About a week ago, I received an e-mail from Chiki Sarkar on a book on Hindustani Music. I google the book and came across a wonderful interview with the author Namita Devidayal ( journalist with the TOI)..As I read through the interview, was very charged about the books theme about 3 great hindustani classical musicians Kesarbai, Dhondhutai and Alladiya Khan..The marketing also was unique and fresh..using online communities interested in music..thought the whole notion was fresh. Also spoke to Shyam babu on the potential of a event since Shyam babu had told me about Dhondhutai..

i was able to speak to the author after getting the number from Deepak Raja ( eminent musicologist and musician). But the real fun was actually reading the book...it sketches out the life of Dhondutai whose selflessly pursued her music with her devotion and purity which reminded one of Carnatic doyen mami's like Vedavalli and Dk Pattamal and MS..She remained largely unknown beyond the core music circle but her life was devoted to music. The music also describes how her father nourished her career and protected her..as women and music never went together.. In sharp contrast was the glamourous and striking Kesarbai..a legend who made men and people quiver..who so desparately wanted to get over her past which emerged from Devdasi tradition as a bai..How her daughter and grand daughter are far removed from music and she kept them away from the riches of her traditon.. but also very curious why she slid into her demise after leading sucha  forceful life.

The third musician is the legendary doyen of the Jaipur Gharana..Alladiya Khan..who trained some of the legends..Kesarbai, His sons, Mallikarjun Mansur, Dhondutai a little bit also..Interesting how Kolhapur played such an important role particularly due to the King Shahu maharaj who loved music while is children preferred gambling...very important to know who plays the role of the benefactor..in 1920's I didnt know that the textile merchants were the benefactors..wonder who will be now going forth..

Namita herself has been learning music from Dhondutai since she was 10 and is a vocal singer but tried to make a balance of life, work, family etc..never gave her full..there is a genuine warmth and relaxed tone throught book but yet very alive..

The last chapter describes a journey to Kolhapur where Dhondutai spent her childhood and initial musical sadhana..The chapter is touching and poignant..The book evocatively describes the highs and lows in a musicians life..fame to obscurity to fame..also highlights how imperative it is nourish and enhance our cultural roots.

Mus read

To see such purity in love towards a child is something that I treasure.
 The absolute surrender to our little precious Ahilya amazes me.
The happiness and joy I see in you as you offer yourself to our little baby invigorates and inspires me.
grateful to such moments and all the mothers in the Universe

Before one learns to love this or that, one needs to learn to Love...
       Once you learn to Love, it will not be possible for you to Love this
             and hate that... Once you learn to Love, then all you can do is Love...
                  When you learn to Love, you no longer know how to hate. And
                          you also learn that Love is not about standing by in the time of
                                  need... It is about standing by to make sure that you conquer the need
                                       or others to stand by you... Love is about making not a single
                                                 compromise in your way, as you surrender every other need  that  you
  have in order to manifest the Good, the True and the Beautiful in
        everything that you are able and unable to touch!

The words above are not mine but an amazing person I know. Now that is such a beautiful, powerful map of love. Now we all need to walk the territory

An excellent book is coming out and am dying to read it.  Ram Guha is a brilliant historian/ academican/ scholar/ journalist/ writer/ intellectual. Also a engaging style of writing. I first read his book A Corner of a Foreign Field and loved the integration of politics, society, caste issues, history and cricket. The story was fascinating and rich. Then a journalist with the Financial Times said that I must read the the book on anthropologist Verrier Elwyn who worked in the tribal belts of Chattisgarh. That book was insanely brilliant. I bummed it from my friends property in Anant Van. I met Ram Guha in Bangalore and I wanted recommendations and he suggested his two books of essays. Those are treasures to be read again and again. I love Ram Guha is because he brings History alive with scholarship. There is his opinion but always in the fringe.

I cant wait to read his new book. He asked me to come for the launch in Bombay but I will be away in Vietnam.  Anyway any one keen to understand the path that INDIA has taken since 1947 must read the book.

