raag | madhuvanti { my longings };

appreciating carnatic music.

2007-01-19T12:30:00.000+04:00

I was listening to this recording of "Deva Deva Kalayaami te..", mayamaalava gowla keerthanam by Shri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer with my friend during the christmas vacation at home. This was an AIR broadcast, and was done during the last days of Sri SSI. My friend is a staunch carnatic enthusiast and has this rather strange philosophy.

Critisism of music is a flexibility available only to a listener, but a student of music is not entitled to it. He should look for only the positives and learn from them and NOT get into the fault finding mode.

Well, I am sure, he is not the only one who thinks that way. I have seen eyebrows go up and voices getting heavier when I used to remark Shri SSI should have stopped singing atleast 30 years before he actually sang his last concert. His shruthi lapses where too many, his voice was unpalatable to my ear. ( Now the elitist will argue that you have to grow beyond the voice to appreciate carnatci music, there by weakening the line between caliphony and cacophony!) I have tremendous respect for the knowledge of Shri SSI and the enrichment he has provided to the art. But wait!! Just beacuse I am a student of music, I am allowed to talk only about his postives and not about his rough and unwieldy voice. Hypocrisy taking another form. period.

As much as I learn from the greats of carnatic music about whats good about them, I also learn whats miserable about each of them and how not to let that happen in my singing. I feel thats just getting constructive. Most of the guys who oppose my view take the apologetic supportive stand "Man, he is 88 and still he is pretty very good!". Bah! Mohinder amarnath played a crucial part in winning cricket worldcup to us, but he retired when he knew he was no good. Unfortunately many of our musicians have never heard that word. They will sing, croon, cry but wont give up!

If a student of music doesnt look at the art with a critical angle then its a shame to call himself or herself a student. A student of music is more equipped to be a better rasika and he/ she should use discretion to point out flaws in the past master's renditions along with imbibing their virtues. It is just not a one sided coin. Criticism is the best form of music appreciation and it should form a major part of the cumulative mindset of all music enthusiasts / students of music.

I came across the following in Shri G Ravikiran's blog:

KVN showed me just what soukhyam actually meant!!
SSI showed me what singing with life and energy was all about.
MDR was shruti and bhaavam personified.
MSS symbolised purity and clarity in every aspect of music.
Ramnad Krishnan embodied grace and finesse.
Brinda was the epitome of aesthetics.

So true, The qualities he as mentioned were the positve differentiators for the above mentioned greats of carnatic music. Ofcourse every student of music should learn these nuances from these masters of the past. In another post Shri Ravi writes:

Is there ANY great musician who has not toiled day and night in the hope of mastering the art?
Arent all human beings prone to a fault (or faults)?
Being a student, if I casually form opinions and stay that way, my music would definitely not grow!!

This is the point that I oppose:

If I were to write down what aspects of the above mentioned artiste's that I would work hard NOT to absorb, then it will look like this.

KVN showed me how you can create boring monotony by rendering almost all the rendition in the same vilambita kaalapramaanam, which lacked grip, tempo & excitement.

SSI showed me what having a good voice meant to the listener with his rather rough and unconditioned voice and also how raaga aalapana akaarams make or break the soothing effect it is supposed to provide (ex: instead of the usual na, tha dha ri na... he had a rather annoying "nghya nghya...")

MDR showed me, much like KVN, singing slow is not always the way to go as almost all his renditions were like a tortoise race. He had biological reasons why he had a 1/2 kattai shruthi but then will you accept it in a sports form if the athlete had a disability which makes him less capable than some one else?

MSS showed me that music without vyavahaaram is like coffee without sugar. It was like sitting in a plane that will never take off. And also how much on stage creativity adds value to a concert by demonstrating the lack of it!

GNB (I have to confess, I just love his style and attitude to singing, and he is almost close to what I think is exciting concert rendition with absolutely no predictability). showed me that it can be terribly annoying to race through all compositions at 100mph! Also when you sing brighas at machine tempo, your shruthi could go for a six.

....

Okay, I am sure many of you folks who read this will find my representation haughty, boorish and filled with hatred (Thats what my friend tells me most of the times...) I reiterate the fact that I have learnt gazillion things from these greats but I have no hangups pointing out their shortcomings. I feel that makes me a neutral, non apologetic and keen to learn rasika / student of music. I agree every body has their shortcomings, but the community / artist should have a bigger heart to accept criticism on the etablished norms and also appreciate younger folks criticizing the former generation. Music, for god's sake does not quantify against age, it is the amount of time you spend analyzing it.

adobe india is hiring!

2007-01-19T12:20:00.000+04:00

If you ever wanted to be part of the company that made Acrobat, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Flex , Coldfusion... Here is your chance! Adobe india is hiring Engineers (Dev / QE) , Engineering managers (Dev / QE) & Program managers at all levels.

If you feel Adobe is your next destination, Rush your resume's to harishsivaram [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] in.

Thanks
Harish

merry christmas and happy new year!

2006-12-21T16:32:00.000+04:00

Wish you all a merry christmas and happy new year. I am off to kerala tonight. Taking a rather interesting route:

Bangalore - Salem - Pollachi - Udumalpet - Munnar - Muvattupuzha - Aluva - Ernakulam - Mattancherry.

ofcourse, this is not by choice, there was no other option. no complaints though!
Have fun all of you!

the god of ghazals is coming. one more day to go.

2006-12-15T13:58:00.000+04:00

2006-12-07T16:46:00.000+04:00

aa chaandni bhi meri tarah jaag rahi hai
palkon pe charaagon ko liye raat khadi hai...

hariharan live @ Bangalore - 10 more days to go!
Venue : Christ College Auditorium, Near Diary circle, Bangalore.

return of the king...

2006-12-01T08:42:00.000+04:00

A R Rahman in Guru proves there is only one KING in indian music. Barso re & E hairate aashiqui rocks my world.

Now Playing: Barso re megha megha - Shreya Ghoshal.

Adobe Developer Olympiad

2006-11-27T13:06:00.000+04:00

Adobe Developer Olympiad: Flex development contest for students in India

I’m happy to announce that Adobe has set up a Flex development contest for students in India. If you’re pursuing a degree in any stream (full-time) from a recognised university, you could spend some time over the next four months building something cool in Flex and walk away with a prize of fifty thousand rupees!

Submissions can be in 3 categories: engineering (components), applications, and ColdFusion integration. Each category has a prize of Rs. 50,000. You can participate individually or as a team of upto 5 members.

Note these important dates in 2007:

Send us your proposal by the 10th of January.
Send us your prototype by the 31st of January.
Send us your complete implementation by the 27th of February.
Winners will be announced on the 10th of March.

If you have any questions or issues, check out the students forum.

For latest up-to-date information, visit the Adobe Developer Olympiad page.

Write-up courtesy: Manish Jethani

Ghazal @ Palace - Watch Padmashree Hariharan Live!

2006-11-27T13:03:00.000+04:00

You wouldnt want to miss the opportunity to watch ghazal maestro Padmashree Hariharan perform live at palace grounds on 17th dec 2006. Accomplished flautist Praveen Godkhindi will be felicitated by the governer of Karnataka on the same day.

For tickets, visit http://www.alaaplive.com or call 91 80 64519707.
Contact Person: Mr Sharath Vatsa.

and one more...

2006-11-24T11:10:00.000+04:00

and one more on the same lines as what manasi prasad has written, this time by euphonical euphemisms.

...newer subject themes on Carnatic music - by manasi prasad

2006-11-21T15:43:00.000+04:00

Sri sent me this link(go to page 18) from a music monthly that gets published from bangalore where young musician manasi prasad talks about introducing new subject themes in carnatic music. I had written about something in the same lines back in 2005 in my blog post Lyrics or Music?. It is extremely heartening to see the newer generation speaking up against the irrational norms based on religion imposed on carnatic music where every experiment is looked upon and quantized against what the trinity did!

A great sign indeed. Me is very happy!

for all those who think ghazals are boring...

2006-11-17T13:20:00.000+04:00

Picked this paragraph from pannpriyan.blogspot.com, a review on my performance at Airtel super singer finals

... Harish came next. He started off well with Uyire Uyire. Again his singing style of adding electric improvisations at end of each line does not suit this song very well. Also he breaks lines (pauses added) at different points and this affects the flow of the song. After he adds the improvisations at the end he looks at the judges and audience -- as if asking for their feedback or approval. This style of singing might be influenced by his interest in ghazals. But it is not enjoyable at all for songs we are already familiar with in a different formal or flow.Shreenivas commented that Harish kind of sang the song in a happy tone. This again I think comes from this ghazal like singing (where even saddest of lines in the ghazal are sung with a smile and with pauses and improvisations!)

I take the critisicm about me not singing well by its stride, but my feeling are with this man who feels improvisations affect the flow of the song. Also he makes an outrageous remark that the saddes ghazal is sang with a smile on the face. I have no words for him. I only pray thatGod blesses him, along with all other folks in the world who cannot appreciate ghazals - The toughest and most sublime manifestation of music - and give them the ear for good music rather than for the stupid mimicry of imitating the original artiste or your guru or any other artiste in the world.

I am going to make an outrageous comment in response to the comment written about ghazals

Life of a person who cannot appreciate ghazals is completely wasted. I categorize them as losers of the first order.

Long live creative musicians , let imitation and the traditional view that promotes imitation die its natural death and let the artistes imagination soar the heights of heavens.

In short - Long live ghazals & the likes of ghazals & ghazal artistes!

if god ever sang...

2006-11-17T12:59:00.000+04:00

There are people, then there is God
There are musicians, then there is Padmashree Hariharan

Respected Hari Ji,

I am convinced that if GOD ever sang, he would sound exactly like you.

Sahasrakodi namaskarams!
Harish - a worshipper of ur music.

... sab ke honthon pe tabassum tha, mere qatl ke baad
jaane kya soch ke rota raha qaatil tanhaa.....

Coming soon.

2006-11-14T23:44:00.000+04:00

Lakshiya paadhai Unwind - Remix version 0.1. Coming soon. Watch this space.

jagshemash! I borat, I rocks!

2006-11-14T14:35:00.000+04:00

Warning: The following video contains language and visuals unsuitable for viewing for children. Viewer discretion advised.

About Borat:

Borat is a Kazakh journalist - a charecter created by British comedian Sacha baron cohen for the famous "da ali g show" on HBO. The latest movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is proving to be a big box office success. The following video is the trailer of this movie. Fscking hilarious. Enjoy!

Recording of Lakshiya Paadhai - Pics

2006-11-06T14:26:00.000+04:00

The crew - (From L - GNR, Swamy, Gokul, Harish, Padmaja)

Harish - 8th Retake (or was it the 9th)

GNR posing & playing the strings backing

Gokul - Fixing a groove.

Listen to Lakshiya Paadhai here

An Appeal!

2006-11-06T13:54:00.000+04:00

Hope you all got a chance to listen to our new song - "Lakshiya Paadhai". If you dint, listen to it here. If this song or the words bring any difference in your life, please help "Sri Rakum School for the Blind" in any way you can. You can contact the school directly by visiting their webpage or email rakumrakum@yahoo.com .

Click here to view the lyrics of the song in tamil.
Click here to view the english transalation of the song.

