Airtel Super Singer 2008 is on in full swing and I am hooked to it. I haven’t watched the earlier seasons. Last year when I was in Madras in June, I happened to catch the end of Super Singer Junior and loved the show.These days, once the week starts I start obsessively looking for the episodes on youtube. God bless the wonderful people who take the pains to upload them a couple of hours after it is aired!

They have some really high profile judges. The triumverate of Mathangi, Mahathi and Srilekha were really good with their decisions and approach. Now we have Malgudi Shubha, the droolicious (cmon..with a voice like that and after suttum vizhi!) Sriram Parthasarathy and the unworthy Deepan Chakravathy as judges for the next round. Deepan Chakravarthy is hilarious..He keeps talking about shruthi and then goes on to demonstrate how things have to be sung..only problem being, he has a grating voice and can’t hold a note himself! I hate the maudlin violin tunes they play when people are rejected or when they break down in front of the camera. The show will sell without that. Someone please tell Vijay TV that! Chinmayee is wasted on the show. Personally, she should have more screen time and probably sing more often than she does..She started one episode with a brilliant charanam from Minnale (the May Madham song).

The song choices for the competition are brilliant..A lot of lovely 90s melodies..The participants are a mixed bag. There are some really good ones. I think I sing better than some of the others..I have been gaining confidence in my singing capabilities. Gee, I think I can even take part in super singer sometime Ofcourse one bad side effect (that is effect on people by my side ) has been that I have been singing obsessively and bugging Mr.Violinist Agnostic to observe if my swara sthanas, pitch and landing notes are right (terminology judges use). Poor DPack had to listen to me throughout the drive back from our canoeing trip!

Also, in shows like these you start having personal favorites from episode 1 and you root for them through the rounds. Yesterday’s episode had my favorite, Ravi sing a brilliant alapanai in Brindavana Saranga. The circumstances leading to it was a little contrived, but yes he definitely is a sure shot at being Super Singer 2008. After that I ODed on Brindavana Saranga. It is such a wonderful floating raga. My personal favorites/recommendations :

1. “Yayum Yayum” from Madhirakshi - Fantastic sangam poetry, lovely musical interpretation, soulful piano support and ofcourse SGC’s magnificient singing! The album itself is out of this world soulful! I strongly recommend checking it out.

2. Ranjani Gayathri’s “Rangapuravihara” from their album “Paramanandam” or ofcourse this brilliant rendition. Paramanandam is another album I recommend. It has a mindblowingly brilliant “Hiranmayeem” also.

Sanjay and Ranjini Gayathri are coming to Columbus in the next 2 months. And in other news, I bought a new tennis racket and also,I am going to go watch Lion King, the Broadway show tonight! Life is good!

She tugged hard at the plastic wire, trying to snap the label out with bare hands. It finally gave away, leaving behind a deep red indent in her palm. Biting her pain away, she hurriedly draped the cloth around, looping the strings through the eye, one and a half turns around and a tight double knot. Then the shirt went on. She rolled her hair into a tight bun and pushed the hairstick through into position. Earrings, bangle, chain and eyeliner later, she allowed herself a glance at the mirror. And she knew she would have him wrapped around for life.

(101 words.)

Madras week celebrations are on in full swing at the home town. It is in times like this that I miss being there the most. To mark the occasion I am going to name the things I love about the city of my heart!

1. 600086- For home, school, Gangotree, Joy Shop,”sighting”, Eashwari library, playing hide and seek in the streets, Krishnar Kovil pongal in Margazhi, for being the center of “my” city and and my world! However much Madras is expanding, I always think I live in the center of the city! Mylapore and T.Nagar are a short ride away, the beach is a 15 minute drive, Nungambakkam is almost next door and ofcourse Sathyam Cinemas is a stone’s throw away!

2. My black and yellow chauffeur driven limos! With those wonderful creations of mankind, anything was only a drive away Haggling with them, walking away from one, only for them to come rushing behind you to catch up with you, walking away from the really arrogant ones, looking for “swami padams” in the autos before getting into one late in the night- ah those cheap (well not really) thrills of life!

