Singular Music

 

This is a collection of short-stories Murakami published in 2020. The title comes from the last story in the collection but the one I liked best is the one depicted on the cover - "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey"  / Ichininshō Tansū (一人称単数).

It is a story that brings together a number of elements I love about Japan - the inclination to experience nature, the everyday courtesy, openness to absorbing and improving upon foreign music, literature, food and technology. With some effort it seems even monkeys can improve themselves in Japan :)

As with most of his books, quite a few of stories in this collection revolve around music, mostly jazz or western classical. Many of these pieces are completely unfamiliar to me, so my way of indulging in immersive reading is to settle down with the book on my favourite chair with a drink, a bowl of snacks (if KakiPi is nor available, murukku or banana chips will do), and to play as background music one one of the pieces that appears in the storyline.

In this collection, no less than three stories have their titles that indicate which type of music is going to dominate the narrative - "Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova", "With the Beatles" and "Carnaval". The last one comes with a specific recommendations - Schumann's Carnaval by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Angel Records) or the one by Arthur Rubenstein (RCA  Records)!

An enjoyable, uplifting read.

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Music from 'First Person Singular' / Ichininshō Tansū (一人称単数):

• Jazz - Charlie Parker - Ornithology - the best of Bird
• Charlie Byrd - Corcovado (also a hill in Rio, Brazil - home to the statue of ‘Jesus the Redeemer’)
• Pharoah Sanders
• Miles David
• Art Pepper 
• Thelonious Monk
• Beethoven Piano Concerto 1 - 3rd movement 
• Middle-class music: Mantovani Orchestra -- Percy Faith -- Roger Williams -- Andy Williams -- Not Cole King
• Max Steiner - Theme from A Summer Place (Percy Faith Orchestra)
• Rolling Stones - “(I can't get no) Satisfaction"
• Byrd - “Mr.Trambourine Man”
• Temptations - “My Girl”
• Righteous Brothers - “You've lost that lovin’ feelin’
• Beach Boys - “Helping Rhonda”
• Diana Ross
• Supremes
• Classical - Bruckner - 7th symphony, 3rd movement / 9th symphony 
• Richard Strauss
• Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet 
• Schumann - Carnaval -- by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Angel records) or Arthur Rubenstein (RCA)
• Bach - Goldberg variations + well tempered clavier
• Beethoven - late piano sonatas + third Concerto 
• Folks Crusaders - “I only live twice”

Glimpses of Bangkok

 

It was good to return to the Brahma temple in downtown Bangkok after a few years. I missed a few shrubs and trees that once stood in the area now thronging with people - worshippers, onlookers, curious tourists - all watching the dancers swaying to the rhythms of cymbals and prayer songs. 

Not too far from Erawan Brahma shrine on Rama-I road, Lumpini district is the "Sri Maha Mariamman Temple" on Silom road. A plaque outside this colourful temple informs you that, "It is a temple of Goddess Uma, consort of Shiva, built around 1879...It was in custody of Tamil Indian who brought Indian civilisation to other areas of Asia". Am I missing something here? ;)

People

Street Art

Cityscapes

Surprises

There are no stray dogs in Lumpini Park but it does have a number of 'community' cats that the park regulars like to pet. The big surprise here however are these lizards. When I first saw one slowly sauntering across the road, the first thought that crossed my mind was - 'what are Komodo Dragons doing here??' After crossing the road, it slipped into one of the canals and lazily swam past fishes, herons and humans practicing Tai-Chi in the park.

Turns out that these are the Asian Water Monitors. Though quite closely related (second heaviest lizards in the world), to the Komodo Dragons these are comparatively less venomous and aggressive. Wonder if they ate up all the stray dogs in Lumpini... ;)

I love "Conbinis",  Japanese style convenience stores that seem to have a fairly wide network in Thailand. I like to try and spot the similarities and differences between the 7-Elevens in different localities, the types of merchandise they stock, the shop layouts, and the efficiency with which these businesses are managed.

At this particular 7-Eleven on Wireless Road I caught a glimpse of the amazing logistics networks at work. This particular Conbini was going through a stock-check. Two staffers were quickly scanning the shelves with QR code readers that were no bigger than finger-rings, and simultaneously sending out an audio report on their observations. By the time we checked-out of the shop a carton of onigiris would certainly have been added to the next van or scooter replenishing the shelves we had emptied a few minutes earlier!

