Emotions

Have been watching and listening to old vintage music videos recently, thanks to some tube-hopping? on Youtube!

While listening to some DD documentary on GNB, Balamurali Krishna mentioned Salaamat Ali and that took me to this..

part 2 is here..

Thanks to the person who uploaded this. The music is just divine and his "lecture demonstration" in the first video just speaks volume of his mastery over subject matter.

Have seen Salamat Ali perform on Doordarshan when in school and remember it. Never knew there were videos of him performing when he was this young.

Listening to this in the dark with headphones on, simultaneously brings a range of emotions up.. butterflies in my stomach, an intense urge to just go hug that guy and cry, memories of things long lost, questions like "why did you leave me?".. even without necessarily understanding the words or their meanings.

There is so much love and longing in the way he sings it!

If only DD and All India Radio took their old archives and put them on youtube.. that will be heaven!

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Audio tapes to MP3

An old box full of audiotapes has been dusted out.

They contain precious recordings from 1977 to 1994..

Including the only tape of my childhood voice singing a few lines of "kandar Shasti kavasam", my grandpa reciting Vishnu Sahasranamam for me the day before I first left for the US of A, my grandma singing me my favorite Carnatic songs, audio of a concert where I got to sit on the stage (as Mic boy) and enjoy Lalgudi Jayaraman and his kids perform, etc. etc.

Most of the tapes seem to be deteriorating and I might have one chance to transfer them to digital format before they self destruct!

so the question is..

If any of you who read this blog in the US have converted Audio tapes to MP3, is there a product out there that you would recommend? (some kind of tape recorder that outputs MP3? or connects to your laptop through USB? and then you can import it into itunes?)

Please do let me know.

Life has been busy with work, ice cream, physiotherapy, listening to music, voting, enjoying time with the wife and kids, not particularly in any order..

Lots to write, but it has to wait. Until Friday...

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Excelling at your job

Physiotherapists know what they are doing! Can personally attest to it.

They measured my strength again today and my right hand was able to exert 45 lbs. It was 25-30 two weeks ago. I have to get to 80 to match my left hand and technically it should be close to 100 (me being right handed and all).

The hot wax works...

why, I do not know.. but it works and that is all that matters!

Get to lift some weights?! (which Jr. can do effortlessly, but I have to spend a lot of effort on), in this case 2 lbs (less than a kilogram)..

On second thought, am really proud of all the improvement.. from 1 lb to 2 lbs in one week!

Like the therapist says "One step at a time!" They sure know what they are doing and how to get you to make incremental progress.

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