Kuruyadu nandana – Sindhu Bhairavi
In 2006 I had gone on a concert tour of North America with Nagai Muralidharan (Violin), Guruvayur Dorai (Mrudangam) & Neyveli Venkatesh (Khanjira). It was a memorable tour filled with music, fun and learning. The seniors made Venkatesh and me feel so one with them. Nagai Muralidharan always encouraged me to pick up songs from […]
Read MoreVirtual Season
I never thought I’ll be a party to a ‘virtual season’ in December. After more than a year of COVID, life is offering a new normal, as they say it, and I’ll just have to play along. I have miss singing in front of audiences. I sit at home and sing concerts to myself everyday. […]
Read MoreParadevata – Dhanyasi
One side of my ancestors hail from the village Tiruvisainallur near Kumbakonam. Here, you can find the famous Sridhara Ayyaval Math, where an annual music festival was held every year. I had started singing concerts in 1986. My thatha (Tyagu) wanted me to sing there and so immediately used his influence to get me a […]
Read MoreIdi samayamu – Natakapriya
My introduction to the 10th melakartha, Natakapriya, was through the composition Geeta vadya (composed by Tanjavur Sankara Iyer). This was a popular hit with artistes like DK Jayaraman and TV Sankaranarayanan during the eighties. I was a huge fan of both these artistes and really wanted to learn and sing this sing this at that […]
Read MoreManasurada – Samakadambari
Samakadambari is a ragam that was created by GNB. I had learnt this song when I sang a GNB day concert for the Indian Fine Arts Society sometime in 1989/90. The ragam is a janyam of Sankarabharanam with the following scale Aro: S M G M P D S Ava: S N D M […]
Read MoreKumaraswaminam – Asaveri
My grand aunt and guru Smt Rukmini Rajagopalan had a particular liking for Dikshitar kritis. She had learnt several of those songs from Parur Sundaram Iyer. She had also picked up a few more Dikshitar kritis from T Brinda, GNB and B Rajam Iyer. She had taught me quite a few of those. I […]
Read MoreElavatara – Mukhari
I recently discovered a diary of mine from the eighties containing some interesting song lists. I had a made a list of important ragams and the list of songs that I need to learn in each of them. Mukhari was one of those and right at the top of the list was Elavatara, a […]
Read MoreRe re manasa – Naattai
Gajanana, Vinayaka, Ganapati, Ganesha all bring to mind the beginning of a concert with ragams like Hamsadhwani and Naattai dominating the musical landscape. In the early nineties I had a number of opportunities to give vocal support to my Guru Shri KSK’s concerts. The first song that I sang along with him was Re re […]
Read MoreGopala Bhaktim – Bageshri
Bageshri is a beautiful, melodious ragam that is very popular in North Indian classical music. My first exposure to this ragam was my mother singing Nanda tanaya. I don’t think I knew ragam names at that time. Much later I cam across a recording of Madurai Somu where he emotionally sings this calling it “Bageshwari” […]
Read MoreVanna maadangal – Ragamalika – Periazhwar pasuram
Mr Sivaramakrishnan was quite well known to hardcore carnatic music lovers in Madras. He had an extraordinary collection of spool tapes and shared them very generously. Once my uncle Ramesh and me were listening to a TM Thiagarajan concert in his place. That was the first time I came across this ragamalika by Periyazhwar. […]
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