Sri TRS Lecture on GNB

Every morning when I wake up I ask Amma if we are going to see Ms.Cathy that day. If she says No, then the next question I ask her is 'Are we going to Kovil?'. Paavam Appa cannot say 'No' for it. Think about him. He already travels 5 days a week to nashville and an extra trip for me on Saturdays.

I like spending time in the temple, cos I see a lot of Indian Faces smiling at me when I walk into the Praharam. Also these days, I am finding out the ommachi idols perfectly and tell a small Bhajan on that ommachi. Mom was surprised to hear me sing 'Lingashtakamidam Punyam...' infront of the Lingam Sannidhi.

Last week, after we had been there to the temple, we went to the Global Education Center to listen to a lecture of Sri.T R Subramaniyam on the veteran Musician Late Sri.GNB. This year is the centenary year for GNB and Nashville celebrated its centenary celebrations with Sri TRS by his lecture followed by Dr.Radha Venkatachalam concert.

For a change I listened to the lecture very quietly and slept off halfway during the concert. But before doing it, Amma noticed me singing Nalina Kanthi phrases inbetween when she paused for the violin artist to play (Summa oththuu oothinen)

Dr.Radha Venkatachalam is a Pallavi Specialist and sings a pallavi for almost all of her concerts. This time she sang a Pallavi on GNB on the Kanda Thirupuda Talam, in the Raga Suruti. 'G N Balasubramaniya Guru Devar Padame Paninthe anuthinamum'. This is supposedly the first pallavi with the English letters G N. As Sri TRS quoted, it is going to be the History making Pallavi.

After the concert, I ate Bakoda and Samosa that they kept for refreshments and came home to have dinner.

Who likes Shopping?

It has been a long while since I stopped by. I had been busy for days together. Before pulling anyone's legs I shall try to have you answered these couple of questions.

1) Who takes more time to dress up? A man or a woman?

2) Who takes more time to shop? A man or a woman?

But its contrary in our household. My dad always takes his own time to dress up even on weekends. He dresses up like a CEO even to throw garbage in the dumpster. Believe it or not we are almost 3 women and together we take less time in shopping than him. Last weekend when we had been to the Mall, he took 2 hours to choose a shirt. My question is What is there to think when the choice left is only Blue color? The worst part is he dint buy anything after spending 2 hours in browsing. Improvising rules like 'Every half an hour of his time spent on browsing = money spent on something for us' also does not seem to work. Worst is the case that the lessons learnt by anyone is NIL. He does the samething whenever he goes to the Mall and we do try to give him company patiently as usual.

Fortunately that evening we had a delightful Dance concert in temple to soothe our headache. It was performed by three professionals and the first half was Mohiniattam and then the Bharathanatyam on the second. We dint understand the Mohiniattam part, but totally enjoyed the later half. They rendered on the theme 'Shivashakthi'. 'Ommachi and Demon were dancing on Thodi' - those were my words after the concert. Yes I mean the Mahishasuramardini doing vadam on the demon dancing to the beats on Thodi Raga. I have to say its just more than awesome. Something unthinkable and a flawless professionalism in each of the individuals.

Can I become a Lyricist?

Mom offered to give me animal crackers but forgot about that in the midst of her work. I immediately opened the pantry and started to sing in the tunes of 'Are u sleeping?'

Here are animal crackers, here are animal crackers

Gimme some, gimme some

Give them in a paper bowl, give them in a paper bowl

So we can eat, so we can eat

She was just stunned listening to me composing my own verses to the tunes of the commonly sung rhymes. It was her job, that she used to write creative lyrics for the common cine tunes. She started this venture at her age of 14. I started it before three making the old saying true 'Kutti 16 adi paayum'.

Also when appa was looking for his regular fish oil pills (matharai), he asked amma where they are. And I started to sing

Where are matharai?, Where are matharai?

.....

