Dozens of ethnic groups, distinctive cultural traditions, hundreds of languages and dialects and music for comforting the soul and soothing the senses of the listeners! Yes, you guessed it right; I am referring to India – the land of unity in diversity! Music, as it is said, has the healing powers besides just keeping you entertained…

The diversity and richness of Indian music makes it even more acceptable and lovable to different audience groups. While the classical music renders a soothing feeling that originated in the Vedic India centuries ago, the folk music brings the flavor of the various diverse lands of the country. Compelling you to dance to its dynamic beats, the modern Indian music is a perfect amalgamation of the true Indian classical music and music from other parts of the country as well as world.

While the modulations and transitions over the centuries have obviously impacted the Indian music, making it even richer than ever, the Indian classical music still enthralls the souls of a vast majority of music lovers not only in India but also all over the world. The very first known reference of Indian music is found in Samaveda – one of the great four Vedas (the ancient Hindu scriptures). Samaveda basically has the enchanting verses, which have been rearranged and transposed to suit various rituals. The verses are used even today to perform various rituals. It’s quite solacing to listen to these verses at times, especially when you are stressed out!

From verses to Indi-Pop, Indian music is constantly evolving and getting richer! While the classical style of music encompasses Hindustani Music, and Carnatic Music, the different genres of Indian music encompass traditional, religious (verses), patriotic, sufi (Qawwali, Bauls, etc), tribal and more.

Whether it’s the Bauls of Bengal, Bhangra – the lively music and dance having its origin in Punjab, Dandiya – the dance oriented music of Gujarat, Ganasangeet – the songs that are generally sung in chorus and are mainly patriotic in nature, Haryanvi Music – the lively music of Haryana, and Lavani of Maharashtra, or the full throated and soulful music of Rajasthan Indian traditional music reaches far beyond just the ears. It touches the soul!

The road travelled so far

From the prehistoric rock paintings, petroglyphs found in the Bhimbetka (in Bhopal), and frescos decorating the walls of Ajanta and Ellora to modern art forms taking birth at the Bengal School of Art in 1930 – Indian paintings present a vivid manifestation that essay the grandeur and diversity of the great nation.

Expressions depicting liberation, societal and political condition, religious rites and humdrum of daily life personify the works of modern Indian artists like FN Souza, MF Hussein, and their predecessors like Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath Tagore Raja Ravi Varma, as well as others from distant past.

Amidst the growing influence of the western culture and beliefs, Indian artists retained their own flavor either by following country’s own artistic school of thought or making expressions that embodied a confluence of western and classical Indian forms, lines and curves.

In the coming days, I would try to provide you a brief about some of the prominent Indian painters.

Keep visiting.

The camera and projector are connected to a mobile computing devise resting in the pocket of the user. The visual information is displayed by the projector, and the nearby walls, physical objects, and other surfaces around the user, can be used as interfaces.

The camera would recognize and track the hand gestures of the user and other physical objects with the help of the computer vision based technique. The software programs would then process the video-stream data that’s captured by the camera and then track the location of colored markers at the user’s fingers’ tips. The arrangement and movement of the colored markers would be interpreted in to gestures. The gestures would then act as interaction instructions for the projected AI (Application Interface).

SixthSense supports multiuser and multi-touch interaction.

The American monthly magazine Popular Science has recognized SixthSense with 2009 Invention Award. Besides the SixthSense, Pranav’s previous works and inventions include ‘Mouseless’, ‘intelligent sticky notes’ that are searchable and can be located and then used to send messages and reminders. Other inventions that Pranav has made include a pen that is capable of drawing 3D objects! He also invented a public map that can serve as Google of the physical world.

Pranav has attained a Master in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. He further holds Master of Design from Industrial Design Center, IIT Bombay apart from his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad. Having research interests in Ubiquitous computing, AI, Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Machine vision, and Robotics etc, Pranav is touted as one of the best young inventors of the decade.

Written by Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead is a bestseller 1943 novel. The book was rejected by some 12 publishers before Archibald Ogden (a young editor with Bobbs Merrill Company) stressed on its publishing and got it done eventually. While most considered it too intellectual and controversial, the negative word of mouth too added to the publicity of the book of which thousands of copies were sold soon after it was published. Later a Hollywood movie was also made of The Fountainhead, starring Gray Cooper as Howard Roark.

This timeless essay depicting the struggle of an individual vs. society is a literary work that actually provokes thoughtfulness among the common individuals. Even if spanning across over 752 pages, the novel also epitomizes the best of creative and lucid writing that does not let its reader feel bored for a single moment! With every page, the story gets more interesting than before, leaving you spellbound and wanting to finish it at one go.

The protagonist of the story Howard Roark is a young architect with an individualistic approach towards life. Howard, despite being a brilliant young student, is expelled from Stanton Institute of Technology as he refuses to follow the same outdated traditions other architects of the time followed. Though many professors defended him and even headmaster of the school wanted him to continue studying at Stanton, Howard prefers to quit. Roark then meets Henry Cameron in New York City. The once modernistic hero of architecture, Cameron was suffering disgrace due to the fickle demands that society made and to some extent because of his own caustic personality. Howard becomes his disciple, and his ardent lover of Cameron’s work marks the beginning of the tough yet victorious journey of Roark. He finds love in a girl called Dominique and loses it; in competition he seems to be failing altogether; but in the end everything even Dominique returns to him.

And as they say, ‘all is well that ends well’. The Fountainhead is a story of a man who has the courage to challenge common conviction and to do what he feels is right – rather than just following what others say.

The Fountainhead is a story of power, society, and following your will, no matter what others think of you! Even if written in way back 1943, it’s amazing to see how the subject matter of the story holds true in today’s context.

