One and a half days in Kerala

We left to Kerala yesterday morning for a show at Quilon/Kollam. Its pretty strange how sometimes, being at the airport can give you an insight of a plethora of human beings. Maybe its best that I really dont digress on this statement to avoid sounding, well,...... snobby? snooty? Either or both. Whatever it is I couldnt stop smiling to myself for a long time therefter and its pretty good for other peopel to see a smiley face than a grumpy face.

Also its strange how people immediately take me for a northi and speak to me in hindi after one look at me. Once I was pulled by a traffic cop for no reason at all. But he told me I jumped the red light. I was like what? and then mom was with me.. And the thing was he instructed me in Hindi to pull over. And when I did speak in tamil, he said I wouldnt have pulled you over had I known.... so what should I make of this? And at the airport yesterday, a guy called Ekambaram instructs em to go "Ekdum peeche" for security check. Yahan jaaiye Vahaan khade ho jaaiye...mom couldnt stop laughing.

Sometimes when I sing Ghazals at a given place, and if the group is not from chennai, there is usually a debate as to whether I am a northi or not. Which happened a few days ago at a concert with the All India Tax Lawyers Meet apparently cos I didnt have a 'southi' accent and my pronounciation was pucca or so they said. I am easily taken for anyone but Tamil. I am not cribbing, not at all... but all of these make for some nice memories.

We flew Air Deccan for the first time. It was by sheer luck that we got tickets as everyone said tickets were not available. But we got them with AD. And surprisingly, contrary to the horror stories some people painted, AD was a comforable flight back and forth, and also no plonk landing :) Maybe it has something to do with the size of the craft?

From Cochin it was a 4 hour drive to Quilon and I made up on all the lost sleep. While mom was left egging the driver to go faster than 40 kmph when we had a concert at 6:00 p.m. We landed at the venue at about 4:40 did a quick rehearsal, went to the hotel, dressed up came back at 6:00 and then started off with the show. Met Mr Biju Narayan for the first time and also sang with him. And Palghat Sriram. He has this way of improvising everything that at the end of each phrase I was left gaping that even if a fly flew in, took a nap and came out, I wouldnt have known. And there was this group of dancers from Bangalore, Ocean Kids or something like that, excellent dancing. I ended up singing KMI, Snehithane, Minsara Kanna, Guruvayoorappa, Iyengar Veetu, If you wanna, out of which minsara kanna was one song which I had not rehearsed as it was a last inute addition. And surprisingly it came out well. Audience was about 2500 strong.

When we got back to the hotel, we found that there was nothing to eat as everything was closed by 10:00 or so as Sriram anna said. The people at the hotel could offer only water. But thankfully the organizers got us some stuff to eat. Next morning took the car and it was a mad rush to the airport and to find that the flight was almost an hour late. And the guy who drove us down said he had never driven so fast and he was hardly averaging at 80 kmph.. :)

Back home, back to work, and it was good that I caught up on some sleep. Mom as usual got none. She hardly ever gets any rest. While I am languishing by the comp she has to do all the crap work. I am not at all domesticated and sometimes I fell I am pretty spoilt or that my mom has too large a heart. She doesnt get any house work done from me. At any time.

And I got some good reviews about the "Symphony" show on Kairali which was telecast last saturday. The second part of which will be shown in about 2 weeks. And this show will also be telecast on Kairali TV on the 31st.

Also I am back to being confused consumer as I got told not to get the Mac Powerbook and 'waste' money and also the Intel - Apple tie up .... God knows.. but there is absolutely no info forthcoming as to whether a windows platform is stable enough for audio/video recording/editing. Any way that's that..

Have been reading Tintin and Asterix and slowly adding to my collection of Amar Chitra Katha, reading a book on manners nd etiquette, Life of Pi, The Divine Romance by Paramahamsa Yogananda and something on the lines of improving English. :)

I have been pretty active in Orkut lately, and found that one community was started some time back in my name and another a coupleof days ago sayign "we love chinmayi" ... phew sometimes I dont know how to react .. and some times overwhelmed, some times embarassed.. but it feels nice as well...that I am liked ..........