ARR in Dallas

On Friday, it was the first event of the weekend — ARR’s Concert.

The show started 8.30 PM, though the tickets said, the show would start at 8.00 PM, to a huge collection of audience, with all the screams, whistles, clapping and to the various kinds of noises that they were capable of making. It started with Chitra singing Jaage Hain from Guru with the next one being KhalBali from Rang De. It was a treat, a neat one well packaged with a mix of both Hindi and Tamil songs, with a solo Telugu song being the Telugu version of Kurukku Siruthavalae from Mudhalvan.

It was an awesome ride, with some 4 songs from Sivaji The Boss with 2 being my favorites, Adhiradee and Save the Fight Da with Blaaze there singing his own Rap. It was total treat and the crowd went berserk in joy. Drums Shivamani another favorite of mine, gave a solo treat of his music for some 10 minutes. The team consisted of Blaaze who did the job of anchoring the show, with Chitra, Tanvi, Hariharan, ARR himself, Sadhana Sargam, Sukwinder Singh, a Rajasthani Folk Singer—whose name I don’t remember, Naresh Iyer, Madhushree, Vijay Yesudas and many others crooning away to the applause of a fully packed hall here in Dallas.

There were songs from Dilse, Rang De Basanti, Guru, Sapnay, Taal, Yuva, Lagaan and some more. The improvisations on Lagaan was really good. An improvisation by Sadhana Sargam was equally good. Somehow, I did not like the Sukwinder Singh on his Dilse improvisation. But I like the way he sang Ramta Jogi and its improvisation from Taal. That was really good. Then there were four songs from Sivaji, which I already mentioned. Guru came up next with some 4 and so did Rang De Basanti, with the secret of success from Boys and many more of which I lost count. This is what happens when you try to remember after a couple of days with another mega event happening in-between. Sivaji was the highlight of the evening, with every song making the audience scream in ecstasy.

But the last and the second last again were in my list of all time favorites which made me leave the show on a real high. The second last was Andha Arabi Kadaloram from Bombay and we all screamed our hearts out in that song, the whole hall came up alive, my god how we screamed, Humma Humma, that was really good. And the last was Vandemataram. It was rendered by everyone of the whole team to a hall that was standing in full ovation and screaming Vandemataram right along with the singers. One of my best moments ever.

All in all an awesome evening and being my first ARR concert it indeed was one of my evenings that I may not forget that easily.

Woooo Hoooo

Am all set to go to two mega events... one today and another on Sunday.

1. I am going for my first music concert in a stadium. I have been music concerts before, the ones that happen inside halls, but this would my first one in a Open Air Theatre and its going to be the concert of AR Rahman. I have no words to say how mightily thrilled I am. I have been looking forward for this from late April, so this evening is one that I am going to remember for a long time.
2. I am going to see Sivaji - The Boss on Sunday with R and a couple of my friends. Too much to take in one weekend.

With two such events in quick succession, I just cannot contain myself. Its like, I have been literally on cloud 9 the whole of this week. In fact, I have postponed Pirates yet again (a story by itself for which I shall come up with a write-up in its whole entirety later) to next weekend. The weekend, it got released, I had to postpone seeing it, as I wanted to see 1 and 2 before seeing World's End. Then at last found the time to see both in one session last weekend. But then with this weekend being so filled up, I did not want to lose the joy of seeing Pirates. So it has gotten postponed again.

Post Script to Jaane Do Na

My husband, the Illayaraja fanatic that he is did not get that mightily impressed as myself on Cheeni Kum and to my favorite Jaane Do Na, he said not only was it an imitation of the Tamil version as I had identified, but was actually from a Kannada song of which he had forgotten the lyrics. He said, that Illayaraja initially came up with that composition for Kannada and then used it for a tamil movie.

And last Friday when I did some blog jumping I read somewhere – as usual lost the source – that it was a song named Jotheyali Jothe Jotheyali from a Kannada movie named Geetha. As usual, I got to musicindiaonline.com and I now prefer that one. The orchestration in that is even better, especially the violin and the voices of both Janaki and SPB. But I still do like the Hindi version better to the Tamil one.

Anyways, so much over a song. And Cheeni Kum is still the ones that I am listening to. :)

ps. Yet to see the movie though.

Planting Flowers

Last weekend, I had bought some beautiful Mexican flower pots from a local store here in Dallas. I found some time last evening to put them to use. It’s a lovely experience planting flowers. I had some bought from the home depot the previous weekend and I was going to put them all together.

So I set out with my potting mix, liquid fertilizer, the pots, the plants that need to be repotted and eventually, fill the two huge pots with the potting mix. I take the plants out from their small plastic make shift pots that were used at the store. Seeing the way the roots were circled around in a knot all cramped up in that small pot struggling to grow, made me feel sad for those plants. I tried prying into them to loosen up the roots and in the process, cutting a few here and there. Initially I felt sad that I was hurting them. Then I realized that they anyways need to be cut back, which actually would help them grow more in their bigger new pots.

