Love Is In The Air

This song has been haunting me for the past two days. I suddenly got in the mood to listen to this song and I have been hooked to it for more than 24 hours now. I like the Tamil original more than the Hindi version, even though I cannot understand a word in that song. I think the original has so much more romance, passion, sex appeal, emotions, yearning and love in it.

Bombay Jayashree has been one of my favorites for a long time now. Here is a short story from my history books:

It was almost 11PM, and five of us were sitting in our family room after finishing dinner – Me, my mother, father, brother and Bombay Jayshree. She had finished a Carnatic clasical vocal concert that evening and was relaxing after a tasty dinner. We were generally talking about different topics and she was telling us how her best friend, who happened to be a Kannadiga, would correct her Kannada pronunciations when she sang any Kannada songs. We were talking about different music styles and within no time she was sitting on the carpet with a harmonium. She went on to sing ghazals for two hours and I was mesmerized. I couldn’t believe that this was the same person who had given a carnatic classical concert just a few hours earlier. Pure classical music in a silk saree to melodious ghazals in a pink salwaar kameez – her voice had the same beauty. I am always impresses by such multi-faceted singers.

One other note about Bombay Jayashree. She called us regularly and always wanted us to go to her concerts whenever she came to the city. She kept in touch and my parents attended her concerts whenever they could. It’s been quite some time now. She has moved along and is a big name in Indian music today. And, I have moved along too, with not so big name in the computer industry.

But, that night is still etched in my memory. One small note….the first time I met her, I really didn’t know how to address her (basically, I was a dumbass) and called her ‘aunty’. She was gracious enough to smile and polite enough to correct me – and then I started calling her ‘akka’ 🙂

Anyway, back to the song. Listen and enjoy. And, if any good human being who visits this blog knows Tamil, please translate. Thank you!!!

Music And Moods

My wife and I had a romantic dinner. We came back home and started listening to melodious hits from ‘Gupt’, ‘Dil Se’, ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam’, ‘Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa’, ‘Rampur Ki Lakshman’, ‘1947:Earth’, ‘Suraj Ka Sathwa Ghoda’, ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’, ‘Aa Gale Lag Ja’ and others.

Needless to say, it was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Music is so powerful. It can create the perfect atmosphere.

My wife is sleeping now. And being a night owl, I continued listening to more songs. I clicked on “Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle” from ‘Aa Gale Lag Ja’. That suddenly turned the wheel in a different direction. After that I went onto listen to “Tumse Milke” from ‘Pyaar Jhukta Nahin’. And then, yes you guessed it right, “Nee Meetida Nenapellavu” from ‘Nee Bareda Kadambari’. And, now I am back listening to “Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle”.

Music is so powerful. I always knew that. But being super romantic to downright hurt within a few hours is not something which I experience everyday. I have realized that writing is the best medicine I can ever get. Even if it is the form of a dumb post!

A Frog In A Well

One more death in the family. I am better off not dedicating a post for that. It’s become a norm this year. As I said earlier, I am really looking for a brighter, better New Year!!!

Now onto a completely different topic.

I can’t recall how many times I have had such discussions. I had one more yesterday, with yet another self-proclaimed Carnatic classical ‘purist’.  The difference this time is that I had 3 girls, including my wife support my stance this time. The discussion started with ‘M’ and his bride hunting stories and soon transformed into a debate on music, it’s core essentials and it’s role on mankind.

Now that I have mentioned that ‘M’ is a Carnatic classical ‘purist’, I need not specifically mention that he thinks that Indian film music is ‘crap’ (in his own words). Additionally his argument was based on a blanket statement of “If you are passionate about Carnatic music, you will not appreciate any other music”. Yeah right, talk of narrow mindedness. Unfortunately, from what I have seen (and I have seen quite some), there is no dearth for such attitudes among Carnatic classical musicians.

For the sake of argument, it was simple for me to combine film music, bhAvageethe, ghazals, vachanas, dEvaranAmas etc. under one ‘light music’ bracket. I tried explaining how people can easily listen to varied kinds of music and appreciate them both. I took my own example and said how I can enjoy both the harshness in ‘System of The Down’ and the melody of Latha Mangeshkar just fine. Then, I brought my mother’s example. Initially she used to give pure classical concerts, then she moved onto give both classical and light music concerts and finally she stuck with light music. Even today, she can enjoy both classical and light music equally well. ‘M’ knows about my mother from different perspectives (infact, ‘M’s mother once told me that she is a very big fan of my mother). And, in this case, ‘M’ came up with an argument that people like my mother are exceptions.

