Ramblings of a deranged mallu

Idhu Varai

2010-05-14T14:38:00.001-04:00

hi everybody...after a long long time..here is a different interpretation of the song Idhu Varai from the movie Goa...this is joint work with Tara Balakrishnan (lead vocals)

Idhu Varai from Goa (Rock version) - with Tara Balakrishnan | Music Codes

Dreams on Fire

2009-08-24T01:54:00.002-04:00

hi everybody...after a long break, I decided to work with Tara and Srividya on the song "Dreams on Fire" from Slumdog Millionaire. Both Tara and Srividya have done a wonderful job at singing this song. Thanks to both of them for giving me the opportunity to work with them on this song.

Song: Dreams on Fire
Vocals: Tara and Srividya
Guitars: Anup

Dreams on fire from Slumdog millionaire with Srividya and Anup | Online recorder

Thumbi Vaa

2009-05-04T01:24:00.003-04:00

hello friends...here is my interpretation of Thumbi Vaa from the movie malayalam movie Olangal...

Track of week on www.djomix.com

Thumbi Vaa | Upload Music

Mar Jaawan

2009-04-30T23:46:00.001-04:00

Been a while since i updated this blog. But here is a song that I have literally fallen in love with. This is Mar Jaawan from Fashion.

Mar Jaawan | Upload Music

Malikapoo from Madhuchandralekha

2009-01-29T01:35:00.003-05:00

Hi friends...here is an acoustic rendition of the song "Mallikapoo" from the malayalam movie Madhuchandralekha...

Song: Malikapoo
Film: Madhuchandralekha

To Be With You

2008-12-17T10:17:00.004-05:00

Well well well!!! Given the workload and the lack of projects I had more or less decided to shut the door on this blog. Well a twist of fate and here is my first song with George Kuruvilla, a nice ballad from the band Mr. Big titled To Be With You. It was originally performed by Eric Martin (Vocals), Paul Gilbert (Guitars), Billy Sheehan (Bass) and Pat Torpey (Percussion).

Song: To Be With You
Band: Mr. Big

Lead Vocal: George Kuruvilla
Backing Vocal: George Kuruvilla and Anup Nandialath
Guitars: Anup Nandialath

To Be With You - With Anup Menon | Music Codes

Blogswara 5

2008-12-13T15:54:00.002-05:00

Friends, the fifth volume of Blogswara is now online. I take this opportunity to encourage all the musicians, singers, lyricists and composers who have come up with fourteen songs each carrying its own flavor to the mix.

I have contributed one song Khoye Khoye. It was a joint effort and I take this opportunity to thank my wonderful team including lyricist Ajay, singer Sindhuja, Sam for orchestration and last but not the least Nandu for helping us mix the track.

Well I hope you enjoy listening to all the songs on Blogswara. We sure had fun making them and hope to offer more for the future.

Glasgow Kiss

2008-06-10T01:54:00.004-04:00

For guitar lovers, John Petrucci is certainly legend. An ace guitar player, he teams up with Steve Portnoy (Drums), John Myung (Bass), Jordan Rudess (Keys) and James LaBrie (VOcals) as part of Dream Theater. Apart from his work with dream theater he has also recorded solo albums. This is one of my favourite songs from his list (solo). This is also the first time that I'm trying muziboo (one feature that is kind of hard to digest is that the quality of the mix decay's exponentially when uploaded on muziboo. I'm not sure if this is a one off case though)

Song: Glasgow Kiss
Original: John Petrucci
Sequenced by: Tailgunner

Muziboo.com: Get An Audience!

Teri Deewani

2008-04-12T01:52:00.003-04:00

After a short break, here is my latest fancy. An amazing sufi song by Kailash Kher.

Song: Teri Deewani
Album: Kailasa
Singer: Kailash Kher

Dailamo

2008-01-17T01:37:00.001-05:00

Friends...after a long break, here is a new song from me...the song is Dailamo from the movie Dishoom...hope yall enjoy!!!

Song: Dailamo Dailamo
Movie: Dishoom
Music: Vijay Antony

Confusion Theerkaname

2007-10-05T02:38:00.000-04:00

Confusion theerkaname is a really funny song from the malayalam movie Summer in Bethlehem...i have tried a remix version of the song...

Song: Confusion Theerkaname
Movie: Summer in Bethlehem
Singer(s): MG Sreekumar and Co.
Music Director: Vidyasagar

Remixed by Tailgunner (a.k.a MAD MAX)

Ore Nyabagam

2007-09-15T21:37:00.000-04:00

Hello friends. Was caught up with work and could not update this blog for a long time. Well here is something that I did over this weekend. This is a remixed version of Ore Nyabagam from the movie Minnalae. Hope you enjoy.

Song: Ore Nyabagam
Movie: Minnalae
Music Director: Harris Jayaraj

Ironic

2007-06-26T13:45:00.002-04:00

OKie folks...after a relatively long layoff, here comes another remix version...the original was done by Alanis Morissette and it is called Ironic...hope you enjoy

Song: Ironic Remix
Original: Alanis Morissette

Ironic Remix

Time for a Break

2007-05-08T20:37:00.000-04:00

Folks, as you may have noticed, I have not updated my blog for quite some time. I have been busy with work piling up. Therefore it might be a while before I get a chance to work on something new and share it here. Meanwhile, enjoy your summer and keep on rocking

Braveheart - Remix

2007-03-29T04:40:00.000-04:00

Folks...here is something different...for the first time a song fully done using software....anywayz this is a remix of the theme music from the movie Braveheart...this is joint work with DJO, who has done complete drum programming as well as mastering the final mix...hope u guys enjoy

Song: Braveheart Theme Music Remix
Drum Programming: DJO
Rest: Yours Truly

Braveheart Theme Remix

Whispering a Prayer

2007-03-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

The quarter has been keeping me busy but could not let this opportunity pass. This is a feeble attempt to try and cover "Whispering a Prayer" by the legendary guitar wizard Steve Vai. Given the time crunch i could not finish the song. This is a teaser version and hopefully I will get to finish this song over the break.