3. Marina Beach - For the awesome memories : of 15 kids catching a bus at 6:30 in the morning to go play catch at the beach, of thenga manga sundal and pineapple with masala podi, of shooting balloons, of driving there late in the night in the middle of a cyclone, of enthu girls who drove there early in the morning to watch the fishermen after a night full of sleepover confessions, of going there every single day in the eight semester for apparently getting over my tsunami fear (that is what I told my mom!), of a plan made in the middle of the night on a conference call to meet there early the next morning, of meeting friends after two years to realize that somethings stay the same forever!

4. ECR : The beachhouses, the drives, the memories, the plans, the schemes and the promises of staying together forever!

5. For the food.

6. For the kutcheris with perimma, dance programs with D and Uthu, for the canteen food at the Academy and for Margazhi!

7. For the wonderful Chennai tamizh and engineering college lingo. If you don’t get it : Free a vidu!

8. For Kollywood, Super Star and other geniuses like Mani Ratnam, Rahman, Kamal, IR, Shankar..

9. For being THE home where the heart lies!

I could go on forever! But I like the number 9…So!

Today is Varalakshmi Nombu..one of my favorite festivals. There is a week of preparation usually that goes with it  and the frenzy with all family gathering at home and the anticipation of good times that come with the zillion festivals that follow.

A few days before the nombu, Parasuram, used to come in and paint white over the previous year’s nombu picture. And then we would start on a clean slate. We would proceed to paint on the wall : a pot with Lakshmi’s face on it , on a medai with betel leaves and paaku in the form of an akk (tamil alphabet resembling “therefore” symbol) , a comb and mirror set (with a paen seepu also, which always tickled me as a kid to think that ambal was also occasionally louse infested:P ) and the entire medai flanked by 2 banana trees and of course the maavalai thoranam.Given my artistic capabilities, I would be usually delegated the task of filling the banana tree with green or maybe sometimes even drawing it. Perimma and the artistically inclined used to proceed with the pot drawing (which is the most difficult thing..to draw a symmetrical pot took multiple attempts always) and of course drawing Lakshmi’s face.  We had close to 10 hands working on the picture every year and the night before the nombu we’ll finally be done with it. Of course, only for the men folk to step in and comment on the cross-eyed ambal or the pug nose!  The old wooden cradle would be brought down from the paran and made to stand vertical in front of the wall art giving the look of a mandapam in front of the goddess. It would then be draped with a purple silk saree (or whatever remains of it) with bright gold flowers, which belonged to my grandmother and is atleast 60 years old. Then P perimma, the most artistically inclined and enthu pattani of them all, will proceed to paint the goddess’ face (mugam) on the Sombu, which would then be placed on a plate with rice, in the cradle mandapam.

The day of the pooja would involve being woken up by exasperated amma, who would then in between her million chores bully me into getting into a paavadai and getting dressed and ready before the function. The entire herd of atahis, perimmas and cousins would be assembled and ready for the pooja. The vadhiyar would come, we will invite the amman into the house : Kindu and me singing Bhagyadha Lakshmi Baramma (which Paatu maami would have forced down our throats on amma and perimma’s request). I love this festival as this would be the one time in the year the women actually get to perform the ceremony as opposed to do all the hard work and watch from the side lines! Once the pooja is done there is the Nombu sharadu tying. I hate flowers especially Jasmine! So I would fuss and sulk till I got a sharadu with just the wonderful smelling meru leaves and nothing else. A huge meal followed with Vadai, payasam and fried appalam

Things have changed now. After the house was renovated, the drawing is done on chart paper instead of directly on the wall. With a lot of the girl children being married off and moving out, the drawing responsibilities are now upon Perimma, Amma and A. They try to keep the enthusiasm going. But where there were 15, there are 5 now! I miss being at home. I am bugged that I missed out on the opportunity to crib about how Independence day and Nombu fell on the same day denying me an extra holiday!

And yes, Happy Independence Day to all of you!

