kitni baatein yaad aati hain
tasveerein si ban jaati hain
main kaise inhe booloon?
dil ko kya samjhaoon?

Hariharan’s voice was what drew me to this song initially. The soothing music and the simple yet beautiful lyrics later made it one of my all-time favourites.

It is said is the only thing that is constant in life. And the past couple of weeks have been bringing a few changes which have helped me break free from the mundane routine. And it seems like there are going to be some more changes in the weeks to come too. I hope it’s all for good since that is a change that I have been waiting for, for what seems like a long time now.

There is this dialogue in ‘Jab We Met’ which Kareena tells Shahid when they are on the terrace of her house after she runs away from her house. It is something like ‘aage jaake main is pal ko yaad karoongi aur hasoongi’ (or is it ‘hum yaad karenge aur hasenge’? I don’t remember 😕 ) “Live every moment and make it so enjoyable and a memorable one that you will always look back at it fondly without any regrets whatsoever” is what I have been trying hard to practice for the past few weeks. After all, isn’t each and every phase of life a ‘this too shall pass away’ phase? You never know when that constant factor called change will come into play, robbing you of that phase. Of course, I haven’t been all that successful what with some moments turning out to such bad ones that it’s going to take ages to forget those. But still, as the age old adage goes, shouldn’t one try, try and try again till they succeed? 🙂 Here is to life and the many changes it brings with it each and everyday! 🙂

P.S.: ‘thirakkaadha kaaTTu kuLLe’ which am listening to on a loop, seems like an apt song for my current mood for reasons one never can find out since that’s where the magic of the man’s music lies in!!

P.S.1: A comment by naane sometime back is one of the comments in my blog that keeps popping up in my thoughts regularly.

For the first time in quite a few months, I didn’t have company at all in the bus for one whole week, last week. Either I was busy and had to leave late or my friends were busy. But I was so lost in reading ‘The Namesake’, which I had started reading last Tuesday, that I was enjoying reading a book after a long time with a passion I had lost yet again, that I didn’t have time for any other thoughts. But, day before yesterday, when with a ‘Blandings Castle’ book in my hand, I was just vaeDikkai paatthufying, my thoughts wandered a couple of years back.

The time when one of the first few friends whom I made at work became one of my close friends, thanks to our non-stop chatting in the bus about every topic imaginable. Books, blogs, my initial hesitation about whether to start a blog or not, movies, life, future, friends, weekend plans, Monday morning blues, school, college, work, colleagues, our dreams – fulfilled and unfulfilled (or should I say the-then-yet-to-be-fulfilled?) ones, all those china china aasais that one has 🙂 , sunrise/sunset, Marina beach, music, ARR and of course, Sanjay/TMK (She was forced to hear my raving about them despite not even having heard their names before she came to know me! Poor girl! 😉 ) and just about everything else! I suddenly started missing those days! It has been more than a year and a half since she quit her job to pursue her dream of doing her masters. But till this day, no chat of ours is complete without us reminiscing about those days. But for infrequent chats, we are not in touch regularly. But she tells me she reads my blog. 🙂

P.S.: After a long, long time, I wrote, rather typed in my mobile, a post in the bus today evening. And that post, of course, is the one that you finished reading just now 😛

Check this out! Got the link from here.

Eagerly waiting for the movie and of course, the music!

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.