Ideas & Views

Until I accidentally listened to a fusion album of Ganesh Kumaresh, I had not listened to any instrumental music other than Veenai at large. I was averse to violin and Nadaswaram was indeed forced as my  father loved the Sheikh playing it.  Growing up listening to veenai everyday (my elder brother learnt it from childhood), I naturally loved the nadham from the soft instrument and was very much biased in favor of it.  Few people  in my family played and taught veenai and it was and still is the preferred instrument even in the extended families at Srirangam.  Veenai is also the preferred vathiyam at the Srirangam Temple (Ekantha Veenai played by Veenai Sri. Rengarajan family-line). Now, though I listen to a variety, the nadham of saraswati veenai is still my first choice and Chitti Babu, and Doraiswamy Iyengar my favorites.  When it comes to contemporary artistes, veenai is almost always synonymous with veenai Gayatri. While listeni...

A down-to-earth human, a distinguished professor,  a true lover of the subject Physics and an ardent supporter of Indian Fine Arts. That is ,was Dr.Suresh Ramaswamy, fondly called SuRa. It is a rare quality amongst highly prejudiced professors of top ranked institutions to be friendly and approachable to a first year student ( come on, 3 idiots was not a joke). Riding around the campus in his favorite bicycle with a Jolna Pai adorning his side, organizing NSS meetings in the SkyLabs to concerts for spicmacay in the Auditorium, one could not but notice this humble Professor who was one among the students first of all.  The range and nobility of his thoughts and service to the community around him stands out in my memory. He hosted a number of spicmacay gatherings and would encourage us to sing and he even recorded them. Those friendly conversations about art and artistes, the special spicmacay Khetri trip, evening and weekend redi chai conversations as part of getting...

Let's look at these two options for entertainment as black and white as possible.  Going to a Jaya T.V. Margazhi Mahotsavam concert vs Going to a cinema.   We are talking of common folks like you and me - bank officer, engineer, marketing manager, house wife, etc and not any fancy profession. Attending the kutcheri is probably more time consuming and yet more thrilling. One has to plan ahead and leave home to reach the hall well in advance. That's because the seating is a first come first serve basis. You might simply end up sitting on the ground or get pushed to the last row, either way getting missed out from T.V.camera. Talking of T.V camera, you also need to focus on your appearance. Chennai is hot in Margazhi too, remember. Depending on your gender, you have to try few sarees and jewels or kurtas and dhotis. You must remember not to dress up any grander than the performer. Else, you might prompt unwarranted pause-and-look in the video that gets poste...

A brilliant Economics 101 for the engineer. World makes sense now. Need I elaborate? Must read. http://www.nakedeconomics.com/

I was raised in a family that listened to more carnatic music than choose any other form of entertainment. Reading books was the other indoor activity when any member (except me since I was the youngest) of the family needed silence in the household. A small black and white Solidaire invaded our house when I was in 6th or 7th standard and only selected DD programs were watched at certain times with all family members. Father was the censor board of our home - he would ban anything he thought was obscene. I remember a hot discussion between the special three  (elder brother, Mom and Dad - in that order)   in the other room when I dropped a bomb in the house - I sang the first and only line I knew from 'Pakkadhey Pakkadhey' of Gentleman fame. Henceforth, the teenage elder brat was not allowed to influence me as I would sing anything that he sang without knowing the meaning.   My elder brother and I used to play all games from badminton to hockey inside the house when my F...

With respect to carnatic music, Subbudu is the only name synonymous with carnatic music criticism. Anyone who even talks or comments lightly on the performance will be made fun with his name. He is both a respected and sometimes feared person. In my thinking, his writing as well as very presence in the first row of a concert hindered the free flow of imagination of the performer. I have seen concerts take a different tone altogether when he enters and leaves the hall. One who indeed walked the words 'Pen is mightier than sword' !  I reiterate that good music will always attract audience. The performer grows leaps and bounds by tuning his conscious nous to the subtle nuances and also the ambiance of the concert hall. Its all about packaging a concert and executing it.  Having said that, how does the performer improve? By getting the right feedback.  - By listening to his records himself and see where he can  improve ...

What are the qualities of a Rasika? what are the various aspects of a listener or listening rather? In my earlier posts, I have talked about the qualities of a performer, the carnatic vocalist. Its more relevant and important to discuss the qualities of a listener since the population sitting on the chair is huge while those on the stage are handful. There are plenty of misconstrued ideas and deep rooted opinions (simply reinforced by 3rd party ) floating among the audience which makes listening less fulfilling. Here are some guidelines for a satisfactory,elevating and intellectual listening. I will try to keep the feel good factor preserved! Listen with ears, not eyes - We all know this. I need to be very careful in explaining my point to take you further and beyond.  The carnatic singers and the accompanists somehow seemed to have reached a code of dressing  very suitable for Indian climate! With a lady performer, it's the silk saree, ...

We hear musicians on T.V shows and concert stage say that if not for the audience, musicians and music could not thrive. Really?  How much should the audience matter for the musician? When a person on stage says that an art form does not thrive without the audience, he would not be there if not for the audience, or asks the audience to support the art form or even thank them for being there......he is simply expressing his need to hear the audience cheer. He is enslaved by name and fame. He likes the sound of claps. My focus is mainly on the carnatic concert stage and not the n number of music programs on T.V which are tailored to audience.  Art survives and thrives solely because of the practitioner, not the audience. Think for a minute.  Good music is a magnet. If the musician has all the slices (of music training, voice, and creativity) that I had explained in my earlier post, audience will be attracted. They will stay as long as good music is...