Sri Rakum School Web Site : http://www.rakum.org

Thanks
agam - Harish / Swamy /Ganesh

Return to blogging - again! (Long Post)

2006-11-06T13:08:00.000+04:00

Hi all,

I know its been a long time since I blogged. I was busy, with so much happening in my professional and personal life. Life has been generally good and the last couple of months have been very action packed and exciting. I will write about all that in the following posts. But I am very excited to announce the release of a new song from the our stable. This song is a collaborative effort between Harish, Ganesh & Swamy. We call this collaboration "agam - the inner self". As akam , we will be producing songs in tamil, each with a theme attached to it.Here is the first of the many songs yet to come from the agam stable - Lakshiya Paadhai.

The tune of this song evolved in the beginning of 2005 when Ramya came to jam with myself and Ganesh at our apartment. Ganesh was playing around with a few grooves that he had created. I started humming a tune on top of the groove and there you go! All of us liked it. The tempo was peppy, the sound was very rockish yet had the indian classical music flavour which is one of our strengths. Ramya wrote some hindi lyrics on the fly and we recorded a scratch track of the song with the lyrics. No interludes, no mixing, no mastering. Days passed by and Ramya had to leave the country to do her MBA, Me & Ganesh got busy with work and a few other compositions. That was also the time we started working with swamy on Ammu & Thaaimayin geetham. We played this tune to swamy one day and within 2 days , Swamy came back with a full tamil vesrion of the song. We just read through the lyrics and we were convinced beyond doubt that the emotion of the song couldnt be captured better with any other lyrics other that what swamy had written. But it is already 2006 and we havent done much to the song musically after the scratch that we had created. In the meanwhile, we recorded for Hope - the song for supporting the Can Conquer Cancer initiative.

One of the most critical defining factors of our songs has been the studio which we work. After working at The Music Mint - with Gokul as our engineer, we couldnt think about working anywhere else. Like I always say, everything has its own time, We readied the interludes for the song and it was almost production ready. But that was also the time when The Music Mint got really busy with many of their in-house productions. Also during the same time, Gokul did a brief stint with Radio Mirchi. As a result he was also keeping very busy. Another 2 months pass by, We iterated and reiterated on the interludes, modes and the general feel of the song. Finally we got everything in place and we were ready to go production for this song at The Music Mint.

We recorded in 5 sessions for a total of 20 hours, with Gokul adding his usual surprice twists and turns to the track we gave him. the third session, the song had taken a definitive shape and we were all happy with it. But we did realize that there was something missing! Enter paddu (Padmaja Swetha) . She added her mellifluous voice to the harmony of the song, minimalistic but spellbinding! Session 5 had Kashyap, Sohini & Shyam come in for the mixing and mastering. with Kashyap giving some invaluable guitarist's views on to the track the song got a few shades brighter (He had also played the acoustic guitar for the song :)). At 9:30PM, we had the final mix - What a great feeling it was!! This song took almost 2 years in the making and we all are very happy with the outcome.

This song is written on the theme - self motivation and Swamy wrote this one as an inspirational song for the children of Sri Rakum School of Blind . Check out the song here, and do let us know your valuable feedback.

Credits:

Lead Vocals : Harish Sivaramakrishnan
Backing Vocals: Padmaja Swetha
Music: Harish Sivaramakrishnan / Ganesh Ram
Lyrics: Swaminathan Seetharaman
Arranged by : Harish Sivaramakrishnan / Ganesh Ram
All percussions, Keyboards, Lead & Bass guitars: Ganesh Ram
Additional Programming: Gokul Abhishek
Acoustic Guitars : Aditya Kasyap.
Lead Violin: Harish Sivaramakrishnan
Studio: The Music Mint, Bangalore
Sound design, mixing and mastering: Gokul Abhishek.

Produced by: Agam - the inner self (Harish / Swamy / Ganesh)

With this post, once again I am back to active blogging.
See you all soon.

Thanks
Harish

Hariharan Ji on an informal Jam ...

2006-08-24T11:34:00.000+04:00

Found this 2.35 min video clip on youtube, posted by shail84, in which he is accompanying ghazal legend Hariharan Ji on tabla. He has done a good job at that! Very short clip, but I havent heard this ghazal before. If any one has any further info about this ghazal, please drop me a word at harishsivaram@yahoo.co.in. As far as how it sounds - Hariharan Ji! Need I say more?

Enjoy!

part of uyire from super singer finals.

2006-08-16T18:59:00.000+04:00

This is a live mobile phone recording of my rendition of uyire during the airtel super singer finals. Thanks to Aishwarya & Prashanth for getting this recorded. Recording is not of great quality though. enjoy!!

Powered by Castpost

I am loving this song....

2006-08-08T16:18:00.000+04:00

Wow! This is a wonderful song. Bheegi bheegi from Gangster! Ofcourse its a copy of prithibi by Bangali rock legend Mohiner Ghoraguly. But given the fact that Pritam has acknowledged that he reworked on the original, I think it could be forgiven. whats sets this song apart from the original is some amazing vocals by the bangladeshi rocker James and a spellbinding distortion guitar lead with a charecteristic indian flavour to it. Enjoy!

Thanks for your support!

2006-08-07T14:43:00.000+04:00

Dear All,

Airtel Super Singer is now over and Nikhil Mathews was crowned the winner ! Before I start this post, I would like to congratulate Nikhil on this fabulous achievement. Nikhil is a fantastic musician, a fabulous vocalist and above all an extremely good human being. Here is wishing him a lot of success and luck for his singing career.

It was one hell of a good experience participating in Airtel Super Singer competition on vijay TV. It was some great exposure, a wonderful opportunity to meet the stalwarts of tamil music industry and also the company of a lot of phenomenally talented musicians. I never thought I would even reach up to the semifinals of this contest, when I decided to back out of the show at Top 15 stage. There are a lot of people I MUST thank for whatever little I could do to reach till the top 5 in this competition. There are innumerable people who supported me through their votes, emails and sms's, so many of them who sincerely backed me with their encouragement and prayers, I cant thank enough for all that they have done for me.

Among those many people, the following people I feel deserve a special word of thanks (whatever spoken about them, I know is not enough compared to the support they extended to me all throughout the show!)

Smt Anuradha Sriram:
For giving me a second chance to come in as a wild card entry to this competition. Without that, I couldnt have sung in the semifinals.( I happened to read this article about me getting a 'backdoor' (bah!) entry to this competiton and also me throwing an ugly surprice by winning the semis. All I can say is that perceptions vary and it was the judge, who is a renowned name in tamil music industry who gave me a come back chance and I cant quite think how it can be called a backdoor entry for christ sake! Again, I NEVER got rejected in this competition until the finals, I voluntarily backed out of the contest due to professional reasons. As to me throwing ugly surprice by winning, - some one's loss is some one else's success. Thats all i can say. I do feel i deserved to win the wildcard semi's, also I strongly believe Nikhil deserved the finals title.)

Ram, Lauren & Flex Team management @ Adobe
My managers Ram & Lauren lent me their whole hearted support for my participation in Airtel Super Singer. They were kind enough to grant me leave for the shooting and they even went ahead and campaigned votes for me! Thanks Ram & Lauren! Couldnt have gone this far without your support and help!

Swamy
What can I possibly say? I am seriously out of words for explaining the encouragement and support swamy has given me through this competition. Despite his hectic schedule at work and other family commitments, Swamy worked day and night to get votes for me after the wild card semi finals. He probably spent more sleepless nights than I did till the semi results were announced. Swamy, You are just amazing, and you are such a wonderful friend. I consider meeting you one of the most significant event in my musical journey. Thanks for everything.

Poornima
I have never met poornima in person! for that matter, we havent even spoken! But the amount of effort that she put in to get me votes ater the wild card semi's is spectacular. Thanks a lot poornima. I am humbled by the amount of dedication that you put in to help me achieve my dreams! YOU ROCK!

Shyam, GNR, Vicky, Subra, Pmac,Paddu, Harikiran
Guys, I just cant write formal words of thanks for you folks! You guys are my biggest driving force, my biggest motivation and the very reason which keeps the musician in me alive. I failed to live up to your expectations in the finals, but your support has been the inevitable forward thrust for me in this contest.

Asha
She stayed with me through the thick and thin as she always have, helped me get over the unhappiness that I went through when I had to back out of the show, She stood by me when I dropped out and re-entered the show. She instigated the confidence back in me that I can prove myself to be good in this competition. Love you da!

Prashanth
My Onsite campaign manager! This guy worked harder than his 4 years of engineering studies to campaign votes for me. His unmatchable people skills was one of the most important things that helped me win the wild card semi's and get a berth in the finals. Prashanth, you cracked it brother! Thanks for everything! Not to forget the innumerable bike pickup and drops that he gave me in chennai!

Smt Padmasani
Smt Padmasani pointed out the mistakes in my rendition and voice at a very early stage of the competition. With her thorough expertise in voice training and music, she gave me some valuable tips and advices to improve my singing. I do not know how much of those tips I could imbibe into my singing, but I feel it was extremely magnanimous on her side for giving those timely guidance. Thanks a lot, madam!

Whole of Praveen's family!
I never felt I was away from home everty time i went to chennai for the shooting! Thanks a ton to praveen's family for making me at home and considering me like one of their family member throughout the time that i was in chennai. Thank you mama, mami, padma aunty, uncle,aishu, prashanth, malli, patti!

Finally, Amma, Appa & my family
Thank you amma, appa, manni, thatha, ammamma, gopu mama & mami! You are wonderful! You rock my world! Thanks a ton amma and appa for coming to cheer me for the results function. Every time you come to watch me I feel like a complete winner irrespective of the result of the competition.

Jo & Narayanan Sir
They are arguably two of the most popular audio / music bloggers in the blogsphere. They were kind enough to put up posts on their blogs supporting me. Thanks Jo and Narayanan sir, Please accept my heartfelt gratitude. Your blog posts played a very important role in getting me more votes after the wildcard semi's.

There are so many more people whom I dont even know who supported me throughout this competition, my heartfelt gratitude is due to each and every one of them!

Thanks one & all
always
Harish.

Super Singer - Vote online!

2006-07-15T23:34:00.000+04:00

Hi all,

I hope many of you got a chance to watch me sing in Airtel Super Singer. For folks outside india, You can vote online too in the following link. You need to sign up at the site. I humbly request all you folks inside and outside india who couldnt send an sms / televote to vote for me online!

http://app.indya.com/vijay/specials/supersinger/vote.asp

Each of ur votes can help me achieve my dream.

Thanks
Harish

Airtel Super Singer - out & in!!!

2006-07-03T15:15:00.000+04:00

Its been a while since I wrote anything here. I have been very busy at my work and finally my product Flex 2.0 is released! I have never felt happier ever. Contributing to the successful release of a macromedia / adobe product is like a dream come true! But... You always achieve something at the expense of something! most of the times the casuality will be something that you hold very close to your heart. In my case I had to make a choice between my work and Airtel Super Singer competition. I still did not know how I made the decision! I love music more than my life itself, I love my job too. I decided to back out of SuperSinger because, the loss in that case is only mine. But if I had chosen to stay at that time, there will be so much that is dependent on me at my workplace that would have been affected. It is the job that has been providing me the lifestyle that I am enjoying today, right from my cloths to my flight tickets to chennai for the show. So I thought it was my responsibility to deliver whats expected of me for the successful release of my product.

