what the ragas do to me..

This is an honest attempt tell my readers about a part of me that they probably dont know, atleast a very few of them do.Just a handful maybe. Ok, so Nagu, AG,Vinod, Sharan,Kart and Arati - all of you might want to stop reading here and go back to your lives :)
But if you wish to read my blabber on a topic that is so intimate and personal in nature, you are welcome.

What do the ragas do to me ? I have often wondered. I wonder a lot on ragas,more so now than ever. Travelling on London tubes has taught me this art! Well, to state a fact, RAGAS are REAL, as real as you and me. Let me not get into more of this philosophy lest I bore you to death.

Instead, I will venture to state my exact emotional state of mind( or nearly that) when I listen to certain ragas. In short,I will try to say exactly what I feel or maybe write about what passes through my mind when I think of a raga. Maybe a visual, maybe an emotion, whatever.

Dont laugh at me and my stupid thoughts, for they are real and they make me what am!!
I will try to be as short as I can but at times, please bear with me, things could go out of control!!!

Okie, here i go...

Shankarabharanam - Temple bells ringing in vedic chants and MY BLOG :)))
Thodi - Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar singing 'Kaalinishilambu konja..
Madhyamavathi - Brihadeshwara temple gopuram
Kambhoji - Like someone has stirred my heart with a spoon
Sahana - Am on a moving train to Chennai ( it is only Chennai and nowhere else )
Sriranjani - a music sabha at noon in music Academy,Chennai
Keeravani - KVN maama
Anandabhairavi - Lord Krishna flirting with the gopikas
Hamsadhwani - the tuning of a tambura ,maybe an Yesudas concert :) :) because he always sings Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje hahahah !!
Kharaharapriya - The utsavam of Lord Parathasarathy of Triplicane with the nagaswaram playing 'Rama nee samaanamevaru'
Kamavardhini aka Pantuvarali - Urmila singing 'Hai Ramaa yeh kya hua' in Rangeela,uff.. sorry couldnt help it :) but Pantuvarali really brings out those emotions.
Nattaikurinji - the sound of ghungroo ( obvious isnt it ?)
Sama - Kart singing 'Annapurne Vishalakshi' in KVN maama style! Kart, when can i hear you sing it again ??
Abheri - Balamuralikrishna's tape of Nagumomu that my dad bought for me when we bought our first stereo, one of the most priceless possessions till date!
Khamas - a hindustani recital somewhere on the ghats of Ganga in Benaras
hindolam - the man who shall be mine forever. Romance and love.
Bhairavi - Bangaru Kamakshi of Tanjavur,what a lovely time I had there..
Mohana - The raga Bhoop,yeah.. I remember the Hindustani version of it ,all the time..
Brindavana Saranga - I feel the afternoon sun blazing hot!! yeah yeah.. not sure why but this is how i feel,
Kaapi - happy,happy, happy...( it rhymes too!!)
Atana , Darbar and Nayaki - No feelings at all!!! ( Nagu, you are gonna shout at me I know.. I try hard but sorry yaar,I like these ragas but they dont seem to like me enough!! )
Mukhari - Radha pining for the love of Lord Krishna ( yes, the jayadeva astapadi strikes a cord immediately, haririthi haririthi japathi sakaamam.. and my MOM loves it!! )
Neelambari - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Maand - sands of the desert( influenced by the lovely Kesariya Baalam perhaps!)
Vasantha - July rains in Bangalore when I fall sick all the time.. it irritates me because I love this raga but I cant like it for its memories!)
Desh - Patriotic, you cant feel anything else, can you ??
Kalyani - An orthodox Tamilian girl wearing a pattu pavadai ,hair adorned with 'malli poo' walking along the Kapaaleeshwara Koil in Mylapore(am not being funny at all).
Saaveri - my music sir of yesteryears,Srinivasa Prasanna Sir, the music class, the Tanpura, the room full of students singing 'sarasooda' varnam,me figuring out for the very first time what swarasthanams meant, opening out a whole new world, a beautiful one,most remarakable!!
Dhanyasi - Saint Tyagaraja and Tiruvayyaru, the river and the paddy fields.
Surutti - my Mom, my dear amma, without whose encouragement and persistence, I could never have known music. Her love for me and my music makes me wanna pack up and go back!
Pahaadi - Mountains, folklore,snow-clad Kashmir,old hindi films,freshness,purity and sweet perfumes.
Sindubhairavi - The Ramaseva Mandali concerts that I have attended for years now in my dear Bangalore, Pt Bhimsen Joshi's 'Babul Mora Naihar' Thumri, and more.. But most importantly, I can remember my childhood, me as a kid of three years, my ancestral home, the well, the outdoors we used to play,the Ganesha festival when people came to immerse their idols in the well at our home, and I can remember that the first song I learnt to sing was the devaranama 'Venkatachala Nilayam' in this raga. This raga is special!!