Song: Whispering a Prayer
Original Artiste: Steve Vai
Mixing credits: Nandu Mahadevan (www.gumbalsband.com)

Whispering a Prayer (Teaser)

Pachapanamthathe

2007-02-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

Hi folks...been some time since i last did some music...anywayz here are a couple of pieces..the first one is just a fun track that i did...this is something i did over the first interlude of the song Dhill Dhill from the tamizh movie Dhill (starring vikram and laila)...the second one is from the malayalam movie Nottam called Pachapanamthathe...beautiful composition from M. Jayachandran and delivered with finesse by the one and only KJY

Dhill Dhill Interlude track

Pachapanamthathe

My Travels

2007-01-26T18:25:00.000-05:00

hmm...here goes the places i have already visited in the
United States

create your own personalized map of the USA

Kanne Kalaimaane

2006-12-18T17:40:00.000-05:00

This time it is another Ilayaraja classic from the movie Moondram Pirai. I covered it quite sometime back but never put it out here. The karaoke has some breaks in between which leads to some timing issues for me. But well as usual, the fun in playing never stops.

Song: Kanne Kalaimaane
Movie: Moondram Pirai
Singer: K.J Yesudas
Music: Ilayaraja

Kanne Kalaimaane

Johaan Pachelbel - Canon in D

2006-12-02T23:56:00.000-05:00

Hi folksss...okie the first time i heard Canon in D was when a friend of mine sent me a link in youtube...there was this kid from Korea going by the name funtwo playing his guts out...his video on youtube covering the rock version of this classical composition is among the three most popular videos on youtube (or so i believe)...neways the original idea came from a taiwanese rock guitar player named Jerry C...the backing track for this song is available for one and all and this must be the umpteenth cover done on this song...most amateur guitar players seem to have latched on to this one (not sure why though)...check out youtube and google video for a wide range of covers on this song...neways here is my feeble attempt...there is absolutely no way i cant match up to the original since some of those techniques used to play the song are pretty tough..but neways here goes just for fun..

Song: Canon in D (Rock Version)
Composer: Johaan Pachelbel
Arranged by: Jerry C
Rhythm/Lead Guitars: Yours truly

Pachelbel Canon in D (Rock)

Download Canon in D (Rock)

Aavarthana and Annies Song

2006-11-27T03:47:00.000-05:00

Whew it was one hell of a thanksgiving weekend...i performed with friends under the banner of Aavarthana, a band based in North Carolina...thanks to my good friend Murali Venkatraman for inviting me over to perform with them...check out the videos from the show on Murali's blog...to cut a long story short, four of us involved through blogswara (Myself, Murali, Sam Kolli and Bharani) had the unique opportunity to share the stage in Raleigh...we had one hell of a time...it was a marvellous experience and I met some great people and jammed with some awesome musicianss...

I have never done a song with Bharani. before...here is the song that breaks the ice....a magnificent number originally done by John Denver...

Song: Annies Song
Vocals: Bharani
Acoustic Guitar: Anup

Annies Song

Mella Mella

2006-11-05T23:03:00.000-05:00

Here comes another classic from the one and only Ilayaraja. This time it is Mella Mella from the movie Vaazhkai. A few months back a fellow audioblogger and a good friend Meera Manohar did this song with Bluebyrd. Check out their wonderful performance.

Well the version below uses two different cabinet and preprocessor settings. One is with overdrive and the other acoustic. I just felt like exploring and did two separate versions. Sit back, relax and N Joy (hopefully). BTW the usual disclaimer applies.

Song: Mella Mella
Movie: Vaazhkai (1984)
Singer: Raj Seetharaman & P.Susheela
Music Director: Ilayaraja

Mella Mella (Acoustic)

Mella Mella (Overdrive)

Minnadi Minnadi

2006-10-20T23:10:00.000-04:00

folks...aah so finally diwali has arrived...hmm the first diwali after getting married...dunno why but i guess there is some special significance or that...neways hopefully it is something good...BTW wishing one and all a happy and safe diwali...

been wanting to do this song for a long long time...i tried two versions, one on acoustic and one with overdrive...somehow i like the overdrive version much better than the acoustic version...hehehe...neways here goesssss

Song: Minnadi Minnadi
Movie: Naran
Singer: K. S. Chitra
Music Director: Deepak Dev

Minnadi Minnadi

This one is really funny

2006-10-19T22:49:00.000-04:00

folkss this one is really funnyyyy

Mere Sapnon ki rani

2006-10-06T19:42:00.000-04:00

here is a classic from the late 60's (if i remember correct)...this is a feeble attempt to cover the song Mere Sapnon ki Rani from the movie Aradhana...an awesome composition by S D Burman, father of none other the great Panchamda...hmm guess this was a breakthrough movie for many ppl in Bollywood...anywayz here goessss

Song: Mere Sapnon Ki Rani
Movie: Aradhana
Singer: Kishore Kumar
Music Director: S. D. Burman

Mere Sapnon ki Rani

Highway Star - Live in Columbus

2006-10-03T23:55:00.000-04:00

Yet another live video from our January 2006 live show...the quality of the video is not so good (especially the sound mix)...this was one of our all time favourite numbers originally rendered by Deep Purple...this is a rough cut of highway star...obviously there are serious shortcomings in this performance but we really really enjoyed doing this one...

The motley crew (lol)

Vocals: Kaushik Sabba (aka. Kash Rider)
Keyboards: Prasanna Sivaraman
Percussion: Sriram Satagopan
Bass Guitar: Sivaramakrishnan (aka. K2)
Lead/Rhythm guitar: Yours Truly

Tu hi meri

2006-09-26T12:47:00.000-04:00

Been a long time since i last recorded something...after two long months and a summer to remember, I decided to record something...I first heard this song in India...i saw the movie for the first time at my cousins place and somehow i ended up liking the song...the tune is kind of simple but I guess KK really steals the show...neways here is a small cut from the song Tu hi Meri from the movie gangster

Song: Tu hi Meri
Movie: Gangster
Singer: KayKay
Music Director: Pritam

Tu hi meri(Gangster)

Adieu for a couple of months and Ariyathe Ishtamai

2006-07-10T21:36:00.000-04:00

I have decided to take a break from blogging for a couple of months. I hope to get back online from October this year. Till then adieu and have a great summer.

grrrr...i was plannin on taking a break as I'm headin home for a couple of months.. i first heard this song a couple of days back and kind of liked the melody..hence decided to come out of self enforced hibernation...hehehehe...a really nice song done by Suresh Peters, who has delivered some really cool songs in malayalam movies..there are some points in this song where the sustain is a bit more tan i would like, but well eh, i dont have the energy to record again...hehehehe

Song: Ariyathe Ishtamai
Movie: Paandipaada
Singer: Faizal
Music Director: Suresh Peters

Ariyathe Ishtamai (Paandipada)

Dark Ages

2006-07-02T23:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks to google video..here is a random jam with prasanna on the keys..this was a song that we kind of composed back in 2004 but never saw the light of day in any of our programs..neways yet another random jam..hehe..enjoy

Lost in thought

2006-07-02T00:24:00.000-04:00

At several points in my life, I have faced roadblocks. Always there are ways around it. Some alternatives which have been time tested and some which have never been tested. At times we choose to ignore a certain path fearing what lies ahead. But the truth is that the fun in life is in traversing those unexplored paths.

