Sanjay Subrahmanyan – Vocal
S.Varadarajan – Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam
Trichy Murali – Ghatam

Where & When? – Anjaneyar Temple, Alamelumangapuram on 23rd January

Concert Duration – 2 hrs

Songs List:
1. Valachi (Varnam) – Navaragamalika
2. Hanumaane – Malayamarutam – Swarams at Hanumaane
3. Ninna nambide – Mukhari – Alapana, Swarams at Ninna nambide
4. Enduku nirdaya – Harikambhoji – Alapana, Neraval, Swarams at Enduku (Main piece)
5. KaayaarohaNesham – Karnataka Devagandhari– Raaga outline
6. KaaNa Vendum Laksham kaNgaL – Surutti – Alapana
7. Maasil Ayodhiyil – Ragamalika
8. Shree Raama Jaya Raama – Yadhukula Kambhoji
9. Mangalam – Sowrashtram

From start to finish, all the raagams in this concert were my favourites! The 7-min Mukhari alapana, 9+ min Harikambhoji alapana, 5+ min Surutti Alapana were all excellent! Awesome Mukhari swarams. I absolutely enjoyed his rendition of KaayaarohaNesham, KaaNa Vendum Laksham kaNgaL and Enduku nirdaya – If I remember correctly, he did a brief neraval for each of the 5 charanams and the anupallavi of Endukku nirdaya! I don’t think I have heard this one before. What a great composition it is! I did a bit of Googling today & got to know the meaning of this song.

Yet another excellent concert by Sanjay & Varadarajan! Looking forward to Sanjay’s next concert on Monday!

As I was listening to Khwaja instrumental, I was so lost in the music that I didn’t realize that my music system had started playing the next CD in it – Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s ‘Kshetra Chidambaram’. On hearing Sanjay’s Kedaram sloka, I didn’t have the heart to go back to Jodha Akbar even though that’s what I wanted to do! Dikshitar’s Anandanatana Prakasham in Kedaram – the first song in the CD – is my most favourite in it. I love Sanjay’s neraval at the line, Sangeeta vaadya vinoda taandava jaata bahutara bheda chodhyam in this song. Arun Prakash’s mridangam & Shriramkumar’s violin for this is excellent! This one is a must listen!

Even as I am listening to the neraval now, to put an end to the confusions in my mind as to whether I should listen to Sanjay’s Kedaram or Rahman’s Jodha Akbar, I am now off to sleep. Good Night!

As I reached the shop on Saturday and looked at the CD, I loved the green colour in the front of the CD cover and the beautiful portrait of Hrithik and Aishwarya, along with the golden sun and the army in the background. As I paid the money for the CD, the person at the billing counter told me, ‘Excellentaa poatturkaar! Songs ellaam super!‘ I broke into a big smile. After all, when have I not been happy on hearing someone praise Rahman’s music? 😉

If I found the CD cover on the outside to be beautiful, the portraits of Hrithik and Aishwarya on the inside were even more stunning! What beautiful costumes, accessories and dark, deep, rich colours! I loved the stills from the movie on the lyrics book too. The one word that came to my mind on seeing the colours and the costumes was – GRAND – and that’s how the music is!

Before listening to the songs, I wanted to check out what was on the DVD and I was disappointed by what I saw. Couldn’t the DVD have had atleast all the trailers and stills from the movie? Anyway as my sister said, we got one more beautiful still from the movie on the CD cover because of this DVD. 😉

Moving on to the music, well, what can I say? First Lagaan, then Swades and now, Jodha Akbar – each and every song in all the three movies are brilliant compositions by Rahman! We can now confidently say that A.R.Rahman – Ashutosh Gowariker is a combination to look out for like A.R.Rahman-Mani Ratnam. 🙂
Continue reading →

T.M.Krishna – Vocal
R.K.Shriramkumar – Violin
Trichy Sankaran – Mridangam
V.Suresh – Ghatam

Where & When? – Infosys Hall (Mudhra) on 13th January

Concert Duration – 4hrs 15 min

Songs List:
1. Varnam – Kalyani – Ata taalam
2. Meru Samana – Mayamalavagowlai – Short alapana, Swarams at Meru Samana
3. Epaapamu – Atana – Alapana, Neraval & Swarams at Rajasekhara sannutaanga
4. Devi Bhrova – Chintamani – Raaga outline
5. Paridaanamichite – Bilahari – Alapana
6. Nenarunchinaanu – Malavi
7. Baalagopala – Bhairavi – Alapana, Neraval & Swarams at MaaNikya makuta (Main piece)
8. Raagam Taanam Pallavi – Purvikalyani
Pallavi: Chintita manorata purvikalyani amba devi – Chatushrajati Jampa Taalam (4 kalai)
Swarams in Sankarabharnam, Sri Ranjani, Kalyani, Sama
9. Shringaram (Viruttam) – Raagamalika (Khamas, Kambhoji, Karaharapriya, Hamirkalyani, Dhanyasi, Kapi) – followed by Inta Sowkhya – Kapi
10. Aliveni – Kurunji
11. Santatam – Behag – Raaga outline
12. Mangalam – Sowrashtram
Continue reading →

Why does jeera/cumin seeds sold in most of the shops have saunf/soambu/fennel seeds mixed in them? I hate the taste of saunf while I love jeera. Be it Foodworld or More or some other supermarket or a small provision store, nowadays, saunf seems to be mixed with jeera almost everywhere. If I buy jeera once from a shop and find that saunf is not mixed with it, the very next time, it too seems to be having saunf in it. Using the jeera for cooking spoils the taste of the dish. 🙁

Images Courtesy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fennel_seed.jpg
http://www.seedfest.co.uk/seeds/herbs/cumin.jpg

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 →