P.S :- The list is endless but as we say, Carnatic music has no end. Nagu, you must be thinking that I have not really listed some ghana ragas.Anand- you must be wondering why I left out Dwijavanthi and Vinod - for you , I must say I spared Nalinakanthi. for that is a raga meant for you alone!!!!

Moving house..

Finally I made it,to the UK, to London,one of the nicest cities to live(only next to Bangalore!)

I live in London, work in the City, in a big investment bank. It feels nice to say this. It feels great to walk amidst the big boys of world banking. It thrills to walk out of the Bank station (Bank of England which apparently has the world's biggest gold reserves) and step into THE CITY passing by hoardes of faces that think money, plan money and make the world move forward,atleast in some sense.

It feels independent to live alone. To wake up and cook for yourself,take care of locking the house,ironing your clothes,making your lunch and doing the shopping. It taught me the value of my time and my MOM! :)

It feels great to shop in Harrods and Next,thrills to own a blackberry,to pay your bills online.It feels relaxed to get things done easily.

It feels great to converse finance. Derivatives,options,leverage and the sup-prime crisis all sound familiar now,a bit,if not more.. It is a whole new world, away from the abstraction of memory leaks and CPU cycles(though am in a technical job), a new,real world that exists! Finance thrills because it is about two Ms - Mathematics and Money!!

It feels great to spend weekends outdoors, amidst hills and valleys, with calm and quiet all around. It thrills to climb hills and walk miles, to get away from the hassle and get back to the hassle again on Monday mornings..

Life has changed a lot in the last three months and I feel good about it. I am riding on waves of confidence and vigour, energy and enthusiasm.

The sun goes down and am back to my nest,to that little home I have in East London.As I make my dinner,I turn my music on. KVN maama singing 'Annapurne Vishalakshi' reverberates in the one bed flat that I call mine. I listen to this divine piece of carnatic music.. The CITY,the bank,the shops,pubs,restaurants,the hills all fade away to the background. Nothing matters,except the fantastic manner in which maama sings 'kanchana maya bhushanam bharadhare'. The energy,the confidence and the money fade away...All that remains is absolute peace and serenity. Things don't change much ,do they ?

(Look out for my Scotland trip blogs on my travelogue)

D K Jayaraman@Seshadripuram concert series,2008

A few of my blog readers who are carnatic music rasikas must be wondering what is wrong with me. But they would understand if they attended today's grand and sensational concert by none other than DKJ's greatest disciple himself, Vijay Siva. It was DKJ's spirit and soul that was present in every musical note emanating from Vijay Siva today.
It is a shame that he gets such poor response from the Fort High School grounds,each year. On the contrary,I am glad there is Seshadripuram. Atleast one good sabha that can get crowds for the right kind of musicians. It is not wrong then,that artistes are biased towards Seshadripuram. We all know that music thrives best where it is appreciated the best!

Personally speaking, my association with Vijay Siva's music began in 2002. Very late,compared to the other contemporary carnatic musicians I was listening to then.But,the impact of his music was so strong that soon, I was one of his biggest fans. The most important plus point his music has is its strong adherance to Sampradayam,or tradtional roots! Not to miss the style and diction of that particular school which went on to become the famous 'DKP-DKJ' baani. I appreciate the honesty of this wonderful singer more than anything else. Every concert,be it small or big,important sabha or no,he delivers a Ragam Tanam Pallavi(RTP),arguably the most difficult of any musical form in the universe(this is no exaggeration!). For students of carnatic music,an RTP is a must!

