In Seventh Heaven

I have always loved this idea of being in Seventh Heaven and, by and large, all it takes me to be in that state is to have absolutely nothing that requires doing. Even in this retired state of mine, alas, there are things to do - most notably that damnable Income Tax return which plagues me once a year. Still, it is not a bad deal being in seventh heaven for the most part of the year, I suppose.

The funny thing is that religions, which are reputed to remain at loggerheads with each other in all interactions and to tend to see the followers of the others as imps from Hell if not the Devil incarnate, are all agreed on the existence of seven heavens. Surprising that there is such unanimity among people who are seen to otherwise claim that the Sun rose in the West merely to contradict the others saying that it rose in the East.

Judaism claims the existence of Seven Heavens - Vilan, Raqiya, Shehaqim, Zebul, Ma'on, Makhon and Araboth. Islam, too, agrees about seven heavens - Rafi, Qaydum, Marum, Arfalun, Hay'oun, Arous and Ajma'. Two major religions, whose followers have the public reputation of being perpetually at loggerheads with each other seem to have a shared vision about, at least, the number of heavens.

Closer home, Hinduism also has its seven heavens. The famed Gayatri Mantra - Om Bhoor Bhuva Svah - lists the first three and the expanded version actually lists all seven. Well - actually, the heaven part starts later but seventh heaven is most certainly present. In order, we have Bhoorloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapa loka and Satyaloka. Bhoorloka is the land of mortals - us, so technically there are only six heavens but the seventh loka translates to seventh heaven!

Now, if only we have unanimity in considering everyone as children of the same god. That would truly be seventh heaven.

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 1st - 7th September 2013

The sevens of marriage

Hindu marriage vows are taken in the saat phere - the seven circum-ambulations of the Holy fire. They are more prayers than vows. The first phera is with a prayer is for availability of nourishing food through their lives, the second is for health, the third is for Wealth, the fourth is for mutual love and respect, the fifth is for good progeny, the sixth is for a long life of peace and the seventh is for togetherness, companionship, loyalty and mutual understanding.

I searched and searched and could not find this '... and obey' being required from the wife in this process. Alas! That put me off marriage - lacking nimbleness of brains, that 'obey' was about the only way I could come anywhere close to holding my own in a marital relationship - not that it has been any help to any of the others who had tacitly assumed that it was a part of the marriage vows.

There is, however, a different seven that comes into operation these days in love marriages. I make no claim that this is universal but it certainly seems wide-spread.

1. At First Sight - "Ek ladki ko dekha tho aisa lagaa"

2. At first meeting - "Tum aa gaye ho, noor aa gaya hai"

3. After being accepted - "Hum donon do premi duniya chor chale"

4. After a period of love - "Shayad meri shaadi ka kayal"

5. Post wedding - "Suhaag raat hai, Ghunghat uta raha hoon main"

6. Five years after marriage - "Kya apna tamanna thi, Kya saamne aaya hai"

7. Ten years after - "Kasme vaade pyaar wafa sab baaton hai baaton ka kya"

I plead indulgence from the ladies. Hindi cinema has been male-centric and I am unable to find good equivalents for the women. (And my apologies too to those of you who do not know these Hindi songs)

Marriage is also supposed to be a saat-janam ka rishta (A relationship lasting seven births). The above love story starts with being indignant about having only seven births with the loved one, goes through to feeling that the relationship is just about good enough for seven births and ends with hoping that the current one IS the seventh birth for which the marriage was supposed to last.

I am sure that YOUR marriage is not like this one and you want life with the same partner to last till you get off the wheel of existence totally. But I cannot keep worrying about you. I need to figure out whether this seven births business applies for bachelors as well and, if it does, do I want this to be the first of seven or the last.

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 1st - 7th September 2013

Vexing Colors

Never have I been let down as badly as when I was taught about VIBGYOR in school. There I was thinking once I knew to distinguish between Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red, I would be all done with learning about colors. True, there is this strange omission of White and Black but then I could accommodate two more readily. After all, even a rainbow is not perfect.

