My Good Morning Messages of Feb

Most of us are WhatsApp users. Just users or addicts? 

WhatsApp has simplified communication, even for not so tech-savvy people.  Now each one is a member of at least half a dozen groups.  Some are family groups, some are work related.  I used to get annoyed with the same posts being forwarded in almost all the groups.  At times, a message that you forward comes back to you in seconds!  This reminds me of an old saying "You get what you give" :)

I do get annoyed with these innumerable good morning messages that we get in different groups.  They are all advises and quotes.  I tend to believe that those who send such advises / posts, do practice them in life.  But few instances of interaction with the people who send the advises, revealed that many of them don't even bother to read those posts, but just forward.  I don't know what to call such attitudes!

Couple of months back I too decided to get into this good morning posts bandwagon.  But NO FORWARDS..  I chose a group with parents and volunteers of 'persons with intellectual disabilities' and everyday I created a card with quotes related to different aspects of 'persons with intellectual disabilities', and posted in the group everyday morning.  I kept getting responses once in a while.  Messages on the card are created by me.  But I created the background (using images in public domain), that goes with the chosen messages.  

I thoroughly enjoyed creating them.  I did miss 5 days in February.   Here are all the cards I created in February.  

A Competition with a Message

Last Sunday I witnessed a unique competition.  It was "Cook for Change Challenge", a cooking competition for intellectually challenged persons.  My daughter was also a participant.  There were 7 teams of 2 participants each and one person to support them.  

It was not ‘yet another’ competition, primarily because, all the participants were happy, relaxed, enjoying cooking and never bothered about the outcome.  I don’t think we can find such ambiance and attitude in any other competition.  These are the days of too many reality shows and competitions.  During the shows, cameras focus on parents and supporter's faces to highlight the tensions and anxieties.  Also the anchors do their best to make the participants tense.  May be they need it to raise their TRPs.   Only in competition like “Cook for Change Challenge", we can see relaxed, happy participants who enjoy what they do.  

Isn’t it we the so called “Normal” people have to learn a lot from persons with intellectual disabilities? Whenever I see many good morning advise posts in WhatsApp Inbox, I felt I don’t need them. I am seeing most of those good and noble habits demonstrated ‘live’ by my daughter and the persons with special needs with whom I interact almost every other day.   

When the prizes were announced and the participants went to stage to collect certificates / prizes from the dignitaries, it was all smiles on their faces, irrespective of whether they won or not.  In any competition we use to say “Participation is what is important and not winning”.  We see it ‘live’ here.  In most other competitions we see high negativity through jealousy, anger, desperation etc. etc.  

I’m very happy that the team in which my daughter was a member, won the competition, and got good reviews of what they cooked.  I don’t think, both the team members could comprehend what is “First Prize” or being “Champions”.  My daughter enjoy attention from others.  So for her, being with dignitaries on the stage and chatting with them was yet another opportunity to get attention from everyone round.  I don’t think she understood that her team topped and won the competition.  The winning “Wow” is for the other “Normal” people who supports the team, and not for the team members.  

The way the world around us is evolving into more and more competitive, and it’s becoming almost impossible for us to ‘learn’ from what the ‘persons with intellectual dis(?)abilities’ demonstrate through their lives.  The state of the society as a whole is such that it is very difficult to have osmosis of the ‘right’ habits to the ‘normal’ us.  

So I wonder who is ‘disabled’?  An inclusive society where people from one end to the other of the ‘ability spectrum’ live together, only can make the world more meaningful and fair to everyone.  

I would like to complement the Veruschka Foundation for organising the “Cook for Change Challenge”, thereby giving a strong message to the world for a more inclusive society.  Three cheers to Veruschka Foundation!!!

Participants in the competition

Picture Curtsey: The Cook For Change Challenge FB page

My Prayer

I grew up in an environment, where Prayer was an important aspect of life.  Morning prayers and evening prayers.  In evening prayers, all the family members sit together and recite stotras, sing bhajans and finally do Aarti..  Only later I realised that how powerful these sessions were, as they provided strong bonding among the family members.  Our lives were centred around our temples.  Ours is a community, fled Goa during the Portuguese persecution, and settled in different villages in Kerala, and Karnataka.  Going back in history, our community is originally from the Indus Valley, flourished on the banks of Saraswati river and had to move eastward and southward and found home in Goa.  I belong to a community that got worst affected by the persecutions by the invaders, both Europeans and Moghuls.  Fled from the Indus Valley to Goa, and from there fleeing to neighbouring states Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala, to protect our culture and customs.  The history says, our ancestors held tight on to the customs and culture, in spite of the cruelty and hardships they faced.  Prayer was and is pervasive and an important aspect of that culture.  