Art and the wise agnostic promised me a life altering experience when they strongly recommended the book to me.I love reading about spirituality and Advaitha in general.This book completely shattered any half-baked philosophies I had developed in my reading so far! Firstly, when the philosophy is presented to you as fiction it is a lot more pleasurable to read and ofcourse this book throws out all pretence of trying to teach. It instead takes you into this amazing journey of life metaphors and self exploration. I have been re-reading portions of the book over and over again and I discover a new truth/idea in each reading!  I especially loved the last chapter where Siddhartha describes to Govinda about how you can never find the truth if you go seeking it. The allusion between time and the river was mindblowingly brilliant. The book is filled with so many wonderful ideas, allusions and metaphors. The circle of life is presented in the book in so many contexts so brilliantly!Wisdom can’t be articulated (paraphrasing Hesse) and so I won’t even try especially with my paltry way with words! Read the book. It will change your life.

I have never (rarely I do some life alteringly good things) done a single, noble, unregrettable thing on impulse! The good stuff are all well pondered over and of course I gloat over it for a long time afterwards also. I have lost my temper on impulse so many times now that I am quite ashamed of myself. In general I am not a very moody, getting angry type person. I fire up for a couple of minutes and then let go..But my temper flares of late have led to dramatic consequences : slaps, throwing things at people, silly hurtful words, “shooing” away of people, silly messages that I regret 5 minutes later, high pitched yelling and of course buckets of tears! I need anger therapy..Following the wise agnostic’s teachings, am gonna get into meditative contemplation and of course the age old countdown trick.
P.S : I have gone ahead and bought this, the minute after reading about it in a blog! Hopefully I won’t regret it!

I seem to be in a very nostalgic mood these days. And am also trying to shed a few (more than a few..happy?) pounds. Which means food is on my mind constantly. Most often the kind of food I don’t have access to or don’t have the inclination to cook myself! Which ofcourse brings me to my inherent laziness..I crave for vengaya sambar (sweet onion sambar) and Aloo curry all the time..Simple enough to cook. But the fact that I have to cook it myself to satiate my craving is kind of unreasonable don’t you think. And to see my point you would have to know where I come from!

I grew up in a big joint family and lived in the family house that everybody else gathered at for all festivals, important and sundry. Diwali eve meant sitting in a circle around my athai with my cousins, receiving in turns, dolloped out small balls of vengaya sambar sadam with a small appalam bit in it. Trust me, vengaya sambar tastes the best eaten that way! I would then skip the rasam course (I never liked rasam as a kid cos of the extereme inconvinience of eating runny rasam sadam) and rejoin the ranks for Thair sadam with avakkai! Even regular meals at home would always be handed out to me in premixed form in eversilver basins, that were available in plenty at home thanks to the kolu visiting bounties. I would then proceed to sit in my trademark blue wire chair, with a book in one hand and the basin in the other. My mom and perima had long since given up trying to get us to eat any other way. With me especially, I think they were more than happy I was eating at all! Yeah..I know for people who know me now, it is a little difficult to believe.But I used to be an extremely fussy eater as a kid. I think making me hungry all the time now, is God’s way of punishing me for all the times my mom ran behind me basin in hand, tears streaming down her face. And for all the times she had to receive tips from a lot of other smirking mothers in school on how to cook tastier food so I wouldn’t bring back my lunch home everyday! So yeah, I was a fussy eater and was brought food premixed, course by course while I sat in my chair reading my book. I should make it clear though that I was not at all a spoilt kid, as I got suitably admonished when I visited my maternal grandparents’ house where my dining table manners and eating habits were constantly criticised, especially with paragon, behaviour model cousin B around

So after that huge detour on why I am like this, you will understand how my thoughts of going back home in the evening from the lab, and sitting down in a chair when magically a basin of sambar sadam comes to my hand remains a sweet bit of nostalgia!

Stomach’s Nostalgia -1 here.

PS : Shameless plug for sister’s blog

Most of us have memory associations with a particular song or album. I always associate songs with a time period of my life. Minnale always reminds of post 12th standard summer hangouts in the beach, Rhythm with chemistry class rides with D, Pehla Nasha of singing in the moonlight on the terrace…I digress..But you get the point right!