I tried explaining to him that there are tons of such people all over the place. A.V.Krishnammachar was such a passionate carnatic classical violinist, and at the same time he gave music to thousands of Kannada bhAvageethe’s under the name ‘Padmacharan’. He undoubtedly laid the foundation for the growth of Kannada bhAvageethe. My wife gave example of Vasanth Kanakapur, who is an excellent Hindustani classical harmonium player and at the same time a brilliant bhAvageethe composer. There are tons more. Balamurali Krishna and Bhimsen Joshi have sung light music. Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia have given music to commercial films. ‘M’ came up with a “they are an exception” for each and every one of them. Personally, I know several listeners including me, who appreciate multiple forms of music.

That was not the end of argument. Our dude tried giving rubbish analogies. Apparently, film music is like Toyota and Carnatic classical music is like a Ferrari. Not many people drive Ferrari because most people are not rich and similarly not many people are interested in listening to Carnatic classical music because theya re ‘intellectually challenged’. Do you see how pathetic the analogy is?

‘M’s problem with film music was that in some songs they use niShedha swaras without any regard to the ‘rules’. Sure, but then whose rules are we talking about? Music as a genre? The only rules in a film song is that it shouldn’t violate the basic music rules of pitch and rhythm and the music and lyrics should touch the heart and mind of the listener. It’s not that complicated, is it? ‘M’ argued that without rules you can never improve upon an existing infrastructure. I immediately saw why ‘M’ couldn’t appreciate film music. It’s because he was completely missing the point. He goes behind theory. He doesn’t understand that listening to film songs is not same as listening to Carnatic classical music. He certainly cannot appreciate film music. The reason was quite obvious to me by that time.

But, the claim that Carnatic classical musicians are ‘intellectually superior’ bugged me and the girls big time. Finally, I went tangentially and came up with the what is more important to humankind? Why we invented music? arguments. The fact that Latha Mangeshkar’s voice has touched millions more people than any individual Carnatic classical musician, she probably is so much more ‘greater’ and her life is so much more ‘complete’. ‘M’ didn’t have an answer to it and reluctantly agreed. Finally, I did mention to him that my argument was as stupid as his ‘intellectually superior Carnatic classical musicians’ argument and told him that I took this line just to counter him. I certainly won’t ever say that Latha Mangeshkar is ‘greater’ than Balamurali Krishna. It is so foolish to argue on those lines.

From what I have seen, ‘M’ is not an exception. It saddens me to see that several hardcore Carnatic classical musicians have a similar attitude.  Bask in the glory of your art form. At the same time, respect other human beings and other art forms. Only then is there any meaning to your loyalty. If not, your allegiance is the biggest farce the World has seen!!!

Sound Of Music

It was quite boring to watch Djokovic drub Del Potro and Jankovic overcome Bammer in the US Open. I was changing channels fast and instantly stopped when I heard the ever romantic “I am sixteen, Going on seventeen”. We had half an hour before our friends were going to join us. I knew the time was so much more well spent listening to

“Raindrops on roses and Whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles and Warm woolen mittens”.

I certainly have a different set of “My favorite things”. But, the song was good enough to suddenly make a gloomy evening, a very bright one.

And lucky me, just before my friends came in (and that’s when I had to switch off the TV), I got to listen (and sing along) Do-Re-Mi. Now, isn’t that a classic?

Do – a deer, a female deer

Re – a drop of golden sun

Mi – a name, I call myself

Fa – a long long way to run

So – a needle pulling thread

La – a note to follow So

Ti – a drink with jam and bread

and that will bring us back to Do!!!

I hope I have the lyrics right (wasn’t too keen to google). If you haven’t listened to the songs of ‘Sound of Music’, you have to. If not, you are missing out on something. So, go grab the CD or the movie. Until then, Que Sara Sara (oh well, some other time!).

He Wins, She Wins, Who Wins?

Sonu Nigam, I Am Sorry, but Chitra can console you. 

