Month: October 2014

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – October 2014

Welcome to October, 2014 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

We have a discovery to report this month. It is a discovery on two counts – first one being that fact that I landed upon this blog only this month, though ought to have done so a little earlier, and the second one is because the blog itself is Back after a long hiatus!.

So, we will devote our beginning to posts on Songs, Stories, Books and More… Random Musings. However, we would pick up posts for the normal period of this edition and would find opportunities to delve into (relatively) older posts in the future editions of our carnival.

We have two posts on one subject, wherein both the posts have approached the subject from totally different angle. The subject is Lata Mangeshkar’s birthday (on 28th September). The First one is Happy Birthday, Lata ji,… despite loving Asha Bhosle to the core, there are many Lata songs that I am very fond of…The volume and quality of work she has behind her is unmatched and unparalleled. And this is an Asha fan saying this.. And the Second Post is: The Swar-Saamraagyi and the the Sangeet-Maartand: Best of Lata Mangeshkar by Anil Biswas, as can be expected on any SoY post, doing full justice the selection of the songs from 123 songs that Anil Biswas – LataMangeshkar combination has provided from 30 films.

October sets in… oh yes, Happy Birthday Asha Parekh… has chosen to present songs from Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon. Lakhon Hai Nigah Main, Zindagi Ki Raah Mein obviously draws a parallel with Jawaniyan Yeh Mast Mast Bin Piye  [Tumsa Nahin Dekha]. “Both songs are favourites though (I) prefer to watch the Tumsa Nahin Dekha song and listen to Lakhon Hai Nigah Mein!”

Gungunaoonga Yehi Geet Main Tere Liye – Remembering Sachin Dev Burman and Majrooh Sultanpuri is in memory of 108th and 95th birth anniversaries respectively. “Mohd Rafi .. happens to be.. favourite singer and I remember reading somewhere that Dada Burman wanted him to sing this song. He wasn’t in favour of Talat saab because of that tremble in his voice. But luckily for us, Jaidev (his assistant then) convinced Dada Burman to give Talat saab this song. Thank god for that. However much, I adore Rafi, no one could have sung this song better than Talat saab.”

We have a pair of very interesting posts on Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dutt on “Songs…and More”.

The recent one Chali Re Chali Re Main toh Des Parayee (Saranga, 1961) presents a haunting, plaintive number from film Saranga, one of the films that did make a very special space for Sardar Malik as quite an accomplished music director. The second one is w.r.t. Asha Bhosle’s birthday – Thank you for the music and memories, Asha ji! – which has picked up quite a melodious piece of Humming in Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), among other songs.

Geeta Dutt’s song Rut Phire Par Din Hamare was not there Pyasa.(1957), but has found its place here on account of “Thou shalt write a long post on at least one Sahir Ludhianvi song per week” policy. Rut Phire Par din Hamare Phire Na (Pyaasa, 1957) recollects the topic of this song in Nasreen Munni Kabir’s book (Conversations with Waheeda Rehman). According tConversations with Waheeda Rehmano Waheeda, this song had been filmed with her rowing in a boat and everyone had appreciated the picturisation. However Waheeda Rehman differed with the view and she apparently pointed out that having that song slows the pace of the story and is just boring. Guru Dutt had heard her criticism and after the first screening, had agreed with her observation (seeing people walk out for a bathroom or coffee break), had taken it off. Excerpts from this bok can be glanced at Excerpt | Conversations With Waheeda Rehman. The other one is Na Main Dhan Chahun Na Ratan Chahun (Kala Bazaar, 1960), This duet, by Geeta Dutt and Sudha Malhotra is said to have ben (actually) composed by Jaidev, the then assistant to S D Burman. This seems quite logical since “Jaidev’s bhajans from Hum Dono (1961) are remembered to the day – Allah Tero Naam, and Prabhu Tero Naam.”