And the final surprise - the city metro network. Bangkok has three metro systems - BTS, SRT and MRT - but strangely they don't talk to each other! You can buy transit "Rabbit Cards" from any BRT station (THB 100 for the card, minimum refill THB 100) but for commuters and tourists the card cannot be used across most other metro lines. The Rabbit is valid only for BRT network and only two of the six MRT lines (Blue and Pink). Quite surprising for an urban mass transport system that was started as early as the 1970s..

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Difference - Komodo Dragons and Water Monitors - https://www.rekoforest.org/field-stories/komodo-dragons-vs-monitor-lizards-can-you-spot-the-differences/#:~:text=Asian%20Water%20Monitor%2C%20the%20world's,tropical%20islands%20with%20warm%20weather.

For the Love of Railways

 

Smooth, flowing prose is so difficult to find!

The last book I read was the 2022 winner of the Booker prize, and I did not like it. Even before i reached half way through I had got tired of the ghosts and ghouls, the violence, and most of all, by the cumbersome writing style. So I was quite relieved to find a recent book by Haruki Murakami.

"Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" (2013) has its share of the usual Murakami elements - a protagonist (TT) trying to come to terms with a troubled past, a tangle of human relationships, and a piece of music that ties up the threads. In this book it is Franz Liszt's 'Le mal du pays' (Fr. homesickness, melancholy) from his Years of Pilgrimage, suite 'Year I: Switzerland', preferably played by the Russian pianist Lazar Berman. For a change, this book has few references to food, and none on cats :)

One thing I liked in particular about this book is the descriptions of Japan's amazing railway network, and its stations. It gives you a glimpse of the kind of passion that goes into building machines in Japan. TT is a an engineer who specialises in designing and building railway stations - Tsukuru visited railroad stations like other people enjoy attending concerts, watching movies, dancing in clubs, watching sports, and window shopping. When he was at loose ends, with nothing to do, he headed to a station.

This brings us to lovely descriptions like this one - 

Shinjuku Station is enormous. Every day nearly 3.5 million people pass through it, so many that the Guinness Book of World Records officially lists JR Shinjuku Station as the station with the "Most passengers in the World". A number of railroad lines cross there, the main ones being the Chuo line, Sobu line, Yamanote line, Saikyo line, Shonan-Shinjuku line, and the Narita Express. The rails intersect and combine in convoluted ways. There are sixteen platforms in total. In addition, there are two private rail lines, the Odakyu and the Keio line, and three subway lines plugged in, as it were, from the side. It is a total maze. During rush hour, that maze transforms into a sea of humanity, a sea that foams up, rages, and roars as it surges towards the entrances and exits. Streams of people changing trains become entangled, giving rise to dangerous, swirling whirlpools. No prophet how righteous, could part that fierce, turbulent sea...The long trains, their arrivals and departures times down to the second, are like long-suffering, well-trained farm animals, systematically exhaling and inhaling people, impatiently closing their doors as they rush off towards the next station.

The engineer loves his work, but it is music - mostly classical - that binds his life together. So apart from Lizst, he has for company,  Thelonius Monk ('Round Midnight, 1943), Antonio Carlos Jobim, and even Elvis Presley ("Viva Las Vegas", "Don't be Cruel").

As with other novels by Murakami, this one too is best savoured with his selection of music playing in the background :)

 

Trek to Kedartal

It has been about two weeks since we returned from our annual Himalayan trek. After having done most of our earlier treks in the Dhauladhar mountains, this was our first foray into Uttarakhand (UK). How different was it compared to the treks in Himachal Pradesh (HP)? 

On a map the trail to Kedartal looks quite straightforward, and benign. It is a glacial lake located about 17km west of Gangotri glacier from which the Ganges river originates. Here the holy river is called the Bhairathi and it rages past Gangotri town, squeezing through rocky cliffs and misty cataracts, towards Uttarkashi.

It is only when you look at the near vertical mountains around Gangotri that you realise that the neat lines marking the path to Kedartal is anything but that. Running eastwards from the town, the trails takes you along steep forested slopes past Kedar Ganga to the first camping site at Bhoj Kharak (8km, 12436ft/3790m). 

The trail goes through a complete transformation the next day when you climb past the pine and birch forests, past the tree-line into grassy slopes of Kedar Kharak (5km, 14050ft/4282m) where the second camp-site is located. From here on it is all moraines - moonscape of broken rocks and boulders  - that leads you the lovely lake at base of three snow-peaks - Bhrigupanth, Thalay Sagar and Jogin I. 