Let me give you an example of how the movie awards are given. When my mother was in the committee for film awards a few years back, she awarded the ‘Best Female Playback Singer’ award to Chitra for the movie ‘Chandramukhi Pranasakhi’. Since my mother was the expert in music, pretty much everyone agreed. But, there was one section of the committee which suggested that the award be given to Chitra, but for a different song from a different movie. Even that was a melodious song and rest of the people in the committee started agreeing to that suggestion. My mother’s main point was that the award HAD to go to Chitra because she had sung very well. They checked and saw that the other song was also sung by Chitra. Since a few people in the committee had reservations about the original song, plus the fact that the second song was also sung by Chitra, the award was announced for the second song.

Guess what??? The producers of the other movie had intentionally given the name of the singer as Chitra for the second song. It was infact sung by Latha Hamsalekha. After the awards were announced, the producers came out and said that the song was sung by Latha Hamsalekha and not Chitra, and thus the award was finally given to Latha Hamsalekha. Obviously, they had ‘booked’ a few people in the awards committe. That also explained why nobody had answers when my mother asked them as to why Chitra’s voice was different in the second song. My mother realized that being naive and straightforward are not good traits to be in a politically tainted awards committee.

ಅನಿಸುತಿದೆ ಯಾಕೋ ಇಂದು

Karnataka state awards for movies have been announced. What caught my eye was the award for the male playback singer.

Hemanth has won the “Best Male Playback Singer” award for the movie ‘Kallarali Hoovagi’. Sure, he has done a good job. He has certainly sang well.

But, wait a second. Didn’t the saints in the award committee not listen to, what’s that song again? Yes, ‘Anisutide’!!!!!!!!!!

‘Anisutide’ is so full of life and the depth of singing is almost unmatchable, at least in the recent times. Sonu Nigam has done an amazing job, period.

I am certainly qualified enough to judge music. And, I do agree that different people have different tastes. But brother, this is not about taste. This is too simple an issue. Sonu Nigam’s rendering of ‘Anisutide’ gives you an out of the World experience. It’s pure magic. 

Did the saints somehow decide that it is more appropriate to ‘encourage’ a Kannadiga than a very well known ‘outsider’? Could that have been the reason why Hemanth was chosen over Sonu Nigam?

Sonu Nigam did not lose. Neither did the fans, nor the saints. ‘Best Male Playback Singer’ award lost out.

‘Anisutide’ – here’s my two drops, added to a million more!!!

Minchu – Atrocious Song

Now that I am in India, I realized that as an ardent Kannadiga, my job is to worship TN Seetharam with the entire state. So, it started at 9PM on monday when his new serial ‘Minchu’ kicked off. It is too early to comment on the serial itself, but I sure will revisit the topic. What caught my ears though was the horrible opening music. Ashwath’s music is so bad and the singing is so below par that I am tempted to mute it. It absolutely has no emotions, is hideous and is excruciatingly painful to listen to. As always, just trust me.

Kannada Sammelana – Why Do We Need Them ?

Let me start off by saying that I completely support the annual Kannada Sahitya Sammelana. At the same time, I would like to analyze the usefulness of such conferences. There are certainly a few things which have bothered me about several such Sammelanas. 

I want to touch upon all the flavors of such Sammelanas. How about the regular ‘Vishwa Kannada Sammelana’ in America, once every two years ? (Yep, even Kannadigas in America have realized that when you live here, America is indeed the World…thus the word ‘vishwa’). The main idea behind such conferences is to bring many American Kannadigas together. There are literary, philosophical, and youth forums at the conference, but the main emphasis is really on the cultural aspects. In the recently concluded Sammelana at Baltimore, I was involved in both literary and cultural part of the festival. I read my poem and sang some songs, on two separate stages (Oh, and my wife sang a song written by me and composed by my mother J ). But, I can honestly say that I enjoyed singing so much more than reciting poem for multiple reasons. One, obviously there were much more people who listened to my singing than my reading. And two, the cultural programs were well organized whereas the literary programs were totally ill-planned and completely mis-managed. What I want to emphasize here is that the Vishwa Kannada Sammelana hardly has any literary touch to it (even though it claims to have it). It’s all about cultural programs and there’s nothing wrong there. This Sammelana provides that vital link between thousands of Kannadigas in Ameriica. We need that once every two years and I think it is very appropriate that we continue doing such Sammelanas. 

