Kumaran Silks "Paadum office" telecast

Is on air as of yesterday. This is a 10 episoder and will be telecast on Vijay TV on Saturdays between 7 - 8 PM IST and Sundays, repeat 4.30-5.30 PM.
We finished shooting for the series pretty fast and as usual a lot of fun though this was a completely new team that I worked with. James Vasanthan is the brain behind this show and he is seen me grow over the years. From a girl who barely spoke, who was highly inhibited, to someone who talks shop in front of the camera. When I did face the camera for Paadum Office and when I saw James Vasanthan in front of me giving me instructions, it felt nice. For one I never thought I would ever talk much in front of the camera, let alone host shows. And of course two other Presenters who I admire, Vijay Adiraj and Uma Padmanabhan. They have been surprised at the transformation that time has wrought about.
Paadum Office was short and pretty sweet!

My First Kannada song

For the movie Hani Hani. It has released as of last week and was recorded a few months back and thereafter quite a few numbers in Kannada. All of the songs have been brilliant. And I am looking forward to quite a few good releases there. :)

"Sicko"

Quite a movie that.. I am thinking of watching whatever Michael Moore makes. American Dream? More like a dark nightmare.

The past few days

Life has been pretty hectic the past few weeks with a lot of things going on simultaneously. Travel, concerts, recordings, practising and prepping for forthcoming concerts. And less sleep. Thankfully this weekend is slightly relaxed. I was to attend a wedding in Bangalore and somehow the alarms did not go off and I woke up too late to catch the early morning flight.
In a way, that was good since I could be home for Karthikai deepam.

Friday, Aahaa Kaapi Klub we decided to talk about the Smalin Janita dowry harassment case. We had been hearing about them for more than a week by then and I was curious to know and speak to the people involved. That is when I knew how convenient it was to work at Aahaa, under the Kumudham banner. Within minutes we got in touch with Janita's father, her husband and her sister-in-law and got their take. And that was the first time Christy Danius spoke to the media as well. Even as the show was underway, there were several people who called in and said it was good to know the other side of the story, since the media had heard of only what Smalin Janita's family had to say. Like ever, we are told not to take sides and honestly, it is pretty tough to take sides.
We also got Ms Shivashankari, Ms Jhansi Rani and Ms. Sumathi, an exceptional lawyer to give their opinion and advise women who will or want to eventually marry an NRI. I especially liked Ms Sumathi's comment where she said, a man would never accept a woman making mistakes or pardon or forget her errors or errant behaviour,(we have heard stories right from the Ramayana.. for one I don't have much respect for Rama, but there is much to be understood in epics like these. There is more to it than the face value)but a woman has been conditioned to always "poruthu poganum", to bear with the man's issues and faults, no matter how grievous they may be, and also that a she can/should correct him, make him human, and then make him God and worship him. I was rolling on the floor laughing but that one line mostly summed up the lives of most Indian women. Even if there are wife-beating louts, criminals, or whatever else the woman is expected to live with him than without him and lead a better life and also look upon him as God. Sometimes, no thanks to the media (serials, movies, whatever) portraying women looking upon their husbands the same way. Generally Ms Shivashankari and Ms Sumathi skimmed the surface of marrying NRI-s. That said, I do not believe that everyone living in India are great and everyone abroad are demons. I personally do not think I will ever live outside of India. I am too rooted here, my work, my music is here, and I just don't feel at home anywhere else, taking my travels into account. And Chennai is definitely the place to be. And as I have said before, home is where the heart is and that is definitely where music plays

A R Rahman Live In New Delhi

That was last night and a totally explosive concert. This was Rahman ji's first concert in Delhi.
Sivamani, Hariharan, Chitra, Sadhna Sargam, Blaaze, Kailash Kher, Madhushree, Saumya Rau, Naresh Iyer, Rayhana, Ishrath, Tanvi, Sayonara, Mohd. Aslam, Aslam Khan from Jodhpur, Dr. Narayan. Quite a gang there. 50,000 people in the audience last night, and thankfully it was not too cold.
I sang Tere Bina with Rahman sir. Nothing like singing in front of the live audience. Quite clearly the it is one of the most popular songs and to play a small part in it feels good.
Happened to meet Saumya for the first time. She is one of the voices that I have always liked and now that we also share a song in Bheema it was good knowing her. Very simple, chilled-out girl and surprisingly speaks great tamil :)
The only downside there - the mosquitoes. I guess half a litre of blood would have been sucked out of me.