Decision making theory suggests that all players are rational individuals and therefore are risk averse by nature. A natural extrapolation would be that unexplored paths should be kept out of the choice set. The "uncertainty" does not provide any value! Is this true?

Decision making is a key activity in our lives. Right from when to wake till when to sleep, all involve voluntary decisions on our part. While some people fixate on specifics in their daily routines, others are "seemingly" more liberal and willing to experiment. Fixation implies that there is a routine to everyday life. Why should a person fixated never try to break free atleast once? Because he hates uncertainty in life. The other set of people though liberal tend to follow routine in some sense. I should say the measure of degree is from Very Rigid to Rigid. What would be interesting is to move from Very Rigid to Loose. This would be moving to the other end of the spectrum. Again the risk preferences dictate that such risks are not worth taking. All people are indeed rational.

Consider the case of a specific example in terms of a choice of what form of higher education to take. In a typical setting assuming all factors are equals parents of Indian children prefer their children to move into engineering or medicine. Why so? The risk that the children will remain unemployed remains the least (or so is the belief). What dominates decision making is risk preferences rather than the tastes of the individuals concerned. Hence the process of decision making is more oriented towards the constraints (the risks involved) rather than the objective (tastes of the individuals). To make this clear, suppose a student was really keen on history. Reading history does not provide means of living (its a question of degree of comfort) comparable to say an engineer. The natural inclination is to move the child towards engineering at the expense of the students natural inclinations. Therefore the constraint motivates the decision rather than the objective.

Therefore why are people not willing to take a chance? The answer again is surely the fear of the unknown. Then the natural question to ask is can we find a counter example? Maybe we can.

In my opinion, graduate students and professors involved in research are probably risk loving. Consider investing years of ones life (especially those years that tend to be most productive) with absolutely no idea where we are heading. For instance a PhD in mathematics takes approximately 6 to 8 years in good schools post undergraduate work. While some of the most productive years go away in research, is compensation post qualification adjusted accordingly? Not really. Average salaries of PhD holders in the United States tend to be around $ 50,000 give or take a few thousand (in natural sciences and social sciences). The outcome in terms of expected salaries ex post is known ex ante to those venturing into the field. So then the question remains why do it?

I guess the answer lies in motivation. Treading dangerous territory and exploring the deepest and darkest of corners. While there is always fear of being lost forever in the denseness of the jungle, one believes that atleast we tried. But on top of it, I think these are people who do not work from the constraints but rather work from the objectives. They are the ones who truly madly and deeply love what they do. It is true that such people can be found in all walks of life. A good source for examples would be the corporate world. Individuals like Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Dhirubhai Ambani and so on, made it big in life but then they took huge risks which a vast majority will never be able to digest.

Therefore moving back to the original question. Is there value to uncertainty? I believe there is..............

The ramblings will continueeee.........

Iru Vizhi

2006-06-26T18:32:00.000-04:00

well the new year has started positively..i just received a note today from the school authorities stating that one of the examinees at the qualifier examinations conducted on June 17th was affected by mumps..about 60 of us took the exam on that day and we have all been asked to watch out for symptoms...cheez man is that scary...hmm well anywayz here is a wonderful song from the movie minnale...this is iru vizhi unathe...one among my favourites from the harris stable...it is a rough version...i play both the lead melody and the rhythm track...

Iru Vizhi(Minnalae)

Another year bites the dust

2006-06-22T22:20:00.000-04:00

hmm well...its time to rewind and relive some sweet memories..on my last birthday, Siddharth and Shiffas, terrific buddies visited me from up north...we had a great time with my ex-roomies vivek, pradeep, doobs, teacher, "shame on you" and the list goes on joining the party...i ended up having to strum and sing along (with cake plastered all over my face)...that was so much fun...well a year later all of us have gone our separate ways...hmm well now am a year older (for those who know by DOB and are surprised, i still follow the indian system based on star birthday rather than the actual date of birth), a few more gray hairs and mebbe have to worry a touch more about what not...what am i going to do todayyyyyyyyyy????????...while i think about that here is some music...

En Kadhale (Duet)

Uyirin Uyire (Live Jam) and more

2006-06-17T23:38:00.000-04:00

hmm..well its a day after my quals and yeah the after effects of a bad day is just sinking in...well i decided to take a short break and headed out to cleveland for a change...caught up with Sam Sujith..for those on team Blogswara, Sam is no stranger...anywayz Sam is an awesome keys player...well it was our first meeting and we decided to do a random jam...so uyirin uyire is born again...hehehe albeit our version...well the entire track was created today in the process of a couple of hrs of jamming...obviously the track comes with errors but we chose to keep them rather than iron them out to maintain the spirit of a real Garage Jam recording...cheers then ppl

Sam Sujith - Keys
Anup - Guitars

Uyirin Uyire (Live Jam)

Free for all(Live Jam)

Anjali (Funky Remix)

2006-06-10T23:18:00.000-04:00

hi all..hmm well here is a new version of anjali anjali..the guru of mixing (atleast for this song) Nandu from gumbals band has come up with this real kewl mix...

Nandu - Keys and Mixing
Anup - Guitar

original piece by AR Rahman...SPB on vocals if i'm not wrong...

Anjali Anjali (Funky mix)

Anjali Anjali

2006-06-05T23:11:00.000-04:00

This is one of my favourite ARR numberss...inspired by nandu's (www.gumbalsband.com) piece yesterday, i tried my hand at melody..hmm well here is the output...

Nandu - Keys and Mixing
Anup - Guitar

original piece by AR Rahman...SPB on vocals if i'm not wrong...

