Reflections

Sanjay's concert at Parthasarathy Sabha on 30/12 was a real delight. Though I have heard a lot about Sanjay, this is the first time I heard him LIVE. Sanjay definitely  has a unique style and his expression and exploration of ragas really stand out. I found the selection of songs also to be really attractive. There was one song for each of the Trinity and then there were 2 Bharathiyar songs. If "Karuna Jooda nammina" in Shri ragam was soothing, the  lovely lullaby "Chetashri Balakrishnam Bhajare" in ragam Dwijavanthi was simply amazing. "Manam vaitharul Thaaye" in Sankarabharam was a fulfilling main song. While "Sollavallayo Kiliye" in Ritigowla was still resonating in your ears, "Ethanai Kodi Inbam Vaithai" another Bharathiyar song left you really speechless. The RTP which was Rendered To Perfection, was again unique. I thought I had atleast 2 different ragams, the aalapane seemed to be Hamsanandhi but the pallavi at the end was...

It was Abishek Raghuram singing at Parthasarathy Sabha today. I googled to find out that he is a child prodigy with a good music lineage and has been rising in popularity of late. After the opening Varnam passed, the next song went like 'Virulavu o kedha'. It took me a while to get used to Abishek. The way he was swaying between the violinst and mridangist, who by the way where atleast 5 ft apart, like he was possessed, with his convulsions and contortions, I really thought he was in serious trouble and needed a bunch of keys right away. The audience was also finding it very difficult, as half the time it looked like he was speaking to the Violinist or the Mridangist. The audio guy for his part didn't know what volume to give him. At the end of the second song, it was figured out that he needed more than one microphone and he was given the same! The crowd was so much that the sabha guys had put additional chairs all over the place and moving out of one's seat to the r...

My second concert of the day was by Sikkil Gurucharan at Parthasarathy Sabha. From a veteran in the morning to a youngster who is just 30, I was somehow seeing two ends of the spectrum on the same day. With Umayalpuram Sivaraman on mridangam, T.V.K.Ramanujacharyulu on Violin and Giridhar Udupa on Ghatam, it was a high profile team accompanying Gurucharan. After the second song, Gurucharan announced that the theme he had chosen was popular raagas but less popular krithis. Based on Dr.Sivaraman's request , he had chosen a song on Sri Thyagaraja in the raga Kalyani to start off. The song goes like "Sri Madaathi Thyagaraja guru". After a quick "Vidajaaldura", the main song was set in Thodi, "Amba nannu Brovave". The renditions of Kalyani and Thodi were really power packed.  Dr.Sivaraman really has some magic about him. The Tani as part of the main song was exemplary, so much so that for a change, the crowd that usually leaves when the Tani starts, wai...

After the exquisite lunch on Friday, I had no two thoughts about where to go when I decided to have lunch outside on Sunday 23/12. When I walked into Vidhya Bharathi Kalyana Mahal, I thought I heard a very familiar voice on the speakers. I was in for a shock when I peeped in because I thought for a moment that I saw the late Maharajapuram Santhanam singing. Then I told myself it must be one of his sons at sat down. After listening to an elaborate "Bhayami Raghuramam" by Maharajapuram Ramachandran, which took me back in time, I walked straight to the canteen.  After a few minutes I realized that I had got caught between two extremes. The guy on the left was repeating every thing and took a long time to move out of Sambar rice. The elderly gentleman on the right however was more a sanyasi who was shooing away everything. This had a real frustrating effect on the waiters and I had to put my foot down to prevent getting impacted and I did just that. MM did not disappoint. It...