Appa was over excited listening to me sing that and interrupted me, I dint complete my poem, Otherwise u could have read another cute little poetry from a little pie.

Hit the Century and still on the field

Do u wonder what this little kid is talking cricket jargons? thats cos of my recent craze on IPL. Well I have started to read 100+ words by spelling letters and can spot the word in the next second when someone spells it. Am still going on in my journey. Kudos to Vidya aunty and Ajay who have been my inspiration.

Also I am identifying Thodi and Mugari ragam anywhere when its being played. Be it Alapana / Keerthana/ Swaram /Neraval, I could get the hang of it. I am doing it in a fraction of a second. Mom tested me playing ragas immediately one after the other and I am doing Perfect. So Mom has given me a title 'Thodi Padmalakshmi'.

Topsy Turvy

I am quite tired of the tests that mom gives and wanted to do something different and decided to test her on one of the topics that she usually does. I wanted to be fair with her, gave it on her comfort zone - music and from the syllabus "Golden Harmony - by Ranjani and Gayatri'. This is the CD that we are currently listening in the car.

I sang a line 'Sadashiva Param' and wanted her to continue siniging the line. She sang 'Sadashiva Chandrasekara...' in Gowri manohari which was wrong. She argued with me that there is only one such song in the CD that has a line Sadhashiva and thats 'Gowri Manohara'. After squeezing her head for a long time, she gave an other answer 'Shankara Sadha Siva' which was also wrong, an out-of syllabus question (another CD) and neither does it have 'Sadhashiva parama'.

Then the topic faded away, Poor me could not argue with her any longer. But after another hour I was humming 'Thaye Tripura Sundari'. She realized that in the anupallavai comes 'Samagana Magizh Sadhasiva paramenum' and accepted her defeat.

No wonder she prefers to play the Dharumi role always. Question kekkarthu romba easy illa?

Early Childhood Music Ministry and More...

Mom has enrolled me into the Family Music for the spring Semester. Its a Parent-Child class and Ms. Becky (Becks) is our instructor. I have Issac, Elsie, Audry and Sam as my buddies. We sing, dance, jump and play while we learn music. We also get to play a lot of musical instruments during the sessions. So far, I have explored Maracus, Drums, Tone Blocks, Sticks, Cymbals etc. Some of the songs are just a piece of cake but some are quite difficult. Anyways we have the Music Cds and Books to practice them at home. Mom often plays it during bedtime. And before we leave, we have a Jack-in-the box game or a parachute playing. We have to pop-out of the box when the music Stops and run under the parachute while the music Stops. I think this is to improve the rhythm sense. But its a lot of fun.

I have begun my formal training on "Saralivarisaigal" with amma. Everyday I practice for about 15 minutes with the sruthibox and mom teaches one new excercise everyday. Some of the comments that I got from her are

1. I sit only on her lap and not on the floor
2. I am impatient during sittings and want to see letters like P,Q,R,S on the scale display screen (It displays only C,D,E,F,G,A,B)
3. Switch on the 5th string button to produce an annoying sound
4. Starting trouble on all excercises.

Gimme some tips to break the ice. I don't tend to exhibit my talents when asked to do so. People think I am shy but I am not. And the some of the positive comments that I got are

1. Perfect Sruthi Sense
2. Able to identify and sing 2nd and 3rd speeds
3. Good sense of rhythm for my age.
4. Quick grasping on verses for Ive mastered most of the verses of narayana hari in just 3 sittings..... (I dint listen to the recorded audio or follow the lyrics from a book)
5. High sruthi - (6-61/2 Kattai) and Mama cant coup-up... Hurray

I am quite excited about the week ahead. We r gonna have 2 important things. One is the Day light saving starts and I can go to YMCA for playing. and the other is I will know abt Baby brother/sister I am going to have. I will be happy if I have a brother and more happy if I have a sister. Let me keep my fingers crossed.

