Tauktae

Looks like a Van Gogh? - a painting sequel to the Starry Night perhaps? It's actually a projection of wind-speeds visualised by the big data cats at earth.nullschool. This particular one shows Cyclone Tauktae hitting Gujarat square in the jaw a few days ago.

Tauktae means "lizard" in Burmese and is just one of the random names chosen from an annual basket of options prepared by the met department - IMD. In this instance the name seemed rather appropriate - this cyclone has been constantly changing its colours like a chameleon while racing thousands of kilometres across the Arabian Sea.

According to a report: "Tauktae has been intensifying very rapidly. From a depression formed in the southeast Arabian Sea on May 14 morning, it strengthened into a very severe cyclonic storm -VSCS - by the early hours of May 16.. Any tropical cyclone requires energy to stay alive. This energy is typically obtained from warm water and humid air over the tropical ocean. Currently, sea water up to depths of 50 metres has been very warm, supplying ample energy to enable the intensification of Cyclone Tauktae."

And what a build-up of energy it has been! IMD seems surprised by the way in which this tropical cyclone intensified. On 16 May it swept past Kerala, damaging coastal roads and homes, taking two lives it its wake. The windspeed then climbed to 114 mph off the coast of Mumbai and but by the time it hit Diu in Gujarat it was roaring at over 180 kmph. The lives lost in this section was the highest - over 80 oil-rig workers employed by the ONGC are reported dead or missing.

For an event unfolding about 2000 km away, this cyclone has had a surprisingly strong impact in the Delhi area as well. Yesterday was the most unusual summer day.  At a time of the year when the day temperatures hover around 45C with hot dry wind blowing in from the Thar desert, turning the city into an oven, what we got instead was cool, refreshing rain. Not a passing shower that evaporated as soon as it it the ground but rains that went on and on, for a whole day and a night. For the first time in 70 years, temperatures hit a record low of 23.8C for the month of May.

This came as a bit of a relief to those who have been working our Covid hospitals, wearing stuffy all day. The Covid Second Wave also seems to have eased in North India with a sharp fall in infections and increased availability of spare hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and medicines.

Meanwhile, as Cyclone Takutae ebbs, another kind of second wave in brewing on the eastern side, next to the Andaman Islands. This one is called Cyclone Yaas and let us hope the Bay of Bengal has less energy to spare for feeding another super cyclone!

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LINKS & REFERENCES

- https://mausam.imd.gov.in/imd_latest/contents/cyclone.php

- https://www.indiatoday.in/cities/delhi/story/delhi-records-coldest-may-cyclone-tauktae-cause-heavy-rainfall-1804625-2021-05-20

- https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-in-cyclone-tauktae-a-continuing-new-trend-from-the-arabian-sea-7317913/

- https://indianexpress.com/article/india/cyclone-tauktae-live-tracking-gujarat-maharashtra-7319493/

- https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/environment/tall-waves-lash-west-coast-as-cyclone-tauktae-dashes-to-make-landfall-in-gujarat-76945

- https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/science/cyclone-taukte-live-updates-taukte-extremely-severe-cyclonic-storm-imd-issues-alert-impact-on-mumbai-gujarat/2253205/

- https://indianexpress.com/article/india/cyclone-yaas-west-bengal-odisha-7321599/

Murakami and All That Jazz

Each time I finish reading a book by Haruki Murakami I swear that I am not going to fall for his formula again. Just like Bollywood script-writers, Murakami too has a set of predictable ingredients in his books - a protagonist who loves eating / cooking, a least one cat, cocktails, jazz music, and a storyline that borders between the vague, the mysterious and the paranormal.

Men Without Women is not a full blown novel but a collection of short stories. It is, as the blurb, says pithily - "...about the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, brought together to tell stories that speak to us all."

Stories that speak to us all? I am not so sure about that, but then maybe I am just an outlier, a literary junkie who returns returns every now and then for his Murakami fix, to escape the dreary world of non-fiction.

What I love about Murakami's writing is the way it seems to anticipate and guide a readers sense of curiosity. I like the way it describes the familiar cityscapes of Japan - especially Tokyo, and most of all I enjoy the way it introduces you to music - especially jazz classics. As in - “His voice was low and smooth and reminded me of Barry White’s music...” At this point I can read no further until I have searched the net and found out what is so 'low and smooth' about Barry White's music!

In this collection of seven short-stories, I liked "Kino" the best. This one follows the oft repeated, semi-biographical theme of a guy who tries to reboot his life by setting up a bar, on a street behind the Nezu Museum. It is also the story with the largest collection of jazz classics.

Once again I have finished reading the book by telling myself that I am not going to touch another Murakami. It is a promise I am bound to break in a few months.