It was Christmas special today at Music Academy. The Violin trio of T.N.Krishnan with Sriram and Viji Krishnan at 9:15 am. I had missed their concert and Parthasarathy Sabha and marked this one as a must attend.    I had set the alarm in mobile but unfortunately didn't notice that it was for 7:30 pm!  I woke up around 8:45 am and had to really rush. By the time I reached the academy it was 9:25 am but the parking was full and I had to rally around to St.Ebbas school, which cost me another 15 mins. I found my way to the balcony at 9:45 am, as the hall below was full. I found the same seat I had sat in at Shreya Ghoshal's concert a few months back. First row corner seat with a good view and enough space to stretch my long legs. The first song was one of the Panchratna Krithis, "Endharo Mahanu bhavulu". There was an elaborate main song which I liked but failed to recognize. The maestro then spoke and he wished the audience a merry christmas and a happy new year. He eve...

I reached a bit early for the Priya sisters concert on Sunday evening, with the idea of listening to Carnatica Brothers and I was glad that I did. They were just starting their main song, which turned out to be Abheri yet again and it was indeed "Bhajare Maansam" two days in a row. This was my first Priya Sisters concert though I remember hearing them briefly on TV several years back. After the "Nera Nammi" varnam, and "Pancha maathanga mukha Ganapathi" which I later learnt from google is a regular at Priya sisters concerts, came two pleasing Tamil songs "Maalmuruga Shanmuga" and  "Arivaar yaar unnai arivaar yaar". The highlight of the evening, Tygaraja's "Enthara neethana", happens to be one of my favourites and it was presented to perfection and in detail, with niraval and swaram placed at "Seshudu shivunuki". The RTP which went like "Gowri manohari karunai puri", reminded me of the main song presen...

Thanks to our cook at home who didn't turn up due to some personal reasons, I had to eat out today. Having managed Breakfast with an Oats bar, I was feeling really hungry after the morning concert. Lunch was at Gnanmibga at NGS. Gnanambiga is supposed to be the best Sabha place for tiffin but somehow I ended up at the wrong time. Most of the different items were not available at the time I went. Having decided to take tiffin, I ended up eating Onion Rava dosa and Idiyappam. They were tasty but nothing to really write about. Dinner was at Parthasarathy Sabha. I decided to go for new items out and out. Chocolate dosa was first. It was a ghee roast laced with chocolate sauce. To be frank I had expected more innovation and more chocolate sauce but it was still tasty, made even tastier by "Kaadhal enum theevinile" sounding at a distance. The other item chosen was Double decker idly. This was a colourful set of idlies stuffed with Chutneys on one side. The taste was good an...

I reached the hall a little bit early for the 6:30 pm concert by Sowmya. The earlier concert was still going on and I found Violin maestro T.N.Krishnan speaking. He was apologizing for having come late to the concert and making the audience wait and for having to now rush the percussionists to reduce the "Tani Avartanam" time because of it. The audience was really moved. One of them shot back saying the wait was worth it but the maestro still didn't take it. This was the first time he had come late to a concert in his life and he felt really bad. It was a touching moment and I felt bad for the elderly gentleman. I had got into a good seat and this time there were no teenagers or over weight people around as I settled down for Sowmya to start. Sowmya presented 3 songs which were dealt with in detail, for 30 minutes or more. "Naan oru Siru Veenai" (Chakravagam as per google), "Bhajare Maanasa Shri Raghuveeram" in Abheri and the main song which went so...

When I entered the NGS mini hall at around 10 am, people were slowly trickling in and occupying the seats .I found a good one which I thought had a good view of the stage and sat down. As the crowd picked up, an obese gentleman chose the sit right in front of me and my bird's eye view became a bald head view.  From a tall teenager to a bulky middle aged person! Wonder how these people pick me. I moved to the corner seat and settled down. The concert started 5 mins earlier than scheduled and in another 10 minutes or so the hall was almost full and by 10:40 am , there were people around 5 or 6 people standing and listening to Nisha Rajagopal in a packed mini hall at at NGS.  ‎10:15 am on Saturday is not too early after all! I had been to Nisha's concert twice last year, at NGS mini hall and at the Music Academy. I was really impressed and I thought she had an  expressive voice, very good command over the octaves and a confident stage presence. I also liked her choice o...

