Small Talk

I found this article on the internet and is very ineresting. I always have wondered about these " small talk" that happens in get togethers and since this echoed my sentiments , i thought of putting it up here.

.....................Sivapriya Krishnan

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By May Rostom:

"Hey how are you, how's everything going?"Then a stupid smile on their faces is what I get when someone that I haven’t seen in quite a while says when I run into them! Sub consciously I reply with "I'm fine" and just repeat what they said all over again , give them the "get the hell out of here" smile and start walking ! I won't say I don’t do it because we all do, it's like no one has time for even small talk anymore.

All this is fine by me but what really gets to me is the "give me your number, we should hang out sometime" phrase.

It usually starts by the other person saving your number on their cell like its some sort of directory and never actually calls you to hang out (and you're not that keen on hanging out with them either , admit it!) but what's really funny is the next time they see you they'd be like "how come you didn’t call me?" .

Is this miscommunication or mass communication? Is this phrase a new way to stay in touch with the largest group of people you've come across in your lifetime or do they really want to catch up? I can't seem to remember the last time I ran into someone I haven’t seen for a while and got a useful piece of information like I'm married or I just got fired today! It's like no one is interested in what you've been up to but still asks you to make you feel important and no one has the time to summarize how things are going in 5 minutes.

When did the regular hi and wave run out of style? At least it's more convenient for the both of you, where you don’t want to hear what they have to say and they know that but say it anyways.

I remember the younger me being able to talk to anyone about anything for any amount of hours and never get bored but now life's hectic and stressful and when someone asks you what's been up you automatically reply fine even if things aren’t going your way.

What if someone did reply "not fine", how would one reply to that? And do you really want to listen to this person complain about it for the next 15 minutes while you just stand there helpless?

As we grow older, do we lose the interest to talk or do we lose the interest to small talk?

Making friends is a hard thing to do and maintaining friendships is even harder, but how can we balance both without being hypocrites??

Very simple, when you see an old friend tell them how much you've missed them and mean it, ask them what they’ve been doing recently and seem interested and if you take their phone number CALL THEM .

So next time you try to pull a stunt like that again, remember I BLEW YOUR COVER!

ALL INDIA RADIO - Contribution to music, art and culture

Posted On December 06, 2009 at at 9:47 AM by SPK

.................... by Sivapriya Krishnan

After listening to a concert at the AIR Chennai auditorium, held under the banner of Prasar Bharati ( All India Radio, Chennai) alongwith AIMA ( an organisation managed by Mridangam vidwan Sri.T.V.Gopalakrishnan) in the AIR auditorium, I was compelled to pen down my thoughts about the contribution of AIR and DD to our Indian culture.

Prasar Bharati needs no introduction, but definitely needs some advertisement, especially in the wake of todays multiplicity of channels, fragmentation of audiences, fragmented taste preferences and influence of the internet. It also deserves that special pat on its back and a kudos mainly because of the yoeman service that AIR and DD have done in the last 50 years to propagate art , culture, music, social causes et all.

All India Radio, Chennai vaanoli nilayam !!! Isn't this a refrain that many of us in the South are so familiar with ? And the signature tune in raga Sivaranjani ?

AIR in general has been a promoter of music and has given a solid platform for performing artists to display their talents. Though one cannot see the face of the artist, many a vidwan , ustad and pandit have etched their remarkable human voice or the voice of their instrument strongly in the minds of the listeners , through the megahertz frequency !

What a pleasure it is to hear our favourite music or musician sitting comfortably in our couch or chair with a radio on the lap or by the side !!

My memories of growing up as a child in Mumbai, are so strongly drawn towards listening to the radio. I used to be woken up with the strains of music from a radio kept on by my mother at my bedside!! Somehow the radio would catch on the frequency from Chennai, Trichy, Vijayawada (not withstanding the "grrrs" and " hisss" intermittently singing along with the artist). We used to wait for the December season concerts to be broadcasted over the radio and then analyse with a frenzy, the concert and the artist amongst ourselves and friends.

With all the onslaught of a variety of TV, Internet and other electronic and digital options fighting for the mind space of the listener , the AIR has with some intermittent shake-ups, has slowly stuck to its knitting and also evolved with a variety of FM options, privatised broadcast and a wide repertoire of programmes.

