Am I hearing Sindhu Bhairavi?

I thought I heard some Sindhu Bhairavi in this Dhenuka swara prasthara by TRS. Can someone confirm it or is something wrong with my ears?

dhenuka.mp3

Damn. Wordpress conveniently removes these embedded audio. You'll have to download it. :-(

Updated: Ok, I think I should have posted only the snippet that sounded like Sindhu Bhairavi.

[audio:http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~sripathy/Audio/Carnatic/Snippets/TRS-Dhenuka.mp3]

MMI's Sindhu Bhairavi ragamalika swaras: [audio:http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~sripathy/Audio/Carnatic/Snippets/MMI-Sindhu%20Bhairavi.mp3]

TNK's response: [audio:http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~sripathy/Audio/Carnatic/Snippets/TNK-Sindhu%20Bhairavi.mp3]

Listen to the new snippet and then listen to TNK's response. The phrases that TRS sings - M D P M G, M P M D P M G, D P M G, D P M G R G. I was intrigued mainly by the way he starts off - S R G M P D P and TNK starts off almost the same way. I'm not saying that TRS is singing Sindhu Bhairavi but there definitely seems to be a flavor attached to it.

Update: I see a lot of people visiting this page. It'd also help if you could give your opinion. :-)

Thiruvayyaru

Got an opportunity to visit Thiruvayyaru and pay homage to the Bard with my family during my India trip. I have posted some pictures. I'll comment on the experience as soon as I find some time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shripathi/sets/72157600003933803/

Song requests

I had five days left in my vacation yesterday and a thousand things to do. Still, I decided to attend Sanjay's concert at Madipakkam. Now, Madipakkam is not exactly at the heart of the city. It's located in an obscure part of Chennai and getting there is an adventure in itself. To add to the adventure, the Papanasam Sivan Karnataka Sangeetha Sabha that organized the concert decided not to publish the address and phone number of the Sabha. But we (my dad, mom, bro and I) are a determined bunch and decided that we wanted to hear Sanjay come hell or high water. After much asking around and travelling around in circles, we finally made it to the Sabha and that too quite early. I wanted to listen to a Narayanagowla or a Saranga very badly but decided not to request it since it might take away the surprise factor in a concert. The concert was very good starting with the Reethigowla Ata tala varnam, Sankari Neeve, a surprise Narayani, an awesome Thodi and a sparkling Mohanam. After a post-thani piece, I wanted to listen to a thiruppugazh (I guess) 'Malaasai Kopam' that he usually sings just before the mangalam. I sent in a request 'chit' (cheetu kudukardhu in Tamil). I thought he nodded his head acknowledging that he would honor it. After a brilliant viruttham, he sang another krithi and finished the concert.

I'm not sure if I should be disappointed or not. I'd love to know if he had a good reason for not singing that song. I'd be very disappointed if it was just good old arrogance!!

Update: Maybe I just over-reacted to the whole issue. I'll give him the benefit of doubt on this one. Anyway, he is not obligated to honor my request just because I paid for the concert. There's always a next time I suppose!!

Going home for vacation!!

Finally, the week has arrived!! I'm not mentioning the date here as my Dad and brother do not know the date yet. But I'll just say that I'm going to be in India next week.

It's been 3 long years away from family, friends and country. It's been so long that I've forgotten what being with family is like. I've a long list of things to do but being with my family takes priority. I foresee a hectic trip with quite a bit of travel and food and not a lot of sleep.

India, here I come!!

Sore knees and personal bests

Woke up with a bad back and a sore knee today. I was a little worried about my knee and wanted to take the day off considering that I had been working out continously for more than a week. Coming back from work a bit early, I started itching for a run. Have been reading George Sheehan's 'Running to Win' for sometime now and that added to the motivation. Decided to go for an easy 5-mile run on my usual route.

Well, when I hit the road, I was just flying. The first mile was a phenomenal 8:11. Phenomenal according to my standards. I've never run that fast before. A late evening snack of an orange, some grapes and some dried fruits + nuts + a litre of water is not exactly the ideal state to be in when you want to run fast. Nevertheless, buoyed by my first mile timing, I decided to see how long it was going to last. At the 2 mile mark, I had taken around 16 minutes and decided that I'd be happy if I could get to the turnaround point (which is exactly 2.5 miles) in 22 minutes. Shoreline Road, beyond the Amphitheatre Parkway, is pitch dark on one side and brightly lit on the other. I had to be careful about my step and that slowed me down a tad. I still managed to make it to the turnaround point in 20:07 and boy was I glad!!

I took a gulp of water and a breather (ok, cheated a bit there) and decided to take it easy on the return trip. Apparently someone forgot to inform my legs of that decision and they started from where they left off. I was still bounding at a 8:10 minute pace even though I was in a bit of pain. The fact that I was stopped at 3 traffic lights may have helped a bit I suppose. I managed to keep that pace and was on an even 32 minutes after 4 miles. I decided to go for a 8 minute mile again. I started the last mile a little harder than the others but it did not last long.  I was not ready to give up and had to continously motivate myself to keep up the pace. I sprinted the last few yards and stopped 0.13 miles short of my house finishing 4.87 miles on 39:07 which translates to 8:02 minutes per mile. I have dreamt of such speeds. I never believed I was capable of that speed. And to think I managed that on a day when I had a sore knee and a full stomach makes it all the more valuable.  How we underestimate ourselves!!

Running alone?

Ever since I started running last year, I've been asked a lot of questions about it by my friends. One of the prominent questions being 'Do you run alone?' Heck, no!! I run with a lot of people but not more than one at the same time. All of them are peculiar in the sense that they all insist on singing rather than talking. Yep, my best running buddies are MDR, MMI, SSI, KVN et al.

M.D.Ramanathan accompanies me on most of my runs. His vilamba kala singing suits my slow pace and I can run for hours without tiring when he sings. His elaborate renditions and his varnams are the best. Those runs to the tunes of Chakkani Raja, Nannu palimpa, O Rangasayee are some of my best runs.

Madurai Mani Iyer is who I choose when I want to go for a brisk run. The problem with him is that I find myself nodding in appreciation and running side to side sometimes. Semmangudi is very good for speed training with his superfast swaras. Sanjay is a great guy to run with. I usually listen to whole concerts of his and enjoy the variety he dishes out. KVN and S.Kalyanaraman are very good for the hills though I haven't understood why. Maybe it's because I'm more consciously listening to them and they keep me quite busy. I sometimes take Alathur Brothers, GNB, Ariyakudi along too but they don't make such great running buddies or probably they run at a different pace than me.

I'm open to recommendations for other running buddies though!! :-)

Song sequences…

I went to the theater after a long time to watch a movie today. The movie was Guru, directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Abhishek Bachchan. The movie itself was very great but I've a terrible problem with songs in a movie. Usually, when I watch desi movies at home, which itself is a rare occasion, I tend to skip all the songs immaterial of whether the song is good or bad. I miss having that option at the cinema and start fidgeting as soon as some stupid song starts. There should be Yes/No buttons on each seat. As soon as a song starts, the song vote button gets activated. Each person gets to vote on whether the song should continue or not within the first 10 seconds. Based on the majority, the operator decides whether to skip the song or let it continue. It might not solve my problem and maybe I'd still have to put up with the songs but at least I'd have the satisfaction of knowing that there are other people who are interested in watching the song. At the very least, it'd filter out bad songs and songs that are out of place. Hmm, no wonder my friends don't want me in a movie theater.