“Art Should Disturb The Comfortable and Comfort The Disturbed” –from a Charles river runner’s T-Shirt

Art for art’s sake is absolutely important. What is the point of rationalizing art, isn’t art a matter of the heart. Shouldn’t true art come from the heart. Absolutely. But if art doesn’t console and comfort people when they are disturbed or shake things up when they are feeling too comfortable, is it really art or is it just an amalgamation of random ideas?

raagasai.com

raagasai.com

Apps I Find Useful

Everyday ask yourself “How am I being useful to this world”

–Madhav SBSS

Notion, a neat tool that packs a lot of things into one app. Todo lists, documents, spreadsheets, team collaboration but is it too busy? Is it trying to do too many things, is it trying to be a Swiss Army Knife?

Spark email – love your email again. I like the app, it combines good features from Gmail, Yahoo and other popular email apps into one. Their Smart View option is interesting, it bubbles up email that is more important or relevant to the top of the inbox, instead of a reverse chronological order.

SuperHuman – what’s the big deal with this email app, why is it invite only for ever? I don’t know, interesting thing is no app has been able to monetize email clients. They certainly are doing something right!

Elevate brain games app – Not a recent find, I have been playing the games for a couple of years quite regularly, it takes just a few minutes to complete a session and I enjoy the challenges and visuals.

Flipboard – news personalized for me, hyper curated. Love the ease of use and relevancy of the articles to my tastes.

raagabox – connecting humans through music. Well, this is a website and app I have been maintaining for over a decade now. It gives me so much joy to listen to the beautiful voices of many of my close friends and family.

mint – not a day goes by without checking my portfolio, networth, bills and expenses in this cool little app that has been around for over a decade and hasn’t changed much. UX could be better but I won’t complain, it’s free and it connects to all my banks, investments, real estate and does a decent job of giving me clarity on my finances. It’s time someone developed nextmint that actually personalizes financial planning, is free like mint!

Google Voice – I don’t like most of Google products, with the exception of their Search, Maps and Docs. I have to say Google Voice is a blessing for those who need to call international at cheap rates and get the reliable service. My monthly telephone bills have dropped by 5 times.

Stockpile – a cool little app that I have given to my kids so that they can learn the value of investing in stocks. The app allows them to invest in partial shares, for example, even with $100 they can own AMZN stock which is trading at $2388.55 today.

digit.co is interesting, it is kind of like Acorns. It has been around for over a decade, it connects to your checking account and pulls small amounts of money regularly into a rainy day account.

#5 Sreekanth Vemula

On following ones curiosity, being comfortable with not fitting in and taking care of his next patient

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Dr. Sreekanth is a leading Neurologist at Apollo Hospitals Hyderabad. He received his MD from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and DM in Neurology from Institute of Medical Sciences at Chandigarh. Teaching medical students is one of his passions, he has been actively teaching and advising students over 10 years.

“Thinking clearly, unselfishly, solves most problems in this world” and “Don’t worry, you will be automatically happy” –Sreekanth
Enjoy my conversation with Sreekanth

#2 Sriram Emani

On disrupting the 600-year old Indian music and dance industry and choosing to do what you love

Sriram Emani is the Co-founder and CEO of IndianRaga. He is a 2015 Global Fellow with the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), where he was the only Indian out of 52 Fellows from across the world. Dedicated to popularizing Indian classical and contemporary music and dance, Sriram is the brains behind the widely popular Indian version of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’, which has garnered over 25 million views across various platforms.

“I went to IIT to do engineering, but I ended up doing a whole ton of performing.”

#1 Ishwarya Ananthabotla

On rethinking how audio is captured, represented and retrieved in this new world of AI

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Ishwarya Ananthabotla completed her BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. She is pursuing a PhD in the MIT Media Lab’s Responsive Environments group, exploring ways to capitalize on our knowledge of human perception, cognition, memory, and attention, to re-think traditional paradigms for audio capture, representation, and retrieval. 

“Being family is a gift from God, staying family is a choice”

Veena, Why Not?

Bantureethi Koluvu on Veena by Rajesh Vaidya

Veena is such a melodious string instrument but is it not part of the common accompaniment in a Carnatic concert?

Listen to the Veena rendition of Sai Bhajans by Dhurjati, you will have to agree that this instrument can be and should be used more often in concerts. Has anyone tried using it in some kind of Fusion?

Is there a smaller “guitar like” version of Veena that is portable?