True that I could not differentiate between Violet and Indigo unless I saw both colors together but, in time, I felt that I could possibly manage that feat. Hitherto, of course, I have barely been able to manage to identify Blue, Red and Green but I am sure that, in time, I could manage that difficult ambition of mine. (No! I am not color-blind. No! The doctor who certified that does not need his head examined.) There were also hot disputes between me and my sis about some color which she called dark orange and I felt was light red but such instances still did not touch the edges of my confidence about mastering colors.

Life teaches you to beware of over-confidence. Came the time when I started moving with women (as opposed to girls who, as every boy will agree, are silly creatures whose opinions do not count. And, no, I am not keen on learning what girls thought of boys) and, God, what is with all those shades of color? I mean did You really have to make so many shades of each damned color? Did no-one ever talk to You about minimalism? If You really had to do all that, however did You manage to finish and rest on the seventh day? Had You worked on the seventh day as well would You have managed to give men the ability to distinguish between all those shades which look roughly the same?

Here I was cursing the fact that I could not distinguish between shades being a mere man and a male friend dances in and talks glibly of azure and cerulean; auburn and amaranth; sepia and taupe and who knows what else. Am I not to even have the consolation that my inability is merely a consequence of my gender? I honestly wished that his wife had been around - he may have dried up once he knew someone knowledgeable was around to know whether he was right.

Be that as it may, I wish people would stop talking about seven colors. There seem to be seven gazillion and counting and I just do not want to know about it any more.

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 1st - 7th September 2013

The seven of music

I have always loved listening to music but never had the ear to appreciate the nuances. Ever since I took up listening to Carnatic Music I have longed to join that throng of people who listen to the first three notes of the rendition and exclaim knowledgeably, "Ah! Abheri" or some such name of a raga. Sadly for me, all I can manage is "I liked it" thereby labeling myself that most crass of people - the "I know what I like" brigade.

Well - if I could not recognize ragas I could at least get into the math of it. Idle curiosity had always existed about how the seven swaras - Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni - could give rise to multiple sampoorna ragas (meaning ragas containing all the seven notes) particularly when the swaras had also to be sung in the same order. I mean if I had seven things and I also had to arrange all of them in only one order, I could only have one arrangement, right?

It is later I learnt that these seven swaras are actually to be used on a scale of 12 notes. Once you thought of it as arranging seven items in twelve slots according to preset rules, the possibility of multiple arrangements seemed credible.

The first of the twelve had to be Sa and the and the eighth had to be Pa. Either the sixth or the seventh could be used for  Ma. So, between these three swaras you had only two possible arrangements.

The game gets interesting - or boring, depending on where you stand on permutations and combinations - when it comes to Ri and Ga. The four notes after Sa (second to fifth on your scale of 12) can be used for these two swaras and, of course, Ga can only be played on a note subsequent to Ri. Thus, if the second note is used for Ri, you have three options (3rd to 5th) for Ga; if the third note is used for Ri, you have two options (4th and 5th) for Ga and if the fourth note is used for Ri you have only the option of the fifth for Ga. Thus, between Ri and Ga, you have six alternative arrangements.

The same thing applies Dha and Ni with respect to the 9th to 12th notes on your scale. So, you have another six arrangements for these two swaras. Thus, the total possible sampoorna ragas is 2 x 6 x 6 = 72, which is the basis of the Melakarta system of classifying Carnatic Music ragas.

Of course, you do have ragas with six swaras, five swaras etc. (4 and below tend to be rare to non-existent since the output tends more to cacophony than symphony) leading to an infinity of ragas. These ragas are called 'janya ragas' since they are considered to be born of a Melakarta raga (Sampoorna raga as above) from which one or more of the swaras are shorn. In this context, the concerned Melakarta raga is called a 'Janana raga' - the parent raga.

Having dazzled you all with my 'command' over the lexicon of music let me go back to wondering about how one identifies ragas from the singing.

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 1st - 7th September 2013