Though there are many raagas that I like very much (In fact, there is nothing like a raaga that I don’t like), nothing gives me as much pleasure as listening to Sahana. I can say without any doubt that nobody can stop themselves from falling in love with Sahana. It’s such a beautiful raaga!
Sample this:
(The song ‘Indha Veenaikku’ from K.Balachandar’s old TV serial ‘Rayil Sneham’)

I remembered this song all of a sudden a couple of days back and what better site than youtube to search for it. You think of some song and you are sure to find it in youtube most of the times. By the way, I later searched for ‘Indha Veenaikku’ in Google and found that many bloggers had written about this one and Sahana in 2005/06. I don’t know how I missed reading those at that time.

Coming back to Sahana, incidentally Sanjay Subrahmanyan too has said in his interviews that Sahana is his favourite raaga. No wonder then, that he sings Sahana in many of his concerts, if not an entire song atleast a Viruttam or when singing a ragamalika in Raagam-Taanam-Pallavi. The same is the case with T.M.Krishna. Of course, I haven’t heard him say anywhere that Sahana is his favourite. But, he too sings Sahana in most of his concerts.
Even A.R.Rahman spoke at the Carnatic Chills audio release about an absolutely amazing Sahana played by Ganesh & Kumaresh that he listened to somewhere. I heard them play Sri Vathapi Ganapathi recently. Amazing of course, it was!

Some Carnatic songs in Sahana that are my favourites:
Chittam Irangadha by Sanjay Subrahmanyan – You can listen to it here:
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/carnatic_vocal/s/
album.2322/artist.107/
Ee Vasudha by Sanjay or T.M.Krishna (I have heard them both sing it in concerts) – You can listen to this song played by Guitar Prasanna here:
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/carnatic_instrumental/s/
album.113/artist.184/
Rama Ika Nannu – You can find it here sung by Sanjay:
http://www.sangeethapriya.org/Downloads/sanjay/toronto/
sanjaytoronto.html
Tillai Ambalatthaanai – Sanjay has sung this song in his album titled ‘Tillai’. A 21-minute song in Sahana! Pure bliss! I especially love the fast-paced swarams that he sings at around 17.oo minutes in this song.
Oho Kaalame by Sanjay – This composition by Vedanayakam Pillai is the one that Sanjay Subrahmanyan is, I should say, promoting nowadays.
Then, there are the songs Sri Vathapi Ganapathi, Vandanamu and Giripai.

Talking about film songs in Sahana, nothing can beat the old song, Paartthaen Siritthaen. All the lines end with words ending with ‘thaen’ in this song. Lovely!

Then, there is one of Rahman’s best compositions, ‘Azhage Sugama’ from Paarthaale Paravasam. I thought this one is in Sahana. But, someone told me that it is in Dwijavanti. Can someone please tell me if this one is in Sahana/Dwijavanti?

P.S.: Even if you are someone who doesn’t listen to classical music, I want you to listen to atleast one song that I have listed here. I am sure you will like it. After all, though it helps to have knowledge of Carnatic music to appreciate it, it is not a must that you should know it to enjoy it that too when listening to a raaga like Sahana.

Link for the photos/videos that I took: (Audio/Video quality will not be that good. This was all I could manage)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33643209@N00/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4339490782581669231
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8807866896701211008
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7820043736140701483
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7878619764898827826

Warning: This post will be very long. But, then, if I don’t write a long post for this, for what else will I write? I want to relive every moment.

The Wait:
My sister & I reached Narada Gana Sabha at 4.55 pm itself for the programme that was to start at 6. Hardly 4 or 5 people were there. I approached a person who seemed to be incharge of the seating arrangements & asked him if we would be able to go near Rahman. When he gave me a positive answer that Rahman would be coming at around 6.10 through the side entrance and we may get a good chance of going near him, our excitement doubled up! Since we were told that we would be let in only after 5.30, we roamed around the place looking at the side entrance & thinking of whether we should go in first or we should wait till Rahman comes, see him (after all that was the only reason why we had gone there!), maybe take his photos and then go in. When we came back to the main entrance, we found a queue formed already. There were some 20 of them standing before us in the queue. Counting the minutes, we waited till we were finally let in at 5.50. Entering the auditorium, we found that the first 15 rows were reserved for members and VIPs and also a barrier had been put up to prevent anyone from going to the front. 🙁 Finding a place close to a side entrance/exit, we sat down.
After 6.30 or so, someone announced that they were waiting for ‘a very important guest’ to arrive and the programme would start shortly. The concert started at 6.45. Till that time, Rahman had not come and our eyes were only on the side entrance. My sister & I kept on talking about how we could run out when Rahman leaves, get his autograph, etc., etc. (Well, imagining & talking about it itself made us feel so great. Just imagine how we must’ve felt when the whole thing really happened!) We could see people sitting next to us give us strange looks hearing our talks. But, what would Non-Rahmaniacs understand!
After the first song, the host of the evening, Neelu, announced that soon A.R.Rahman would be handing over the first copy of the CD to Shri Vikku Vinayakram. At the mention of Rahman’s name, there was a huge round of applause! It was then that he said that Rahman was still on his way.

The first glimpse of the Man:
At around 7.20 pm, when the third song of the evening was going on, A.R.Rahman entered the auditorium! Our biggest dream got fulfilled at that moment! Thank you, Rahman! As soon as he entered, there was applause (though not a loud one, since Ganesh & Kumaresh were playing at that time). Once Rahman sat down in the first row, people kept on clicking photos standing (or rather kneeling down) very close to him. We were too excited to even move from our seats. Then, we went out through the exit near us & were about to get in through the first side entrance, when two people stopped us & said since some secretary was there, we could go in only after some 10 minutes. But, he assured us that we would indeed be able to go near Rahman after 10 minutes. But, I got a good look at Rahman through the half-opened door.