Anjali Anjali (Duet)

Reservations and Welfare economics

2006-06-04T20:59:00.000-04:00

Young adults find solace in commiting suicide! Sad but true...suicide rates among young adults in our country is going up...why??? mostly due to acamdeic pressure...the never ending exams, expectations from the society, expectations from blah blah blah...huh..ppl give them a break...our country churns out engineers like a factory...the question is how many of them really want to be engineers...what if there was a budding scientist among them or an aspiring artist???? hmm anywayz thats besides the point and maybe a topic for another day...let me talk about another angle to this story...reservations...

here we have ms. A struggling for 12 months burning the midnight oil and finally scoring say X%...and there we have ms. B who works but not as hard and secures say Y%..lets assume that Y is smaller number than X, but ms. B is from a backward community and ms. A is from the so called "forward" community (which is the only difference between them)...ms. A does not find a merit seat but ms. B does...PPL DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE...academic merit should be respected..students who work their ass off and score higher points should get priority over students who dont do as well...

putting in place a mechanism such as "reservation" will do nothin but destroy social welfare by encouraging people to shirk...goodness me imagine a shirker getting more benefits than a hard working individual...if this is the case then the question arises why invest in control systems at all...in the corporate world it is all about incentives to make people work hard...it is all about aligning the interests of the managers and the shareholders...the case of students.... is it dissimilar???...of course not...

hmm well is someone looking for some direct evidence on why some students feel that life is not fair and decide that not living is probably a better choice...current policy does not give an "excellent" student incentive to work hard and do well in life but rather it gives incentives for them to take undesirable actions...

so much for "reservations" being beneficial to the society at large...

Wonderwall

2006-05-30T20:19:00.001-04:00

well well well...finally here is my first vocal rendition here...hmm the original was done by Oasis and it is called Wonderwall..one of their earlier superhits...BTW Oasis fans please be forewarned before streaming this one...heheh...this was fun ppll...been a long time since i finishied this one and hmm well here it is..

Wonderwall

The integer conundrum

2006-05-26T22:32:00.000-04:00

What is an interesting problem? A subjective question at best. What is interesting to some could be dis-interesting to others. But we have to live with what mother nature has offered us I guess. So the question now begs. Whats cooking as I write this post?

Understanding how people react in different situations is an interesting yet complex problem. Abe Lincoln once said "When I'm getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds thinking about him and what he is going to say". This quote is inspiring in the sense it made me think a little bit harder on something that is infinitely simple yet with no solution for all practical purposes.

Let us think of a game with two players. Each player is asked to write either "a" or "b" on a piece of paper. If either states "b" the game ends there and the hypothetical pay off is 0. But if both write "a" the game goes moves on. If the game proceeds to stage two then the setting is as follows. Each player is asked to write the largest possible integer. The person writing the largest possible integer gets a hypothetical $1000 and the loser gets $ 500.

Such a simple game but the solution seems odd. For instance its obvious that both players will choose "a" in the first stage since $ 500 is strictly greater than zero. In the second stage there cannot be a solution for the simple reason that both players cannot play the best response strategy to each other. Example say if player 1 is thinking of writing 999, he knows that player two will play 1000, which makes player 1 think of playing 1001 and then the cylce goes on and on. On a tangential note, it is a mathematical impossibility to arrive at a result because we are maximizing over an open set. But thats besides the point.

Can any game get simpler than this. Just choose a number and the person choosing a bigger number wins. A seemingly innocous problem but in reality unsolvable at this level. Note that it is quite possible someone might say that they dont care about winning $ 500 dollars as compared to $ 1000. Let me assume that one always wants to win which is fair enough (if i may say so). The question is can we come up with a mechanism that can really break the integer conundrum?

The ramblings will continueee........

Blogswara - A dream and the Humble Beginning

2006-05-24T12:32:00.000-04:00

Music is a language, albeit one without boundaries. Just like how our native tongue is so important for us, for those involved, music can be a far more powerful tool than words to convey what they really wish to. Blogswara is a concept for those who feel constrained. For artistes looking for "freedom of expression" here is your chance.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project with some great people like Ganesh, Ajay, Meera, Murali, Jo (and the list goes on and on and on)... A special mention should go to Jo (www.jocalling.blogspot.com)...without him this project would have still remained a dream..so folks in a couple of hours the dreams will translate into humble beginnings for Blogswara...cyaall thereee

Tonal Magic and Rock Legend

2006-05-22T00:55:00.000-04:00

Guitar lovers world over probably agree that what differentiates the men from the boys is the choice of style, feel and tone...Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and the rest of the crowd are all supremely talented guitar players...each one of them have their own signature tone and choice of feel for what the music they produce..

Tone depends on several factors including the effects processors, pre amp modulation, neck, pick ups blah blah blah..as far as my playing is concerned, i use a basic practice guitar (not branded) and for the last year and a half am completely dependent on my korg for the tone.

While I still hang on to this one and use it for recording purposes, I have also upgraded from the AX1500G (in this picture) to the AX3000G which gives me more flexibility and more options to fool around with effects.

Well so much for my gear...here is a new song..its really a shredfest, brainchild of a 14yr old guitar player from mexico by the name of Alejandro. An awesome talent. The song is quite long and keeps going on for about 7 mins. Three of us share the soloing. The first part is by Pollin (Alejandro) followed by Scali and then I end the show..needless to say, I suck big time compared to the other hombres here...but well it was sure worth the experience..

