The walking stick

I saw a speciality walking stick store in the Hiltopia mall in Shinjuku this morning. The lady, Ms Nagae, told me it's the only one of its kind in Tokyo and 26 years old! Visit http://www.Chaplin.co.jp. I am going to post a video clip of Poirot's elegant and expressive silver-topped stick the moment I'm back home.

The dance of Shiva

I took this photo in 2005 in Prambanan, Indonesia.

(scripted using Baraha)

In my previous post, there is a link to Pandit Chhannulal Misra's recitation of the sutra to indicate how Shiva is the originator of our music and literature.
I loved this sloka and researched it. I reproduce below the quote from kamakoti.org; the explanation of the sloka is presumably by the Sage of Kanchi:

Nrttavasane Nataraja-rajo nanada dhakkam navapancavaram


Uddhartukamah Sankadisiddhanetadvimarse Sivasutrajalam

I will speak briefly about this stanza. The silent Siva remains still [as Daksinamurti]. But the same Siva [in another form of his] keeps dancing all the time and it was from his dance that the science of language was born.
Nataraja is the name of the dancing Paramesvara. "Nata" is a member of a troupe which also consists of the "vita" and "gayaka". The nata dances. Nataraja is the king of all dancers-- he who cannot be excelled as a dancer-- and he is also called Mahanata [the great dancer].
"Nrttavasane. . . " Nataraja performs an awe- inspiring dance. It seems to bring together all the dance that all of us have to perform, the rhythms of all our lives.
Nataraja has a drum in one hand, called the dhakka or damaruka. The tala of this drum (the time kept by it) is in keeping with the "footwork" of the dancing god, the movement of his feet. The beat of his drum is referred to in the words, "nanada dhakkam".
When Nataraja dances, Sanaka and his brother sages, Patanjali Vyaghrapada and so on stand round him. They are great ascetics, so they are able to see the dance. At the close of the dance, the concluding beats(cappu) produced fourteen sounds. It is these fourteen that are referred to in the stanza ("Nrttavasane", etc) as "navapancavaram"; "nava" is nine and "panca" is five, so fourteen in all. "Nanada dhakkam navapancavaram.
The fourteen sounds produced by Nataraja's drum are the means by which the reality of Siva is to be known and experienced within us in all its plenitude. Nandikesvara has commented upon the fourteen sounds in his Sivabhaktisutra.
The fourteen sounds are recited at the upakarma ceremony. Since they emanated from the drum of Mahesvara(Nataraja), they are called "Mahesvarasutras". Human beings can produce only inarticulate sounds on the musical instruments played by them. The hand of Paramesvara is verily the Nadabrahman and Sabdabrahaman incarnate, so his cappu on the damaruka at the conclusion of his tandava sounded as a series(garland) of fourteen letters:
1. a i un; 2. rlk; 3. e on; 4. ai auc; 5. hayavarat; 6. lan; 7. nama nana nam; 8. jha bha n; 9. gha da dha s; 10. ja ba ga da da s; 11. kha pha cha tha tha catatav; 12. kapay; 13. sa sa sar; 14. hal-iti Mahesvarani sutrani.
Though the musical instruments do not produce articulate sounds, they create the impression of producing the phonemes of human speech. If this be so in the case of instruments played by humans, why should not the drum beaten by Nataraja during his pancakrtya dance produce articulate sounds?How did Panini make use of the fourteen sounds? He created an index from the sutras to vocalise the letters or syllables together. According to the arrangement made by him, the first letter or syllable of a sutra voiced with the last letter or syllable of another sutra will indicate the letters or syllables in between. For example, the first syllable of "hayavarat", "ha", and the last letter of "hal", "l", together make "hal". This embraces all the consonants in between. Similarly, the first letter of the first sutra, "a", and the last letter of the fourth sutra together form "ac"-this includes all the vowels. The first letter of the first sutra and the last letter of the fourteenth sutra together form "al" - it includes all letters. "Halantasya" is one of the sutras of Astadhyayi. "Al" itself has come to mean writing. "A-kara" is the first letter in all languages. In Urdu it is alif; in Greek it is alpha. Both are to be derived from "al". So too "alphabet" in English. Here is another fact to support the view that, once upon a time, the Vedic religion was prevalent all over the world.

We know thus that the prime source of grammar is constituted by the Mahesvara-sutras emanating from the drum of Nataraja.

Singer extraordinary - Pandit Chhannulal Misra

I have been listening to Hindustani music for decades and yet did not know of this wonderful musician until today when You Tube introduced me to him.