Think Before You Talk, Feel Before You Judge

“We’re here on this planet to help each other, if we don’t love all then what’s the point, if we don’t serve all then what’s the point, if we can’t help all then there is no purpose” __Mahi SB

Love For All by Mahi SB

Think before you talk,

Feel before you judge,

Love for all,

No one ever thinks why do you do this,

Cant you just be respectful now,

You should think about other people’s feelings,

Why make messes and all these other dealings,

Put it to a stop, lets just love each other.

Why is it so hard why can’t 

They tell, they’re hurt in me

Like nobody else,

And god loves me no matter what.

No more falling apart,

No more doubting yourself,

We’re here on this planet to help each other,

If we don’t love all then what’s the point,

If we don’t serve all then what’s the point,

If we can’t help all then there is no purpose,

Think before you talk,

Feel before you judge,

Love belongs to no one, 

Love for all.

Madhav’s Boston Marathon, When Is Yours?

Madhav: “When is the heartbreak hill going to come?”

Police: “You are standing on top of it”

Running the 26.2 miles for the Boston Marathon was not easy but I had to do it. I felt it an obligation and my duty to do something about the number of friends and family affected by Cancer, Thanks to many of you, I have been able to raise close to $7000 dollars for Cancer research. The run would have been impossible if not for the great music companion, iPod, loaded with Bhajans, Ghazals, Illayaraja, Warren Buffett. Interestingly, in my practice runs, listening to Buffett was quite interesting, however, on the day of the run, I didn’t want to listen to how I can make $700,000 in 30 years by continuing to drive a 20 year Volkswagen Beetle! Isn’t that intriguing?

The run is next morning, we just drove down to Lalita’s in Brighton, for a sleepover that night. You know it’s all going to be great when you are surrounded by such fabulous friends. Lalita, Anu, Minal, Brahma, Vandana, Kiran, Raaga and Mahi threw a surprise by giving me a wonderful best wishes and good luck dinner and a del.icio.us cake!. Next morning, Sandeep got me off on to an excellent start by picking me up early in the morning at 630 and dropping me off at the Boston Commons where I took the runners bus to Hopkinton.

April 20, 2009, the day of the marathon was beautiful crisp day with clear skies and temperature in the low-mid 60s. Chatting up with the runner sitting next to me on the bus, I learnt something very fundamental to anything we want to achieve. This gentleman, a physician by profession, mentioned that he and his wife have been marathon runnners for a long time and that they run it under 3.5 hours. I was startled as he looked nothing like it. Lesson #1 don’t judge by looks! Then I asked him, how do you run that fast, he said, we run with our friends who are 2.5 hour types! Lesson #2, being with the right people is crucial.

The run started in Hopkinton, Massachusetts at 10:30 AM, I started the run with Illayaraja’s Janani Janani and continued to listen to many of his great compositions for the first half of the marathon. At mile 13, just as the energy starts to go low and the mind to starts to switch from ‘this is not that hard’ to ‘yes i can’ attitude, a power booster bhajan by Srikanth was definitely a blessing Jaya Jagadeesha Hare . The energy at the end of that bhajan helped me carry through to mile 14, it was roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes of running so far and some more to go! I then switched gears to Warrent Buffett, thinking that his inspiring Buffetology would bring some perspective to my run, I was definitely out of my mind. How can money-talk bring the mental energy needed to complete another much more grueling 12 mile run! I realized then that money can’t by me (love) what I needed the most, a cheerful yell, an extended hand of a young child with a slice of orange in the palm, a gentle hug from a good friend. I switched gears from Buffett to Bhajans by Boston Young Adults, first of which was Subbu’s gentle instrumental Antharyami Thuhi and Avo Pyare , Pranavaswaroopa , Prem Ishwar Hai and many more followed by Ghulam Ali and Pankaj Udhas, Humko Kiske Gham Ne Mara, Chitti Aayi Hey, Kal Chowdvi Ka Chand.. the song, their magnificent voices, the wah wahs in between kept me going until mile 16.

A set of three or four small hills are ahead before the heartbreak hill at mile 21! Future looked bleak for a moment, as I kept running, pulling myself together to keep up the 12 minute miles, I got my first Surprise in Wellesley. Brian Durand, my colleague and his wife cheered up for me, yelling my name and handed me a bag of Jelly Beans. Those were undoubtedly the most precious beans I have ever had! As I approached mile 17, a second surprise, good family friends, Prashanth, Nagashree, Anjali and Avani were lined up on my right taking pictures and cheering up. A quick break and couple of hugs and hi-fives later I was back on my toes with much more energy than 10 minutes ago and felt ready to take on the heartbreak hill. I had exhausted all the energy gel packets that I carried with me, badly needed them for the last stretch.