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LINKS

* Music from the book "Men Without Women":

> Barry White - Greatest Hits - https://youtu.be/Re_f1UOWyNg

> Coleman Hawkins - "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" - amazing bass solo by Major Holley - https://youtu.be/Ylf7s2_tOxo

> Billie Holiday - "Georgia on my mind" -- https://youtu.be/QkYt9r_B8Qw

> Erroll Gardner-  "Moonglow" -- https://youtu.be/yLWbuDFSZ58

> Buddy DeFranco - "I Can't Get Started" -- https://youtu.be/AiqLALvz8Sc

> Teddy Wilson

> Vic Dickenson

> Buck Clayton

> Ben Webster - solo " My Romance" -- https://youtu.be/mgBdid4aFgI

> Rock or Blues - Derek and the Dominos, Otis Reading, The Doors

> Clifford Brown's solos (jazz)

> Percy Faith - "A Summer Place" --(Greatest Hits) - https://youtu.be/DOko--B4CNo

> Francis Lai - "13 Jours en France" -- https://youtu.be/Qz6R9zEfzd0

> 101 Strings - All tracks - https://youtu.be/4Yd2PzoF1y8

> Paul Mauriat - Greatst hits - https://youtu.be/vEAiwmVkL-U

> Billy Vaughan - https://youtu.be/tUJPg3wa1LU

> Frank Chacksfield - Top tracks - https://youtu.be/VATF93NMujk

> Raymond Lefévre - https://youtu.be/B2M6FYWkB8A

> Montovani - https://youtu.be/e7gMxhVPgCs

> Henry Mancini - "Moon River"  - waiting around the bend, my Huckleberry friend... https://youtu.be/WZ8j-X1hq1I

> New -- Gorillaz https://youtu.be/uAOR6ib95kQ of Black Eyed Peas - https://youtu.be/vMLk_T0PPbk

* 2009 post - "Music and Murakami" - https://dinakarr.blogspot.com/2009/07/music-murakami.html

On Swatters

 

Long ago, a wisecrack noted that mosquitos fly amidst applause. This must have been before the invention of the electronic fly swatter. 

One of the small joys of life is to hear that sharp, sparky zap of an elusive, pesky mosquito getting caught in a fly swatter. This is especially true in summers when the critters seem to be spoilt for choices with so much of exposed skin, and somehow manage to find the most inaccessible point to dig in for a quick, bloody meal, and slip away at the slightest hint of a being caught out.

After one particularly successful swatting spree I found myself looking with much awe and admiration at my battery operated fly-swatter. Who came up with this brilliant invention? How much voltage does it take to electrocute an insect? What does it cost to make this simple, effective contraption?

The answers to the first two questions were quite easy to find - I leant from Wiki that the patent for this device is held by Taiwanese inventor named Tsao-i Shih. First manufactured in 1996,  the "electronic insect killing swatter" is essentially a scaled down version of a cattle-prod, a taser or stun-gun. Built inside its handle is an electronic oscillator, a step-up transformer and a voltage multiplier. 

Designed to prevent children from getting hurt, the bat's double layer of nets are electrodes that deliver a voltage of 1000 volts of more.  While this might seem like a of using a cannon to kill a mouse, the point to note is that the voltage output is controlled by a capacitor rating less than 45 nanofarads (nF), with a discharge limit of 45 microcolumbs (µC). 

What does this mean? I have not figured this nF - µC thingie yet. All I know so far is that a farad is the unit of electrical capacitance - the ability of a body to store an electrical charge. One farad is defined as the capacitance across which, when charged with one coulomb, there is a potential difference of one volt. A nanofarad is one billionth (10^9) of a farad. 

To put the voltage output of a fly-swatter in perspective, a stun-gun delivers an output between 20,000 V and 150,000 V ! 

It is also interesting to know that the cost of making this device in India (~INR 300+) is nearly double the cost in China. This is mainly because the cost of making the plastic components of the bat is more than double in India, making bulk imports a more viable option for traders. 

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* How stun-guns work - https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/stun-gun3.htm

* Electronic fly-swatter patent - https://www.freepatentsonline.com/5519963.html

* Teardown - https://tworks.telangana.gov.in/blog/electric-mosquito-racket-teardown

* Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly-killing_device#cite_note-16

White House, Black President, Grey Matter

A big fat book by a lanky ex-President. I have been seeing it in our bookshops for a year now but being innately suspicious of politicians - especially slick ones - I had flipped through the tome, and put it back on the rack. It did not seem worthwhile to spend time reading about the intrigues of a distant country. 

This attitude changed a couple of weeks ago when I came across an audio version of the book narrated by the author himself. Instead of sitting down with a fat book, now I had the option of listening to it while getting other things done. Now, after seven+ hours of listening I must admit that I am not at all disappointed.

Like any other accomplished politician, Barack Obama too is a great communicator who has mastered the skill of walking a tightrope - at striking a balance between what needs to be revealed to maintain a certain image, and what to leave unsaid.

Rather than a dry, clinical account of his first term as the president of the United States, the book deftly switches back and forth between two lives - the personal and the professional. He starts with the people who inspired him - writers, philosophers, labor organisers, and of course, family members starting with the values he learnt from his mother - "...how you could build power not by putting others down but by lifting them up".

Along the way you also learn about the peculiarities of the US electoral system - of caucuses, electoral colleges, the tussles between the GoP/Reps and the Dems; the "institutionalised procedural mischief—the Senate filibuster—which...would prove to be the most chronic political headache" of his presidency while lamenting the difficulties of getting bipartisan support in the face of "egregious pork-barreling, logrolling, and patronage-dispensing tactics Senate leaders had traditionally used to get big, controversial bills like the Civil Rights Act or Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Tax Reform Act, or a package like the New Deal, passed".

