The Monk Who Sold Computers

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. That’s the mark of a true professional” Gautama Buddha

"Steve was among the greatest of American innovators—brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it," said President Barack Obama in a statement. “Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: He changed the way each of us sees the world.”

Steve Jobs, for all of his single-minded dedication to the company he built from the ground up, he actually skipped a meeting to take Laurene on their first date: Steve wrote “I was in the parking lot with the key in the car, and I thought to myself, ‘If this is my last night on earth, would I rather spend it at a business meeting or with this woman?’ I ran across the parking lot, asked her if she’d have dinner with me. She said yes, we walked into town and we’ve been together ever since.”

He wrote to Laurene. “We didn’t know much about each other 20 years ago. We were guided by our intuition; you swept me off my feet. It was snowing when we got married at the Ahwahnee. Years passed, kids came, good times, hard times, but never bad times. Our love and respect has endured and grown. We’ve been through so much together and here we are right back where we started 20 years ago-older, wiser-with wrinkles on our faces and hearts. We now know many of life’s joys, sufferings, secrets and wonders and we’re still here together. My feet have never returned to the ground.” (As recited to biographer Walter Isaacson. Jobs was said to have cried uncontrollably after the recitation.)

In his famous 2005 commencement speech to Stanford University, Jobs said of his time at Reed: "It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple."

Steve Jobs is the man who gave the most popular personal gadgets to this generation, the Apple gadgets iMac, iPhone, iPod and iPad; and convinced us to splash out up to $800 again and again on gadgets we never knew we really required. The business world is missing one of its most popular visionaries.

According to Steve Jobs, Apple was so named because Jobs was coming back from an apple farm, and he was on a fruitarian diet. He thought the name was "fun, spirited and not intimidating". May be, Isaac Newton’s apple fell on his head!! Jobs is counted among the world’s greatest CEOs and inventors, revered not just for his vision, but creativity, business savvy, and aesthetic appreciation.

As the CEO of the world's most valuable brand, Jobs took only, an annual salary of just $1. While the gesture isn't unheard of in the corporate; Jobs has kept his salary at $1 since 1997, the year he became Apple's lead executive. Of his salary, Jobs joked in 2007: "I get 50 cents a year for showing up, and the other 50 cents is based on my performance."

Since the founding of Apple Computer in 1976, fans and the media grasped for any hint at the personal life of the man in the black turtleneck, trying to piece together what they could of the reclusive innovator. For decades, Jobs, thought to be worth more than $5 billion, has tried to put a metaphorical black sheet over his private life. As with his rollercoaster business career, his personal life has had its ups and downs. Though he was one of the world's most famous CEOs, Steve Jobs kept his private world -- wife and family, illegitimate daughter, father who gave him up for adoption, long lost sister -- hidden from public view.

Jobs most public display of a personal life included his wife, Laurene Powell, and their three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna, and Eve. Powell and Jobs had been married for more than 20 years. The two were married in a small Buddhist ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, and lived in Woodside, Calif; the marriage was officiated by Kobin Chino, a Zen Buddhist monk who was his spiritual guru.

Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955. His biological father was a graduate student named Abdulfattah John Jandali, a Syrian Muslim who left native country at the age 18 and mother named Joanne Schieble. Jandali,  claimed they put him up for adoption because Joanne’s father was extremely conservative and wouldn’t let Jandali marry her. His birth mother, Joanne Simpson, was a graduate student at the time and later a speech pathologist; his biological father, Abdulfattah John Jandali, reportedly now serves as the vice president of a Reno, Nevada casino.

He was placed with a private adoption agency. He was adopted shortly after his birth and reared near Mountain View, California by a working-class couple, Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922–1993) and Clara Jobs (1924–1986). Joanne tried to insist their son went to university-educated parents. Neither Paul Jobs, a machine operator, nor his wife could make such a claim: his mother only signed the papers after they promised to send him to university.

A few months after they gave Steve up Joanne’s dad died and she was free to marry John. The couple went on to have a daughter, Mona, but eventually split up and divorced when John was managing a refinery in Syria. Mona is estranged from John too. 

Later in life, Jobs discovered the identities of his estranged parents. While Jobs reconnected with Simpson in later years, he and his biological father remained estranged. Some have claimed that Jobs’s absent real father may be crucial in explaining his contradictory and sometimes combative personality.

The reasons for that estrangement are not known. But their split has echoes in another episode in Jobs’s complicated personal life. In 1977, his on-off girlfriend Chris-Ann Brennan gave birth to their daughter, Lisa. Jobs initially insisted the girl was not his. Even so, he named an early Apple computer Lisa (which he claimed was only a technical acronym). Ms Brennan initially raised Lisa on benefits, and those who knew about Jobs’s own adoption were shocked at his response. During Lisa’s teens, however, Jobs acknowledged paternity, and she came to live with him before he paid for her college education at Harvard. Now 34, she is a writer based in New York. Jobs' reluctance to accept Lisa is ironic since he was given up for adoption as a child and has refused to speak to his biological father, despite the father's efforts to contact Jobs. "I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of," he said in a statement while promoting his authorized biography, "such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.”

Later in his life, Jobs crossed paths with his biological sister while seeking the identity of his birth parents. His sister, Mona Simpson (born Mona Jandali), is the well-known author of "Anywhere But Here" — a story about a mother and daughter that was later adapted into a film starring Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon.

After reuniting, Jobs and Simpson developed a close relationship. Of his sister, he told a New York Times interviewer: "We're family. She's one of my best friends in the world. I call her and talk to her every couple of days.''Anywhere But Here" is dedicated to "my brother Steve."

Born out of wedlock and given away for adoption as an infant, the early life of Steve Jobs was one characterised by a search for his inner self and possibly, emotional turmoil. He also had a sting of affairs, most notably with American folk singer Joan Baez and Hollywood actress Diane Keaton. While the inner search led him to eastern mysticism, culminating in a trip to India in 1973, during the trip to India, Jobs visited a well-known ashram and returned to the U.S. as a Zen Buddhist.

Fulfilling his biological mother's dream, Jobs graduated from high school and at 17 enrolled at Reed College in Portland. He dropped out, unable to justify to himself the financial burden on his parents. Not seeing the value in his education, Jobs dropped out after six months but continued to audit classes, sleeping on the floors of friends' dorms, redeeming 5-cent Coke bottle deposits for food money and getting Sunday meals at the Hare Krishna temple. And taking sporadic courses including one in calligraphy, which molded his fixation with simplicity and design. Jobs later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."

In 1974, Jobs headed back to California and found a job with Atari, the video-game manufacturer. Jobs is well known for his innovations in personal computing, mobile tech, and software, but he also helped create one of the best known video games of all-time. In 1975, Jobs was tapped by Atari to work on the Pong-like game Breakout.

Jobs, founded Apple Computer Inc. in his parents' garage in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, an engineering whiz who had recently dropped out of the University of California at Berkeley. The two joined forces and, in pairing Wozniak's engineering brilliance with Jobs' vision and business sense, launched the company that gave the world the first personal computer.

Through his successes and public losses, Jobs maintained that fulfillment comes from pursuing what you love.

Just two miles from Apple’s offices is the garage next to his childhood family home, a cream-coloured suburban bungalow, where he and his friend Steve Wozniak founded the company in 1976. They had met in an introductory electronics class at Homestead high school half-way between the two. And a short drive up the highway lie the grounds of Stanford University, where in 1975 the duo revealed Apple I, the world’s first personal computer, to 30 or so enthusiasts from the Homebrew Computer Club.

Jobs subsequently dated the singer Joan Baez and actress Diane Keaton. Then in 1989, he was invited to address the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where one of the event organisers was Laurene Powell, a blonde, bright and attractive former New York investment banker eight years his junior, who was studying for her master’s degree. The speech developed into an impromptu date and quickly a relationship. She graduated and got her MBA at Stanford Business School.

To be sure, many of the gifts that would drive Apple's resurrection over the past decade were already evident in the 1980s: the marketing showmanship, the inspirational summons to "put a dent in the universe," the siren call to talent. Engineer Bob Belleville recalls Jobs recruiting him in 1982 with the words: "I hear you're great, but everything you've done so far is crap. Come work for me." Jobs famously seduced Sculley to Apple by challenging him: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?" But in 1985, after convincing former Pepsi executive John Sculley to join Apple as its CEO, Jobs found himself struggling to hold on to the company he helped create. After differences over how to run the company, Sculley and the Apple board pushed Jobs out.

Only 30 years old and, forced to start over again, Jobs founded NeXT Computer and Pixar. Although NeXT failed to live up to Jobs' hopes of building a personal computer to rival Apple's, after eight years, it brought him full circle. In 1996 Apple's acquisition of NeXT was finalized, and, less than a year later, Jobs reprised his role as the company's CEO.

Sculley in his memoir, dismissed Jobs' vision for the company. "Apple was supposed to become a wonderful consumer products company," Sculley wrote. "This was a lunatic plan. High tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product." Of course, Sculley was dead wrong.

Job's return to Apple—described as his "second coming" by followers in the so-called “cult of Apple”—restored the company's profitability and customers' interest in its products. After a decline in revenues in 1997, the company rebounded in 1998 with three profitable quarters in a row.

"Steve did an excellent job of melding the marketing, operations, and technology. He understood which technology was good and what people would like," Wozniak told students at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School in 2008.

Since his return to Apple, the company has unleashed a string of critically acclaimed products. The iMac, launched in 1998, signaled Apple's rebirth and was called an "industry-changing success" by Forbes. The iPod, released in 2001, turned the music industry on its head, and paved the way for iTunes, the iPhone, and iPad.

He may only have taken in a single dollar per year, but Jobs leaves behind a vast fortune. The largest chunk of that wealth is the roughly $7 billion from the sale of Pixar to Disney in 2006. In 2011, with an estimated net worth of $8.3 billion, he was the 110th richest person in the world, according to Forbes. If Jobs hadn't sold his shares upon leaving Apple in 1985 (before returning to the company in 1996), he would have been the world's fifth richest individual.

Reflecting on his cancer diagnosis, in a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, he said: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

But, over the past three decades, Apple's reach has extended far beyond personal computers to transform the way people consume and create media and connect with one another.

It is the ultimate American story of the self-made man. And, as if any confirmation were needed that it was also made for Hollywood, Sony studios are this weekend reportedly set to acquire the film rights to his highly anticipated authorised biography. The book, by Walter Isaacson, is already number one in the Amazon charts, two weeks ahead of its release.

"Your time is limited," he told the grads at Stanford, "so don't waste it living someone else's life."

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Romancing With Life and Cinema

In his autobiography Romancing with life Dev Anand unhesitatingly reveals his affairs. According to him, he was not a skirt chaser in real life. It was the women who took the initiative and Dev simply responded. But it was his four-year-long (1948-51) affair with Suraiya, the singing sensation and superstar of the Hindi/Urdu cinema, that left an indelible impact on him. The two wanted to tie the knot but became victims of religious bigotry. While Dev eventually overcame the trauma of a broken relationship and moved on, Suraiya decided not to get married.

In his autobiography Romancing With Life, the late star legend revisited the events that put an abrupt end to a passionate love affair.

“My heart sank, and my whole world shattered. There was no meaning to existence without her.

But then not living meant killing myself, which would be a negation of all that my inner strength stood for. Finally, I ended up crying on the shoulder of my brother Chetan, who knew the extent of my involvement with Suraiya.

He consoled me and said, "This episode will only make you stronger, more mature, to fight bigger battles later."

I looked across to the distant horizon. The evening sun that was still aglow threw the special ray it reserved for me in my direction. It brightened my face anew. I kept looking at it, as my brother continued, "Life teaches its own lessons at every step, chapter by chapter. This chapter is closed for your forever, and you must start a new one."

Standing in a corner I read the note scribbled back by Suraiya. I read, 'I cried as I read your letter. It is mutual. I love you. I, too, am dying to meet you. Call me tomorrow at 7 pm. I shall be near the phone.
Next day, I called her exactly at the time she had given. She picked up the phone. As I heard her "Hello," joy coursed through my veins.

"Nosey," I poured all my love into the word. But I heard granny's voice reply instead, saying, "Who's that?" And a weeping shriek from Suraiya in the background, while the phone got disconnected. I did not let my determination die down though and called again; the phone was picked up; I repeated, "Suraiya!"

Suraiya is not at home!" The granny shouted and banged the phone down. I persisted and rang again. Granny who picked up the phone now said threateningly, "Next time I hear your voice, you will have the police talking to you." Then came a loud banging down of the phone, this time more violent.

Frustrated, I closed my eyes, sat down, holding my head in my hands; but I did not give up. I let a little time go by, about an hour, during the course of which I again thought of the futility of existence without my lady-love. Then I rang her number again.

Somebody picked up the phone. I listened quietly to the voice. It said "Hello" very softly. It wasn't Suraiya's voice, and it certainly wasn't the granny's either. I guessed it could be Suraiya's mother.
"Is that Mummy?" I whispered.
"Yes Dev." I heaved a sigh of relief.
"Can I speak to Suraiya?"
"She's been crying," her mother said.
I was emboldened. "Can I speak to her?" I repeated.
"No, she cannot, her granny is close by," she said in a soft whisper.
"But I must meet her!" I was desperate.
"She, too, wants to meet you."
"Then?" I asked eagerly.
"Call me exactly after one hour, I shall arrange a meeting."
I called exactly after one hour, and her mother said, "Don't call Suraiya. But you can meet her tomorrow."
I was in heaven. She continued, "But very late at night. A little after eleven-thirty."
"Eleven-thirty tomorrow night?" I reaffirmed.
"She'll be up on the terrace of the building. You can take the staircase, as you enter from the main building, and climb straight up," she said, and put the phone down.
"Is this a ruse -- to trap me?" I wondered.
"I don't think so.  I should take the risk!" the determined part of me said.
"What if I am caught? I'll be proclaimed a sneaky scoundrel in all the newspapers." The cautious side of me warned. "I could even land in a lock-up."

There was a hell of a debate raging inside me. But the lover in me had the final say, "How can I not trust Suraiya's mother? She is the only one in the family who is fond of me. I have to believe her."

I opted for my historic and fairy-tale rendezvous with the love of my heart and took my friend, Tara, now an inspector in the police department in Bombay, along with me.

Much before the appointed time given by Suraiya's mother, we both stood on the parapet by the sea, at a spot that provided a view of the top of the terrace. Tara pushed a small torch into my pocket.

"In case of any mishap, just flash this torch towards me from above. I shall flash mine getting your signal, and then rush upstairs to your rescue. I am carrying a revolver," he said.

I felt safer and protected by the strategy planned by the policeman, which was straight out of a movie thriller.
After a seemingly long, impatient and nerve-racking wait, the hands of my gold-bordered Rolex watch, newly bought from the Army and Navy stores, in keeping with my current star status, showed eleven-thirty. I climbed up the stairs to the open terrace, five or six stories above the ground, as fast as a cat.

Panting for breath as I stood at the doorway while my eyes roved for her, I discerned her turning towards me. She was sitting by the water-tank.

I rushed forward to meet her. She stood up, holding out her arms towards me. We held each other in a long, hot embrace. She did not utter a word, nor did I.

After a long silence that said everything, we looked at each other. As I stroked her hair, she held her lips up to me, ready for a kiss. The kiss lingered till eternity, as the angels serenaded us from above.

And then she wept. I consoled her, and she smiled a smile that fairies would envy. I wanted to protect her from all the evil that ever befell her. "Will you marry me?" I asked.
She hugged me again and nodded, mumbling, "I love you! I love you! I love you!"

Down in the street waiting by the sea, with the tide rising, was Tara, my friend, looking up at the terrace. But the light from the torch never flashed.

I went to Zaveri Bazaar and bought one of the costliest rings that would adorn her finger. I called Suraiya's number, but the granny picked up the phone. I recognized her gruff voice and put the phone down, and called her again after another hour. Again, I recognized the granny's voice. I repeated the call in the evening, and got the same inimical "Hello." Now I knew she was guarding the telephone and screening the calls.
I called Divecha, my cinematographer friend, in distress. He answered the phone and on hearing my voice immediately asked, "A love-note again?"

"No, an engagement ring this time," I said.
"Where is my bottle of Black Label?" He joked.
"You shall have as many as you want," I joked back.

He took my ring to her house.
When he got back from Suraiya's house, he was very happy for me, and said, "She was charmed by the ring, took it quietly inside her room to treasure it in a box, and came out to tell me how much she loved you."
I was in seventh heaven, we were now engaged! I longed for her, more and more; but I did not hear from her. Our filming episodes with each other were over, and there was no way we could meet.

Days turned into weeks and there was no news from her. No written note, no call, no message. I checked with Divecha, and he promised to find out. But this time he was not allowed into their house.

The granny shut the door on his face, saying, "We are not welcoming even the best of our friends for reasons we need not divulge." But he too became inquisitive, and being a reliable information gatherer, very close to the gossiping tongues of the film industry, he soon found out that there was a severe rift in Suraiya's family, nobody taking her side on the issue of her personal emotional involvement except her mother.

If she chose to go against the wishes of the family, either she would be eliminated, or the granny would kill herself. Apparently, Suraiya had wept and wept and finally yielded to the pressure mounting on her.
They prevailed upon her. She took a solemn oath to throw me completely out of her mind.

Later, as an act of desperate frustration, she took the ring I sent her to the seaside, and looking at it for the last time, with all the love she had in her heart for me, threw it far into the sea, to sing songs about our romance to the rising and falling tides.
Divecha was sad and sympathetic as he narrated all this. Then he philosophized, "Shakespeare will be reborn to give your tragic love story immorality in another play that will bear his own Romeo and Juliet."

Suraiya remained unmarried. She lived in her apartment on Marine Drive in Mumbai until her death due to cancer on January 31^st  2004 at age 74.
He may have married his Taxi Driver costar Kalpana Karthik but his first love was Suraiya, the iconic singer/actress of the 1940s.

The young Dev Anand, landed at the Bombay Central station, the city of dreams, in July 1943 carrying just a bag which held all his belongings, a colourful scarf around his neck and his heart-brimming with ambition, ideas and dreams to be met come what may, though he was just 19 and educated at the best English schools in India and with a degree in English Literature.  He knew it was difficult, he found it difficult but he had a smile on his face, a song on his lips and the kind of faith no power could take away from him. He had only 30 rupees to start with.

He found a place to live in a room in Parel where some friends from Gurdaspur, most of them mill workers lived; he only needed a place to sleep because he spent the whole day chasing his dreams. Soon, when the money he had brought with him got over and he realized he couldn't go on without money, Dev took up a job with the British Censor Office where he had to go through letters written by Indian soldiers forced by circumstances to fight with the British against Indians who were fighting for freedom from the British. The young man found the job interesting, the letters he read gave him an insight to human relationships and human feelings; the job also helped him to open up and make friends, girl friends specially who fell for him, his smile, for his charming ways and the puff in his hair.


It was his elder brother Chetan Anand, a known name in theatre, films and social and cultural fields, who introduced him to well-known writers like Raja Rao and K. A. Abbas who took a liking for him and gave him a place to live in his Shivaji Park house, something the young man was always grateful for. It was destiny that gave him the information that Baburao Pai, a filmmaker from Poona was looking for a young man to play the hero in Hum Ek Hain, which was directed by P L Santoshi. Dev Anand swaggered into the cabin where Pai and Santoshi sat and came out with a broad grin on his face…for he was selected to play the hero of the film.

That was the beginning of a new legend called Dev Anand. His career took one more leap when the husband and wife team of writers Ismat Chugtai and her husband Shahid Lateef saw him ambling around Churchgate station. The two who were sitting in the first class compartment called the young man and asked him if he was interested in acting. They asked him to come over to Bombay Talkies at Malad; where Ashok Kumar was both a leading actor and a joint owner of the company. Dev Anand passed his second test and was the hero of Ziddi, which marked the beginning of a career which was destined to be a milestone in the history of Indian Cinema, the beginning of a man who was to be a star, an idol, an icon, and a legend. He was a part of the great trio - Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and himself but he created his own class, his own institution and was a phenomenal in his own bright world.

Dev had his own production company, Navketan, a company which is still around after more than 65 years… all because of the undying and unflagging and unflinching faith of just one man, Dev. And Dev, the star legend  went on shining till the very end, and like his undying spirit, he kept making films till the very end and death came to him just as he wanted, he just became a 'bubble in the endless ocean'…

Anand received the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002. He received several Filmfare awards and international honors and recognitions during his lifetime. Due to his resemblance to Hollywood star Gregory Peck, Dev Anand was accepted as one of Hindi cinema’s best looking actors. Anand succumbed to a cardiac arrest on December 3, 2011, in London. Anand’s full name was Dharam Dev Pishorimal Anand. He was son of a lawyer. He was born on 26 September, 1923, in Gurdaspur.



In his book Dev Anand acknowledges, candidly and without any sadness or resentment, his obsession with Zeenat Aman and disappointment at her lack of reciprocation. His unsuccessful love affair with Suraya is replayed in depth, disclosing an intense setback that he optimistically turned into a strengthening experience. He alludes to several of his heroines whose rise to glory was scripted by him and recaptures his time with Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, and Dilip Kumar.

Life, in all its glory, was a celebration for Dev Anand, who lived it at a pace that would have rendered most other mortals breathless.

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Yesudas and Seven Notes….

Golden Jubilee of the Golden Voice.

A Glorious Career...

Yesudas started on this pilgrimage of music from Cochin Harbour Terminus at Willingdon Island. It was in the year 1961, now 50 years passed; the Golden Jubilee year of the Golden Voice. He was on his way to Madras (present day Chennai) by train, to try his destiny. He was 21 years old, deprived and sick. A benevolent taxi driver named Mathai who dropped him to railway station shared the only money he had; with Yesudas. It was 16 Rupees and the cost of ticket to Madras was 11 Rupees. 

He landed in Madras in the early hours of next day. His stomach was empty but his heart was full of music. The perilous and penniless journey made him sick, he was suffering with typhoid. He was laid up and due to that he lost the only chance for which he came to Madras. Five months passed without any chance. The trials and tribulations he was undergoing during the time shaped him for the future. Always his strength was his love for music and that gave him enough energy to go ahead. 

 M.B.Sreenivasan(Music Director)

End of the period of agony appeared as a chance to sing. The song so recorded at Bharani Studio started with “Jaathi bhedam Matha dwesham…” the meaningful lines of a great soul Sree Narayana Guru, who strived for removing the caste complexes and other social malpractices of the society he was born in. The lines hinted at a casteless and religion less land. The film was “Kaalppadukal”, the composer of music was legendary M.B.Sreenivasan, better known as MBS and the year was 1961, the day being the 14th of November. . 

The meaning of the verse is given here…
Devoid of dividing walls of Caste
Or hatred of rival faith,
We all live here
In Brotherhood,
Such, know this place to be!
This Model Foundation!

The song was okayed in the first take itself. The young singer is the biggest contribution by Mr.MBS to the world of music. When MBS sought the opinion of the sound engineer Mr. Koteeswara Rao about the young singer his remark was legendary. He said “Patthu varsham mudinju pakkalaam” means not to worry for the next ten years. Ten years have passed five times since Rao’s prescription or prediction and the century turned 21. Still we see the singer active in the world of singing, listening to his melodies everyday. 

Kattasseri Joseph Yesudas (KJY) was born in Fort Kochi, into a Catholic family, to Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. Later he joined the R.L.V. Music Academy in Thrippunithura and underwent training. Later he studied in Sree Swati Thirunal music college, Thiruvananthapuram under the training of Late Semmangudy Sreenivasa Ayyer.But he could not complete his studies due to financial constrains. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Hari Hara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. 

Chembai Bhagavathar

KJY still gratefully remembers the kindness shown by Semmangudi who allowed him to occupy his car shed at Trivandrum near Swati Tirunal Academy so that he could save on expenses for lodging, dispelling the exaggerations of those with vested interests about untouchability. But KJY still had to fill his stomach with the water from the public taps which was fortunately available in plenty in Trivandrum City and the water was potable with no contaminations. KJY recently pitied the present state of affairs when water is found in the numerous potholes on the roads and no potable water in the taps. Chembai launched him into the Classical music world by encouraging KJY to come to the forefront and sing out aloud. Most of the popular classical numbers sung by KJY owe a lot to the training given to him by Chembai.

                                                                       

Mr. Augustine Joseph (Father)>   

                        

The highly religious way he was brought up by his parents has really moulded KJY into a great man. The humbleness and God fearing nature he imbibed helped him to scale heights. His father used to insist that every evening all members of the family have to sit together and pray. KJY was made to read out the Bible aloud during such sessions ensuring that his pronunciation was perfect. These sessions really helped him in acquiring the best control over pronunciations, an essential element of music.

                               

He never allowed his religious rituals to be restricted to any one religion alone. While he visits the churches whenever he gets the opportunity and time he visits important mosques and temples. He visits every year without fail the Holy Temple of Mookambika  near Udippi on his birthdays paying his respect to Goddess Saraswathi , who is believed to have blessed him with celestial musical talent as she does to all the artistes and  scholars. He visits the hill shrine at Sabarimala, duly observing the 41 day “Vratam” (fasting). All these have invited the choicest blessings of the Almighty on him making him “Gana Gandharvan”(Celestial Singer). Harivarasanam, a devotional song composed by Sri Kambakkudi Kulathur Srinivasa Iyer, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses K. J. Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.

