Simple Serve

This is what the people said via Ootsav! 2015- Of course I support the library! Because people like us do things like this! People came out and supported the effort by the community.  I was quietly surprised when I saw the ambush of the volunteers at the first volunteer meeting at the library. We did not have a clear agenda for the day of (we had one for the meeting). We did not know how and what we would do eventually- but we all knew one thing- we all wanted to give back to the community. To give back to the library in manifold ways, in ways that cannot be quantified.  Paraphrasing Seth Godin- the reason for the existence of donors/ volunteers and non-profits is that we don't know how to solve some problems in the world. Problems that are unprecedented -like the economic recession and what it did to our economy and then to our library. When we move to volunteer and fundraising for a cause, we take risks which don't make profitable sense. This risk basically pu...

Thinking about Art makes me think tangentially about other things in general -but the process has become a helpful one. As a parent I have been unable, for various reasons (reasonable and unreasonable) to provide the right conditions for my children to "listen" and to become good listeners of classical music. This lack comes with not having the context of classical music while growing up and what you "had" while growing up-  radio and movies filled the void . They took the place of art and also made it a habit hard to break.  Thus,  I am aware of how there is a lack in my own understanding of the classical form and how much it is a good thing to have.  Good art essentially is hard work producing beauty. A singer works hard and so does a painter. Stuff that comes out as talent and in-born is a rarity in real life. The appreciation of artists that I have is a learned one that I acquired from my artist friends. Having listened/watched to performanc...