About Raaja again ?

Well. I could not help it as my interests mostly centre around this person. Last evening me and Jaya sat through a unique concert - ILAYARAAJA SALUTES THYAGARAJA. Presented by a leading TV personality with the aid of a group of young exponents of vocal and instrumental classical music, the concert was good though not excellent. My interest was however in the contents. Saint Thyagaraja needs no marketing or introduction. So is the other Raaja today. But the concert aimed at explaining the richness of carnatic music ragas through familiar film tunes, so that more people are drawn to carnatic concerts in future. The presenter found IR as the only composer to accomplish this task. The sync of one carnatic song to a film song in the same raga formed the format for the concert. We were fed some interesting facts about the great efforts of IR, unmindful of the success or failure of the films he composed for. His achievements are no more secrets to the listeners as all channels of TV and FM sing his praise everyday. The presenter here shared with us some rare facts about IR. It seems he has scored 166 songs in the raga Keeravani, with no similarity between any two songs. He is the only composer to have used over a dozen rare ragas, some of them having no carnatic krithi at all. He is the only film composer who has used "sruthi bedham" and such nuances of classical music without any dilution in basics and dharma. There are films like Kovil Pura which crashed at the box office but had songs blended in rare ragas and treated with rare musical experiments. The presenter concluded saying most of the film songs are over 30 years old but sound fresh, because IR has worked 30 years ahead. You will agree with this if you listen to his latest non-filmi album SWAPPNAM.

Good to be back - really?

For the last two years, I have been spending quite some time out of India on grand-parental duties. In the process, I started getting fully acclimatized to the living styles in California and London. Slowly but steadily I developed liking for the new environs and their demands. I found that I did not miss much of my Indian life as almost everything we consider as exclusive to Indian life were available easily. This includes new movie releases simultaneously with India. I enjoyed new contacts, new places and new routine as well. I also learnt new things like baby-sitting, vegetable cutting, utensil wash and similar chores to give some relief to my dear spouse. I enjoyed the weather, mostly pleasant. I admired clean surroundings, clear ozone, law abiding people, courteous officials, honest shops, transparent trading etc., all of which I have been searching in my country for over 50 years. When I returned, nothing had changed of course. The sweltering heat, the unscheduled power cuts of 10 to 15 hours a day, the dust, the in-disciplined chaotic traffic, the high decibel sounds in public places etc, all greeted me. i am still confused whether it is really good to be back! Of course I have no option for the present.

AMABO

I have been following the events leading to the elections in US, culminating in the victory speech by Obama. The victory speech by Obama left me stunned. Can a President of the large democracy in the world be so frank, forthright and humble? Maybe it was all normal, but all the leaders I have seen and heard back home have been so bad and self-centered that Obama sounded so good to me. There was sincerity is his desire to take all leaders even from opposite camp with him in building the nation strong economically. Of course he has many constraints in accomplishing his task. But I salute his will and grit. As some people interviewed said, he believes in gains not for himself or his party but for his country.  I was trying to find any one leader in modern India as parallel. None. 

I must mention here about the Americans who faithfully exercised their franchise braving the cold. Many in NY and NJ had no power or essentials at home after Sandy but they called at booths in time to vote. Also the garce with which Romney conceded defeat and resolved to work with Obama in his tasks speaks about the contradictions in the democratic weave of America and our own country.

Things are jsut the reverse. Hence the title above.

Tribute to my M I L

Last Friday I lost my mother-in-law. Very rarely one can come across a lady totally simple, unassuming, soft with everyone, always active, preferring to be on her own, never showing dissidence even where required - well, I can go on like this. She compensated to me for all the good parental response I missed personally. The last few weeks of physical discomfort were quietly born by her without any murmur, when she should have been comforted but was miserably let down by those who mattered most to her and on whom she showered affection and care.

I pray for her very noble soul to rest in peace.

Last was best

It was curtains down last week for Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi (NVOK) - the Tamil version of KBC hosted by actor Suriya. I did not watch regularly or with seriousness as most of the questions were very elementary, sometimes childish too. With tips from Big B, Suriya was trying to make it as lively as he could with unassuming interaction with the contestants. I am not sure how many of you were regular to NVOK.

I happened to watch the last episode of this season. Suriya brought all the contestants and made the best of them sit in the front. It started as usual with pleasantries and farewell notes. Then unfolded the emotional bits with rewind of some exceptional moments. I felt that I was being drawn to the arena by the sheer humane lessons I could learn in life. There were fun, frolic, mockery, melancholy, grit, cool attitude, helping hands and some real human beings.

At the end of the show I saw Suriya emerging a hero with his humility, real concern and generosity. I also saw that when compared to the lives of less privileged, I was better placed with nothing to lament or complain. I have nothing much to boast of either, when I see how Suriya or his dad were helping many quietly. When I switched off, I felt very uneasy about everything around me. Maybe incomplete life?

Last should never be lost, as last was the best.

Break ke baad

Well, after a break of 3 years, I am trying to revive my blog with regular posts. I have been driven to this by the idle days again in California, from where I started this blog.

I do not see much change in the life here, except maybe some new gadgets and new products in shops and malls. Probably I got this feeling because of late everything is available back in India and I have not been much excited. As always the gadget market offers new things, mostly brought out by Asian brains.

I must however admit that the cleanliness outside, the law abiding citizens, the planned development of the infrastructure, pure water and air, disciplined shopkeepers, no powercut, cooler climate - all these touch my heart in my every visit. Indian food joints, Indian movies are also on the rise.

In my fourth visit now, I meet good number of Indians, specifically South Indians in larger numbers when me and my wife go for daily walk. A new cult has developed of desi parents visiting their son/daughter mostly for baby-sitting. Ladies make the best out of these visits, enjoying their husbands doing dish-washing,  laundry, cutting vegetables, singing lullabies and even handling diapers.

All these somehow get extended to our homes when we get back to India. We grin and bear it! 

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".