Rock Legend

Eye of the Tiger

2006-05-19T19:55:00.000-04:00

One of my all time favouritess...this is a classic soundtrack from the motion picture "Rocky"...yet another one from the lost worldddd...i have disabled the auto start facility for the player....also it looks like there is a problem opening this file through firefox..kindly use IE...cheers and enjoy your weekend

Eye of the Tiger

src="http://dl.mp3lizard.com/tailgunner/eye%5Fof%5Fthe%5Ftiger%5Fbalanced.mp3" width="376" height="334" autostart="0" url="http://dl.mp3lizard.com/tailgunner/eye%5Fof%5Fthe%5Ftiger%5Fbalanced.mp3" uimode="mini" rate="1" balance="0" currentposition="0" defaultframe="" playcount="1" currentmarker="0" invokeurls="-1" baseurl="" volume="100" mute="0" stretchtofit="-1" windowlessvideo="0" enabled="-1" enablecontextmenu="0" fullscreen="0" samistyle="" samilang="" samifilename="" captioningid="" enableerrordialogs="0">

Nostalgiaaaa

2006-05-15T23:53:00.000-04:00

its been quite a while since i took out some of these files...anywayz i was just digging through the old files on my computer and came up with some of these recordings that i had done earlier...i guess i thought i could share em here..

the first one is from an awesome band called Dire Straits...here is an acoustic version of "On Every Street"...in the end I top it off with some free styling which falls flat...plus this was probably one of my earliest recording efforts and the quality of the recording obviously suckss...heheheh..hope u guys enjoy this

On Every Street

src="http://dl.mp3lizard.com/tailgunner/dire%5Fon%5Fevery%5Fstreet.mp3" width="376" height="334" autostart="0" url="http://dl.mp3lizard.com/tailgunner/dire%5Fon%5Fevery%5Fstreet.mp3" uimode="mini" rate="1" balance="0" currentposition="0" defaultframe="" playcount="1" currentmarker="0" invokeurls="-1" baseurl="" volume="100" mute="0" stretchtofit="-1" windowlessvideo="0" enabled="-1" enablecontextmenu="0" fullscreen="0" samistyle="" samilang="" samifilename="" captioningid="" enableerrordialogs="0">

The road to freedom - Part I

2006-05-07T20:33:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about penning this down for quite some time but hmm... well I dunno why but never did it...anywayz i think the time has arrived..these are some of my all time favourite favourites...songs which i encountered through my journey in search of musical freedom...

1) Highway Star - A classic from Deep Purple. Everything about this song is great. The vocals, an excellent rhythm riff, mind blowing keyboard solo and finally an emancipating guitar solo to sign off..one my all time favourites

2) Holy Diver - Ronnie James Dio, entered into my life in the year 1991 when i first heard his solo "holy diver" from his 1983 album Holy Diver. What appeals again most is the classic riff and a beautifully executed guitar solo (especially the harmonics). BTW Dio was the chosen replacement for Ozzy Ozbourne in Black Sabbath.

3) Sweet Child of Mine - A Guns N' Roses mega hit. To be frank I'm not a big fan of Axl Rose and his vocals. But SCM has an excellent intro in three parts, with the lead guitar, bass and percussion joining in levels. The guitar solo by Slash is definitely a memorable piece of work

4) Crazy Train - Again one of those early 90's high school cult numbers (for me that is). This one features Ozzy with an awesome guitarist Rhandy Rhoads. The intro riff and the racy guitar playing is a treat to listen to. One of my all time favourite Ozzy hits.

5) Painkiller - Judas Priest at its very best. For those of you who listen to Judas Priest this song is an anomaly. The extremes in head banging. Everything about this song is "super cool" for those who are into heavy heavy music.

6) Hallowed be thy Name - Iron Maiden, is by far my favourite in classic rock/metal. Out of the many songs of theirs which I really like, this is my hot favourite. Melodic guitar riffs and rip roaring solos. A definite treat for the ear drums..

The ramblings will continueeeee.....

Sutrum Vizhi

2006-04-26T19:09:00.000-04:00

whew! well its music time again folkss...this is an acoustic version of the song "Sutrum Vizhi" from the movie Ghajini...BTW harris is one of my favourites..as usual the disclaimer applies..

Original Song: Sutrum Vizhi Chudare
Movie: Ghajini
Singers: Bombay Jayshree and Sriram Parthasarathy
Music: Harris Jayaraj

Sutrum Vizhi

A theory on relationship contracting (aka. marriage contracting)

2006-04-25T01:29:00.000-04:00

Weird...huh what an approach when starting to write..the first word that comes to my mind is "weird"..hmm well that kind of sums up what you are likely to read below..for once i guess i want to move away from music (not that i suddenly lost interest or something) but well i thought its been quite some time since my last rambling and well hmm let me do it for a change...so whats the topic...

hmm the topic which catches my fancy today is relationships..let me be more specific here and look at the concept of marriage from a rational perspective (married readers please excuse if this sounds kinda stupid)..what has rationality got to do with marriage??? i will start with the basic premise that marriage is a social contract between two parties (lets call them the husband and wife)...the end result of a marriage is whether the couple feel good about the relationship or not..lets call this the quality of the marriage...marriage quality is a function of several variables which are potential decision making variables when selecting a spouse..therefore i start with the basic premise that optimal selection implies good quality...hence the question that begs attention is what is the optimal choice mechanism ???

an answer to this question is not as simple as it might look..it has wide ranging socio economic impact..for instance in the case of Indian marriages typically there are two approaches...one is with the potential couple selecting themselves (love marriages) as compared to choices being made by the parents or arranged through other related parties (arranged marriages)..I start with the basic premise that there is a search cost associated with either form of choice mechanism..the idea being that the mechanism that minimizes search costs is the best option...

Let me start with the arranged marriage mechanism...we can resort to tools from information economics to conceptualize the information problem with this mechanism...using the standard principal agent framework we can classify the potential spouse as the pricipal who employs the services of the agent (parents) in finding his potential mate..now the information problem arises in this case because of differential information and/or misaligned interests between the principal and agent..what does this mean???

the first potential cost to the system arises in the form of differential information between the spouse to be and the parents...for instance the groom/bride to be have the best information about their personality, expectations or mate preferences etc..in the case of a love marriage where the bride or groom find their mate themselves, there should be no information imperfection..however since we are delegating the primary choice to a third party there will always be some form of information imperfection which lead to positive agency costs..an argument against this could be that since parents take a serious role in bringing up their kid, they probably have a good sense of tastes and preferences..however i will argue that to a large extent social pressures and the need for the kid to appease the elders leads to suppression of the true preferences...hence the argument is that agency costs are present due to information imperfection..

the second potential cost is the misalignment of incentives between the principal and agent..again going back to the social system where traditionally the parents of the son tend to live with them post marriage, parents have an implicit incentive to find a daughter in law who can adapt into the family..which is probably why it is said that marriages are not between two people but rather between the families..further it is known practice that dowry is paid by the girl to the boy at the time of marriage (in some communities and some parts of the country i guess) which implies that parents of the boy have an incentive to find girls who are from a wealthy family background, mebbe good education and several other potential considerations...similarly there is an incentive problem from the girls side too...in some cases the incentive for them would probably be to find a groom who will preferably stay with them rather than the opposite...in some cases even if that is not possible it might be expectations of help in some other form...therefore we still see positive agency costs arising from misalignment of interests..