Given the height of the surrounding peaks not much sunlight reaches these deep valleys. Even on the clearest of days the sunset happens around 2:30 pm. For the rest of the afternoon the campsites are enveloped first by the racing shadows, and then by pitch darkness and cold winds.

In the Dhauladhar mountains of HP, each trail has a character of its own. On some treks (eg., Kugti / Indrahar Pass) you need to carry water until you reach the glaciers, while other valleys (eg., Baleni, Minkiani Pass) there is no shortage of springs and streams to fill your bottles but snow-cover can be very unpredictable. One thing common in most Himachal treks is that you are almost always on routes taken by the shepherds. 

The treks in Uttarakhand, especially on the char-dham routes (Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath), there are no meadows or pastures across the mountain passes all the way to Tibet plateau. So there are no shepherds to be seen on these routes. What you do see are herds of Bharals or Blue Sheep with their magnificent, curved horns. These animals keep their distance from trekking groups but watching them without precautions can turn out to be dangerous. In a group that we met on our way back, a porter got badly injured from a rock-fall triggered by Bharals.

The trekking scene in UK seemed better structured and regulated compared to HP.  You are not permitted to venture into protected forest areas without a permit or trained guides. These guides, in turn, ensure that those venturing into the mountains are carrying suitable protective-wear and camping gear. These guides can be exacting too - many of our personal sleeping bags were rejected because they were deemed unsuitable for temperatures below -20C. 

All these checks clearly shows on quality of the trails - the pathways are clean and litter-free. No chips packers blowing in the wind or alcohol bottles littering the streams. Camping groups are expected to have toilet tents and pits for safely disposing food waste.

Thanks to the Char-Dham initiative of the central government the road infrastructure in this area is seeing rapid improvement. This also means that the newly widened roads are more prone to landslides and rock-falls. 

So, if you're planning a trek in Uttaranchal, around the char-dham area better be prepared long traffic jams!

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REFERENCES & LINKS

Char Dham - https://www.namasteindiatrip.com/history-of-chardham.html

https://trekthehimalayas.com/kedar-tal-trek

Kalidasa - Flights of Imagination

How does one express gratitude to an algorithm? :)

Social media in general, and YouTube particular, can lead you to some of amazing young talent. During the Covid years, there was this lady, Anuja K (Out of the Shruti Box), who demystified Indian classical music by relating it not only to popular Bollywood songs but also linked it to other systems of music in the world. There is also a new generation of historians like Anirudh Kanisetti (Thinking Medeival), who brings fresh perspectives to the way we examine our 'messy, bloody, colourful' past.

One aspect common to all these new content creators is that they understand not only the importance pitching to the right audience with appropriate tags and key-words, but also the need to keep their clips of just the right size - not too long, not too short.

This week the algorithm spirits led me to Navaneet Galagali who has a channel named "Rasaganga" for appreciating literature, poetry and music.  Perhaps it is my interest in Sanskrit that led YT to suggest Galagali's introduction to "Meghadootam", or the 'Cloud Messenger'. Written by Kalidasa, one of ancient India's greatest poets (5th century CE), Meghadoota, describes the plight of an exiled, lovelorn celestial (a Yaksha) who asks a passing cloud to carry a message to his beloved wife.

Sanskrit poetry can be dense and forbidding but Galagali introduces the Meghadoota beautifully in two short clips. Initially I was a bit skeptical when he started off with his Yankee accent but got hooked the moment he switched to reciting stanzas from "Purva Megha" (Eastern Cloud).

On the first day of Ashadha month,

he sees a cloud clinging to a mountain;

It appears as though an elephant

is head-butting the peak!

He welcomes the cloud with love and affection, imagines it be a sentient being, and requests the cloud to carry his message while remembering to take breaks along the way:

As you proceed, use the mountaintops,

as your resting spots;

And quench your thirst,

From the water in the streams;

For its a long way ti Alaka Nagari!

It is a long way for sure! - from hills and plains of central India, all the way across a specific Himalayan pass to the base of Mt. Kailasha where Alaka Nagari is situated.

Navaneet Galagali presents the poem so well that I found myself looking for specific stanzas in the original text. He has only skimmed over the first part of the 120 stanza poem and I look forward to the rest of his series on this, as well as his melodious recitations!