I cursed my fate, but felt better since I believe everything happens for a reason - destiny is KING! on 28th of June, I was at restaurant umerkot with Asha eating dinner. I got a call from Vijay TV saying one of the esteemed judges of the show has chosen me as a wildcard and I could re-enter the competition. That was definitely a very very happy moment for me! It reinforced my belief on destiny - "whats bound to happen, will happen!" So, I am back in airtel supersinger. I will definitely give in my best to win this competition!. Moving forward, the audience have a very important role to play in who wins this show through telephone-sms polls. I humbly request all my readers to watch the show every fri-sat on vijay TV, encourage and support me if you feel I deserve to win this competition!

So this is the update after that small sabbatical from blogging.

Harish Sivaramakrishnan back in Airtel super singer as a wildcard entry after his decision to back out from the show owing to professional reasons

Super Singer Update (06/06)

2006-06-06T20:32:00.000+04:00

Harish Sivaramakrishnan moves to TOP 15 in the competition. Thanks for all ur support and wishes! Looking forward to ur continued support, encouragement and prayers for the forthcoming rounds!

Blogswara - Releasing 25th May!

2006-05-24T20:29:00.000+04:00

Blogswara is scheduled to release on 25th May, 2006. do check out the website for listening / downloading the tracks. Many congratulations to team blogswara (of which I am also a fortunate member) for this great effort.

A special word of congratulations to Joseph Thomas ( Jo ) for coordinating the wonderful effort and making this whole venture materialize in such a spectacular fashion.

Long live music, long live audio blogging!

jana gana mana by A R Rahman - I have no words!!

2006-05-19T15:56:00.000+04:00

Before I start, I must say that youtube.com rocks! Great concept and whats more, it uses Adobe Flash for media streaming, which is like a double bonanza!

Found the following video of Shri A R Rahman playing the song jana gana mana from the movie aayutha ezhuthu (yuva in hindi) for an interview in Sun TV. The chord progressions are out of the world!(Only a genius of the highest capabilities can bring out such an effect) especially the minor that he plays at the line "oliye.....". I am spellbound, amazed and I have no words!! Watch it to experience it!

Also, watch me on Airtel super singer on Vijay TV tonight at 8:00 PM

Super Singer Update (15/05)

2006-05-16T13:03:00.000+04:00

Harish Sivaramakrishnan moves to the Top 22 in Airtel Super Singer on Vijay TV. Watch the show every fri/sat at 8:00 PM IST every week on Vijay TV!

On a seperate note, I completed one year of blogging! with 12 months, 61 posts and 11000+ visitors I feel it was indeed a good idea to start blogging.

Today's special dish - Harish Roast!

2006-05-12T14:51:00.002+04:00

News: Harish Sivaramakrishnan is getting roasted live at noida at 47 deg C (I am here for a oneday seminar at Adobe, noida). The Delhi weather sucks big time, period! Now I know why I looooove bangalore so much (I cant care any less about the dnd express flyway or the toll bridge simplye because I am getting deep fried here!!). namma bengalooru rocks!

Super Singer Update!

2006-05-08T15:18:00.000+04:00

Harish Sivaramakrishnan moves to the Top 30 in the Competition.

Watch me @ Vijay TV this friday 8 PM (IST)

2006-05-04T14:05:00.000+04:00

Watch me this friday (05/05/2006) on Vijay TV

Chennai Zonals - Telecast. Fri 05/05/2006 8PM IST
Harish Sivaramakrishnan advances to Semifinals. Wish him luck for further rounds!

Jake Shimabukuro - Proof that GOD exists!

2006-05-03T16:06:00.000+04:00

No words for describing this genius called Jake Shimabukuro.
Picked up the link from Bharat of the Encore band's web journal. Seriously, I have no words!

Amazing Sharath!

2006-04-28T16:15:00.000+04:00

For those folks have followed malayalam music through late 80s through 90s might not need an introduction to this genius music director called Sharath. I have listened to his songs with amazement every time he comes out with one. He chose to keep a low profile despite the classic songs that he gave to the malayalam industry. May be he was too picky and preferred not to work on mainstream projects. The reason that prompted me to write this post is this particular song from the recently released tamil movie June R. This is "Rimjhim Rimjhim" The song has two versions, one with Sujatha and the other with Hariharan.

It was such a pleasant surprice to hear that signature sharath style once again though this time it was in tamil. I have searched hard on internet to get a biography / Filmography of sharath, with little success. So I shall go ahead a write whatever I know about this great musician. Sharath is based out of Thiruvananthapuram, he is a disciple of Shri. Dr. Balamurali Krishna in carnatic music. He is a great singer himself too. His remarkable compositions include "sudhaamantram niveditham.." (also "diwaaswapnam pozhinjupoy") from the lesser known malayalam movie Devadasi with Shri Unnikrishnan's voice. Shri Unni himself has confessed in many interviews that, this song was the toughest ever in his career. Still lingering in my mind is "thaalamayanju, gaanamapoornam" and "sree raagamo thedunnu nee.." from the mohanlal starrer Pavithram. Sharath's classic orchestration patterns and distinct style can be seen in compositions like "doore doore ende sindoora rekhayil..." from the movie sindoorarekha. His arrangement is so novel that it cannot be compared to any one else's style that you have ever heard. He brought in elements of jazz fusion to malayalam music with the music of "maaleyam maarodalinju..." from the movie Thacholi varghese chekavar. Based on raaga Mohana Kalyani, this is a wonderful experimental composition. Very inspiring!(this was much before Vidyasagar's foray to malayalam music, which revloutionized the way malayali listened to film music)

If anyone thought Sharath cannot come up with peppy numbers, he proves you wrong there too, Listen to "ini maanathum nakshathra pookkaalam..." from the movie Cover Story, you would know. Sharath has once again proved his mastery over the art with the music of June R. He Rocks!

Filmography:

Malayalam:

Tamil

June R

Hilarious...

2006-04-26T19:38:00.000+04:00

I was looking for this clip from the early 90s malayalam chartbuster Akkare akkare akkare. Finally found it in youtube. here it goes! Non-mallus please excuse!

King of melody returns - short review of Lahore Ke Rang...

2006-04-26T17:04:00.000+04:00

The king of melody has returned to mesmerize with some amazing vintage ghazals, khayaals and punjabi folk songs. After a long wait of more than one year, I finally managed to grab my copy of Padmashree Hariharan's latest album Lahore Ke Rang, Hari ke Sang. Thanks Times music for releasing it in India.

I have gotten enough time to do a comprehensive review of this album. I will do that in another week's time. I have listened to the tracks less than 20 times till now (Thats very less by any standards for me when it comes to Hari Ji's ghazals.) This review covers 3 tracks from this album which have really grown on me in a span of less than 3 days! The album starts with a high energy yaman composition, a manifestation of amir khusrao's vintage poem "mohe apne hi rang mein rang de..." The most amazing part of this song is the momentum that this song maintains throughout. As Hari ji himself remarks on the CD pamphlet, this song will definitely make you think of color. The tabla accompaniment is spirited while the interludes are vastly acoustic and minimal. Despite the flamboyance of the track, the track doesnt give you that heavy giddy feeling that some of the vintage ghazals give. a must listen track, great way to open an album.

The third track is by far the best in this album. This track has the lyrics "Dil se har guzri baat guzri hai, Kis qayaamat ki raat guzri hai..." This is signature Hariharan. The composition also deserves special mention. Nazir hussain saab's arrangement and placement of notes has a characteristic freshness in it, something which you hardly hear in the popular ghazals of recent times. It has the pseudo melancholy feel to it. your heart will certainly long for the song to never get over. It is once again rendered in a very restrained fashion, but to perfection. One thing I notice about this album is that Hari Ji kas kept a low key approach when it comes to impromptu improvisations. Thats a disappointment indeed for some one like me who adores is style of improvisations. This is more a well rehearsed execution, good-very good to the ear neverthless!

"Begana vaar unsay mulakaat ho, to ho..." Once again, full marks to Nazar hussain saab's composition. This is a masterpiece in raag darbari. The song has been treated in a very unhastly fashion. It forces the listener to concentrate, indulge in the sheer exuberance this raag generates. The short alaap in the beginning is unmatchable by any singer of any ages! This track bears resemblance to one of the earlier renditions of hari ji - "kab tak yun hi rulaayengi, tanhaayean hamein...." I am greatly impressed by the way the song order is designed for this album. The album ends in a subtle, melodious and soft note, with begaana vaar...

For those folks who havent gotten their copy of this great album, get urs now! This album is in stores in Bangalore, I picked up mine from Landmark. I hear that this could be ordered online through indiatimes.com too.

If you want to listen to 1 minute samples of all tracks of this album, you can do that here!

Verdict: Great album! (it cant be otherwise for a Hariharan album, so the verdict is kind of irrelevant!)

Hari ji is un paralleled when it comes to rendering tracks which has the mid-octave notes predominantly. The ease with which he fleets his brighas to the higher octave and then touching a note which technically is not part of darbari and then back is a lesson for every musician. Its easy to sing within the raaga, which many "pro-carnatric music only" people argue is the basis of a good rendition, bah!. Sorry about their ignorance, singing something outside the scope of the raaga adding that sublte twist and then coming back to a raaga is one of the biggest challenges for any musician, how many ever years of music training he/she might have! Singing a ghazal is no joke and its the most sublime form of imaginative music!

PS: The links provided in the post are only pointers to the samples of the songs hosted in various sites that found on the internet. Please buy original cassettes and CDs and fight music piracy to save the music industry and musicians.

Ultimate Shakti!

2006-04-21T15:55:00.000+04:00

Well, I have to admit that I have become a Shakti maniac these days! Picked up this track from Raghu's repository and am presenting it for all the music lovers of the world. I am not sure if this track is available commercially any more. If any one happens to know about the availability of this album / video / track commercially, I'd be extremely grateful if you let me know. I will immediately take this version off from the internet and procure a copy of the original CD!

Ultimate Shakti! I Salute your musical excellence!

Warning: 43MB clip streaming. Broadband required (I am working on thinning down this clip, once I am done, I will upload a faster version. Do bear with me for the time being!)

Remembering Shakti!

2006-04-21T15:46:00.000+04:00

First of all, Thanks a lot Raghu for re-kindling my interest in the music of this band - Shakti. Their music is unmatched by the spontanity, innovation, musical richness and overall impact. I found the following videos of the stage performances of this band on google videos. Do check them out, Can promise you that this is not the regular "fusion" stuff that you hear these days!

Long live innovations in music! Long live fusion! I have said this and will continue to say this again - Pure forms of music are boring, for the sheer reason that its backed and promoted by people who wish to keep it as crude as it used to be 200000 years ago in the name of maintaining tradition, bah! Little do they realize that theres more to the world than what it used to be 20000 years back because they dont wish to open their ears , fearing that they'd lose what their grandfathers gave them.

I might sound opinionated here, but in this birth I can NEVER appreciate the PURIST view points. May be I dont understand it! (but for my own good, I am happy NOT understanding it!)

Song for Skanda (Swamy's little son)

2006-04-21T13:40:00.000+04:00

I had posted this song earlier in my blog with a different title! The audio hosting was completely screwed up during that time and many folks had complained about not being able to listen to this track. So I decided to remove the previous post and write a fresh post for the song.

This song is very close to us (f6 - me & ganesh). This is the first song that we worked with Swamy. Swamy once had asked us if we could work with him in arranging this cute little song that he had written for his son Skanda. He even had the tune ready with him! What made us love this song almost instantaneously was the beauty of the poem with very simple words but filled with a lot of love.

We recorded this track in one go with Ganesh playing the keys and backing and me singing. Nothing was planned! Neither the interludes nor the chords / backing. It was all impromptu. (Many folks who heard the 1st interlude of the track pointed out its similarity to "en kaadhale..." from duet's first interlude :) We dont deny it! haha!)