Consider the other end of the spectrum...from arranged marriages lets move to love marriages...again this is kind of a stylized setting which I think is more intuitive to understand...basically the theory is that here the potential bride/groom self select their mate...hence the question arises as to what makes them choose between arranged and love marriages?? for instance a handsome young man, well educated and in a good job might find it far easier to select a mate by himself as against someone who is shy, not so good looking etc etc...therefore in the case of the second person he might be better off by going through the arranged marriage system...hence we can see that there is no information imperfection here in the sense that since the mate knows his preferences, he chooses optimally...further there is no incentive compatibility problem here because there are no third parties involved here...hence keeping everything else constant, we can see that the self selection of the mate minimized search costs...a caveat which is important is that the cost of self search also depends on how much the society is willing to tolerate...

the dynamics underlying the entire system seems quite complex..however rationality and expected utility maximization behavior suggests that the quality of the marriage is probably better under the self search system since it minimizes search costs...so are love marriages better than arranged marriages (hehehehe)...I guess thats theory (i'm not saying you have to buy this)...what is observed in practice might be quite different...who cares about incentives huh...

the rambling will continue...

Naran Theme Remix

2006-04-18T20:52:00.000-04:00

this is what i call really impromptu recording..this is a remix version of the theme song from the movie Naran..this is a rock version..not great but then i thought i might as well share it here...this is the first time i'm using my new Korg AX3000G processor to record...i should say i'm quite happy with the output..it gives me a wider range of tones such as the one used for the intro...

Original Song: Naran
Singers: K. S. Chithra and Vineeth Sreenivasan
Music: Deepak Dev

Naran Theme Remix

Kuzhal Oodhum Kannanukku

2006-04-15T19:11:00.000-04:00

been a long time since i have been here...well was tied up with work and stuff and a short trip to home sweet home...the problem with short trips is u feel like aah why in gods name did i even go back..hmm neways hopefully i have gained 20 pounds from the trip (not in currency but rather in weight)...here is my first recording after the trip..i dont know if i did justice to the song but i tried too...

oops i forgot to mention..karaoke courtesy Magic Lens

Kuzhal Oodhum Kannanukku

Pehla Nasha

2006-02-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

hmm i guess most of you who follow hindi movies and music would recognize this song..the first time i heard it was when was in high school (around the same time that the movie hit the road)...hmm i should say a very catchy tune and well yeah i wanted to do it myself..so here is my effort..not entirely happy with it but well its fun..cheers then ppl

Pehla Nasha

Gerry

2006-02-22T18:36:00.000-05:00

I'm a big movie buff and have had the pleasure of viewing many different types (languages, directorial approach, genre blah blah) of movies...yesterday i came across one which literally changed my perspective on how creative people can get...The movie is Gerry (2003) Matt Damon, Affleck etc...in some ways it brought back memories of the malayalam art film elipathayam (dunno whom to give credits for this though)...

Gerry is different...for instance right from the word go..the first 5 to 10 minutes just shows Damon and Affleck driving in a car not uttering a single word and seemingly driving through a desert...to make matters worse is the lack of any ambience (which one gets used to watching chick flicks or drama i guess)...and then the first real "sounds" come in after about 10 minutes when they finally park the car and get out...and then they start a hike to seemingly no where...it is kind of weird that two people would go into the desert without so much a a snack or a watter bottle...well finally they get lost in the desert...they dont seem to bother much atleast initially but as the movie progresses it has some weird moments..neways after about 90 minutes of blah blah; the end is no better than the beginning...whew what an experience...finally the dialogues...most of the time it is meaningless mumbo jumbo...just makes me wonder if this was one of those low budget encounters...intermittent dialogues, no real music, no comelling storyline...hmm well what makes it different are these factors i guess..

cheez man..thats one hell of a movie...and i guess its worth watching for the creativity and execution (not more than once hehehe)...

An ode to (i dont know who hehehehehe)

2006-02-18T18:22:00.000-05:00

Been a while since i last updated my blog..the never ending problems of a graduate student...the worst thing being that i still have to do HOME WORK...when i look back the last time i did homework (before starting grad school here) was in 12th...hehe so much so...

neways life goes on while we are miles away (from what???? i dont know)...here is another song...this one is kind of experimental...this is a remix version of kakai chiraginille...well ppl please listen to the song at your own risk..i'm quite certain subramanya bharathiar would probably feel obliged to rise from his grave and give me a thrashing...hehe but i will take a chance...the background score is based on the BG score from Crimson Tide (a must watch for those who havent seen the movie)..add to that some distorted rhythm and meera manohar on vocals...and mind u this is also meera's first shot at composing and boy she has done a wonderful job..three cheers..well here is the end product...

i have also added another song to this...this one is from the malayalam movie Ravanaprabhu and it is titled Ariyathe..it was kind of hard for me to do the song coz it has a strong classical base..therefore again it is a remix version with me stretching on some of the raagas (purists please excuse) hehehe...

The ramblings will continueeee...

Kakai Chiraginile (Remix)

Ariyathe (Remix)

The week that was

2006-01-27T00:12:00.001-05:00

whoaa...its friday already...its been a hectic week..lead presenter for a paper, thinking of a pilot study, collecting data, doing all the legwork...hmm i'm definitely looking forward to Friday (oops its already Friday technically atleast)...my ex roomate from Kansas is visiting me tomorrow and that should be fun...meanwhile finally i managed to finish a music project that i started last week...this weekend i hope to get done with the other big music project for blogswara...hehe..

neways this is my second malayalam song...from the IR stable this is Shwasathin Thalam from the movie Achuvinte Amma...i tried some fancy stuff with this song..especially with the cabinet simulators and the modulation...hehee...cheers then folks..have a great weekend

Shwasathin Thalam

Experience of a Lifetime

2006-01-15T11:55:00.000-05:00

It was but a dream come true...our show yesterday rocked...hmm i dont know what else to say...after a long wait we finally ended up performing our dream song Highway Star...very few mistakes and it was pretty much the perfect show..the sad part is I guess this will probably be our last show coz some of the band members are graduating..hmm anywayz life goes on..hopefully i can post videos (sound quality is poor though)...

