My 1st pick of the season :)

I'll try to keep this as crisp as I can :).

I managed to make it to Sowmya's kutchery for a start. I love her kutchery for her selection of song. She rarely sings more than a couple of crowd favourites. Today was no different.

Another point that I should make. The Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium is an amazing place for listening to kutcheries. I.e. If you look for things such as plush interiors, comfortable leg space and such things. Acoustics are very good as well, though not the best around. With mostly the elite crowd comming there, it will be a very comfortable experience :). They do not have a catering service, probably because of the expected crowd. So make sure you drop by at Narada Gana Sabha's Woodlands or one of those close by before you hit for the kutchery.

• Varnam: karuNimpa (Ragam: sahaana)
• sObhillu saptaswara (Ragam: jaganmOhini)
• raagam + vazhi maraithu (Ragam: naaTTai kurinji, Composer:Gopalakrishna Bharathiyar)
• shree saraswathi namOsthuthE (Ragam: aarabhi)
• enna solli azhaithAl (Ragam: kannaDa)
• Unakkum Enakkum Isaindha Porutham (Ragam: charukEshi)

I couldn't figure out the rest even with the few verses of sahityam I noted :(. Never been soo unlucky.

But it as a very enjoyable evening. Even the violinist played clearly though I can't qualify it any more. As for sowmya, well it wasn't my first time to her concert, so I just enjoyed it. She sang raagam thrice, the last of which I felt was so vibrant. The song "Unakkum Enakkum Isaindha Porutham" sounded quite like "shree chakraraaja" in Chenchurutti #-o. Waaay off mark. In all an enjoyable evening, after having 2 idlis for Rs 8 ;).

December Season Spl

The festival has already begun and I am missing it. I hate being so grounded :(. Anyway, last year I collected all the kutchery information into a planner kinda excel sheet. I wanted to program it to pick concerts by my constraints, but I really couldn't sit at it.

Here is the link to my Dec 2006-2007 planner. I really found it useful in picking the kutchery of the day :)). Besides, it has helped me cover a good number of artists too. Hope some of you will find it useful. Hopefully by next year, the planner will really do more than just group em all by days.

WARNING: It is not an exhaustive list. I still haven't scratched a few good sabahs, so will update them soon :).

Note: The macro's that are part of the excel are to change the colours based on the day of the event. So unless you intend to edit it, you can safely choose to disable them. Its quite rudimentary, so don't bug me over the bugs :D.

Btw for those of you who feel lucky and can manage to catch it - Aruna Sairam is singing today, the 3rd at Narada Gana Sabha @ 4:30pm. In most likelihood the tickets would already be sold as always #-o.

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2:33pm: I am done with my DC'06 planner :) *phew*. I have tried to put in as much information as possible. I couldn't assimilate all the dance programs though. Hope it comes in handy. Do send me suggestions on how this could be improved.