He is a great ambassador for Banares. He gives a very interesting meaning for the word Banares here. (right click and open a new window).

He says beautifully that Banares is the home of music since the original musician Shiva has made it his home! Also that  "Banaa ras" is their motto.. to make music!

Listen to his music here,

and here too,

and here again,

and some more!

Agatha Christie's Poirot

You Tube Link

I am watching this exquisite TV series, I bought a whole lot of DVDs.

The 1930's period setting, the character sketches, the acting, the dialogue, are all quintessential British humour. Of course David Suchet is incredibly good.

Watch the You Tube video. I am sure you will soon grab the DVDs!

Here is a link in Wikipedia

Todi on the Mridangam - Umayalpuram K Sivaraman

I think the most salubrious situation for musical excellence is a well-tuned veena and mridangam in conversation, in the hands of two maestros who have no care in the world so they can pursue the ethereal bliss that music can shower on us. There is no quieter place on earth for such a tête-à-tête than a recording studio and in this instance we have Emani Sankara Sastry and Umayalpuram Sivaraman collaborating in an AIR concert. Emani plays a Todi RTP and I give below the pallavi portion to show what heights they both can reach, especially the mridangam maestro.

Can you immerse yourself in the Todi that the mridangam maestro plays? The sensitive accompaniment, the sparkling sound, the deep bass, the strokes that sound like a stringed instrument? And Todi in all its splendour, with the Ga, Ma, Pa and Dha and the other notes dancing at his finger tips?

Blessed are we to have such a great musician like Sri Sivaraman giving us blissful music for so many decades. Nothing can express our gratitude to this maestro ever.

Ten do's for enjoying Carnatic music

I have listed here the ten things I have learnt over time that will make me enjoy Carnatic music more deeply and lingeringly:

1. Be on time for the concert.
2. Buy a ticket.
3. Respect each artiste- every moment of music is a gift- fresh and enjoyable.
4. Listen. Don''t sing along.
5. Keep your knowledge to yourself. Don't try to impress others.
6. If you do put tala, be discreet and correct.
7. Listen totally. No chat, paper or mag.
8. No toilet break.
9. Applaud if you enjoy. It is a good exercise.
10. Go home and savour the lyric later. It is a good after-taste.

iPhone smiles

The Festival of Light

As we celebrate light, let's remember
Darkness nourished us till our arrival.
Light plays on our beings much like joys and smiles
But darkness prepares us for this Festival of Lights!

Gandhi and Obama

Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937, 1938, 1947, and a few days before his assassination in 1948.The fact that he was not awarded the Prize was regretted by the committee publicly when the Prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama. If you read this item at Nobelprize.org, you will learn that it was because the Nobel Peace Prize was somewhat exclusive to Europeans and Americans during Gandhi's time. The postage stamp in the picture is from UK in 1969.

Now the Nobel Prize has been awarded to Obama. Obama became the President of USA less than a year ago on a vote for change, a change from the policies and beliefs that precipitated wars and economic crises big time. Obama is a great orator, but he has not achieved anything to win a Nobel Peace Prize!

Gandhi's life is remarkable. I found this report in the Time magazine archives from 1931:

The same frayed sandals that carried St. Gandhi on his illegal salt march through India 19 months ago carried him last week up the crimson-carpeted stair of Buckingham Palace. Flunkies in scarlet & gold bowed the small, unrepentant lawbreaker into the Picture Gallery. There at the head of the receiving line stood George V in striped trousers and morning coat, Queen Mary in a shimmering silver tea gown and Edward of Wales (who had flown down especially from Liverpool) dressed like his father. The Lord Cham berlain, the Earl of Cromer, advanced through a horde of 500 tea guests, some of them Maharajas wearing pearls as big as butterballs.

  "Mahatma Gandhi!" announced the Lord Chamberlain. George V at once looked up. The sandals carried the Saint to His Majesty who stretched out a royal hand. Mr. Gandhi took it firmly, shook it warmly. He then placed his own hands palm to palm, bowed to Their Majesties as a Hindu priest bows when imparting benediction.

Queen Mary smiled approvingly. Mr. Gandhi was not in "morning dress" as the royal invitation had requested (TIME, Nov. 9) but he was wearing a loincloth wider by a thumb's breadth than usual, and a shawl of homespun. Queen Mary saw nothing unseemly, betrayed the merest flicker of interest as she espied the Mahatma's dangling dollar watch.

 King George drew Guest Gandhi into the royal study. There the King-Emperor took a dish of tea, the Mahatma sucked in a bowl of goat's milk sent up from the palace kitchen.