Mile 17, Ganesh Shastri screams out “Madhav, Subbu is waiting next to the water table with power gels”, could this race be any more fun I thought, here I was just running around on the streets and so many good friends and family cheering, helping and running along with me in my thoughts. Gave a hug to Subbu, pinned the gel packets to my bib, waved good bye to Ganesh and Subbu and continued my jog. I was on the flyover going above the Mass Pike (I-90), people had told me that it is great to be at that point because that marks completion of 2/3rds of the race, they also warned me that is the lower end of the hearbreak hill soon to come!

Here is the marathon course

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Boston Marathon Map

After listening to ‘Humko Kiske Gham Ne Mara’ a couple of times, it sure felt upbeat and good, but the reality was the body was not up for much more running. As it turns out, my previous marathon was a physical run up to this point, it was a mental run from here on. Loaded up on the power gel, quenched my thirst with Gatorade, grabbed an orange slice from a little kid (which later on caused a great deal of suffering for our first one Raaga because I accepted food from a stranger! darn kids ;), chewed on a twizzler, finished the last jelly bean and kept going.

After crossing what felt like a large number of small hills, I couldn’t resit but ask the security personnel standing on the side, “When is the heartbreak hill going to come?”, “You are standing on top of it, it is downhill from here, good job, keep it going”. It was definitely a “high” point in the run. Shortly there after, the run was much smoother, a lot more cheering sounds coming from a distance, didn’t realize Boston college students were so cool. They literally yelled and screamed, wrote interesting tag lines on their T-shirts and were doing everything possible to keep the runners on their feet. A bunch of hi-fives with the Boston college kids and the sheer energy they created made the next couple of miles an easy run.

Boston Marathon, Brookline Mile Marker 23 Art Print

Running into mile 23, I was eager to meetup with the all the beacon street buddies and Kiran, Raaga and Mahi. It was indeed a fabulous moment being with family, friends and well wishers, Lalita Pulavarti, Minal, Pavan, Shruti, Prahlad, Nandini, Herb, Neethi, Amog, Annika. Thanks to Pavan for taking this beautiful picture!
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Less than 4 miles to go, as I approached mile 23, another pleasant surprise as Lalitha Gunturi, Pallavi and Jayashri cheered me up. I turned up the volume on the iPod, listened to beautiful bhajans by the LA Young Adults, Akash and Vinay . As I slowed down to take that one last energy gel, college kids from BU and other passers-by were kind enough to run with me and a few others for a short stretch to keep up the momentum. It was the last half mile, taking right turn onto Hereford, I gathered all my energy to make the last lap a memorable one. I picked up speed as I took left turn on to Boylston, the finish line was now visible at a distance, running at 6 minute miles I breezed past the finish line. As I returned my ChampionChip and collected the marathon medal, I thanked God and many others who were part of this wonderful experience.

Walking a couple of blocks was harder than running those 26.2 miles, as the wind chill was getting worse and there was no place to stretch, I just sat down in a nearby restaurant and waited for Lalita, Kiran, Raaga, Mahi, Minal, Herb to come along. Since we planned to meet at a different location and I was unable to walk much further, for once I thought cell phones are not a distraction in life after all! I didn’t have one, borrowed one from a Chinese lady and made calls to coordinate. Thanks to Yashoda, she called Lalita and made sure they knew where I was, that was a great help indeed. The ride on the Green line back to Beacon was looong, but fun as I got a free traing ride and special treatment for wearing the Marathon medal. For the first time I knew, how a pregnant lady might feel, having people hold doors and give away their train seats 🙂

Back at Anu and Minal’s place in Brookline, I felt that I didn’t miss much by missing the massage at the finish line. The hot water spa treatment at Anu and Minal’s was just such a great start of my recovery process. Followed by Pavan’s freshly cooked idly’s and Anu’s hot coffee pretty much was enough to justify the long run ;). Anu filled me in on the activities at work and how much the company cheered for me. Kiran drove us home that night, gently and safely. I was glad I didn’t have to drive.

