Aarti Nayak - the rising talent on the Indian classical music scene

Thanks to the live web-cast of the Music event coinciding with the Punar Prathista in Mangalore, a lot of us got exposed to the rising talents in the musical field within the community.

What amazed me was the huge number of high quality music talent that was on display - the GSB community is indeed highly gifted in the performing arts.

One talent indeed stood out - and this was Aarti Nayak, the daughter of Pundit Ramrao Nayak  Despite her youth she showed amazing control over her voice, and sang some very difficult compositions such as the opening "Srinivasa.." in Raag Hamsadhwani.  Here is the link to the recording of the program - definitely worth a watch.




She was ably supported on the harmonium by Sudhir Nayak who played some difficult pieces exceptionally well, and on the Tabla by the renowned Pundit Omkar Gulwadi.

I predict Aarti will go a long way. 

The GSB Community

For the past decade the GSB (Gowd Saraswath Brahmin) community has been in a stage of siege and decline. The community (which has Konkani as its mother tongue) is tiny - just about 400,000 - and scattered all over pockets of western and southern India.  So there is no single geography cluster where the community is concentrated - which makes unifying the community - and sustaining its language and unique traditions - very difficult.

Historically, any community which is less than a million strong and is not geographically concentrated tends to gradually lose its identity and gets absorbed into the local dominant mainstream - so there is a real threat of that "Indian homogenisation" happening to the GSBs within this century. Moreover, the turbulence witnessed at the spiritual leadership level in the last decade did not help matters - it sowed dis-harmony, and many GSBs lived up to their (dis)repute of being "Kokkes" or those who cannot bear to see others within the community prosper.

Which is why the recently concluded 16 day Punar Prathistha of the Sri Venkatramana temple in Mangalore was a water-shed event for the community.  It was extremely well-organised - and the unity and the spirit shown by the community was remarkable.  Many of the youth were also involved, and it was wonderful to see some of the youth taking the initiative to do live web-cast of the event for all the 16 days on the GSB community portal - enabling many GSBs from all over the world to participate in the function, and hence witnessing the possible revival of the community feeling.

I for one am now quite happy and optimistic - I feel the negativity that had engulfed the community will disappear, and the community will start displaying the vibrancy, pride and spirit that had always characterised the GSB community.  And it gives me the hope that the GSB community will continue to survive and prosper for many more centuries to come.

On Becoming A Good Manager

It was disaster waiting to happen.  I got over-ambitious and tried to prepare 4 dishes simultaneously today.  Trying to juggle the brinjal subji and the broccoli saute that was on fire, I dropped the mustard seed bottle and spent half an hour cleaning up the kitchen floor.

No doubt cooking teaches best the skill of multi-tasking under severe time pressure - and also helps understand one's own strengths and limits.  Not surprisingly, in my experience, women usually tend to be better managers - their multi-tasking skills tend to be fine-honed due to their greater exposure to cooking at home.  And I mean no disrespect to male managers, some of whom are also very good at cooking.

Which brings me to the other point - it suddenly dawned on me today as to why the worst couple of managers I have ever encountered also happened - paradoxically enough - to be women.  On hind-sight it is easy to explain - I know for a fact that both of them hated cooking.