Fort St George and God's Own country

wish life was as simple for me. last two days have been one of the best days of my life.. 2 days with my guru has been exhilarating, inspiring, educative, informative,happy and all that is positive :) This is called 'positive energy' I suppose..

Saturday morning was a lonesome journey to Chennai ,Lalbagh Express AC seater. :)
I sat the whole 5 hours reading an Agatha Christie. To sit without speaking to anyone for 5 hours at a stretch is something I rarely do...

Stepping foot into Chennai, you can feel the heat hitting you at face, but this time around it was a lot pleasant,nevertheless, the arrival at Chennai Central station always floods me with memories of childhood at my mausi's place. How eagerly we used to prance about in the train right from 'Basin Bridge' and look out of the grilled windows, hunting for our cousins on the platform (who would invariably come to pick us up) and upon spotting them, we would just jump from the train on to their arms;how the heat would cause beads of sweat to trickle through my nose. Upon arrival at home, we would just jump crazily onto my aunt's lap and laugh laugh laugh...
These memories always happen to me in Chennai Central and never falls short of bringing tears to my eyes...

Then, went to my guru's daughter's house in Besantnagar situated about 500m from the beach. A hearty lunch and then off to Mylapore and Sripuram to buy a couple of books on Carnatic music. No trip to Chennai can be complete without a foot into Mylapore I suppose. Evening had a peaceful 45 minutes at the beach with S, talked about this and that,about freedom,marriage and how the two must coexist blah blah.....

The ocean has the most humbling effect on me. If I had been alone, I probably would have cried my heart out to seas. The grief inside me would have found an outlet it needs. When you cry in front of the ocean, you dont pretend, you dont care, you are not embarassed and you are not judged/misjudged.. and above all, you are not asked to stop crying. But these tears shall have to wait for the next oceanic opportunity :)

After a dinner cooked by my guru,we set off for God's own country to Kottakal. My guru had a concert there and well it was a 'Chamber concert', a class of its own.In the train, maami and I discussed so many things and I must say that her wit is the best,I have seen in a woman of her age.I'm so happy and the happiness is pure and borne out of "love for her music and her commitment to it."

Kottakal is about 16km from a place called Tirur.Our excellent host met us on time and led us to his house which also was the 'sabha' for the day. The arrangements were par excellent and the generosity of our host was something I shall never forget for life. A quick breakfast of idlis with chutney followed by tea and then the concert began.

The concert in itself is worth mentioning for the simple fact that it was the first chamber concert I attended. There was rapt attention. For an artiste, I think the most satisfying thing about any performance is the quality of your audience .It brings out the best in you. Maami sang 'Nagaswaravali','Bhairavi',an RTP in 'BrindavanaSaranga','Yaman kalyani'. After the concert, was the usual thanks note, the chit chat amongst rasikas. I was so happy to meet my friend from orkut who had come from Calicut.

The lunch was a typical Kerala 'yele saapadu'. I love that cuisine and I must have looked silly eating away all those with gracious second helpings, but who cares ? Music and food go together and sometimes each surpasses the other( Chennai December season is proof enough!) Then I buzzed off to sleep for an hour of so.. the room was a silent one with chirpings of birds heard now and then,I must have dozed so deep that I got some dreams too..

Maami then suggested a music class,right there!! I was so so thrilled and said 'yes' almost involuntarily. I had got the same brilliant idea too but refrained for the fear that she could be tired. She surprises surely!! The "music notebook" not being there, it was a little different from the customary class, but wonderful nevertheless.

We sang the 5 raga javali 'Panchabanudu napai'( I must confess I get this one right:) ) and then she taught me 2 new ragas - Janaranjani and Vasantabhairavi and ofcourse grand old Shankarabharanam. What an experience this was!! The serenity of the place brought out the best concentration in me and I can hum these ragas very well now in such a short span of time..

Evening came and we had to board a train back. Dinner of dosas,light and fluffy, my mouth waters .. :) and then drive back to Tirur. One the way we were held up by some procession,a really big one.Thanks to the 'kind tone' of our driver,who requested in chaste Malayalam(I guessed it was chaste because I could not make out a word and he kept rolling his tongue a lot :) :)) to the processed (is this the word or should I say "the posessed") to give us the way as we had to catch a train,,we reached just in time!!

In the train we had a jolly talk for sometime and off dozed again. When I woke up, it was 6 AM and the familiar sight of high-rise-on-the construction apartments told me we were near Bangalore. Life was to get back to normal in a few hours..

Another day had begun, another couple had passed.. As someone rightly said 'far away in the sands of time, memories of an other day shall haunt me forever' was ringing in my head while I carried those bags from platform 3 to 1...

good morning bangalore...

got up early today after a long gap (that shows how lazy I have become ).. hope to continue this consisently.. consistency is my problem here... chatted with S..it is the damn discipline in my life that is badly needed.. the difference between me and any winner I see around me is discipline....

feeling great..

things i need to give up.. ( as in things ...)

1. TV
2. TV
3. TV
....

the morning rays of the sun beckons me..

