Who is Omniscient: God, Internet or ….?

Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, May 16: If one is asked the question who is Omniscient, almost everybody, especially the religiously minded, would undoubtedly answer what they have been conditioned to think and believe since their childhood that it is God.

Not so anymore, at least according to the present generation, who might unhesitatingly answer it is internet because they will tell you that one can find answers to everything in internet, if you have the time, patience and perseverance.

Well then, Who is Omniscient: God or Internet?

``We won’t and may not find answers to everything in internet, even if you have all the time, patience and perseverance,” feels Dr Michael Lobo, a mathematician by vocation, who did his doctorate at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and a self-trained researcher.

This interesting question was posed and answered by Dr Lobo, who has authored several books from the celebrated book on genealogy ``Mangaloreans Worldwide,” ``Distinguished Mangalorean Catholics,” ``The Mangalorean Catholic Community – A Professional History/Directory,” ``Sarasvati’s Children,” ``Welcome to the World of Jim Reeves,” ``Nature’s Beauty and Bounty,” ``Silver Themes and Golden Thoughts,” ``From the Sublime to the Divine,” ``Popular Music – A Historical and Thematic Analysis,” ``A Thousand Pages of Songs,” at an informal function to mark the release of his latest book, ``Is Christianity, A Flawless Religion? And Related Essays,” at the Catholic Club, Bangalore amidst a small and select gathering of family and friends.

``Don’t blindly worship the internet. We won’t find answers to everything in the internet even if one could spend a lot of time and energy with abundant patience and perseverance,” he said pointing out that internet might throw out enormous amount unnecessary and trivial data, which might simply be mind-boggling leaving the user any wiser. More importantly, the biggest danger in collecting data from the internet, is that most of which is unauthenticated and therefore unreliable.

So what else to do? Says he, if one needs to get authentic information and generally inaccessible data – at least as far as music is concerned -- all one has to do is read and browse his tome, ``A Thousand Pages of Songs,” a compilation of 3600 songs dating back to several decades and even century old, the historic information about the author or composer and such other trivia. ``It is an almost complete encyclopedia of pre-1965 era of popular and folk music.

The most popular and all-time favourite ditties like,``Happy Birthday to You,” ``She’ll be coming round the mountain … we’ll meet her when she comes,” ``Jingle Bells,” or ``Daisy,

Daisy” and many of their genre, which must have thrilled and enthralled music-lovers, listeners and audiences over the years are featured in the book, ``A Thousand Pages of Songs.”

But did anyone ever really wonder who actually were the original composers, lyricists, singers or why the songs gained popular acclaim and if there were any special untold stories behind these and such other songs?

The old and vintage folk songs with their quaint accents through the era of nostalgic parlour songs, the stirring and lilting melodies of big bands, rap, rock and metal as well as olden blues, ballads, country and pop, rock n roll, jazz with their fascinating history or the countries wherein these songs originated and became popular with their historical antecedents would definitely be a treasure trove for music lovers and musicians. But where can one find such details?

Look or search no further, says Dr Lobo, adding with a chuckle: ``If you read the book – A Thousand Pages of Songs – you will find your answer.”

Interestingly, almost all the songs featured in the book can be heard on YouTube, an extra incentive for present day music lovers and aficionados, says Dr Lobo, adding he researched and slogged on the book since 1993.

Even Beetles are featured in the book and few post-1965 popular bands like ABBA. Incidentally, the book release function held at Catholic Club on a rainy and wet Tuesday (May 15) turned out to be a gathering of the family members of Dr Michael Lobo, sisters, brothers, aunts, friends and acquaintances of his parents, cousins – first cousins, second cousins and all sort of distant relatives as well as a sprinkling of the elite among Catholics.

Among the three books that were released at the informal function by Dr Lobo’s aunt and other relatives, the only new book was,``Is Christianity, A Flawless Religion? And Related Essays.” But for some reasons of his own, Dr Lobo chose to make light of the 200 page book, and even chose to keep its name a ``surprise” till the very end and did not allow even the compere Marianne de Nazareth to reveal the name. When the book was finally unveiled and the name was disclosed, attention was concentrated on the two books on music, which were actually released in Mangalore last year. But then, the book release function must have been really low-key as most of those present in the audience – barring perhaps the close relatives and friends – were blissfully unaware of the same.

A point of interest to the general readers, perhaps is the lavish praise accorded by the redoubtable Justice Michael Francis Saldanha, in his foreword to the book, when he described it as ``the outcome of superhuman labour of a decade and half” and ``only one of its kind ever written.” ``The book on the genealogy of Mangalorean families written by Dr Lobo is an all-time classical history of Mangalorean families,” hailed Justice Saldanha.