It was Sudha Raghunathan singing at Parthasarathy Sabha on Thursday evening. I reached home a little later than planned thanks to my lovely wife and her work commitments and had to almost gallop my way to the Sabha. I did make some futile attempts in between to hire an auto. Every time I paused no auto would turn up and a few paces after I started moving an empty auto would just buzz past. In about 5 minutes I gave up as I was anyway only another 10 - 15 mins away! I found my way in, around 35 mins late and had to sit in a different seat than the one marked for me, to avoid the hassle of brushing past a long line of people and also in the good will of causing minimum disturbance to the already settled audience. Sudha was winding up a song and in a few minutes she started on "Etha Vunnara". Kalyani yet again this year! From the elaborate Alapana , I understood that this could be the main song and I had missed quite a bit. By this time I had started getting irritated with a ...

We got a preview of the music academy canteen menu, thanks to one of our colleagues who was attending the morning free concert there. A very ordinary menu and continued divergence from Iyengar traditional food, which is the core competency of the caterer,  prompted us to go to PS (Parthasarathy Sabha). This was my first lunch at PS. Having walked in directly without looking at the menu board, there was an element of surprise as the  items were lined up one by one on the plaintain leaf. All the accompaniments took their positions on the leaf - Boondhi thayir Pachadi, Cabbage thengaai curry, senai kaara varuval, kathrikkai rasavaangi and Appalam. After the customary ghee and dhaal, the murungakkai and capsicum sambar was a good opening and the expectation set was high. Next up was the surprise package. Erivalli "More" Kozhambu was a real highlight and it was very tasty which only meant   more and more Kozhambu and rice. The stomach was getting fuller but the tongue was r...

Sometimes even simple things make you uncomfortable .. An unknown security at the office entry gate recognizing you with a smile and letting you in without asking for an ID card. The guy at the Pantry making coffee exactly the way you want without a word exchanged. Senior citizens on their morning work noticing you and acknowledging with a friendly nod. Finding yourself in an auditorium waiting for a concert to start and noticing that you are the only one in the audience with all teeth left. When most of your friends, that too the ones slightly younger than you, start talking about midlife crisis on social networking sites. Realizing that something you strongly like (like a movie) is neither to the taste of your daughter nor that of your father. Sometimes even simple things make you uncomfortable.

I moved in to the Parthsarathy Sabha canteen for dinner right after Sudha's concert. I had decided upfront to experiment. So I immediately ordered "Ilaneer" (Tender Coconut) Idly. A few minutes later the Idly arrived. I smacked my lips, rubbed my hands and moved forward and the phone rang. Boss on the line and some new dish like Ilaneer Idly on the table, is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone. It turned out that boss was in a good mood but he went on and on and I was answering in mono syllables hoping he would hang up soon which he didn't. I decided to start on the Idly. The taste was really good. There were tender coconut pieces in between and I believe they add Coconut water while grinding for the idli as well. The Chutneys were very tasty and the 2 pieces melted in the mouth and vanished in no time. With boss still on call, I signalled to the waiter and pointed to the next item on the menu card, this time no experiment - Raagi Dosai. By the time th...

I was at Parthasarathy Sabha yesterday for Malladi Brothers concert. The hall was packed but when I took a break , I realized that the canteen was also packed. The caterers also for their share are exhibiting a lot of innovation now. Mountbatten Mani's canteen has the interior decorated with portraits of eminent artists both current and old, from Semmangudi to T.M.Krishna, from M.S to Sowmya, you can see everyone. It doesn't stop there. The snacks menu is loaded with unheard stuff be it Raagi Vada, Ilaneer idli, Chocolate Dosa.. There is no dearth for imagination. Need to utilize the rest of the season to try few of these. Yesterday I was not very experimental and was content with Kuzhi Paniyaram and Kancheepuram Idli. I had 2 Maamas, who had conveniently left their wives at home, for company at my table yesterday. It was fun listening to them as they moved from Kanceepuram Idly to Idiyappam, in parallel catching up to start off on the personal front and then chewing on so...

