Potpourri

My nerd type

Fri, 18 May 2007 09:44:58 GMT

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Social Nerd You're interested in things such as politics, psychology, child care, and peace. I wouldn't go so far as to call you a hippie, but some of you may be tree-huggers. You're the type of people who are interested in bettering the world. You're possible the least nerdy of them all; unless you participate in other activies that paled your nerdiness compared to your involvement in social activities. Whatever the case, we could still use more of you around. ^_^
Science/Math Nerd
Musician
Drama Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
Literature Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

To coffee or not to coffee

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:42:46 GMT

Till three to four months back, i was a big big time coffee addict. I would drink any number of coffees a day, and if the first morning coffee turned out bad i used to get dejected that it is a bad sign for the day. I used to think 'Coffee, curd rice and carnatic' are the three big favorite C's of which i would never get bored in life.

Then came this day when i felt ashamed of my fevicol attachment to coffee. And i made this bold move that i would stop drinking coffee for a while. It was more to do with controlling my senses and desires (big phrase!! No, no i did not sit under the bodhi tree.) I can also blame it on some Suki sivam's essay i read which linked worries to expectations on people and loved ones. But dont know how i ended up linking my worries to coffee.

It was more of a challenge to stick to my this decision and people at home used to ask me twice (more in the 'Come on! Dont show off' tone) if i really did not want to drink coffee. Sometimes it was more a question of ego.
It is just too tough to resist the temptation when the coffee foam smiles at you.

Thankfully, during this time i started drinking Organic India's Tulsi Tea . I started liking it, and i can see that my health is improving. My immunity used to be very low previously and i used to get sneezing problems as soon as i get up in the morning. So, thanks to Suki sivam, i gave up coffee totally!! And i stopped missing it gradually.

I am feeling very accomplished that i was able to overcome my attachment to coffee.

Now the problem is... I tried to drink coffee a few days back, and yaackk! I hated it.
Something which was too close to my heart a few months back!!! How can i hate it??

Is everything 'Maya' as my brother says??
Talking of maya and him reminds me of his wedding. Yes! He is getting trapped and wrapped in the world of Maya on June 10th. :)

My morai paiyan

Mon, 14 May 2007 11:07:32 GMT

I really dont know what the equivalent word for 'morai paiyan' in English is.
The word 'cousin' does not add spice to the subject. :D
Anyways here goes his blog-site: kavin.
Isn't he smart and handoo? ;)

Look who is stalking me..

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:17:13 GMT

mewpsych's LJ stalker is hamdamn!

hamdamn is stalking you because they have nothing better to do with their time. They are also in jail for murder!

LJ Stalker Finder
From Go-Quiz.com

Sleeping Beauty

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:23:51 GMT

Sleeping Beauty
Originally uploaded by shobana_nagarajan.

This cute little kutti paapa made me 'Athai' day before yesterday (Sep12, 2006).
Her name is yet to be decided. Akshada and Shivani are the two options we have as of now.

I went to Udupi to see her and man, it was too difficult to leave her and come back to Bangalore.

Vandhanamu..

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:55:23 GMT

My friends (Sriram, Kavitha, Shashi, Partha and Sowmya) gifted me a Ahuja Microphone when i left to Bangalore from Hyd.
Lazy me took so many months to lay my hands on it. And here is the first test song i recorded with it.
I had my shruti on and it was close to the microphone, but dont know why only my voice got recorded. And i used Windows Sound recorder which was a big pain as i had to keep looking for the 1 minute end-of-recording to again press the record button while i sang. But thankfully, the breaks are not very obvious. I should say, it was a big test to my concentration while singing.
I tried recording it online through evoca, but dont know why i found my voice to be overlapping in a few places. :(
It would be great if you guys can give me recording tips, also abt the software which you use for continuous recording.
Also your honest feedback about this song are vandhanam. :)

And thanks a lot to my dearest friends who gifted this to me! So thoughtful of them to have given me the best gift i have ever received!

Evoca!