Guru Dutt’s 50th death anniversary brings in San San San Woh Chali Hawa – Kaagaz Ke Phool, 1959 ‘to remember Guru Dutt not as the melancholic, unhappy genius film maker but in happier times with a happy number! He was after all only 39 when he died.’

We have several other anniversary posts in the present episode of the carnival.

Happy 88th Birthday, Madam Noor Jehan! has clips of the entire ‘90s interview on BBC plus all of Noor Jehan birthday posts going back to 2009. A veritable treasure in on Noor Jehan, in one place !

On Begum Akhtar’s birth centenary, a musical tribute at her grave…..One hundred years after she was born, Begum Akhtar is being remembered and celebrated at the place where she was laid to rest.

clip_image002How Begum Akhtar changed my life: a tribute on the singer’s 100th birth anniversary – Tisha Srivastav

“Now as a woman in my 40s, having lived life a little, the Begum is back in my life, as a modern-day primer to soothe me into understanding the subtext of experiences. Of love, shocks, surprises, loneliness, romancing life itself and laughing at one’s obsessions.”

The Lonely Ghazal Queen: Begum Akhtar , a legend in her lifetime, who achieved enormous fame at a very young age, and gave joy to millions of listeners of many generations, including doyens like Mehdi Hasan, Talat Mahmood, Madan Mohan, Pt. Jasraj and Pt. Ravi Shankar, Begum Akhtar’s own life seems to be full of sorrow, pain, abusive relationships, betrayal by people she loved and a deep melancholy.

Unfathomable greatness – Saleem Kidwai

The way [Begum Akhtar] would split words or combine them into musical phrases shows how comfortable she was with Urdu’s poetic idiom. This musical comfort level with the language also marked out some of her younger contemporaries like Mehdi Hasan, Iqbal Bano and Farida Khanum, and is sadly missing from most other singers.

Kishore Kumar’s duets by SD Burman : “With 115 songs, he gave Kishore Kumar more songs than any other (male) singer. Surjit Singh’s site indicates that out of this only 53 were solos, and 51 were Male –Female duets, 8 Male duets and 3 other songs. “.. and even die-hard opinionated person like me would very happily concede that quite a few of these pre-Aradhana duets did creditable justice to S D Burman’s marked preference to Kishore Kumar.

Geet Gaya Paththaron Ne – Rajakamal Studio is very passionate retrospective of films that have created a very respectable distinctive position for V. Shantaram. The post also carries link to a song each from Rajakamal Studio’s films from Shakuntala (1943) to Pinjra (1973).

My Favourites: Songs of Yearning – This ‘someone’ is a very hazy concept. We don’t usually know who, or how or when or where we will meet this particular person; we don’t even know that we will meet that special someone. And we do, perhaps – through choice, through circumstance, through fate. Or the someone we find becomes special. But in the meanwhile, we have our own hopes, dreams and expectations of finding that glorious love

Ten of my favourite string instrument songs, where it’s not an orchestra (Ted Lyons and His Cubs, anyone? Or The Monkees?), but a hero or heroine, not a professional musician, being the one ‘playing’ an instrument?

Radio Playback India has presented Raag Hansdhwani by Hariprasad Chaurasia.. I have especial fascination for Raag Hansdhwani, primarily because of Jaa To Se Nahin Bolun Kanhaiya , A Lata Mangeshakar – Manna Dey Duet from film Parivar(1956) , and then because of this song I landed upon this very famous Taranaa by Pandit Amir Khan Saheb Incidentally one of initial blog post is a compilation [Part I, Part II and Part III] of all that I could gather at that time on internet on Hansdhwani.

In our now a regular visit to Suresh Chandvankar’s articles, we have a topical article – When Bollywood maestros collaborated to put a Gandhi prayer to melody. The film musician Vasant Desai cut a disc of Gandhiji’s poem, sung by Manna Dey and Chorus. Gandhiji is credited as the lyricist .

How a goatherd and Mozart inspired the score for Bimal Roy’s ‘Madhumati’, is an excerpt, from Bimal Roy’s Madhumati: Untold Stories from Behind the Scenes by Rinki Roy Bhattacharya published by Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd..

