raja - why? how?

As a kid, I could sleep only to specific film songs as lullaby, like 'Brindavanamum' from Missiyamma (got my age right!). I grew up with film music, at the cost of good alma mater. The MSV duo ruled my pleasures, with some numbers of KVM also as favourites. I went crazy later years for the Burmans, Beatles, Shadows, Ventures, Jim Reeves and the like. Alongside I was melting with carnatic numbers as well and I had my own favourite artistes and ragas. I had short stint away from my home state when I was a little out of touch with Tamil film music. When I returned in the late '70s, I found a new name ruling the film music scene. ILAYARAJA. What was different? Well, everything. Specifically the orchestrisation. Thank God, TMS got off the scene eventually admitting his shaking voice. So new voices sang lilting tunes. The cult was omnipresent, in tea shops, in buses, in radio and of course in homes. Cassette recording kiosks sprang up, feeding the new cult with great music of high quality. Instantly I fell for it. From then on till now, music for me has been only Raja's songs. I also found out that re-recording could lift film scenes to terrible heights. Whatever musicians of modern times claim as their best were delivered by Raja in early '80s itself. Everytime I listen to others' compositions, my passion for Raja gets enlarged. None of these guys are able to present songs without the Raja effect. There are many tunes of Raja which make me melt, weep, float. There are songs which I hear repeatedly, just for orchestra interludes. There are sure flop films which ran only for the music. Many music directors in Tamil and Hindi survive today by quietly lifting Raja's old hits and polishing them with the synthesisers. They don't feel ashamed as they have no better stuff up on their sleeves. Raja holds classical music at his command as the base and blends ragas amazingly with folk or western genres. I will not fill this space with samples as there are popular links where you get never ending streams of Raja's music. If you have not heard his music with rapt attention, try once preferably through hi-fi gadgets. You can easily feel the difference. I am not trying to market his songs and no one needs to. I have tried only to share my thoughts as to HOW and WHY it is RAJA for me.

As Vaali put it, "Ilayarajavai ariyaadhaar ariyaadhaare".

Grand....Pa

Despite painting a baldy, receding hairline, despite wearing trendy chinos and soft shoes, despite sporting RayBan sunglasses and i-pod, I was brought to my feet on the ground on 12 Mar 2008 with the arrival of my grandson. Overnight I was pushed into the top tier of family system and greeted for becoming 'grandpa'. Between June and August 2008, when I was here in USA, the infant appeared the same with the same routine as I had seen with my two children - to drink milk and to sleep, only to wake up again to drink milk with flashes of smile in between. Our meeting in India in Oct 2008 was short but not much different from the above except some shouts to communicate. But when we met again on 04 Aug 2009 in USA, I saw a new pal in my life. From day one it is me he wants and trusts for everything. I am now his friend to play or feed or listen or console. I am wondering wherefrom I gained so much of patience or grit to put up with all these. Each day starts with his wake-up call and ends with his goodnight kiss. My wife and son are watching my new role in disbelief, especially my 'no tooth grind' face. For me life looks beautiful in this new role. Slowly I have also learnt that the grandpa status brings with it immeasurable thrills and frills, though it deflates the pseudo-young pursuits. Come on everyone, become a grandpa, enjoy the old age !

why this blog?

Well, two years back, my son encouraged me to make my own blog and he himself designed one for me. As always, my initial zeal was so much that i decided to write daily, then thought about weekly posts, maybe monthly and finally I did not make even once in a year. I was just wondering what was there to write and most importantly who would read my stuff. Nowadays I am idle for about 15 hours a day - not that I am engaged for 9 hours, but I sleep. This morning it struck me that I have my blog to spend time with. Why not scribble now and then and ask (request) my wife to read and comment. My wife is very good at keeping secrets and she will talk about my posts to many people as she does with secrets. So, here I am, restarting from where I had left 2 years back.