The auditorium at the Chennai station of AIR is really big and the acoustics quite good. The staff at the stations are quite competent and have a good experience in matters of recording, broadcast, programming etc.

What the government could however do better would be to motivate the employees, not so much with more money , but with equipping them with better technology, training, attention to a few details, more professionalism in work, reacting to competitive forces, better marketing and administrative abilities.

Archives and recordings of old masters could be made public, with innovative product and marketing techniques and thereby the music and art world will stand to benefit better with more listenership and effective learning.

Mind Game and preservation against onslaught

................... Sivapriya Krishnan

Every communication in life is a mind game. Altering peoples mind and thinking patterns is what most communication is all about. Be it advertisement for material products, communication about religious ideologies, communication about political happenings and so on.

On what basis do we take a decision to do something? On the basis of what we hear, know and see and the impressions that our mind creates thereof. Mind is a wonderful machine that is great in making patterns and weaving webs that help us into further action. A little stimulus kindles our impulse and thereafter we take further action.

The other wonderful thing is also that the brain receives these messages and can superimpose one over the other, confusing the mind thereof. Mind can be changed and changed number of times.

Great leaders and marketers have realised this and give to their followers doses of messages , so as to effectively capture their minds and alter their thinking. Marketers, good ones at that, sell concepts, infact that is what they should. Good Marketing does not sell products, it sells ideas and concepts. Altering our thought about a certain pre determined concept, our minds are infused with newer ones and then they stay on for sometime. These new one then become our habit and stick on as our system of operation.

What then is important, is that messages must have basic values of equal social justice, should not be sexist in tone, should preserve individual spirit and right to freedom and expression and so on.

Children with their subtle and uncluttered minds are the ones that are most prone to being altered and this the communicators realise well. It would be better if we as parents, slowly establish and instil family values, behaviour towards elders, neighbours, kith and kin , good and polite language, values regarding education, values regarding money, healthy eating and good diet , so that altering them by forces without will be tougher.

Also parents should dissuade the children from watching any audio visual stuff that deviates from these core values, as an av with repeated viewing is the most potent weapon of disaster. The mind if protected, will win over a thousand onslaughts.

The Applause factor In Carnatic Concerts

................................... by Sivapriya Krishnan


According to me a "chu chu" or an "ahaa", are something that comes from an extremely emotive frame of reference and a pure oneness with the artist on stage. This is so involuntary, when you can actually feel the creativity, beauty or the speciality of a phrase or a tala or any other musical dimension that the artist presents and totally empathise with his /her state of mind.

Yes, it may be disturbing , maybe it can be done more subtly. But then are we " mummified bundles" sitting and viewing the concert with a dead look on the face? Art is all about life, joy, mirth and happiness and we may all have seen that the artist who presents his art with passion and joy alone can produce sustainable art.

As for the applause ,this is becoming more of a contrived nuisance both from the audience and the attention seeking artist on stage. Piled up neraval phrases, super loaded swara prastharas, holding onto a note for a long time , are some of the things that the audience will instantly clap, as though programmed.

Sometimes it might be a very simple thing and the audience here is ready to put their hands together, leaving even the artist bemused. But when the applause comes for something really befitting , then it is welcome and the artist also gets immensely enthused by it.

An applause that comes between the anupallavi and charanam, is the most irritating, as though the audience can't wait for the artist to finish!! It also spoils the trend of thought and feel of the concert.

I have also observed that the audience not clapping for an unknown newcomer or youngster on stage, even if he/ she is playing an excellently classical or weighty stuff. Whereas for a popular face young or old or senior, the applause comes in roaring fits even if fare was average ! It is as though you will be out of league if you didn't clap.
What is so wrong in applauding a youngster and encouraging him/her if its really good?

Applauses become "goshti gaanam" with everybody clapping in congregation for songs, like Kurai ondrum illai, Vishamakara kanna, Maadumeikkum kaaNa, Brhamamokatte !!!

Standing ovation in the portals of the Music Academy, is becoming something of a modern fashion and trend. One is not sure of the intent. It could be that the audience could even be stretching their tight muscles, before taking the next step. !!!

If it were really truly extended, well and good, but again if it is done customarily like standing in attention for the National Anthem, then it becomes meaningless.

It would not be too late, before some award were to be instituted for the "biggest applauding rasika" or the " most applauded concert " of the season !!!