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The Cloud's Itinerary :)

• Ramtek (Maharashtra)
• Amrakuta (Amarakantak
• Alaka (atop Mt. Kailasha)
• Vidisha (capital of Dasharana Desha)
• Neechairna Giri (Udayagiri caves)
• Avanti
• Ujjain 
• Shipra River
• Devagiri - temple of Skanda
• Charmanvari River (Chambal)
• Dashapura (Mandsaur)
• Brahmavarta (between Saraswati and Drishadvati rivers)
• Kurukshetra
• Kanakhala (near Haridwar)
• Gangotri
• Krauncha Pass / Hamsadwara (Niti Pass bordering Tibet - north of Nanda Devi National Park)
• Manasarovar Lake
• Alaka Nagari on 'the lap of Mt. Kailasa)

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Meghadoota by Kalidasa (5th Century CE) - https://avg-sanskrit.org/avgclasses/Books&PDFs/kavya/Meghaduta/Kalidasas%20Meghaduta%20Skt%20Eng%20-%20KB%20Pathak%201916.pdf

* Meghaduta by Kalidasa - Ashadha maasa (part 1) | Navaneet Galagali - https://youtu.be/ilgqmfO6Sy4?si=ndbQS-DJjidY6A9G

* The cloud's journey - Meghaduta by Kalidasa (part 2) - https://youtu.be/O9JxBm4C1CQ?si=Qh7unO8WeASz5M0P

* Exploring the Geographical Data of Meghadoota - https://ggw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/168/1/1112-GW%20%20WESTRA%20M.%20%20Ma-thesis.pdf

* Blogpost - Jaladhara - https://karpuramanjari.blogspot.com/2015/06/

A Russian Realist in Ellora

 

What did Vasily Vereshchagin see in Ellora?

Vasily was a Russian realist painter who travelled across India during the 1800s and left us scores of amazing paintings that bring back to life a begone era. From the glaciers of Ladakh, grand palaces and warriors of North India, sculptures of the Deccan, as well as iconic images from the revolt of 1857.

A recent thread on this amazing painter appeared on X and it clearly seemed to depict a sculpture that I had seen and photographed in 2023 from one of the Jain temples of Ellora. It depicted a brightly coloured celestial perched on an elephant, and the caption read - "Statue of Vishnu in the temple of Indra in Ellora". Strangely, the same caption on Reddit and WikiArt as well.

I say 'strangely' because anyone who has travelled to Ellora would know that this particular sculpture is from the entrance hall of a Jain temple and that it does not depict Vishnu but Yaksha Matanga, the god of prosperity, sitting on an elephant. It is a stunningly beautiful, large piece of work dating back to the 9th century CE that sits at the entrance of of the rock-cut cave number 32 (Indra Sabha), opposite an equally impressive figure of Siddhaika Yakshini.

Vasily's painting also brings up intriguing questions - was this 1000+year-old sculpture in such good condition when he visited Ellora in the 1870s? The bright paints on the sculpture indicates that it was being worshiped even in the 1800s...if so who gouged out Matanga's eyes and broke his nose? Did Vasily leave any notes from his amazing travels to Central Asia and India?

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Vereshchagin 

* WikiArt - https://www.wikiart.org/en/vasily-vereshchagin/statue-of-vishnu-in-the-temple-of-indra-in-ellora-1876

* Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaSpeaks/comments/1eaxh0p/left_statue_of_vishnu_at_ellora_caves_right/?rdt=52981

* WikiMedia - view of the entrance Cave-32 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_Caves,_India,_Rock-cut_carvings_in_ancient_Jain_temple.jpg 

* https://www.indiathatwas.com/2014/07/ellora-cave-32-the-indra-sabha/ 

Solar Intensity Meter

This is one of the most fascinating analogue instruments I have seen.

Simple, elegant, rugged and functional, this instrument is called the Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder. It was invented in the mid 1800s, and the design remains more or less the same today. At a time when just about everything works on electronic sensors and wireless transmission, this equipment contains just three components - a metal base, a glass ball and a piece of paper. 

Once properly aligned to the correct latitude-longitude, the instrument simply catches the suns rays throughout the day and burns a line through the blue-paper (the "sunshine-card"), placed at its base. The stronger the sunlight, the broader and deeper the burn!

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REFERENCES 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%E2%80%93Stokes_recorder