Friday, July 28, 2006

What a fortune!!!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Confluence...

... is defined as "a flowing together of two or more streams".

    In my case, I am listening to the fusion album "The Confluence" where Sitar and Piano are flowing together, carrying along with them, my already-on-a-coffee-high mind!


Thursday, July 20, 2006

Shock of the afternoon!


NEED I SAY MORE? :(

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I'm loving it!

No! No! This is not a blog about McDonald's super famed burger. (Note an extra 'g' at the end of 'loving' as opposed to an apostrophe :) )

This is about how much I've begun to love to blog these days. The inertia for writing a new post has gone. Just Ctrl+B from my Flock browser, type all my heart wants, click publish. Another reason might be the fact that the blog doesn't bite back. I can write all I want. Quench and relish my love for improving my language!

Thought that needed a mention. Thanks, dear blog!

Delight to disdain

<sniff> <sniff>

This morning at office started with the a new malayalam music album: Keerthi Chakra. I added the songs to my iTunes collection, and pretty much jumped off my seat to see the names of the singers. Especially the name "Kailash Kher". Just mentioned his name in a blog yesterday, and a song sung by him in Malayalam? "Amazing", I thought. The rest of the artists had my next favorite: "Karthik" (Not my roommate, though he sings well). "Aha!", I was delighted!

Double clicked on Kaveri Nadiye. Karthik's voice reverberated. But then, familiarity came to the fore. "Kaaveri Nadiye..." echoed with "Pooncholai Kiliye..." from tamil movie Aran. Was abt to do more factor analysis when the great Shankar's (Bangan, Donkar) one time comment about Aran clicked: "Unga Mohanlal thaa nadichirukkan"... "Worst", I thought. And yes, both movies have "Joshua Sreedhar" as music director... "Suthamada"... So much so for the height of anticipation for a new Kailash Kher song...

Monday, July 17, 2006

A song for me?

I was rummaging through my collection of songs in my iTunes to listen to something different, that would captivate me, and all of a sudden Kailash Kher's name came to the fore (So did Karthik's name - Why? Because we both love the song "Podhumadaa" in Majaa.)

"Well, then", I thought, "Why not that?". Typed in "Podhumadaa" (no quotes, of course) in iTunes' search box without any backspaces (thats rare!), and bang! one search result: THE SONG. Double clicked it. iTunes waited for a while for my external harddrive to wake up. It did, with a couple of clicking noises, and I have the song flowing into my headphones.

Listened to the song once, Kailash Kher singing away to glory. Remembered those evenings when this song would be playing on my 300$ music system, with two sidekick voices, one would be Karthik's and he would be cooking, and the second would be mine, snuggled cozily on a decrepit couch. Let the word "sidekick" not misguide you, our voices would be competing with the 300$ Onkyo music system, literally putting it to shame. This would happen in a loop, once, twice, thrice and then either food would be fully-cooked or throat would be half-boiled. Those were some days!

But then, today, I listened to the song, and suddenly the lyrics made more sense to me and describes my current state of affairs.

Here goes the lyrics [Courtesy, Music India Online]

podhumada saami naan vecha paasam
veguthada bhoomi ellam veli vesham

[podhumada..]

vidhi vecha theeyila manam kasangi ponathae
vizhi rendum neerule uyir posingi ponathae
kanorum kannir endral sogam illai
kannire kannagal endral yetho solla

[podhumada..]

mamaraththil koodu katti poongkuruvi vazhayilae
ver arunthu ponathenna.. vethanathaan bhoomiyilae

pavam patta jeevan agiputten naane
egapatta sogam thedikitten veene

puli vesham poddathenna poona kutti
atha naanum kaapethenna veli katti

[podhumada..]

[music.. ariro ariro ..araro ariro...]

kora mazhai thurayilae, vangi vanthen kola podi
vidu vanthu pakkurappo, kanaliyae vaasapadi

uthupathi vaasam, veesum koncha neram
vanavillin jaalam, vazhum konjam neram

adimaada agiponen yaarum illai
ada poda vazhthu onnun aavathulla

[podhumada..]

[vithi...]

[podhumada..]


Huh! How true!

Nothing is permanent...

... thats what I learnt over this weekend! Not even seemingly great friendship! Without pointing fingers and calling names, here is what I am gonna do... er.., Well, instead of me talking, let one of my greatest buddies - Calvin (I know he wont leave me, for sure - just like how he wont leave Hobbes) talk:





I really apologize for having screen-shot this picture and put it up here. I intend no plagiarism. All rights goto whoever its supposed to. This picture just echoed a response to my current state of affairs! Got this picture from here

What is love?

With due respect to a fellow blogger nicknamed "wild wolf", I accept the following definition which appeared as a caption on her blog:

"Love is when you take away the feeling, the passion, and the romance in a relationship and find out you still care for that person."

Neat, eh?

Friday, July 07, 2006

My melakartha Kharaharapriya?

Have I found out my most favorite melakartha raaga? Can't answer yes or no to it. But, to this point, I have been mostly drawn towards the following raagas

1. Kaapi
2. Kanada
3. Shivaranjini

All the above happen to be janya raagas of Kharaharapriya.

Hence for now, Kharaharapriya is THE melakartha raaga for me ;).

Can change? Might change? Time will tell...

Identifying a raaga

Found the following article on how to identify the raaga of a song.
http://sunson.livejournal.com/145903.html
Looks good for carnatic music dummies like me ;)

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Solitary Reaper

Here comes another favorite poem of mine...

The Solitary Reaper
William WordsWorth

Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?--
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;--
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Kaapi and Kaapi: What more do I want?

The title raised a frown in your face? It was intended! As I write this blog, I am listening to "Enna thavam seithane", a beautiful song set in the raaga Kaapi (a janya of melakartha "Kharaharapriya") - easily one of my favorites! As a matter of fact, today has been a Kaapi raaga day! Amongst other songs, "Enna Thavam" and "Jagaddhodharana" in musicindiaonline.com has been played over and over for at least 10 times today!

Meanwhile, the second Kaapi enters: this time its Kaapi as in coffee. (Coffee goes by the name "Kaapi" in malayalam/tamil). I am sipping a cuppa Folger's medium roast coffee - straight black, not a bit tainted by any creamer! Two "high"s in their pristine best. Now, I ask the question once again: What more do I want?

Here is a comment while I am on "a high": Don't know why people seek other "harmful" "stuff" for "a high"!

While I was about to finish the post, my "temp" roomie Sreeram (he shares the name with me), answers the "What more do I want?" with a passing comment: "Kalyanam!".... Amma...!!