A talk by Dr. Chithra Madhavan on 17th January at Tattvaloka

Part 1 here

Till whatever I have written in the previous post, no photos were shown during the talk. But once Chithra started speaking about the temples in Kanchipuram, she showed lots of photos of each temple and for a major part, spoke about whatever was shown. kailAsanAthar temple was the first temple that was covered. Luckily, I have some photos of kailAsanAthar temple which, as you might know, I had taken when I had been there quite sometime back.
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Can there be a better way to relax than reading a good book with some good music for company at the end of a day, a major part of which saw me being in an irritated mood? Am now reading P.G.Wodehouse’s ‘Service with a Smile’ (a Blandings story) and listening to a recording of a concert of Sanjay.

It has been really long since I listened to a full-length concert recording of Sanjay and that has made the listening experience even more blissful now! I have already started reminiscing about the Dec Season 2008. 🙂 Those amazing Darbari Kanada, Madhuvanti, Chayaranjani, Saramati, Chandrakauns, Abheri and Desh RTPs, those fast-paced Aarabhi swarams, Yadukula Kambhoji & the brilliant Todi at Narada Gana Sabha, the brigas-laden (or so I remember it was) Purnachandrika alapana & the Vakulabharanam & Kanada pieces at Kalarasana, Shanmukhapriya at Indian Fine Arts, Ravichandrika Alapana at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Janaranjani alapana at Kartik Fine Arts, Kapi at Krishna Gana Sabha, the Hamsanadam piece at Margazhi Mahotsavam, tunbam nergayil, nijagadasa and that veryyyy beautiful ninnaye rati (in Bhageshri) at Music Academy! I want to listen to it all again!! With a concert of Sanjay on what seemed like every other day and all the concerts turning out to be equally brilliant ones and me spending most of my waking moments listening to just Sanjay’s recordings, what an absolutely blissful and most satisfying month it was!!! I, now, so very badly want to go for a Sanjay’s concert! Somebody please organize a concert of his soon! 😛

P.S.: With the P.G.Wodehouse book providing some laughter in the form of some humorous moments and Sanjay’s awesome singing providing that indescribable and unsurpassed magical experience, I see no signs of my irritated mood anywhere near me. 🙂

• 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!

This is yet another post where I will not reveal what I am talking about. You are most welcome to skip reading this post.

Most plans of mine don’t seem to happen as planned. Last minute confusions, tensions have always been there, threatening to make the entire plan go topsy-turvy and most of the times succeeding in doing so too. I have now got used to it so much that when it happened yet again, I was not disappointed at all. The key to that was, of course, not having had an expectation of things happening as per plans at all, in the first place. Anyway, it finally seems like end of confusions now! 🙂 I only hope that at least the rest of the ‘unplanned plan’ goes smoothly as planned.

P.S.: How many times have I used the word ‘plan’ in this post?!
P.S.1: Couldn’t help remembering the quote, ‘Life is what happens when you are busy making plans!’

I will be missing the fourth concert of Sanjay in a row this Sunday!! 🙁 🙁 🙁 I hope his next concert is at least on a day when am free.

Listening to Ravi sing this song in Super Singer today, I immediately wanted to listen to it and that’s what I am doing now. This song is one of my most favourites! Unni Krishnan singing the very beautiful lyrics, set to an even more beautiful music by the inimitable Rahman, with such an amazing feel makes it a song which seldom fails to touch my soul every time I listen to it! This is a gem of a composition indeed!

At Youth Hostel, Indra Nagar (Hamsadhwani) on 21st March

Accompanists:
R.K. Shriramkumar – Violin
K.Arun Prakash – Mridangam
B.S. Purushothaman – Khanjira

Songs List:
1. Sri natadi guruguho – Mayamalavagowlai – neraval at maya, swarams at maya, marakoti
2. Sri varalakshmi – Sri – Alapana; neraval & swarams at charumati
3. Teliyaleru – Dhenuka
4. Manasunilpa – Abhogi – Alapana
5. SarojadaLanetri – Shankarabharanam – mix of raagam and taanam with Arun Prakash and Purushothaman joining TMK & Shriramkumar for the last few rounds of taanam; neraval & swarams at samaganavinodini
Tani Avartanam
6. AruLseyya vendumaiyya – Rasikapriya
7. Santakaram (Shloka) – Dhanyasi, Bilahari, dhAmavati, Valaji
Sakalalokadhara – Valaji
8. Srinivasa – Hamsanandi – Raaga Outline
9. Shriya Kantaya – Hamsananti, Surutti

Despite the bad ambience at the venue, I loved every moment of the concert so much that I cannot choose just a few particular parts as the ones that I liked the most!

After almost 2 months, I am going for TMK’s concert today and needless to say, I am excited big-time. 🙂 Since it has been just ARR’s songs that I have been listening to for the major part of the time for the past two months, I started listening to TMK’s recordings from the morning. Kedaragowlai, Salakabhairavi, Janaranjani, Surutti, Enneramum, Sri Ramachandra, Gayati Vanamali and now Shankachakra – the song which got me hooked to TMK’s singing in the first place 🙂 . Listening to all these, I now can’t wait for the clock to strike 18:15 🙂

For the past ten days, I managed to write something here everyday and even though the posts were just a few lines long, those were all spontaneous posts. As much as I don’t want to break the streak now, I suddenly don’t seem to have anything to write about! What do I write? About the awesome, amazing Sanjay’s Sahana that I am listening to now 🙂 or about getting hooked to uyirile from Vettayadu Vilayadu yet again today, or about how happy some things which cannot be mentioned here 😛 made me feel or about how I seem to be one confused soul struggling to come to a decision about certain things or about how I am thinking about whether I should publish this post or just delete it? I am sure you will say that I should have indeed deleted it 😉

I wish some people would start talking about new topics and stop asking me the same questions! I have got tired of answering it! I couldn’t think of a better place than my blog to say this, for this is one place where I can write what I want to without saying a word about who those people are or what those questions are. 😛