As most of you might have noticed, ‘Ask Shahnaz’ is a weekly column in Metro Plus in which beautician, Shahnaz Hussain, answers questions on beauty tips. I am not interested in any of those beauty tips or home remedies. Boredom was what prompted me to read the questions and answers in that a long time back. When I next read the column, I found that only a few questions were new. For almost a year now (or more than that?), I have been browsing through the questions in that quite often. I see most of the questions are getting repeated too often. The most common questions are “Skin is oily/dry/dull, there are pimples/pimple marks on face, hair is dry, hair loss, hair has split ends, has dandruff, etc. Please suggest some tips/home remedies.” There are very few questions apart from the ones above. I wonder how long she is going to answer the same set of questions again and again! I have no clue about the answers that she gives since I rarely read them. Anyway considering how long this column has been on and how so many questions are pouring in, seems those are the most common problems people have and there are way too many people obsessed with ‘looking beautiful’. 😛

If it was Monday morning blues with which I started the previous week, it has been a great beginning today. Today being Bhogi, the whole city was engulfed in smoke, though it wasn’t as bad as how it used to be a few years back.

As I stepped out of my house to catch the bus, I saw the sun appearing like a golden-orange ball peeping through the branches of the tall thoongu moonji maram. It made me go wow! 🙂 As I got into the bus, I saw that it wasn’t even half-full. The disadvantage of being a person whose home is at Chennai itself is that when most of them from other places take leave and go home on a long weekend, you end up being one of the few persons working. Anyway no complaints since the advantages outnumber the disadvantage by a very great margin. 😉 Sitting comfortably without having to squeeze in between two persons, the journey had me admiring the beautiful sun throughout. Just as the bus was passing over the flyover in Adyar, I saw the clouds passing over the sun – for a few minutes, the clouds hid the sun and slowly the sun started peeping out from under the clouds till it was fully visible. It presented a beautiful sight. 🙂 Nice weather, beautiful sunrise! How I wish all Mondays had great beginnings like this one!

School & College: You paid
Work: You get paid

School & College: You are a student
Work: You are not only an employee you are sometimes referred to as a resource as well!

School & College: Bench, chair, black board, chalk, duster
Work: It’s only cubicles and computers here and bench takes a new meaning altogether 😉

School & College: Address teachers as Sir/Ma’am or even Miss
Work: Age is not given any consideration whatsoever and you are on a first name basis with everyone.
Continue reading →

Nowadays, my day begins with the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip in Metro Plus. Here’s today’s:

Reading this, that too on a Monday morning, isn’t going to help you in any way. 😉 What say?

Wishing A R Rahman and his son a very Happy Birthday! 🙂 May they be blessed with a long, healthy and musical life filled with loads of happiness.

A.R.Rahman – Well, is there anything more to write about the man, his music and what it means to me? This was the thought I was having for the past few days. And that’s when it struck me how I can ever say that I have written everything about his music when he continues to give us new, wonderful compositions year after year?! Besides, hasn’t it been really a long time since I wrote about his music? Anyway I couldn’t think of any specific thing to write. Then all of a sudden, I started wondering if at all there is any mood/situation for which there is no song composed by Rahman. And that’s when song after song of Rahman’s came to my mind and thus was born this post. 😉 I know many have already written lists like this but it’s always a pleasure to remember Rahman’s songs and write about them. 🙂 Here follows the list of songs that came to my mind when I thought about different situations/moods. I know this list is incomplete and I have missed out a lot of songs. So please do add more songs to the list that follows.
Continue reading →

Sanjay Subrahmanyan – Vocal
Nagai Muralidharan – Violin
Mannargudi Easwaran – Mridangam
B.Sreesundarkumar – Khanjira

