On Books, Music, and Other Things

The Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies (IASFS) successfully organized its 23rd Annual/8th International Science Fiction Online Conference on the 21st July 2024. It was an online conference and theme of the conference was "Spotlight on Professor. Jayant V. Narlikar's works". The IASFS has been organizing its annual conference for many years now, both in-person and virtual. This was the first one I could attend in spite of being a life member for many years - something or the other, usually work related - would come up. Attending this edition of the conference was easier because it was completely online. The conference included a pre-recorded video by Dr. Narlikar himself. It was a privilege to listen to him. Mr. George Dimitriu, a renowned Romanian SF write, delivered a special guest lecture. The keynote was delivered by Dr. Ashish Mahabal, an Astronomer and Data Scientist at Caltech.  The conference consisted of interesting papers analyzing various works of Dr...

These are the books I read so far this year. Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier Learn Like a Pro - I finally finished this. The Priceless Gift of a Rich Cultural Education - An extremely inspiring book on how one man gave himself a wide-ranging education by reading good books. The book suggestions are out of date but that is irrelevant. Learn Like a Polymath: How to Teach Yourself Anything, Develop Multidisciplinary Expertise, and Become Irreplaceable - Avoid. Zen in the Art of Archery - Avoid. Why ? Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner - Reread this after ages. Not as inspiring towards the end as it seemed earlier. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair Siddhartha   The Odyssey - Did not finish, dropped off at 70% Steppenwolf - One of my best loved books of this year. A Man Called Ove - My best loved book of this year so far.  The Return of Vaman: A Science-Fiction Novel - I had to reread this for a paper I was writing fo...

These are the books I read in the second half of last year Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam : An informative summary of Pre-Islamic Arabia. The dearth of available sources shows but it manages to throw good light on a few areas. It's a dry read unless you are interested in a specific aspect - e.g. architecture, or religion, or social life, of the period.   The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga's Ethical Practice : A great exposition on how to apply Yoga's philosophical principles to our daily lives. It's targeted at Western readers, which I felt was unnecessary, but that does not take away much from it. Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From :  A very readable popular science book dealing with how new genetic research is uncovering the true nature of human migration across millennia, and in the process, how this research is settling the Aryan migration question. The House of Jagat Seth : A history o...

This is a continuation of my Baroque music listening project . A Short Introduction to the Baroque Period The Baroque period in Western Classical Music lasted roughly between 1600 - 1750. I use the "Western" prefix to distinguish from other classical music traditions.  A musical era cannot be strictly defined as having begin and ended in specific years. The years 1600 and 1750 are set as the boundaries of this period by music historians for ease of study. If we have to look for notable events in these years - the first modern opera as we understand it today was written around 1597, and 1750 marked the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Baroque period saw the rise of opera and other forms like the oratorio, cantata, solo and trio sonatas, the prelude and the fugue. During the Baroque period words took precedence over the structure of the music as opposed to the preceding Rennaisance period where it was the opposite. The "Doctrine of Affections" is a defining c...

These are the books I have read this year (so far) Iran - Empire of the Mind - I was looking for a good, readable history of Iran, and this was not it. Islam - A Short History - Again, I was looking for a good history of Islam, and Karen Anderson's book was definitely not it. Mastery - The Keys to Success and Long Term Fulfillment - A good treatise on what it takes to master something.  The Arabs - A History - This is a very readable narrative of Arab political history  from the Ottoman conquest of the 16th century to the first couple of decades of the 21st century by Eugene Rogan Mindset - The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck's book on how adopting a growth mindset over a fixed one is the key. The Quest for the Historical Muhammad - A collection of articles on the early history and historiography of Islam, focused on the Revisionist school. Meta Learning: How To Learn Deep Learning And Thrive In The Digital World - This book was a misnome...

"Not Baroque Enough" I have wanted to build a better understanding of Baroque music for a while. My forays into Baroque are limited to what I’ve played on my violin and listening to compositions I like. I don’t have a formal education in music or music history - so this seemed like a daunting task. A casual question posed to my violin teacher set the ball rolling. I was working on some pieces from Baroque Violin Pieces Book 2 - and the consistent feedback I received was "It does not sound Baroque enough".   How does one learn to play in the Baroque style? And is there a single Baroque style? What about the differences in instruments then and what we have now?   My teacher’s answer was simple but effective. "Listen more. Listen to different composers and see how they had their individual styles. Try to understand how that style changed from composer to composer". This seemed like an approach that I could take up by myself with help from online and physical ...