Aparna’s Blog

The year 2005 was when I first listened to Prasanna’s guitar in a concert of his at Music Academy during the December Season. Though I liked the concert, it wasn’t until I got a chance to listen to a couple of songs from his album, ‘Peaceful’ – ‘Peaceful – The Cause’ & ‘Peaceful – The Effect’ (his own compositions) – that I fell in love with Carnatic music on guitar. The next December Season saw me going for some 3-4 concerts of his. It was after that, that I first listened to his ‘Bliss Factor’ – a beautiful composition in Ananda Bhairavi & Sahana. After that, it wasn’t just Prasanna’s playing or Carnatic on guitar, but the very sound of guitar itself started fascinating me like never before. The guitar interludes in July Maadham suddenly seemed more beautiful than before. Meanwhile, I happened to listen to a Dwijavanti played by Sai Prasad on guitar, which, I must tell you, was awesome!
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• Mandolin Srinivas’ Enta Muddo

• Mandolin Srinivas’ Giriraja Suta

• Roja Janeman sung by Hariharan

• Kanava Illai Kaatra from Ratchagan

• New York Nagaram

• July Maadham Vandhaal

• Rahman’s ‘Spirit of Unity Concert’ Music

• Guitar Prasanna’s ‘Peaceful – The Effect’

These songs will forever remain some of the most cherished ones in my life. The memories that these songs hold are special to me! It’s amazing how songs can capture so many memories so vividly!

At Dakshinamurthy Auditorium (Nadopasana) on 16th March

Accompanists:
Prapancham Ravindran - Mridangam
B.S.Purushottaman - Khanjira

Concert Duration: 2 hrs

Songs List:
1. Sri Mahaganapate - Abhogi - Brief alapana, swarams
2. Garudagamana - Nagaswarali - Alapana, swarams
3. Marugelara - Jayantashri - Raaga outline
4. Raa Rama - Asaveri
5. RTP - Bilahari - Pallavi: Raghukula in Kanda Triputa taalam - Composed by TRS
tani Avaratanam
6. Nagumomu - Abheri - Raaga outline, swarams
7. What Prasanna called as the ‘Carnaticized’ version of his composition based on Kambhoji and Kapi from ‘Smile Pinki’ - the documentary which won the Oscar award this year for ‘Best Documentary Short Subject’. Prasanna composed the music for this documentary.
8. Mangalam - Sowrashtram followed by an outline of Madhyamavati

After more than a year, there was a concert of Prasanna here on Saturday. But, since that was in Villivakkam, an inaccessible area for me, I was not able to go for it. So, I didn’t want to miss today’s concert at any cost. I don’t have anything specific to write about except that, as expected, I absolutely enjoyed every moment of this concert. How I wish more concerts of Prasanna happens here!

‘Analyzing’ the Dec Season concert schedules of Sanjay and T.M.Krishna almost a month back and arriving at the final list of concerts that I should try to attend, with Sanjay’s concerts taking the first preference and the proximity of the concert venues being the other deciding factor; waiting for the entire or almost-the-entire list of concerts happening during the season to be updated in Ram’s blog and then, preparing the final list of concerts/lec-dems that I should try to attend, I couldn’t wait to start going for concerts after concerts the whole of this month! And now, the December Season has finally begun! Yay!
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During the December Season 2005, we again got Music Academy tickets, thanks to our neighbour. By then, Carnatic music had become a passion to me and my sister and we wanted to attend as many concerts as possible. My sister had her semester holidays and I had my semester exams at that time! But that didn’t stop me from going for concerts! I took my book along if I had to study something.
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Hey All! Good Morning!

Having had to read quite a few times about me being bored, I guess it would be a good change for you to read that it has been more than a week since my boredom went away! So how did I beat the boredom? All I did was a little introspection/retrospection/whatever and before I knew it, I was out of boredom! Rather, boredom was out of me.
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February 10th, 2007 - Till then, the only dream that we (my sister and I) had was just to get a glimpse of the man whose music meant the most to us. On that day, it got fulfilled!!! We are yet to believe that it wasn’t a dream after all!

February 9th, 2008 - Little did we expect that exactly a year later, we will get to see A.R.Rahman again and that too see him perform live in a concert!
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