MY GRANDDAUGHTER, MY MOTHER

My friend Vatsala gave this to my mother on her birthday.


How true. The recent visit of my granddaughter ( four and a half) filled us with so much happiness and joy.

Everything Arundati did seemed so delightful, right from teasing her 'Thatha' (grandfather) by taking away his woollen night cap and running to hide it, to rubbing away the kolam in the pooja room. Every evening at 6.30 she would pull up her little chair and sit as close as possible to my mother while she watched the 'Ramayana' (in Malayalam) on TV. She does not understand the language at all, but was so fascinated by the epic. Her mother has been telling her the story of the 'Ramayana', and Arundati feels a great attraction to it. So much so that she can answer many basic questions on the epic.

But indulgent grandmothers tend to run on about their grandchildren’s antics, so I shall stop here.

And go on to my mother – and share some nice news about her.

My mother has done us all proud by getting featured in the January issue of the monthly magazine ME (of the Mumbai newspaper DNA) as a senior blogger – some of you know her as Maiji. Nicely reported by Supriya Kantak, it is a beautiful display on two pages with colour pictures.
Read it here and here.

Maiji's blogs are Memories and Musings and Memories and Musings II - Life in Pondicherry
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'SWEET' PONGAL, ANOTHER NEW YEAR

Another Pongal, the exclusively Thamilzh harvest festival, is here. This time, with the additional distinction of being the Thamizh New Year. So that is two New Years in a month.

Sometime last year, the Tamilnadu Government changed the Thamizh New Year date from the first date of the month Chithrai to Thai 1. So this is the first Pongal with the tag ‘New Year’. (The Thamizh year last year which was born in April , Sarvadhari, dies a premature death at eight months, and the new year Virodhi comes early to us. But I find that some calendars are holding on to Sarvadhari till April. Utter confusion).

And guess who is sponsoring my ‘sakkarai pongal’, the special sweet dish made on Pongal day?

To make Pongal a ‘Happy’ New Year, the Tamilnadu government is presenting to all ration card holders a gift of the required ingredients for the ‘sakkarai pongal’. The packet includes – half a kilo each of rice and jaggery, a 100gms of 'pasi paruppu' (moong dal), and a small pack of cashew nuts, raisins and cardamoms. (There is no ghee).

The lady who works at the ration shop where I picked up my packet told me there are almost 2000 cardholders attached to the shop. Multiply this by the number of shops in the whole of Tamilnadu, and you come up with a mind-boggling number. Assuming that the package cost, on an average Rs. 25 (this is a very, very low estimate), what will the total amount spent be! And where is the money coming from? Certainly not anybody’s personal funds, I am sure. It is the tax payers’ money, which is why I went to collect my packet – I had already paid for it.

Free colour TVs, free gas stoves, free spices and condiments, whatever next!

Happy New Year, and Happy Pongal!

An edited news-report version of this appeared in the Mylapore Times dated Jan. 10, 2009.

CONCERT VIGNETTES

The music season is almost over, and I attended only a few concerts this year.

It struck me how electronic and digital equipment have become indispensable at concerts – drawbacks and all.

Click on picture for an enlarged and better view

Flautist N. Ramani kept his cool when his mike went berserk in the middle of his concert at the Narada Gana Sabha, like a banshee wailing. It is a fire alarm drill, whispered someone. The person in charge came rushing in from outside to stop the awful sound. Ramani had already stopped playing, and with great sangfroid, kept time all the while the feedback was being fixed, never missing a beat, and then resumed from where he had left off, as though nothing had happened. At 10 in the morning – an odd time for a person of his stature, certainly - there were only a few people in the audience, but I was happy to see that it was a discerning crowd. When two oldish men started to natter rather loudly during the concert, everyone turned round to look at them pointedly, while another oldish man shushed them. Soon the crowd increased and soon the hall was half full.

I last heard Ramani last year at the Thiruvaiyaru festival, we sat on the sands on the banks of the Kaveri under pandals and listened to him in the cool of the evening. What a difference in the ambience! There was no room at all, and it was a tight squeeze. There were mikes relaying the concert, not just at the open air venue, but in every nook and corner of the town. The town simply comes alive at this time. Here at the sabhas, you can hear nothing if you step out even for a coffee.

At the Sanjay Subrahmanyan concert of the Sri Bhairavi Sabha, I sat next to a lady, a hardcore Sanjay fan, who told me proudly that she had attended five concerts of his in this season. She had an electronic/digital recorder, fitting neatly into her palm and recorded the whole two hour concert. (Some of us in our music class use this to record our lessons.) I understand that many do this, and go back home to relive the joys of the concert. There have been debates on this – is it ethical? Is there an issue of copyright violation here? There is a school that feels that as long as the recording is not done for commercial purposes, it is permissible. A friend of ours has recorded many such concerts and burnt them on CDs, and now has an enviable collection.

