Management or Technical???

“Should one need a course to develop or shape his own traits? Management is a born trait. Why pour money just to realize the potential in you?"-were my arguments before I took up (Distance)MBA with ICFAI.Graduates today want to do MBA, but little do they know “why”. The attractive pay packages? But that’s just a direct function of the current economy. I was one of those persons who hated MBA to the core. There were times when my parents showed an MBA proposal, I would just reject saying …”mmm...I don’t like MBA”.That speaks of the extent to which I was against MBA.Then, what made me change now?

These were the questions that changed my mind:
->How many years have I been in the IT field with just a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication?
->Have I done justice to my (BE) specialization?
->At this point of time, if I want to take up Masters, would I go with my Bachelor’s specialization or my career expertise?
->Would my personal life allow me to take up an MS (abroad) in the Technical expertise I am looking for with my career?
->Is there any specific Masters degree that would add value to my current work?
->Would I want to take up TCP(Technical Career Path) or Management?
->To what point on the Technical ladder is the growth not stunted?

Similar questions would have provoked people to take up Management studies.

The objective of MBA is to bring out the manager in you. Leadership skills, communication skills, negotiation skills are inherent in everyone and are the qualities portrayed in everyday’s activity; but are seen to remain dormant in few cases. Yes, people can and do become Managers without MBA.A Manager promotion can guarantee you career success , but does not guarantee you the performance expected of your role.MBA comes to light where there is a need and necessity to map your role with your traits. Though the traits are in-built, it’s the Management program that shapes you to perform your role better. Unlike other academics, MBA programs are meant to be vocational i.e., implement on the fly what is being learnt. That is precisely the reason Distance Learning, of late, has become the talk of the day with MBA.MBA is just not about Management. It’s all about managing self. I was really surprised to study such vivid topics as a part of my program which makes sense to everyday living. Time management, interpersonal skills, art of negotiation, managing stress are the qualities that are needed to have a peaceful living, leave alone a Manager’s post.

The trend for MBA has increased due to several other reasons. Most people opt for MBA for the following reasons:
->To possess a generic Masters degree that would support them change their domain anytime
->To demand for better packages
->To take a holistic approach, developing a diversity of experiences to fit in any place
->To develop self-confidence in accepting challenging assignments
->To set and meet personal and corporate targets
->Not to get married to the IT field which is so shaky

No longer would I speak against MBA or MBA guys ;)

Raga Identification

Combination of notes of one Raga with the bhava/emotions of another Raga is a fashion in film Music. Not to debate on it; the aim of film music is to reach the public and leave a soothing effect on the brain and ears. But is this the right start for an aspirant to identify Ragas? This is indeed questionable! Take for instance, “En veetu thotaththil” from the movie “Gentleman”. The pallavi is beautifully set to “senchuruti” Ragam.The BGM music between Pallavi and Charanams is tuned to “Hamsadwani” Ragam .Though it would leave an impeccable effect on the listeners, its difficult for a naïve person to identify the Ragas without any Carnatic background.

Raga identification is a challenge.

1) Traditional method/ A Music student's approach

->Students of music have a pattern to which they stick. Getting inducted to the various Ragas thro' Guru being the first stage, music students have to increase their vocabulary of Ragas and their vocabulary of songs in each Raga.

->2 songs of the same Raga need not use similar swara patterns. For instance, Thyagaraja’s "Namakusumamula" in Sri Raga uses "srmpns-snpmgrs".Whereas Dikshitar is known for his "pdnpmrgrs" sancharam in Sri Raga.Try to know as many songs as possible in one raga so that you get the complete raga boundary.

->Swara is the learning base for a Carnatic student. While listening to Alaapana or saahitya, try to convert them to equivalent swara and through the swaras, try your Raga identification.

2) Lay man's approach

Gaurav Pandey uses Hidden Markov Models (mathematical models) to identify ragas.
But is identifying a Raga on your own not a "feather in the cap"?