So anyway, I was browsing through my music and chanced upon this piece from Sanjay Subrahmanian’s Tamil Moovar CD. The Yadhukula Kamboji composition by Maarimutham Pillai..I love tamil compositions. I emote better with tamil songs. Especilally songs praising the dancing lord of Thillai! Yadhukula Kamboji is a joyous raaga with wonderful glides and I almost envision a gentle swaying when I listen to it. The first time I heard Kaalai Thooki was when my Athai sang it in her almost abaswaram koral. My Athai is a little overweight due to thyroid issues and always gets teased by us on her weight. On one such day she took chagrin to it and told us about how she was super slim when she was young. And about how she was the choice dancer for school plays and events. “Valanju valanju gracefull a aaduven theriyuma?”, she said. Cruel kids that we were burst into laughter immediately! And to prove it, she immediately launched into song and dance :”kaalai thooki nindradum deivame”..And to her credit she managed the Nataraja pose pretty well..She was breathless very soon..But we were quietened. And I fell in love with the song! My athai is a super sport, and since then has always complied to put on a “Kaalai Thooki” performance whenever we requested, sometimes with my other Athai providing a slightly (very slightly) improved vocal support!

You can listen to the song here : http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/ZqK2pqqMHd.As1NMvHdW/

The word “lesbian” comes from the Greek island of Lesbos which was home to the 6th century homoerotic poet Sappho.

Related news : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7520343.stm

P.S : I shudder to think of the kind of google searches this post is gonna lead to my blog!

I love the Mahabharatha. In all its forms, renditions and narrations. It is one of the biggest stories ever being atleast 10 times the size of the Illiad and Odyssey put together! It is the mother of all masala movie scripts. It is not as preachy as the Ramayana with some wonderfully multi-layered characters. Duryodhana’s character is one of the best explored one.Almost every charcater is painted with shades of grey. It is a fantastic exploration of the powers and devices of the human mind.

Starting from appa’s awesome bedtime narrations of the smaller more obscure stories and plots, I graduated to the various Amar Chithra Katha volumes almost as soon as I could read and comprehend full sentences.  And like every other kid that grew up in the early nineties, I would join the rest of the family in front of our TV religiously every Sunday to catch up with Mr.Samay. I remember this one time where appa and perippa with a lot of effort taped the theme music for me to use in a school annual day play. I played Nakula, amber was one of Drona’s (played by a droolicious S Murthy - BG remember?) sidekicks, D was very aptly Duryodhana (ha ha), and we were recreating the bird’s eye aiming story. Soon enough by the time I was in my early teens I was finally permitted to read our family bible - Kamala Subramanian’s Mahabharatha. It is almost like a coming of age ritual in my family, considering my dad and all his siblings know the book cover to cover! My dad’s favorite Sunday afternoon pastime used to be conducting “The Mahabharatha Quiz” ,my cousins and me being enthusiastic participants, right after Mastermind India finished on TV and usually during the Spirit Of Unity concerts. It is from that time that I remember useless information like names of  Krishna’s charioteer and Bhagadatta’s elephant (Daruka and Supritika if anyone is interested!). We had this awesome Hindi “non-detail textbook” in the 7th std , from NCERT I think, which had wonderfully glossy pages and even resembled a slokam book with a landscape page format! For once I listened in Hindi class. And my love for this epic continues till date. I am sure I would have watched Ekta Kapoor’s crappy “K” Mahabharatha with equal deligence if I were in India now.

I hope that some day my kids would inherit my passion for this wonderful tradition and epic and go to sleep listening to tales about Karna’s bee-bite and Abhimanyu’s valour. I for one will continue to return to my tattered copy of the book enjoying the stories from the days by-gone and memories from the years that were!

*Sparked by a recent discussion on the tennis court with friends*

P.S: The new header image is from my library at home in Chennai. I can even spot the Kamala Subramaniam book at the right extreme in the second row right by the Pears cyclopedia