Meanwhile here is my first malayalam instrumental piece..this song is called Kaneer Poovinte from the movie Kireedam...its my all time favourite malayalam song..

Kanneer Poovinte

Whoa what a new year

2006-01-05T17:45:00.000-05:00

hmm well its still early days in 2006 but there is no let off from school work..school started early this week and my first homework due date has already been announced...awwww why cant i rewind back in time for say about three weeks (heheheh)..

hmm well here is a more recent recording...this is the guitar solo from the Deep Purple classic "Highway star"

Listen to Highway Star (Guitar Solo)

Divine Emotions

2005-12-30T15:53:00.000-05:00

huh...well finally lemme try some free audioblogging...here is the first one through cast post...dunno if this will work but then lemme try...huh castpost is not working..okie then i will directly link this though my soundclick site..

okie the first song is divine emotions..if you guys want to hear music that makes ABSOLUTELY no sense, then this is the song...Ajit is on percussion...hehe you will find that the rhythm and the percussion dont match in this song and that is intentional...freedom of expression, modern music blah blah..whatever...i have termed it divine emotionssthe second song is more recent..its an acoustic piece which i recently just fooled aorund with...thats splash

for song one...its me on two layers of guitar (one with the basic rhythm riff and the second with the solo) and ajit on percussion...the second one is just me on two layers (rhythm and solo)...

Listen to Divine Emotions

Listen to Splash

The eternal ARR fan

2005-12-20T13:32:00.000-05:00

There he is the eternal ARR fan and an awesome keyboard player, my good friend Mr. Prasanna Sivaraman. I guess as far as music goes he believes there is none to grace the keys as compared to ARR (mebbe even at the expense of the great master Ilayaraja)...he such is his love for ARR's music. Having worked with him on several shows, this guy rocks on the keys..Out pet project was Highway Star by Deep Purple. It has an awesome organ solo and we are going to perform the song for the first time on New Years eve, for a live show in Columbus.

Shredders paradise

2005-12-16T22:12:00.000-05:00

shredding is more closely associated with paper than with the guitar...but for those who love metal, shredders are those who tear the fretboard apart...mindboggling speed mixed with harmony produces magic...i entered the paradise years ago and am still living through it...the age of techno, ARR blah blah what not, never diminished my love for pure hard rock/metal...somehow the headbangers ball is probably the only one to sustain my interest over the years..

its been a long time since i started playing the guitar...growing up on a heavy dose of 80's rock music in chennai was real fun..being exposed to van halen, satriani, richie blackmore blah blah blah can have a profound influence on ones thinking and approach towards music...over the years many of my fellow rockers (exception being the oringinal band members) from my high school and to some extent college have mellowed down and no longer belong to the headbangers club..needless to say some of us still are in the same mould...one wonders why....but answers or justifications are hard to come...afterall its a personal choice....maybe shredders paradise is easy to enter but difficult to stay in...

Watching the G3 (Petrucci, Vai and Satriani) live in Tokyo (DVD) was an amazing experience ...sublime melody blending with manic speed on the fretboard in about 90 minutes of non stop entertainment...i was fortunate enough to see the greatest masters of the trade display their wares even if on a DVD...i have decided that my DVD collection would be incomplete without this one...the show rocks guys...it is the ultimate show for those who want to be inside the Shredders paradise

The day that was

2005-12-09T00:15:00.000-05:00

huh...well what a Thursday...this week is kinda blown away..had my exams on Tuesday and now I just feel odd...i dont have homework to turn in, an exam to worry about or a boring class to attend (atleast for the next one month)....

well so much for that...woke up at 12 and decided hmm well mebbe i will watch a movie...checked my inventory and found one that I have not seen before...I ended up watching Lokanathan, IAS...to be frank the name sounds imposing but the movie is far from impressive...well i started that one might as well end it...anywayz it was not as bad as the movie New or more recently Ah Aah (cheez man i wonder how people sat through those movies)...neways i guess its a matter of personal choice...

well so much for the day..come evenin and I was plannin on visiting some friends today...since they are married, the live far away from the "desi adda"...neways i get ready and then look outside and its snowing like crazy...laziness and me go hand in hand and decided to chuck that idea and mebbe do some good music...hmm it was a productive evening i should say and i ended up recording about three new songs...

as to their quality, its debatable...i would take the view that they are nothin but some random thoughts...hehe being a social scientist, randomness has become a part of life...i wonder what a physicist or a mathematician would say to that....hehe...anywayz my stuff is now online at

http://www.soundclick.com/tailgunner

ISA Diwali Fest

2005-11-22T11:45:00.000-05:00

Thats the terrible trio...K2 alias Siva on the Bass guitar (influences Type O Negative, RHCP, Sabbath among others)...Ankit Mistry on Rhythm (influences Zeppelin, Sabbath, Metallica etc)...finally thats me on lead (influences Iron Maiden, Deep Purple among others)...this a picture from our show last saturday...hmm as for the show nothing to write home about...it kind of blew up (no fault of ours though)....

Funhouseeeeeee

2005-11-20T14:21:00.000-05:00

funhouse and its members...the concept of funhouse was started by members of this group (i joined them subsequently i shoudl say sometime in May of this year)...those were the days...anywayz this is the gang from columbus, ohio...we rock and rule the worlddddddddd

Tomorrowwwwww

2005-11-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

huh...well thats the end of the week as far as my teaching assignments goo...teaching is kind of fun except when your students are not doing as well as one would expect to...anywayz thats on the back burner for the moment..

tomorrow is a big day...i have my second mid term exam in econ 804 (this is the first in the sequnce of microeconomics...hmm well thats not a good description.. i should say this is more of a pure math class that doctoral students in several social science/business fields take at OSU) tomorrow...it has been an ardous journey to hell in that class for most of us over the last seven weeks...those who survive another three weeks can feel good about the fact...humiliation is not something that was common among the group who need to take this class, but well so much for that...battered and broken the survivors trudge on...the final destination appears closer now but then tomorrow will tell us if it was but a mirage.....

well after 5 tomorrow rocksssssss....our band is playing for the diwali fest here at Ohio state...i'm making my debut as a keyboard player for the song strawberry kanneee, am playin an instrumental version of uyirin uyire, Anjane from strings, Its a time to disco and mebbe even highway star...we have been told a STRICT NO TO HARD ROCK...baahhhh hypocrites....but then we play the cards and will play em depending on how we feel i guess...(hahahaha)...