Greatest advantage for humans is the ability to find "correlations" and recalling "connections”. Everybody can say, on hearing a piece, this sounds like the one I heard sometime back. What is that you correlate is not known exactly; but you can match the tune and recall a similar tune from memory. As I discussed in the beginning of this write-up, it is a complicated approach for anybody to “start” to identify Raga from film songs straight away. Once a person develops interest to identify a Raga in a film song, his level of music understanding and appreciation for music would definitely be beyond a lay man. I can no longer call him so!

->Once you start enjoying Music in some form/genre, you'll mostly be open to all forms of music and not particularly hate any. In my view, Carnatic music offers easier method to identify Ragas. So, start listening to Carnatic music, not just hear, but listen and observe the details. If one’s interest is so demanding, he/she can get trained by a Guru. Age is no barrier for learning. If all you need is just enjoy music and take the credit of identifying Raga associated with each piece, have an open ear to Carnatic music. Music mates can help you here. On hearing to a piece of music for the first time, get your friend to identify its Raga for you. Say, you hear “Vataapi ganapathim Bhaje” and your friend says it’s “Hamsadwani”; just put this piece of information somewhere in brain, it happens involuntarily, you dont have to take effort. Now look for various other collections in “Hamsadwani”.You have a couple of songs in every Raga by different composers.Vinayaka ninnu, Gajavadana bEduve, Narayana EnnirO and many many more compositions are available in this Raga. Once you get the flow of Hamsadwani, I am sure when you happen to listen to “Unnoda vAzhadha vAzhvenna vAzhvu” from “Amar Kalam” movie, your mind would pull in references from the various Carnatic pieces in that Raga you would have listened to earlier. Ragas are so influential and conjunctive. I remember my Grandma saying that she started watching the evening Tamil serial “Anandam” on Sun TV” coz the title song set to Hamsadwani sounded beautiful to hear.

If you feel hard core classical Music is too heavy, you could start with JayadEva Ashtapadis, Ambujam Krishnan compositions, Purandara Dasara padagalu, BhaarathiyAr songs. We have a good number of such collections rendered by Unnikrishnan, Bombay S Jayashree, Sikkil Gurucharan, SP Ramh and many others. All these young stalwarts have a strong take in reaching Carnatic music to the masses.

->You not get dejected if you wrongly identify a piece to be set to “Abhogi” while it is originally in “Sriranjini”.The beauty in Carnatic music is that 2 Ragas might sound so similar, but each is just unique as each one of us are. Such mistakes are bound to happen in the beginning, but they are just the stepping stones. You could probably hear to a piece thinking its Abhogi, but then your ears might identify that there is an additional note (nishada) which makes Abhogi sound different. This crave for learning and knowing more would eventually introduce you to “Sriranjini” (Adding a nishada to Abhogi would yield Sriranjini), if it’s the first time you are hearing to Sriranjini. Listen, listen, keep listening, continue listening, that’s the only way out.

->Knowing a music instrument is an advantage. Once you take your fingers to play, the positions of the swaras would easily get imprinted in mind. Some people say, if they cannot identify a Ragam on the fly, they would alternatively take the notes onto an instrument, play the same, identify the scale (Arohana, Avarohana) and investigate more.

->When a song is being heard, without our knowledge, we tend to give importance to the lyrics and deviate from the Raga search. You would have a feeling that the Raga is quite familiar, yet you wouldn’t be getting it in mind and mouth. The best way to handle such case is: Go away from the music source to a safe distance where you can just faintly hear the lyrics, but still can hear the tune quite well. Now voice-tune with it. You will, for sure end up in some other song of the same Raga whose Raga (name) you are familiar with.

Carnatic Music is a beautiful blend of arts, science and mathematics. Appreciation for music may be instilled through Film Music but Carnatic music would get you to its details. The more you know about Music, your appreciation for it would grow stronger and richer.Dont get scared of Carnatic music; it’s not beyond our understanding. Anything undiscovered would remain in heights; but once you reach out to it, you would know the extent to which Carnatic Music would help you in simplifying your understanding of Music and yes, you would say,”Aah, play any tune. I will give you the name of the Raga”!