Electronic pieces are now associated with music in other ways too. Musicians almost always have a small electronic box instead of the traditional tambura.(See picture.) But I understand that the Music Academy does not allow any electronic tambura on the stage. Mridangam player Umayalpuram Kalyanaraman, gave me this piece of information recently. He is the son of Tambura Venkataraman, and told me how his father’s services were always in demand till he retired.

But for recordings, so many of these brilliant concerts would be lost to posterity – science supporting art so smoothly. How marvellous would it have been had it been possible to make recordings of Sri Thyagaraja singing his own compositions.

Tambura picture: Courtesy Internet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wishing everyone a Peaceful and Happy 2009.

A BOOK ON PROMISING YOUNG MUSICIANS

‘Youth Jugalbandhi’ – the title is a combination of an English and a Hindi word, but the book is in Thamizh. Authored by Charukesi, the book is a collection of interviews with twenty eight promising young stars on the Carnatic musical stage.

The book, published by Vikatan Publications with a foreword by Sudha Raghunathan, has been appropriately released during the ‘season’.

Each chapter is dedicated to one person, with details of education, musical and otherwise, spelt out clearly at the beginning. Highlights of each musician’s career have been included smoothly with other information, like their views on music, on their profession and career. Sikkil Gurucharan, for instance, says he has no interest in news or other matters, it is only music for him all the way. Mridangam player Delhi Sairam says that no way would he consider participating in the orchestra of a Bharata natyam dancer. Vasudha Ravi says her most unforgettable moment was when she met M. S. Subbulakshmi and sang for her.

Not only vocalists, but accompanists like violinists and mridangam or kanjira players are also included in this list. Some of them are children of musicians, like Subasree Ramachandran, daughter of Charumathi and Trichur Ramachandran, and T. N. S. Krishna, son of T. N. Seshagopalan, or come from families with musical background like Abhishek Raghuram, who is the grandson of Palghat Raghu.

What does strike the reader is that each of the young persons holds not less than a bachelor’s degree. In fact some of them, like Nisha Rajagopal are professional degree holders. Many of the musicians, like Kuldeep Pai, K. Gayathri and S. M. Vilasini , live in the Mylapore neighbourhood.

Charukesi is an established writer with many short stories and books to his name. He is also a connoisseur of music, as his nom de plume might indicate – being the name of a raagam – and he has contributed articles on music to publications like The Hindu and Sruti. His given name is Viswanathan.

How did he hit upon the idea of interviewing the youngsters? Charukesi says that it was the idea of the Managing Editor of Vikatan Publications – VSV, and that this is the first time that profiles of a bunch of young artistes were taken up for a book.

“It took me 28 days to interviews the 28 artistes, and the book was readied in another 28,” he says. “On the whole, it was a pleasant task, talking to the young crop of musicians, who have excellent academic records, too. All of them co-operated in the project enthusiastically.”

This was published in the daily edition of Kutcheribuzz on December 25.

THE 'SEASON'

Officially the ‘season’ hasn’t begun in Chennai.

There is only one season for the music lover in Chennai /Madras, and that is the music season in December-January. The weather is beautiful, with the North West monsoons having (normally ) receded, the sun not so powerful, and that pleasant chill in the air in the evenings and mornings, which lets women wear their Kancheepuram silks without feeling hot and bothered (as is the norm).

This is the time when various ‘sabhas’ (clubs) – now numbering more than a hundred, I think – stage Carnatic music concerts daily. Very often there are two concerts in the evening by established, who are known as ‘senior’, musicians. The less known, and those yet to prove themselves, are given a morning slot or an afternoon (2 pm) slot.



There are also Bharata natyam performances, and some of the sabhas also present plays or dramas. Karthik Fine Arts is one of these. This is a 34 year old sabha, and like most other sabhas, based in Mylapore. Because it doesn’t have its own concert hall Karthik Fine Arts starts its season earlier - by the first week of December. And presents the first concerts of the season at the Swami Gnanananda Hall of Narada Gana Sabha. By December 15, when Narada Gana Sabha hosts its own concerts, Karthik Fine Arts moves to other venues.

I managed to go to a few concerts of Karthik Fine Arts in the first week with Ganga at the Narada Gana Sabha, close to where I live. The auditorium is a huge one, a 1000 seater, I think, and is one of the better maintained ones. The early season concerts were well attended, even the 4 pm ones on working days.