Back in the office the next morning, I didn’t realize the scale of cheer for my run, starting with my manager Ara who updated the entire company with each milestone I hit, by sending out email alerts and words of encouragement. I had balloons, finish line ribbon, Bengay (yeah, you read that correct) and greeting cards in my office. There were a lot of emails from colleagues and tremendous amount of support from our CEO Stan, CTO Yoryos and everyone. Furthermore, the company made significant contributions to the fund raising as well and I am ever thankful to them for being so benevolent!

As I reminisced the 5 hour 31 minute run on the drive back home, a thought occurred to me, that everyone should run a marathon once in their life time, there is nothing like it, when is yours?

Running and Solitude Are My Best Friends

“I only run when I am inspired. Luckily I am inspired everyday, more or less ;).” __Madhav SBSS

I love running. In my 10th Grade, in a nail-biting cricket match, I got out early but I helped my team win the match by becoming a by-runner for the last batsman. I ran between the lines like crazy, as if my feet were on fire, we won the match. In my XI and XII grades, I ran barefoot and competed with my arch rival (who wore spikes) and won the 100m and 200m races.

Growing up, sprinting was something I enjoyed a lot. However, I completely let it slip from my routine for 16 years. When I was at MIT, a classmate of mine mentioned that he completed a Marathon run. My ears perked up as I heard the word “running” and then I got curious about Marathons. I had no clue what a Marathon was. I did a little bit of research and found that Marathons are these long 26.2 mile running events. It sounded challenging and fun to do, I wanted to run one. I thought, if my friend could do it I could do it too.

It took 2 years for that thought to become action. In December of 2004, I searched for the upcoming marathons in the Boston area. I came across KeyBank Marathon in Vermont. My Dad had died of Brain stroke in 2002. I wanted to do some good in that space. I looked up American Stroke Association and found out that they were running as a team in the KeyBank Marathon. I attended a meeting organized by the ASA to register for the run.

My wife and daughter were in India at that time and that helped a lot in jumping off this cliff and building the wings on the way down. At the end of the meeting they said, pay $100 non-refundable registration fee, if you decide to run, this fee will count towards your fund raiser. I thought to myself, if I sign-up now and dropout later, I may lose $100 but if I don’t sign-up now and go home to ponder, I may never sign-up. I may be richer by $100 but I would feel terrible not taking the chance to run for a cause. I signed up in the hopes that I will work hard to complete the long run. At that point I was terrified because I wasn’t sure if I could raise the committed $3500 funds and run the 26.2 miles without hurting myself.

KeyBank Vermont Marathon

I had a brief coaching session from the ASA trainer. He gave me a training packet with good information on diet, running schedule etc. I used to run every other day. Since it was winter and roads were filled with snow piles, I took membership in Ballys fitness club that had an indoor running track. The track was just a 200 meters long loop. I recall running my first mile in six and half minutes and feeling exhausted, dejected and close to throwing up. Next day on, I paced myself at 12 minutes per mile. There were many evenings when I was the last one in the fitness center running like a madman, when I got closer to the race date I used to run 150 rounds on the 200 meters track to complete my practice. I felt dizzy at times but it was fun.

After KeyBank I used to run on and off with breaks every few days. I then set another goal to run the most prestigious Marathon in the world. The Boston Marathon. I practiced for it, signed up with Dana-Farber Cancer Research to raise funds for them while also fulfilling my dream of running the Boston Marathon. In 2009, I completed the Boston Marathon. I stopped running after that for a few months. I signed up for Boston 10k and Boston half Marathon in 2010 just to get back on the track. I realized that I love running, but running loves me more!

My complete recount of the Boston Marathon is here in the original writeup from 2009.

For the past 2 years I have been running 3 miles a day, 6 days a week. Simple, no nonsense routine and I look forward to it every morning. On Sundays when I don’t run, I feel strange.

Running Marathons was just a pretext to have more of what I love, running and solitude, my best friends.

I enjoyed Illayaraja’s soothing violin during my Boston Marathon, you can listen to it here

I was able to carry my ipod using this nice little running gear, it was a gift from one of my good friends. The Under Armor gear helped with the sweat and protecting my body from getting too many blisters. GU Energy Gels are a godsend when you are running up against the heartbreak hill.

A pair of good running shoes and I totally recommend Asics Gel, which I used on both my Marathons, are a must.

Lastly, I could have never run the Marathons without the love and support of my family and wonderful friends in Boston who came to cheer through the course.