In my previous blog, I had talked about some ingredients of a performing artiste. The most essential and key contributor is LUCK. It is not a quality someone can work on, so I had not elaborated on it. But, to dwell on few things we could indeed affect.......... To be in the right place with the right skills at the right time is called Lady Luck and everyone needs her company. Right place translates to a lot of things. Right set of people at home and also in one's social circle of family friends, relatives and one's own age group of friends. This is a highly influencing circle in one's life and hence makes all the difference. Malcolm Gladwell notes this in his Outliers. Indian society, in general, is very mediocre and not very motivational. From the Billion, we could hand pick outstanding contributors. Why should that be the case? Why can't we all evolve beautifully? Few cents from me (not the entire dollar, you see) -      - One should be very carefu...

What are the various aspects of a musician? Rather, what are the qualities that are required for a performing artiste to become one and be one? What distinguishes him/her from others and does that serve as a Selling Point to the audience? There are various aspects to a musician as there are to music itself. I put them down here not in the order of importance, but as they occurred to me.  Training ( Patantharam ) - There is a significant ignorance amongst the non-trained listeners that anyone with a good voice and capability to develop it could be a successful musician. They will quote Ilayaraja, SPB and Chitra for examples. Little do they know how skilled a listener Ilayaraja is. A good author is a voracious reader. So is a music composer a tremendous listener and a discrete one at that. Wouldn't Ilayaraja take the effort to get trained when he chose it as a career?  Once SPB/Chitra got a chance, wouldn't they run to get the fundamentals strong and steady? They may ...

Why not the full Bhaire Bhanwari concert? Why are people so frugal in sharing the best music?   Ma'am  (my friends know the connection)  walks a new mile every day. Hats off to her. Would love to have a glimpse of her in concert again. It has been many years since the last one and I have grown very thirsty for her music. "Bhakthi in Music, to Music" - in its pristine form, flows through her to the world. What a manodharma!  I used to think - Adi Sankara, Azhwars, Saint Ramanuja, Koorathazwan, Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Vivekananda - and so many saints and stalwarts walked on earth. But, why did I not have the blessing to be born in their time period or witness a great soul? With BJ, the feeling is complete and transcendental.   I badly wanted to listen and immerse myself into this Bhaire Bhanwari after reading about it. Time hasn't come for it.

It has been many years since I came across anyone who is as excited to sing as excited to explain . Gowri blew me off. Enthusiasm flowing in music, backed by strong theory, made me stop whatever I was doing and drop my jaw in awe of this musician cum rasika. As much an erudite scholar, she is a class musician as well. Wow. Enjoyed every once of this playlist. Nota bene: For readability, I kept the Smt and other terms of reverence out. Smt. Gowri, it is.

I have lost touch and taste for fiction. Harry Potter was the only interesting read I spent hours before. Picked up this book of Chetan's from the local lending library while searching for some interesting read to keep me sane from the boredom of Trichy.  Trichy is a unique city (like any other). There are plenty of rural areas around it where you can actually spend quality time with people and farms. Mukombu and Kallanai dam are attractions to some extent too.    I did my high school at Trichy . All my friends and I have moved out to wherever our jobs took us. Trichy  was boring to me because I didn't have a circle in which I can socialize for long hours. More so because  I had to stay home most of the time with my toddler and the elderly group. We didn't  have  much conveniences and entertainment media at home to beat the heat either.  Coming to Revolution 2020 , I found the title to be really odd for the plot. It just doesn't su...

Sweaty Chennai, Boring Trichy, relatively better Bangalore  (March and April 2012) Two weeks into my trip,I had traveled to places like Chennai, Tirupati, Madurai, Trichy (including nearby rural areas) and Bangalore.  There were plenty of opportunities to observe infrastructure development in some parts of these cities/towns and listen to other's  ideas and views. Not a slave of comforts, power shortage came as a rude shock to me though. My mom never mentioned about it once. Tamilnadu boasts more than 250 engineering colleges and other outstanding institutions like BHEL. Chief Minister Jayalalitha is a skilled administrator. Country as a whole has a rich pool of talent. Yet, we are struggling to generate electricity efficiently. Every Aam Aadmi was talking about the CM being not able to handle it efficiently and that only two hours off in chennai is a biased decision. Apart from the talking and abusing, there could not be much done by the public. It was miser...

There are two music (from music to musicians after some time, as I had quipped in earlier posts) that impressed me in the past few months. I was not able to spend time to write about it though I had wanted to.  I could not now recollect how I stumbled upon them. Ah, yes. I had listened to Ranganatha panchakam in youtube and tried to hunt for its mp3. I googled for the song and found the album from which the song sprung from. The album was 'Ranganathaya Namaha' by Chitraveena Ravikiran. The theme of the album is conceptualized by the Maestro (Ranganatha panchakam is also set to tune by him) while his students had sung the kritis. I browsed through the list of singers.  One of them caught my attention and led to further browsing of her albums and listen to some songs in youtube.  A voice so perfect for carnatic music.  Least nasal accent. Instantly captivated by the depth of her voice, clarity of diction and manodharma, I downloaded all her albums as mp3 from ch...