The other reason  I relish his writing is on Hindustani Art music whihc I have featured in my previous posts, his deep affection for the Gandhi Nehru ideal.

Go buy the book

I was reading about Mallikarjun Mansur , the great doyen of Hindustani Art Music and is life in the book Rasa Yatra. The book translated from Kannada by his son Rajashekhar Mansur is written simply, with depth and authenticity. Just like the man and artiste. As a musician, Mansurji didnt become a full fledged performer till he was about 40-45. He spent about 30 years just learning music from his gurue include Alladiya Khan saab son's Manji Khan saab and Burji Khan Saab. Mansurji was a staunch lingayat and devotee of shiva. He has given musical interpretations to several Vachanas of the mystic saint devotee of the bhakti tradition Akkhama devi and his guru were muslims. Another wonderful exhibition ot composite culture that perveaded the artistic realm the country. In my opinion one of the finest historians of modern India, Ramachandra Guha has captured that spirit so aptly in the below article.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2003/01/05/stories/2003010500410300.htm

As the respected Indian buruecrat Sharada Prasad has "so many of our well-known authors and artists move about with a swagger for they seem to believe that they indeed are colossi striding the scene." Mallikarjun, by contrast, "did not care to be the centre of attraction. He was content to be inconspicuous. He continued to look like a shopkeeper's accountant. He did not speak like an oracle. He rarely referred to his triumphs ... He was wholly without envy. His was an unfailing geniality and lightness of heart. His airs were what he sang. He did not put on any.

We will be working on a project with Mr Shyam Benegal and Rajashekhar Mansur on an anecdote form his life in June.

Currently in Chennai visiting Family. I am always amazed by the number of magazines that flow through the house in a month. Time, Newsweek, Business World, Business Today, Outlook, India Today, Week, Frontline, Good Housekeeping, Cine Blitz, tamil magazines..

Now every three days, the lending library visits the house and gives 4 magazines so in a month about 40 magazne flow through the house. The average cost of each magazine is about 30 ( Time, Newsweek skew the costs). So in a month there is about Rs 1,200 worth of magazine content but my parents pay only Rs 150 to this libarary.

For a moderately curios individual this is incredible value. There is no way I would buy 4 issues of Time, Newsweek, India Today, Outlook, Business World  etc every month. It would cost too much and take too much time. Also from a subscription point o f view I would maybe subsrcibe to one or two magazine.

But in Mumbai, New Delhi I have not come across this concept at all..To me it seems a no brainer to a customers.

I can almost see the HEADLINE:

Read Rs 1200 worth of wide range of magazines for only  Rs 200per month  

We should get a youg enterprising person to setup this business and we provide seed capital. We can also build a website where consumers can select their magazine of choice. Market this through the paperwallas and also local editions of newspapers. But this can spread through word of mouth because of the value.

So for each area we identify a young enterprising under privileged person to drive this business.  Even if he gets 100 families that is 20,000 rupees. So those hundred families need to be broken into 5 units of 20 families each. In each unit you circulate the magazines worth Rs 1200 so the expenditure for magazines is Rs 6000 per moth. Marketing and administrative costs would be about 3 to 4 k..So he can make about Rs 10 K per month.

So if you look at the opportunity - a 6 storey builind in bombay with 4 flats per floor has abou 24 flats or families. So 100 families is about 4 buildings. Now if you assume a conversion rate of 10% ( since the value is so easy to understand, it could be higher but lets keep that for starters) he will have to cover 40 buildings.  So even from a conservative analysis this makes sense.

The idea will be to franchise this across the India with a sophisticated backend in manage the supplier and customer relationships. Almost like Vichare couriers.

So across India we provide support to thousands of underprivilged youth to build a business..

