Cat on my window

I lurve pets although I don't have one around. But then therz plenty around our house, visiting now and then of course. Today I was just on my terminal strangely without the music turned on. I just got up and noticed this fellow happily sleeing in the shade. Probably taking cover from the heat. Thats when I realized how silent my room was. Gosh! How could I do such a thing *duh*.

Anywayz, I really love the way a cats face looks with their eyes closed. ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE I say. Their rosy nose oscillating up and down mildly for every breath, its some beautiful sight. I managed to click a couple of pics without disturbing him. I was afraid the mild sound of the shutter could wake him up but it didn't :). Almost luks like its hugging itself snuggly ;)). For some reason I find their big prying ears adding to their loveliness :D.

Glad I could show him to my mom before I woke him up. She said it is cunning, waiting for the squirrels to come around and then chase em. From the blissful state in which he was and the comfortably sluggishness with which he got off the window, I think not. Lovely whiskers too.

Wonder if women would be cute with cat like whiskers (not a mush or a beard) ;)). I think so :D. Esp. someone with a spark in eyes ;).

Since When

did women become 'veettu ubayoga porul'??? (translated to 'house hold item).

I'd been to madhurandhagam with my buddies yesterday to take a look at the yeeri (water cachment) there and visit the kOdhanda ramar temple. The 1st was a big blooper as we went through narrow so called roads to a dried up place. The tranquility of the place was our respite.

We noticed this pic at a tea stall and exclaimed - what in the world is that pretty lady's pic for in a house item sale. I mean it makes sense to put house hold items / a pic of a family with such items in their hands or such. But such an arbit use of this pic for an instant made us think such pretty women were also available at the sale :D. He he, of course we were all cranked up and laughing for little things. I wonder if the guy who made this banner design even gave it a thought ;).

April music season ends :)

My weekend began with this kutchery on friday evening by Priya Sisters. Quite honestly I wasn't as impressed like last time. Probably coz I've come to like Ranjani & Gayathri duo's voice more since. Their voice is more retro and classy unlike priya sisters contemporary voice. My favourite piece of the program was palukE bangaara maayenaa set to aananda bhairavi. Plenty of new stuff, but some of those I knew were banTu reeti kOlu set to hamsanaadam and aasai mugham marandhu set to jOnpuri, apart from some tukkudas.

The main piece of the evening was pakkala nilabaDi set to kharaharapriya. And then there was this interesting piece with started with the verses sounding like jagala kuchala. Any clues anybody?

One of the hilight of this kutchery was the violinist. Sri M.A.Krishnaswamy whose style is quite along the lines of M.S.G. He is one amongst the violinists whose fingering is a pleasure to watch as much as listening to it. Just watching them one can say how pristine he is with the instrument. Very calm and composed, he never seems like studying the vocalist but nevertheless gives an impeccable followup on the violin.

Such a pleasure to watch his fingers take flight over the fingerboard effortlessly. It would just take somewhere like minimum of 5 hours of practice a day to get close to that ;) says he.

Saturday evening, it was this program titled "Divine Ensemble" - Laya Mudhra. Rather than singing aspect and such, this is more about display of aspect of layam. I am a bit averse to the nadhaswaram instrument given to its loudness. On top of it, the percussionists seem to be on an all time high. They literally banged left, right and centre. My eardrums have up after the thani-aavarthanam. Gladly at least the bhaagyaada lakshmi baaramma set to madyamavathi was at enjoyable levels. I was expecting it to be along the lines of heArtbeat and hence my disappointment. Fortunately they did play a piece which is great when played with the nadhaswaram - ninnu vinA nAmadi endu set to navarasa kannaDa. A piece that will have almost anyone listening tapping to its tune :). I did make it outside without a headache :D. Trust me, a heavy dose of percussionists on adrenaline can give you a headache.

Today evening it was Nithyashree Mahadevan. Close your eyes and listen to her rendition and you'd proly think its a little girl singing ;)). Most of the songs she sung today were quite unknown to me and my kutchery buddies. So there was just some raagam guessing going on, not me of course :D. But after a raagam aalapanai (set to bahudaari, which I realized a little later) I was humming brOva baarama and she sang the same too \:D/. Guess am not all that bad ;) as I thought. And then M.A.K. on the violin, so needless to say it was a wonderful treat.

I also ended up making some good friends this season. Somehow I don't seem to catch people of my age #-o. It was old folks last time and this time little ones :). Although a bit of a distraction given to their restlessness it was a lot of fun. Hapless mocking, leg-pullings, situation comedies and plenty of ROTFL's, requests and raagam guessing for every song. Drawing cartoons (not me of course) and putting each others names on them with funny descriptions, cooking up crazy descriptions for each letter of our names. Gosh! I am not gonna list the titles they gave me and end up damaging the little dignity I have left ;)), but they really got wacky and gave me some hearty smiles and giggles. Sure am gonna miss them all until next summer.