During the days of my growing up, have seen and practiced many manifestations of prayers, viz., meditations, different kinds of pujas, havans, participation in temple rituals and ceremonies etc.  All events at home always started with prayer.  Somehow, I was very inquisitive about the prayer itself.  I always saw a ‘purpose’ in most prayers.  Before the exams, praying for easy recall of whatever learnt, to get good marks etc.  Before start of living in a new house, havans and pujas are done to purify the house.  Though wedding is a social event, the social ceremonies are interwoven with prayers.  Before a football or cricket match, fans supporting the teams pray for the success of their teams.  As only one team can win, not sure about the fate of the prayer of the other team! Then there are promises, promising something to the god such as doing some specific acts / visiting some specific temples / monuments / places etc., if desired result comes out.  

Though I tried to read scriptures and understand the ‘essence of prayer’, could not find a convincing answer.  I just went with the flow. Prayed the way everyone prayed. Did the rituals and ceremonies as everyone in the family and the community did.  Participated in temple events and festivals, as all others did.  But still, there was a lack of comfort.  In early 70s, I got an opportunity to briefly interact with Swami Chinmayananda.  I was a volunteer in a ‘Gita Jnana Yajna’ swamiji was conducting in Trivandrum.  It was a knowledge sharing discourse for about 7 days.  In the mornings, Swamiji used to interact with people whoever comes to visit him.  One day, Swamiji had an interaction with the volunteers (including me).  He asked each one of us to ask one question, which possibly he will try to answer.  I took that as an opportunity to ask the question which was bothering me for quite some time.  I asked Swamiji, “What is Prayer”? In his own characteristic style, he told me first that he was happy that this question was asked.  Here is the essence of what Swamiji said.  “Prayer is nothing but ‘Surrender’; surrender your ego, surrender yourself.  Irrespective of the physical rituals, get to a mindset of complete surrender.  In a prayer, nothing is asked, and no promises are made.  Prayer is not a barter system, where you ask the God your desires and you give in cash and kind for the fulfilment of those desires.  Do have faith in ‘God’, all pervasive god. And whatever comes in life, accept it with ‘faith’ that whatever happens is for your good.  Also, there is nothing like 'God fearing'; it should be 'God loving'..”.  

This answer from Swami Chinmayananda has not only given me THE answer to my question, but also sowed a seed in my mind on the way I started looking at Prayer in general and my ‘faith in God’ in particular.  It was not that easy for me to transform myself to a different thinking in my spiritual journey.  It was a struggle, and the transformation was not easy.  Over a period of time, I stopped asking anything in my prayers. I started accepting whatever comes in my life with smile, without any questions as ‘Why Me”.  Now I consider this event [interaction with Swami Chinmayananda] as something that was preparing me to face difficult challenges in life.

I get amused by how the ‘belief in god’ or ‘faith in god’ is generally practised by people around.  Most prayers seems to be barter systems.  In order to change the consequences of some events in life, people resort to mystic topics such as astrology and associated rituals, to change the consequences.  I started wondering how can people resort to such things, if they have ‘faith’ in god. Isn’t that a manifestation of ‘lack of faith’ in god, where by all means people try to change the consequences, and reward god with cash and kind? Sad to see that such ritualistic manifestations are on increase and spiritualistic practices are on decline.  

I love going to few temples, our rebuilt ancestral temples in Goa and our village temples in Kerala, where I have not seen any discriminations of any kind.  I become uncomfortable when I see people paying money (officially) to cut short the queues to idols.  Isn’t it temples are sacred places, where everyone should be considered equal?  I go to temples primarily to get feel for our culture, architecture, art, and feel the positivity.  Of course food too.  The food that we get during annual festivals days in our village temples in Kerala is awesome!

Coming back to the topic.  The strong ‘faith’ in God, manifested as ‘whatever God gives me is the best for me’ approach has immensely helped me to be happy in life, and also made me to face difficult challenges.  There were many occasions in life, where I would have collapsed otherwise.   That piece of advise from Swami Chinmayananda, is still the guiding principle of my spiritual journey.  Surrendering the self, NO bartering with God and practicing as simple life style as possible are the three pillars of my spiritual journey, in which prayer is pervasive and implicit.  In that process, I see myself drifting away from many meaningless rituals and ceremonies, and moving towards more inner peace.  

What is "NORMAL"?

I have been hearing the term “NORMAL” in the context of referring to people other than those having special needs. And those with special needs are referred to as “SPECIAL”.  Even I too refer that way.  After working closely with few individuals with special needs during past few years, I start wondering who is “NORMAL” and who is “SPECIAL”.  

People who always worry about what others will think of them, are they “NORMAL”?  The “SPECIAL” ones never bother about what others think of them.

People who treat others based on their religion, cast, class in society, are they “NORMAL”? The “SPECIAL” ones have no idea about religion, caste and creed.

People who treat others with biases, are they “NORMAL”? The “SPECIAL” ones love everyone the same way.