Do listen to this track and let us know ur opinion. This is not production quality, the recording might not be the best u have heard!

Hero worship kills music!

2006-04-19T14:23:00.000+04:00

Before I start, If you are an Orkut user, do check out the following links:

Link 1
Link 2

Okay, now to the post:

Is it wrong to dislike something or somebody?

I am sure most of you will say that its only natural that someone likes something, while somebody else doesnt. But my recent experiences discussing my dislikes about a person's music has made me think otherwise. I am an ardent music lover and I keep a pretty open mind towards all forms of music. (well almost... except heavy metal & grunge.. i refuse to accept it as music. Very personal feeling. period.)

The person in discussion here is padmabhushan Sri K J Yesudas. I have been listening to his film music & carnatic music ever since i was a small kid. I still remember myself listening to songs like "pranasakhi...", "Thaamasamenthe varuvaan...","Innale mayangumbol..." etc with awe and admiration to the great master. He indeed is a veteran and the man with the golden voice. On the contrary, when I used to hear his carnatic renditions like "Ksheera saagara...","Etha vunara...","Kripaya paalaya..." etc, I could feel that this doesnt have the magnetism that his film numbers have.

Through the years, I slowly learnt the fundamental differences between film music and carnatic music. Film music is about reproducing a tune composed by a music director with ur voice where the imagination of the composer has a little higher weightage than the singer's. On the contrary, carnatic music is firmly based on "manodharma sangeetham" where the singer's imagination has utmost importance. I always felt shri KJY is unmatched in his renditions of those great songs composed by M S Baburaj, Dakshinamoorthy & Raveendran master. But his manodharma and carnatic renditions made me slowly dislike his carnatic style. His over emphasizing pronounication was also not acceptable to me. this was the times when I started getting addicted to Padmashri Madurai T N Seshagopalan's music. He was a master of imaginative and unconventional singing. His manodharmam is unmatched. I knew comparing artistes is incorrect but I couldn help compare these artistes whom I adored so much.

Then came the times that I got hooked on to this form of music called Ghazal, and the legendary musician called Hariharan. His voice, his singing, his improvisations made me idolize him. Hariharan brought in the much needed freshness by improvising the pre-composed film songs also. I wrote all this history to point out why I like Hariharan's ghazals, TNS's carnatic and KJY's malayalam songs.

Now, is it wrong in being vocal about my dislikes about KJY's carnatic music. As a citizen of a country which allows free expression, I have all rights to be vocal about what I felt. Most of the guys who idolize shri KJY come to me and tell me that I am arrogant and I have no respect for the great Artist. Shri KJY is gaana gandharvan, no doubt about that! but his carnatic music leaves far more to b desired and thats my taste. No one can victimize me just for the fact that they love shri KJY. The saddest part is that the opposition comes not due to any musical reason, it just comes out of the hero worshipping mentality of people. Anything said against the music of KJY is most of the times taken as an insult to the artiste! Thats absurd! Its the music that is criticized and not the person

As much as the people have rights to like a person, I have my rights to dislike a person. People have come and told me that "Whatever you say about dasettan (shri KJY) YOU will never become as great as him". Thats when I lose it! Where am I saying I am equal or bigger that KJY? I am only giving my opinion. 9/10 cricket fan these days criticize Sourav Ganguly! Does that mean we all needs to be equal or bigger than him to criticize him? Bull crap! Its just the intellectual slavery of people for an artiste that makes them so intolerant to the criticism! In malayalam they say "kundilirikkum thavalakkunju...." the frog sitting in the well knows only the walls of the well. I feel these blind hero worshippers are no different from that!

I feel this unquestioning attitude and the submissive nature of people to any artiste is going to majorly hinder the growth of music. Till my last breath, I will continue to express my likes and dislikes towards the music rendered by popular artistes irrespective of their experience, acceptance or stature. i am not enslaved to any artiste here, I am a music lover and thats all!

If people think its my arrogance that makes me criticize an artiste, B*lls to all of them, I dont give a fscking damn!

And no one has the prophetic skills to tell me what I am capable of or what I will achieve!

Long live music, Long live constructive critisism and Let the blind hero worship be crucified!

Shakti with John McLaughlin -Live! (1974)

2006-04-19T14:19:00.000+04:00

I found this link on youtube. This band comes with a heavy artillery with stalwarts like SelvaGanesh, Vikku Vinayakaram, Zakir Hussain, L Subramaniam, Shankar Mahadevan etc. This is one of their earlier videos. Amazing is an understatement!Enjoy!

Raayamanikyam - intro dialogue!

2006-04-18T18:47:00.000+04:00

Dedicated to all the people around the world who have lived in thiruvananthapuram or been associated with this amazing city at some point of their life. "payale adichu noothalayum kettaaadeeey.... #@$%$"

The evergreen malayalam action hero - Jayan!

2006-04-18T18:42:00.000+04:00

"Oru theevandi kittiyirunnengeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel, belt aayi upayogikkaaamayinrunnooooooo...."

This is incredibly funny! I am really sorry I just cant transalate whats spoken there! Its inane, but hilarious. Now coming to my favorite argument.. with scenes and situations as ridiculous as the ones portrayed in this video and the one below, we are still happy and proud to say OLD IS GOLD! (man!!thats the biggest paradox that I have ever encountered. OLD is INSIGNIFICANT! thats why all these chartbuster scenes look as irrelevent as lady in a gay pub in today's world!)

eeeeeef uuuuuuuuuuuuuu come todaaaaay......

2006-04-18T18:32:00.000+04:00

No offense meant to the legendary actor. But have to confess that I was rolling on the floor and laughing listening/watching this song. Thanks to Malli for introducing me to this song!

iriver U10 has arrived!

2006-04-18T14:47:00.000+04:00

The newest addition to my set of gadgets: iriver U10. Thanks a lot, Adobe for gifting this to me! (I just love recieving gifts!)

Vishu Aashamsakal (Happy Vishu!)

2006-04-14T13:15:00.000+04:00

"Ethu dhoosara sankalpangalil valarnnaalum
Ethu yanthravalkritha lokathil pularnnaalum
Manassilundaavatte graamathin velichavum
Manavum, mamathayum, ithiri konna poovum"

One more Vishu passes by. But my heart still leaps thinking about the wonderful 25 Vishu's that I have celebrated in my life. It forces me to go back in the memory lane. In the fast track life that I am leading in Bangalore, the spirit of celebrating Vishu has definitely dampened a little, much more than before this particular year owing to the riots and mishaps caused after the demise of kannada matinee idol - Dr Rajkumar.

I grew up in a small, picturesque town Shoranur - which is by the banks of the bharathappuzha in the district of palakkad - the land of palms, forts and arts. I spent the first 16 years of my life there. Vishu was big event there during those times. I still remember my mother waking me up at 4AM in the morning for the Vishu kani, which is a symbol of prosperity and all the happiness thats in store for the new year. Bursting crackers, getting vishu kaineettam from my grandparents, watching the flowering kanikkonna trees in our courtyard in the early morning sunrise... Man, It is pristine beauty of the village. It is unmatched by an of the sophistications of a city and i am sure it will staty that way for ever

I moved to thiruvananthapuram in 1997, vishu is not as big in south kerala as it is in the mid and northern parts of Kerala. But still the excitement of vishu was verymuch there. 9 years later, vishu has just become yet another day for most of us malayalees living away from kerala to make a living. For those folks who manage to get home for Vishu, the festival is now limited to watching the vishu special programmes in Asianet or Surya TV

I dream of one vishu that I could celebrate again like I did when I was 7years old with my childhood buddies...

Happy vishu all of you!

for all my tamilian friends, happy tamil new years!

Keystation 49e Rocks!

2006-04-11T16:41:00.000+04:00

Propellerhead Reason + m-audio Keystation 49e. Made for each other

GNR's latest trip to US brings us a new silver beast! M-Audio Keystation 49e. This is just an amazing USB midi controller. Its a 4 octave keyboard with a sexy pitchbender and modulation wheel. Whats more? It works like a charm with Reason. Watch this space, will upload our first demo on this new combo real soon!

I found this on the internet!

2006-03-31T12:52:00.000+04:00

Read this article on the web.I agree to whats written in this article to every single alphabet. Something which I always wanted to write in my blog.

Happy Women's Day

2006-03-08T14:31:00.000+04:00

Happy women's day. Its that day of the year for all the women of the world to be proud of what they are & what they have achieved!

But things doesnt seem too easy to the women in our country. Thanks to Sree, I got a chance to read this article. Do go through this one, it is an extremely honest and blatant essay about the horrifying street sexual harrassment encountered by women of our country every single day! If you feel you can contribute to eradicating this highly perverted human mentality from the society, do support "The Blank Noise Project"

Ghulam Ali at Ambedkar Bhawan, Blore

2006-03-08T14:00:00.000+04:00

Attended the Ghulam Ali concert last saturday at Ambedkar bhawan. It was very heartening to see that there were a lot of ghazal enthusiasts assembled for the concert much before the scheduled time. A great gesture to show you actually love the art and respect the musician. On the downside we also had the Memsaahibs in ethnic costimes with heavy jewellery and makeup and cell phones that resembled space shuttles walking in to the hall at 8:00PM with the expression in their face which gives you the feeling that they are in their nephew's wedding reception. MORONS!! I have utter disrespect for such people. There was also this kurta clad middle aged man stting right next to me instructing somebody the route to Ambedkar Bhawan during the concert. Whatta loser! the guy coming late is a loser indeed but this cartoon who insists on attending the call right inside the hall in the middle of a concert is the King of losers ever.

Well well... I started writing this post with the intent of covering the concert by Ghulam Ali saab rather than criticize the un-interested morons who came for the concert. Let me come to that now! It was indeed a great experience! Age is definitley taking some toll on this maestro but not to the extent that the listener feels it! What poise!! I was dumbfounded by the way this ghazal magician sing the alaaps and swaras in between the ghazal completely in sync with what he was playing on Harmonium. amazing. Chup ke chup ke raat din was the pick of the lot! He made it extremely engaging by explaining the meanings of the tough urdu words before the rendition. Lots of folks loved the rendition, but there were also this set of "Wannabe Ghazal Fans" who just waited with bated breath for him to complete the sher to start clapping! Sad state of affairs indeed. Knowing the meaning is definitely icing on cake, but waiting for the key-word in the ghazal to applaud is just plain ridiculous.

The concert ended with "Hungama hai kyon barpa.... " the alaaps in darbari were breathtaking. The ease at which he shifted between shudha madhyam and prathimadhyam made my jaws drop in awe. A person like me who has been trained to sing darbari in the arohana avarohana progressions only, this was phenomenal.. it wasnt the pure darbari that enthralled , it was the innovation and risk taking mentality of the artiste that made all the difference. the concert also featured many of his other popular ghazals "dil mein ik lehar", "Kal chaudhvi ki raat" etc. He also sang Daag Dehlvi's vintage Ghazal "Ranj Ki Jab guftgoo hone lagi.." I loved it but prefer Haiharan Ji's version from the album Swar Utsav 2003

It was a very rewarding experience and I was amazed by the effect that the concert produced which was an amalgamation of Hindustani , Sufi , Punjabi Folk styles of music. For all the purists who boast of their interes in music being limited to "Strictly Pure Traditional Indian Classical Music", I wish to quote a sher from the ghazal "Hungama hai kyon barpa..."

