though different types of gamakas/gamakams are used in Carnatic and Hindustani music, what Rama Varma says is useful in understanding how notes can be differently ornamented and stressed in Ragas in general. A gamakam is also sometimes said to be an “oscillation” of a note.

Pitch in Indian Classical Music

Here is a little more technical detail about pitch for those who are interested:

In practice, the human voice is limited to a certain range of keys (but this is quite a wide range).

With reference to Hindustani music, people tend to describe their pitch with reference to harmonium keys. So you may hear someone say, for example, that their pitch is “kaali chaar,” i.e. black four. That means that’s where they are comfortable singing their first Sa.

The word “safed” refers to white keys.

In the Carnatic system, a unit of measurement called “kattai” is used to refer to pitch. There are also half kattais. Half kattais indicate semi-tones (the black keys on a keyboard)

Below is a comparative pitch chart :

Carnatic Music	Hindustani Music	Western Music
Kattai 6	Mandra Safed 6 (Low)	A (Low)
Kattai 6 1/2	Mandra Kali 5	A#
Kattai 7	Mandra Safed 7	B
Kattai 1	Safed 1	C
Kattai 1.5	Kali 1	C#
Kattai 2	Safed 2	D
Kattai 2.5	Kali 2	D#
Kattai 3	Safed 3	E
Kattai 4	Safed 4	F
Kattai 4.5	Kali 3	F#
Kattai 5	Safed 5	G
Kattai 5.5	Kali 4	G#
Kattai 6	Safed 6	A
Kattai 6.5	Kali 5	A#
Kattai 7 (high)	Safed 7 (High)	B

Indo-Pak Talks--A futile effort?

A day after the Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers agreed on more talks to rebuild a mutual trust fractured by the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the media on both sides of the border was abuzz with news of the dialogue having collapsed.

Neither Pakistan’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi nor India’s S.M. Krishna set a date for future talks or announced any concrete measures that might soothe tensions. The Mumbai attacks and recent imposition of curfew in Srinagar remained the stumbling blocks in a dialogue that went on for several hours.

Though Qureshi and Krishna agreed to meet again, the back-and-forth rhetoric both in media or out of it did little to assuage the tension between the nuclear-capable neighbors.

India insists further talks with Pakistan are only possible once Islamabad convinces New Delhi of its intention to prosecute the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

India and Pakistan are blaming each other for not achieving a major breakthrough. Both have taken closed-door diplomacy to an expectant media who waste no time in interpreting the hostile undercurrents from their grim faces.

In a press briefing on Friday, Qureshi said India was not mentally prepared for talks and that Krishna kept interrupting talks to take calls from New Delhi.

Former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh had once said “an accomplished diplomat thinks twice before saying nothing.”

The issues between the two neighbors – from Kashmir and Afghanistan to their checkered history – are too complicated and both sides have too much to lose at home if they seen to be compromising their stand. Diplomacy and dialogue are just means to keep tensions from escalating. Peace and normalcy are fanciful words for the region.

Has the goal of the India-Pakistan talks shifted to aggressive posturing and one-upmanship before the media, taking away from much-needed measures to bridge the trust gap?

Are peace-building measures while a hostile climate exists between New Delhi and Islamabad a futile effort at diplomacy?