My intention was to separate the world of Zaadz and PhoCusWright blogs but then felt what the hell. Ctrip China's largest private travel tech enabled consolidator is been very succesful and is market dominant with a marketshare of more than 50% in lodging consolidation. Now the China lodging opportunity is about 1 million room nights a day and there are only two major players in the game and one clear market leader. Analysts are constantly reeling out numbers but I have yet to come across an analyis that said why Ctrip and not countless others. I dont have the answer but atleast I can layout some factors to keep in mind:

Ctrip with such a market domination and lack of intermediary choice, one is bound to have high % of repeat customers. It is case study by itself why there are just two players addressing the estimated 1 million room China fragmented lodging opportunity.

First their revenue is cash collection business for Ctrip in China..so imagine the controls involved in collecting about US $ 90 million in cash. China is today a cash market for services. The micro economic structures are stil to catch up with the macro structures.

Secondly each booking requires Ctrip to call each hotel to check if the customer has checked in and paid. Ctrip doesn't collect a cent upfront for 97% of hotel bookings. So think of the complexity at the back end

Thirdly - It is a call centre business and e-mail inquiry business. So to sell 6 million rooms with lack of automation requires an incredible operational setup.

All in all, the ability to execute this nature of business is extremely difficult and there seems to be something in Ctrip team that has done it!!..

 

India is ranks 128th in UN report of Human Development Index which takes into account several objective indicators such as wealth, access to healthcare, sanitation, water, poverty, education. The ranking reflects the weakness of the Indian civilization to honor vital infrastructural in the past 500 years.

No one has done a ranking of Human Cultural Richness and Diversity ranking. Our hunch if that is done, the Indian Civilization would be up there with the leaders. Since there are no ways to measure subjective culture richness and deemed controversial, such studies are never conducted.

Our view is that the Indian Cultural and Aesthetics content that has evolved over 3000 years has much to offer the world. The importance of Art and Aesthetics among human has diminished over the past 300 year of scientific materialism and industrialization. In the post industrialized world and the information economy with increased digitization, we believe information, content and learning will be in demand much more than material goods. As masses of humanity address their material needs, they will search meaning in other avenues including arts and aesthetics. India with its rich repository of artistic aesthetic content is well positioned to service that need.

Our rich aesthetic heritage extends from folk traditions, classical dance forms, art music, devotional literature and music, textiles and fabrics, epics and myths that have come down centuries and continue to evolve.  And one of the reason our aesthetic heritage has endured is its inherent openness to absorb global currents from all over the world. Carnatic Music being played on the Violin, Rock Music in Bangalore and Indian film cinema incorporating Jazz, Beethoven.

The key challenge is the perceived lack of importance of art and aesthetics in our lives. That needs to change. In India, political leaders like Pandit Nehru and Rajagopalachari had a fine aesthetic sence which also reflected in the choices they made politically and in life. An appreciation of art forms and aesthetics allows a situation to be analyzed with another perspective. It also can move us beyond pure materiality.

 

Beyond the Stage

Anecdotes from Indian Maestros of Performing Art in Every Day Life

Directed by Shyam Benegal

India's rich cultural heritage has evolved through the creative expressions of maestros who have over time memorial practiced, performed and excelled in their forms. Even today each district, state in India even today have their traditional art forms for individual and community expressions.

Indian Art Music is one such art from that has seen artistic and creative exposition of the highest order and caliber.

As in any field and domain, what endures and piques human interest are anecdotes which becomes myths that over time legends. Every field has its share and so does Indian Art. Anecdotes tend to give an insight into the times, lives and philosophy of major artistes. There are also amusing, beautiful and aesthetic expressions that are found in the stores of maestros of India. Where their artistic exposition blends with day to day living and normal activities.

Shyam Benegal and Soulitudes ( for now) has conceived the concept that explores how great musicians, dancers of India lived, breathed and showered on music through the idiom of what is regarded as mundane activity and moment. The aim is to make a series of short films (30 mts) that explores different maestros integration of their art form beyond the performance stage.