Yet what caught my attention was the way in which Obama describes the compulsions of domestic politics spilling over to distant corners of the world with devastating effect. The pressures of not wanting to be perceived as a "weak" president, the consequences of displeasing certain interest groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful bipartisan lobbying organisation dedicated to ensuring unwavering U.S. support for Israel.

Also while lending context to the way in which top generals try to box in POTUS, Obama refers to the long history of West Point, and, in retrospect, the not-so-glorious line of military brass who led the country into a bigger mess - 

"It was impossible not to be humbled and moved by the tradition those men represented, the service and sacrifice that had helped forge a nation, defeat fascism, and halt the march of totalitarianism. Just as it was necessary to recall that Lee had led a Confederate Army intent on preserving slavery and Grant had overseen the slaughter of Indian tribes; that MacArthur had defied Truman’s orders in Korea to disastrous effect and Westmoreland had helped orchestrate an escalation in Vietnam that would scar a generation. Glory and tragedy, courage and stupidity—one set of truths didn’t negate the other. For war was contradiction, as was the history of America." 

In what way did MacArthur and Westmoreland escalate the crisis in Korea and Vietnam? I don't know yet. If the current situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya is anything to go by, one can be sure that the art creating a global mess out of regional conflicts continues to be a US speciality.

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LINKS & REFERENCES

Obama, Barack (2019): A Promised Land - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55361205-a-promised-land

Seeking Solace in Music

The past two weeks have quite harrowing for many of us. The news of neighbours, friends and acquaintances losing their fight against the novel corona virus, aggravated by a certain feeling of helplessness that comes from not being in a position to offer real help.  

It has also been a time to reconsider so many things that we take for granted. The freedom to travel and move around; the joys of camaraderie, of meeting family and friends; the mundane act of sharing a meal, of taking a deep breath. 

At a time when thousands of people are stricken with the mutated Covid-19 virus in India, desperately looking for oxygen cylinders and ventilators, the very act of painless, unhindered breathing seems like something we should savour and relish with gratitude.

Ever since the lockdowns began, I had resolved to make a habit of playing the bansuri, at least once a day. This was easier said than done because, for one thing, it has been ages since I stopped learning at the Gandharva Maha Vidyalaya, and except for occasionally picking up the bansuri to practice a familiar tune, my hands had all but lost the tactile memory of the bansuri - its weight and balance, the position of the supporting fingers, the feel of warm breath being released through the instrument as music fills the air. 

It took me a while to get back into the groove. Initially sitting still with a straight back seemed as difficult as breath control. Then there was the difficulty of scales - while my fingers could easily get around the smaller C-bansuri they just could not get a grip on the longer, heavier\ base F-bansuri. The only way forward was to get familiar with simple compositions on the C-scale before trying out more complicated ragas and compositions. 

YouTube has been a big help with its numerous channels that display the talents of accomplished musicians. Many of these cater to folks trying to play the Harmonium or the Carnatic flute, but here are some that I found particularly helpful, and can be easily adapted for the Hindustani bansuri :

* Bhooma Parthasarathi : "Thumbi Va" - https://youtu.be/29J2GZ51DvM and "Kani kaanum neram" - https://youtu.be/q0-AlGyP41s

* Musician66 :  "Zindagi kaisi he paheli.." -  https://youtu.be/gu5JYiCm3tA

* Sargam Zone:   "He Ram, he Ram.." (Jagjit Singh) - https://youtu.be/wEovN0wE8jY; "Ye raatein, ye mausam" - https://youtu.be/FdTVIZsAFHk

Now, as we enter the second round of lockdowns to cope with the "Second Wave" of Covid-19, I have been trying to build my riaz into a regular routine by focusing on two ragas - one for the pre-dawn early morning (Raga Bhairav) using the base bansuri (F scale), and one for the evening (Raga Yaman Kalyan) on a regular C. 

The morning sessions have been especially magical. Sitting on a yoga mat on the terrace facing the east, even the simple aaroh and avroh of raga Bhairav seem to be in sync with the meditative calm of early morning with its the cool breeze, flocks of birds flying high overhead, squirrels scampering about, and the gradual filling out of light in the skies. 

It takes about eight deep breaths for the sun to transform from a sliver of light to a bright orange orb breaking free into the skies. Once the sun rises over a certain level some musical notes - especially the komal Dhaivat and komal Rishabh seem out of place, as though the right moment has passed, the mood has changed. 

It is then time to set aside the bansuri and  Raga Bhairav, to cope with the world of Covid-19 once again, and all the surprises that the rest of the day will surely bring in...

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* https://swarajyamag.com/culture/the-bhairav-thaat-unexplored-ragas-associated-with-raga-bhairav

* https://swarajyamag.com/culture/the-atypical-bhairav-exploring-the-evolved-ragas-from-the-family

* Music and Emotion - a Case for North Indian Classical Music (2017) - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02115/full