vAnaprasthA,Coimbatore - 11/11/09

It was wonderful to perform at vAnaprasthA, a senior citizens' community in Coimbatore.




(Accompanists: Sri.Palakkad T.P.Subburaman on Violin and Sri.Kovai Prakash on Mridangam)


The entire atmosphere was very peaceful and singing there gave me a lot of contentment.

Here are a few snaps taken inside the community:










(That is adorable little Diya,the organizer's grand daughter.)


Thanks to Mrs.Akila, the organizer's daughter, for the photos :-)

Carnatica's Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2009 - 2/11/09

Venue : Narada Gana Sabha, Chennai
Carnatica (in association with Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha) has organized the Bharath Sangeet Utsav this year from 31st October to 9th November.

















Accompanists:

Mysore Srikanth - Violin
B.Ganapathiraman - Mridangam
Anirudh Athreya - Kanjira

Song List: (R-Raga Alapana,N-Neraval,S-Kalpanaswaram,T-Tani Avarthanam)


1.vanajAksha - reethigowlA - ata
2.nAdasudhA - Arabhi -rUpakam - tyAgarAjA (S)
3.bhOgachchAyA - bhOgachchAyAnAttA - Adi - muttuswAmi dIkshitar
4.needu mahima pogada - hamsAnandi - Adi - harikesanallur muthiah bhAgavatar (R,S)
5.thuNai purindaruL - varamu - Adi - pApanAsam sivan
6.srinivAsa tava - kharaharapriyA - rUpakam - pApanAsam sivan (R,N,S,T)
7.pAyum oLi - rAgamAlikA - Adi(tisra) - subramaNya bhArati
8.kazhai muthu mAlai - jOg - tiruppugazh

KVIIT'ians meet over lunch...

How does it feel to meet schoolmates after a gap of 15-20 years? Well, it did feel great...Nostalgic memories..

Yesterday, four of us decided to meet for lunch at Flamingo restaurant,Besant Nagar,Chennai. Nalini,Vani,Jayashree and myself. I was eagerly expecting to see Fathima too- the last I met her was in 1990. She called up and said she was busy at office and hence couldn't join us.




(Sitting in front: L to R:Jayashree,her daughter Pragya,Vani.
Sitting at the back: Nalini on the right and myself on the left.)









Thanks to Jayashree for co-ordinating and arranging this small get-together..
We are hoping to meet a lot of our other classmates too whenever it is possible and also try and have occasions for all of us to meet our teachers too..

The irony is that Jayashree, Vani and I live just fifteen minutes away from each other in Chennai,but get to meet only when one of our friends from the US or London lands up here in Chennai :-). Life has become hectic for each one of us and such occasions help us re-living those wonderful memories of school life, college life etc..

It felt nice to share our experiences, how each of our careers has progressed over the years in different areas..Nalini is a software professional at Atlanta, Vani practises Pediatric Neurology, Jayashree is into Counselling and Clinical psychology and I am into a totally different profession :-)

When I thought of posting the photo taken yesterday, it struck me that it would be nice to recollect how we looked in our schooldays :-)

Hence here comes a photo of us taken in Class 5:-). ( I have labelled Jayashree,Nalini,Fathima and myself in this photo. Srihari joined KVIIT in Class 7 and Vani joined only in Class 11.)







(Sitting on bench, from L to R: 6th student in the row is Nalini (with a badge) and to her left is Fathima.)
(Sitting on ground,from L to R: myself, to my left is Jayashree.)





Through Jayashree, I got to talk to another classmate of mine,Srihari,who is based in Bangalore. When I told him that I was planning to post our class group photo here, he asked me to try and identify our classmates in the photo and mention their names ! I shall try as much as I can. A memory test of a different kind for me ! My apologies to those friends whose names I have not been able to recollect readily..

(Following photo was taken in Class 8 with Mrs.Shyamala as our class teacher.)



(Standing: Top Row: L to R: Raghuram,Kirubainathan,Peter(?),----,Srihari,Ramaiah,----,Amit Shukla,Charles,Vivek,Sanjay.
Standing: Second Row from Top: L to R:Venkateswara Rao,Deepak,Jaiganesh,Suresh,----,----,----,Vinoo,----,Sriram,Azeemuddin.

Standing: Third Row from Top: L to R:Priya,Jayashree,Sumitra,myself,----,Rosary,Yuvarani,Subhaja,Jayapradha,Jayalakshmi and Sonali.
Sitting on bench:From L to R: Sangamaheshwari,Sujatha,Srivani,Nalini,Mrs.Shyamala,----,Fathima,Jacqueline,Suchitra,Devi.)


Here is a photo taken in Class 11 in which Vani is present:






(Sitting on ground: 2nd from L is Vani and Jayashree is on the extreme right.
Standing: Second row from Top:6th from L to R is Fathima,8th from L to R is Nalini.
Srihari and I were shifted to the other section in Classes 11 and 12, away from our buddies of 10 years :-(,hence we are absent in this photo.)




Well, this is pretty much what I could gather together and post now..
Any friends who happen to see this post and can fill in the gaps in the names are most welcome:-)

Looking forward to more and more such occasions to meet up with old friends.

diwAli Greetings !!

