First post of this year

And it took this long a time due to the frenzy of activities I was in. Trips to Mumbai, Goa and then the Bhairavi consecration, Yaksha, Mahashivarathri, Samyama and now again on trips... A very peculiar thing came up this week (the FB status). I was suddenly asked to make a trip to Africa which threw me by surprise (a pleasant one) but due to certain health related formalities that couldn't be completed on time I couldn't make it... But definitely some karma in play :-)

And I saw Vinnaithandi varuvaya! One word verdict: Awesome! I loved the movie every bit of it. The best part of the movie was the music. Music was the constant character in the movie apart from Simbhu and Trisha. I love strong female characters and Gowtham Menon is an expert in that genre... The way the story was told, the whimsical Jessi, the pursuant Karthik, the painfully moving background score, the rich songs, the gentle humor in line with the story, the on-the-mark-lyrics, some very very interesting scene conceptualisation... it was just so perfect... like an alaipayuthey... If I were to cringe about anything in the movie, it would be the song picturisation. Most of them were in dark and when the songs came out, as I ran it in my mind, I had imagined more expressive, more colorful close-up picturisation. I have no complaints about the song positioning, but just the way it was shot, it could have been better.

I am definitely looking forward to more of the GVM-ARR combos, like Mani-ARR :-) I love this man's music taste... Very much of that sort that I would love! Going by the +ve reviews in the net, VTV can very well become the alaipayuthey of this decade, exactly 10 years after that super hit.

Good job VTV team! Looking forward to more...

New year :-)

As I was pondering to write a new post for the new year, I chanced upon Deepak's post and he has exactly written what I wanted to... Here you go.

A new year means nothing existentially. It is as trivial or as important as any other day. But in the human mindset, there is a difference. There's a possibility for renewal. That is where the significance is. Personally, I can't remember any time in the recent past when I attributed any significance to new years. What I wish is for renewal, every moment.

The very first wish I wrote as a greeting in FB was "For all those moments gone in unawareness, let every moment pass by in awareness", for some reason, didn't want to share it there.

I was thinking, what happened significantly in my life. Experientially speaking, when I am writing this, it doesn't feel like much, but actually, in terms of enormity/impact of action, yes, so many things happened. A huge shift happened in my personal life. But it doesn't feel like anything. I am only left craving for more awareness.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thirsty was I,
Water you gave,
Little drops,
Salt water...

More thirsty I am,
More salt water...

This mad thirst...
When will it quench?
Show me the sea
Ready for the dive...

:D :D :D

TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Life time wish comes true...

As I sit here, recuperating from a bad viral fever, I thought I should record the memorable event that happened on Oct 11, 2009. I had one of my life time wishes come to fruition. I attended the A.R.Rahman concert in Chennai. Yeayyyyyy!!!

Let me recollect *some* of the moments in it.

As we waited patiently for the show to begin and the Reddys to wrap up their promos for their site, we could hear AR speaking in the background, and suddenly he emerged from a case that moved from below the stage onto it singing Jaage Hai... Standing ovation followed... He went on to sing Khalbali, ably supported by Shivamani moving to the foreground. The closest view of AR I could get was when he moved above the crowd in the crane, singing Jiya se Jiya, which was thundering!

The improvised version of Mausam and Escape, (Ar in the piano, Azad in the sitar and Sanjeev in the guitar) was out of the world. As the sitar started playing out a different tune with piano chords in the background, it beautifully wove itself into the M&E track and when the rock guitar joined in, it was totally out of the world.

The entire section with AR in the piano was worth the whole show. Especially, when Hariharan sang the Tamizha Tamizha, suddenly AR stood up and started doing something different. He actually started playing the continuum keyboard and belted out Ishwar Janato out of nowhere and it blended so well with the mood that it was heavenly. I had tears :)

There was this girl, Lush, a rapper, who could dance like a lightning and still continue singing. She rocked. Suzanne's energy was mind blowing as well. This is the first time I am seeing her and in spite of her heavier frame, she had so much energy that she could literally pull the entire crowd to its feet. Neeti Mohan also amazed me with her singing and simultaneous dancing. She could effortlessly reach the higher scales in spite of the heavy dancing :)

The Visual effects was top notch in the show. Blaaze truly is a great showman. He could pull the crowd up whenever he wanted. So is Benny. Rashid Ali showed his western singing. Javed Ali impressed me big time. He is such a perfectionist. He could deliver the songs just as they are on record and belt out beautiful improvisations. The Khwaja and Maula he and AR gave in the sufi section of the concert shall remain in my memory for a very long time to come.

When AR came for Rehna Tu, he said how much that song mattered to him and how that song is a dedication to accept a person simply the way the person is. When he said that, the sincerity with which he spoke those words cannot be missed and just observing that sincerity was elevating. Hats off sir!

There were much more moments that can be recorded, Chitra's renditions, Sadhana and Hariharan's versatality, the extremely awesome Delhi 6 rendition by the crew (Benny, Tanvi, Blaze), the Taxi taxi number (Vivianne, Benny, Blaze), Mustafa, Humma Humma, Jai Ho, AzeemoShan medley, Style, Athiradi (it really was an athiradi), special RAP bits added to Chandralekha, sweet improvisations by Naveen on the flute and so on....

It was a great show and I loved it to the core. One more of my Karma is down now :D

Bees-2

I wrote this 2 and a half years back...

And the prophecy is coming to fruition... I don't know what made me write it then, but now I am having goosebumps...

September 25, 2009

This shall be a very special day... One that I shall look back in the future... The one that marked the end of what was sparked off about 6 months ago...

As emotions play around, as a meloncholic strain of breaking a relationship of sorts arises, I am reminded of the futility of the mind that wants to cling on to anything and everything. The stark truth being that in the end, when mortality comes into picture, not a single atom can be taken along. When that is the reality, I can't help but smile, amidst the emotions playing a mourning cello in the background. There lies the power of death, in driving home the point of futility of our actions, clinging on, not wanting change, let alone transformation.

Such is the mind - flimsy, whimsical...
Such is the emotion - flimsy, whimsical...
Such is Life.
No, such is life of the ignorant.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was well trodden and safe
as opposed to the less travelled one;

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!

And the other day came...
-Sorry Mr. Frost, for the edits to the original