Ideas & Views

Hyderabad Brothers Carnatic vocal concert at SVLotus Temple, Fairfax, Virginia Oct 11, 2009 4-7pm Mridangam: J.Vaidyanathan, Violin - Nagai Sriram A small prayer hall it is with no acoustically fantastic auditorium. With a decent mike and sound system, the packed hall was full of discerning audience seated on the floor. A temple in the fund raising stage to begin construction, the concert was announced free. I have heard and read about Hyderabad brothers Dr.Ragavachary and Dr.Seshachary as masters of the art with their scholarly rendition. This is the first time I was hearing them personally; the previous acquaintances were only thru CDs. Their tradition of music rendition (patanthra) and manodharma was purely masterly, thorough and moving. The elder of the sibling Dr.Ragavachary dominated to the extent that the younger sibling Dr.Seshachary was heard only during individual kalpanaswara singing. The elder took care of all the alapanas and neravals. Since its a fund raising concert for

These points were highlights of many discussions with different friends at different points in time - about singing, listening, about music and musicians in general. Didn't know how to make a coherent essay out of it. Since they were lingering on in the mind even after many months, felt like spilling the beans here. So, here goes the collage. - Till the advent of digital music players, music CDs and MP3 format, listening to a carnatic (or for that matter , any other form of music) used to be a hobby and pass time for the rich. Only they could afford the money and means to buy record tapes. Cassettes were, to an extent, affordable to the middle class but still not a whole lot possible. Technology has made music affordable and reach more people, no doubt. Starting from CDs to Mp3s, now its the digital recording devices and broadband that makes music sharing easy across the globe. Jaya TV concerts happening in Chennai are broadcast by music aficionados through youtube within few

Haven't written anything about one of my all time favorite carnatic musician - the ingenuous, masterly, the only IITian in the pack, Sowmya (ji understood). She is always the reference singer for me to practice along with. Though not a melodious voice, the kattai kural retains the beauty of phrases that are unique to carnatic style. Her recent thematic concerts had caught up an audience vibe on its own. It takes a thorough understanding, a confident quest for innovation, curiosity to educate and move the audience to next level. Sowmya is the one to start on this, others like T.M.Krishna and Sanjay followed. Confident that the audience would raise up to her and accept the whole idea of learning some theory behind music and accept her humble self with enthusiasm. I mention that she is an IIT-ian specifically because I still recollect and cherish her geeky d/dt explanation for sangathis in Jaya TV Margazhi Mahotsavam 2008 question time. Her two albums Ososi and Maiyyal are based on

While writing and sharing anything in blogs, some readers (who don't know me closely) tend to look at the generalizations I make and seem to get offended. So, as a preface I would like to mention that all exceptions are acknowledged; no offense intended nor even thought of. Read them as just another point of view. My focus is mainly on the writing - a challenge on my ability to convey. Surrendering to the pen and the power of ideas...... Have stopped watching Indian movies for quite sometime now. The very idea of hero-heroine background irked me all of a sudden too much. I was thinking for sometime on this - where did the Indian movie makers catch the hero worship concept? And why has such movies had all the audience that they had and still have? The seed has been sown long ago from the days of Ramayana and Mahabarata. This is the story of a prince named Rama. He was the noblest, kindest, most handsome, etcetera etcetera amongst men ! There was a story of five brave princes called

Happened to watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . The movie is based on Thuggee cult practices in India. Quite a violent movie for me. Couldn't watch some scenes and so forwarded them. After few weeks, happened to see Gunga Din (a 1939 adventure film from RKO Radio Pictures starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Fontaine, and Sam Jaffe in the title role). This movie also has a base on the Thuggee cult practices in India. I didn't know what Thuggee was before watching these movies. The second movie really made me stop and think. Such a violent cult! in India! the country of Non-violence !! I am aware of religious practices where they offer humans or live stocks during worship. Also aware of other inhumane orthodox practices like Sati, etc. But none the scale of Thuggee cult. Ours is unlike any other country. No other country has such a spectrum of culture, tradition, languages, dialects, beliefs and practices. To make people forget their differe

What's with these carnatic folks!! Movie: Modhi Vilaiyadu Song: Paadhi Kaadhal Singer: Bombay Jayashri Movie: Achamundu Achamundu Song: Kannil Dhagam Singer: Sowmya Honestly , these songs are as wonderful as Vaseegara .