Dear Friends,

Here is wishing you all a very Happy and safe Diwali !!

May all lives be filled with joy and prosperity !!

Gayathri.

akhilANdEshvari - jujAvanti lyrics

Here are the lyrics of the kriti akhilANdEshvari, as requested by Shrinath:

rAgam: jujAvanti (dvijAvanti)
tALam: Adi
Composer: muttuswAmy dikshitar


Pallavi:


akhilANdEshvari rakSa mAm

Agama sampradAya nipuNE shrI


Anupallavi:


nikhila lOka nityAtmikE vimalE

nirmalE shyAmalE sakala kalE


caraNam:

lambOdara guruguha pUjitE lambAlakOdbhAsitE hasitE
vAgdEvatA ArAdhitE varadE varashaila rAjasutE* shAradE

(madhyama kAla sAhityam):
jambhAri sambhAvitE janArdananutE jujAvanti rAganutE
jallI maddaLa jharjhara vAdya nAdamuditE gnAnapradE

(* some people sing it as rAjanutE)

पल्लवि:
अखिलाण्डेश्वरि रक्ष माम्
आगम सम्प्रदाय निपुणे श्री

अनुपल्लवि:
निखिल लोक नित्यात्मिके विमले
निर्मले श्यामाले सकल कले

चरणम्:
लम्बोदर गुरुगुह पूजिते लम्बालकोद् भासिते हसिते
वाग्देवता आराधिते वरदे वरशैल राजसुते* शारदे

(मध्यमकाल साहित्यम्)
जम्भारि सम्भाविते जनार्दन नुते जुजावन्ति रागनुते
झल्ली मद्दल झर्झर वाद्य नादमुदिते ज्ञानप्रदे

(* some people sing it as राजनुते )

Handicrafts made for this year's Kolu

After my earlier posts giving a detailed description of the dolls and theme, here are some of the handicraft items that my kids Vishruthi and Vishvesh did for this year's Kolu :

1. minAkAri painting done by Vishruthi:




















2. Tray decorated by Vishvesh:





Vishvesh's main source of inspiration is his Akka !! He has about 10% of the patience that she has (which I think is typical in most boys), but nevertheless does these items with a lot of enthusiasm and interest. (Veena,are you reading this??!!)







He has decorated this tray with glitter colors, has placed a CD at the center, decorated with beads around it and pasted an idol of Venkatachalapathy at the center.


3. suvAsini kOlam:




This kOlam idea was given by my mother. The items used in this are the regular items like bangles, cosmetic items like comb, mehendi, mirror, kumkum, chandan etc. Using these items, any design can be done for this kind of a kOlam.









4. Decorative plates:




These are again ordinary plates painted and decorated. In the plate on the right, the leaf at the center is a real one, painted in golden color by Vishruthi.









5. Variety of kOlams:





kOlams are my mother's and daughter's work zone:-). I must admit that my knowledge of kOlams is very basic:-(. Vishruthi comes up with a lot of innovative designs.(As Amma and Vishruthi were doing these kOlams, I was busy writing and cutting out labels that I used for the theme. Labels were about 40 in number and took a lot of time.)






In the above photo, the top left kOlam is the hrudayakamala kOlam. In the second row, the kOlam in the middle is done with javvarisi. The one on its right is the kundan kOlam, done with transparency sheets.To the left of the javvarisi kOlam are terracotta diyAs painted by Vishruthi and Vishvesh.



6. Decorations on Terracotta items:







This tray contains terracotta Puja items, again painted and decorated. On top left is a decorated coconut:-). Other items include a bell, agarbatti stand in terracotta and a decorated water jug.





7. marapAchi dolls decorated:

tirupati is famous for marapAchi dolls.







The base for the dolls as seen in the photo is handmade. The small kumkum containers that we see in front of the dolls have been decorated with rAkhi thread, done by Vishruthi.





8. Terracotta diyAs:







The terracotta diyAs seen in the picture were painted by Vishruthi and Vishvesh. Vishruthi has used clay to do the girl doll and the sunflower.






9. Top-water rangOli and under-water rangOli:

Vishruthi did these too, befitting to this year's theme. (Photos of these are on a different camera, I shall post them in a few days.)

Kolu 2009 Prizes

More Kolu updates:

1. Adyar Times: Our Kolu was adjudged as one of the top 10 Kolus in the contest conducted by Adyar Times.










2. Bank Of Baroda: Bank Of Baroda conducted a Kolu contest in 12 zones all over Chennai. Our area came under the Perungudi Branch. In this zone, our Kolu was adjudged as one of the Top 3 Kolus.

3. World of Titan: Titan conducted a Kolu contest in which we won a prize. Unfortunately, I was not in a position to go today and collect it.

4. Sri Sumukhi Rajasekharan Memorial Foundation: This Foundation in Chennai is well-known as one of the premier institutions in promoting Indian Art and Culture. Their panel of judges too had come home to see the Kolu. We won a prize. I couldn't attend that function either on 4th October, to collect the prize.