Literature Leap, Dostoevsky, Water Well

 

What makes one jump into the endless abys of literature.. This is a scratching question every generation faced. Looking back at the all the giants I have scaled upto with the motive of leading their core values. I took my most interesting turn in 2024.. the single best thing to happen to me is falling in love with Dostoevsky. I have always been a Tolstoy reader from my younger days. I connected, appreciated. But Fyodor Dostoevsky is a great new level of depth. I felt like walking down a well and standing at the bedrock with Tolstoy, looking at the endless bottom, while Dostoevsky writings are the vines from the bottomless walls, dragging you down, showing you the ugly truths of humankind. You suffer at the face of it and then cherish the knowledge.. and walk slowly up to bedrock, sit there, with a smile and gentle weep.. 

I read "Crime and Punishment" and "Notes from Underground"

I plan to read "Brothers Karamazov" in 2025.

here's some Dostoevsky for you.. 

• Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering
• Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
• Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.

Digital to Analog to Digital...

This never ending do-loop of paper to digital and back to paper and back to digital is a glorious journey we all partake, and few cherish while a few condemn. I always enjoyed the art of switching and constantly redoing the last few pieces. This gives a new clarity to the often lost creative juice. 

I'm like many of you, is well aware of the 'new analog wave'. I have been like most of you looking at getting back my Analog days. Right from recording music, to film photography. With music, while I love the programming on Logic Pro, Komtakt and similar tools in Detroit, I do miss my hot oven analog Chennai days. Where all I did was twist the microphone to my keyboard speakers or direct line to a tape recorder. 

Film cameras are doing a come-back, the grand entry with Olympus PEN and now the Pentax 17, I just regained my lost faith in humanity. After all the things we went through, we are still not insane. 

Now that brings this post, I have been constantly switching between digital diary and paper diary. Yes, I'm one of those lost generations, still keeping up a daily diary. Last thing I do before hitting bed, or the first thing the next morning. Recently I felt the surge of thoughts, poems, phrases, love letters to dead writers, come out of me. I bought 2 new empty notebooks to scribble out my thoughts. And in a surprise, I was reading few blogs and finally land on my own blog, and felt how pathetic it looked back at me. 

Thus getting back with my thoughts. I hope to keep writing here.. among the many places I write now.. 

Thought Changers - in a touch

Have you ever come across a person who has changed your life in a touch of wisdom!! Its a rare thing you will say, but from the ancient days, we have been taught one good lesson 'the seeker always get it'. I always tell this story, when people ask 'how can i imagine something' 'how can i pray in silence'. Imagine you are in dark, and you are looking for a torch. You know its on the 2nd shelf, but its dark, you have to trust its presence and search with your hands in the deep hollow, thats how you find the torch. Thats how you find your wisdom.

New York City - Cultural Collectibles

The big apple, The City never sleeps, but really!!!

It's a splendid place to walk in the busy 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue, which all looked like a movie set.

Ok!!! is it Okra or Lady's Finger?

This is not the biggest question, but I keep asking who started calling it Ladies Finger, when the whole world calling it Okra!!!

My elementary school taught me to call it "Lady's Finger"

Korg Triton

This is remarkably still as great Synth. Exclusively for the people who grew up in 90s and early 2000s, this is synonymous with the name 'quality sound', 'karma'. I often look back from Korg Krome to check if Triton is still the one, "the one". Yes it is.

One high level reason is, it’s not buttery. It’s tough, its synth hammer action, 64MB RAM, which is way too incredible for a dot-matrix display.

The special Korg Triton LE sounds that’s still used in most VSTs are the atmospherics sounds and the clean pads, though a sampled version from NX4, still its all the same family.
Before you switch try Triton.

Surrendering to the Beauty of Niagara

Niagara Trip

It was the most planned trip in my mind, specifically because of the driving thing. last trip to niagara was in 2008, with a bunch of colleagues and i found it to be a romantic place to be, thus my plans were high this time.

Getting to goat island was a trouble with parking and all logistics, but I enjoyed the time on the falls, the vast beauty of the the Niagara river flowing in to either sides of Grand Island and Goat Island, it was a magical place to be. 

Question to all travellers

I learnt a key of misdoing there, people around me and sometimes including me and my family were taken away by the process of getting tickets and strolling into some place before a specific time. In the end, I was always asking, did we felt the moments to the truest beauty of the place. 

The first day was on the rush and gush, so when I got back to Tonawanda for the night stay (budget hotel - Centerway, good for small family, homely, tidy and qualitative), i told myself, 'hey what are you doing, rushing so much, surrender!'

Surrendering to the Beauty

Next morning was our planned Maid of the Mist. I switched off my cameras and online updates, started reading the history bites on the falls park. when we got on the cruise boat, all I focused was the presence of the gigantic beauty of the falls. it looked like a monster as first, then the glass top of the falls shined like a massive transparent surface in the morning sun light, looked miraculous, more we got close, the only words you have in your mind is... though there are 50 odd people on the vessel shouting different words like 'amazing', 'wow', and a lot of mechanical shutter sounds, and pseudo shutter sounds generated by smart phones or point-and-shoot. when i was so close, i thought of a lot of words to shout out. few pals did the victory screams, I just wondered how do I put this in words. Can there be words? if so, whats the emotion of the expression? I only think of one thing 'Surrender', and as a human i don't have to say that to Nature. We have always surrendered to nature time and again. and this is just one such condition where you can enjoy a close encounter from a controlled environment and feel the power of nature.

When we finished the ride, i wanted to walk on the steps towards the American falls. It was the moment of ultimately surrendering. when i reached the top podium, i stood there few minutes just trying to get rid of all thinking, and just surrendering. 

When you get to Niagara, try these  

1) Walk to the mid-top of American falls using the step access from Maid of the Mist Dock

2) Cave of the Winds  - that takes you to the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls, with Hurricane Deck

3) Brisk walk or jog on the Goat Island, including the Bridge

4) Walk down to Luna Island, thats takes to the place between South of American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls