A HUMBLING PRIVILEGE

Do excuse our temerity to put this picture up here….but we could not help share this rare privilege that the author of this book has given us. “Let’s Know Music and Musical Instruments of India” is a book authored by Madhumita Dutta. It is a nice book giving an account of musical instruments used in India. This page is featured in the chapter “String Instruments”.

Just to tell you a small story, on a visit to London, we went to watch a play. An Englishman sitting beside Jeyaraaj noticed the deep cuts on his index and middle fingers and asked if he played the sitar. He told him we both played an instrument similar to the sitar called the Veena. He said he enjoyed Indian Classical Music and enquired if we had heard Pandit Ravi Shankar live. When we answered in the affirmative, he replied “What a privilege!” We would now like to tell him that the most humbling privilege in our life is THIS…. “To be on the same page” with one of the greatest ambassadors of Indian Classical Music that our country has ever produced and ever will!!

TRIBUTE

Carnatic Music became a hugely poorer and sadder world with the utimely demise of Chingleput Ranganathan Sir on July 12, 2011. Our association with him began in 1994 when at the suggestion of our Guru Anantharama Iyer, we met him and started learning pallavis from him. A very conscientious teacher and a perfectionist to the core, Ranganathan Sir's classes would go on for nearly two hours, especially when 8-kalai and 4-kalai pallavis would be taught. He was one of those who believed that neraval was a very important constituent of carnatic music concert presentation, particularly in pallavis, and his methodical approach towards the art of singing neraval in three speeds in all its expansivity was mindboggling. He was a complete musician and a musician's musician. The richness of pathantara can be experienced from the sangati oriented kritis like Nee daya kalgute (Reetigoula), Nee daya ravale (thodi), Kalinerula (Kuntalavarali), Mari mari ninne (Kambhoji), Ye papamu (Atana) and many more, which he taught us with utmost passion. He composed tillanas in all the 35 talas. It goes without saying that we were very fortunate to have learnt from him, and blessed and privileged to have been associated with him and the family for almost two decades. A mahavidwan, a legendary teacher and a great person.

Gurus are equal to, or even greater than, God himself; and this fact is best described in this Doha of Sant Kabir:

Guru gobind dou khade, kaake laagoon paaye
Balihaari guru aapne jin Gobind diyo bataaye

Pranams to his lotus feet. May his soul rest in peace.

VEENA TAPASVINI NO MORE

It is a sad day for carnatic music today, as Kalpakam Swaminathan, a true veena tapasvini, has left this world. Eight decades of veena playing and teaching has now become a memory. She was the first student of our guru's father Brahmasri Ananthakrishna Iyer, and the last link between him and our generation, after the passing of our Gurus A Anantharama Iyer and A Champakavalli. Not only did she have a vast repertoire of Dikshitar Kritis, she had also mastered the compositions of many other composers.

Humble, endearing, and always smiling. We shall forever hold very close to our heart the fond memories of our interactions with her (she would always introduce us to her students saying, "iva ellam ennoda school"). She would talk nothing else but music. We have had the proud privilege of hosting her concerts. Her gracious presence for some of our veena concerts and those of our disciples will always remain our most cherised blessing.

VIEWPOINT - MERA BHARAT MAHAN?

India has won the World Cup in Cricket. There is euphoria all around. The entire nation is unable to think of any other matter of interest.

People have been talking about Dhoni's leadership qualities. I think there is something there for all of us to be inspired about in our profession. His graciousness, his ability to move away fom limelight, his ability to bring the best in people, his mental strength in doing what he believes in despite public pressure (the whole world wanted Ashwin - he brings in Nehra and Sreeesanth. Dhoni went public saying he misread the pitch - I dont believe it one bit! He was just fooling us! He wanted the discussion to die down! That is clever!) In the corporate world where leadership is a big factor - we can surely use Dhoni-like qualities.

Now for the obnoxious part! I understand winning the World Cup is something special. But why is so much of National Wealth going to only a handful of people? This is national property - our wealth damn it! This is not correct!

Why not give something to Leander Paes and Bhupathy - they are the World No.1 doubles tennis pair you know! Why not our sportspeople who got us Olympic medals? They need it and need it badly!

Lifelong AC 1st class pass for the cricketers from Indian Railways! Why not for our musicians?Do we know how difficult it is to be a full time musician? When it comes to giving a petrol pump to late Ustad Bismillah Khan (Bharat Ratna - a real jewel in India's crown) it is turned down! Now cores of rupees are given as bonus to cricketers! This is just politics! Are all professions encouraged by the Indian Government? Do our poliicians know what it is to be a good musician or a good architect or a good painter or a good writer who can fashion a million minds? Is there a place under the sun for achievers in other spheres? I seriously doubt it! Ah! this attitude! This hurts! Is this a governmernt that wants to take the nation forward.... We have no means to look at the problem in the eye and resolve them -we want cricket diplomacy to solve indo-pak issue! Juvinile! Pathetic!