People who consider some types of work as ‘low’, are they “NORMAL”? The “SPECIAL” ones consider all types of work with same respect.  We learn ‘Dignity of labour’ from them.

People who impose etiquettes originated from certain cultures, are thy “NORMAL”? The “SPECIAL” ones behave what they are comfortable with.  As far as it doesn’t hurt others physically or their behaviour doesn’t become vulgar, why should we force them to behave in a manner which a certain group of people feel ‘correct’.   

These days most of us keep getting good morning messages in WhatsApp groups, with advises, quotes, good practices etc. etc.  People who just forward such messages (at times very biased / sceptical), are they “NORMAL”?  When I analyse the actions of those people considering the meaning of such messages from them, they don’t go together. 

These days I have stopped watching news channels in TV, also hardly read news papers, as it is very difficult to differentiate between ‘news’ and ‘stories’. Those who propagates stories in the name of ‘news’, are they “NORMAL”?

People often play mind games and hit below the belt to those with whom they act as if they are very ‘close’.  Are they “NORMAL”?

I have no problem calling those with special needs “SPECIAL”.  But I have problem, calling everyone else “NORMAL”. 

Rhythm - A powerful medium for honing skills of "special" individuals

I have been fascinated by how rhythm helps in improving skills in individuals with neuro-developmental disabilities such as Autism, intellectual disabilities and Downs Syndrome.  I am convinced that rhythm exercises can make the Neurons work harder and communicate among different parts of the brain, leading to improvements in many faculties.  A case study of how rhythm exercises helped develop 'sense of rhythm' leading to improved quality of tabla playing by a developmentally disabled person is presented in this post.   

It is little more than an year and half I started working with Anand, an intellectually challenged individual, who has been learning Tabla for many years.  We were setting up a music initiative 'Tarang' under Yash Charitable Trust, with Aarti doing vocal, Pratibha playing Sitar and Anand on Tabla.  I have observed that Anand is able to play many 'kayadas' and 'thekhas' of quite a few 'taals'.  When tried to play along with vocal, I could see Anand's struggle.  I felt that the struggle is due to not having a 'sense of rhythm' within.  Because of this, Anand was finding it difficult to sync with the rhythm of singing.  Initially Anand went on playing Tabla, irrespective of what is rendered by the vocalist.  The video clip below (April 2016) demonstrates this.  

To address this problem, we started with rhythm exercises every week, and asked Anand to practice rhythm exercises regularly.  Rhythm being central to any genre of music, and such a powerful medium for enabling different parts of brain, I persisted with rhythm exercises with all the team members of Tarang.  The main objective was to instil the 'sense of rhythm' within the members, especially Anand, as he is playing a percussion instrument.   The first change noticed was, with prompting Anand was able to follow the rhythm of singing for few seconds.  When his attention drops, he loses the rhythm.  

Five months later in September 2016, Anand was able to play Tabla with simple rhythm to a great extent, provided he is prompted by touching his body rhythmically, or showing him the beats while performing.  This improvement is visible in the clip below.

We persisted with rhythm exercises in order to build 'sense of rhythm' within Anand, so that he reaches a stage of playing with vocal by synchronising himself.  Anand progressed steadily and today Anand can sense the rhythm of the same bhajan that Aarti is singing and follow on tabla in sync.  The clip below (taken from a performance on 28th April 2017, in Pune) shows this improvement of Anand.

As Anand could get the beats for the straight rhythm with 'Teen Taal' (Pattern 4-4-4-4), I introduced a complex rhythm with 'Roopak Taal', where the beats follow a pattern 3-2-2, which is quite difficult.  Repeated rhythm exercises with different combination of patterns helped improve the 'sense of rhythm' within.  In couple of months time, Anand could play the basic Roopak Taal on Tabla and play in sync with vocal and sitar renditions.  The clip below shows Anand's Roopak Taal rendition for Aarti's vocal singing.

I consider this as a huge leap in gaining proficiency in playing Tabla as an accompanying percussion instrument.  It gives me immense satisfaction to see the way Anand grows steadily in his Tabla playing.  Support of his parents is a major contributor in achieving this.

What we saw here is how rhythm exercises helped Anand improve his Tabla playing skill.  But I am sure, the rhythm exercises must have definitely helped improve other functions such as cognitive and behavioural development.  

Jugalbandi - Another Milestone in our Musical Journey...

Last Friday [12th May], myself and my daughter Pratibha presented a Jugalbandi of Sitar and Bansuri at the historically important and famous 'Sree Krishna Temple' at Udupi in Karnataka.  It was a memorable day for us and a major milestone in our musical journey.