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 12:01:19 GMT

Evoca! Oopss. Eureka.
Here i go..1..2..3
Listen to my song in Evoca here.
Hope i get to put more of my recordings here. :)

My dream guru

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:31:42 GMT

I cant ask for more!
I love Wednesday and Saturday mornings when i have to get up early, go for my music classes before going to my boring office :)
She listens to me patiently and corrects me when i go wrong. And, after i learn a song in the class, i dont have to go back and listen to the recordings of my class to get it right, as she would have taught me in such a way that i wont forget.
Ok, she is Smt.Rajalakshmi. She is one of the beloved disciples of Dr.S.Ramanathan and is 75 years old. But her voice is awesome even @ 75.
The songs i have learnt from her in the past 7 weeks are:
1. Varana Mukhava - Hamsadhwani - Koteeswara Iyer
2. Swaminatha pari palayasumam - Nattai - Dikshithar
3. Vandhanamu - Sahana - Thyagaraja
4. Ramanukke mannan - Hindolam (Rama nataka Keerthanai)-Arunachala kaviraayar
5. BragadAmba - Sankarabharanam - Ponnaiah pillai
6. Durusuga - sAveri - Shyama Shasthrigal
7. Mamava Madhava - Neelambari - Narayana theerthar

Of these, BragadAmba is a very rare number it seems. It has the entire essence of Sankarabharanam. (Not the right way of framing the sentence, i know :). am too excited to think about that now )

"Ramanukke mannan mudi tharithaale" is a Padam sung by Kaikeyi to Mantharai(kooni) and it shows the ecstatic feelings of Kaikeyi when Sri Rama is to be anointed as the prince.

And what more? She taught me an Abirami andhadhi to sing as a Virutham before Durusuga.

Before she starts a new song, she asks me what Raagam/song i want to learn. Too good, no?

She tells me a lot of tit-bits, stories about the times when she used to learn from her gurus. Just too inspiring they are! She was once telling me how Papanaasam Sivan used to teach. It seems he used to encourage the kids to sing without any fear by saying "Dont get scared to sing before me thinking that i know so much in music. I just dont know anything. Infact no one around you knows anything". She tells me the same words and tries to get me sing with lots of confidence.

Well, whatever i have written till now is just too less of whatever i wanted to write. But i just wanted to write this blog so badly today. :)

And before i post it, let me touch wood.. :)

Funny video

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:09:04 GMT

Here it is.

Bangalore!

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 13:07:14 GMT

After a long time,again!
Me totally shifted (read:relocated with potti,padukkai and new job) to Bangalore (oops. Bengalooru) few weeks (now a month) back.
I definitely miss Hyd a lot,lot!
Bangalore is not so bad. I am starting to like it. Except for the traffic, everything is good (till now).
It is definitely more peter and meter (ok, it means costly) than Hyd.
But at times, i feel i am in TN.
And i join in a music class, i can say i am settled down here! Till then, i am thedifying my guru..

I should say something about the song i am listening to now (Kanda naal mudhalaai from Kanda Naal mudhal).
I've listened it in a few concerts before. But this version in this movie is just awesome that too with the music and beats.

My first recording experience

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 10:24:32 GMT

It was on a Saturday afternoon in October when Bharath called me up and asked me to come to a recording studio.
I was assuming it was for a voice test and was preparing myself to sing something good. But no, he just showed me the lyrics, played the already recorded music with the male voice, then taught me the tune, told me that i have to fill up the blanks.
It all sounded so easy for me and i walked inside the recording room with so much confidence.

Standing in front of the highly powerful microphone in the sound proof room, putting on the hi-fi headphones, believe me, I was so damn excited thinking "Wow, this is just like how they show in movies!".
The music was on, and i started the pallavi and continued in the way i would normally sing, i.e shaking and moving my head. I wasnt even aware that this would result in my voice fluctuating.
Then they decided to record it line-by-line. I was still singing in the way i had perceived the tune. But what Bharath wanted out was totally different. I infact took lot of trials/takes before my first line was through. Now, i sort-of realised that it was not an easy business. Yeah, i was realising that i should not be singing in the way i want to, but should be trying to sing in the way how the composer/the creator of this song wants to. After all, it was he who has took so much pain to give the tune a shape. How much he would have thought and imagined how the tune should be!