And, we have the annual ‘Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’ in India. You can see almost all the big name politicians during the inauguration every year. Everyone from the chief minister to the district-in-charge minister will be vying for the limelight. They come, they go and no, they don’t conquer any hearts or minds. The Sammelana president’s speech is one of the key things. He or she decides that there are several burning issues regarding Kannada and Karnataka. They come up with a list of problems and list of solutions. The government is asked to review them and implement the solutions. And, all that falls on deaf ears. In my opinion, right there, the reasoning for holding an annual ‘Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’ is lost. So many people (including URA !) have talked about improvements to primary education and how Karnataka government and ‘Kannada Sahitya Parishat’ can help in this. People have spoken about pathetic state of affairs outside Bengalooru, especially in North Karnataka. The border issue is perennial, especially when Sammelanas happen in places like Belgaum and headed by people like Patil Puttappa. I do understand that not all problems have solutions and not all problems have easy solutions. It’s easy to blame the government. I will not do that in two sentences. I need much more words to bash the government. What I fail to understand is that none of these issues – literally zilch – gets even looked at by our netas. Isn’t that sad ? 

In addition to president’s speech, Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’s have tons of discussion panels, poetry reading and evenings of music, dance and drama. Unfortunately, not many people are interested in the former, bulk of the gatherings are for the cultural programs. A handful like me attend both the events. I hate to discriminate, but the former is for the ‘intellectuals’ and the latter is for the ‘common’. And, that makes me a jack of all and master of none J  

At the end of the day, it makes sense to have such Sammelanas. It brings several common men like us together. We swim through a healthy literary river for three or four days. We also enjoy the best cultural programs that Karnataka has to offer.  We enjoy in the name of language. What more can I ask ?  It’s easy to neglect the presence of the politicians.  

This brings me to the next level Sammelana’s. ‘Gulbarga District Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’ and ‘T.Narsipura Taluk Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’. Really ? Are you kidding ? Now, don’t give me the reason that not everyone can travel to different cities every year, so the district and taluk sammelanas are needed. Neither is it true that the ‘budding’ writers and artistes get a chance at the district and taluk Sammelanas. Have you ever seen a list of their programs ? It is full of ‘bogus’ writers and artistes. Other than the president (in most cases), such Sammelana’s are a total burden to the exchequer. 

I have no strong opinion on a few other out of state sammelanas such as ‘Kerala State Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’ or ‘Delhi Sammelana’. Some of them serve the same purpose as the ‘Vishwa Kannada Sammelana’ does for American Kannadigas. So, I guess that’s good. But, I am not in favor of any such Sammelana coming up with resolutions to “immediately transfer Kasargod to Karnataka” or “implement Mahajan committee report at 7:59PM today”. That’s not the job of such Sammelanas, especially when they are hosted in another state. Come on, do you think we will be happy to host a “Marathi Sammelana” in Belgaum which comes up with a resolution asking the central government to give Belgaum to Maharashtra right away. Such things are plain wrong. 

For those cynics who question the validity of ‘Vishwa Kannada Sammelana’ and ‘Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’, my answer will be “Nice try, but bug off”. We need them. That cements our culture, it builds relationships, it’s a celebration of language and much more. As for the district and taluk Sammelanas, my answer will be “When is the joke ending ?”. Oh, I have to admit that Kamala Hampana definitely qualifies to be a part of the ‘kavi gOSHTi’ in ‘Heggadadevanakote Taluk Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’. 

Plagiarism, Copying And Idiots

Ivan McEwan’s ‘Atonement’ is under microscope now. This book has received rave reviews and McEwan is a very accomplished writer. So, what’s the controversy now ? Apparently, an entire chapter is a copy from one of Lucilla Andrews’ books. That chapter mainly talks about a nurse during World War II. I have not read both the books and don’t intend to.

Here is an example from both the books. I came across this on the web. 

Andrews’ book says ”Our ‘nursing’ seldom involved more than dabbing gentian violet on ringworm, aquaflavine emulsion on cuts and scratches, lead lotion on bruises and sprains,” 

And, McEwan’s equivalent is “In the way of medical treatments, she had already dabbed gentian violet on ringworm, aquaflavine emulsion on a cut, and painted lead lotion on a bruise. But mostly she was a maid,” 

We know that copyright laws are very complicated. To prove that it’s a copy, they go through the words that have been used, context, and so much more. It is indeed quite hard to prove plagiarism.  

We have to note that in this case, McEwan has acknowledged in his book that Lucilla Andrews’ work gave him a lot of information about nursing during WW II. Plus, he is a very prolific writer. The scandal involves only one chapter in the entire book. Of course, that chapter is quite long, with around 30,000 words in it. 

Apparently all the British writers have stood by McEwan. Even the lawyers seem to think that this is not a valid case. It is believed that Lucilla Andrews was planning to talk about the issue publicly before she died. But she never did and we will never know what she had to say. 

