From kumari to shrimathi…

So I’ve been away from work and blogging for a few weeks, primarily because I was busy turning from kumari to shrimathi. 🙂

It was a wonderful two days at Ethiraja Kalyana Mandapam in Chennai, with a lot of festivity, fun, food and great music. The simple and unassuming maestro Kalaimamani Shri Seshampatti Sivalingam played the nadaswaram, while the Carnatica Brothers Kalaimamani Shri K.N. Shashikiran and Shri P. Ganesh delighted us with a beautiful concert.

Shri Ramnarayan, the editor-in-chief of Sruti magazine, has written a wonderful review of the concert here.

I’ve reproduced it here:

Here’s a picture of me and my better half. 🙂

Finally, thank you for all the love and the emails, calls, sms-es and Facebook posts! 🙂

‘Nam Virundinar’–Chat show with Carnatic musicians

I’ve started hosting this new show on Doordarshan’s Podhigai channel…and its a lot of fun! It is telecast every Saturday at 7.30 am. The first episode featured Shashi sir and Ganesh sir (the Carnatica brothers). I wanted Shashi sir to be my first guest on the show and I’m elated that it happened!

Here’s episode 1, in 2 parts:

The second episode will also feature the Carnatica Brothers and will be telecast on 9th July.

Please feel free to give me your feedback!

More details coming up later, am rushing to office now. 🙂

Guru

That one word means so much to me. It has, for eight years now. When I was still in school, I dreamed of becoming a performing Carnatic vocalist. I would tell my parents often that I would become a famous vocalist and when people asked me, “What was the turning point in your life?”, I would say, “Starting to learn from my guru Vidwan Shri K.N. Shashikiran,” with pride. I’ve always wanted to become a respected vocalist and make my guru proud of me. I have a long way to go to achieve that, but I hope to, in a few years.

This Friday, my guru (who sings with his cousin Chitravina Ganesh as the Carnatica Brothers) had a concert at Hamsadhwani. As I walked in, a little girl came up to me and asked, “Akka, are you the one that hosts that music show on Podhigai?”

“Yes,” I told her. “What’s your name? Do you learn music?”

“I’m XYZ. I learn from the Carnatica Brothers.”

I’d never seen her in Shashi sir’s classes, so I asked her, “Oh, in Adyar or Mylapore?”

She looked at me with a defeated look and said, “Actually, I learn from ABC.” (ABC is a relative of the Carnatica Brothers.)

The kid did not want to be known as a student of her guru ABC because ABC is not as popular as the Carnatica Brothers! Needless to say, I was speechless.

I shall not comment any more on the incident; it will suffice to say that it saddened me deeply.

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but my guru has been and will always be, my God.

Carnatica brothers’ website

Have been working on the Carnatica Brothers’ new website. It’s now up at http://carnaticabrothers.com/
If you have any suggestions or queries, use the form in the Contact Us page (http://carnaticabrothers.com/contact.php).

Random facts:

1. Working 20*7 is totally exhilarating. I can’t remember the last time I spent 2 minutes doing nothing.
2. I love life and the challenges it throws at me.
3. I wish I could work harder and be like the people I respect and admire. For now, I’m working on working harder.