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 ..........

Programme on Kairali tomorrow

I will be featuring on Kairali TV on the programme "symphony" on a Christmas and New Year special, tomorrow 9:00 p.m. IST and on next saturday which turns out to be the new year special as well.

Its a one hour programme presented in two parts. IMHO its one of the best programmes that I have had, with excellent audio, and music supports.

I also have a concert tomorrow here and hope to be back by then to catch the show :)

Sil Vous Plait...

As I have been told that I should wait until June or later to invest in a Powerbook because they are going to have something to do with Intel? At this hour my brain refuses to remember what exactly.

So Please Advvise ...Should I wait or should I not?

And..........

One of the things that kept me busy through August and September were the preparations for the All India Radio competitions. And I have won the Silver Medal.

I wished I would get a repeat for the All India First for Ghazals 5 years back. But that was not to be. That was the time when they refused to believe that I was a South Indian as I had nil accent to betray that I was.

One was that my throat was sooooo wound up that I couldnt sing anything decent on the day of the final competitions. And I was dead sure that I would not make it. But I have. But I guess its human nature to want more. The Universe and the green-eye conspired against me that day, and maybe the Universe decided to throw in a piece just for some happiness.

This automatically makes me a graded artiste with the AIR, with a B-grade, which I found was strange that they awarded B grade to both first and second prize winners. Anyway henceforth, all that I have to do is work my way through to the A-top grade.

And all this while I was vehement that I wouldnt learn under anyone but Mom, either until I got some sort of recognition like this from a governing body or something to that effect, or give my first 'legal' Hindustani Classical Concert. And thankfuly this has come through.

This was also to emphasized that I have learnt from Mom alone, a lot of people around me didnt know that I learnt my Hindustani Classical from her. Or refused to believe. Mom also was for the doctrine of having a 'stamp' of a popular and well known musician, and also tried unsuccessfully, desperately to put me under gurus outside of her for better experience. I could never sustain any where, more than four classes, with due reverence to all of them. After three futile attempts, she gave up. Because as far as I am concerned mom is the best and whatever I am, and whatever I have learnt in music is from her. She picked up this piece of rock, gave it shape, chiseled it, gave color and breathed life in it. Giving it the power to breathe its own wisps into music.

And, yes its all true that children take advantage of their parents when they are the Guru. And has been the case with me.

Also if I did get these recognitions after I went to another Guru, then all the years of toil, all the work mom had put in would just be passed on, just because he/she is more famous. Again with all due respect to them. But I was not willing to let mom's work go without any credit like that. And So I will continue.....

To do whatever is in my power to get ahead and be a success with music for there can be no better reward to my mom who allowed herself to melt as a candle for me to shine bright. She put her career away, to see me grow, and bring me to what I am today.

And this time round the Universe better conspire against anything else that even thinks to deter me and work with me :) Like they say, If you want something so bad, then the whole Universe works for you to make it a reality.. so time to get to work Universe.. :)

Anbulla Snehidiye

I have finally got my hands on the title track of Anbulla Snehidhiye, thanks to Mr. Harish for sending it to me. Eventhough I had sung this one, it was impossible for me to get a copy despite repeated requests so far. I remember a lot of people asking me for this one. so here goes.. You can listen to it here.

After Ages...........

I have caught up with movies playing.. So caught up with Kanda Naal Mudhal, Navarasa, Hanuman, Aaru and Thavamai Thavamirundhu. Over two days thanks to a friend who had come down from abroad on holiday and also because I surprisingly had an unexpected 3 days off. Funny how one other person can get you to do some stuff.. So off we went gallivanting about the city.

Have been singing a lot as well. So I had my hands full, Thanks God and touche.

I sometimes feel that freedom of speech or expression doesn't exist in reality. It is only in writing. It is my personal opinion, it can be subject to change, that the blog is one's own views on the various things they come across in life and the benifit of doubt should if not must, be given. Because each person has had their individual experiences to a given.... anything. Be it people, clothes, colours or whatever. Just because someone says that something is crappy, it gives no free rein to another to pounce on him and give rise to online brawls and slander.

I have been witness to a so much of this in the past few months that after a point in time I was disgusted. The absense of desire to blog and the lack of inclination resulted in me to the extent ofnot checking my own blog for weeks now.

Most of the Blog-brawls I think basically stem from the instinct to oppress another, to keep insisting that he alone is right and everyone else has dropped down from Hell. It is quite clear that tolerance has drastically reduced, to reasons which I intend to find out. And then there are groups and anti-group groups...

True that when something is on a public space like this, it restricts your style, and one must expect a lot of opinions to a said view. But what I would call for is a decent and polished manner of reacting in general. We have been taught to be polite and nice even when we disagree with someone or something, but where has all that gone? The first thing that I hear on the roads are a hell of a lot of beeped out words, which is now another addition to dictionaries. Road Rage. And another 'deviation from normal behaviour' for psychiatrists or psychologists to treat. And I guess there will be one, if not more 'deviations' which will arise from behaviour while blogging.

I just got plain sick of things and more than anything else I started dreading comments. Its crazy how just ONE comment can turn the face of everything around!

Anyway, that said, my newest songs are in Kalaba Kadhalan and Sandakkozhi.
And I have also recorded two very interesting programmes for Vijay TV - Sangamam and one for Kairali, it focuses on me alone and runs on the same lines of Sangamam.

I have sung a whole variety of songs in these shows which I havent had a chance to do previously. Both of them showcase most of what I can do in a nutshell. So we were extremely happy to do them both. Its seldom that a singer in the movies get a chance to sing anything else than what he/she is famous for.

But then this is the case with everyone and in everything. If more of this happened then may be there is a wonderful artiste dormant in a corporate honcho....

It was distress without rains till now and it is disaster with the kind of rains TN had. Anyway it rained in so much in Tamilnadu that we dont have to worry about water for quite some time to come.

And it also seems to be the season where a lot of my close friends are getting married in the next couple of months. Great times ahead!