Smetana Trio

The concert by Smetana Trio at UCSD's Conrad Prebys Hall was worth going. It was a good choice for the season's last concert. And it was my first concert of a trio of violin, cello and piano. They played 3 pieces as part of the main program. But as a special gesture, being the last program for the  season, they played a short piece in the end by a Chinese composer.
The first piece was dominated by the violin, and the piano did not really come through. The best piece followed. It was beautiful, the full range of the piano was exploited and the three instruments created magic. The short piece in the end was a bit different in style compared to the others. It was not very modern, a little orthodox perhaps. Overall, I enjoyed the evening, and finished it with a good dinner.

A woman has to be intelligent, have charm, a sense of humor, and be kind. It's the same qualities I require from a man.

I recently came across this term "sapiosexuality" in an article. I find that the word aptly describes my choice of men. I seem to fall for the geeks and nerds in the society. A good sense of humor, of course, is worth a good ten points. Until now I used to think this kind of behavior was closely associated with craziness. Now I am at least satisfied that I am not alone, and there are a good number of people who share similar feelings.   
I was recently pondering about the cause for this attraction. I feel it is due to an underlying sense of security in the fact that, intelligence is permanent and cannot be destroyed unlike wealth or physical beauty. No one can steal our intellect, it is safe inside our brain and mind.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave. - Francis Bacon

Expression of love

Miles I walked,
Before our paths crossed.
A silent conversation.
An all knowing smile,
And a glowing face.
Long lost emotion,
Written on his lips.
I knew it was done

Music

"What better way to relax, than a combination of some good music, a romance novel and a glass of wine - heaven on earth."

I attended a concert by Simon Shaheen on Friday. That was my first experience of listening to Middle Eastern sounds and tunes. Some of the tones had a similarity to Indian music, which is not surprising because of the cultural closeness between the two regions. I loved the style of the quintet. They played two pieces which followed a similar pattern. The five instruments together set a beat which continued to the end, and each instrument took turns to play solo. The result was a soothing effect on the ears. Especially, the violin was played beautifully, as though it were speaking to me. Thanks to UCSD, I had a good relaxation after a stressful week.

Food cravings

I live to eat

That is my life motto and I make sure to live by it. Cooking and eating food gives me such pleasure. I feel so blissful when I take in a mouthful of pasta or tiramisu. Ah! the very thought of spinach ravioli in white bechamel sauce makes me go crazy. I think Italian cuisine is by far the best I have come across till now. Maybe that is due to my strong bias towards cheese.

Another favorite of mine is tiramisu. Wow, the different layers of coffee, cheese and ladyfingers mingling together in my mouth, that is heavenly. I wish I were born in Italy, just for the food.

Another favorite in Italian culinary is their use of tomatoes. Tomato is my favorite fruit, I can eat it any form, any time of the day, any day of my life. I love the red, plump fruit in a thick, creamy soup, or in a salt-peppered juice or in a spicy Indian gravy. And the Italian marinara sauce is just perfect to satisfy my tomato cravings. Cherry tomatoes especially are close to my heart. I love cooking a sauce with cherry tomatoes, it is such a beautiful sight to watch them melt down and blend together.

 

Oh boy, all this writing about food has made me hungry(not kidding !) Just looking at all these pictures of food makes my mouth water :-)

More food cravings to come.. now I m off to satisfy my longing :-)

Expectations

Why do humans have expectations ? Expectations are bad in the sense that when they are not met, disappointment and frustration takes over. I think the root cause of expectation is emotional attachment, which could be with another person, a movie, book or anything for that matter. The level of expectation also plays a role in how much pain we experience. Low expectations can be met more often than higher level ones. Let us take an average movie, say a 0.5 rating, if the movie has been hyped and advertised on a grand scale, our mind is already biased towards the higher end, say 0.7.
So if the movie is not to our liking, say only 0.2, the difference between our mind's bias and the reality increases, and so does our frustration. But if our mind was neutral, or even better, had a lower expectation, we would not be disappointed, and hence no pain or sadness.
So is it better to be pessimistic and expect failure all the time ? Well, one can argue against that by quoting Paulo Coelho from The Alchemist “When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true.” But then again, we have to be practical and expect only those events that have at least a 50% chance of happening to us. I cannot want to marry Brad Pitt and hope that the universe will help me achieve that. I would only be foolish if I do that. But I can expect to get a decent internship in a good company, which is being optimistic. There is a very thin line between optimism and foolishness, which we should identify and not cross. Similarly there is another thin line between low expectations and pessimism. Expecting a low grade in a course is very much different from being sure of failing in a course. If I keep saying to myself that I will fail the course, it may actually happen, because each time I am demotivating myself.
So the ideal frame of mind should be neutral. Unfortunately, reaching and maintaining that state of mind is quite difficult. If a person succeeds in that task, he/she would be the happiest and most peaceful person in the world.
On a side note, I have actually experienced the concept of universe-conspiring-to-help-you. When I applied to graduate school, I somehow had this intuition or confidence that I would get an admit into UCSD. I had this feeling that I already had an admit, and strongly believed that I would come to San Diego. I was actually telling people that I ll surely go to UCSD for graduate school. Maybe the universe reflected back all the positive signals I was sending out, and that actually increased the overall strength. Ah! metaphysics is such an interesting subject.. but in another post.

Mazhai varum from Veppam

I discovered this song recently, and it has a very haunting effect. The music is soft, flows smoothly and the singer's voice adds a sensual touch to the song. I especially like the violin interlude. The cinematography is also in line with the feel of the music and lyrics. Even her appearance with a light, breezy dress and her hair let loose adds to the sensuality of the song.