The pallavi has my voice in double-track i.e I had to sing on top of my already recorded version. It was not easy as i had to maintain the same voice and sing in the exactly same way and pattern. It was again a learning time for me and i felt how difficult it is to sing something in the same way as you had sung before.
It took almost an hour to finish off my part in the whole song. I should really thank Bharath and the sound engineer who was recording the song, for their patience and perseverance. :)

I met Bharath in one of the cultural events in my office when he had released his first album "Ka-sa-da tha-pa-ra".
I found it to be a very brilliant work and i have always found his tunes to be very catchy. I could remember almost all the tunes in his first album after listening to them just once.
His brother Prana is the lyricist. If you are a regular reader of Kalki and Ananda vikatan, you already have read quite a lot of his poems and hi-kus. The lyrics are so real, original, and what more - pure!! I can call it 'kalappadam illadha tamizh'.
Infact, this song manam unai marandhida ninaikkiradhey which i have sung has a "situation" associated to it. Imagine this as a duet sung by a heroine and hero after they have a small quarrel (oodal). The girl says she wants to forget this guy but she cannot. The guy tries to console her saying that it is all so natural/common in love. Finally the guy wins her heart back.

And, can you believe that the person who has sung this song with me (Mr.Somnath whom i have not met still) is not a Tamizh and speaks Telugu??
It was indeed very surprising for me when i listened to all the other songs in this album, and learnt that i was the only Tamizh-speaking person involved and all the others were not.

About the instruments used in this song, Mr.Somnath has played the classical guitar bit which comes in the song. The rest of the music has been created only with keyboard.

I'll try to give links to all the songs in the album once it is officially released.

It was altogether a wonderful learning experience for me. Now i know what all i wont do when i sing my next song.
Sometimes when i listen to my own song in my ipod, i doubt if it is mine as i never thought i would all happen. :)

Happy birthday!

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 07:09:06 GMT

Hap' hap' happy birthday to knutties.

Let this year be packed with lots of fun, love, happiness, success, good health, smiles and sweet memories for you da.
Keep smiling ear-to-ear and enjoy your day!

Home alone!

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 08:44:05 GMT

It is a drowsy Saturday afternoon and i'm in my cube!! The office is so much deserted that the Security person is the only person left in my floor excluding me. Happy that everyone else is having a good weekend.

Coming to the sad part.. I am here since i am Home Alone! ( Well, Dont ask me why i am here. Simply because i did not want to cook @ home, and eat it all alone myself. )
I am just praying that my parents come back soon!!
The deadly silence is just next to horrible that i try to fill the air with some song or the other even when i go to sleep.

I later discovered that this can lead to so much horror.
My playlist had 'Raa..Raa' song of Chandramukhi somehow.
It was all fine till the 'Lakalakalaka..' came. Uff!!!I got so damn scared that i started sweating in my AC room @ 1:30 am.
My brother also admitted that he doesnt listen to this song when he is alone.

Bhakti blog

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:46:13 GMT

Last weekend we went to Bhadrachalam, which is some 6 hrs from Hyderabad. The famous Telugu poet Bhadrachala Ramadas has composed lots of songs in praise of the Rama over here in Bhadrachalam.
It is indeed a very beautiful temple along the banks of Godavari river.
There is a place called ParnaShaala some 25kms from this place where Rama & Sita lived during their Vanavasa. Indeed lots of events of importance in Ramayana including the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana is said to have happened here. We indeed tried going here, but could not go past 20kms as some huge tree got uprooted due to the heavy rain. Got totally drenched in both Bhakti and rain during the entire trip.
And we also got the golden opportunity of listening to the Bhajani Utsavam which happened in the evening. It was heavenly to listen to the traditional Thodaimangalams after a long time.

Yesterday, i sang with my teacher for the famous MahaKali Jatra festival in Hyderabad. We had to sing in a temple in the sensitive Muslim locality near Charminar. Almost got goose bumps because of the coincidental rain when we sang the 'Mahishasura Mardhini' slokam. One of the songs in the pack was 'Janani Janani' in Revati which is a tamizh song.
A Tamizh devotional song echo-ing in the Telugu streets of a Muslim locality! That is India!

Well, wait for a Part-2 of my Bhakti Blog as i am out to Maharashtra to visit Shiridi, Pandaripuram and a few more temples for the next three days.

Anger Management

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:13:29 GMT

I was feeling so angry and helpless yesterday and did not know how to calm myself down.
I knew that i was responsible for my own mess and was angry with myself.
When i am normally in such a bad state, i cry to let my feelings out and pray a lot.
I was not ok yesterday even after that.

Meanwhile i thought i will extend some help to my mom in cooking.( She was indeed surprised what was wrong with me when i entered the kitchen ).
I started kneading the dough for making rotis. I felt it to be so destressing to beat the dough hard with my hands.
I let out all my anger over the poor dough which was becoming more and more soft (sounding philosophical huh!).
At the end, my dad complimented me that he had never eaten such soft rotis.

