Author Archives: admin

It just can’t get any better!

Last weekend was too good! An excellent concert of Chitraveena Ravikiran on Saturday! (There’s nothing more to add to what Ram has written about the concert) I am not going to miss any concert in which M.A.Sundaresan plays the violin from now on. M.A.Sundaresan and Umayalpuram Sivaraman were the main reasons why I went to the Ravikiran’s concert. The concert had a line-up of my favourites, Reetigowlai, Vasanta (It has become my favourite recently), Surutti (No words to describe those!) and Neelambari!

Yesterday, I got to listen a Dikshitar krithi, ishAnAdishivAkAramanche in Sahana raagam, for the first time, thanks to Sai Prasad. The krithi was lovely! (Sahanavaache kaekkaNumaa 😉 )

The only disappointment in the weekend was watching Federer lose the match. 🙁

It’s Monday today and the weather here is so pleasant. It rained in Madras! Yay! Just when I started from home, the first song that I listened to in the radio was one of my most favourites, Thee Thee! (Rahman, you are the best! 🙂 ) Right now, I am listening to a wonderful Kedaragowlai by MDR! What a way to begin a week!

Hope the week remains as great as it has started! Good Morning and have a great week ahead, folks! 🙂

Ariyakudi to Semmangudi

Last Sunday, I attended the programme ‘Ariyakudi to Semmangudi’, a multimedia presentation on 15 past stalwarts (only vocalists were featured) of Carnatic music by Radha Bhaskar of Mudhra, held at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Musicologist Dr. S.A.K.Durga spoke about the 15 stalwarts and her experience with them in the programme. Approximately 10 minutes was devoted to each stalwart with the multimedia presentation taking around 5 minutes followed by Durga sharing her experience with each of the stalwarts.
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konRai pookaL

Many parts of Chennai were adorned by these beautiful ‘sara konRai’ flowers until a couple of weeks back. (Even now the flowers are still present but, the yellow colour of the flowers has started to fade away.) These flowers look so beautiful covering the whole tree with very few leaves visible! The sara konRai flowers are considered to be sacred for Lord Shiva. Say konRai pookaL and the first thing that comes to my mind immediately is the line from ‘Pachchai Nirame’, ‘konRai poovil kuLittha manjaL’! 🙂 The botanical name of this flower is Cassia Fistula

Here are some snaps of the lovely flowers that I took a few weeks back:
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Why?

Why is it that in shops like Saravana Stores, they continuously keep showing their own ads on TV screens kept everywhere in the shop? Haven’t we all come for shopping there only after seeing their ads(?) on TV? What’s the logic behind this? It only causes irritation to the shoppers to keep listening to the blaring sound of the ad!

Is Ajith so popular??

Everytime a song of Ajith comes in Sun Music (sometimes even when it doesn’t), lots of SMSes come on the channel saying ‘Ajith is the next Superstar’, ‘Thala Ajith rocks’, ‘Ajith is the Billa’, etc., etc. Even yesterday, ‘O Nenjae’ song from ‘Mugavaree’ came on Sun Music and I found so many SMSes praising the actor. I don’t think this happens when other actors’ songs come. Has anyone else observed this? Is Ajith so popular? Anyway, SMSes praising him are better than the ‘I love Sun Music’, ‘I Love you’, ‘I miss you’ SMSes!

There’s so much to read!

This week, I have been a bit busy. Though I did update my blog, I didn’t read most of the blogs that I regularly read. Now, when I login to Google Reader, I see that there are 100+ unread posts! I have so much to read now! This makes me ask the question, why do we read blogs?

Let’s take my case. Even before I started blogging, I have been a regular reader of so many blogs for a long time. What started off as just a time pass, became a full-fledged activity. Reading blogs became something like reading newspapers everyday. I never left/leave any post unread even if I visit a blog after say, one week and find that there are some 10 posts unread. So much so that reading blogs has taken precedence to reading books for me! And yes, I enjoy reading blogs more than writing one. 🙂 Less effort needed for that. 😛

Apart from getting to read on a wide range of topics and knowing different viewpoints, aren’t we actually getting to see a slice of the life of a person in his/her blog? Is that what is interesting about reading blogs? The more you are able to relate to what a person writes, the more a blog appeals to you, the more you enjoy it, isn’t it? Why am I rambling now? Has something happened to me thinking about the time I need to spend on reading so many posts? 😛 On a serious note, let’s hear it from you all. Why do you read blogs? What got you hooked to blogs? While you folks answer the questions, let me start reading the posts waiting to be read. Oh yes, please answer the questions.

Deadlock

Got this as a forward:

Khushi milti hai nayi nayi cheezein karne se,
Lekhin experience milta hai same cheez baar baar karne se!
Paisa milta hai experience se
Aur paisa chahiye khushi ke liye!
It’s a deadlock!

Good one, isn’t it? 🙂

Mani Ratnam’s movies

This post is actually a reply to Bharath’s comment here! Don’t scold me for posting continuously about Mani Ratnam’s movies. The reply to that comment ran for more than a page! So, I thought of posting it as a post. Read his comment before reading this post.

Agreed that the difference in style from Dil Se to Alaipayuthey is quite obvious. But, there lies the genius of Mani Ratnam. He can take any form of Cinema brilliantly. 😉 As Bharath has said, hasn’t he shown the complexities of relationships in such a simplified manner?
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Birthday Wishes!

Though I felt that it would be inappropriate if I wish Mani Ratnam on his birthday today, at this point of time, when he is mourning the loss of his brother, anyway, here’s wishing Mani Sir a long and healthy life. May no more untoward happenings occur in his life and May all the years to come be the best for him both personally and professionally!

Today is the birthday of another person, Music Maestro Ilaiyaraja. Wishing him a very happy birthday! Hope we get to listen to lots of wonderful compositions from him in the years to come!