With his rich vibrant voice and a ringing tone, Yesudas’ music had a direct appeal to his listeners. Special mention must also be made of Yesudas’ total mastery over his voice, achieved from rigorous practice of the techniques of rendition. To Yesudas, the main factors that contributed to the development of a musical personality were the intuition of the musician, his sound knowledge of ragas and swaras and firm control of sruti and laya and the capacity to evolve an individual style of expression suited to one's voice and aptitude and ideas distilled through the variegated experience behind him.

He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (Official singer) of Kerala State. He has been awarded the Padma Shri in 1975 and Padma Bhushan in 2002. In 1970, he was nominated to head the Sangeetha Nataka Academy of Kerala and was being the youngest person ever to occupy that post. In 1971, Yesudas with his musical troupe travelled all over Kerala to raise funds for the Indian Prime Minister's National Defense Fund during the Indo-Pakistani War. He also became Senate member in the International Parliament for Safety and Peace.  On November 14, 1999, Yesudas was presented with an honorary award by UNESCO for "Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace" at the "Music for Peace" event in Paris, a concert held to mark the dawn of the new millennium and whose attendees included artistes such as Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé, and Zubin Mehta.The number of music awards he has won so far remains an unparalleled record. Seven National Awards, 24 Kerala State Government Awards, Awards of Karanataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh State Governments, Sangeeth Natak Academy etc etc are a few among the many. Yesudas has recorded over 50000 songs covering various languages of India and foreign ones like Arabic, English, Malay, Russian except may be Kashmiri, Konkani & Assamese.

After winning the Kerala State Award for Best Playback singer on numerous occasions, he asked that he be ruled out of contention so that to give his peers and newcomers a chance of winning. Despite his request, he was still awarded this award multiple times. He also has helped other singers to come up as play back singers. It happened as playback singer Unni Menon, who was singing track songs for other prominent singers, got a break when Yesudas, after hearing the track songs Unni Menon had sung for the Malayalam film Kadathu, asked the music director Shyam to record and release the songs as they were. Yesudas was of the opinion that the songs did not need to be rendered by him, as Unni Menon had already done it well and there was no need for improvement.

Acting with Adoor Bhasi in the film

Kayamkulam Kochunni

He has also tried his hand at Music direction and acted in a few films. He has sung under the music directions of all the composers and lyricists. Many of them say that when the singer is KJY, they feel like giving their best into their compositions. The branch of “Devotional Music’ covering all religions is said to have grown to the present extent mainly because of KJY. Earlier we had M.S. Subbulakshmi and our P.Leela who had rendered popular devotional albums. KJY made this a wide spread field with his sweet numbers.

In 1980 Yesudas established the Tharangani Studio at Trivandrum. In 1992 the office and studio were moved to Chennai, Tamil Nadu and the company was incorporated in the US in 1998. Tharangni Studio and Tharangni Records became a recording center in Kerala which, for the first time, brought out audio cassettes of Malayalam film songs in stereo. The record company also had a voice mixing studio in Studio27, Chennai. The studio continues to produce and present events of Yesudas both for film and Indian classical music concerts throughout the world.

 With Devarajan Master and Vylar Ramavarma

On this 50 th year of his musical career let us felicitate this septuagenarian for his simplicity, humbleness and contributions to the world of music. He is really a golden Gift of the God to mankind and music lovers. Let us also thankfully remember Koteeswara Rao and M.B. Sreenivasan along with composers like, Baburaj, Salil Chaudhury, Devarajan, Raghavan, Chidambaranath, Dakshinamoorthy,Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri and good lyrics given by-Vayalar, ONV Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampy,P.Bhaskaran etc . When he came in to the film world the scene was dominated by greats like Kamukara Purushothaman, Udayabhanu, AM Raja and PB Sreenivas. We must also thank them for not playing dirty politics to deny him the right chances but whole heartedly encouraged him. With so much of accolades showered upon him, if KJ Yesudas still remains at the top as a popular and respected singer, it is only due to his humble beginning amidst poverty, God fearing upbringing by his blessed parents and hard work. His wife Prabha and sons Vijay, Vinod and Vishal also share his views and outlook on life.

 With his Family

Let us all bow our heads at the greatness and simplicity of this Great man and pray for many more years of golden voice and musical life to him. The younger generation can definitely emulate him in leading a purposeful but humble life. “Koti Koti Pranam” to the Almighty for blessing us with this genius and his seven notes.

Free Media Journal Contributor-

Mr. Vinayachandran is a singer and  music enthusiast. He is a senior official of State Bank of India Contact-vinchand59@gmail.com

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Posted in: By S. Vinayachandran

Mullaperiyar DAM -The Lethal WATER BOMB

An Award Winning Documentary on Mullaperiyar Dam Issue..

by Director: Sohan Roy, Director of DAM 999

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MULLAPERIYAR - SAVE 3 MILLION LIVES

A documentary by C-Dit on Mullaperiyar Dam. A "must see" 

for people of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.  

Dam failures are deadlier than Nuclear Bomb Explosions...