Remember folks, I may be busy during the weekend. So keep reading all the older posts once again, I will catch u all next week. Bye for now.

Where do I learn from?

When Mama's friend was dressing up, I saw her keeping a red thilakam on her forehead, and I instantly told mom that she is keeping 'Narayana Nethi'. Both of them were stunned hearing me say that. Mom has no clue where I got this from.

When she was doing dishes in the kitchen, I pestered her to sing 'Atma Nivasi Ram'. She started singing without noticing what I was doing. Suddenly something made her turn her face instantly on me. U know What I did? I started to play beats for the song on the Jendai Melam, which my Uppili thatha gave. On the other day, I also mocked playing a violin with a spoon and a fork for a carnatic song on youtube.

My parents are listening big words from a little pod these days. Some of the new words that I learnt during the week are Hibernation, Migration, Skiing, Skating etc.

Pre-Trinity Composers Music Festival in Nashville Hinde Temple

Aren't we matching matching?

Yesterday we attended the Pre-Trinity Composers Music Festival in the Nashville Hindu Temple. My parents tried to make me sing Bhaja Govindam on the Stage. I even went to the stage with my mom but refused to sing there. I dont know if I am Shy at times or I just dont have mood to sing. But my parents are working hard to change this behaviour of mine. They want me to be enterprising all the time and want me to utilize the opportunities given. These days I am getting trained to sing along with the Sruthi. My mom wants me be serious during learning and tells to sing in unison with the Sruthi. How should I do that? I dont listen to any distinct sa, pa, sa from the Sruthi box. All I hear is a 'ding ding ding Boing' sound. Gosh I am going nuts!

Ranjani and Gayatri Concert - MMU 2009

When I come home from School, I have snack real quick and then help mommy making dinner for the evening. I have made rasam several times these way. Mama keeps salt/ rasam powder/ Tamarind paste/ cut tomatoes on the table. I add all these ingredients according to her instructions on a vessel. She adds water to it and keeps it on the stove. She takes care of the seasoning part. Ta-da Rasam is made in 15 mintues.

But when it comes to dinner time I go through the hall round and round. She comes behind me for every spoons. Sometimes when she is tired, she has a nice way to make me sit at one place. That's by switching on the Ranjani and Gayatri MMU concert on youtube. I like two of the songs very much. 'Orarau Mugane' and 'Saka Maza Narayonu'.

The latter is a Marati Abhang. I dont know Marati and neither my parents do. So its kinda tough for me to sing it. But I tried the tamil song on Reeti gowlai. Wannu listen???? Here we go.... Remember dont make fun of me. I am still too young to handle delicate ragas.

The Best use of my car ride

We live in a place called Cookeville, where there is nothing much to freak out. My parents always want to travel during weekends. Wouldn't they think about me? I had to be tied in the little car seat during the ride. I have wondered several times on how to make best use of these weekend drives. I started to listen to the Bhajan CDs which I got from India and mastered most of the songs from them. The Song that has Captivated me the most is Adhi Shankara's "Bhaja Govindam". Listen to some of my Bhajan recitations.

My Heart is a Pump - Make some sense on Shiva's Thandavam

We have "My heart is a pump" as the theme of this week. Ms. Cathy said that our heart pumps all the time to circulate blood to our body. She said it pumps slower when we sleep and faster when we run. She also said it pumps faster when we are angry and slower when we are happy.

When I came down from School Mama taught me about Shiva's Thandavam. Shiva dances to the Kanda Nadai beat (faster beat) when he is angry (Thaka Thakita, Thaka Thakita) and dances to Misra Nadai (relatively slower beat) when he is happy (Thakita Thaka Dimi, Thakita Thaka Dhimi).

Now doesn't it make some sense on why Shiva cut Baby Ganesha's head while he was angry? When he danced to the faster Kanda Nadai, his heart was pumping faster without enabling his brain to think. Thats why ke killed Baby Ganesha in a Haste.