Let me see

Well, it's aeons since I blogged. I'm all excited about the music season this year. To know more about the concert schedule, hit this link - Concert Schedule(Courtesy:http://ramsabode.wordpress.com). Let's see what we've got new this season.

Apart from that, facebook's somehow eating my time, rather I'm letting it eat my time. I guess I need to get back to writing some serious stuff, not just stop with changing my status messages and "liking" stuff that's being posted.

So, let me see how far this goes.

Signing off!

Tortures that are both physical and mental is dental.

Title : Shamelessly quoting Nash.

Been creating a lot of ruckus of late about my "wisdom" (ahem) teeth. Yes. The phase has come in my life, where I was advised to get it removed. All the W's crossed my mind. But this time I wasn't bestowed with much of a choice since the tooth was hurting apart from displaying its affection for my cheek walls.

The first step of the onerous regime was visiting the dentist.(Am sure you understand what I meant by ruckus). The classical steps followed, like getting the scans done. The best part was, I'd undergone the scans part of it (for a different problem, of course) a few years back and the recommendations provided freaked me out, which was to get the molars surgically removed. So you can guess what followed. An act of disappearance! :-) I vowed never to step into that place again. But I guess the teeth be"spoke" my destiny this time, and it all came back to me with a BIG BANG (On a side note, fascinated by the TV series :-D).

This time there was no eschewing because of the superiority exercised by the "wisdom" teeth on me. Acquiescence was the only word. :-( I decided to take the first brave?! step by fixing an appointment to get one of the tooth extracted.

After the wait, when it was my turn to be seated on the chair, I was a little tensed (that's putting it mildly). When I was been given a shot of local anesthetic, my dentist just said one word - this is going to hurt just a little. My head started reeling and I was reminded of Ogden Nash's poem "This is going to hurt just a little bit". I was restless. There were a lot of dentures and teeth models lying around. It looked like all of those were laughing at me. But when the process of extraction started, I didn't realize the start or the end of it. It was over in a jiffy. Pretty unbelievable! All it takes is less than 30 secs to "pull" out the "wisdom".

Well, its not over yet. There's one more round of extraction. The day will come soon when I'll be devoid of all the "wisdom" teeth. It's not too far. That will indicate the time for my next post.

Just a note of advice - Don't be callous towards this calcareous structure. There's no gain without pain!

A Pandemonium?

What's happening?
Why such tumult?
Why such uproar?
Why? Why?

I am terribly disturbed by whatever has been happening. What is the cause for all this? Daily life has become a battle. The number of offences committed everyday is exponentially increasing! But what compels one to perpetrate?
The least I can hope is that the word peace remains in one piece. Let that not be massacred too.

Do I hear myself listening to "We didn't start the fire" ?

La Vie En Rose

Been wanting to write about a movie for quite sometime. Finally decided to. But, the unique aspect, (well, that's how I would like to christen it) is that, this is written in French! I thought my blog was a good arena to portray the little French that I've learnt! Without any disclaimers, here I narrate -

J'ai vu un fil qui s'appelle La Vie En Rose. Ce film est sorti en Février 2007. J'ai vu le bande-annonce du film à l'avance. Il était trés intéressant et j'ai decidé de le voir. Le genre est musical. L'actrice Marion Cotillard joue un rôle Édith Piaf , la chanteuse dans le film. Elle a gagné 'Le Premier Actrice' à l'Oscar.

L'Histoire du film est "La vie à Édith Piaf", et il présente la view de l'enfance à la mort. Toutes les chansons du film sont trop belle. Et mon chanson favorite est Non, regrette rien. La mise en scène est trés riche!

Les dialogues du film sont trés émouvants. J'ai pleuré finalement. Vous ne manquez pas ce film. À voir absolument!

December Season 2008

After a long hiatus... here I come. Well, this ain't one of my new year resolutions ;)

So, let me dive directly into the details about the concerts that I attended -

The first kutcheri that I attended this year was Shri.Sanjay Subramanyam @ Infosys Hall. I really liked the krithi that he rendered shUlini. The interesting part of the concert was the RTP in madHuvanti with the pallavi "Kuzhal inidhu yaazh inidhu". Was extremely interesting!He also gave us a glimpse into the rAga pRiyaDarsHini. The performance was, I would say, profound.