Natajurbaakaari se waais ki yeh baatein hai
is rang ko kya jaane, poocho jo kabhe pi hai

Means: a person who has never experience the intoxication of wine is commenting about the evils of it, what does he know about the bliss, he has never tasted the wine!
(Wine = Form of music for understanding what I mean!)

Bloggers United in Music - BlogSwara

2006-03-08T13:31:00.000+04:00

This venture is certainly very unique in the the blogsphere. Concieved and spearheaderd by popular blogger and immensely talented musician Joseph thomas (Jo), Blogswara will be rocking the internet space in a short while. Visit www.blogswara.in or jocalling.blogspot.com for more details on the release schedules.

Talking about Blogswara, I need to talk about a big personal loss that I am encountering. I was lucky enough to be considered to be part of this venture. Thanks to some personal and official commitments in the last month, I could not deliver as promised to this project. a great loss indeed for the musician in me!

With the kind of musical talent that Blogswara has, I have no doubts that this is going to be a mighty successful venture.

This post also marks my return to active blogging after that month long sabbatical from blogging. Do watch this space.. I will be back again late today evening !

Always
Vodka.

Recording of Hope - Snap Shots

2006-01-10T14:20:00.000+04:00

Gokul at work! I took these snaps on my Nokia 6600 during the recording of our song Hope - in support of CAN Conquer CANcer initiative.
Location - Music Mint Studios, Bangalore, 3:00AM IST, 10.01.2006

Hope - In support of CAN Conquer CANcer

2006-01-10T03:03:00.000+04:00

Cancer - the word brings with it a hue of emotions and a palette of memories.... small children, smart young men and women, elderly people - cancer has spared none.

Cancer, as we all know is a deadly disease, but thanks to the massive developments in the field of medicine - most forms of cancer are now curable. So, all that is needed is HOPE and a strong will to challenge the disease.

We happened to see this wonderful initiative aimed at building that essential weapon - the "confidence" to conquer cancer. So, we - a small group of music enthusiasts - decided to try and focus our interest in music to this great cause - and this was how this song was born.

While coming up with the lyrics for our song, we happened to chance upon a great website- which had poems written by cancer patients themselves. Reading those poems, we were highly moved and realised that the actual emotion could be best conveyed only by someone who had been through it.

We were especially touched by this one poem written on a child who is braving cancer. The gravity of hope that this poem exudes was something we thought we should use for our venture.

To that, we added our Hindi lyrics which complements the underlying theme of "hope" and set it to our tune.

We sincerely hope our song reaches out to all those unfortunate victims of cancer and their families and friends and helps them battle against the disease until victory.

F6 presents "Hope" - in support of CAN Conquer CANcer.

Credits:

Composed & Arranged by : F6
Vocals : Shyam/Harish
Guitar : Vignesh
Keyboard : Ganesh
Recording, mixing & mastering : Gokul, Music Mint Studios, Bangalore
Lyrics : Nasra Al Adawi / Harish

Lyrics:

I’m a child who wanted to play
I was ill and pain didn’t go away

Some how I could not cope
Still I could not give up on this hope

With pain I could not stop my cry
To be brave I had to try

To feel well is taking so long
Trying to live, I had to be strong

Its nature's law -

When life sinks, hope floats....

Tumhein hi pukaare hain yeh saara sama
Tumhein hi bulaaye hain yeh mehakti hawa
Asha ke diye jalaake, tum ko pukaare
khwabon ko dil mein jagaake, tum ko pukaare - yeh jahaan

Transalation:

Oh child! The beautiful nature is calling you!
The sweet smelling gentle breeze is calling you!
Lighting the lamp of hope, kindling the dreams of life, the whole universe is calling you!

Meaning of words:

Sama: Nature, Environment
Mehakti Hawa : Sweet smelling breeze
Asha ke diye: Lamp of hope
Khwab: Dream

Jhoomein yeh zameen aasmaan ,Jhoomein chaandni yeh ghata
ummeed se tum ab raahi chalo, taqdeer ka rukh mod do
Kaanton bhari is raah mein, Asha ke phool tum bichhaake chalo
When life sinks, Hope floats...

Transalation:

Earth and sky is dancing in joy, the moonlight and the clouds are swaying in happiness
Oh child! Move on with the power hope, change your destiny with hope
Change the road of thorns to a bed of flowers

Meaning of words:

Jhoomein: Swaying, Swinging
Zameen: Earth
Aasmaan: Sky
Chaandni: Moonlight
Ghata: Clouds
Taqdeer: Destiny
Kaanta: Thorn

Note : Part of the english lyrics is taken from cancernet.co.uk and is copyrighted to cancernet.uk

Happy New Year 2006

2006-01-02T09:34:00.000+04:00

Happy new year all of you! For an auspicious start of the year, I am uploading an invokation of lord Krishna. This is part of one of my earlier carnatic music concerts in Kerala. This is a humble tribute to Padmashri T N Seshagopalan the musical virtuoso as I picked up this from one of his early recordings of the devarunama "Narajanma bandaage". Also this is the first blog where I am previewing audio hosting using castpost. This is a concert recording where I did a few tweaks using the cool edit pro (The quality isnt great :( ) I am trying to convert few of my carnatic concert recordings and put them up here! watch this space!

Have a good day and a great year ahead all of you!

Retro - 2005

2005-12-26T16:26:00.000+04:00

Small attempt at retrospecting 2005, Only important events:

New years at home. (after a long time)
Move to Keerthy Regency (Living in a big apartment dream come true)
Booking 103, My Pride - Riviera (My own home sweet home)
First ever major Bank Loan
Biking to electronics City
Started Blogging (may)
IIM-B shows (one success, one flop)
Quit Ascendum (hard decision, had to move on!)
Macromedia Job (wonderful event!)
IBM Thinkpad T42
Asha in Bangalore (Lifes never been so good!)
Macromedia Party (Wild)
Zen Neeon
Maami (Tsunami :D) fiasco, the devotional project that was never to happen
Ammu with Swamy
Trip with Asha
Above & Beyond award
Concert at Malliyoor
Guruvayoor Ekadasi
Asha at Home
Aarariro with Swamy
Adobe Merger (The name "Macromedia" ceases to exist)
PVR gold class movie (The stupid neal n nikki)
Asha back to hyd (miss u da!)
Jo and the musicians of blogsphere

...

Moving on to 2006 with a lot of hope, prayer and dreams. Hoping that 2006 be a much more rewarding, peaceful and successful year not only for me, but also for each one of you, india and the whole world. This is my last post for the year 2005. See you all in 2006. Belated christmas wishes and a happy new year in advance for all of you!

Thanks
Harish.

Nilaa kaigirathu - f6 version

2005-12-21T17:33:00.000+04:00

A small remix twist to the ARR melody Nilaakaigirathu from the movie Indira. Done at home as an experiment.

Credits:

Vocals: Ramya
Keys, Percussions: Ganesh Ram

Alla tero naam - acoustic version

2005-12-21T10:38:00.000+04:00

This is one of the first tracks that f6 recorded. This was done as an acoustic number with minimal orchestration, except for the looping piano riffs. Full credit to Ramya for having done great justice to this otherwise simple compositions. It was an out an out home recording with a Korg O1w (not a big fan of O1w, bit it works!) with a low end soundcard. Presenting to you "alla tero naam" by Ramya. Arranged by F6.

Credits:

Vocals: Ramya
Backing Vocals: Harish
Keyboards : Ganesh Ram

Hai Rama - Live @ BITSConnexion 2003

2005-12-20T11:05:00.000+04:00

This is a live recording of the song Hai Rama from Rangeela that I performed with Ramya for my college's alumni meet - BITSConnexion 2003. It is an audio rip from the DVD and the quality is not great! Posting it here neverthless. Do tell me what you guys think!

Credits:

Vocals: Harish / Ramya
Keyboards: Shyam Unnikrishnan / Dinakar Gade
Flute: T S Kamaldeep
Drums & Percussions: Ganesh Ram
Bass Guitar: Aditya Kasyap
Tabla : Vishal Subramaniam

On the blogsphere...

2005-12-20T10:25:00.000+04:00

Yesterday was a good day, I found so many talented musicians in the blogsphere! These folks stand out for their talent and passion for music and poetry! Do check out these links.

Joseph Thomas: Has a huge collection of songs rendered by him in this site. He has a lovely voice and has come up with some spectacular original compositions too!
Ajay Chandran: Beautiful hindi and malayalam poetry! One of his poems inspires f6 to compose a song out of it, Work has already started on this!

Have a great day all of you!
Thanks, Vodka

Audio clips are up and running again!

2005-12-19T16:04:00.000+04:00

The problem with audio clip hosting is now fixed and all the audios can now be streamed from this website!

Important Note : Audio hosting is broken :(

2005-12-19T15:50:00.000+04:00

Hi all,

The audio hosting on the site is broken as my hosting service complains of exceeding the allowed bandwith usage per month (thanks a lot guys for hitting this space often!) I am working on a parallel hosting and will have the clips up and running real soon! Sorry about the inconvinience!

Thanks
Vodka

Announcing insaneinstincts.com!

2005-12-13T19:12:00.000+04:00

I finally have a domain name for myself!! I have formally registered insaneinstincts.com , which currently points to the blog site. More stuff will be added as I build a website under this domain name. Well, thats gonna take time, but for the time being you can visit insaneinsticts.com (It will bring you back here though!)

The New Look!

2005-12-07T18:13:00.000+04:00

I feel the new look was due for a long time now. I was planning to make a new template all on my own but I saw this kickass blogger template in Krish's blog. Followed the link, and reached beccary.com. Impressive I must say! I picked up this template right from there! Looks cool, doesnt it?.

Also, I got my official offer letter from Adobe systems yesterday, So I am an employee of Adobe systems, starting 03rd December 2005.

Have a nice evening all of you!
always,
Vodka

A Legend Called Macromedia

2005-12-05T14:28:00.000+04:00

That is the wall of the front lobby of 3rd floor, Salarpuria Infinity, Bangalore. Thats the Macromedia India office in Bangalore. Why am I putting up this picture here? Well, 12/03 was officially the last day of Macromedia (Only the name) the company that revolutionized the web with innumerable tools like Flash, Director, Dreamweaver and the ubiquitous flash player and the swf format

Adobe had announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia in Apr 2005, It has finally come by. 12/05 is officially the Day One for Adobe - Bangalore. Now, What difference does this make to my life? Well way too many to list, I must say! Let me give you a brief overview what macromedia and its technologies mean to me. I started my first ever qualified software project in early 1999, a simple website development assignment with some jazzy animations.

Thats when I first saw this uncomparable tool called Flash 4.0 , which does spellbinding animations for the web. It took a few months for me to master flash 4.0. Then came flash 5 the master blaster animation tool and some kickass programming capabilities. couple of years rolled, and my love for this tool kept growing. Then came flash MX, Whoa what a leap. With actionscript much stronger than before and OO programming capabilities. I started taking flash scripting much more seriously than before. 2003, I land my first job as an actionscript developer. I couldnt ask for a better job profile, I must say! Then there came the Flash 7.2, with the show stealer ActionScript 2.0.. AS2.0 meant more kickass applications and better, richer internet. Only Macromedia could do wonders of this kind. 2005 May 24th.. It felt like world just came to a halt! I landed a job with Macromedia. (Dream come true is an understatement, I am not saying it....)

