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Guru-shishya
parampara with cyber twist A wallet
for all pockets PACESETTER
Sumit Dutta chowdhury
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Guru-shishya parampara with cyber twist
The
age-old tradition of guru-shishya is changing. The learning continues. The classes are there but there is a difference. Maestros like Pt Jasraj, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Rashid Khan, Guru Balamuralikrishna, Kishori Amonkar, Alarmel Valli or the late Bhimsen Joshi, Ravi Shankar, M. S. Subbulakshmi, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Balasaraswati and several others are legends of classical music and dance. And then there is the younger brigade of maestros and experts —Shubha Mudgal, Shankar Mahadevan, Madhuri Dixit, Ghatam Suresh Vaidyanathan, Apoorva Gokhale, Karaikudi S. Subramanian and many others. Both the groups are famous in their own fields and have disciples who are making a name for themselves in the particular art form. All of them adhere to the age-old guru-shishya parampara. Apoorva Gokhale, a Hindustani classical singer from Mumbai, Ghatam Suresh Vaidyanathan, Carnataki percussionist from Chennai, Karaikudi S. Subramanian, veena maestro also from Chennai and Parameshwar Hegde, a Hindustani classical vocalist from Bengaluru, start their music classes early morning just as other gurus start teaching their disciples. However, there is a difference! While the tradition continues as such, its form and space may have changed in some cases. While the older lot of gurus teach their students face to face, the younger lot faces their students on Skype on their laptops, with a distance of more than 10,000 km between them! The virtual teaching is gaining immense popularity among people living in far off places like Afghanistan, Japan, Canada, USA, Germany, Dubai and in places in India too. Welcome to the world of virtual music classes! The age-old classical music, with a little help from digital technology, is not limited by man-made boundaries any more. Since the days of Pt. Ravi Shankar and the Beatles, Indian classical music has always been much sought after by foreigners. In fact, the NRIs have always felt a vacuum when it came to teaching their child any form of Indian art. Many a times many NRIs have extended invitations — offering boarding, lodging, remuneration and to and fro tickets — to Indian performing art teachers to visit them for teach their children. With the advent of technology, especially internet, the scene has changed. As the world became smaller and borders vanished, fine art, too, started crossing borders. All you have to do now is switch on your computer at the allocated time, connect to the net, go on Skype, connect with either your teacher or student and start your training. You are virtually just a screen away from each other. The cyber world is booming with virtual fine-art music classes. Goggle search for online Indian musical classes and you are likely to come across a huge lot of them-Carnatic, Hindustani, Bollywood, classical dance etc. Looking at the search results, it appears as though every fine art teacher is on the net and reaching out to students all over the world. You have popular dancers and musicians-Madhuri Dixit, Remo D'Souza, Shankar Mahadevan, Shubha Mudgal, Suresh Ghatam and many others from India. Besides individuals, well-known foreign universities, too, impart on-line music lessons. The Trinity College of London offers graded musical qualifications for musical theory and for performance in violin, vocal, piano, electronic key boards, woodwind instruments and percussion. Other prestigious universities, like Stanford and others, too, offer on-line music classes. In fact, many people have learnt guitar, violin playing by downloading notes and instructions from the Net and have become professional performers. Karaikudi S. Subramanian, founder-director of Chennai-based Brhaddhvani, Research and Training Centre for Musics of the World, says, "This methodology helps, especially when the teachers are globetrotting performers! This way they can continue to teach even while travelling. The time between performances can be utilised to teach their students from wherever they are.'' Though in the last couple of years, this new way of imparting knowledge has picked up momentum, going by the history of the online music classes, it's not a new phenomenon. Vocalist Parmeshwar Hegde and instrumentalist Ghatam Suresh, along with few others have been practicing this method even before the advent of broadband in India. Says Guru Suresh, "As early as 2004, I used to record lessons with my camcorder, edit these with the movie-maker software to make them short files of lessons and send as attachment through mail. My first virtual student was Gianluka Baldeo from Barcelona, a middle-Eastern frame drummer who later introduced to me, Paolo Cimmino, another frame drummer. Cimmino presently teaches at the University in Naples and continues to be my shishya till date.'' The salient feature of these classes is that teachers and students can reschedule classes by mutual consent whenever there is a need. The physical classroom situation brings more obligations and compulsions, which may be difficult to deal with to maintain continuity of relationship in the modern times. As most of these classes are conducted on one-to-one basis, students, who may hesitate to sing in normal classes, do flourish here. Another advantage is that even family members can take