It is the done thing to be seen at concerts, even if you come late, or leave half-way. Women love to dress up in their silks, and with jasmines adorning their hair definitely make it a point to attend. Men are less colourfully attired, but one does now see many T-shirts in the audience.

One of the ‘how do you do’ questions at this time of the year is “And which kutcheris did you go to?” whether one is a member of a sabha or not, in which case one buys daily tickets. And then one has to discuss, debate and dissect: “Yes, so-and-so did not sing well at that sabha at all, I think he has lost his voice”. Or “such and such’s Thodi was marvellous, so reminiscent of Madurai Mani” – thus assuring that one’s familiarity with the great masters of yore is registered. Or even wondering why the singer favoured only one composer, and sang fewer compositions of others! Knowledge aired casually, but clearly establishing it.

Then there are those who insist on sitting in the front row and keeping time with irregular beats, alarming the singer, and almost throwing him off his stride. The serious aficionados enjoy the music to the exclusion of everything else, with eyes closed (a couple of them may snooze off, if the music is soothing enough!), while some others note down the songs sung, to check on them later – nowadays all necessary information is available on the Internet. Cute little handbooks which identify a composition with the raagam, and composer, fit neatly into small handbags, and many check them out then and there. Sometimes the search takes so long, that the song is over by the time the raagam is determined.

There are others who could safely be called sabha hoppers, who attend one concert at one sabha, and rush to the next one at another. They pick and choose, debate the merits of each and every singer, and accompanying artistes before making the decision. What does help is the location of the concert halls – almost 90 % of them are based in the Mylapore area, so hopping from here to there is not really all that difficult, if you learn to ignore the congested traffic, that is.

The audience profile, I find, is generally the retired, or 50 plus, members of the Brahmin community. I have never been able to understand why the interest in Carnatic Music is restricted to this group. It is clear that the masses who generally listen to film music with its wild rhythm and fast-paced numbers, welcome equally songs based on Carnatic ragas. The popularity of the songs of Sindhu Bhairavi and Sankarabharanam 20 to 30 years ago, and today’s numbers like ‘Kangal Irandal’ and ‘Konja neram konja neram’, is proof enough of this.

Very few youngsters, unless they are the performers’ students attend the kutcheris. Neither do other musicians. Youngsters prefer to be on stage rather than in the audience.

A recent trend is that of visitors from abroad who come here to soak in the atmosphere of the season. Youngsters who left Chennai/Madras to study or work abroad make an effort to be present for the season at least once in a couple of years. Some of them were students of music, and miss the music and the unique atmosphere in Chennai. They listen all they can, savour and store the experience to be enjoyed at leisure, till they come back for another recharge.

What used to be a convenience for hard core music lovers has now become a side show at the concerts during the Season. For the music lover who just could not spare the time to break for a meal, canteens were set up at the venues. A quick bite between the songs, and the rasika was satisfied, and he headed back to the auditorium, ready for another schedule. This has now become a great business. Huge pandals (temporary pavilions) are put up alongside the halls, big names in catering take up contracts and total feasts are provided. In fact there are people who visit the concert venues just for the pleasure of eating at these places; music is a distant second, often skipped too. With the wedding season off at this period, it is a blessing to caterers who present their best here, too. The rush is something crazy.


At Narada Gana Sabha there is an open air canteen, run by Woodlands, that functions round the year, and serves splendid coffee and snacks. It is almost always nearly full, despite the season's caterers. The menu is displayed clearly outside at the top. After one of the concerts we managed to find time and a table for a quick coffee, excellent as usual.

Availing themselves of the congregation of music lovers, music stores set up stalls in the foyer of the sabhas, with CDs and DVDs of concerts, and books on music and musicians, or related to music in some way, sure of attracting customers.(Click on picture to enlarge).

Here is a no-frills schedule of the concerts from the beginning of the season to January 18.

And here is where you can learn all about the music and dance world of Madras : http://kutcheribuzz.com/

GOLDEN SHAWLS AND A TEMPLE

A couple of months ago, our music group Gangamritham was felicitated at the Sai Baba Temple, after we sang there. We were honoured with ponnadais (golden shawls, literally). I was a little disappointed that we could not take a picture of us wearing them, then. But we got together a couple of days ago after a class, and posed with our shawls, asking an obliging passer-by to click. And here we are.

And this is a picture of our group at theArupadai Temple near Besant Nagar beach, where we sang in July. This temple is a fairly recent construction, and has six 'sannidhis', one each for the six famous temples (Arupadai veedu) of Lord Muruga.