Form is temporary class is permanent

learnt this in web designing,yes am NOT talking about the quote. Nevertheless this is a loose comparison to writing direct html versus writing Cascaded style sheets(CSS). The former resembles 'form' (after all html forms are html!!)
and the latter 'class' (litrally stylesheets have classes in them)

Writing CSS is far better compared to writing just html all over the place. CSS is stylish and logical way of grouping while just html is just html....

learnt this today...

my fear of web designing is reducing gradually LOL!!

On being 'Castaway'

a friend popped a question 'you have become 'castaway' for a while. The word 'Castaway' was ringing in my mind, images from the movie 'Castaway' flashed across the silver screens of my mind and then I spent good 2 hours last night watching that movie for the nth time probably.

Every scene in that movie is worth its weight in gold. I'm sure there are better movies than that which I have not watched ,but I dont intend to compare. I shall take this movie for what it is...

This movie has its particular moments and scenes that I love,it draws upon you realities of life,metaphorically woven with an implicit philosophical explanation for those who wish to see..After all you get what you want to see, so what am trying to say here is,'if you think Castaway is just another Oscar movie', go away, right now from this blog!!

Man in his moments of desperation does things that are so totally unexplainable, like, how Hanks befriends the football(?) 'Wilson',for instance. It was heart-wrenching to see him wail in the end when Wison supposedly got engulfed in the ocean.. Relationships,emotions are so circumstantial and many a time have got nothing to do with people!!!

And then the scene about trying to fall to death from a tree high above the cliff is the most beautiful I thought. Suicide is tricky,it cheats on you :) and you thank God for it..nothing in life is more despicable than trying to end it.It is better to go on dumbly, living like waste,with no aspirations,no dreams,nothing whatsoever, than trying to end it,it is a crime...

'Castaway' is about how life puts you in places you never in your wildest dreams could have imagined to be,about how you rebel,loathe,shout,cry,laugh at your situation,about how you learn to cope with what you have,soemtimes how you want to end it all;try and fail at it too, then go on living 'just like that', until you finally muster enough courage to risk it all and dare the oceans,surrendering all you have,be picked up eventually only to discover that things have moved on, changed and you are left far behind...
thats when the 'Hankses' amongst us will surface...

this is what they meant when someone said 'some movies stay forever'...

Note : Suggestions on good movies are welcome...

the red bird, alone at the top :)

picture courtesy : Someone who shot the aero-show

simple thodi exquisite manodharama

I was fortunate to listen my guru's 3 hour recital yesterday. Her concerts are like classes, you always learn, everyone has something to learn, no matter what your musical stature is. Yesterday's hero was 'raga thodi at the hands of Neela mami' !! I have not heard such a thodi alapanam ever.

For the musically elite,this is what she did. Most of the sancharas were bereft of 'Panchama', now that adds to a elevating mood when listening. To qualify her concert is not something I want to do, nor I can do, but those 3 hours felt like being in a world where the only language is 'Carnatic music'.

To add to the spice, we had Charaulatha Ramanujam on violin and she is a young master...brilliant brilliant,brilliant.... (she was not so happy with her thodi accompaniment as was evident from her smiling 'not good enough' expression while looking at maami ) Belonging to a music fraternity,listening to concerts with ur 'guru bhais and behans',knowing the performers personally is invaluable.

Apart from thodi,there was a rare ragam called 'Sucharitra' she sang with such elaboration, I wonder how maami can think of such things to sing :) Where does she get them ? Why doesnt my brain work like hers ?? Oh am frustrated at this moment !!!!

The RTP was a mastermind, Khanda nadai,Khanda jaati Jhampa talam in simhendramadhayamam. The ragamalika had valaji,dwijavanthi and mami's fave sindhubhairavi. There was a bold bratty bat romaing over the hall causing rasikas to wince,grimace and get goospimply ( I was the star of that show :) ) but to think that none of that mattered to those on stage and that their superb concentration was intact is amazing.

This wont be complete without mention of mridangam Arjun Kumar. To play for the song is everyone's wish and he excelled there. Mridangists are so misleading, you see them smiling, laughing, shaking their heads or simply sitting and watching the singer, but when they get to task, it is impossible to fathom what goes on inside to produce that kind of music in rhythm. Arjun Kumar is simply this and more. He is his guru's shishya no doubt. 'Mridangam is the king of rhythm and the queen of melody' is a popular saying and he gave us a royal outing :)

The best part of all this is the job of driving around my guru 'Neela Maami'. She enjoys sitting in my car, she loves my driving and she loves the KVNs I play while I drive. At the end of it all, she always says 'May God bless you child with many more things' and thats it... I feel my life is worth it all !!!

At the feet of my Guru,
Rekha..

TMTs for a bottle of cognac :)

just today struck a deal to obtain some TMT concerts in exchange for a super duper bottle of cognac from abroad, the next time I go ( brand will be specified :) ) what luck!! Cognac vs Vintage Carnatic music wine!!! am i not lucky ??

I regret having born in this generation, I needed to be there about a couple of generations earlier!!
well.. thanks to science, we underprivileged children of Carnatic music are damn lucky!!