 Among buzzing guests in the Picture Gallery several startled the rest by recalling that this was not the first Gandhi-George V meeting. In 1901 the Indian community of Durban, South Africa welcomed the then Duke & Duchess of York, now Their Majesties, with a reception at which Lawyer M. K. Gandhi made the principal address. In 1901 impotent Ad- dresser Gandhi was bedight in the latest British fashion. Last week potent St. Gandhi created a sensation by leaving the royal teaparty before no other guest. "Personally I have very little time for social functions," said he. "Both Their Majesties were charming. I also liked the Prince of Wales."

British Reporter: Did the King give any encouragement to your hope for Indian independence?

St. Gandhi: Only God gives encouragement, not Kings.

 Badgered by correspondents to tell what his host had talked about, Guest Gandhi replied, "It would not be dignified for me to tell you what the King said," and explained why.

 "Our conversation consisted mostly of pleasantries. There were questions and answers about the weather and its effect on a man so recently come from India as myself."

 Shortly from Bombay the Mahatma received a cable signed by leading spirits of his Indian National Congress. They begged him to quit the Indian Round Table Conference in London because it has shown no sign of recommending independence for India. Promptly St. Gandhi announced: "I will sail for Bombay from Genoa on the 29th. ... I feel that I'm wasting my time here, but I'm willing to stay in London until the end of the Conference, which I expect will be in a fortnight. Then nobody can accuse me of impatience."

Photography

I just posted a web album..a Sunday in Sydney. Check it out in the box

Weekend Sydney

Begada - my favourite raga

Begada

Begada, or as we say in Kannada, Begade, is my favourite raga. It has a depth and colour like no other raga in either Carnatic or Hindustani music. There are many wonderful ragas, but Begada has some creative energy like the ocean. I just wrote a poem on Begada:

Begada

Pride of the valorous Shankara clan,

Your presence resonates with majesty.
You’re supple strength in gymnastic leaps and dives
And yet you’re subtle in your nuanced graces.
You bring courage to my heart
And also a serene benediction.
You lash me like the mighty waves of the ocean;
Standing on the rock, I exult in your subtle spray.
 
I am yet to come across a rendering that does justice to my imagery, the strength and nuanced touch that this raga commands in my imagination. The fact that I am not a musician surely helps... I can dream without duress!
 
I give you two links to unfamiliar compositions in Begada:

Vaa Muruga - O.S. Arun - this is a tough composition which calls for considerable vocal skills. The composer is Spencer Venugopal.

Hari Narayana - Purandara dasa- sung and played by Ganesh Kumaresh.


The photo at the top is one I snapped in 2006 in Kota Kinabalu. I wish the sea had been thundering with waves so I could show the mood of Begada.  But you can still see its fiery potential!

Gene Kelly - the amazement continues

Julie Andres & Gene Kelly show you some tricks

Did you know?

Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer. Kelly was the recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors, and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute; in 1999, the American Film Institute also numbered him 15th in their Greatest Male Stars of All Time list. He was born in Pittsburgh, was a very good sportsman, and started a dance school to help the family economically when he was in his teens.

He was also a good student and earned a degree in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh.

To see his incredible talents, see these two You Tube videos (links below the pics)....

Gene Kelly takes it to a new level- tap dances on skates!

Julie Andrews & Gene Kelly show you some tricks

Singin' and dancin' in the rain

No Indian movie can survive without song and dance. Those arty ones where dance and music are eschewed are doomed to fail like a poorly fuelled rocket. But if you think, like I did till yesterday, that Indian heroes are the most unabashed dancers and can dance at the drop of a dupatta, even in VT and even in a karmic Slumdog British bash, think again.

I saw Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain last night. It was made in 1952, and is often ranked as the best musical of all time and the fifth best film in 100 years. It is a totally unreserved Hollywood musical, and songs and dances hit you as often as Pillaiyar temples in Chennai and medical shops in Bangalore. It is co-directed and choreographed by the lead actor, Gene Kelly. You should see him to believe what a man can do as a dancer.

Just watch these You Tube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCpOKtN8ME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW02c5UNGl0

There are breathtaking dances right through, and Gene Kelly is unimaginably athletic, graceful and sings so well, too!  The camera work in 1952, with a smoothness that shows almost no editing, pays a huge tribute to the talents that did it in just one take.