I had to battle the traffic to reach Vidhya Bharathi today for T.N.Seshagopalan 's 6:30 pm concert. I managed to reach just in time and hurried into a parking slot in the one of the lanes. As I sat down the curtains were just going up to reveal the smiling maestro and his accomplished team,  M.Chandrasekaran  on the Violin, Mannargudi Eswaran  on the mridangam. The concert started off well with the varnam Ninnu kori followed by "Rajagopalam bhaje". The maestro then started of on the aalapana of Khamas , recognized thanks to the popular "Broche va" in movie Sankarabharanam. And what and aalapana it was! the kalapana swaras just seemed to be flowing endlessly. It was as if he was making garland after garland out of the swaras and offering them to Lord Vishnu. "Sarasa Dhala nayanaa sankata haranaa" was the song. I have always loved Khamas and this composition and the rendition were sublime. The next song was the third song in Andal's Thiruppavai,...

I had not heard about Pantula Rama till I saw her name in the Parthasarathy Sabha donor pass. If a renowned Sabha gives her a day 1 prime slot, I assumed she would be good. I also came to know from her profile on the net that she has been around for sometime and holds a PhD in Carnatic music. When I entered the Sabha, I found the Chief guest who happened to be some Swamiji talking and there were many old people listening with rapt attention. Uninterested I loitered around for a while till it was announced that Unnikrishnan would speak. P.Unnikrishnan, the carnatic singer, has been awarded the title "Sangeetha Kala Sarathy" this year by Parthasarathy Sabha. It was an interesting speech interspersed with subtle humour. He remarked that at one point he was on the pitch both in music and cricket but he was glad to have chosen the right pitch - music. It was also good to listen to Unnikrishnan speaking about the current challenges today's musicians face with changing tastes....

I have heard a lot about Aruna Sairam but I have never heard her sing. I took my season ticket at Parthasarathy Sabha this time but they had almost everyone except Arun Sairam. Given my interest to see other Sabhas as well this time, I decided to buy a ticket for Aruna Sairam's concert at one of the other Sabhas. It turned out to Krishna Gana Sabha which was the only venue I knew apart from Academy where Aruna was singing this time After a sumptuous lunch and a nice siesta, we got through the T.Nagar traffic and ended up just in time for the 4:30 pm concert. The curtains raised and revealed the smiling face of Aruna Sairam. An artist with a pleasant demeanor, she maintained an excellent connect with her accompaniments and her audience throughout. The concert started with "Margazhi Thingal" from Andal's Thiruppavai. An apt and impressive song to choose considering it was the first day of Margazhi. I found it intriguing given my liking for Andal, Lord Krishna and T...

Today 16/12 happens to be the first day of Margazhi. While some Sabhas started their programmes in the first week of December, the more traditional ones like Music Academy and Parthasarathy Sabha had their inauguration only on 15/12. The first morning Kutcheri started today, it was a Nadaswaram recital by someone. More importantly it is the first day the Academy canteen opens for lunch. I don't remember seeing it last year but this year there was an ad in The Hindu giving the lunch menu at the canteen, image above. The menu was tempting and we skipped breakfast and headed to the academy around 11:30 am. the otherwise elusive parking slot was available considering it was too early an hour for Sunday or for lunch. We headed straight for the canteen. The price had gone up to Rs170 from Rs 120 (or was it 130?) last year. Anyway who cares as long as the food is good. The items were laid out one by one on a plantain leaf starting with Badusha more or less in the order in the image...

