Top Down Approach: Never Works

I read this very nice quote from the book of Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond in her website "Bureaucratic solutions to problems of practice will always fail because effective teaching is not routine, students are not passive, and questions of practice are not simple, predictable, or standardized. Consequently, instructional decisions cannot be formulated on high then packaged and handed down to teachers" which is from her book The Right to Learn

Meeting KJ Yesudas

As i was waiting at Gate D10 at LaGuardia Airport, i thought I will go and get a cup of coffee. While waiting in the line to pay for my coffee I saw KJ Yesudas walking with his traditional white dress and i smiled at him and he smiled back at me. I couldn't resist and went and talked to him. Since i had to pay for my coffee, he told me that he is at gate D6. After paying for my coffee, i went and talked to him.

It was a very pleasant conference. I told him that his is a "theiveega kural", meaning divine voice. He was curiously asking me about my research related to the hard disk drive. When i told him currently we are working on a problem he commented that in science a problem is not the problem in the manner in which we refer to it in everyday life, but rather a problem whose solution is not yet there.

He said that it was mostly God's gift that he is able to sing. He was telling me about the meaning of word "kadavul".

Of the many songs i have in my collection, i could only mention the following three to him

1. Theivam thantha veedu
2. Mandhiram idhu mandhiram
3. Neeyum bommai, naanum bommai

Actually I told him about a "sirappu thenkinam" i heard when I was a 8 years old on vividh bharathi, in 1982 and referred to him about a comment he made about the song that his son vinod likes. He told me it was "En iniya pon nilave".
Usually i don't fly out of LaGuardia, as the flights invariably get delayed there. I am thankful that I did chose LGA this time around.

First Email

This is our one year olds' first email, sort of :-)
eeeeeeefvf nfffffffmhy khhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,
dcbnffffffffffffffffffvvvvvvvnv
PS: Actually he was helping his mom when she was writing one.

Existence

Sri Govinda Bhagavad Pada: What brings you here?

Sankara: I come to you seeking refuge, to resolve the enigma of existence.

Sri Govinda Bhagavad Pada: With this mortal body how can you cross the ocean of existence?

Sankara: 'Body' is subject to birth and death, not Atman. The unreal has no existence, the real never ceases to exist.


(From the movie Adi Sankaracharya by GV Iyer)

fir chhidee raat baat fulon kee

I have always felt that Khayyam's music sort of pinches my heart like no other music. Only some ilayaraja songs do that to me, but most of Khayyam's songs do it. Recently I have been continuosly listening to the song Phir Chiri Raat baat poolonki. I really like the flowers on the hair of women. To me it is not something that is symbol of some status. To me it is very etheral. I like smells of things and people and flowers.

I stay in a place where i can't get jasmine to be handed over to my wife. What a pity? Till then

फिर छिड़ी रात बात फूलों की
रात हैं या बरात फूलों की

फूल के हार, फूल के गजरे
शाम फूलों की, रात फूलों की

आप का साथ साथ फूलों का
आप की बात बात फूलों की

फूल खिलते रहेंगे दुनिया मी
रोज निकलेगी, बात फूलों की

नज़ारे मिलाती है, जाम मिलते है
मिल रही है, हयात फूलों की

ये महकती हुयी गजल मखदुम
जैसे सेहरा मी, रात फूलों की