benefit of these classes which isn't possible in a gurukul system. This happened in the case of Hyderabad-based Darshana Pai, a student of Apoorva Gokhale. "While the mother took the lessons, her son Akshay too would listen intently and after Darshana left for her job he would practice on his own," says Gokhale. Impressed by Akshay's learning abilities, Gokhale now teaches both the mother and son duo through Skype. Most teachers admit that on-line musical classes, with fee ranging from $25 to $100 for an hour's session, do help people who can't reach out to a good teacher even while living in India. A student of Gokhale used to travel all the way from Satara in Maharashtra to Mumbai to get her weekly training session. Thanks to Skype, she visits Mumbai only on special occasions. Of course, every teacher today has more off-line students than on-line. They also admit that there is nothing to beat the physical presence of a guru. Popular Hindustani vocalist Sawani Shende-Sathaye of Pune and the young Thomson Andrews, India's first Indie R & B singer-song writer from Mumbai say, "When we teach face-to-face, we can observe the stress one puts on a note, the way one strains his/her vocal muscles, the body posture-language etc. We can correct them at every step. All these factors play an important role in making a good performer from an ordinary one. Initially, the traditional teacher-student interaction is very important. One can switch to on-line classes.'' Teachers insist that students meet with their mentors at least for a few days in a year. In fact, many NRI students on vacation spend time with their teachers to catch up on whatever they missed on virtual classes. Ask them if on-line teaching will become the norm in future, pat comes the reply, "No! virtual classes may be trendy but the physical classes will always score over them,'' chorus the teachers.
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A wallet for all pockets As the avant-garde male is becoming accessory conscious, fashion and accessory designers are giving him an array of choices, ranging from ties to belts and from watches to studs. The wallet, which has been overlooked for years as a fashion essential, is now becoming an important accessory.
Make the right choice It is important to know how to choose the right wallet, which not just suits your needs, also enhances your style status. Here are the five points to keep in mind while picking one. It should go with your image: If you have a sense of dressing, go for a wallet that is sporty and playful. A boring wallet will affect your bubbly image. Choose elegance over flamboyance: Never go for an over-the-top wallet design. If you are not sure what will suit you, go for the timeless elegance of fine leather. Keep your requirements in mind: Though in the modern world, style is supreme, you must take into consideration your requirements and the space you need in a wallet. Craftsmanship is paramount: You can tell a sophisticated wallet from its craftsmanship. Go for a hand-made wallet that has classy hardware and the label’s logo on the front. Do not be too
colourful: You might not be able to carry a very bright-coloured wallet. It is always better to go for a subtle coloured one.
Up your style quotient The wallet is perhaps the most striking proof of the spurt in demand of accessories for men. A decade or so ago, it would have been hard to imagine the archetypal businessman selecting a matching wallet each morning as he got dressed for office. But now, fashion designers say sale of men’s wallets in various sizes and colours is rising. According to them, wearing a stylish belt and shoes and sporting a designer watch doesn’t complete the look till it is complemented by the right kind of wallet. Leading designers of the West like Giorgio Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, Alexander McQueen, Jimmy Choo and others have added it to their biannual collections. Even Indian designers like Rohit Bal, Manish Malhotra and Raghvendra Rathore have given it a stylish spin. Choosing a wallet is no longer about just carrying cash, today there are many other factors at play. Much like a trendy pair of shoes or sunglasses, a man’s billfold should reflect class as far as texture, colour, designing and branding go. Unlike earlier times, the modern-day wallets come in different shapes and sizes. Besides the conventional bi-fold design, in which you can stack currency notes, coins, credit cards and a driving licence, there are tri-fold wallets, which resemble a brochure. In these, the two sides open out from the centre. The centre part is a pocket to keep paper currency and its card slots are tailored to adjust cards vertically. Some also have a coin pocket. Design file Over the years, different designs of wallets have entered and exited the market. Among the more popular ones is the chequebook wallet, which is designed to carry heavier documents like, as the name suggests, a cheque book or a passport or any other booklet. Then there is the accordion-style compact wallet, which has two or three zippered compartments that hold up to eight credit cards, along with cash, coins, a driving licence and a photo ID. It fits in a pocket or can be carried in the palm of the hand. An increasing number of designers are taking a break from the usual designs and coming up with single or dual purpose wallets. The minimalist designs are meant only for currency notes and a couple of visiting cards, the money-clip or wallet-band is primarily for those who want