Its during shows like these that we get together and spend some time talking or generally jamming. And needless to say, the sense of humour that is present my default in almost all musicians, it just flows. Everything from make up to clothes it is equated to music and rhythm. Like for example, someone's eye shadow is slightly off from where it is supposed to be, Hariharan ji comes in and says, "konjam thalli.. 'thaka' thalli irukku, avlo dhan"(roughly translates to off beat). People who know what thaka and thakadhimi will know what I am talking about. But then most of the times humour is lost in translation and I guess in repetition as well.

And then there was Aslam Khan, who sang Rang De Basanti. The pitch of that song is uncomfortably high for most singers and the only one who can comfortably sing in that pitch except Daler Mehndi would be Rahman sir. And of course Rahman sir's songs no one can repeat. Aslam Khan came in after singing that song and says "someday that song is going to kill me". Chitra ji was her usual quiet self and so was Sadhna ji. Madhushree had sprained her leg before the show and she was on a cocktail of antibiotics and painkillers and once she was on stage all was forgotten. Of course when the adrenalin sank, she was in a daze. Naresh was his usual bubbly self with a lot of people going ga-ga about his hairstyle. Mohd Aslam is the stand up comedian, off stage of course, mimicking everyone under the sun.

Its a dreamy, magical world that I usually always want to be in. Sigh!

I am given to believe that this will be telecast in Star World soon. Will be posting the pictures as well. Only this time Rahman anna wasn't too keen on being photographed, so no pictures of him... sorry!

Happy Deepavali!!

And the festival of lights lights up our homes and hearts once again.
I am looking forward to the show on Aahaa FM tomorrow, a special with Vijay Yesudas and his wife Darshana, since they are celebrating Thalai Deepavali, and so is Aahaa FM (technically !) They are a wonderful, happy couple and Darshana is one of the nicest ladies that I have come across. And I am looking forward to speaking to them tomorrow morning as usual.
The show with Actor Vijay will be telecast on Vijay TV at 10:00 AM if my information is correct. :)
Though I am not into bursting crackers we definitely do light lamps all around our house and the ones closest to our home which makes a delightful sight.
From our family, this is a heartfelt wish for a brilliant Deepavali to yours, and may peace love joy and prosperity be all around you!

Yesterday passed in a Deepavali shoot for Vijay TV. A show called Nayakan with actor Vijay in a village called Kammavaanpaettai. About 15 kms or so from Vellore, this village is famous for one thing. Almost all the men in the village are in the Army. Every family boasts of sending at least 2-4 men to fight for the nation and the children seem to naturally choose to go to the Army. It was a lot of fun but there was enough physical strain as well. As soon as Vijay stepped into the village the team from the channel could only look helplessly as we were also shoved and pushed around and as our producer quipped "I have now become security guard in the name of a show producer"
There is one special thing that awed me as long as channels and producers and directors are concerned ....They are the ones who get on the field, dirty their hands and lose all sleep and food and water to present a programme to the best of their ability and all of them are big names as long as the media is concerned.
And I also saw that no matter how many schedules and run-orders were made as to what will happen at what time after Vijay comes in, the villagers became the directors after he actually did.
Vijay was generally quiet and when I did ask him about the endless pushing shoving and he also ended up with enough scratches, "I am used to it... and I love it". The way he said "I love it" the conviction and the pride was palpable.
Generally a good day.

3:11 PM snapshot of Chennai in time

Due to paucity of time, I am just pasting the text that you will find at www.311pm.com. Do take part!!

-WHAT

On the 3rd of November 2007, we invite every Chennaiite to for one second, at exactly 03:11 PM, stop whatever it is that they are doing, and click, shoot, snap, capture or photograph that moment, just hold that one instant frozen in a picture and send it to us. This is not for any great worthy cause, this is not a competition, it may or may not help charity, it will not prevent global warming, you will gain no medals, no certificates but it is most definitely not a waste.

-WHY

It is to share with so many of your neighbors what was going on in your part Chennai at the same time as something else was going on in theirs. There are no requisites to do this, other than that you be in Chennai, whether it be a fancy SLR or a VGA mobile camera, get the clearest, cleanest shot you can that will suggest what you were doing or what was going on near you, in our lovely city, at that one instant.