Why do we go to such ludicrous extent of going to living rooms of circketers and talking to mothers, sisters and relatives? See how the Sri Lankan crowd has handled its disappointment! See how Japanese people have handled tragedy! That is called maturity! When will get there? Will we ever have a sense of equanimity in handling good and not-so-good situations?

Can we do something about this? Can we contribute in a small way to see how We as Indians move to a more matured world?

PADMANABHA SASTRY AWARD FOR ARTS

The family of HR Padmanabha Sastry confers the Padmanabha Sastry Award for Arts every year on musicians. This year we were chosen for the award.
HR Padmanabha Sastry was a renowned music director of Telugu and Kannada movies. He was the first Telugu films music director and composed the music for the first ever Telugu talkie film "Bhakta Prahlada" released in 1931. Our thanks to Smt and Sri HP Ramamurthy (eminent tabla player and son of Late HR Padmanabha Sastry) and their family for this gesture. The function was held on February 27,2011 at Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, Mylapore and the chief guest was senior flute Vidwan Prapancham Sitaraman (disciple of the great Flute Mali).

THE DESERT SAFARI

Back from a refreshing concert-cum-sightseeing 5-day trip to Dubai.

First things first. We played a concert for Indian Fine Arts, Dubai on February 18th. The organizers took great care of us, and the event itself was very well put together. Full house crowd. The concert went for three hours. We were accompanied by senior local mridanga vidwan Sri Govindarajan and Sriraam Subbaraman, seasoned Kanjira player also residing in Dubai. As such wherever we do play, we like to present music that is completely classical, and it must be said that in Dubai the crowd was quite knowledgeable, and we did not need to dilute the contents of our presentation. Thank you Indian Fine Arts, Dubai for having us, and of course for the lovely flowers which stayed fresh for the rest of our trip in our room.

About the sightseeing, it was the usual stuff...Dubai Mall, Gold Souk, Museum, Burj Khalifa (the world's tallest building), Burj Al Arab (where Federer and Agassi played a game on the helipad), the desert safari etc. The tremendously impressive landscaping throughout the city....green grass everywhere, flowers.....how do they do it in a desert? Mind boggling. And such clean roads. Also learned that the Dubai branch of a South Indian hotel had to shut down for sometime after the Dubai Municipality guys found a cockroach somewhere in the premises, and this was grossly below their hygiene standards.

What made the trip truly special was the fact that we were able to connect with old friends from music class and school, people we had not met for the last 15-20 years. Most of us reconnected over Facebook. And it was amazing, reliving old memories, chatting about the good old days. It was fantastic!

Posting some concert pictures here. Courtesy, again, a wonderful friend!

About "ANANDAM ANANTAM" - A Journey Into Tanam

JOY ALL THE WAY, says THE HINDU. Click Here for the entire review.




Manodharma Sangeetham or improvised Music is the touchstone of Carnatic Classical Music. Tanam is one of the most important, lively and bewitching aspects of Manodharma Sangeetham. In the genre of Ragam Tanam Pallavi, Tanam is sung after the Raga Alapana and before entering into the Pallavi. It is also called Madhyamakalam or Ghanam. Though there is no specific time measure (Tala), a perceptible rhythm prevails. Traditionally while singing Tanam, the words ANANDAM and ANANTAM are skillfully interwoven into rhythmic patterns. Tanam is a specialized field in the Veena tradition. It has an extraordinary charm and appeal when played on the Veena.

This product features Tanam played by us in 18 exquisite Ragas, some common, some uncommon and some very uncommon. Not only is this product a ready reference for Tanam singing or playing, its appeal is intended to be universal and could be a wonderful gift to a loved one for any special day.

We would be failing in our duty if we did not thank Sri Pradeep Chakravarty, whose idea it was that we record tanams in various ragas. In fact most of the ragams have been chosen by him. Thanks also to Vedanth Bharadwaj for being the perfect sound engineer. And last but not the least Smt Mala Mohan and others at Swati Soft Solutions for putting this together.

"ANANDAM ANANTAM" was released by Smt Veena Kichlu, Managing Trustee of Pandit Ravi Kichlu Foundation on 27th June at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata. The event was organized by Guruguha Sangeeth Sammelan of Kolkata. Vidushi Veena Kichlu's presence as Chief Guest for the CD release was memorable for a very significant reason. Her husband, a highly respected and noted Hindustani Classical Singer, Late Pandit Ravi Kichlu was instrumental in bringing out our very first audio release with HMV, titled VEENA DUET, in the year 1992. It was wonderful that she could come and stay back to listen to our concert that day.

Anandam Anantam is a 2ACD pack, available now in leading music stores and also can be bought online through Swati's website - Click Here. We sincerely hope you will add it to your collection. Please do write to us and let us know your thoughts. The list of ragas on each CD is given below.