I was basically preparing them to get adapted quickly into their new environment. I knew they were ready for the new pot. But were they sure about that themselves. That I was not sure about. Were they ready for that drastic change? That’s what made me think how we retaliate at times to the way things happen to us. When we undergo a change or cutting back on what we were used to, we always react to any situation by retaliating. But why can we just not think and accept that some one above us knows what He is doing and is doing something that actually prepares us for the next new something. It was a serene experience, getting those plants re-potted and watering them.

Thinking that I would be seeing them in their new pots today when I go home, makes me feel so happy and enthusiastic. Such small things makes me realize the greatness of the Almighty and yet at times the rational side of my brain makes me question His very existence. Why can I not just submit with no questions asked? I have been asking this question repeatedly and the answer is still eluding me.

Back in Action

After a long time, I found time for my blog again. I feel like I have been away from this place for eons. With so many things happening around me, I had totally stayed away from this place. Let alone writing, I had no time to even visit my favorite ones.

The last week and this week had been a little better or may be, I had learnt to juggle things better or may be, I had become less lazy. I am not sure. But then I also realized that me being busy did not stop me from watching the favorite movies that I wanted to, from my usual hours of sleep, or from whiling away my time in front of the television. But it make me get away from doing some elaborate cooking, from walking and exercise, from feeling guilty when I end up eating junk food in the process of eating outside, postpone doing laundry, postpone getting things done around the house, postpone or miss calling on friends, postpone from even getting up from the bed every morning.

Agreed,

• I was in a new job, which means I had to drive a distance of around 30 miles one way on a daily basis
• I had to learn a lot of new stuff in this new place and
• They had and still have a weird way of functioning as a team

But all that, I thought in a sudden burst of enlightenment, was an excuse to get away from chores that I had to do on a regular basis. Or to be more exact, for my laziness to happily creep on me. So I made up my mind that I am not going to be lazy anymore. I have decided to do some experimentation with myself.

• Let me see if I can get more done in that short time.
• Do a change of work when I feel exhausted with what I am doing.
• Try to make and stick to the commitment that I do with exercising regularly – this is one thing that has been haunting me day in and day out.
• Blog more regularly.

Blogging does make me feel nice. So why I am not doing it more… beats me.. But then, that’s me… the moron that I am :) Let me see how successful I am this time to get away from the clutches of lethargy.

Jaane Do Na

Got to talk to a friend of mine yesterday after some 4-5 weeks. Actually, felt like talking after ages. Some people have that way to make you feel. Unfortunately, this one has that uncanny nature to make me feel that way at times. That’s besides the point of what I started to say.

Anyways, this friend of mine and I share very similar taste with reference to film music and we both like Illayaraja. Of late, I had been way too busy with so many things that I had missed doing so many things that I should be doing leave alone listening to the music of Cheeni Kum. When starting the conversation, my friend was like ‘Did you listen to the songs of Cheeni Kum, did you? Oh God, its way too good. You have to listen to Cheeni Kum. It does sound very familiar, but is awesome. Illayaraja is brilliant’ in a very exuberant fashion. Hearing that exuberance was when I realized what I had been missing all these weeks that made me feel like the weeks were ages. Now you know that you should be calling more often you moron… I am digressing again.

That’s when it struck me that the music was done by Illayaraja and that I had missed listening to it. I did know it was Illayaraja who composed for Chenni Kum for I remembered reading it long ago some where. So I went to musicindiaonline.com--my usual haunt for any kind of Indian music--and listened to the songs of Cheeni Kum today. Hmm, the music was not just good, I am so glad that I am listening to it at least today.

Funny, those songs were my favorites in Tamil and now, I have fallen in love with Jaane Do Na. It is an old tamil song composed with different instrumentation with Shreya Goshal singing it and with Sameer's lyrics, it is heavenly to listen to that number. Its been in my loop for the whole day.

I did remember that Baatein Hawa was Koozhal Oothum Kannanukku from Mella Thirandhadhu Kadhavu and Cheeni Kum and Sooni Sooni were both Mandram Vandha Thendralukku from Mouna Raagam, but some how I am not able to get the right tamil lyrics right for Jaane Do Na… but whatever, they might be repeats, but they do sound fresh and are lovely to hear. As always, Illayaraja is lovely and with Shreya Goshal its even more enjoyable in spite of the melodies being old numbers. Baatein Hawa in Shreya Goshal's voice with Amitabh talking a few words in-between is just too good.

Have not seen the movie yet.

ps. I just realized that Jaane Do Na is Vizhiyilae Mani Vizhiyil Mouna Mozhi Paesum Annam from Nooravadhu Naal but I feel that Jaane Do Na is way too good than the original. After listening to Shreya, I like the new version more than the old one. :)