musings.....

This is one of Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar's five krithis in a series called Sriranga Pancharatnas. The five are :

• Ranganayakam (Nayaki)
• Sri Ranganathaya (Dhanyasi)
• Rangapura Vihara (Brindavanasaranga)
• Sri Ranganatham (Poornachandrika)
• Sri Bhargavi (Mangala Kaisiki)

I was fortunate enough to learn this rare krithi from my Guru Smt. Mythili Jagannathan. She runs a music school in Trichy called Guruguha Gana Vidhyala. This is my rendition of this song.





Pallavi

SrI bhArgavI bhadraM mE diSatu
SrI ranga dhAmESvarI

Anupallavi

saubhAgya lakshmI satataM mAmavatu
sakala lOka jananI vishNu mOhinI

caraNam

madana guru mAninI mama manasi tishThatu
madhu-kara vijaya mangaLa kaiSikA nivasatu
sadana madhyE mahA lakshmI sadA viharatu
sAmaja hEma kumbha snApitA vijayatu

pada nayanAnana kara nalinI
parama purusha hari praNayinI
vadana kamala guru guha -
dharaNISvara nuta ranga nAtha ramaNI

New Jersey has the highest tamil speaking population in the U.S.according to some guy I heard on T.V. the other day. So what do these tams like to do on a weekend afternoon? That’s right, listen to carnatic music concert and shout “Besh Besh”, doing the Thaalam so loudly, my dear friends , that an innocent onlooker would mistake it for swatting flies.

But I digress. Back to the “Besh Besh” phenomenon - Anyone who has ever been to a carnatic concert has seen this guy in action. He, ladies and gentleman is Mr.Besh Besh, sitting in the second row..Well, only because the first row is reserved for really old maamas clad in pattu salwais with hearing-aids – their vocal cords have decided to take a rest after years of screaming “Bale ba !”

Anyway so this guy is usually middle aged, bespectacled and with a moustache. Don’t ask me why the moustache matters, but it does, and it has to preferably adhere to the “Mike Mogan” style of the ‘80s. Our guy ,a fervent fan of carnatic music is usually found sitting in the attention position, craning his neck hoping to catch a glimpse of his favorite artistes. His hands are placed in the “go” position, ready to beat the crap out his poor thighs as soon as he hears the shruti.

Did I mention he has the uncanny knack of deciphering the raaga based on one or two notes? And feels the need to loudly announce the same to his embarrassed son/daughter who suddenly feels the need to turn away and look at their Nintendos in rapt attention. Anyway, if you are really lucky, you will see a very seasoned Mr.Besh Besh in display. And how do you find out, you ask? Well, it’s pretty simple.

It’s a three step formula – the rookies start off looking furtively at the audience, sizing up other potential candidates, even following the other guy’s thaalam on occasion. The good ones have their eyes glued to the artistes and will close their eyes on occassion - bliss, I tell you. They generally adhere the "paani" mentioned above with the Mike Mogans.

With the very best though, what you will see is a loud “Sabash” at the end of each kalpanaswaram, and as the Mridangist and Ghatam vidhwan launch into the thaniavardhanam, you will see violent head shaking, very loud thalams (poor thighs!) and for the theatric climax - a loud recital of the korvais themselves.. “Thangina thom thakka thathinginathom… Sabhashhh !”.

(To be continued…)

A long journey. But change is inevitable. And here it is , new avatar and everything ! I definitely need to take screenshots of my old minima black and post it here - sort of like the mandatory before-and-after shots after a makeover.

There is still a bit of a way to go before the new template becomes my version of "not-so-perfect" but I am almost there.

On an unrelated note, I was listening to carnatic music today and the following verse from St. Manikkavasagar's Thiruvasagam caught my fancy.In case you haven't noticed yet, I am just completely fascinated by this instrument "Yaazh". This instrument seems to have been in vogue in the ancient days, going by the number of references in many, many tamil verses. That's a post for another day though.

இன்னிசை வீணையர் யாழினர் ஒரு பால்
இருக்கொடு தோத்திரம் இயம்பினர் ஒரு பால்
துன்ண்ணிய பிணை மலர் கையினர் ஒரு பால்
தொழுகையர் அழுகையர் துவள்கையர் ஒரு பால்
சென்னியில் அஞ்சலி கூப்பினர் ஒரு பால்
திருபெரும்துறை உரை சிவ பெருமானே
என்னையும் ஆண்டு கொண்டு இன்னருள் புரியும்
எம் பெருமான் பள்ளி எழுந்து அருளையே

(Part II continued ... )

And then she made a blogger friend who would also go to the same school as her. And decided to fly away from home a week after she turned twenty one. It was a new country, new place, new friends. She had things to write about. Photos to be posted, trips to be described. And a family to be missed. The blog was alive and well-read.

She considered adoption very seriously. And so she blogged. It caught some attention, although in hindsight, not the right kind. And then she was only too glad to blog for blanknoise, a project aimed at a cause that was dear to her heart. She never considered herself a victim and wasn't about to start now. But she certainly had many things to say , the topic was too close to her heart. She had emotions and she wore it on her sleeve. The blog readership was at its all time high.

And then there was the silence. You saw that. You saw that era of drafts, the era of written sentences, the vague one-liners, the metaphorical anecdotes. And then that time she almost gave up on you. She even had a farewell, adieu, thank you for the good times post. Maybe she even posted it. And then came the post that proclaimed that she would blog for eternity, and maybe her grandkids would read it one day and get to know her. If you think she is being dramatic, well, you don't know her at all :)

It ebbed and flowed for a while. Mostly it flowed for a brief while before it ebbed. Filling the silence with jpgs and cartoon clips. When you have too much to say, you'd rather not say anything at all. And the cryptic haikus and stolen lines. And the metaphors. It was a struggle. At one point, even pointless. And she gave up again.

But life has a its own way of bringing back to you things you hold dearly. And so she continued. But slowly at first. No dramatic re-entries this time around. Vivitsa would be an easy, comfortable place. It was hers.She didn't have to feign. If she wanted to wonder about ending it, she did. If she wanted to write happy birthday posts , she did. If she wanted to write one of those allegorical poems, she did. It was one of those relationships you see between a ninety year old couple at your local breakfast cafe. A few gestures, meaningful smiles, comfortable silences. No point to prove, just a reassuring companionship.

She remembers those long political posts she wrote sitting on the Amtrak during her travels. The short stories written sitting in random airport terminals. Her foray into fiction writing. How the blog held its own special place through all of that. She puts her current three month hiatus in perspective.

There may be times when she'll stay away. There might be times when there is too much to say, where words are simply not enough. And then there will be other days when she'll put thoughts in writing because she has opinions she simply must express. She once tried to classify what vivitsa was to her - a daily dairy? a mixed bag? But now she rests easy, knowing the best things in life are just that. Undefined yet irreplaceable.