Coming back to today's concert,he began with the shlokam 'Sadaa baala roopapi' followed by 'kari kalabhamukham' in raga 'Saaveri'. He sang it in madhyama kaala thereby setting the mood of the kutcheri perfectly. He followed it with a brisk 'Saamaja Varadaa' in 'Shudda saaveri',naturally with kalpana swarams which were beautifully quick and crisp. The immediate piece was the classical 'Ninnuvina' in 'Purvikalyani'. The beauty of this combination,of two fast kritis with one slower one does have a lovely calming effect on the listener. The next one to follow was the rare 'Nenarunchara' in 'Simhavahini', a beautiful raga by itself. For those of us (in the raga-identification-gang,Sharan,Anand and Vinod and myself in particular) who missed it today, 'Simhavahini' is a janya of 'Charukeshi' with the scale : Sa Ga3 Ma1 Pa Da1 Ni2 Sa and Sa Ni2 Da1 Pa Ma1 Ga3 Ri2 Sa. What followed this one,was a masterpiece 'Nee paada mule gatiyani' in 'Bhairavi'. Obviously,this was the main song of the concert. The alapanam was really heavy carnatic and Charulata Ramanujam was just too good on the violin here. Bhairavi has endless possibilities,it is a personal favourite of mine. It makes me want to give up all my London dreams and just find myself a small house in Mylapore,Chennai. Thats what Bhairavi does to me!! The neraval was for the anupallavi 'panchanadeeshwara..'.Listening to this piece of sahityam repeatedly brought me back to the banks of the river Kaveri(my previous blog post!),right into the town of Tiruvayyaru,the confluence of five rivers,as the song describes!

The tani was excellent and enjoyable, Neyveli narayanan on the mridangam.Unfortunately, I dont remember the ghatam artiste,I have not heard him before. This was followed by the 'Bhajare Bhaja Maanasa' in Kannada. I bvery nice song,I had not heard this before.

What followed now was UTOPIA. An RTP in raga Abheri. I know Nagaraj Mandya is smiling now! Nagu,you would know how much I love this raga. You missed a wonderful nadai pallavi in this superbly sung raga. It was a tishra jati triputa tala with the laghu in tishra nadai and the dhruta in Chatushra Nadai. Oh,it was mind-blowing!! As usual,I struggled in the mel-kaala. However,I am happy to tell you that my taala sense is much better now atleast the keezl-kaala with nadai change. This one was a damn good challenge!! :) :) I could go one writing on this RTP today,but to make ti short,the ragamalika had Mohanam,Thodi and Valaji. The kalpana swarama alternated between mel and keezl kaalam patterns in the tishra and chatushar nadais in two passes. Well, thats the best I could describe the wonder!!
The pallavi went like :- 'Paaka Uruga Nenji Pankaaya Kannan Ninaittu'. I am very sure,I have got the sahityam wrong,partly because it was chaste Tamil and partly because I was trying hard to notate it as he sang and I got too confused big time!!

Soon after the RTP, he sang D K Pattamal's famous 'Intha Cheluvage Magalanu Kottanu' in 'Abheri'. The next one was 'Jayadeva' kavi's ashtapadi 'Radhika Krishna thava Virahe' in ragamalika - Khamas,Vasanta,Mukhari and Shanmukhapriya. The came a 'Sahana' in the form of 'Ini Enna Pechirukkudu'. I dont know much about this one,never heard before. I vaguely remember Sanjay singing it,not sure. Then came a viruttam on Lord krishna accompanied by 'oruthmaghanai pirandu',beautiful,beautiful Behag!

The last one was a tribute to none other than two great personalities, Lord Rama and DKJ. Vijay Siva has always sung something as a tribute to this great guru.Usually,it is a song with this guru's name in it. Today it was the majestic, Yadukula Kamboji kriti of saint Tyagaraja, 'Sree Rama,Jayarama'. I loved the tempo of this song. At that hour in a carnatic concert,when everyone is happy,tired and hungry,a slow paced Yadukula kambhoji can act like a lullaby. Am not kidding, I was falling asleep.

