Margazhi musings - 1

Margazhi, the chosen month, by none other than Krishna himself, definitely has the charm. Climate that makes even places like Chennai desirable and why beat around the bush, the ‘MUSIC SEASON’. This charm has definitely extended till Pondicherry and over the years I have always tried to squeeze in few December concerts into my schedule.

It was another music driven journey to Chennai and I ended up at one of the lovely places that belonged to the silk merchant. It was another busy morning with performers moving in and out, audiences flowing in a steady stream, the stalls and canteens being populated with visitors, I relished it all afresh after a year. Half an hour past the first programme, I had to come out to get tickets for the main performance that morning by the madisar clad woman and few others. I noticed one of the tickets had the seats numbered whereas this one in morning had entry on first come basis. A woman next to me earnestly asked”appo idhukkum number potu tharuvela” will you number the seats for this show too? After a long pause came a not so polite reply”oru oru programme um vera. Ticket vangitu pongo” each show is different. Just get your tickets and go. I would have only been surprised if it was anything else.

I had hardly few seconds to ponder over what happened as I already saw mamis queue up at the gates. Observing their creativity at queuing up, this time it was sitting in chairs close to the gates so that they can camouflage like rasikas attending the programme but when neared, they would unveil their identity with two words ”queue pinnala”. “This sabha charges the maximum for a ticket but waiting like this in spite of that is quite annoying” a lady said and almost everyone felt the same. Another guy told how tickets at the TTK road auditorium have to be procured as early as six in the mornings for which the queue math would suggest you to reach there by five!

 This civilized conduct transformed into stark barbarianism when the gates opened. After a hassle I entered the theatre and I was quite surprised to see the hall not even half full when the programme was about to start. A refute at one of the gates gave me the answer. There was loud blasphemy exactly at curtain raise. I saw some of the irate being pushed, gates were shut.

I have witnessed a very similar incident even last year and unfortunately I have got really immune to all this! When a group of people are so eager to attend the discourse (which also had a free entry the previous year and that was the confusion) what do you call that which prevented them from letting these people in?

The proportion of youngsters attending the festival season has dramatically increased. It is high time these organizations take steps to embrace the change. It is practically impossible for the working youth or outsiders to book the tickets in person one day prior and not to mention the early morning drill. Wouldn’t it be more welcoming if it was as easy as booking a ticket for a rock concert? All said and done, this is not going to deter me from attending any more concerts but I am keenly  looking forward for the time when the monopoly of these sabhas end and some transparency is brought into the system!

Do Re - Mi story

You do not qualify for a singer when you sing in the right pitch or when you get the rhythm or the tune right. It’s at that moment when you let yourself free and sing just what runs in your mind, like there is no one in front of you. It’s when you know music is inside you.

Do a deer is from the classic ‘Sound of music’- sung by a governess to the children to help them remember the English notes Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.

It goes like Do a deer, a female deer

                  Re, a drop of golden sun

                  Mi, a name I call myself

                  Fa, a long long way to run

Recently, when I saw this part of the movie for the first time, I was so uncomfortably deported back by some fifteen years. Many a times when baby madhu cried, immediately his little brother came up singing “Doe a deer a female deer, Ray a drop of golden sun…” It worked with the crying but I always wondered what is the connection between a doe and a ray and why should I call myself when I have to run far.  Sadly that was the only sensible song taught during music classes at school apart from the national anthem. And it has taken all this time for truth to hit my head like a thunderbolt- laughs.

Music at high school went exactly opposite the way it was supposed to. All I remember about my music teacher was his golden ring with a dull red stone. Pretty well because that finger came up so eagerly to pinch our earlobes to derive that sadistic pleasure – for forgetting our music notebook at home.  Perhaps that way he has brutally reinforced his meaningless version of this song into our brains.

And disaster did not end, the second year he asked us to bring the same notebook we used before (for the second stanza of doe a deer). I remember the pinchy! So for all the petit seminarians who would feel meh right now, guys its alright, and its ‘Do a deer’!

I did not qualify for the choir (which contained almost half of the entire class) and all my songs at intra-school dint even manage to change the monotony on his face. But hell yeah! The more he made music so unreachable the more I tried jumping to reach it, I guess. I believe music is written in your destiny. When it is supposed to be a part of you, it will – cutting through all odds! And it did.

