Reflections

 The Chennai music season is at its peak and I have been fortunate to listen to few concerts and I have written about some of them. This year has also been a year of controversy. It is totally upto an organisation to decide how and to whom they give awards. In my opinion the music academy is just another Sabha and I don't understand why there is so much discussion on who they choose for an award. However I have an issue on how the person in question, T.M.Krishna, is being projected as a reformer who has brought about change in Carnatic music. I don't understand how singing about a controversial individual in an RTP or wearing a lungi or saying I don't have Bakthi is recognised as a reform. These are only attention seeking tactics. How does it matter as long as one is sincere to the art form and respects the audience feelings and what is the need to declare these things publicly? The other funny thing is few people gloating that there was overwhelming crowd for TMK's 9 A...

Margazhi is just 1 day away and the Chennai music season has mostly started over the weekend. While the pandemic has been a major set back and has significantly impacted the Sabhas and the number of concerts and the unpredictable December rain has been another deterrent, the music season has slowly been trying to limp back towards normal. Hopefully 2024 will be a better year in making significant strides forward! I had a precursor to music season on Dec 1st when I attended Karthik fine arts day 1 concerts of Ramakrishnan Murthy and Trichur brothers. While the concerts were good, there is nothing like the Margazhi experience when major Sabhas are in full swing, the canteens are buzzing and Mylapore is reverberating with rich music! I started the music season with a concert by Sriranjani Santhanagopalan at Sankara School, Thiruvanmiyur. Since I don't have the luxury of staying in the city yet, this venue was a pleasant surprise nearer home with a good auditorium and plenty of parking...

As part of my work, I deal a lot with Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies. For them building and maintaining Brand Loyalty is very important. Most of us might be using a particular brand soap or household item for years because it was used by our parents or introduced to us by someone we trust.  I used to cross a TCS office on the way to school and I remember by mother telling me that TATA is a trusted company who have now got into something to do with computers and the people coming out of this office seem to be very smart. Maybe this is one reason I have continued with the same company for 27 + years! Today the world is so competitive that we check prices across apps and across brands, look at ratings for the products and go for whichever is cheap and best! This is true for work life as well. Almost 10 years back one of my friends told me that one should not stick to the same company for more than 3 to 4 years! I laughed at him at that point but what he said seems to be reall...

  I have been wanting to start learning divya prabandham again for the last few days. Maybe it is because I was at a temple earlier this week, where I recited few pasurams after a long time. Or it could also be because it is the time of Anadhyana kaalam, when there is a restriction on reciting pasurams. I remember Thi. Janakiraman’s novel ( I think it is “Amma Vandhaal”) starting with how one has an uncontrollable urge to read something only on Saraswathi pooja, even if it is an insignificant piece of paper used to pack some thing like a tooth powder! “Prohibition creates the desire it was intended to curb” This is a quote by Mark Twain. Don’t restrictions always intensify the desire to act? What do you think?!

  It is ages since I blogged. When I started blogging my first post was about my mother and I subsequently wrote a post on my grandfather. When I am writing something again after many years, it is only fitting that I thought of writing about both of them again. This is my thatha’s 100th year and amma’s 75th year. Their birthdays are only few days apart. They left this world also only few months apart. Dec 7th is thatha’s birthday, so let me start with Thatha this time. Thatha was a happy person who enjoyed life to the fullest. He had a great sense of humour and could not stop laughing when he heard a timely joke. I used to get him to talk and tell some incidents from his child hood or college days and would use that information to pull his leg later. When it came from me he could take a joke on himself and laugh at that as well. I once even got him to tell me his pet name and started calling him by that!  Thatha was the first Post Graduate in our family and till date one of th...