I now understand why Indian females (mostly!) rock and roll the vessels in the kitchen whenever they are angry with their husbands. Obviously, who would want to give tasty/smoothy rotis to the husbands as a result of beating the dough hard. :)

But seriously, a few simple tips from me to control anger (or any such feelings)
o) Start kneading dough for rotis.
o) Listen to 'Vellai Pokal Ulagam engum' song from 'Kannathil Muthamittal'. Rahman's voice, the tune and everything about this song is magic.(It really works to calm you down)
o) Talk to your best buddy. (Ofcourse feeling heavenly after this!)

Chinna chinna aasai

Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:13:45 GMT

This was the conversation i had with my mom yesterday afternoon.
Me: Amma, The weather is too good. I feel like sleeping under my thick bedsheet.

Mom: You know, you should not sleep during such rainy afternoons.

Me: Why amma?

Mom: It was on a rainy afternoon during her sleep that Sita dreamt of Ravana taking her away from Rama.
Thats why.

Me: Oh! Then i will try to dream of that. It would be really cool if Ravana comes and takes me away to Srilanka! Wow..i would love it..

Mom: First find a Rama who can come and rescue you over there and then sleep..

Hmmmm. If you are still wondering what is wrong with me.. It is that i just love Srilanka for no reason.
I just dream of that day when i feel small before the magnificient statues of Lord Buddha there.
It is one of my chinna chinna aasai-s.
Infact after reading Ponniyin Selvan, this small desire of mine has become multitude.

My brother's visit

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 07:13:56 GMT

My anna who works in Delhi had come home for a week's break.
He is a real freak and i just was laughing the whole week.
He is very funny and totally naughty.
A few samples of his freakishness -
o) When he was in his 4th class, he cut the long hair of some girl who was troubling him. Even now, he threatens me that he'll cut my hair if i dont obey him.

o) It seems the person who sits next to him in his office sleeps the whole afternoon in front of his computer but pretends to be reading something. He once went and opened jeevansathi.com while he was sleeping. That person was rightly caught by his boss and is teased till date for browsing matrimony websites at the age of 50. So much fun na!

He is a die-hard fan of Rajnikanth and says 'Oru sooriyan, oru chandran, orey superstar, orey kadavul'. The kadavul whom he mentions is 'Lord Muruga' , let me define it correctly 'Bachelor Muruga' i.e Muruga without his wives. :)
He hates girls and so hates marriage. He claims 'Everything is Maya'.
Hope he gets trapped in the Maya like everyone.

Just had so much fun and fights with him last week! We watched 'Aparichitudu' (Anniyan in Telugu) and were making weird noises in the theatre. I think we missed quick a lot of Vivek's comedy. Very good movie! Just waiting to get a chance to watch it in Tamizh!

Missing my brother.. :((

Kaapali!!

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:15:49 GMT

Listening to 'Kaapali' of DKP.
Just love the innocence of DKP's voice in this song.
Feeling so good to listen to it!

Vaatsalyam - a collection of lullabies by BJ

Sat, 04 Jun 2005 18:02:53 GMT

Bombay Jayashree's 'Vaatsalyam' which is a collection of lullabies in different Indian languages is sure to put the listeners to sleep.

Loved all the songs.
Especially the tamizh numbers (one by Kulasekhara Perumal, and another 'Kanne Navamaniye' a folk lore) have amazing lyrics. 'Omana thingal kidaavo' a famous Malayalam number is also so melodious to listen. I am planning to learn the songs by listening daily, but before i finish listening to one, i am in my deepest sleep.

A cute Sandha Kavidhai

Fri, 20 May 2005 09:31:05 GMT

Anandavikatan is one of my favourite tamil magazines.
Leaving apart the fact that it has quite a lot of pages about the film actresses and actors (in that order), it also devotes certain pages for articles of good literary value (i feel so).
S.Ramakrishnan's 'KadhA VilAsam', SujAthA's "Katradhum Petradhum', 'Kadhai KadhaiyAm KAranamAm' and a few more things are my favourites. I also love reading Vadivelu's more colloquial 'Vedi Vedi velu'.
A beautiful 'Sandha Kavidhai' was quoted in SujAthA's 'Katradhum Petradhum', in this week's issue.
It is as follows:

Paalkudam nokki padai edukkum erumbugalai
Tholkudam arikka vandha theevira vyadhi ellam
Maal padutha arangan manivannan peyar solla
Vaal surutti kollumaame perumale sari thane!!