Almost about 3 years back, we never thought that either Pratibha or me will ever perform music on a stage.  After learning Sitar for few months, we have to give up her learning, as she couldn't move beyond playing plain notes, and couldn't find a teacher.  The stem cell therapy that she underwent has considerably enhanced her fine motor control and sensory integration skills along with many cognitive and behavioural improvements.  That has immensely helped Pratibha in her musical journey, by improving her: sense of rhythm; ability to grasp, ability to learn and remember musical compositions; alertness and attention span. 

After her stem cell therapy, I took the onus on me to teach Pratibha Sitar, with my limited knowledge in Hindustani Classical Music and Sitar, based on my two years of learning Sitar.  The way how Pratibha was taking interest and showing progress, has encouraged me to push her further.  Though I started learning Bansuri, hardly found quality time for practice.  Pratibha started getting stages for performance, and I focussed on preparing her for performing, as she was gaining confidence after each stage performance.   Finding a teacher to teach Pratibha Sitar was a great relief, as that helped me to start focussing on my Bansuri practice.  

"Tarang" is a music initiative that I drive, where developmentally disabled individuals sing as well as play instruments.  When we planned a one hour stage performance by Tarang members, it was decided to make it "inclusive", in order to emphasise that the developmentally disabled individuals too are part of community, just like any others.  To give an emphasis to 'inclusion' Pratibha's individual performance with Sitar was planned as a Jugalbandi with me performing Bansuri with her.  Learning, planning, practicing and performing the Jugalbandi with Pratibha was an awesome experience for me.  

This is a major milestone in our musical journey.  It was not easy for both of us. Whenever the rhythm drags, I could give clues to Pratibha through Bansuri.  We had combinations of repeating taans alternatively on Sitar and Bansuri, sharing taans by doing parts, playing Bansuri in different octave than what is played on Sitar to give better effects etc.  I was very happy to see how alert Pratibha was to wait for me to complete and then join for playing together, at the right beat on the rhythm.   Yes, there were slippages and scope for lots of improvements.  We are working on that. 

Thanks to our gurus, Smt Aparna Deodhar, Pratibha's Sitar guru and Sri Himanshu Nanda, my Bansuri Guru, for their whole-hearted support and encouragement.  

In a span of one month, we performed the Jugalbandi on three stages, two for Tarang, and the last one at the historically famous Sreekrishna temple complex, in Udupi, Karnataka.  Both of us immensely enjoyed performing.  Considering the situation 3 years back, the feeling of 'we performing together' is yet to sink in.  Yes, it is a dream come true...   

Here is the video recording of our performance in Udupi.

We discovered many areas of improvement for both of us.  We are practicing and striving to improve quality of our music.  

Why 'Ga' and why not 'Ma'?

Couple of days back my daughter started learning raag Bhupali [called as Mohanam in Carnatic music].  She has been learning raag Durga [called Shuddha Saveri in Carnatic music] for the past 3 months.  Just to make her understand the notes of Bhupali, told her to replace the note "Ma" in Durga to "Ga" to get Bhupali.  That's when she started asking this persistent question, Why 'Ga' Bappa?  A very difficult question to answer.  Her Sitar teacher made her play the notes of Bhupali, in ascending and descending orders, for her to get comfort.  It took her few sessions to get over the 'Ma' and play 'Ga'.  

I was struggling within myself on how to make her understand the differences in raagas.  I got hold of few audios / videos of Bhupali and Durga [vocal as well as instrumental], and made her listen to them quite a few times, and get feel for the two raagas and the differences.  

According to music therapists, raag Durga is supposed to give a 'joyful' (आनंद) mood and help in dispelling depression, and ushering in positivity and in addition to renewing the energy centres in the body.  While raag Bhupali is supposed to give a feeling of 'Shant' (शांत) i.e., Serene, Quite and Peaceful.. So changing of note "Ma" to "Ga" changes the mood from आनंद to शांत.  

Now the big question in front of me is, how to measure these effects, claimed by music therapists? Want to do a small experiment, where I want to measure the effect of these two raagas on people, especially those with neudo-developmental disorders.  

Here are two hindi film songs one based on Bhupali and the other based on Durga.  One of my all time favourite song "Sayonara.. Sayonara.." from the movie 'Love in Tokyo', is based on raag Bhupali.  

The song बृंदावन का कृष्णा कनैया (by Hemant Kumar, Md Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar) from an old movie 'Miss Mary' is based on raag Durga.  The music is originally created for a Telugu song, and then used in Tamil and Hindi.  Those who have an ear for nuances in music, might be able to feel the differences - 'Ma' in place of 'Ga', leading to शांत and आनंद.  

Now let me add here two lovely short classical presentations, one vocal rendition in raag Durga and the other Bansuri rendition in raag Bhupali.  I am making my daughter listen to these many times (of course, she enjoys too 😀), leading to, she imbibing the differences, so that, on some day, it can inspire her in her playing Sitar.

Raag Durga by Sushree Anuradha Kuber.. 

Raag Bhupali by my Guru Shri Himanshu Nanda