Okay, I knew the acquisition was announced, but dint matter much to me, being a macromedian mattered a lot at that time. But today, I am forced to retrospect.. Its going to be Adobe going forward.. Its going to be Adobe Flash, Adobe Exchange (if Adobe keeps the product names as is...) Is it just about losing the name? yeah it is, but a name that i hold close to my heart, a name that always inspired me to do better, a name that made me proud when it featured in my email address.... Its a very sentimental moment for me... indeed! But as they say, change is the only constant thing and the show has to go on, So Here I am, moving on, carrying the rich and colorful memories and experience that I gathered from macromedia to Adobe - a much stronger one with 1000+ macromedians joining it.

The name will cease to exist, but macromedia will continue to be a legend that entralled thousands of internet users for the past many years. Long Live Macromedia!

Exclusive Preview of 'Aaraariro'

2005-12-02T13:48:00.000+04:00

Here comes the preview of the premaster version of Aarariro.... - Our newest track.

Credits:

Swaminathan - Concept, Music & Lyrics
Harish - Music, Vocals & Violin and String Arrangement
Ganesh Ram - Keyboards, Percussions, Programming
Padmaja Swetha - Vocals

Gokul Abhishek - Recording, Mixing & Mastering (Music Mint Studios - Bangalore)

Teaser of our latest song

2005-12-02T13:00:00.000+04:00

After that long break, f6 is back with a new production. This time aroud it is a collaboration with Sri. Swaminathan - a great musician, poet and a fine friend. I have uploaded a teaser of this song as streaming media here. Watch out for the full song here, Which I will be uploading real soon. Do send in the bouquets and brickbats.

Powered by Castpost

karnaranjini - melancholic exstacy!

2005-11-22T13:21:00.000+04:00

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

Above and Beyond ...

2005-11-17T16:18:00.001+04:00

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.

One more of F6 Compositions

2005-11-09T14:57:00.002+04:00

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

Brahma's Dance

2005-11-09T11:31:00.000+04:00

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.

My mind is swinging with Aarabhi...

2005-10-13T17:59:00.000+04:00

I am listening to this ghazal called "Jitne bhi gham the dil ki..." by hari ji, from his album Qaraar. Woah, What bliss!! This is predominantly based on the carnatic Raag Aarabhi, with some real subtle twists which makes this ghazal so enjoyable. I feel the odd transitions in this ghazal gives aarabhi a whole new dimension.

I bow infront of the musical genius - Padmashree Hariharan! Its a pity many of his early ghazal albums did not get the attention they deserved. This particular track that I am referring to is from the album Qaraar, which comes packed with spellbinding melodies. Hari i's pathbreaking attempt at mixing those signature ghazal elements to this pure carnatic raag - Aarabhi.

How much I wish i could sing those sangathi's for my last concert (At Ranjani Sangeetha Sabha, Kerala) where I rendered "Saala Kallala.." in Aarabhi. How much I wish the carnatic music communtiy start appreciating the experience more than doing a deep drill to find if the vocalist had given glimpses of Suddha saveri while singing aarabhi. Many a time I feel that the audience of carnatic music (Not all of them, ofcourse) are concerned more about the mistakes, or anyaswarams or possible drifts that an artiste makes while his rendition rather than enjoying the music that he is producing. Its such a tiring thing to do Quality Assurance on a concert. Afterall, thats not what you pay for when you come for a concert.

Before I type the next line, I would like to say that I like all raagas and all kinds of raagas. I believe each of them have an indviduality and beauty. Having said that I find myself a little uncomfortable when somebody is singing an elaborate aalap of Naatakapriya. Naataka priya is technically half todi +half kharaharapriya. I still havent come across a convincing alaap of Naatakapriya by any artist as they simply sing thodi's sanchaaras upto pa and kharaharapriya's after pa. And overally, I dont get the happiness that I would have gotten if the singer chose to sing Thodi or Kharaharapriya.

Now, Now... I am not saying someone should not sing Naatakapriya (or any other raagam for that matter) , all i am trying to point out here is that singing an "apoorva raagam" (u might want to say Naatakapriya isnt one... I honor ur opinion but I strongly feel its one!) for the heck of it and getting a thrill of seeing atleast 10-15 faces who just dont know what raagam is this and finally declaring after the aalap as to what this raag was , and how difficult it is etc sounds bit too tedious for me. Actually I dont care if its Naatakapriya or Todi or Kharaharapriya, All I care is whether it sounded good to me. I refuse to appreciate the singer just for the fact that he "dared" to sing an rare raagam.

I have always been Pro-experimentation. If you have followed my previous posts, I myself have written about raised eyebrows when i sang manirangu. I repeat my notion that no experiment can be called a bad experiment. All that I am trying to pin here is that, many a time, the singer who chooses to sing a rare raagam does not give enough thought or mind application in his rendition. He just tries to float on the hype and curiosity that is created in the listeners mind when he starts the aalap/song. But I don come for a concert to watch a detective series. I want good sound, good experience, Really doesnt matter if its a rare raaga or popular raaga

Many a time I have seen critics in paper write "Xyz artist showed so much mastery in rendering ABC raaga , which offers little scope for elaborate rendition" So absurd!! If the raaga doesnt give enough scope for elaborate rendition (Its again a state of mind! I feel any raaga can be elaborated oif enough dedication, hardwork and mindapplication is given to it!) why are you wasting my time by singing it. Its like a 40 KG guy trying to lift a 100KG iron , and falling down with his back broken. And the critic's remark can be compared to saing, what if he broke his back, the iron piece was so heavy!! Now this is like claiming sympathy!!

I feel What raaga you sing or how difficult the raaga is should not really be a benchmark in appreciating a musicians capability. It should simply be how good he sounds, whatever raaga he sang. That makes it so simple and simple is beautiful!

Just like

"Jitne bhi gha the dil ki nawaaon mein aa gaye
hum leke sath charaag, hawaaon mein aa gaye..."

Okay, I am getting into a conference now, Have a nice evening all of you!
Always, Vodka

I am back...

2005-10-10T16:00:00.000+04:00

Its been about 2.5 months since I have hit this space to type out my insane instincts :)!! Have been very busy at work, and have been spending a lot of time at work. Macromedia is such a fantastic workplace, I just cant have any regrets about anything excepting, I couldnt get to write about a lot of stuff that I wanted to write! Now now... So much has happened ever since my last post on 25th August!! I am just waiting to wind up today's work and get into the blogging mood! :)

More after 6:30PM IST 10.10.2005

Cheers, Me!

Tum nahin Gham nahin... Vs Meghame meghame

2005-08-25T16:31:00.000+04:00

This song called Meghame Meghame from the movie palavana cholai is one of my all time favorites by Vani Jayaram. Its a stupendous tamil ghazal.. truly one of the kinds in the vintage Tamil music. The rendition is so superb that reinstates that a ghazal need not necessarly be in urdu... But I accidently bumped into this CD called "Journey - by Jagjit Singh" in one of my friend's apartments.. Truly speaking I am not a big jagjit fan primarly because of making ghazals way too simple ( I know I am contradicting my own view point here... ;) ) still, I admire Jagjit ji for making ghazal a popular form of art, which can be enjoyed by one and all. The musical content might have suffered, but it did serve the purpose! Personally I am still fond of Mehndi hassan saab, Ghulam Ali, Hariharan (Favorite) and Ahmed & Mohammed Hussain.

Coming back to the topic... I was listening thru the CD and there came the track which goes

"Tum nahin, gham nahin, sharaab nahin...
Aisi Tanhaee ka jawaab nahin..."

Here it goes....This one sounds exactly like meghame... Wait, lemme correct myself, Meghame is actually a copy of this ghazal. I was biased to the tamil track even after I listened to the Jagjit version innumerable times... The anupallavi of meghame is actually modified more to the south indian mode though!

Listen to meghame meghame and tum nahin gham nahin ... I honestly am not able to tell which one is better... but it feels a little sad that one of my favorite tamil ghazals is not completely an original one! :(

Hail Music!!
always, Vodka

Lyrics or Music ?

2005-08-12T16:18:00.000+04:00

Thanks again sriram for that wonderful comment on my previous post.

I have been thinking about writing about this topic for quite some time now, and I must say that Sriram's comment comes as a direct initiation for me to write this one. Ofcourse, I was planning to write this in an entirely different context earlier, now I am writing it in continuation to my previous posts..

I would like to take a small example from my times at BITS, Pilani. I used to be part of Music Club, which had a group of people from various cross sections of the country trying to play myriad styles of music. I still consider that my association with Music club has helped me grow into a better musician that what I used to be 6-7 years back. Music club organizes this event called "Music Nite" twice every semester. Music Nite is a 3 hr long event where popular indian film music is played and a few western numbers. Due to various reasons (which i wouldnt want to elaborate on this post..) there is a vast majority of students from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in BITS, Pilani. One point in time , few of us thought, why not play one tamil and one telugu song for the nite along with the hindi numbers? The idea sounded good as the crowd would love it!!! We decided to go ahead and play one tamil and one telugu song for the event. The Tamil/Telugu junta tripped over the songs... There were "Once moree...." requests resounding in the auditorium... all looked good....

The next day, my hostel room sidee, came up to my room and said... Harish, the music nite was amazing... except for two songs... I dint understand a word of those tamil/telugu songs that u played it sounded so silly to me... Now, The tamil song was pacchai Nirame from the movie alaipaayuthey. (which later became Saathiya... when the movie was remade to hindi!). I dint comment on what he said, but neverthless was forced to think why did he make such a statement? 1 year passed, Saathiya was released... and we decided to play the title song for another music nite.... The day after , my friend came back again... and said.. the Saathiya song was out of the world... what a great "tune"..

Okay that was just a scenario I had to quote to say what i feel about the need of knowing the lyrics of a song to appreciate a tune... This is one point which I vehemently disapprove of. I strongly agree that Lyrics contributes a very important part of the song and it adds a lot of value to the song as a whole... But, Lyrics is absolutely not a requirement to appreciate a piece of music. Its just the language oriented mind set of humans that makes one believe that i wont be able to appreciate the song if i dont understand the lyrics.. It tops the list of paradoxes when the same set of human beings can appreciate a flute or guitar recital where there is absolutely no lyrics.

I feel (this is again my personal opinion no offenses meant!) Lyrics or poetry has a very small role to play in the overall beauty of a musical composition. Its the music, the notes and the formations that make a piece really admirable. So, I feel one need not necessarily know the meanings of every song that he sings to make the song sound good. Its the internal bliis that one experiences while rendering a composition that translates to a good rendition.

Now, This particular line from sriram's post really interested me...
"A person who enjoys bhakthi
soaked music may not enjoy the saaki & shabaab music, and vice versa."

Agree!! Thats whats been happening all around me also. I just want to go and ponder a bit deep into this particular reference coz, I still have my grandfather visibily expressing his dislike to me playing "Saaqiya jaaye kahaan.. hum tere maikhaane se..." during the pooja times at my home... He says "all this songs deal with courtesans, immoral life, alchoholism and adultery....Why cant u play a thyagaraja kriti which is so rich in bhakti and positive energy?"

Well well... I beg to differ here... for me , till the moment he reminded me that the song actually deals with alcohol and women, I dint quite realize it... I was enjoying the subtle nuances of misra charukishi and some breathtaking harmonium interludes of this stupendous ghazal! Now - Bhakti- The term-No one uptill now has been able to give me a convincing definition for the term bhakti (yeah, i know, u can probably go read gita or upanishads or .....) I always found it quite perplexing as to why bhakti is always linked up to a religion or belief or god? I refuse to accept the argument that only a song sung in praise of Rama or Krishna or Jesus or Allah can invoke Bhakti... From my understanding, Bhakti leads u to a state of sublime happiness and all those great saints Tyagaraja Swamy, Jayadeva... they have all experienced it..