In my attempt to explore the music season and cover all Sabhas, I found myself at Vani mahal on Saturday 15/12 morning. The first concert was by Saralaya sisters. Google told me that they were students of Balamuralikrishna who had been around for quite a while and were invited by MS some 20 years back to sing a song.  When I walked in there were only 2 other people in the auditorium which seemed to have a capacity of 200 to 250.  Wonder how artists feel when the curtain goes up and there are less than 10 people in the auditorium including the 5 on stage. I guess 10 am on Saturday is too early a start, the count did go up considerably by 11 am. However I did feel bad for the artists as the curtain went up but they didn't show much reaction, maybe they are used to this! The concert started off with a Padha Varnam by Dr.Balamurali and was engaging. I recognized Pantuvaraali (Sarasaaksha) as they started the aalapana, thanks to my repeated hearing in the 80's of a K.J.Yesudoss...

The daily sheet calendar had the image of the man with the white turban, bright eyes and a big moustache. Subramanya Bharathi, a phenomenon that changed Tamil literature was born on this day 130 years ago.I don't have enough mastery over the language be it English or Tamil to talk about Bharathi and his genius. However I couldn't resist writing about him today I have never been to Ettayapuram but I have visualized it. There are several times I have woken up from a dream thinking I am in Ettayapuram. Maybe I will go there one day and visit the birth place of a genius who has ignored during his lifetime, who has maybe still not got the recognition he deserves but has left an everlasting impact on Tamil and Tamilians. Maybe he has become so much an integral part of Tamil and Tamilians that he doesn't need to be recognised separately? There are poets who have sung about nature, those who wrote for social causes, people who specialized in writing about religion and those w...

Yesterday I woke up to the fact that the music season is no longer Maargazhi music season or December music season or Madras Music season for that matter. With Bharathi Vidya bhavan and a few sabhas starting their programmes in November and first week of December, it is now the "Chennai music season"! Somehow I had always associated this with Margazhi and I failed to notice that Singapore Indian Fine Arts in collaboration with Carnatic Radio, had started their music festival in Tattvaloka, Teynampet, an auditorium few minutes away from my place. I was casually turning the pages of the sunday Hindu and suddenly noticed that there was a free Malladi Brothers concert that evening happening very near by.  I searched kutcheris.com and realized that I had missed a few good ones in the past few days - likes of Sowmya, Gurucharan. However I was glad at the propsect of listening to Malladi Brothers. I went in 30 minutes ahead so that I could get a good seat and an youngster by name...

Chennai is getting ready to welcome the mystic month of Margazhi. There is a sudden chillness in the air as Margazhi approaches which is a welcome break from the otherwise hot Chennai weather but that is not the only thing about Margazhi. It is time for the music season which has become some sort of an identity for Chennai over the last few decades. The weekend news paper is loaded with advertisements from all the major Sabhas and there are a dozen or maybe even a score. While all the Sabhas try to get the popular artists and all the stars try to accommodate every Sabha, the good thing is there is also a lot of encouragement for youngsters. There are free 2 to 3 free Kutcheri slots every day in the schedule where the new comers are given a chance and many of them have made it big. I listened to some of them last year - Nisha Rajagopal, Amrita Murali, Sandeep Narayan and I am glad to note that some of them have advanced to the evening slots this year. I listened to Nisha Rajagopal ...

Thuppakki is the second Vijay movie I happen to see on big screen. Immediately after Nanban, that makes it two in a row. It is heart warming to note that both are not typical Vijay movies. The film for a larger part is an A.R.Murugadoss film. There are some similarities to "Ramana" but the plot is still different and the screenplay is interesting. It would have been a lot more interesting with lesser number of songs but I guess that was a mild attempt from the director to satisfy Vijay fans. The music and the background score are very ordinary. In fact the background score is really irritating at times. I think the problem with Harris Jeyaraj is that he has become too predictable. " Google Google" is the only song that catches attention and I guess that is also largely attributable to the singer Andrea and even Vijay to some extent. While too many songs hamper the pace in the first half, as long as you don't reason too much the second half is really inte...