-HOW

If you wish to contribute, synchronize your watch, set reminders and alarms and just remember to shoot that moment. Please attach a note, in under 50 words, with your name and where you were when you clicked that snap.

You can also lend a hand by informing your friends and by putting up a link on your website. We wish to make not just a collection but a memory, on the internet and if we can, have it published to share with as many Chennaiites as we can,’03:11 PM’.

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

Happened to go to MGR Janaki college for the valedictory function. And it rained ice :) Hailstorm they say, But I am not sure of the terminology. Nice looking pebble shaped ice and it was great fun to see them and more or less the people at the college went berserk and used it as an excuse to get drenched in the rain. And oh getting drenched in a hailstorm kinda hurt. Then was wondering what would have happened to the car. Being pelted and all. And this is not a new thing apparently. My mom has seen it as a child and so has my neighbour. Anyway once the downpour was through the event went by very well. It feels nice when you are being cheered. And today I happened to sing a few of my songs as a medley and its an awesome feeling when the audience sings along. With utmost gratitude at that moment for the people because of whom I am a singer, I also was grateful for the fact that there are people who like me for my singing. And that the rasika makes a performer.
Though I have read 'Living with the Himalayan Masters' before, reading it once again gives a whole new dimension. A whole new experience. Some answers. But still more questions. Wonder what stillness feels like.

iPhone - iWent, iSaw and i-AmNotConquered

And I happened to check out an iPhone first hand.. it reminds me of the O2 and all that. I gingerly held it and checked out what it is like and the touch screen responds only to jabs.. Looks like feather touch is out of fashion. And jab with the fingertip; if there is a stylus I didn't see it. And the phone is like a maze as long as I am concerned. Say, you have time on your hands, and you are wondering what the phone is like and you decide to take a tour. And I got lost and took me a while to figure out how to come to start point. Just before you start smirking about women not being able to find their way anywhere, bite your tongue or your thoughts :)
And also heard it guzzles battery. I heard a song on the phone, Hayley Westenra, (she sings very well and looks a million bucks) but other than that, I am not in the least impressed with this one. I am a huge Mac fan (as a lot of people know) and I expected magic to unfold in my palm once I held this much expected piece of tech.
We have the Sony Ericsson P900 and the Communicator and needless to say both of them are dated. I am bored with keeping tabs and I realize that lately, I have dropped out of the race to own the latest in mobile phones. Of course unless something blows me away I am not putting my bucks in another one not until our phones breathe their last.

Satham Podadhey

And I am the voice of Padma Priya in the movie. Though I have known Vasanth sir for a long while this is the first time I am working for his movie. And it so happened that it had to be for dubbing.
The technical crew at the studio, I have already worked with before, for Unnale Unnale. And working there is always super fun. The sessions are rip roaring funny and in between I emote for the actress. Also one of the things is that during a voice test, we keep modulating my voice, change it here, fine tune it there to adapt to the particular heroine. And the problem, is to remember that 'voice' until the end of the dubbing sessions. Vasanth sir had to keep telling me not to pester him and 'be serious'. The dubbing studio, especially this particular one brings out the nuttier side in me. Probably because of the comfort level I share with the engineers there and they are some of the best minds. The soundscape artistes at this studio have won about 7-8 national awards over the years. And the point is I could be wrong in the numbers. For all I know it could be more than 10.
There was one particular portion in the movie where I had to sound as if my voice was being heard through a drain pipe. And they actually brought out a huge PVC pipe that is stocked in the studio for such purposes. And I had to speak through it. Like the say the magic is in the detail. One actually realizes the efforts that go in making a movie while dubbing.
Vasanth sir is a wonderful teacher and sometimes I was scared of him. One particular scene was very intense and the first time I saw it before dubbing I broke down sobbing. I could not handle it. And when it came to dubbing that scene, I did it along with Nithin Sathya (he also acted in chennai 600028) and as he dubbed I had to react and scream. I was and am still afraid of Nithin, for some weird reason. So half the screams came out because he was right next to me shouting and Vasanth sir knew how to bring out the terror as well. Needless to say I broke down while the scene was being dubbed, but this time I spoke some words out as well, which clinched it. This is one of the most memorable dubbing episodes in my life and will always be.
And I am yet to watch the movie in the big screen. Once I do, I guess I ll remember some more.
Reminds me to take pictures next time.