I experience sheer joy of life when i listen to music. I dont categorize it into carnatic , hindustani, ghazals or Rock.. I listen to what gives pleasure to my mind.. I dont care if it has lyrics or not, I dont care if I completely understand the lyrics or not , I dont care a bit if the lyrics has got to do with Rama Bhakti or Shabaab... For me, its all music, and personally those forms of music which dont bind you to rules or conventions... because, I belive music is also a force of nature... No body puts restrictions on the directions of wind flow or tides...

If you insist on looking at it scientifically also... language is constiuted of various syllables put together and uttered together... similarly even music is made up of various syllables uttered together, when for a human being the latter does not make sense in the liguistic point of view, he starts retorting saying i dont understand this... What i would say is... Dont even try to... Just listen to the sound it generates... if its good to your ear, u will surely experience happiness and thats exactly what bhakti also gives u. So Rama, Krishna, Allah, jesus, Saaqi, Sharaab, Shabaab, Maikhaana... all are just mere words and its the music that encompasses them that generates the feeling of sublime happiness or bhakti

Long live Music!

Whats in a name?

2005-08-11T14:30:00.000+04:00

I initially wrote this as a reply to the comment that sriram had posted, but then when i read it , i realized it is way too big for a comment and just perfect for a post. So i am including it as a new post.

Hey Sriram,

That was a nice post: But on certain points I beg to differ.

As to madhyamaavati being associated with Mangalam... thats just one facet of the raagam. And my observation is Manirangu sounds much like sreeragam than madhyamaavati. I cant think why some one should think i am gonna end the concert coz i am elabporating on manirangu (not even madhyamaavati)... Does it mean i am always going for a funeral if i am wearing a black shirt ? :) [Please excuse me for the bad analogy, couldnt think of a better one!]

For me Singing evari maata in athana is absolutely fine , if it sounds good and appeals to all. I call it prejudice if u simply decide for urself that a Tyagaraja kriti is gonna sound bad just because somebody tried to sing it differently. There is a Swati tirunal kriti called Karuna cheyvaan ( If u have heard shemmangudi or K V Narayanaswamy , u would probably have heard this one... ) It was traditionally sung is Yadukula Kambhoji, but KVN started singing it in Sree Ragam... and it sounded awesome...

There is no such thing like experimenting for the heck of it (Thats my take on experimentation!) . If an experiment goes bad, people call it a bad experiment. But no one can be sure of an outcome even before the experiment is done. Taking science as an analogy, Edison took 8000 tries to get what we call now as a light bulb... so does it mean that all his 7999 experiments were done for the heck of it? I dont think so.

Now, I refuse to accept history and I refuse to belive that we sing all tyagaraja kritis ditto the way the great saint composed them... It sounds highly illogical that the compositions never evolved... And i find it a lil biased statement that "If u don wanna stick to format pls spare tyagaraja...." I feel all composers were great in their own respects...

Now, Hindolam is a nomenclature... Just the way I am called Harish and u are called Sriram... but there is a lot more to me or u which is yet to be explored. So I find it un acceptable to say, Harish is this , this and this , but not that! Some one added a big dha to hindolam and called it Varamu... For me its still a melodious experience may it be hindolam , or varamu or whatever name u feel like calling it...

I do agree to the fact that adding some random swaram to a raaga kind of spoils the mood. But an experienced musician can easly think of a note that can be added which does not kill the mood of the raagam... all it takes is an open mind and hassle free thinking.

And a clarificaltion: I DID NOT say that any particular form of music is pure and ethreal, u can refer my comment, I said "Let there be no rules that bind the pure and ethreal form of music". So I still dont see anything offensive on that statement.

About composing my own raagas... well, When i have the skill and knowledge , i will definitely try and produce combination of musical notes.. which soothes the listeners ears.. I wouldnt want to call it a name... afterall, its the sound that matters...

always,
Harish

Aaah the rules of carnatic music!!!!!

2005-07-19T15:47:00.000+04:00

Hi all,

I know, Its been almost more a month or a bit more than that since I wrote my last blog. have been keeping myself really busy with getting used to my new workplace and getting started with my project assignments and stuff. Amidst all these came this opportunity to sing for AIR Thruvananthapuram (I am a B-High vocalist with AIR TVPM since 2000). The last time I gave a performance at AIR was in 2003. Its mainly due to the fact that I live in bangalore now, and also the address that the AIR folks have is mega outdated (My fault :)) . Okay, coming to the main reason why I wanted to write this blog.

I have been learning carnatic music vocal ever since I was 4. My family is deeply interested in the carnatic music flavour and my grandparents (especially my grandfather ) are very religious followers of the traditional or 'sampradayam' way of carnatic music rendition. My initial training days, I learnt the keerthanams, varnams, padams, jaavalis all in the fixed format that my teacher used to teach me and I also remember the 3 sangathis (some times 4) that I need to sing where each sangathi needs to be repeated twice and the pallavi to be ended in a pre planned fashion. same with anupallavi and charanam. I was told that this is the structure of this particular song. As time passed, I could give a few concerts, a few more, and a few more... I kept singing the keerthanams as taught to me by my master... I sounded good, dint sing too many apaswarams, and I had a fairly good command over my gamakas and sangathis too... so all's fine...

1998, I have to move to this obscure town called Pilani in the fringe border of Rajasthan and haryana to study engineering at this college BITS,Pilani.

All at home excepting my dad and my mom said "Its all over now... what carnatic music will Harish sing in Rajasthan... His music is over!!". I was confused, but determined on 2 facts - I will surely go to Pilani to study engineering. Secondly - I will continue to sing and try to enrich my musical knowledge in whatever way possible. Let me not elaborate on what I did in Pilani, but the bottom line is my exposure to hindustani music, Sufiyana, Khayals and Ghazal mode of singing went exponentially up.

I was swept off my feat by the amount of scope of innovation that the ghazal gayaki gives an artiste. The first thing that came to my mind is, why cant I add those subtle nuances that a ghazal singer gives to a ghazal to a Thyagaraja Keerthanam? I couldnt find a convincing reason which would prevent me from doing so. Who decides Sankarabharanam has to be sung "THIS WAY ONLY!" Who decides A raaga alaapana should always follow an upward progression that is the lower sthaayi to upper sthaayi and back... hey hey... these are all rules that got imposed into carnatic music , just because the older generation did it that way! PERIOD.

The proverb which puts me off to the greatest extent is - "OLD IS GOLD!" Bull crap man!! if everything old was gold, we will be still wearing tree leaves instead of clothes and would be loafing in some obscure forest hunting animals with crude stone spears!!! ONLY change is constant. The older things should just become history. If somethig old, that has some significance to today, retain it, otherwise chuck it! its not worth holding on to it!!

I refuse to sing a particular keerthanam or raagam in a particular way just because GNB or Musri Subrahmanya Iyer sang it that way.. Apply ur rational here, think what appeals to the current generation, and sing that way.. thats the ideology I would like to follow. So I am absolutely against this Sampradaya oriented musical fundamentalism where any new artist who experiments is criticized just for the heck of it because the person deviated from the traditional mode of renditions... I was apalled by the way the well known critic Subbudu responded to Padmashree T N Seshagopalan's extremely commendable attempt at singing a Raagam Taanam Pallavi in Raag Brindavana Saaranga. His comment was something like 'TNS has insulted the audience by rendering a RTP in a petty raag like Brindavana saaranga which doesnt even qualify to be rendered as a pre - main raag" Comon, what the hell man? Appreciate TNS's genius for bringing out the subtle nuances of this extremely challenging ragam (atleast in the RTP perspective)..

Why am I saying all these, well i saw atleast some 5-6 eyebrows go up during my performance at AIR where I chose to sing Raag Manirangu for the main kriti. Everyone wants a todi, kalyani or a harikamboji rendition? why??? I think manirangu is an amazing raagam and it also has immense scope for improvisation. I would much rather sing the soothing , easy to listen raagas rather that overdoze the audience with the heavy duty stuff. I am not saying u should not sing a bhairavi or varaali... all I am sayig is that PLease dont make it a rule that only melakarthas or the so called heavy duty janyas qualify as main keerthana renditions. Please bury the cliched sampradaayik rules and help carnatic music soar greater heights. And also for heavens, please take into consideration the critical opinion of the current generation folks also and not just the generation of Subbudus (With all respects to him, I just hate his hypocrytic views on carnatic concerts!) which is the past.

hail music!!

Me @ Macromedia R & D, Bangalore!!

2005-06-21T17:26:00.000+04:00

Finally... a dream come true for me! I have been dreaming about working at this company that makes Flash ever since I laid my hands on the tool. When I started programming with Flash Actionscript in 2003 , in my first job, all the folks around me said... dude pick up java or .NET else u are not gonna find another job after this...

Somehow, i stuck to what I did, for the simple reason that I loved programming for flash. Now, being a part of the macromedia family makes me really happy and makes me feel that all the efforts have paid off. Yeah, ofcourse, along comes a lot of responsibilities... I have to live up to the standards at which this organization operates....

So its learning time again for me... this time its Flex.

Thank you god, for making this dream of mine come true!!

For all those who hurt me!!!

2005-05-18T16:25:00.000+04:00

I still dont hate u guys, but......

With corrections as pointed out by Ms Chinmayi

umar bhar pachtaaoge tum mujh ko thukraane ke baad
Kis pe todoge sitam, tum mere mit jaane ke baad

Aah yeh sadma mera hi dil tha jo mein seh gaya
kya karoge dil pe utri aap ke jaane ke baad
kis pe todoge sitam tum mere mit jaane ke baad

kaam kar jaati hai dam ishq ki nakaamiyaan
khud sambhal jaata hai insaan thokre khaane ke baad
kis pe todoge sitam tum mere mit jaane ke baad

tumne to ahde wafaa toda magar saahir tera
ho nahin sakta kisi ka tera ho jaane ke baad
kis pe todoge sitam tum mere mit jaane ke baad....

Love, always!

2005-05-10T18:06:00.000+04:00

"Log kehte hai ajnabee tum ho... Ajnabi, meri zindgi tum ho.
Dil kisi aur ka na ho paya.. aarzoo meri aaj bhi tum ho.
Mujh ko apna shareeq-e-gham karlo, yun akele bahut dukhi tum ho."

End of the day thoughts!

2005-05-10T17:33:00.000+04:00

"yeh raat , yeh taare, yeh chaand
aur yeh chaandni usee ke hote hai,
jo kisi ke hote hue bhi, kisi ke nahin
hote..."

Today was a mixed day... I dont know, my mind went thru a lot of turmoil today, its been like a stormy night, with shades of beautiful lightning sparks and also scary thunder sounds. I am still not able to figure out the cause of my current state of mind. I remember the innumerable discussions with my mom over the lunch and dinner table as to how change is inevitable and change is the only constant thing... Also the stubborn statements that every change happens for good!!

I am running my last 20 days in my current work place... Everybody tells me... "Come on man! Everyone shift jobs... thats the order of the day.. wats the big deal about it??" But, somehow, I cannot think in that lines... coz my current job is not "Just another job" for me! definitely not! Your first job is always close to your heart.. that way, this job is the closest to my heart and whatever little i did as part of my official life at my current workplace is one of the best of times I have had in my life. I just love every single thing about this place... the building, the desk... the lunch table...

