Universe

Standing at the edge of reason,
nothing but dark emptiness beyond,
the clock ticks nervously on,
for one last change of season,
for universe to reveal treason.

Ambition flickers hesitant and dim,
Logic twists frustratedly within.
Long since hope had shone a lamp,
now Misery lingers cold and damp.

Silence and then new frustration
cries lost in the hopeless void
shattered clock now overjoyed,
no hurry nor a perturbation,
cynically waits for second creation.

Another helping of hysteria

"Catch them young" is a popular phrase among educators and mentors in many fields who want to give talent the most amount of time to be harnessed. But some people just took it too literally and are catching them too young. There are "model schools" in Andhra Pradesh that now train sixth standard students for the IIT entrance. When I first saw the ad I was too shocked to even be disgusted. This is pure hysteria that is being lumped on an already overbearing system of training and "education". Sadly, we live in a world where economic constraints are making it increasingly harder for a majority of our youth to choose a career according to their greatest strengths and talents. The schooling or high school age is still too unreasonably early to acknowledge this fact and put them through the grind. While art, music and sports may not fetch healthy salaries or financial stability, an educational system that allows this kind of a drill without giving any space for an individuals talent or it's growth is a hopeless failure. It is nothing but an educational holocaust administered by a money-laundering bunch of people who have nothing but a bag of tricks that can be used to pass one examination. What they exploit is the fear within each one of us that if we think rationally and behave differently from the frenzied masses, we will be crushed by the stampede of competition and left without a means to livelihood. I doubt twelve year olds actually understand what it really means to be an engineer, or what IIT and it's true objectives really stand for. If they do, then we do not have any twelve-year olds left. We just have an artificially grown bunch of super humans with a highly distorted view of life.
The coaching industry that been born as a result of the tough competition for the IIT entrance is a growing monster. I would like to think that the IIT stands not only for engineers who can put in fourteen hours of work a day, but for engineers who have a true perspective on how much engineering can contribute to human growth, and are genuinely well rounded intellectuals who have put their talent to use in non-engineering fields as well (I shall refer to them as "true" IIT-ans). I have been fortunate to interact with many such, and some of them even came from these coaching centres. My point is that the true IIT-ans would have made it to the IITs without this coaching, because their intelligence is constantly engaged, and they are always thinking and working on a plethora of technical and non-technical issues. They do not need to be taught tricks or shortcuts. The coaching centres are factories of automated production, where young people (with genuine talent in other fields I am sure) are handed out mindlessly mundane lives just so that they can perform for 12 exam-hours that apparently make their life.

What happens later on to the ones who are somehow pushed over the bar so that they enter IIT is another disturbing story all together.

It does not seem to end. Each year,it only gets bigger and uglier. The justification is that there is no other way to lead a secure or happy life. If this is true, it is a sad reflection of our society. Until we all stop and think about how barbaric we have become, and mend our lifestyle so that we begin to encourage well balanced individuals with an all-round perspective of the world, it will always seem too dangerous to defy the trend. Until then, we are all victims of this self-propagating hysteria.

The Original Black Sabbath

I worship the early Black Sabbath so strongly, that I am scared to write an article on them. Scared because I feel, and know, that words cannot describe the effect that their sound had on the audience. Pure and strong, deep and heavy, they are arguably the godfathers of the heavy metal genre that we know today. The late sixties and early seventies was a golden age for rock and roll. Musical genius flowed freely and hugely influential bands emerged with alarming regularity. While many of the greats displayed breathtaking skill and contributed to the growth of rock in their own way, for me, nobody invented as distinctive and influential a sound as Sabbath did. Iommi's godly riffs, the rhythmic pulse of geezer's bass and ward's drums, and, the howling insanity of front man Ozzy Osborne, kept some away, but reached deep into the souls of those who cared to listen.

Those introduced to Sabbath will most probably hear their studio albums from the mid seventies or the reunion album of 1997. Not that these albums aren't inspiring enough themselves, but there are a collection of recordings from the 1969-1972 era that are far superior- the true roots of the heavy sound that defined a whole new genre: a concert in 1970 (location still a controversy- some say Paris, some say Belgium), the "basement tapes" (1969 or 1970), and a Blues cover "Warning".

The "Paris" 1970 concert is considered by many Sabbath fans to be their best sound ever. Heavy spine-chilling guitar riffs, strong bass lines, pulsating drums, and Ozzy's voice that was still intact- strong and wailing, oozing over the rest of the music to give the finishing touches (unlike later on, when I think his voice became far weaker due to his own problems). What caught my ear when I heard these recordings first was the drumming. Bring together a basic drum kit and superhuman energy, and Bill Ward's drumming is pure dynamite. What we have in this concert is four raw youngsters who don't give rat salad about anything in this world but their music, lost in the ecstasy of sound.

Which is what Rock'n'Roll is all about.

Another series of recordings called the "Basement Tapes" offer the same sound- these recordings are supposed to be those of the band rehearsing in a London basement, but some claim it was actually from a BBC show. Either way, it represents music that is untouched by the commercialization or interference from record companies.

"Warning" is a fifteen minute masterpiece which sounds closer to heavy blues than anything that the band was to play later on. It is a song that best represents the musical roots of Black Sabbath- taking the blues lines of the time and making the sound heavier and deeper. Geezer's bass rhythm sets a great platform from where Iommi and Ozzy take off. Iommi's work on guitar with the Blues lines is pure brilliance. If you are serious about rock'n'roll, dive deep into "Warning" and lose yourself to the music.

Genius sometimes offers it's best when there is nothing to lose- the early Black Sabbath recordings are creative genius at it's unburdened best.