Disc - 1
1. Hindolam
2. Keeravani
3. Mandari
4. Kedaram
5. Huseni
6. Atana
7. Bahudari
8. Chitrambari
9. Navroj

Disc - 2
1. Bhairavi
2. Yagapriya
3. Balahamsa
4. Dhanyasi
5. Arabhi
6. Vegavahini
7. Mohanam
8. Nadanamakriya
9. Bageshri

BACK TO THE PAST

Was rummaging through some old papers and found this! An invite for our CD release function in the year 2000, as well as copy of Mudhra Newsletter featuring us. This CD called "Subramanya" comprises of some select compositions of Muthuswamy Dikshitar on Lord Muruga. This CD probably is not available in the stores any more. We have put up some of the tracks on our website www.veenajj.com. The music from the entire CD is available for download through the link given below.

PS: Of course, we have subsequently changed the way we spell our names!! Everything else remains the same!

Click here to download "Subramanya"

THE NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 2000

RECOGNITION FOR EX-CALCUTTANS

We all respect our elders, and our admiration for them increases when they achieve such feats as to make themselves shining examples for generations to follow………… the happiness is manifold when they are people who you have known closely. It gave us great pleasure and a tremendous sense of pride to see the front page articles in The Hindu Friday Review, on two people who we have known since our Calcutta days. First up, Smt Bhuvana Natarajan, Bhuvana mami to us, who has been honoured with the Sahitya Academy award for Tamil translations of Bengali works, in particular of Asha Purna Devi. Amazing! And just today The Hindu Friday Review carried an article on Sri N Gopala Sundaram, who has translated the entire Tiruppugazh in English, and this has been brought out in the form of a book titled “The Glory of Lord Muruga.” We are sure to get Gopal Mama’s autograph on our copy.


Please see below the links to the respective articles:
Grand Culmination
Stupendous Work

THEMATIC CHAMBER CONCERT

A Thematic Chamber Concert was presented under the auspices of our organization Veenavaadhini, based on the Bhooloka Panchalinga Krithis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar. All the Kritis, representing the five elements i.e. space, air, fire, water and earth were sung and played by us on the veena. Sri Trichur Narendran accompanied us on the mridangam. Rajani Arjun Shankar provided word-by-word meaning and narration to each of the krithis. The background comprising of paintings of the great genius Late S Rajam, pictorially depicting each of the kritis, were made by Aparna Shankar. The two-hour programme consisted of the following kritis:

1. Ananda Natana Prakasam – Kedaram – Akasha Kshetra (SPACE)
2. Sri Kalahastisha – Huseni – Vayu Kshetra (AIR)
3. Arunachalanatham Smarami – Saranga – Agni Kshetra (FIRE)
4. Jambupathe –Yamuna Kalyani – Appu Kshetra(WATER)
5. Chintayamakandamula – Bhairavi – Prithvi Kshetra(EARTH)

The Hindu, Mylapore Times and Kutcheribuzz carried a byte about the programme. It was well attended and well received, and we are enthused to present more of such programmes in the near future. We thank all the rasikas for having attended the concert and making it a big success. And thanks Arjun for the pictures, and Parameswaran and Latha for video recording the event!

Given below are reactions from some rasikas who had attended the programme:

"I attended the chamber concert and it was really memorable. A dedicated presentation by the vainika-s. Special mention must be made of Smt Rajani's commentary which gave lot of insight into the supreme compositions of Dikshitar. It was a n excellent idea to have veteran S Rajam's paintings (of Panchalinga) in the background.

The efforts put in by JJ to internalise the kritis and presenting them authentically in Veena, was quite evident in their rendering.
Trichur Narendran's Mridanga support was something special and enhanced the aesthetic appeal.

I rate this among the best thematic concerts of the season!"

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"The narration, AlApanA-s, tani, and, above all, kRti renditions that adhered to MD sampradAya, were all excellent. It was especially pleasing to listen to chintayamAkandamUlakandam in grand chowkam, with the first line ending on M rather than the usually-encountered version."
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"It was a very nice concert. In fact, with narration and posters about each piece, it was a whole project rather than just a concert. Everyone had put in a lot of work for the benefit of the listeners.

Each piece was in a slow speed, making a contemplative atmosphere for the entire performance. Trichur Narendran never made any effort to hurry things along, but contributed to the mood perfectly.

The program was well attended, with the room being full, but not uncomfortably so; just right.

As a note of curiosity: not one song was in Adi Talam, which must be a very rare event. Misra, Khanda and Rupaka talams were represented."

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"A wonderful evening wherein everything fell in place. Jaysri's Yaman Kalyani alapanai was superb and was within the framework of Jambupathe. Jeyaraj played a lovely Bhairavi preceding chintayamAkandamUlakandam and also a brief tanam. Smt Rajani Arjun Shankar's narratives were well researched and crisp. Trichur Narendren is a class apart. His accompaniment was apt for the occasion and considering the fact that all the kritis were slow paced, he controlled the pace admirably."