If all this is true.. why do I want to lose all these? Coz this world always works with this vague formula that Its always something at the expense of something... So,Starting this June, I will have a new workplace, new desk, new collegues... (Sony & Soumya... Will miss you guys loads and loads, and I duno if I would ever find such great company in any other place... )

The show has to go on.... May be I will call u guys up and say "Kalimbadiloolaaaaaa!!!!!" and a few more vague statements... May be I will just walk in some odd day lunch time and talk continuos nonsense as i always did... May be u guys will finally get bored with me... May be you guys will stop missing me.... :D:D

Whetever that is... Still the show has to go on... I have to go on too....
"Dil chahta hai, Kabhie na beetein chamkeele din
"Dil chahta hai, Hum na rahein kabhee yaaron ke bin....."

Okay, the post might look as discontinuous as it can get, but its a direct reflection of my state of mind at 7:25PM IST on 10th May 2005

goodnite!

And the personality test!!!!

2005-05-10T13:58:00.000+04:00

Protector

The ULTIMATE personality test
brought to you by Quizilla

Cant read much? Click here to see the enlarged image! the interface goes for a six if I post the original size image, so I had to scale it down!!

One More!!!!!

2005-05-10T13:07:00.000+04:00

Your Seduction Style: The Natural

You don't really try to seduce people... it just seems to happen.
Fun loving and free spirited, you bring out the inner child in people.
You are spontaneous, sincere, and unpretentious - a hard combo to find!
People drop their guard around you, and find themselves falling fast.

What Is Your Seduction Style?

Another Quiz Result!!

2005-05-10T13:00:00.000+04:00

I am taking a lot of quizzes today... trust me its lots of fun!!! heres result to another quiz that i took!

What gender is my brain?

Your Brain is 40.00% Female, 60.00% Male

You have a total boy brain

Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts

And while your emotions do sway you sometimes...

You never like to get feelings too involved

What Gender Is Your Brain?

The Dominant inner being within me!!!!

2005-05-10T12:54:00.000+04:00

The Elemental. Neither Human nor Animal, you are
primal and instinctive. You are at home
outdoors in the wilds, getting moody when
forced into places you don't like. But when you
are truely free, your dance and song is
breathtaking

What is the Dominant Inner being within You?
brought to you by Quizilla

aks chehre pe..

2005-05-05T15:45:00.000+04:00

Aks chehre pe Aaftaab ka hai
kis ilaake mein ghar janaab ka hai

Jis zamaane mein main hua paagal
woh zamaana tere shabaab ka hai

Tune accha kiya ke dil toda
ye zamaana bhi inquilaab ka hai.....

Such an amazing melody by hariharan... still lingers in my mind... Lemme play it again!!! Never heard the song? Click here to listen to it!

A Disaster Called Strings!

2005-05-05T14:05:00.000+04:00

Duuur..... Duuuuuuuurrrrrrr.... I guess it was some 4 years back that I first heard this song. What an amazing track! I said to myself. I knew that vocals were very ordinary of less than ordinary,but still the orchestration , especially the guitar leads were just awesome. Few days later, I heard Anjaaane kyun.... wow! kool song again... okey this is a much simpler song as far as vocals are concerned... but the guitars are tooo tooo amazing... I just wished I could see the guys behind these songs...

I dint have to wait for long... MTV aired the anjaane video.. So, This is strings, a 2 member band from Pakistan. Okay there is Faisal Kapadia who sings and then there is Bilal Maqsood who can sing as well as play the guitar... Oh yes, he can play the guitar... I saw him play the anjaane lead on TV... The U2 styled riffs and signature leads... whattan amazing musician!I said to myself. I started idolizing Bilal and considered him one of the best guitarists from the Asia.

Ever heard of Shallum Asher Xavier? Well, Now you would have ,but definitelty not in 1999... Okay Shallum is currently the lead guitarist of the phenomenal pakistani band fuzon. Before that he was a session musician in Pakistan who played for recordings.. When the fuzon album came out and lissening to the guitar riffs and leads of fuzon songs, i was baffled... Bilal plays for Fuzon too? But fuzon insists its Shallum... Whats this new twist?? Finally, Finally.... Fuzon was selected as the artist of the month by MTV ASIA. The interviewer also had the same question to ask! Why do the guitar leads sound like that of Strings? I still remember Shallum's answer. "Our guitar leads sound like duur or anjaane 'coz it was also played by me!!!" Godddd! Shallum played for Strings... So wtf was Bilal doing?? Mono act? Mimicry? Mime?? Whatta shame!!!

I happend to attend the strings "LIVE" concert at IIM bangalore during Unmaad - The IIM Fest. That was the shittiest concert that I have ever seen in my life... Faisal cant sing one note correctly... Bilal cant even play one chord (lets sat C - Major) correctly and the supporting guitarist was am a**hole of the highest order. And know what? the entire show was sequenced and played out of the KORG Triton + MC58 kept hidden on stage and our lead performers were Miming away to glory - except for Bilal and Faisal... their far from melodious voices were truly adding to the cacophonic environment filled with "Music enthusiasts" who dint even have time to see if the electric guitar was plugged in to the jack!!!

The best part is that Strings was paid close to Rs 1,00,000 for "playing" in bangalore, where actually they did nothing more than playing their audio CD and mime on top of that! For that crap attitude that they threw, they should have been booed out of the country that evening! I agree that Strings songs are Okay to lissen to in an audio cassette or CD where what you spend is only Rs 100 for unlimited lissening... paying Rs 500 to watch the Bilal-Faisal Mime show is a bit too expensive an affair, I would prefer a pitcher of beer and a movie in PVR as a much better option.

Check out this link featuring an interview with Shallum Asher Xavier of Fuzon where he talks about Bilal and his extremely praiseworthy guitaring and even more notable crediting qualities.
On an audio cassette worth 50 bucks, Strings is just fine... when it comes to live shows where the stakes are high, they are a collossal disaster!!

Making a Decision!

2005-05-04T06:07:00.000+04:00

Folks! this is my first blog. I made a desicion today (Really?) I dont know actually!! because I could never understand what a decision actually means.... so I decided I will write about desicion making... (It gives me kind of a cheap thrill that I am writing about something which I have absolutely no idea about!!!)

Experts say, Its a great personality trait if you have good decision making skills. I always ask to myself... Whats a good decision making skill? How can you categorize a decision as good or bad or hopeless? Its just a game of probablility... u make a decision, It works for you, It works for those around you, you have made a good decision. If you make a few more of that kind, you are a good decision maker. otherwise u are bad and if it ruins it all, u are hopeless. Hey, the decision dint ruin it... it just got ruined... and thats about it!!

So unfair! Something working or not-working is so much based on chance (atleast I like to blive so!) still people rate u as a good /bad/ hopeless decision maker. Evaluating pros and cons come next. pros? cons? I fail to understand pros and cons... They are just reflections (decipherable reflections) of varying thought streams.. So I get the most upset when somebody asks me "have u evaluated the pros and cons before making this decision?" - I always answer "I dont Know, I am not intending to either!"

Being impulsive helps! Atleast its helping me!! I have tried both the sides of it... evaluating if I want to eat in Nandhini's today... After evaluating the so called pros and cons (I dint understand them then too.... neverthless, my roommate helped me identify(??) a couple) and made a DECISION! Yes! I shall eat in Nandhinis today! I drive to Domlur , reach Nandhinis, and the waiter says... "Sarry Saaar... Kitchen Closed!".. Wtf did i think so much? wtf did I think so much about it? Okay... u mite argue a dinner plan is such a petty issue... but what about other Important decisions?? I still remember the balded old gentleman from HCL tech during my campus interviews who asked me what I wanted to do in the next 5 years... I dint have an answer ... simply coz i dint know!!! I dont know it even now! If I did, I'd be Nostradamus. I wish I could tell him "Why dont you ask me after 5 years...??" Had he asked what do I dream of becoming in the next 5 years, I would have had 1,00,000 answers, coz dreams are beautiful, amAZing, reassuring and motivating!

The question "What do you WANT TO DO" itself pisses me off as it expects me to have a plan. The idea of PLAN is the most faltered idea in the whole of universe. The goverment plans, defence plans... every other entity plans....(WHY????) still the world will just work the way it wants!! If the world works similar to ur plan (CHANCE again!!!) U say ur plan succeeded... to hell man! theres no such thing called plan! things just happen and u think it happend your way or otherwise. Even if you hadnt planned, it would have worked the same way!

Just do things as they occur to you! I love to live a free life, a life that doesnt expect me to think, watch every step I make, evaluate possibilities, plan for prospective risks.... I hate to plan, coz i am convinced that plans NEVER work! Just live the current moment, enjoy it...

Guess thats it for the day, me going home now! and yes I dont have any plans for tonite as I never had any! good nite!

Woh bheegi bheegi yaadein!

2005-05-03T18:20:00.000+04:00

Was listening to this track from the soft porn flick Zeher (Udita goswami's skin and cleavage show ,the moans and grunts forces me to call the movie that!) - woh bheegi bheegi yaadein... I am actually averse to the typical hindi movie songs.... (the tabla-string-dholak routines) but this one was good rite from the first lissening (Okay, my room mate hates it!!!) . I rushed to google to find out the MD for the song! Roopkumar Rathod?? Whats wrong with the world??? No Way No Way... I said to myself... He CANNOT make such a nice track for sure!! (Okay, I am judgemental when it comes to HINDI MDs..) I cross checked with few more sites... all of em say its RR... and a singer called Atif. Atif? Debutanate? where did he come from now??? dont know!!! Okay, I went around recommending to all my frens about this "great" track from zeher.

One night, I was just surfing channels and there the song is "woh bheegi bheegi yaadein...." The video dint have Udita goswami (I was disappointed...) nor did the eternal put off emran hashmi... Instead, It had a guitarist, a bassist and a Singer.... I waited for the credits... Oh yeah, Its a band called Jal! Where are they from? - Pakistan! Now... I had to search for Jal... ended up in http://www.jaltheband.com. The band dosent have a singer called Atif!!! Hey wait! the band HAD a singer called Atif! Its just that they broke up! Now that they are broke up, Atif has to do the damage. Which better place than the hindi music industry can he find an opportunity for that 'noble act?' Okay, Mahesh bhatt steps in, Lissens to "woh lamhey..." and says... "Badhiya hai... apne picture mein daal deinge... waise bhi woh Saala RR bhi kya music banaayega... bakra banaadenge saale ko..."

Atleast Mr bhatt could have given credit to Jal for using their tune! Why? Bollywood doesnt understand the word credit!! The movie itself is a screen by screen copy of a hollywood flick, and we are not crediting that, where do we have the time to credit the musician (woh bhi, saala pakistani!! Enemy that they are!!) Sadly, Its only the pakistani bands are making original music today ( I am talking about the lissenable variety). We dont care, we can neways copy it... thats easier too... and we have the expertise too... Anu malik, nadeem shravan... we have the world leaders! Hey... but we in India are making music too... okay a bit of music and alot of music videos! lesser the cloths and fainter the voice, better is the market value... Lets keep making remixes and noisy bhangra tracks.... we have the visuals neways na... for a change , if we want to lissen to a good track, we have our pakistani enemies producing it neways!!!

Long live HINDI Music ! God save my Ears!