So far, all my friends from India here have disagreed that Slum Dog Millionaire deserved the Oscar. Everyone on this shore has expressed that A.R. Rehman has other music in score which could have been internationally recognized; plenty of other movies from Indian Directors that could be recognized for the direction, camera, cinematography. Jai Ho is definitely not THAT impressive a song, nor is the background score as brilliant as that of Satyajit Ray's Aparajito. Remember the scene where Appo's dad dies. There was only one pluck of the string that would make even a rock cry. Pandit Ravi Shankar's sitar had literally spoken the emotions beyond words in that great stunt of music and direction. I sat through the movie, not totally able to appreciate everything. Cinematography was excellent, still not to world standards. There are other genuinely more creative movies for this year that cud grab the award. Then why Slum Dog? I am oriented to think in these lines. Others might d

They are a new phenonmenon called Ranjani Gayatri. Unprecendented sisterly act in carnatic music, to rock all ages with the best of styles ( padantharam ). It is surprising how they even take the same pause for breathes. Perfectly aligned sangathis and sancharas. It wud be hard to pick a particular instance of a 'start after a pause' (eduppu) where there is a time lag in their pronunciation. There have been duet performances by siblings before - Radha Jayalakshmi, Hyderabad Brothers, Bombay Sisters, Mambalam Sisters . There is also Haripriya Shanmukapriya. But the Ranjani Gayatri duo stands out exceptionally. Reason? The combination of their voice - one husky base and the other shrilled and high toned; this puts less strain on the same person in the concert to cover all octaves for all raga elaborations. Another reason - either of the sibling is not dominating; both of them share the center stage equally. And either is not less talented or uncomfortable to explore the other re

Was quite enthralled by Malcolm Gladwell at the very review of this book's ideas, need not even read the book entirely. Such is the power of thoughts and ideas. Can influence people and sweep them off their feet. Its an extraordinary book explaining the reality behind commonly held myths about success. I have had conversations with Jay on some of the facts explained in this book at different points of time earlier. Stats, stats, stats. When statistics support the theory currently in vogue or unfold new theories, it makes a convincing read to a scientific mind. That's what Outliers does. Gladwell religiously has collected data to this extent. Fascinated by some of the ideas that Gladwell throws and found the comfort of a home in others. For few days after completing the read, I was in a discontented, restless mood. These questions were written all over my face - "Am I going to achieve anything now that I haven't put that precious 10,000 hours into anything so far?&

Don't remember how I came across this book 'The Palace of Illusions' but after reading the review (from source I don't recollect ), I caught hold of it from the library. Usually, books in English by Indian authors are not available in our local public library - the Prince William County Public Library. My sincere searchers for Tagore, Nehru, Rajaji , R.K.Narayan had only proved futile. Repeated requests with the chief librarian didn't change things much. Not even the award winning Jhumpa Lahiri or the titles 'English August', or 'God of small things'. Nay. But, Palace of Illusions was right there and also on 'available' status after being 'on hold' many times. The description " Draupadi's narration of Mahabarata " was enough to captivate me, not because of the feminist title, but simply its different. The same story told from a different angle, from another's perspective, viewed from a different frame of refe

To have a book shelf with all my favorite authors' works and a rack of CD collection was something I used to desire from my high school days. Nothing else used to motivate me as much as this desire did. Some times, I had silently yearned for them too. After many years, I was able to set these up with meticulous efforts. During my recent India trip, bought a cart load of CDs to my heart’s content. I listened to them day after day. Initially, I felt overwhelmed by the quantity and quality. But kept going at it steadily. Before I realized, I got a hangover. So, I stopped listening for a while. Nothing is more music than the return of a forgone silence. After a long break, I went over the collection again today and found my all-time favorite TNS. It is a concert CD of T.N.Seshagopalan released by Charsur. I haven’t heard a TNS concert before. My experience with his harikatha earlier in SSVT was disappointing. He became a favorite because of my repeated listening of his RasaGanam

A friend once said "its an unfair world". Another told the same after an unfortunate incident that happened to her. It tickled some thought flow in that direction. Where is fairness and justice? First why are we talking today about justice or the lack of it in the world More today than before? Have you observed this? Because we have assumed, through the conditioning of our minds from childhood, that there must be justice and fairness in the world, that the good prevails over the bad ultimately. We have our own definitions of each noun and adjectives, agreed?! We expect justice immediately with no respect for time. Lets go back in time and analyze this idea in Hindu mythology. All due respects to the Hindu Gods and belief system as I am also a part of it. (I had to add this last line after a reader's comments). During Thretha yuga, Ramayana's time frame, the killing of Vali by SriRama from behind a rock is a case of injustice, at least looking at the plain incident