Tamilnadus’ (ex)CM J. Jayalalitha was in the news recently. But we recall here ‘Four dance sequences from classic Jayalalithaa movies, of which one is from Hindi film Izzat (1967) – Jaagi Badan Men Jwala, Saiyan Tune Kya Kar Dala.

MANMOHAN KRISHNA SINGS FOR OP NAYYAR is one more post where we have very unique songs. Of the two non-film songs, both penned by Saroj Mohini Nayyar, the first one is Buje Diye Hua Andhera and the second one is Diya To Jala Sab Raat Re Balam. The latter song was also recorded in film Dhake Ki Malamal by C H Atma .

We round off this carnival edition with a post from Songs..Books and More – Sabhi Kuch Lutakar (Singer – Mohd Rafi, Movie Indrani, 1958) is a “wonderful romantic Hindi number was from an old Bengali film It is picturised on an unknown face. This man (a vagabond?) is strumming a guitar and singing this song. He is watched by Kumar and Sen – a just married couple – standing outside in the veranda of their house. Interspersed with Bengali dialogues, the mood of the song is indeed very romantic.”

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – October 2014

Welcome to October 2014 edition of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

Having traversed the topics of Non-Compliance and subsequent CAPA in our earlier editions, we now take a look at the next logical step in the chain – Continual Improvement.

Be it a student or a practitioner of Quality Management, the subject is certainly not new. Hence, we will endeavour to present here the articles that shed some new perspective on the subject.

What is CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT? – Improvement that occurs in spurts that reoccur

CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT WITHIN THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS sets the tone for the subject.

Continual improvement

Continual improvement should focus on enablers such as leadership, communication, resources, organisation architecture, people and processes – in other words, everything in the organisation, in all functions at all levels… Departmental improvements may merely move the constraints or problem somewhere else in the process chain.

Improvement is not about using a set of tools and techniques. Improvement is not going through the motions of organising improvement teams and training people. Improvement is a result, so it can only be claimed after there has been a beneficial change in an organisation’s performance.

Why Continuous Improvement May Need To Be Discontinued – Ron Askenas

As innovation thinker Vijay Govindarajan says, “The more you hardwire a company on total quality management, [the more] it is going to hurt breakthrough innovation. The mindset that is needed, the capabilities that are needed, the metrics that are needed, the whole culture that is needed for discontinuous innovation, are fundamentally different.”

It’s time to nuance our approach in the following ways:

Customize how and where continuous improvement is applied. One size of continuous improvement doesn’t fit all parts of the organization.

Question whether processes should be improved, eliminated, or disrupted. Too many continuous improvement projects focus so much on gaining efficiencies that they don’t challenge the basic assumptions of what’s being done.

Assess the impact on company culture.

When Your Past Success Becomes An Obstacle – Karol Kinsey Goman

One of the greatest challenges for a leader who wants his or her team to thrive in changing times is to identify those practices and attitudes that need to be eliminated in order to more quickly adopt new behaviors. Here are five key questions that you should ask your team members to consider:

1. What do we do best? (What skills, abilities, and attitudes are we most proud of?)

2. Which of these current skills, abilities, and attitudes will continue to make us successful in the future?

3. What do we need to unlearn? (Which skills are becoming obsolete? What practices — attitudes, behaviors, work routines, etc. — that worked for us in the past may be a detriment in the future?)

4. How does our competence stop us from doing things differently? (Where are the “comfort zones” we’re most reluctant to leave?)

5. What new skills do we need to learn to stay valuable to the organization?

You Are Either Getting Better Or You Are Getting Worse — Here’s How To Get Better – Paul B Brown

You have to keep getting better…Everyone acknowledges that–in theory.  In practice it tends to fall apart, ironically, when things are good…. Waiting until have to change is never good…. Far better is trying to improve slightly every single day.

