The time at home passed in listening to Worldspace, a special on Mallika-e-Ghazal Begum Akhtar. Mom had always told me about the magic in her style of singing, especially in the magic of the unsung and the unsaid and that which is left to the audience to figure out.
Sadly it has taken me this long to even identify with all that. To even realize and say, hey that is something that I have never heard. Today happens to be the day she decided to move to the worlds beyond, in 1974.
There is the sannaata, that is characteristic after the rains. The city seems to be just breathing and working in silence. And listening to Begum Akhtar, her life, the people associated with her leaves behind a heavy heart. Thanks to the patrons who knew the importance then of maintaining records of the musicians, we know of a lot of things. Though it is sad that time has not given me an opportunity to see it happen before my eyes.
There was also this portion where they spoke about her marriage and how it imposed restrictions on her singing and performing, things being the way they were in those days. (Not that it is too different now). And how she fell sick and that music was her only remedy. Though great talents are born, artistes are made thanks to the sacrifice their families make. The first people who get the artiste out of their homes and to the world, presenting them, treasuring them and foster their growth and finally get them mentioned in history are their families. Those who consciously take a back seat in the artiste's lives, put up with all the trappings that come along with it. And though this is just a line in a blog somewhere in world wide web in the whole wide world, this would go out as a a huge thanks to the families who have made the musicians - (quite selfish this). Because if not for them, I would not be listening to some of the best music ever sung or made.
"Mere humnafaz mere humnawaah mujhe dost banke daga na de
main hoon dard-e-ishq se jaan balab mujhe zindagi ki dua na de"
Its almost as if she is in my living room

Kumaran Silks "Paadum Office"

The first ever music competition for Corporates will now be telecast on Vijay TV. This has been conducted for the past 5 years off camera and now it was time to make a run-order. I happened to host and I must say that was a lot of fun. Hosting a kids show and then "Paadum office" ... hmmm...
A lot of the gentlemen and ladies who had come to participate could not understand the workings of the Television media, the schedules and the work that was associated with it. We also had some participants from Airtel Super Singer representing their respective companies. After all the ruckus that was associated with Airtel Super Singer, it was kinda strange to see a lot of them solemn and serious. The schedules were hectic since a lot had to be cramped over two weekends. I had to continue shoot through the weekend which would go until Monday morning and then I would have to say please let me pack up and run for my breakfast show on Aahaa FM. But then I thrive in these schedules. :) The judges who came kept asking the contestants to quit their jobs and become professional singers. Only hope that the heads of those companies don't hunt them down after the telecast. The dedication that they exhibited was stunning actually. I hear they used to practise well into the nights after work or come to work at 5 in the mornings because it would be easier for the ladies. Some of the companies actually bought their teams some of the high-end keyboards and instruments to tweak with.. Hmmmmm!
I am not telling who the winners are, will let you discover that on TV.

Pictures from our concert to Canada have only been uploaded to Flickr. It took me this long to get that done. It shall land up here at my earliest convenience. Shall blog about the concert and etc soon.

Say waking early mornings without an alarm going off when the rain seems to go on and on outside is quite fun. And the rain doesn't have an agenda. It's not like hey I am going to come down in buckets, flood this part and move over somewhere else. As of now the rain outside my home, is leisurely, almost as if rain say.. on a recliner and dozing off forgetting that he has been at it for a long while now. Our maid comes in and says I don't feel like working today, but thankfully she finished up. As of now I am looking out of the window, writing this and there is the steam rising from this hot cup of tea next to me. Silence, rain, showered breeze and tea. Oh yeah and internet connection. Perfect day!

My latest song is in "Drohi", the Telugu version of Pachaikili Muthucharam. I have sung Madhushuree's Unakkul Naane in this one.
I admire her voice and the texture that she has. And when I did know that it was her song that I was going to sing, I was slightly jittery. But I guess it has come out OK.

Latest in Anandha Vikatan

I liked this article, and I made a huge fuss to give this one. But it has turned out very well, thanks to the writer, Thilakavathy.