It was a night in August; Morvi town in Gujarat, India; was sleeping, families with their dear ones. Some people who were awake heard a big boom sound of the rushing water. Before they could realize the sound the entire town was flooded by the rushing water from the Morvi Dam.

The Morvi dam failure is the worst flood disaster to happen in independent India. On August 11, 1979, the Machchu-2 dam, situated on the Machhu, river burst and that sent a wall of water through the town of Morvi in Indian state of Gujarat killing 15000 people. It was caused by excessive rain and massive flooding. The spillway capacity provided for 5663 m³/s. But during the intense rainfall on that day became 16307 m³/s; 3 times what was designed - that caused the collapse of the dam. Within 20 minutes the floods of 12 to 30 ft height inundated the low-lying areas of Morvi industrial town located 5 km below the dam. During reconstruction of the dam the capacity of the spillway was increased by 4 times and fixed at about 21,000 m³/s. The town of Morvi is situated on the river Machhu, 35 kilometers from the sea and 60 kilometers from Rajkot.

Another August; the Banqiao Dam collapsed in China. The Dam was designed to survive a once-in-1000-years flood (300 mm of rainfall per day). In August 1975, however, a once-in-2000-years flood occurred, produced by the collision of tropical storm Nina and a cold front. More than a year's rainfall fell in 24 hours (new records were set, at 189.5 mm rainfall per hour and 1060 mm per day, exceeding the average annual precipitation of about 800 mm), which weather forecasts failed to predict. According to Beijing-based Central Meteorological Observatory the forecast was for rainfall of 100 mm. On August 6, a request to open the dam was rejected, because of the existing flood in downstream areas. On August 7, however, the request was accepted, but the telegrams failed to reach the dam.

The dam was completed on June 1952. The dam was made of clay and was 24.5 metres high. The maximum discharge of the reservoir was 1742 m³/s.Cracks in the dam and sluice gates appeared after completion due to construction and engineering errors. They were repaired with the advice from Soviet engineers and the new design, dubbed the iron dam, was considered unbreakable.

In August 1975; the sluice gates were not able to handle the overflow of water, partially due to sedimentation blockage. On August 7 at 21:30, the People's Liberation Army Unit which was deployed on the Banqiao Dam sent the first dam failure warning via telegraph. On August 8, 0:30, the smaller Shimantan Dam, designed to survive a 1-in-500-year flood, failed to handle more than twice its capacity and broke upstream, only 10 minutes after Unit 34450 sent a request that would open the Banqiao Dam by air strike. A half hour later, at 1:00, water at the Banqiao crested at the 117.94 m level above sea level, or 0.3 meter higher than the wave protection wall on the dam, and it too failed. This precipitated the failure of 62 dams in total. The runoff of Banqiao Dam was 13,000 m³ per second in vs. 78,800 m³ per second out, and 701 million m³ of water were released in 6 hours, while 1.67 billion m³ of water were released in 5.5 hours at upriver Shimantan Dam, and 15.738 billion m³ of water were released in total.

The resulting flood waters caused a large wave, 10 kilometers wide and 9.8–23 ft high to rush onto the plains below at nearly 50 kilometers per hour almost wiping out an area 55 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide, and creating temporary lakes as large as 12,000 square kilometers. Seven townships were inundated, as were thousands of square kilometers of countryside and countless communities. Although a large number of people were reported lost at first, many of them returned home later. Tens of thousands of them were carried by the water to downriver provinces and many others fled from their homes. It has been reported that around 90,000 - 230,000 people were killed as a result of the dam breaking.

Nine days later there were still over a million people trapped by the waters, relying on airdrops of food and unreachable to disaster relief. Epidemics and famine devastated the trapped survivors. .

Dam failures are generally catastrophic if the structure is breached or significantly damaged. Routine deformation monitoring and monitoring of seepage from drains in and around larger dams is useful to anticipate any problems and permit remedial action to be taken before structural failure occurs. The main causes of dam failure include one in 1000 year flood, Earthquakes, Structural weakness and inadequate spillway capacity.

Mullaperiyar dam in Idukki district, Kerala, India is now in the news after the successive tremors in the area  during the month of November 2011 and also with the release of an English movie titled ‘999’ on 25^th November. The film is based on the award winning short documentary DAMs - The Lethal Water Bombs and the Banqiao dam disaster of 1975 that claimed the lives of 230,000 people in China. The movie also portrays a lost love against the backdrop of the story of a dilapidated colonial dam.

The Mullapperiyar dam was built in 1895 using lime surkhi morter; by the British Government. Now it is more than 116 years old. The useful life of a well-designed and well-built dam is generally considered to be about 50 to 60 years. Thus the dam has already exceeded its normal lifetime by 40 to 50 years. Earthquakes in the area have further highlighted safety issues and concerns over disastrous consequences of the dam bursting because of structure weaknesses and earthquake tremors with adverse impact on the lives and property of nearly 3 million people in Kerala.  

The name Mullaperiyar is derived from Mullayar and Periyar Rivers; hence the dam came to be called Mullaperiyar. The Dam is constructed at source of the Periyar River in Kerala, India. The Periyar National Park, Thekkady is located around the Periyar reservoir.