Another noteworthy aspect today was the fact that three of the kritis that he sang had the names of the reigning dieties of very famous temple towns in Tamilnadu. Ninnuvina showerd praises on 'Ekambreshwara' and 'Kamakshi' of Kanchipuram, 'Neepadamule' contained 'Panchanadeswaram' and 'Dharmasamvardhini' of Tiruvayyaru and 'kari Kalabhamukham' had Lord Ganesha of Myladudurai.

All in all,I enjoyed a lot. Vijay Siva is an artiste beyond compare in today's lot. He must be listened to more and more. Bangalorean crowds really need to reprioritise, I feel. It was very disappointing two days ago,to see few people in Fort High School,they missed a wonderful RTP in Anandabhairavi. Anyway,Seshadripuram sabha rocks!!

As goes the famous sanskrit saying, 'Yathaa guru,thathaa shishya', DKJ and Vijay Siva represent gurukulam in its most correct sense.

The day I was reborn...

Nattai,Saaveri,Thodi,Kalyani,Brindavana Saranga,Revati.....

...from the depths of my brain,someone called out these names in a jiffy..I searched around,wondering to myself, "Who are these people ?", "What business do I have with them ?", "Why do these names sound familiar ?" etc etc.The lights shone bright in the college auditorium,the summer breeze was fresh,dusk was just setting in,the huge open compound surrounding the college was slowly filling in with people, the evening was just about to begin...

...Iyer maami in an orange kancheevaram saree...recording thatha with his usual paraphernalia(some of my readers would know what this means!)...handsome guy in jeans who I met at a gathering last year...little girl with her mom and grandma....
...from the depths of my brain,I could recollect familiar faces,faces spanning over a decade,people who had put on weight,grown older,wiser,taller....

Tha Dhi Thom Nam...Tha Tha Dhi Dhi Nam Nam... Sa-Pa-Sa-Pa-Sa-Pa-Sa...
...from the depths of my brain, faint memories resonate with these primordial tunes of nature,of the decades of music that I have lived in,of a bygone era which I know only through these very tunes,of another life(perhaps in a previous birth),of something in the past that I cannot quite explain,nevertheless connect me to SOMEONE SOMEWHERE for an eternity!

The vocalist clears his voice,the violinist sets his shruti,the percussionists are ready, the tambura drones..Ga Ma Pa Ni Saa Ni Pa Ma Gaa Riiiii... "Nada" resounds from all over,I close my eyes..I can see a clear blue river,pure and pristine,paddy fields around it,scorching sun,bullock-carts,a sandy river-bed where stands a temple gopuram ,a man nearly 500 years old seated at the shrine,holding a tambura and singing 'Jagadaananda Kaaraka'...

from the depths of my eyes,tears flow...

Uncontrollable at first until the "newly-moved-to-London-excited-about-new-job" me takes over ,I return back to my composed self,determined more than ever to enjoy every minute I have in today's Carnatic concert by Sangita Kalanidhi T V Shankarnarayanan and party! Today,I vowed not to be furious over some things,like the kid who is being so noisy that I cannot possibly figure out between Darbar and Nayaki,or the lady to my side who is chatting away( read that as bitching about her daughter-in-law!) to a friend or that noisy bloke on the street who honks while the artiste is singing a beautiful neraval.. Today I figured where the noise lay-for all these years,it lay in my mind!! And I vowed not to be bothered,not now,not forever! I vowed to sit back,relax and enjoy the flight!!

As many of you,my dear readers, are aware, I have recently gone through a career change and for the last few months, I have been so busy that music has been completly neglected. The neglect is a one hundred percent from my side, especially in the last 2 months, when I was looking for jobs in London. I was determined to do my best in the job hunt and hence had abandoned any thoughts of being associated with music in any form until I get a new job. (Music is a distraction for me,it is my biggest weakness perhaps!) I am happy to announce that the ordeal is over, I have gotten a new job and am back now to what I love best.. CARNATIC MUSIC!!! And am in Bangalore for two weeks before I start my new life in London...

Today was officially my first association with a music concert after this horifying gap and it came in the form of a TV Shankarnarayanan Kutcheri in Seshadripuram for Ramnavami. What a start! Before I get back to London, I have a couple of weeks to spare in Bangalore and I could not thank Lord Sree Rama for bringing me over for his birthday party!! Now I understand why the job offer took over a month although the interviews got over very early,in retrospect,the timing was perfect! I was destined to be in Bangalore at this time,this week,this day... The Lord is my Shepherd, hahahaha...

