Another year rolls by..

This weekend was Jr.'s Dance school annual day performance. We rushed in and out of it because of the cold weather. She did make me proud by doing her best. Given that we push this kid to do Classical dance, music, saxophone, etc. etc. I was happy with the fact that she does all this with a smile!

The 5D Mark II usually takes shots seamlessly while taking a video, but this time there are gaps in the video where the snaps were taken. Managed to Collage all her still poses. 

Here is the video of her performance! I am sure the folks in India will be critiquing her dancing. For now, I am happy that her interest in Classical dancing is increasing over time. As long as she keeps at it, she will only get better..

and yes, she is going to be pulled with me to Yoga class soon. That should help her with the one leg balancing for sure!

One more year has gone by so fast!

Branding

There are elections in India. The only thing we were looking forward to, was to see the incumbent Congress party go. Looks like that is happening. 

We have been getting updates from supporters of different parties on the Facebook feed more than from any news media. This morning, decided to see what Google news presented for me and here it was (link)

Now for someone who is not that much into Indian History and knows Nehru as Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi as Mahatma Gandhi... 

Ok, I know the desi's who read this are going "not possible", but seriously! Today's American textbooks have three pages for Indian political history. Not much mention is there of the fact that Indira Gandhi, who gets mentioned as the first woman prime minister of India is not related to the Mahatma. People put two and two and come up with four!

In all of Indian history, this move by Indira to marry a dude with the same last name as Mahatma Gandhi, was probably the most brilliant branding or marketing idea! 

In South INdian families we stopped using caste or religious sub sect related last names post Indian Independence. Then folks started using their fathers first name as their last name, as "expanded initials". That is why I am now Sundar Narayanan instead of Sundar Iyer. My fathers first name is now my last name. Still it made sense in a way that we were all part of the Narayanan family. Unlike family names in the US, this gets to be tricky. My wife does not want to take my fathers first name as her last name. She was okay with being Sangeetha Sundar (which is how it works in India if a woman wanted to change her last name, she took her husbands first name!) and that also made sense.  

This is a common issue in desi families when they apply for a US passport. They all want to fill out one customs form and have the same last name but cannot agree on one. So the new trend is that the entire family changes their name to the old system. Either go with sect, subsect names or their Gothrams(lineage) in Brahmin families. 

If we ever cross that bridge, we should take a page from Indira and find a "nice" family name to change to!

The Alto Sax Diva..

That is my darling daughter, posing with an attitude when I requested a photo of her playing Saxophone.. 

We then switched gears from the Carlos Santana mode to Carnatic Sangeeham mode and here is the result..

She is getting better with more practice. Have to say a heartfelt thanks to Candida Connolly and Kadri Gopalnath for publishing a book that brings these almost 400 year old tunes to Western notation. Initially she was playing it staccatto and now that she heard the CD that came with the book, has figured out that the notes are to be played slurred and there are tie'd notes where she lips only the first note! 

It is an interesting experience for me watching her figure this out as well as helping her figure this out! 

A funny conversation after we listened to the amazing Kadri play Nagumomu..

me : you see how he just floats that note for a fraction of a second? can you do that?

Jr. : how long has he been playing the saxophone?

me : 30-35 years?

Jr. : Let me guess. That is what he does for a living?

me : yes. I think he is a full time saxophone musician.. not some part time bank employee playing saxophone on the side.

Jr. : I AM A BEGINNER! I DON'T FLOAT NOTES LIKE THAT APPA!

Well, that came out of nowhere! If I had only captured that dialogue on video, it would have made the videoblog even better..

Here's to my diva!