I am a great fan of happily-ever-after endings. So, years later… It was another afternoon outside the auditorium when VB asked me “shall we make some music?” I was really happy someone asked me that and even before I could prepare the songs I knew or even think of a song, he was already on the guitar and strumming. I look around the hall, no one, happy. “what can u sing” was the next question. And around that time ashish had joined too and I said I can try carnatic. He connected the mike, thought me a plain tune and then what happened was just magic. I did not know what raga I sang, no pitch, nothing but it was a perfect jam. Eldo, drummer heard us from groundstairs and he came up with the beats. WOW! And that- That was my moment!

The graduation cultural nite. The photo had to undergo layers of editing due to the continuous instability of my dad’s hands caused probably by an intense emotional outburst.

Suresh Sangeetha wedding. Awesome moments! Felt really nice to sing in front of a multi-lingual/ ethnic audience. Probably the first time I sang Carnatic somewhere other than a home. I was nervous from top to bottom :D Thanks for the photo suresh n manni!

start off - margazhi 2010

In what other better way I can start telling about myself  _

More than passion, more than a yearning, it’s definitely something else, something more .. My vocabulary is of course limited . It’s been 6 years when classical music entered me right away cutting me in.

Something I always feel should happened much earlier.

I like carnatic music !! I love it indeed .

 For the bliss it gives. 

That I can sing along and find myself lost into it.

 From the attractive album covers to the all-glossy classical costumes, tamburas, mridangams...

From the sabhas that exude a combination class and devotion 

To the maamas and maamis who attend the concert!! Love em all J  

This Saturday concert was nothing less than a wow. I was indeed surprised when I attended this concert during the December season.

After seeing the sabha hall, the perfectly arranged decors on the stage – “why on earth didn’t they even ticket it?”

 Music is after all something more.

Before everything, thank you Praveen. It would not have been any better if it weren't for you.

We thought we should be there way early to the start, to “catch” the right places to sit, the concert being free. We reached the hall around 5 in the evening. Not realising that another veena recital has been scheduled then. People started pouring in (literally man!) 

And which kid wouldn’t want an extra bar of chocolate?

Mr. Kannan on the veena. Somehow I found his expressions so cute and chubby, when he was trying to acknowledge the mridangam artist as he was playing the beats. “aam, adhan adhan  ...”

All of a sudden, he was beaming with enthusiasm like never before: D

Realised quite soon when I spotted the photographer that side.

We wait for him to finish, he doesn’t. He says he feels blessed to play in the vicinity of shree kalekaambal and sree kapaleeshwarar. ‘Mylapore kapaleeshwarar temple’ did ring a bell.

Finally the screen drops. Not more than 10 mines, as we were busy quibbling about arjun’s message, the screen opens. And we drop our jaws to a silence as the ever charming lady welcomes us with a characteristic smile.

All clad in purple and gold, she started off – what I later understood was a marathon concert (at least for meJ) 

Times when the whole hall were tapping their hands in unison , counting the beats for the ragam thaalam pallavi  RTP , people reacting to the extra feel imparted to some lines with an “aaha .. cha”, makes the live concert unique .

 Then comes the thukkada session, she sings a sai baba krithi and everyone s already reached shirdi. ‘Reportedly’, arjun got goose bumps .

I was able to follow some of the popular songs like enna thavam seithanai . The maami at the back of my seat was getting high hearing this song. “enna oru line .. enna oru line” she kept on repeating.

Leaving us super saturated with madhura, she signs off. A lady immediately got up, did a pooja for the kalinga narasimhar over the stage.

Soon, the maamis crowded the exit with the usual and stereotypical questions

“Pudavai pala palannu irukke ” .     Obviously no post concert meet will attain completion without this comment – I felt.

 “Nalla elechiteel... Secret engallukkum sollakoodatha?” a 60 yr old in a very genuine tone. I dint choose to figure out why she wants to get lean any more.

“Necklace. . Eppo vanganathu ?”  “Pathu varusham munaadiya ? Innum palichunnu irukke ”

Slowly the young pop out with their autograph diaries . She fills the whole page with her wishes and sign , be it a foolscap note book or a small pad .  I have already got one the first time I met her two years back . 

Now all I wanted to was to ask her how the jazz fusion concert went the day before. And get a snap done for Praveen and arjun . Praveen honourably chose to click the pics rather.

 Finally a guy runs up to me with his email id asking me to send him the pic . Obviously he was also caught in the frame .

“Are you sure you will send it ? ”  He asked it more than 10 times in all different ways as we move out . I couldn’t help but smile . He was not at all any different from the all excited kid running around narada gana sabha, two years back, to find out from where sudha comes out and trying to teach geetha aunty how to take a photo .