Marathon listening session

[harimau]

Yesterday was a good day to be at the Music Academy.

The presentation on Sri Ramaswamy Deekshithar's 108 ragatalamalika was a must-attend session. The business of shortchanging customers extends even to classical music. It turns out that the 108 ragatalamalika has only 61 and not 108 as the name might suggest. It is almost like buying firecrackers on faith during Deepavali. How many of us sit down and count the individual firecrackers in a thousandwalla to be sure we are not cheated? Considering that most of the firecrackers come from China, you can be sure that in Chinese arithmetic, thousand is approximately equal to 950.

Having sacrificed the first half hour of the morning concert, I rushed to listen to Vyasarpadi Kothandaraman. The real nice thing was that his two students who played along with him also played flawlessly. The amplification, if any, was so low that nobody could complain the the nagaswarams and tavils were blaring. Perhaps the mics were there only for recording the concert.

Input/output functions forced me to the canteen and the loo during the next concert by Kashyap Mahesh. However, I could catch most of it in the canteen or in the auditorium itself. A talented youngster (in many ways. I am told he cleared some of the Microsoft certification exams in the first decade of his life), he is certainly a refreshing change to the araicha maavu that is offered by the retreads.

No need to say anything about D B Ashwin. His music speaks for itself as does his voice.

One would be content to stay at the Academy for the evening programs but Sociological Research demands attendance at a concert by the Duelling Abhangists. So I dragged my poor body to Mylapore Fine Arts Club (don't be fooled by the name Club. The only beverages to be had at the canteen were coffee and milk. I think I will bring my own canteen - American term, meaning a beverage container - to these places in the future) and showed my Patron's ticket, only to realize that Patrons rank lower than VIPs and was shown to any row after the sixth. Seven being my lucky number, I was quite content with that and spent the rest of the day listening to Sun's Brightness and the Duelling Abhangists.

My day that started at 8 am ended at 9:30 pm.

And this morning, there seems to be marathon in Chennai streets.

I decided not to enter the marathon. I already did one yesterday.

[rshankar]

Suryaprakash, and RaGa! Interesting combination....
But a marathon it certainly was!
So, how did the number 108 get tacked on to the rAgatALamAlika?

[Sachi_R]

There was an old thread on Ragamalika, I quote from there Naresh Keerthi:

The available portion of rAmaswAmi dIksitar's opus nATakAdi vidyala was taught to...

Harimau, you're truly indefatigable! You deserve a good swish of a swig from the canteen indeed

[kvchellappa]

There is a siddhar song "Irukkum idam vittu ilaatha idam poy alaivaar"

[sankark]

And in illAdha idathil gavlan irukkum(O)

[harimau]

There is a siddhar song "Irukkum idam vittu ilaatha idam poy alaivaar"

Irukkum idam would be the bar at Hotel Savera.

[rshankar]

From the bar to गाँवलन! You know what they say: दूध कलारिन हाथ लगी मधु समझें सब ताही!