My reflections on Ethics

What is Ethics?The dictionary says it could be ideal,integrity,morals,mores,principles,standards,beliefs,conducts,customs and values.So ethics has a wide connotation.This means there could be ethics in every field.So ethics is a set of right principles of conduct.Any activity can be considered ethically wrong by some people and right by some others.This is primarily because it is something related to one's belief's and values.Values again,couldbe subjective.It could be personal values or cultural values and it could vary between cross cultures.Then what is the right value?.What is right in one culture may not be right in another culture.The cultural differences between East and West naturally ends in different value perceptions.So there are no right and wrong in ethics.Is there an universal or global ethics?.It could be some acceptable conduct and behaviour the world over.In other words,a preferable behaviour in a given situation or environment.Helping one another in times of distress,honesty,showing respect and concern for others,legal compliance and being fair.In a nutshell,I believe to be ethical is to have a justifiable means and a justifiable end for every activity of ours.If either the means or end of an activity is unjust,that is unethical.I consider this as the litmus test for ethics.

Eternal Life

I am sure one would shudder to think what would happen to this world, if human beings continue to live for ever and become immortals. I can't even visualise such a scenario . It will have far reaching familial,social and political impacts . Will governments offficially kill people who live beyond a certain age ? .Or will the life expectancy of a child determined at birth ? Don't for a moment thnik I am talking through my hat.The world famous futurist and life extension researcher Ray Kurzweil says that day is not far off.This is something akin to our Himalayan Yogi's (Like Baba - of the Rajini starrer) living for centuries.In his latest book 'Live Long enough to Live for ever' , he says this is possible and could be achieved in 2 decades time.Until now it is believed aging is a non reversible process due to degeneration and decay.He forsees tiny robots of the size of a blood cell called 'nanobots' injected in to our blood stream will keep us healthy and immortal . No doubt,world over,the life expectancy has been steadily progressing. This is attributed to better medical facilities and medical care. Already Japan has the highest number of centenarians in the world. It is quite astounding that by this month end Japan will have more than 36000 centenarians. This is an official report given by the Japanese government.Mind you , this has been achieved without Ray Kurzweil's nanobots !!!. What would happen all these Japanese centenarians have 'nanobots' injected in to their bodies?

Kunnakudi Vaithyanathan

The great Violin maestero passed away yesterday.He was a child prodigy.Hailing from a small town in Tamilnadu called Kunnakudi, vaithyanathan carved a special place for himself in the music world.He played violin for carnatic music giants like Ariyakudi Ramanujar ,Chemmangudi sreenivaa Iyer and Maharajapuram at a very young age of 12.His style impressed even laymen with no knowledge about the nuances of carnatic music. It was a treat to watch him play violin.Undoubtedly he was one of the greatest violinists of our time. He was fondly called as Kunnakudi by the music fraternity .He was known by the name of his place. Incidentally kunnakudi is a famous temple town of Lord Muruga.But when one mentions about Kunnakudi, the name of Vaithyanathan comes to ones mind.Kunnakudi's skilful handling of the violin is famous among his fans. He was like a snake charmer when he handles his violin. The audience would be spellbound by his subtle techniques. He always does lot of experiments while playing violin.The purists among the violinists had their own reservations about the way Kunnakudi handled his violin. Nonetheless they all agreed he was a gifted musician.

Even at a young age of 14 Vaithyanathan has done experiments with music therapy. As an young boy of 14 he played the raga Bairavi for days together in front of his father who was in coma and finally succeeded, when his father regained consciousness and lived thereafter for many years.He was also running a Raga Research Centre to analyse the therauptic effects of various carnatic ragas. When Jayalalitha was CM, the governement donated land for this research institute. Years before Jayalalitha has sung four devotional songs on Tiruverkad Karumari Amman composed by Kunnakudi . The audio was then released by Columbia . He was also running a residential music school .He introduced concerts with 'Thavil' a traditional percussion instrument ,which is normally played only with the wind instrument nadaswaram. His novelty in combining this percussion instrument with the string instrument violin was a great hit world over.He has performed the world over.

Kunnakudi was a freelance music director for HMV's devotional songs.He has composed music for many Tamil films also . Prominent among them are Navarathinam an MGR starrer, Vaa raaja Vaa,Agathiyar and Mael naattu Marumakal.He has given lot of violin solo performances on almost all TV channels . He also directed a Tamil film called 'Thodi' with famous carnatic musician T.N.Sheshagopalan in the lead. The music for this film was also scored by him.

He was the president of the Sangeetha Nataka Academy of Tamilnadu for decades.He was also the secretary of the Tiruvayaru Thyagabrahmma sabha which conducts the annual musical tribute to the great carnatic composer Thiagarajar.Kunnakudi recieved 'Best music Director' award,Sangeetha Mamani award,Kalaimamani award and also Padmashri from the government of India.Kunnakudi will always be remembered for the song "Maruthamalai Maa Maniyae Murigayaa' rendered so beautifully by Madurai Somu.Kunnakudi was also famous for his peculiar glittering attire,sporting a big smile always, and his bigger than normal safron dot on his forehead.A face that can never be forgotten by many.