Coming to the facts of the concert,it was brilliant as always. TVS is a vidwan who has enormous energy, his swarams, voice modulation and choice of ragas was excellent.
He brought in his son, the young and talented Shankar Mahadevan to sing at the sabha for the first time and I must say, the lad has a great futue! With a staunch classical voice,sampradayam and diction like his, the boy could give Sanjay a run for his money,perhaps!! ( Not quite :) :) but close)

On the mridangam was Sri Rajakesari and on the ghatam was Sri M A Krishnaswamy,both very good support and superb coordination during the thani. Though, I must say,the mridangam could have been slightly more loud,it seemed very faint and tiring at times.

If you put all the carnatic musicians on one scale of a balance and Sri Mysore Nagaraj on the other, you know what am talking about..Such a brilliant musician,what a style and what a tradition!! The superb sangatis of Thodi and Ravichandrika made a fashion statement!!

I would like to give a run-down on the concert list here..

Gajanana yutham followed by Pranathosmi - Nattai
Baarayya Venkataramana - Saaveri ( Swarams with nice finishing touches that brought out Saaveri raga completly)
Makelaraa Vicharamu - Ravichandrika ( Aalap,Swaram)
Yenduku Dayaraadhu Ra - Thodi ( Alap, Neraval)
Yetavunnaraa - Kalyani ( Alap,Neraval,Swaram and Thani - alap sung by Shankar Mahadevan)
Viruttam - Petravlum Nee in Brindavana Saranga with a brilliant rendition of Kaliyuga Varadhan (somewhere in the banks of Yamuna,I can hear this raga now!!)
Tirupati vasa Venkatesha - Hamsanandi
A viruttam in Revati cant figure out which one followed by a short ragamalika and
Rama Rama Yenniro
Mangalam

I WAS REBORN TODAY....I WAS REBORN TODAY... I WAS REBORN TODAY....


At the feet of master..at the feet of my guru
-Rekha

Symonds and his silent bat :)-

Sunny Gavaskar said this, not me!

After a two month blocation (read as blog vacation),I am back,writing about a phrase uttered by Sunil Gavaskar,with saracasm-coated sense of humor,I must admit,rarely coming from the likes of someone as professional as Sunil Gavaskar. This was a comment in the post-Perth analysis today. The topic of discussion - ofcourse the authenticity of Andrew Symonds' leg-before decision in today's play. Well,fact remains that India were a shade lucky in this matter,just a little,considering all those wrong decisions in Sydney,it almost seemed like 'What goes around comes around' being enacted by artistes in Shakespeare's 'All the world's a stage'!

True,Symonds was not out,the inside edge of the bat touched the ball, a slight touch,nevertheless a touch,proven by countless number of replays and hundreds of 'inside edge' chants from Harsha,Shastri and all and sundry. Yet,the Little Man clearly said 'It is not the umpire's fault' repeatedly,vehemently denying any explanation and assumed the air of someone who was just about to deliver the TRUTH in a sensational court case. Harsha waited,so did Shastri and I sat on the edge of my seat,curious,just waiting to hear what excellent reasoning could Sunil Gavaskar be giving to this misjudged umpiring.

Then came the response "Ofcourse,the umpire did not hear the thumping edge" followed by "Symonds has a silent bat". The experts went into bouts of sarcastic laughter thereafter. Well, the umpire never hears Symonds' bat because it is a silent one! He did not hear it in Sydney too.......How true!
This is one of the best post-match comments ever made in cricketing history,especially on a day when history was made in world cricket.

Life has come full circle for Symonds and the Aussies. The colors are changing in international cricket,is it really ?

The cherry is red,the uniforms are white,the green is baggy,however the champs are the 'Brown-skinned' 'Men in Blue'!!

P.S:- I once commented to a carnatic music friend of mine that if I were to choose between carnatic music and cricket, it would be cricket!!
Andy,
I planned to write reviews on Malladi Brothers and T M Krishna's concert but....
:) The next post, surely!