Yes my blog completes 4 years today. Happy Birthday, blog! 🙂 And a very big thanks to you all for reading this blog for so long!

Blog

Of course, of late, the blog is not updated as frequently as it once used to be. And to think that it is only in the last few months that I have been having free time in excess and I didn’t utilize it even one bit to update my blog! I seem to have given up all attempts at resurrecting the blog. Let me at least do a quick roundup of all that I missed blogging about.

It is only my blog that I have neglected. I have never been as regular in reading others’ blogs as I have been during these months. I hardly have any unread items left on my Google reader.

Rahman’s Songs
I am loving Maiyya Yashoda (Jamuna Mix) from Jhootha Hi Sahi. Love the joyous spirit captured in the song. It reminds me of the festive feel in Holi Hai from Mangal Pandey. I also like Hello Hello.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya continues to be my most favourite album of Rahman this year. A reason why VTV will go down the memory lane as a special album is that it has almost been my constant companion when I drive the car. It was only recently that I started listening to some other songs just to give VTV a break.

I have listened to just ‘Acid Darabari’ from 127 hours and I found it mesmerizing in the first listening itself.

Khili Re is my current favourite from Raavan. It’s difficult not to lose yourself in the magical sound of flute and Reena’s voice!

Books

I have started reading the Harry Potter series again. I am now reading the second book. I continue to get fascinated by J.K.Rowling’s creativity in creating a new world which has its own creatures, a vocabulary of its own.

I read P.G.Wodeouse’s ‘Cocktail Time’. I didn’t like it as much as other Wodehouse’s books that I have read, but Wodehouse’s writing style made me enjoy some parts of it nevertheless.

Concerts

With Sanjay’s first concert of the December Season being on Dec 11th, the Season is now less than a month away. I can’t wait for the Season to start! There have been quite a few concerts in which Sanjay’s voice sounds a bit strained in the upper octaves. But his voice has been in awesome form in the recent concerts. The recent RTPs in Kharaharapriya (at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha) and Nagavalli (Music Academy – HCL Concert series) were too good.

So what if T.M.Krishna is not performing in December this year? A lot of concerts of TMK have been happening frequently this year. There have been weeks when there was more than one concert of his. Not to forget the interview with him and his recent workshop at Music Academy on ‘Music Appreciation’. I have been really enjoying all his concerts much more this year than last year. And you know what has been the best part about his concerts? Believe it or not, the frequency of Todi being the main in those TMK’s concerts that I go to has suddenly reduced! 🙂 He recently sang Dikshitar’s Sri Dum Durge in Sri Ranjani raagam as the main in a concert at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Gokulashtami series). That was the first time I heard that song and I just loved it.

TV

‘Koffee with Karan’ is back. I used to be a big fan of the programme during its first season in 2004. But then that was the time when I used to watch a lot of TV. Anyway, I watched this season’s first episode featuring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai and I was surprised that I found it quite refreshing compared to most of the other shows on TV now. It seemed to remain the same even after several years in between.

Another TV programme that I find to be good is Manodhadu Mano on Jaya TV. Most of the episodes are good.

I watched Sathyam on Sun TV last weekend. The movie made me wonder how many more movies about corrupt politicians will come. Reality, anyway, doesn’t look like it will ever change.

Temple Architecture and Photography Workshop

I attended a 2-day workshop on ‘Temple Architecture and Photography’ at Dakshina Chitra last month. It was by macro photographer ‘Poochi’ Venkat and Dr. Chithra Madhavan. The first day started with ‘Poochi’ Venkat giving a presentation on the basics of photography and explaining some of the techniques and rules that can be followed to get better photos. He also showed some of the photos that he had taken and talked about how he went about composing the shots. It was pretty interesting. Chithra Madhavan then gave a wonderful lecture on Mahabalipuram. It’s the place where you can trace the evolution of Dravidian temple architecture.

The next day we visited Mahabalipuram. It was an enlightening trip with Chithra showing us all those architectural details that we should notice and Poochi guiding us about how to take better photos with the available light, the angle from which the photo should be taken, etc. Due to lack of time, we couldn’t spend much time on photography.

There were just 5 participants including me and I realized that I was the only one who had more interest in temple architecture and wanted to take better photographs of the same and others were there mainly because of their passion for photography.

Attending the workshop made me think about how much I have changed over the years. Some 6-7 years back, the reserved person that I was (and still am to a certain extent) I would never have imagined attending a workshop like this without having any friends for company.

Rain

Rain in Madras is not a rarity anymore. There have been many days when I enjoyed going for a stroll in the pleasant weather just before the rain started and felt the first drops of rain. I have named these ‘Barso Re’ moments since every time I enjoy the first few mazhaithuLigaL and the maNNvasanai it brings along with it, Barso Re is what I want to listen to. 😉

It looks like I have written enough for a day. See you later with another post, hopefully soon.