Problem: Rajinikanth was born on 12 December 1950, in a Maratha family in Bangalore, Mysore State (present day Karnataka). His mother was a housewife, and his father Ramoji Rao Gaekwad, a police constable, He was named Shivaji Rao Gaekwad after Chhatrapati Shivaji, a Maratha warrior King, and was brought up speaking Marathi at home and Kannada outside. Rajinikanth's ancestors hailed from Mavadi Kadepathar, Maharashtra and Nachikuppam, Tamil Nadu. He is the youngest of four siblings in a family consisting of two elder brothers (Satyanarayana Rao and Nageshwara Rao) and a sister (Aswath Balubhai).

In 2002, Rajinikanth undertook a day-long fast to protest the Government of Karnataka's decision to not release Kaveri River water into Tamil Nadu, and announced that he would contribute Rs10 million (US$150,000) toward a plan to interlink Indian rivers. He met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and many experts to canvass support for the project. His hunger strike was independent of the Nadigar Sangam, who organised their own solidarity protest for the same cause. Film director Bharathi Raja lashed out against Rajinikanth, alleging that he is dividing the film industry and saying that he was a "traitor who had a tacit understanding with the Karnataka government".  In 2008, Rajinikanth took part in a hunger strike organised by the Nadigar Sangam against Karnataka's stance on the Hogenakkal Falls water dispute. In his speech, which was well received in Tamil Nadu, he warned leaders not to inflame the water project issue for political gains and requested that the issue should be resolved soon. He reprimanded politicians in Karnataka and urged them "to speak the truth" to the public. "They cannot be fooled and will not remain silent if you continue to act in such manner" he stated. The speech led to Vatal Nagaraj, leader of the Kannada nationalist group Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha, demanding an apology from Rajinikanth and threatening that he and his films would be boycotted from the state of Karnataka. The threats were echoed by other pro-Kannada organisations, such as the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike. He later thanked the Kannada film industry for allowing the release of Kuselan and lifting the ban the industry had briefly imposed on it. This led to strong reactions from Nadigar Sangam members R. Sarathkumar, Sathyaraj and Radha Ravi, who called the apology a disgrace to Tamils and opined that his speech never provoked the sentiments of the Kannada people.  Rajinikanth's support toward fellow actor Ajith Kumar, who in 2010 condemned the forceful inclusion of Tamil cinema personae in political affairs, broke into a controversy.

Did he get involved with other political issues?

Answer with quotes: In 2008, Rajinikanth took part in a hunger strike organised by the Nadigar Sangam against Karnataka's stance on the Hogenakkal Falls water dispute.


Problem: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (French: [fRasis Za maRsel pulek]; 7 January 1899 - 30 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include melodies, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-known are the piano suite Trois mouvements perpetuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the Concert champetre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the Organ Concerto (1938), the opera Dialogues des Carmelites (1957), and the Gloria (1959) for soprano, choir and orchestra.

Poulenc, a highly accomplished pianist, usually composed at the piano and wrote many pieces for the instrument throughout his career. In Henri Hell's view, Poulenc's piano writing can be divided into the percussive and the gentler style reminiscent of the harpsichord. Hell considers that the finest of Poulenc's music for piano is in the accompaniments to the songs, a view shared by Poulenc himself. The vast majority of the piano works are, in the view of the writer Keith W Daniel, "what might be called 'miniatures'". Looking back at his piano music in the 1950s, the composer viewed it critically: "I tolerate the Mouvements perpetuels, my old Suite en ut [in C], and the Trois pieces. I like very much my two collections of Improvisations, an Intermezzo in A flat, and certain Nocturnes. I condemn Napoli and the Soirees de Nazelles without reprieve."  Of the pieces cited with approval by Poulenc, the fifteen Improvisations were composed at intervals between 1932 and 1959. All are brief: the longest lasts a little more than three minutes. They vary from swift and balletic to tender lyricism, old-fashioned march, perpetuum mobile, waltz and a poignant musical portrait of the singer Edith Piaf. Poulenc's favoured Intermezzo was the last of three. Numbers one and two were composed in August 1934; the A flat followed in March 1943. The commentators Marina and Victor Ledin describe the work as "the embodiment of the word 'charming'. The music seems simply to roll off the pages, each sound following another in such an honest and natural way, with eloquence and unmistakable Frenchness." The eight nocturnes were composed across nearly a decade (1929-38). Whether or not Poulenc originally conceived them as an integral set, he gave the eighth the title "To serve as Coda for the Cycle" (Pour servir de Coda au Cycle). Although they share their generic title with the nocturnes of Field, Chopin and Faure, Poulenc's do not resemble those of the earlier composers, being "night-scenes and sound-images of public and private events" rather than romantic tone poems.  The pieces Poulenc found merely tolerable were all early works: Trois mouvements perpetuels dates from 1919, the Suite in C from 1920 and the Trois pieces from 1928. All consist of short sections, the longest being the "Hymne", the second of the three 1928 pieces, which lasts about four minutes. Of the two works their composer singled out for censure, Napoli (1925) is a three-movement portrait of Italy, and Les Soirees de Nazelles is described by the composer Geoffrey Bush as "the French equivalent of Elgar's Enigma Variations" - miniature character sketches of his friends. Despite Poulenc's scorn for the work, Bush judges it ingenious and witty. Among the piano music not mentioned, favourably or harshly, by Poulenc, the best known pieces include the two Novelettes (1927-28), the set of six miniatures for children, Villageoises (1933), a piano version of the seven-movement Suite francaise (1935), and L'embarquement pour Cythere for two pianos (1953).

What did he prefer other than the 1950's music?

Answer with quotes:
Of the pieces cited with approval by Poulenc, the fifteen Improvisations were composed at intervals between 1932 and 1959.