The story itself  is interesting. The stars of the silent era have to face the prospect of singing and dancing and talking in the new talkies, and the star who commands a big rating has a woeful voice and no speaking talent. Her voice is dubbed by a lovely young talent, but the star insists that no one should know that her voice is dubbed and her voice-over artiste should remain unknown. But the hero, Gene Kelly, loves the voice-over talent and wants her to shine and be known. How all this comes about is the stuff of a great film.

I once uncannily wrote in my head a similar story. A Kannadiga starlet becomes famous for her Aishwarya-like looks in Telugu movies, but cannot speak the local tongue. Hence all her voice is dubbed in all her movies by an anonymous talent, whose emotive voice mesmerises audiences with a rich depth. So everyone in the industry keeps praising the starlet for "her voice", when in fact, unseen and uncelebrated, someone else builds up the starlet's entire charisma through her dubbed voice.

The dosa rules

Divinely born, a dual sided disc-

Bronzed to a dazzling brown,

Rules the DOSA like a mahavidwan

Flanked by impeccable accompaniment;

Truly do the seers proclaim: raso vy dosah!

This word 'great'

I just counted 17 occurences of "great" in my blog already. In fact, in one place I say "great great".

What is this thing I have for this word "great"?

Some quick research says that in old English, great meant large, rough and uncouth. It is related to the German word gross ( in fact they place a ß to replace a double "s" and call it an Eszett.Of course we know what gross means in English.)

I use this word because I am somewhat excited to describe what I am saying at that moment and can't find a simpler way to describe how wonderful, magnificient, incomparable, unprecedented, outstanding, remarkable, memorable, impactful, indescribable, excellent, superb, fabulous, out-of-the-ordinary, unforgettable, surprisingly good, prompting-an-exclamation, drawing-a-wow, inciting-an-applause, instigating-a-Bravo! the thing or feeling or person I am alluding to, is.

I took this picture of the Great Barrier Reef when I flew recently from Tokyo to Sydney. The pilot obligingly told us to look out on the left side. My ever-obliging iPhone was at hand in flight mode.

The Great Barrier Reef.  Here I quote from Wikipedia ( the guy who named it was sure as excited as I am sometimes)

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi).The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia.The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. The Great Barrier Reef supports a wide diversity of life, and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN has labelled it one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. The Great Barrier Reef has long been known to and utilised by the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is an important part of local groups' cultures and spirituality.

Sydney beckons to spring!

If you click on any picture, it will open in a bigger size. Originally shot in 21 MP resolution. To give you a flavour of it, see below. (it is cropped from the left-side flower)

K.V. Narayanaswamy

I have posted a great KVN sampler from the Internet alongside. It is a rendering with the great Raghu, Allah Rakha, and V.V. Subramaniam, all shown in the picture here.

The Poornachandrika tillana is my favourite. Listen to the "josh" with which Raghu and Allah Rakha accompany KVN. Yes, the one and only KVN. His interview which is a "maargadarshi" for aspiring musicians is linked here.

Enjoy!

Life paints in water colours

As I see everyday the beauty of flowers that bloom for a day, as I see the seasons change ever so subtly to bring a new song to birds, I think how subtle and changing every aspect of life is. It is delicate and transient. To appreciate it calls for a great sensitivity and willingness to accept change. After all, life seems to paint in delicate water colours, easily washed away. Not with permanent markers.

It isn't too hard to know it, but to accept it calls for great serenity on my part. Akbar, the semi-literate but wise emperor, carved at the entrance to his Fatehpur Sikri fort this message :"The world is a bridge, pass over it, but do not build upon it".  Everything moves and changes, but I hold on, asking for things to last for ever, to be the most intense they can be, and lose all subtlety. How insensitive all this makes me indeed!

I think Indians are particularly fond of holding on to things. We are also forsaking subtlety for hard impact. We make and preserve masalas, (the most processed of all food stuffs, and going beyond seasonality and subtlety) and garnish everything with tons of salt, ghee and sugar. We have moved away from subtle chamber music to stereophonic cacophony. We now wear polyester dhotis and Chinese nylon sarees. We have thrown away our woven straw mats and hand painted wooden toys for a plastic world. No more oil lamps. It's all neon, my dear. Temples and function halls are garishly decorated with plastic flowers.  What a mega-maha confession of lack of subtlety and true aesthetics!

Just remembered how even great Carnatic musicians have produced albums garnished with pathetic orchestral embellishment.

Life paints in water colours. Here today, gone tomorrow. Living in the moment calls for an aliveness that I must again cultivate. I was born with it, but have lost it in this make-believe world!

The picture at the top is my way of going back to subtlety. It is a water colour rendering of the original photo I took at Monet's impressionist garden in Giverny.