Advised for a sumptuous reading!

Sometimes back in the winters while reading through some posts in an online forum dedicated to music buffs, I confronted with a young fan’s ire. My mistake? I just thought to correct him on some of his musings on A R Rahman as an overrated artist who still has a lot to prove to be called as a maestro – especially before the works of greats like Ilaiyaraaja, Pt Ravi Shankar et al.

Overrated or not, I am not interested to discuss it here. But, I strongly believe that musicians, like any other artists, are also bound by the factor of time, especially the ‘generation’ that they work in and the followers that they carry from their earlier efforts. AR Rahman is much younger but still successful because he creates music that appeals to people of today’s generation. I do not intend to say that Ilaiyaraaja or any of the yesteryears’ popular composers and music directors do not appeal to today’s youths. Of course they do! The fellow with whom I had an exchange of words ably exemplifies it.

My question is, can we ever compare and scale the capabilities of Mozart with Beethoven? Both are popular, and their humongous fan following from years apart prove the point. So, if Ilaiyaraaja is popular and is a master in his own right, A R Rahman is popular by virtue of the scores that strike a chord with people today.

BAFTA, Grammy, National and Academy Awards might not always prove one’s capabilities. Still, ARR has won them all, and enjoys a global recognition that would make any celebrity today envious of this stature.

Ilaiyaraaja, Pt Ravi Shankar and others are great, but their greatness doesn’t belittle the achievement of ARR and his capabilities. I enjoy the depth of the tunes of Ilaiyaraaja, as that of Ravi Shankar, OP Nayyar, SD and RD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, LaxmiKanth-Pyarelal, or their younger counterparts in the likes of Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Pritam, AR Rahman, and of course, several of the new and old Western music composers. And I know I am not alone to have made this statement.

Perhaps the better sense lies in refraining from comparing creative talents. If two people have difference in opinion, especially in the case of liking a music score, let’s attribute it two just an instance of difference in ‘wavelength’ or mental state of being.

I bet it’s far easier than scathing the capability of someone and fanning a futile debate.

Google is unquestionably the most popular search engine. There may be anything that comes to your mind, with Google, you can satiate your curious soul with information on almost everything. But then the question is: do all the information that Google serves is fresh?

So far, it’s been a ‘No’. But not any more! Google introduced Caffeine search algorithm some time back to ensure that its users are delivered fresh and latest information corresponding to different avenues that web content is posted/shared in – videos, texts, images included.

The growth so far and the future ahead

The World Wide Web has grown tremendously over the years and so have the search engines. From the static websites to the more dynamic and feature-rich websites, if we have seen a sea change in the design attributes and eagerness to share and interact, with the passage of time search engines too have become more human-like with their abilities in recognizing needs of a searcher and the psychology behind every search performed.

So if, users’ expectations have risen over these years, search engines are addressing to their needs in equal effectiveness – and Google leads the bandwagon through creative manifestation. Today, if a certain user wants quick and accurate information on the subject of his/her choice, major search engine like Google is more than adept to deliver a solution.

Introduction of Caffeine by Google only adds to the possibilities.

With Caffeine, Google endeavors to provide quick and real time information to users. While crawling the web, equipped with Caffeine algorithm Google crawlers will immediately index the information that’s most recently updated.

This way the common user gets quicker and easier access to the information that is much closer to the latest than ever.

Decoding Caffeine

With Caffeine, Google analyzes the web in smaller portions and quickly implement the latest changes the crawler finds anywhere on the web. The indexing is done regularly and globally, therefore you get information that is much fresher than ever.

Caffeine lets the Google index webpages on a vast scale. Truly speaking, Caffeine is capable of processing hundreds of thousands of pages simultaneously every second. It’s the amazingly faster speed of processing that helps Google Caffeine bring a drastic change to the way information is accessed online and presented to the user who has performed a search.

Google Caffeine is no less than a boon for the global businesses requiring real time information and updates for their growth and efficient running. Caffeine has also facilitated the way information could be accessed easily. From news, images to information on weather forecast, just any information – recent and able to influence your decision – would now be available to be accessed at the click of a mouse.

Google, the leader amongst search engines, with its introduction of Caffeine is expected to further heat up the already highly competitive domain of search engine marketing and related business.

Internet marketing projects would soon require lot more dynamic steps to follow! SEO guys, are you listening?

This is just extraordinary! A boy, just 8 years old, is all set to give a rush to all those older and established painters. He is a child prodigy who is dubbed as Mini Monet owing to his extraordinary paintings at such a young age. Yes, I am talking about Kieron Williamson who is grabbing the headlines of online and offline media due to his gifted skill in painting.

His astounding work has made people all around to revere his creation and compare them with that of Monet.

Little Kieron resides in the Norfolk of eastern England with mom Michelle and dad Keith, and has already featured on BBC, international new channels, and various TV shows and newspapers across the UK.

While the entire media, press and the public are hailing him as Mini Monet, Kieron prefers to be compared to Edward Seago – an impressionist who also known to have a wide fan following across the UK for his dexterity in portraits and landscapes and also discovered at a very young age. “No, I don’t think I’m Monet at all, because Monet would do anything, do pictures of curly flicks. I’m more Edward Seago and Turner,” said the child prodigy in an interview.

The Mini Monet Kieron loves to paint cows the most. With the entire United Kingdom and the world looking up to him and eagerly waiting to have a glimpse of the child’s excellence and his works, the parents of the little boy seem to be more anxious and worried about his health. Mother Michelle is particularly worried about the stress the child might undergo due to the growing expectations of the world and media from her son. Perhaps that’s the reason why the proud yet anxious parents are busy creating a workable schedule of their child.