Overall the event was fantastic. One of its shortfalls was the limited time given to artists :(. Two and half to three hours at a sabha is fair enough but not at a free-for-all kutchery in mambalam. This place has a history of people listening to artists from dusk until dawn, believe me or not. I guess that's not practical these days. But scheduling other programs immediately after a kutchery, esp. when its an artists who can sing for long is disastrous to both the artist and the rasikaas alike. I am not sure if this new trend will change. I do hope that aspect improves next year.

No more kutcheries on the horizon for a while now :(. Which means I am against stuck with bloggers-block :).

Cheerios.

Hobbes @ his best :)

What say ppl? Just in case the link doesn't work, the transcript -

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Susie: HEY CALVIN! Are we near a slaughter house, or did you forget your deodorant?!
Calvin: DROP DEAD, SUSIE! You're so ugly, I heard you mom puts a bag over your head before she kisses you goodnight!!
Calvin: *It's shameless the way we flirt*
Calvin: What's it like to fall in love?
Hobbes: Well ... say the object of your affection walks by ...
Calvin: yeaaaah?
Hobbes: First your heart falls into your stomach and splashes your innards. All the moisture makes you sweat profusely. This condensation shorts the circuits to your brain, and you get all woozy. When you brain burns altogether, your mouth disengages and you babble like a cretin until she leaves.
Calvin: THAT's love ?!?
Hobbes: Meadically speaking.
Calvin: Heck, that happened to ME once. But I figured it was cooties.

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I was literally ROTFL! He he! My hats off tya hobbes :). You are simply brilliant, go tiger!

A dab of deepika's kutchery followed by G.J.R.Krishnan & Vijayalakshmi

I finally managed to catch the voice of this amature artists yesterday, about whome my mom acclaimed quite a bit from some reviews she'd read. I can't say about the quality but her voice sounds blunt (not sharp like her guru: sudha), as if air is blown along with the voice. Took me a while to get used to it as it muffles le clear pronounciation. Guess there are somethings that cannot be taught ;). The content of her renditions in terms of the sangadhi's were pretty much same as what sudha does. I noticed this as she sang brOcEvarevarura set to kaamas. I was able to recollect the sangadhies sudha sang for the song in one of he records :D. Her voice is quite timid which I notice as she could not hold on a swara for a long time. Her rendition of chinnan chiru kiLiyE was however quite different and very very mellow.

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And then it was the lalgudi siblings! Pristine in their renditions, I was quite surprised to find quite a modest crowd for them. I guess it takes a bit to listen to the violin having been used to vocal renditions. GnK would have drawn in a huge crowd given to their seemingly unorthodox rendition style.

Of all the pieces I enjoyed raama nannu brOvaraa set to harikaambOji, jaanaki ramaNa set to kaapi, mAnasa sanchararE set to sama (a very soothing raga that I like esp. since annapoorNE vishaalaakshi set to the same) which my friend requested. Surprisingly they did play a couple of standard requests from the crowd and quite honestly listenting to the same piece concert after concert leaves me a bit disappointed. And of course their speciality, a thillana composed by their guru LJ set to behaag. Very neat concert :) with nothing flamboyant to impress the crowd. Truly classical it was.

2 more concerts gone by

It was the mambalam sisters on sunday. I wasn't very excited about em, but since I'd never been to their concert before I just did :).

I can't make a judgemental statement as to the quality of the kutchery but quite bluntly, I didn't like their adoptation of bhagyadha lakshmi bharamma tune ditto for some verses beginning "sambandhi saapidave mattar".

I wonder if thats part of trying to be innovative to gain a great name. Writing sahityam for carnatic though an art has a science to it. It almost felt like something written da todays cine composers - pic some rhythmic, rhyming verses. It wasn't entirely in tamil either, tamilsh to be precise. Some section of the crowd may have been glee about it but am not sure if such a funny track is gonna bring some accolades.

Now this was some concert :). Sowmya and Embar Kannan, how could I ever miss it ;). Unfortunately I had to crash mid-way through the kutchery and endure some glares from many.

The 1st piece she sang after I settled was - nenaruncinAnu, she her rendition was brilliant. I was glee to hear such a peppy one from her :D. The next one with kalpanai swaram and tani aavarthanam was splendent too. Esp. embar's pristine followups on the violin were indicative of his shrewdness. Quite honestly, I'd say he is one amonst the best of the artists on the violin, at least on the carnatic front. This photo shows his studying what the vocalist was singing just before he go on to play it out :). The way he studies and followed up almost instantaneously all through (were applicable :D) was gr8.

All righty! Tomorrow two kutcheries back to back. More later. Adios.