raag | madhuvanti { my longings };

karnaranjini - This raaga always amused me! This raaga makes me think, think and think more. Whats that which makes a raaga special? If I ask this question to 10 people i am sure i will get more than 20 views! coz I myself have many reasons for liking a raaga. But in this case, its not just liking the raaga, its more than that. Lemme try to tell you why.

Now for the benefit of those who havent heard karnaranjini before:
Its Janya of Kharaharapriya.

The arohana & avarohana are as below:

• S R2 G1 M1 G1 P D2 S
• S N2 D2 P M1 G1 R2 S

The raaga was founded by Harikeshanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar.
Karnaranjini is so much like kharaharapriya, yet a lot different. Usually janyas of the genre of Karnaranjini (by that statement I mean a raaga formed simply by rearranging the swarams of the parent, which is the case here) would sound almost pretty much like its parent. Here its a different story altogether. The emphasis on the D P G sanchaara adds that unmatchable pathos touch to this raaga. Also the S R G M G P formations that can be used in alaaps as well as kalpana swarams gives a special identity to this raagam.

Havent heard anything beyond vaanchathonuna, Om namoh naarayana and Deenesharanyane in carnatic music compositions in this raagam. I dont know the name of the hindustaani equivalent of this raaga, but this has been used in ghazals with ease by a lot of maestros. ofcourse the raaga is not used as is but thats the beauty of a ghazal.The most common ways in which karnaranjini is used in ghazals is by mixing it with rathipathipriya & kaanada.

Listen to Kucch door hamaare saath chalo (Play the 5th song once you open the link) by Hariharan. This one has glimpses of all the above mentioned raagas, but the soul is that of Karnaranjini. Another great example of this raaga being used in light music is the song Ilamai yenum poonkatru by Ilaiyaraja. Also three Cheers to Madurai T N Seshagopalan Sir for giving this raaga the respectability it rightfully deserves by rendering vaanchathonnu as a main piece and also rendering a Raagam taanam pallavi in this raagam (Man! I attended this concert at Thriuvananthapuram in 2002, Was spellbound)

I am making a modest attempt at singing this as a main piece for my upcoming concert on Dec 10th in Cochin. Have a great day all of you!

Always
Vodka

Me recieving the 'above and beyond' award from David Halpin (VP,Macromedia) and Sankalp Saxena (MD, Macromedia).

11/16 has been a very happy day in my life indeed. I recieved the "above and beyond" award for my outstanding contributions to Flex from the VP and MD of Macromedia. It feels really great to be recognized for your efforts by a great organization like Macromedia. It also puts the extra responsibility on me to deliver to best of my skills going forward too.. Miles to go before I sleep...

This is how my award looks like.. Sorry about the bad picture quality.. thats all i could get using my Nokia 6600.

I am uploading one more of our compositions in this space. This track is vandemaataram (the national song of India).

I am planning to move my band website f6.cjb.net completely to blogger! Its much easier to maintain a site here rather than work with those clumsy HTML pages. When I have time to build a full fledged flash or flex website, I will move back to it. Watch out for my bands dedicated blog site url in this space. For the time being, I am uplaoding one of our tracks here as a streaming media.