Since I have not read either of the books, I will not take a stand here. This is just an example. Haven’t we heard tons of other stories like this. Coming to Kannada, how about Dr. UR Ananthamurthy and his ‘bhAratIpura’ ? And, how much haven’t we heard about Aryamba Pattabhi taking it out of her sister Triveni’s books. Are they all real or are they figments of imagination ? In most of the cases, we will never know (Kavya Viswanathans are not that common in this world). 

Another point to note. Why does this affect writers so much and not the musicians ?  Do we somehow consider writers to be ‘superior’ ? How come musicians are so immune to such controversies ? 

Let me take an example here. How about the good old ‘rArAvENu’ in Raaga ‘bilahari’.  Here is the notation for one of the stanzas: 

P A A A M G R G D A A A M G R G

P A A A M G R G P A P A P A A A 

Now, let me change that to: 

P M A A A G R G D M A A A G R G

P M A A A G R G P A P A P A A A 

If I sing the whole song as is, with only the above changes, will that become my composition ? How stupid is that ? If I am musically challenged, I won’t even notice the difference. 

Such tricks to get past the law is quite common in Indian light music and film music. Let’s not even get to ‘Final Countdown’ and ‘Oye Oye’, we have tons of examples of copying within India. I grew up listening to Rajan Nagendra’s melodious ‘kanasalU nIne manasalU nIne’. After 16 years, it suddenly becomes a Nadeem-Shravan original with ‘aisi deewAngI’. Similarly ‘eMdeMdu’ becomes ‘bin tErE’. There are so many other examples. Ilayaraja’s ‘O priyA priyA’ becomes an Anand-Milind creation in Hindi and AR Rehman’s ‘oTTagaTTi kaTTikkO’ becomes an Anu Malik hit with ‘rUp suhAnA lagtA hai’. 

What about ethics and conscience ? Those words don’t mean anything nowadays, huh ? 

This problem is not limited to just literature and music. Don’t we have the biggest example of all, the guy who claims that so much research went into his ‘original’ called ‘Black’. Yeah right. It’s a word to word rip off from ‘The Miracle Worker’. I have seen both. Does Sanjay Leela Bhansali really think that all of us are idiots ?

What’s in a name ?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”

— William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet

Well, I did realize that “name” does play a big part in this world. It’s funny how “Name” , “Fame” and “Shame” rhyme fine, but somehow Name and Fame go so well together and Shame is nowhere near them.

Anyway, coming to the point, I attended a PÀ£ÀßqÀ ¸ÀÄUÀªÀÄ ¸ÀAVÃvÀ program over the weekend. Not getting into names, let me just say that the singer is quite well known for his rendition. I have heard him sing quite well on several different occasions. But, I had several issues with his concert last weekend.

He sang four songs and even before he started singing, I had actually guessed the exact four songs. The same singer had toured in 1998 and had sung these same four songs, in the same order !!! Kannada poetry is so rich. It was so disappointing to see such a well-known singer stick to just the same old four songs. Absolutely no innovation and creativity and a huge disservice to the Kannada poets and all the music lovers.

The bigger problem I had with the concert was the fact that the singer had absolutely no control on the ‘shruti’. Well, he is quite well known to have no regard for ‘shruti’, whatsover. But, there is a limit. All the four songs were atrocious to listen to.

There were people who walked out of the auditorium. And, there were people around us who were just chatting away during the concert. Then I saw the third kind, at the end of the concert. Yes sir, I am not exaggerating – a small set got up to give him a standing ovation. It quickly turned out to be a chain reaction. Half the auditorium was standing and clapping.

That’s exactly why I have to question Shakespeare when he says “What’s in a name ?”. Indeed there is a lot !!! Human beings have the tendency to accept anything and everything thrown at them by a famous personality. It ain’t have to be any good, my friend.

Now, you may question my judgement and say that the people who gave standing ovation may have really liked the concert. No sir, the singing was not even bordering melody, it was outright difficult to listen to. Just believe me. The saving grace was that there was another half of the auditorium which did not bother to get up and give a standing ovation. That should at least say that not every human being is behind name and fame.

As Prof. Nissar Ahmed has rightly said

PÀÄjUÀ¼ÀÄ ¸Ágï PÀÄjUÀ¼ÀÄ £Áªï PÀÄjUÀ¼ÀÄ