As close to Rahman as possible:
After 10 minutes, we again came back to the side entrance. This time the person asked us to go in! We literally ran and went close to Rahman! While my sister gave him the autograph book and asked for an autograph which he immediately signed, I knelt down and took this picture of him when he was signing the autograph for someone else:

Immediately, many people came to get his autograph and it became impossible for us to take a snap with him. After signing a few more autographs with our pen, Rahman gave back the pen to my sister and went to the stage to release the CD. I stood below the stage and took a video-clipping of Rahman in close-up when he was sitting on the stage with Vikku Vinayakram, Ganesh-Kumaresh and a few others. I just couldn’t believe that I was actually standing before him and taking his video!

Back to our seats:
Just before the CD was to be released, someone came and asked everyone standing below the stage to leave. We almost ran back to our place and again took a few snaps and video of Rahman releasing the CD and Rahman and Shri Vikku Vinayakram speaking. But, unfortunately, those have not come out well because of two reasons: One, we were sitting far away from the stage, so I had to zoom as much as possible and couldn’t focus the camera properly and two, I was too excited and couldn’t even hold the camera steadily! But, I guess the programme would be telecast on SS Music channel very soon and you can watch it in that. I will upload the videos very soon.

This is what Rahman spoke:
“Past two months, I have been traveling to like 4 countries. All of them asked me, So why do I live in Chennai? Well I have been thinking…. Well, my house is there, my studio is there….for another reason, we have Ganesh & Kumaresh here. I was sitting there & listening to Sahana it was absolutely amazing….Flightla erangumbodhu edho bore adicha music podaama Ganesh-Kumaresh music poattaanga….Railway stationo everywhere you know let their music be all over India….(some words)….God bless you.”

Bidding adieu to Rahman:
As soon as Rahman got up from the stage to leave, we ran out only to find a crowd waiting near Rahman’s car to meet him. After some 5 minutes or so, Rahman came out and people started applauding and shouting, ‘We love you Rahman!’. Amidst all this crowd, Rahman did sign autographs for a few of them, somehow managed to get into his car and left.

What a moment it was! The feeling is yet to sink in! My sister and I still can’t believe that we actually saw HIM and got his autograph! It all seems like a dream!

Here’s a lovely photo of the moon appearing yellow in colour, taken by my sister when she went to the beach on ECR on Sunday:

As I had written earlier, I got hooked on to Rahman’s Spirit of Unity Concert title music a few months back. This programme is being re-telecast on DD on Sundays at 10.30 am for quite sometime now. Apart from the first one which I got from A.R.Rahman’s Yahoo Group, I recorded all others recently. I thought I would share it with all the readers of my blog.

[audio:http://www.mediamax.com/music_music_fan/Hosted/Spirit%20of%20Unity-1.mp3]
(I don’t know why this one is getting played in a fast tempo like this. Can anyone please help me?).
This is the one that comes in the beginning of the programme, before a female voice starts saying the words, ‘Welcome to the Spirit of Unity Concerts’.
[audio:http://www.mediamax.com/music_music_fan/Hosted/SOU-Title.mp3]
These two come at the end of the programme (I recorded these on two different days).
[audio:http://www.mediamax.com/music_music_fan/Hosted/SoU%20-%202.mp3]
[audio:http://www.mediamax.com/music_music_fan/Hosted/spirit%20of%20unity1.mp3]
I have uploaded these in Rapidshare.com. In case any of you are interested, here are the links:
http://rapidshare.com/files/14832199/Spirit_of_Unity.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/14832283/spirit_of_unity1.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/14831548/SoU_-_2.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/14832023/SOU-Title.mp3.html

P.S.: Thanks to this post by Ranjhith, I came to know about the embedded audio feature of WordPress.com

The one road on which I like travelling in the evenings is the Adyar Bridge. If you are someone who likes to see sunrise  or sunset, then you must surely travel by the Adyar Bridge at around 6 pm. The sun appearing like an orange ball, the sky in myriad hues of pink and its reflection on the water! Wow! Thank God water is there atleast in Adyar river!

This is what someone had searched for in Google and my blog comes up as a result for that. I wanted to see what other results came up for this search term. That’s where I came across this interview with Srinivas that Prabhu has mentioned in this post.
Coming back to the question, I have attempted to answer it here. One thing about most of Rahman’s songs is that you would never have heard anything like that before! So, naturally it might take sometime to like that song. Take for example, some of Harris Jeyaraj’s songs like Oru Nadhi (Samurai), Mudhal Mudhalai (Laysa Laysa) and Kadhalikkum Aasai (Chellamey), don’t they all sound similar? (No offense meant to any HJ fans out there. I too like these songs.) The point I am trying to make is since we had already liked and enjoyed one of these songs, the moment we listen to the others, though we say that they sound similar we do like it immediately. That is not the case with Rahman’s music.
Now speaking as a Rahmaniac, I will listen to a Rahman’s song till I like it! I strongly believe that the man who gave us songs like Chinna Chinna Aasai, Dil Se Re, etc. would never give something that is not good. So, if I don’t like a song the first time, I will keep on listening to it and will eventually find Rahman’s magic in it. So it’s not that we don’t like some of Rahman’s songs the first time we listen to it, it’s just that it takes some time for the music to grow on you.
Rahman Rocks!!!!