Where & When? – Vidya Bharati (Bhairavi Gana Sabha) on 5th January

Concert Duration: 2.5 hrs

Songs List:
1. Varnam – Bhairavi
2. Ninnaadanela – Kannada – Swarams at Ninnaadanela
3. Ramanatam – Pantuvarali – Alapana, Neraval & Swarams at kumaara guruguha
4. Vaa velavaa – Taanaroopi – Alapana, Swarams at vaa velavaa
5. Daasa vilasa – Kambhoji – Alapana, Swarams at Daasa (Main piece)
6. Neerajaakshi – Hindolam – Raaga outline
7. Oho Kaalame – Sahana
8. Oorile (viruttam) – Kapi, Bhageshri
Nanda tanaya – Bhageshri
9. KaaNa vaendaamo – Sri Ranjani
10. Tillana – Sindhu Bhairavi
11. Mangalam – Sowrashtram

Sanjay and Nagai Muralidharan combination seems to be creating magic this season and this concert was no different! 🙂

These days Sanjay seems to be singing many not-so-often or rather rarely heard raagams. It was taanarupi in today’s concert. It was amazing! The kriti in Kannada and the Pantuvarali that preceded it were well-rendered by Sanjay. The Kambhoji alapana lasted some 15+ minutes. It was only last week that I heard him sing Kambhoji as the main. I liked today’s Kambhoji more than the earlier concert’s.

Every time Sanjay sings a Bhageshri in the end, I forget everything else and it’s only his Bhageshri RTP that’s there on my mind! What an RTP it was!! Today’s Bhageshri especially was so reminiscent of the Bhageshri Raagam Taanam Pallavi since not only did he sing the viruttam in Bhageshri, the mini raaga alapana in between the viruttam & the song had touches of the RTP too! I liked the song, nandatanaya. With the moving kaaNa vaendaamo that he sang next and Oho Kaalame that preceded it, I felt as though I had gone back to the Kalarasana concert where he sang those as well. 🙂

I loved the Sindhu bhairavi tillana. Incidentally, he sang it in yesterday’s concert too.

With Sanjay being in top form this season, these days, each concert of his is a treat for the audience. 🙂

I have often wondered why many generally use the words climate and weather interchangeably.

Quoting the meaning given in the dictionary.com from The American Heritage Science Dictionary,

Weather – The state of the atmosphere at a particular time and place. Weather is described in terms of variable conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind velocity, precipitation, and barometric pressure. The average weather conditions of a region over time are used to define a region’s climate.

Climate – The general or average weather conditions of a certain region, including temperature, rainfall, and wind.

Why do many say that the climate on a particular day is nice or bad when weather is the word that should be used? Talking about weather, I hate the weather in Chennai today! I wish it would stop raining. Roads are so messy.

Why are some people hell-bent on irritating others ALWAYS?! 😡

Apart from Madhavan’s interviews, which did not have anything new or interesting, Ajith’s interviews on Sun TV and Vijay TV were the only other special New Year programmes that I watched.

I really liked Ajith’s Sun TV interview a lot. He spoke so frankly about everything from the supposed competition that exists between him and Vijay, the relationship he shares with his directors, his attitude, his fans, his family, his passion for racing to even the SMSes about him that come on Sun Music! 🙂 I am sure the way he talked so proudly about his fans and their loyalty to him would have made all his true fans very happy. 2007 saw Ajith looking quite handsome in Kireedam and then so stylish in Billa. In this interview too, he looked handsome in a white blazer with a graying beard and a smile on his face about which a lot was discussed. His way of speaking reminded me of Raghuvaran’s. Though he did speak on some more topics, his interview on Vijay TV became somewhat a repetition of the Sun TV one.
Continue reading →

In what has been otherwise been a worst year when some of the things which I wished had never happened, happened, the one good thing about 2007 is that it has been a musically very satisfying year for me. In the beginning of 2007, I never thought that I would go for so many concerts or I will become even more passionate about Rahman’s and Carnatic music or I would write so much about music! Is there any better way than ending that year and welcoming the new one on a musical note?

For the past few years, there is a special program held at Music Academy on the New Year’s Eve where many Carnatic musicians, old and young, give solo as well as group performances. This is the first time I am going for that. It was organized by Carnatica.
Continue reading →