The next concert was Shri.U.Srinivas @ Vani Mahal. Well, the surprise element for me was the Swarajathi that was rendered, which is composed by SyAmA sHastri that goes like "kAmAkshi ambA anuDinamu mara vakane". Apart from that, there was moHana kalyAni, naLinakAnthi, kApi nArayani and tarangiNi, etc., Overall, it was a good performance.

Next in the list was Ranjani and Gayathri @ The Music Academy. They started off with a varNam in tOdi. Followed by Sri Saraswathi in Arabhi. tiruvadi sharaNam in khAmbOji was the main piece. I wasn't completely impressed by the choice of the krithis and the Alapana.

On the same day, I caught Shri.T.N.Seshagopalan @ Mylapore Fine Arts. I would say this was easily one of the best concerts that I've attended in this season. He started with sAverI "Sri rAjagOpala". Followed by marivERE in shanmukhapriyA. There was a thiruppAvai in shankarAbharaNam "puLum silambina kAaN". He also rendered a krithi in tOdi - dAchukOvalEna in misra jampa! Trust me...he started singing an RTP at 9.00 PM! And it was mind blowing. It was in Poorvikalyani, Bhagesri and Sri! The Pallavi being "vEenA gAna daSa gamadakriye" from meenakshI mE muDam. He aslo rendered revathI and a thillana in the end. It was an eclectic concert, I would say!

Also attended Shri.T.N.Krishan Sir's concert @ MFA. He strung together suruTi, behAg, kharaharapriyA, sindhubHairavi, shanmukhapriyA, etc., in his concerts. He was accompanied by Smt. Viji Krishan and Shri.Sriram Kirshnan. The whole concert was mellifluous.

.

The only disappointing thing was, I couldn't get to hear Shri. T.N.Sankaranarayanan's kutcheir this year. Hoping to catch one soon!

Will I ever feel like going to the beach?

Are we going to the beach today?
If it's the only place we can reach
Such lessons does life teach
Am going to screech.....
If you stick to me like a leech
I practice, not merely preach
Instead it tastes like a peach
Just one cheek or each?
So that you don't teach
Are you going to beseech?
Now you are at a loss for speech
I wonder how this state I did reach
From...beach is the only place that we could reach......

Trust me...this is one of the conversation(??!!) I had with,whom I would rather call an ally!! By this time you would've guessed the league to which we belong. :-)

Yamakasi

Had an opportunity to watch this movie Yamakasi-Les samouraïs des temps modernes, meaning, Yamakasi, the samurai(s) of the modern times. Thanks to the little bit of French that I've been learning so far.
The plot of this movie is pretty simple, am not elaborating it here, since I am not sure about the nuances to be kept in mind while writing a review for a movie. So who do you think are these Yamakasi? They are basically French practitioners who practise acrobatics. So how different is this from Parkour or Free running? The aim of Yamakasi is to reach point B from point A aesthetically providing complete freedom of movement. What Parkour does is, it focuses on how efficiently you can reach point B from point A. (Pretty much similar to a TSP!).

About the word origin, it sounded very Japanese, apparently it's a word from Lingala meaning strong spirit,strong energy.

Feel drained out? I would definitely suggest this movie! The music + the tactics + good dialogues (I watched it in French!)make this a wonderful movie to watch!!!! It truly lives up to its name...HIGH ENERGY.

So isn't it time that you aesthetically plunge into this?

"Litter"ally junk!!

Been trying to write a post for quite a long time.The intention alone doesn't matter. Realised how lousy I've become...all this, while trying to fill up my appraisal(duh!!). Was unable to frame a single convincingly obfuscated statement that elaborates my deeds in length! Huh...sounds awful isn't it? (Both!)

Wondering what would've caused this? Lack of reading? Too much talking? Very little thinking? Laziness?

The next terrifying this that's been happening to me is, unable to get into a book....trust me, that's the worst feeling one can ever have :(. And when it comes to writing, get terrible blocks.........when I start framing things that I want to write, even before I can put them down.