Pilot Proiect 1: Alaap in the Shower

One of the greatest exponent of this art form in the last 100 years has been an humble man called Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur. The life that he led was marked by an astonishing level of commitment to the music, almost unnatural. The ability to become one with music in its entirety was the hallmark of the man. Literally to his last breadth he remained involved with music. The anecdote is that half an hour before he breathed his last, he asked his son to sing. As Rajashekar began the alaap, Mansur saab beckoned him lightly and whispered into his ear, that he could try it another way.

Another fascinating anecdote which is the plot for the short film is the one recounted in PL Deshpande book which poignantly, gently and with a touch of humor illustrates Mallikarjun Mansur love and commitment to music.

Mansur Saab utter simplicity made him travel by third class coach for concerts and one such invitation brought him to Bombay. During his visits to Bombay, he would typically stay with his friend PL Deshpande who lived in the chawl settlements in Matunga. In a chawl people it is not the habit to lock the doors, so Mansur saab opened the door and trudged and was ready for shower. In chawls, each individual room has a tap and there was steady rhythm in water leaking on to the basin. Mansur saab began his alaap while having a shower with water tapping on the sink as the taal. As he immersed himself in the music bathing, PL Deshpande entered the room and quietly removed the tabla and the jugalbandi began. As the vocal, table interplay continued, the Sarangi player also entered a little later and while Mansur saab was bathing and singing, an entire alaap played and Mansur walked out fresh and showered.

The entire anecdote provides such a light and moving account of Mansur Saab life. Shyam Benegal's vision is to bring this story to life through a short film whose duration will as long as an Alaap ( max 30 mts). It will end with shower coming to an end.

Shyam babu has spoken to Rajashekhar ( Mansur saab's son) to play his father.

Other Potential films in the series:

Bhriju Maharaj, Amjad Ali Khan, Shyam Benegal in a taxi ride through Hyderabad in summer

Like when Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Bhrija Maharaj and Shyam Benegal had received an award and after the ceremony the organizers left them high and dry to fend for themselves so the three of them took a taxi to the city and during the ride, Bhriju Maharaj showcased one of the most expressive abhinaya Shyam Benegal had seen as the taxi hurtled through Hyderabad traffic in the peak of summer.

Bala Saraswathi singing Hindustani music over breakfast in Mumbai: Very few people know that the legendary dancer Bala Saraswathi was fine hindustani vocalists

Other artistes could includ Bala Saraswati, Ustad Faiyazz Khan, T R Mahalingam, Kesarbai Kerkar, Bhriju Maharaj. The over arching theme is to set music and art forms in the context of ordinary life, not performance.

Funding:

Each episode will be shot in Film and the cost of the pilot project would be 80 lacs.

 

The blog emerged from my discussion with my wife where we discussed how my thoughts about travel industry which I have been fortunate to analyze and experience as an analyst with PhoCusWright covering APAC and Europe for the past five years. One of the advantages of being a travel analyst is that one can actually have 360degree experience of the product or experience unlike a semi-conductor or packaged software analysts. Recently after I authored a report on the Indian online travel market. The term infrastructure kept coming to me. As we all are aware the infrastructure has come to refer to world class airports, expressways, public hygiene, technology infrastructure. A country like India scores very poorly on previously defined "infrastructure". But let us take a step back and look at infrastructure that is built in the U.S for instance Las Vegas, where they spent $ 1.6 Billion to build Venice. Now in the back waters of the Southern Indian State has 100 miles of back waters criss crossing across the heart of the State. Now what would it cost to build that infrastructure. The cost of building the Jungles of India, the Palaces of Rajasthan and other historical and natural attractions could be worth billion of dollars. Finally the intangible of a civilization ethos, the colors, food, artistic traditions, wildlife, diversity, textile fabrics, historical monuments are the key reasons why people travel to India or any other country. With a 3000 year history, there are intangible cultural software applications that have value.

So when one analyses travel infrastructure, the term infrastructure needs to encompass a broader perspective of the term infrastructure to include regulatory frameworks, deregulatory environment and also the value of the destination itself. The value of the destination can be assessed by the attractions, the civilization heritage, the cultural dimension, natural wealth, lifestyles, activities, religious and aesthetic traditions.