to carry just the bare essentials—currency notes and one credit card. The latest is a wallet attached to your mobile phone. Called the card ninja, it is a slender card-and-cash pocket that holds few currency notes and a credit card. It can be attached to the back of any mobile phone and is meant for people who want to do away with the typical wallet and carry it as an adjunct to their mobile. Leather forever Though leather looks very elegant, these days there is a plethora of materials used in the making of wallets. The sporty ones are done in denim, nylon, twill, vinyl or rubber. Some are made in synthetic fibres like micro and microfibre. Unlike earlier times, when there were just the black and brown variants, many wallet brands like Burberry, Comme Des Garcons, Paul Smith, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana and Mulberry are experimenting with colours. And it is not uncommon to see wallets in outlandish colours like flaming orange, fuchsia red, ocean blue, aqua green and hot turquoise. The prices too can swing like a pendulum. From a few hundred rupees for a branded Indian one, they can go up to thousands. In fact, some of the top brands can cost more than Rs. 25,000 also. The latest is a virtually thief-proof Dunhill Biometric wallet with a complex locking mechanism that can only be opened by the touch of the owner’s finger. It can make you shell a staggering Rs.60,000. Today, men are as much worried about what’s inside the wallet as they are about its looks. Style is paramount, just like the content is.
Clasp it well
Casual yet chic
A classic to treasure
Chained to style
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PACESETTER Sumit Dutta chowdhury Artist, musician, photographer, business head, author, versatile Sumit Dutta Chowdhury wears many hats Vibha Sharma Sumit Dutta Chowdhury
is a name which has always remained synonymous with achieving more and achieving fast all through his life. After getting solid grounding during school years in Loyola High School, Jamshedpur; he went to IIT Kanpur, where he graduated in Electrical Engineering. After a year of work experience with Philips India, he continued his education by doing an MS and PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in USA. He joined KPMG and became a partner at 32. By the time he was 35, he was heading BearingPoint in Australia. He completed a course on corporate governance from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. After spending some years in the US and in Australia, he moved back to India and became the chief information officer of Reliance Communications. Currently, he is president, business head of enterprise business with Reliance Jio Infocomm. He has moved from a technical leadership role to a business leadership one. Changes have been many and, that too, in quick succession; yet he aced them all and climbed the professional growth ladder at an accelerated pace. His first book Rules of the Game was published recently. The concept was in his mind for the past five years which translated into bits of research and jotting down of points that happened over a period of time. During the writing process, he faced some good times and some not-so-good as he discovered different nuances of the industry. He feels that the whole experience of writing the first book has taught him many lessons and totally transformed him as a person. Through the book, he wants to convey the message, ‘consider your career to be a game and go out and play the best game you have got, each and everyday. Learn from all your actions, reactions and thoughts by being conscious of them all the time. You will become self-aware and this self-awareness will get you to become confident and successful.’ He is not just a highly successful individual professionally; but he also dabbles in multiple art forms like painting, music and photography. With eight years of training in fine arts in the Bengal style, he developed his own style of contemporary Indian abstract painting and design. His paintings have been exhibited at the Artist’s Alley in San Francisco. He has completed 10 years of Diploma Course in Rabindra Sangeet and has also learnt Indian classical music. He continues to perform in events playing various instruments like the flute, guitar, harmonium, keyboards and piano accordion. He has devised his own mantra for success which he is happy to share with everyone. He says, “Remove all moments of inefficiency from your life and save some time. The second mantra is to create a learning mindset that will help you learn from every interaction in your life and enrich your personality continuously till the very end.” He adds, “Everyone has the same time, the same 24 hours in the day. I have learnt to cut out those parts that are wasteful and focus on getting the job done. I serially multi-task i.e. I do one thing at a time with extreme focus but then move on to other things and over a period of time I finish several activities.”
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Bling it on
Nailing the stiletto look
Rotis go hi-tech
Beauties on the road
Touch of magic
A timeless collection
Bagging India
Plumbing the depths
artistic notes
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Surekha Kadapa-Bose
T
Glossy and classy
All in the right place
priority to Utility
A perfect mix
in your budget
Go for the graphics
From the star’s camp
Qualitatively speaking
When art inspires
Luxury of space
Crafted by hand and aesthetics
For the love of logo
get a personalised cape
