Aparna’s Blog

andhi vaanam araikkum manjaL
koNRai poovil kuLittha manjaL

It’s that time of the year again when the above lines from pacchai nirame are the ones that I get reminded of every time I step out on the roads. The spring season is slowly beginning in Chennai. I saw the first of the copper pods bloom on some trees in L.B.road some three weeks back and a couple of weekends back saw the first of the yellow carpet of copper pods on Boat Club Road. It’s just a matter of a week or so before my city gets decorated by the yellow of the copper pods.
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Ever since I went for Dr. Chithra Madhavan’s talk on ‘Some lesser known temples of Madras’ last year, I had been eagerly waiting to go for another talk of hers. And it wasn’t until about a month back that it finally happened. ‘Kanchipuram – Art, History & Architecture’ was the topic for this talk that happened on 17th January at Tattvaloka. I just loved this talk as much as the previous one.

I managed to note down most of the things (I don’t remember taking notes like this even during my school/college days. ) and here is all that was covered in the talk: (As usual, please don’t forget to let me know if there are any mistakes in what I have written. Thanks in advance!)
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A moment when happiness knows no bounds! A moment to celebrate & a moment to cherish forever! Congrats, ARR! Proud of you!

I missed the last concert of Sanjay since it was in Nanganallur – the area still seems inaccessible to me. That was a couple of weeks back. Now, I come to know that there is a Sanjay’s concert tomorrow. And I am going to miss that too. The reason is I am going for Ghananjani – concert by Mandolin Srinivas, Zakir Hussain, Stephen Devassey and Dominque Di Piazza for Shakti Foundation. Incidentally, there is a concert of T.M.Krishna too tomorrow! There are suddenly lots to choose from! Talking about the weekend, I am going to watch Delhi 6 on Sunday. Liked the stills from the movie. Liked the trailer. And, needless to say, love the songs! Can’t wait to watch the movie! Then there’s Oscar on Monday. Fingers crossed! What are your plans for the weekend?

Something seems to be wrong with internet now and my blog is one of the very few sites opening! No GTalk. No Google Reader. No blogs. No A.R.Rahman Fan Club. No rasikas.org. No twitter. Weird! Is something wrong with Dataone everywhere or is it only at my home? After I got over the initial irritation of not being able to access any of the sites, I am now happily listening to my favourite Carnatic songs. Bhageshri, Nayaki, Sindhu Bhairavi, Ranjani, Charukesi – Bliss

Update: Net is now working properly. Just within a few seconds of publishing this post! Yay!

N. Ravikiran – Chitraveena
V. Sanjeev – Violin
Mannargudi Easwaran – Mridangam
Anirudh Athreya – Khanjira
Anahita – Vocal Support

On 7th Feb at Raga Sudha (Organized by Isai)

Concert Duration: less than 1.5 hrs

List of Songs:
1. Varnam – Sri
2. Swaminata Paripalaya – Nattai – Swarams at Swaminata
3. Appa Rama – Pantuvarali – Alapana; Neraval & Swarams at kapi varidi
4. Sri Subrahmanyaya Namaste – Kambhoji – tani avartanam
5. Tillana – Sunadavinodini – Composed by Ravikiran
6. Mangalam – Sowrashtram; Madhyamavati Outline

Before the concert, violinist Embar Kannan was awarded the title ‘isai tenRal’ by Isai. Sangita Kalanidhi M. Chandrasekaran was the chief guest. After all the speeches, Ravikiran’s concert started very late. And this was the reason why Ravikiran decided to skip playing alapana, neraval, etc. for Sri Subrahmanyaya Namaste and had the tani Avartanam alone for it.

Overall, the concert was very good. Didn’t find anything extraordinary but.

As I was reading Dandilsa’s post on why she wants to return to India, I realized how much I could relate to what she has written. Of course, I am already here. In fact, except for a few months of staying in another city, I have never been, forget about being away from India, been away from Madras itself. But, every time I am asked why I don’t want to leave Madras and go anywhere else, the reasons I give are quite similar to what she has written. This is the place where I have grown up and at this point of time in my life, there is only one thing that I am very clear about and it is that here is where I want to spend the rest of my life.
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