Sorry if you are not able to understand it. Just give it another try.

Reading the first three lines, i thought i was a composition of some Azhwar.
The last line has so much humour associated with it. And i loved this poem because of this line.
I was left surprised when i found that it was written by Crazy Mohan.
Amazing!!

Its hot machi!

Thu, 19 May 2005 08:47:32 GMT

It is horribly hot in Hyd. I dont think i have ever seen 44 degrees.
I dont feel like stepping out of the AC room, be it at office/home.
I am very surprised if this is the same city where i used to dread the thought of switching on the fan during Dec - Feb.

Read this article in Sunday Magazine.
What is said about the Indian prejudice of finishing all studies and then getting into the 'real world job' is very true.
Is Management becoming as just another text book subject with so many fresh graduates getting into the management institutions?
The article makes real sense.

YAW..

Sat, 14 May 2005 09:17:17 GMT

Yet another week (YAW) has passed.. Looks like i am back to my habit of blogging regularly irregular.

This week's most important event was my friend Sowmy's wedding. It was the first telugu wedding i got to see. I really liked certain events in it especially the 'thalamuraalu' wherein the bride and bridegroom put lots of things like akshata( yellow rice), all kind of flowers and even pearls.
It was a treat for the eyes i should say. The events in Telugu wedding ceremony are quite less compared to the typical Tamizh Brahmin weddings. It is good in one way because there is no need to rush through the events and they get a lot of time to have fun. In the 'bye-bye' ceremony after the wedding in which the girl's parents formally give the girl to the guy, it seems her husband lifted and carried her away. Way to go!! Why dont they include all these good events in Tamizh wedding too ;) ?

Learnt 2 Annamayya Kritis - Thirumalagiriraaya (Hamsadhwani), Annitikeedhe paramoushadham (Vasantha), a bit of Gnyanamosakaradha (Poorvikalyani) in this week's class. Started practising 'Kalpana swarams'. Lots to improve.
And i really love to practise Kalpana swarams singing part. Infact last time i went to Chennai, i bought 'How to sing Kalpana swarams' by Shri.Balasundararaju. Should read it parallely too. Hoping that the next week does not pass away like a 'YAW' and i get to do something useful.

My Japanese name

Thu, 05 May 2005 09:38:36 GMT

Your Japanese Name Is...

Masako Kaoin

What's your Japanese Name?

Looks like while introducing myself instead of saying 'Watashiwa Shobana tomoushimasu' (which means 'I am Shobana'), i should rephrase it as
'Watashiwa Masako Kaoin tomoushimasu'.. Hee hee..

Flash back

Sun, 01 May 2005 17:52:08 GMT

In my music class yesterday, my memory went a few years back as we sang the Malahari Geetham. I was suddenly remembering the typical smell and sound of Harmonium as we sang it. I was wondering what was happening to me.

A few years back (when i was in my 6th/7th standard)i learnt this Geetham from my guru Shri.T.K.Subramaniam (fondly called as T.K.S sir). I used to love the music classes not only for the lessons, but also for my Sir who used to teach with a Harmonium. All the songs which i had learnt long back from him are still fresh in my mind with the harmonium interludes. It was so much fun for all of us to touch and try to press the instrument's keys. There used to be a lot of competition as to who would set the Shruthi (Sa Pa Sa) in the harmonium, when the Sir was not around. Many of us liked the peculiar smell of it also. No wonder i got reminded of Harmonium as I was practising this Geetham after quite a long time.

Hmm..I really miss those days. Learning used to be so much fun and lively with harmonium. I do not know how many students still have the golden chance of learning with harmonium.

Long weekend

Sat, 30 Apr 2005 08:51:48 GMT

It s long weekend here as we have a holiday on May 2nd since May 1st falls on a Sunday. Good for us!

Listened to 'Kanmani Nee vara kathirundhen' of Ilayaraja. I wonder if anyone else other than him can compose such a song in MalayamArutham. He is really a Dheiva-magan!!

Shocked to read about the after-reactions of a rape of a girl in Mumbai (by the most respected Mumbai corps) by a political party in Mumbai. It seems they have advised the girls not to wear skimpy clothes so as to 'avoid' such events. Silly male chauvinistic society!!! This article in rediff seems to give a good toast for such people obsessed with 'morality'.