The subject of Continual Improvement cannot be done enough justice if we address it in only one post in our Blog Carnival. So, we will continue in next two Carnival editions…..

We turn to our regular sections now:

Bill Troy, ASQ CEO opens up the debate on Charting A Strategy For Quality–And Beyond

“The purpose of strategy, after all, is to answer this question: How do you get from where you are to where you want to be?  What is your path?  How are you going to get there, what steps do you need to take, and in what order?

“I’d like to offer five key questions about strategy that you may find useful as you work on your own strategic planning.

  1. What are your key facts and assumptions?
  2. What is your theory of victory?
  3. Can you actually accomplish each aspect of your strategy?
  4. Is your organization doing things that sit outside your strategy?
  5. Have you left enough planning time to test your strategy?

“One caveat: Determine how much time you have to spend on strategy and act accordingly. We all must get things done, so we must not fall to “paralysis by analysis.” We can only admire the problem for so long. A good rule of thumb many of us learned in the military is the one-third, two-thirds rule”, i.e. leave two-thirds of the time to others for absorbing, implementing and improving upon the strategy.

Julia McIntosh, ASQ communications , in her ‘September Roundup: What’s the Best Approach to Strategy?’ presents views expressed by ASQ Bloggers on the subject.

And then move over to ASQ TV Episode s:

Quality Improves Government

Around the world, government agencies are using quality tools and implementing quality methods to make noticeable and sustainable improvements. This episode of ASQ TV looks at two positive stories, addressing the importance of quality in government. Manu Vora interview Milwaukee Public Health Lab

Related additional video:

               Manu Vora and V.K. Agnihotri advocate quality in government by discussing quality’s role in the government of India now and for the future.

Soft Skills-Leadership and Management

It’s one thing to know the ins and outs of your industry and profession. But you can’t be an effective leader and drive change in your field without soft skills. This episode of ASQ TV describes what soft skills are and how mastering them will help you get ahead in your day-to-day relationships and, ultimately, your career.

Rosemarie Christopher’s Career Corner columns

Related additional video:

According to author and speaker Simon T. Bailey, it’s important for leaders to also think big-picture to truly drive change. In this segment, hear how leaders should consider the story they’re telling, how they can sustain their leadership and what quality leaders can do to take initiative in their organizations. View Bailey’s 2014 World Conference on Quality and Improvement keynote speech, available on demand

To motivate employees and develop high-performing work relationships, leaders must understand that all people have certain needs that must be met in the workplace. In this segment, learn about the desires of each person to help you connect with people for meaningful work relationships and long-term productivity.

Our ASQ’s Influential Voice for the month is – John Priebe

clip_image001John Priebe is vice president of business quality for NBCUniversal and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with experience in process improvement, innovation, and quality control. He blogs at JohnPriebe.com with a headline tag as Innovation | Quality | Leadership.

A majority of the posts relate to discussions on the topics at ASQ Influential Voices, with quite few of the topics interspersed I between. Here is one such post: The Emergent Culture: Be the Change You Wish to See.. The article draws up a parallel with a natural biological phenomenon known as ‘emergent behaviour, in a flock of birds. Of course, in case of human beings, it is a long road, but the journey can well be begun by “be the change you wish to see in the world”.

We do not have a fresh insight this month in so far as Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival category is concerned.

However , in such an event, we do pick up an interesting article posted recently. We pick up Take Advantage of the Strengths Each Person Brings to Work for our present edition.

clip_image002Managers should be setting up the organization to take maximum advantage of the strengths of the people in the organization while minimizing the impact of weaknesses.

This needs a ‘refusing to fail’ attitude so as to ‘create a system that works and builds on the skills, ability and desire to do great work that your employees bring to work.’

W. Edwards Deming: “the aim of leadership is not merely to find and record failures of men, but to remove the causes of failure: to help people to do a better job with less effort.”

I look forward to your active participation in enriching the blog carnival as we pursue our journey to continual improvement…………….

Wishing Very Happy Diwali festivities to all………