Historical background of the dispute

Periyar River is a west-flowing river of Kerala State. The river flow its full course entirely through Kerala, and derives its water exclusively from catchment area inside the State. The dam stops the west flowing river to form a reservoir, which is also exclusively located in Kerala. Tamil Nadu collects water to the eastern side of Western Ghats via a tunnel.

On 29-10-1886 a lease indenture for 999 years was made between Maharaja of Travancore and British Presidency of Madras. The lease indenture inter alia granted full right, power and liberty to construct, make and carry out on the leased land and to use exclusively when constructed, made and carried out all such irrigation works and other works ancillary thereto to Secretary of State for India (Now Tamil Nadu).

After Independence, both the entities became non-existent. Further, according to India Independence Act, 1947, all the treaties between British Government and Indian Princely States have lapsed. Article 131 of the Constitution barred enforcement of pre-constitutional agreements between princely States. Kerala argued that the agreement is not an equal one, but imposed on the local King by the mighty British Empire. Even in the absence of any treaties after independence, Tamil Nadu continued to use the water from Periyar for extending irrigation facilities, and later for power generation on the basis of informal agreements between the governments of the two states.

 In 1970 the Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments signed a formal agreement to renew the 1886 treaty almost completely for a period of 30 years, which lapsed in 2000. The Idukki Hydroelectric project, located 30 km downstream was completed in 1976 by the Kerala government is still the major resource for irrigation and electricity needs of Kerala. After Independence the areas downstream of the Mullaperiyar become heavily inhabited, as Kerala has a very high population density.

In 1979, safety concerns were raised by Kerala Government after a minor earthquake, after which a few leaks were detected in the Mullaperiyar dam. A state agency had reported that the structure would not withstand an earthquake above magnitude 6 on the Richter scale. The then Tamil Nadu government lowered the storage level to the current 136 feet (from 142.2 feet) at the request of the Kerala Government to carry out safety repairs, after which it was suggested that the storage level could be raised to the full reservoir level of 152 feet.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government had increased its withdrawal from the reservoir, with additional facilities to cater to the increased demand from newly irrigated areas. One article estimates that "the crop losses to Tamil Nadu, because of the reduction in the height of the dam, between 1980 and 2005 are a whopping Rs. 40,000 crores. In the process the farmers of the erstwhile rain shadow areas in Tamil Nadu who had started a thrice yearly cropping pattern had to go back to the bi-annual cropping.” But Kerala did not object giving water to Tamil Nadu. Their main cause of objection is the dam’s safety as it is as old as 116 years. Increasing the level would add more pressure to be handled by already leaking dam.

Security concerns regarding the downstream inhabitants prompted Kerala to backtrack on the 1970 Agreement in 2000. Another argument put forward by Kerala on the basis of a report on a study conducted state agencies suggested that the loss of habitat to the fauna of Periyar National Park would occur due to flooding after the increase in the storage level. IIT Delhi conducted a study which stated that the dam safety would be affected even at a level of 136 ft, IIT Roorkee conducted structural stability study on the Reservoir had found that the structure would not be safe in the event of an earthquake. In addition the Dam safety and Disaster management problems have assumed crucial importance in view of the recurring earthquakes and the frequent increases in the seepage of water through this aging dam.

The Dam is located 3900 feet above sea level on the High Ranges of Western Ghats in Thekkadi, Idukki District of Kerala. Earthquakes in the area have further highlighted safety issues and concerns over disastrous consequences of the dam bursting because of structure weaknesses and earthquake tremors with adverse impact on the lives and property of nearly 3.5 million people. Various issues are still being adjudicated by the Supreme Court of India. Mullaperiyar has been a hot issue politically and legally between the two Southern States of India, namely, Tamilnadu and Kerala.

The Periyar River originates in Kerala, and the major part of the catchment area falls within the state. If a proportional division of waters is done, Tamil Nadu will get zilch. If the dam bursts, they will be loosing the water sources now they are using.  It is the magnanimity of the people of Kerala that waters the arid plains of Theni. The people of Kerala do not want to stop the water transfer. They are not even demanding their fair share. They just want to live without the fear of the dam breach. If the dam burst, four districts in Kerala will be completely devastated and 3 million people perish. They are facing destruction right on the face. However, the Politicians of Tamil Nadu care nothing about the security of the lives of the people of Kerala. The gravity of the issue is rising with every passing day that could catapult to grave proportions.

The Mullaperiyar dam breach and the subsequent downstream flood may cause failure of Idukki arch dam, Cheruthani dam and Kulamavu dam. As a worst scenario, Arch dam or Cheruthoni dam failure flooding the Periyar, reaching Kochi from north through Neriamangalam, Thattekkad, Malayattoor, Cochin Airport and Aluva. Kulamavu dam break flooding Muvattupuzha River reaching Kochi from Vembanad, submerging Thodupuzha, Muvattupuzha, Piravam, Vaikam, Cherthala, and the entire Alappuzha district. There is no time to delay. Let us realize the impending danger before it is too late. Precautionary measures have to taken immediately to reduce the water level and to start the construction of the New Dam. If the breach happens, Kerala will not be the same after. Let wisdom dawn on the Politicians?

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