Ash cloud

I had the 'good fortune' of being in the UK during the ash cloud megavaganza..why not... where there is action in the world..there you will find me with my Veena strumming away to glory. I reached UK for my COLOURS OF VEENA tour. My Mridangam artiste was awaiting his Visa from the UK consulate and was scheduled to arrive a couple of days after my departure. And well, that never happened because the UK consulate closed for a week for their easter break and when they re opened, the volcano in ice land had other plans for me. I was destined to play that tour with a rare Veena Tabla combo and that I did. Much to my pleasant surprise, the sync was so good that the concerts were a huge success.
Then came the last hill to climb..will the ash cloud disperse when i wanted to go back home after the tour? well, you will have to wait for six months , said one. Maybe a couple of months, said another. Maybe , a year said some. I thought, Gosh, what did i get myself into...Have you seen the film "Athithi tum kub jaogi"...I thought my story would become like that.
But god was on my side and the ash cloud cleared up for about a week and I reached home safe and sound. from Ash to blue skies...

Travails of a traveling musician

Friends have been asking me to update my blog periodically. I thought that instead of writing something that you all already know, i will write about the travails of a traveling musician. In my 24 years of traveling, there has not been one dull moment. Taking the Veena from one room to another itself offers innumerable opportunities for the person carrying it to slip somewhere..Imagine traveling all over the globe with it in cars, trains, buses, planes, vans, conveyer belts,escalators and what not!!

Early this week, I finished my concert in Mysore and was driving back to Bangalore late at night. We were traveling by a Getz car-Diesel CRDI engine..the drive was smooth and the weather was awesome...sleep tempted our eyelids as we approached the city of chennapatna which is almost midway between Mysore and Bangalore. We were running out of diesel and so the driver pulled into a Petrol bunk. In the sleepy state that everyone was in, none noticed that it was PETROL that was being filled into the gas tank.
Very content after filling the tank, we drove on in the highway with GNB's stimulating voice coloring the background.

In 2 mins the car jerked to a halt right in the middle of the highway with all heavy duty vehicles zooming past in full speed.It was a little past midnight and I was in my concert attire with the Veena on my lap!! As we were still figuring out why the car had stopped, my husband took control of the situation and called HYUNDAI service station and they were so efficient that they said that they will send a vehicle for help asap. Meanwhile we waved at quite a few vehicles zipping past asking for a ride and finally found a suitable car in which all of us could squeeze in with baggage et all and we reached Bangalore by 2am. Meanwhile, the Hyundai service vehicle found my car with the driver in chennapatna and drained out all the Petrol from the tank and then filled in deisel and re started the car. Luck was on our side and so the car behaved well and started. The driver then drove the car back to Bangalore and reached home by 4am..
Hozzat for a start??

SOLO VEENA

As a Solo Veena player, the way I plan my concert is very different from the way a regular Carnatic musician would do. I do not have a violin accompaniment to exchange dialougues between the swaraprastharas. Nor do i have anyone to play a reply alap after mine. No rest whatsoever.So every note in the concert has to emenate from my Veena. It is important to keep the attention span of the audience. It is important to give Variety. It is important to sustain energy till the end. It is important not to let the concert sag..So, I plan accordingly. This may answer the questions of some who ask why I dont always play a sub main too...

New year resolution!

Wishing all a very happy New year. I think this year my resolution is to make more people appreciate Carnatic music as an art form and not as a form of religous music...Divinity is in every note..."parathmathmudu veligey"..not in the rantings of nouns..more Nadopasana is needed...more manodharmam. More music that touches the soul without the musician having to say the name of any particular god...just tremulations in the ether that strikes the chords in your hearts...bless me....

try this...for the season!

There is so much to write...so much to write..so, I always postpone the ceremony of writing!! The music season is here now and Chennai is having the feel of celebration and festivity. I like it all. I feel very happy to be here. I just wish that rasikas would do something different every year like the artistes too!!
Chennai is a place where Vocal music is appreciated more than instrumental music. Instrumental music is beyond language and religion. So, world over the appreciation that they get is remarkable. But in chennai...why are rasikas drawn more only to Vocal? why cant they try something different this time? How about alternating between one Vocal concert and one Instrument concert?? want to try???

afternoon musings..Maestros of yester years

One thing I really missed during my ph.D research and defense was the absence of the Veena Maestros of yester years...We have lost almost all the senior Vainikas..Be it S.Balachander sir or Emani sir or Chitti Babu sir or Doreswamy Iyengar sir....no one is there...That is probably creating an illusion among the press that Vainikas are a vanishing tribe. It is true really that we cannot get back those great masters of the past. But the future looks good with so many young Vainikas now...

Veena Yagam!

Whew! Back home after the TWO day Veena Yagam! It was an amazing experience to hear so many different styles of Veena playing in two days. We had Mudikondan Ramesh, B.Kannan, Ananthanarayanan, Ananthapadmanabhan, Srinivasan and ofcourse periamma and me. Goddess Saraswathi has blessed each Vainika with something special, something divine and unique. All the Veena artistes paid their homage to the unprecedented phenomenon in the field of Veena playing - Dr.S.Balachander. Sastri hall was buzzling with the Vainikas and it was rather sad that the event got over so soon. It was also nice that there was a very good audience for an exclusive Veena festival! What are people talking about when they say terms like 'dying art' or 'extinct instrument' or other such negative cliches? we have so many wonderful practitioners of this art and the festival was really heartwarming!! Missed all of you who were not there!
yours,
Stringpuller!