neways rambling time over...mugging time to start....cheerio pplllll

On Music

2005-11-14T11:54:00.000-05:00

huh ...well last saturday was an interesting day for us musicians...it was our second show for which we were actually being paid...can you believe that from doing free gigs to actually being invited for a paid performance...guess our efforts for the FIA program in October really paid dividends...hmm well thats so much for the invitation...what did we decide to cook up for the crowd???? huh thats a long story..given our schedules we were more or less bent on offering the standard menu...starting off with our trademark indian classical/fusion piece and then on to some popular numbers from the hindi film movie circuit...the lone exception being "Anjane", originally performed by Strings...

to be fair a guitarist in hindi film music has nothin much to do (exceptions noted)...the exceptions being more in the sense of several rock bands (Strings, Euphoria, Jal, Fuzon etc)...however off late I have noticed several other songs too which makes use of good guitar work...Indian Ocean is one band which took me by surprise..something about their music makes me feel really good...well i dont know how to describle it but hmm well so much for that..

the biggest shock to me came yesterday when i saw a mallu hard rock band perform a mallu rock song...the band named Avial, i believe released a music video titled "Nada Nada Nada"...the song rocks...the bass riff and the rhythm riffs are awesome atleast in my perspective and i really enjoyed listenin to em...

hmm well so much for incoherent, unstructured ramblings...more to come as time passes

Dreams and consequences

2005-10-29T15:54:00.000-04:00

whatever this means...ever wondered why we dream??? to be frank the more I think about it, the less clear it is to me as to why we dream...i presume there is a scientific explanation on why we dream...maybe there is not...hmm googling might be a good idea but I dont think I'm in the mood to do that right now...more interesting is probably the consequences of a dream...think about a situation...visualizing the first concert, first movie, the first steps into the free world, having the time of your life in college....on the other side of the spectrum...visualizing youself as a 80 year old struggling through to get simple things done...I can keep on rambling about different scenarios that can be visualized...some bring in good memories and some bring in bad memories...

therefore this begs the question...are there consequencess???? this is an open question for which i think the answer is not unique...for some people dreams and realized and for some dreams are not...the asymmetry in consequences makes it a hard for one to predict...the problem is further intensified because consequences varies within the cross section and also in the time series...for instance there might be cases where if we look at individuals acrss the board, for some dreams might always be reality and for some it is never a reality...and then if we take the time series of dreams for a single individual its quite possible that for there is cyclical behaviour or clustering of realizations...either ways the assymetric behaviour makes the question of if there exist consequences to dreams harder...

The ramblings will continueeee

Flamboyant or Conservative???

2005-06-05T00:31:00.000-04:00

is conservatism in investing a bad idea???

Recently there has been significant interest in the case of Lehmann Bros. credit analyst Ravi Suria and his take on convertible bonds of Amazon. He recommended that investors not invest in the bond offering from Amazon. Convertible bonds are bonds that can be converted from bonds to stock. At the same time star internet stock analyst Holly Becker had actually given a positive recommendation on the Amazon stock. Well the big question. Who do we believe. Is the stock analyst more competitive than the bond analyst???

Ex-post we always have the benefit of the results from the recommendation and how it fared. In this case we find that Mr. Suria's recommendation on the Amazon bond offering was probably more credible. The key to note here is that bond analysts probably look at different information as compared to stock analysts.

Bond analysts tend to be more conservative in their approach. The question one should ask is why invest in bonds? The main reason is lower cash flow risk since bonds carry a fixed payment. Therefore the primary focus of bond analysts remains on if the company will be in a position to service its debt. On the other hand stock analysts are more concerned about future prospects. The theory being that the firm is investing now for the future and the benefits that is likely to accrue in the future should be priced in now. Therefore stock analysts tend to be a bit more flamboyant. Bond analysts attend to the basics and study the current financial position...

Therefore the big question now is should investors look at bond analysts???...bond analysts dont get as much public mileage as compared to the stock analysts...but things probably are set to change....

the other big question is does conservatism in investment pay more....one might argue that this might be more or less concerned with internet stocks..but then if we think of the recent downgrades in the quality of debt of the GM, Ford one wonders if debt analysts should be given more importance...

conservatism does pay...

Yield Curves and Recessions

2005-06-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

I was reading cnnfn today and there is this story about why the US economy is possibly heading towards a recession...okie lets break the story out...the crux of the argument is that the yield curve is flattening out...the yield curve is nothing but a graphical representation of the relationship between short term and long term interest rates benchmarked on US government bonds...the idea is that the short term interest rates are more closely aligned to the views of the central bank (in this case the Federal Reserve) and the long term is more alinged to economic fundamentals and a multitude of factors can affect the long term rates....

now whats the cause for concern??? the long term and short term rates are converging....instead of a concave yield curve we might end up in a situation where it is convex...cheez aint that bad???...convexity in the yield curve means that the long term interest rates are lower than the short term interest rates...that really does spell trouble does it not??...the arguments presented are that it has happened in the past and hence it will happen again???

Do we really want to believe that???

Firstly bond prices are very noisy indeed...thousands of traders trying to make a buck here or there and squeezing out the last penny toy with bond prices day in and day out...do these traders really have perfect foresight into the future of the economy such that they can price the bonds to perfection?????...the price of the bond from which the interest rates are derived is at the end of the day the average expectation of thousands of traders...can we really eliminate the noise in the system???

is it really necessary that if this has happened in the past it should happen in the future...the point to counter being that since we know that this might happen in the future by itself is information which investors would use to change the outloook....at the end of the day any market is nothing but a manifestation of the views of the people trading in that market...therefore how much faith can we place in models which try and predict human behaviour???

The ramblings will continue...........

Random thoughts

2005-06-04T21:21:00.000-04:00

cheezzzz...finally i have started blogging...dont ask me why or how i decided to start this...but then i thought let me share the days of this deranged mallu with fellow bloggers...now what am i doing here when i'm supposed to be reading the theory of auctions...its kind of sickening but then i realized today that the type of auctioning really d0es not matter...so much for economics...can we really model human behaviour????....why is the stock market so chaotic?????...why are people obsessed with certain things????...can human behaviour ever be constant????....why do we need an education???? ...the rambling will continueeeeeeee