This post is purely to overcome the horrible boulders that I have placed (consciously?!) in the stream of my thoughts which in turn has thwarted my words to permeate through and fall into the blue to form an interesting piece of "litter"ature!

Feel like lashing out your comments?? Oh, please do.....



P.S: This post is mainly to instill in myself the feeling that I CAN still write!

Answer to 'My First Question'

The answer to the previous question was - Lady Di and Dodi Al Fayed.

After posting this question,clicked on delete and ended up finding another amusing image :). Here it is -

My first question! :)

Not a well framed question...There's a bronze statue in the picture. Who are the people in it and what's the significance ?

Hello hello....!!

Amazing!! Here is the reason behind why we start a conversation with a 'Hello'!!

Source : "Vowel sounds are made by using the mouth as a resonating cavity, and distinguished from each other by such things as the position of the tongue, which changes the resonance. Since vocal cavities vary in size, we can understand a person's vowels only in relation to their other vowels. The pitch of a large man and a small child are very different. In fact, a larger person's high vowel in "see" could have the same pitch as a smaller person's low vowel in "saw."
Humans are amazingly good at understanding speech, and only need about two syllables to pick up a speaker's vocal range. This means that the first two syllables in a conversation will generally not be understood, and this is particularly true on the phone where the listener has no cue as to the speaker's size."

Surpirsed!!

Was surprised to see this!

New Life!! :)

Trying to breathe some life into my blog!! :)

This sunday was truly blissful.Spent most of the time reading about one of the greatest composers of Carnatic Music - Muthuswamy Dikshitar.

To talk about the gift he'd left the music sorority (well,what do you expect out of a feminist! :) )
Got a wonderful opportunity to listen to lots of krithis composed in rare ragas. Dikshitarophiles should definitely visit this.Was listening to one of the nIlOtpalAmbA krithi. Well,let me explain - Dikshitar composed lots of krithis termed by the sorority as 'group-krithis', which will contain krithis in the name of a particular deity,mostly, or in general, a particular theme. One such set, is the nIlOtpalAmbA.

The one that I listened to was in nArirItigOwla. All these krithis describe the neelotpalamba, the goddess of blue lotus.Since the raagams in which these krithis end with 'gOwla', they are also called gOwlAnta rAga krithis.These krithis are different from the navAvarnam by the fact that these do not have a dhyAna krithi and a mangala krithi.

Hoping to post more on various compositions and a more detailed one! since breathing too much life onto my blog might suffocate it!! :)

18

The number 18 seems to have lots of interesting facts associated with it.
Here we go.......

1. The book Catch-22 was originally titled 'Catch-18'.
2. The number of holes in the game of golf (a stipulated game,though).
3. Ulysses (James Joyce) is divided into 18 chapters.
4. Not to forget our Bhagavad Gita.
5. Mahabarata, which was fought for 18 days involving 18 armies.
6. Canons error message,called E18, which might cause the camera to crash!
7. The RIGHTS that a teen enjoys,on turning 18!
8. Lastly,not to forget my contribution to this number -
Its 18 days since I blogged!! :)

Justice!

Happy birthday Einstein!

Iron Man

Currently hooked onto this song. Its by Black Sabbath.

Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?
Can he walk at all,
Or if he moves will he fall?

Is he alive or dead?
Has he thoughts within his head?
We’ll just pass him there
Why should we even care?

He was turned to steel
In the great magnetic field
When he traveled time
For the future of mankind

Nobody wants him
He just stares at the world
Planning his vengeance
That he will soon unfold

Now the time is here
For iron man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved

Nobody wants him
They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge

Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron man lives again!

The concept of 'riff' adds beauty to the song! Well, a riff - is a short, repeated, memorable musical phrase, often pitched low on the guitar, which focuses much of the energy and excitement of a rock song.

This song is about a man who travels back in time to warn the people about the danger.But he turns into iron. And hence, Iron Man. Now, nobody wants him. This instills in him the thought of acting against his vow.Killing! This cannot be called as deviation from his prophecy, but,its destruction.Destroying the mankind.