Only the article needs two corrections. One Mr. Kathiresan is but a middle aged Gentleman.
And the one mentioning Rahman sir, he happened to call and congratulate me on winning the state award. There was no "kooptu vechu kondattam" :) Well, as they say there is a 'poetic' license

RMKV Nagasu Pattu

Have sung for this one, under Mr Sharreth's music direction. After seeing him in Idea Star Singer as a judge, I was all jelly-kneed to sing for him. I just happened to be humming Tere Mere Milan that day, and somehow, surprisingly, he asked me to sing the song before going beginning to record the ad. That became a sort of a warm up and the jingle was over pretty quick. I just happened to here a jhalak of it on radio today. I wonder when I ll get to see it on TV.

In Canada for a concert. We missed a flight in transit and after three postponements we finally caught the flight and left to Canada from Heathrow.
On the flight, we happened to meet up with someone who is supposed to be related to our family in a roundabout way. And it so happens that the grandparents are the ones who remind the children about all the connections. Paramakudi and Iyengars, its easy for us to trace out each other. My grandmom used to talk to me about how we are related to this person and that, some typical paribhaashaigal..... It was good fun. And I was reminded of all that once again, when my newfound relative told me how we are related. For one it gives a very fuzzy feeling, for want of a better word.
I am performing with 4 of the Super Singer Junior Kids - Krishnamoorthy, Kaushikram, Vidyalakshmi and Dhanyashree.

Once in Canada we realized some pieces of baggage have not come. So all the form filling and identifying took its own sweet time and we reached our "home" of 7 days here 8 hours later than scheduled. We did get our missing baggage, but in totally smashed condition. Thankfully our clothes could be salvages.
Oh we found out it was almost impossible to get veggie food in Heathrow as well. Tough I must say being vegetarians. I remember this time in Italy, when we went with Raja sir and all the veggies, which was only me and Raja sir lived on apples and yoghurt for 8 days. I was surprised to know that Raja sir is such a strict vegetarian that, once when someone brought hamburgers and veggie burgers in the same bag, he refused to eat it.
And in Heathrow I bought cappucino. And when I borrowed some whipped cream from mom, the lady at counter was sweet enough to give me as much whipped cream as I wanted. And I was as happy as the proverbial cat who got cream :D

4 days of grueling schedules and rehearsals and training the kids locally for our dances. We managed to go to the Niagara falls yesterday. Almost always, work happens in such a manner that there is not much time for play or looking around.

God willing everything should go well with the shows this weekend.

In Canada - again

In Canada for a concert. We missed a flight in transit and after three postponements we finally caught the flight and left to Canada from Heathrow.
On the flight, we happened to meet up with someone who is supposed to be related to our family in a roundabout way. And it so happens that the grandparents are the ones who remind the children about all the connections. Paramakudi and Iyengars, its easy for us to trace out each other. My grandmom used to talk to me about how we are related to this person and that, some typical paribhaashaigal..... It was good fun. And I was reminded of all that once again, when my newfound relative told me how we are related. For one it gives a very fuzzy feeling, for want of a better word.
I am performing with 4 of the Super Singer Junior Kids - Krishnamoorthy, Kaushikram, Vidyalakshmi and Dhanyashree.
Once in Canada we realized some pieces of baggage have not come. So all the form filling and identifying took its own sweet time and we reached our "home" of 7 days here 8 hours later than scheduled.
Oh we found out it was almost impossible to get veggie food in Heathrow as well. Tough I must say being vegetarians. I remember this time in Italy, when we went with Raja sir and all the veggies, which was only me and Raja sir lived on apples and yoghurt for 8 days. I was surprised to know that Raja sir is such a strict vegetarian that, once when someone brought hamburgers and veggie burgers in the same bag, he refused to eat it.
And in Heathrow I bought cappucino. And when I borrowed some whipped cream from mom, the lady at counter was sweet enough to give me as much whipped cream as I wanted. And I was as happy as the proverbial cat who got cream :D