Iron Man makes you go Paranoid!

Happy Pongal!

Here is my accomplishment for the day :)

A very Happy Pongal to the ones who chanced upon this post ! :)

December Season - Part-II

The second set of kutcheris ( music concerts) that I attended were that of Sriram Gangadharan and Aruna Sayeeram at the Music Academy.

Sriram Gangadharan's kutcheri started off with sree gaNapathi nee in sOwrAshtram.The second one was rAmanAtham bhajeham in poorvikalyAni,and Adi tAlam 2-kalai.Then came nilAmbari like a gentle breeze. The krithi was brovavamma in Misra chApu.This was followed by a storm!bHairavi!bAlagOpalA. Was rendered very beautifully.Next in the platter was a Raagam-Taanam-Pallavi(RTP) in nAttakurinji in misra gathi misra chapu.The pallavi that was handled was "rAma shrirAma pattabHirAma dasharathabAla" .This was followed by a rAgamAlika containing kedAragoulai,dhanyAsi,kalyAni,AndolikA and AnandabHairavi.His diction was really the thing to be noted.He was accompanied by B.Sivaraman on the Mridangam,Charumathi Raguraman on the Violin and Anirudh Athreya on the Kanjira.

Aruna Sayeeram's started off with sAveri varnam,adi tAlam.The accompaniments -S.Karthik on the Ghatam,H.N.Bhaskar on the violin and J.Vaidyanathan on the Mridangam.The next was a krithi is vAgadEshwari,paramAtmulu velige.The next one was sudhA mayi in amruthavarshini. It was mind blowing!!The next one was in Tamil. Vandeenam uzhalum solai in tOdi.Then came the classic O rangasAyee in khAmbOji.Then there was this traditional rendition, kAna vendAmo in AbhOgi.The Raagam-Taanam-Pallavi was in madhyamAvati.It was very enjoyable.The pallavi being bhAgyada lakshmi bAramma nammammA nee sow.It was in fact a rAgamAlikA describing ashtalakshmis.It contained kalyAni ( describing Adilakshmi ),kurinji ( describing dhAnyalakshmi ),atAna ( describing dhairyalakshmi ),mOhanam ( describing gajalakshmi ),sahAnA ( describing santhAnalakshmi ),ranjani ( describing vijayalakshmi ),bHairavi ( describing aishwaryalakshmi )and lalitha ( describing dhanalakshmi ).This was followed by an abhang in hindOlam,sAvale sundara. The final piece was a themmAngu. Audiences' choice. It was in senjurutti, mAdu meykkum kaNNe.On the whole it was a brilliant concert!

December Season - Part-I

I know its January :), but I can't stop myself from writing about the 'December Season' which is literally celebrated as a festival in the city of Madras.
Well, this season, I managed to attend 5 kutcheris, which is actually a very poor count :(. Yeah, but I had my own reasons for not attending them.

The first one that I attended was T.N.S.Krishna. A wonderful performance!He started off with a sAveri Varnam.Followed by begadA.The tOdi rendition was the highlight.The kanakku was amazing!TNS' lessons!!Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi(RTP) was in shanmughapriyA.With a simple pallavi paravasam miga Agude kanna unai ninaindhu. It was concluded on an Oothukkadu's composition vandhu ketpAr,a rAgamAlikA containing hindOlam,atAnA and bilahari.

The second one was P.Unnikrishnans'.Started with a tOdi varnam.Followed by shiva lOga nAdanai in mAyamAlavagOwla.Varali was good.There was a Swati Tirunal's composition,sAnandam kamalAmanOhari in kamalAmanOhari. It also included swarams in hamsadwani,bhOpAlam and tarangini.The next was Evari mAta in Kambhoji.Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi was in Kharaharapriya.(One of my personal favorites).The pallavi was arapriye lalithe thvAm tharunendu sekarah. The last one was a thillana in hamsAnandi.

Will be posting about the rest of the concerts in my next post.:)

==> Hence Proved

You Should Be a Science Fiction Writer

Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you're from. And while you may have some problems being "normal," you'll have no problems writing sci-fi. Whether it's epic films, important novels, or vivid comics... Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?