MEETINGS OF RASIKAS DURING THE SEASON

tkb · Post by **tkb** » 26 Dec 2008, 21:29

jayaram

our sincere condolence and we pray may her soul to rest in peace.

tkb · Post by **tkb** » 26 Dec 2008, 21:34

It is unfortunate that i will not be in a position to attend this meet on 28th Dec'08 as i need to be with Sathya who is having a performance at Mylapore Fine Arts that day from 3 - 5pm.

May i request the forum members to kindly try and be there for the concert after the meet atleast for a krithi or two as it will be close to the location of the meet namely Radhakrishnan road. Well only if people have time to spare and not clashing with the concert schedule of attending other sabhas.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 26 Dec 2008, 21:56

Jayaram: Our condolences to you and your family.

Punarvasu: What you say about the loss of a parent is quite touching. Our condoences to you and your family on the loss of your mother recently.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 26 Dec 2008, 23:15

Jayaram,
Krishnan and I send our sympathy to you and to the rest of the family. We were wondering why we hadn't heard from you...

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 26 Dec 2008, 23:29

Jayaram, very sad to hear that... much sympathy.

Nothing can fill that place, but music can soothe.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 26 Dec 2008, 23:43

vainika... I hope to see Rama Varma sing on Sunday morning. A tea shop should then have me in shape for the jam!

Do, if you can, arrange for someone to handle the percussion on mridangam or kanjira --- I will try to follow where I can with morsing. but it makes such a difference to have the weight of the laya aspect taken care of!

Please let me have the address, and suggestions as to parking in the area.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 27 Dec 2008, 00:04

Jayaram sincere condolences - I presumed you hadn't come down for the season this time - sad to hear about this. Wishing you strength in this time of loss

Vainika, thanks for the invite I will be there

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 27 Dec 2008, 06:46

Jayaram, my heartfelt condolences for your loss. Keep your chin up.

kamalamba · Post by **kamalamba** » 27 Dec 2008, 06:52

Jayaram
very sorry to hear of your mother's sad demise.
May her soul rest in peace.
Mohan-Kamalamba

kamalamba · Post by **kamalamba** » 27 Dec 2008, 06:57

I plan to be at R Suryaprakash (MA 1:45) and Abhishek Raghuraman (parthasarathy swami; 4 pm). It will be nice to catch up with Rasikas who might attend.
Kamalamba

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 27 Dec 2008, 07:18

Very sorry to hear about your loss, Jayaram. Heartfelt condolences...

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 27 Dec 2008, 07:42

Condolences!

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 27 Dec 2008, 10:22

Heartfelt condolences Jayaram

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 27 Dec 2008, 10:23

Vainika

I will be there.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 27 Dec 2008, 10:27

Heartfelt condolences Jayaram

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 28 Dec 2008, 19:35

The jam session was GREAT! The forum was represented by Vainika/Ramakrishnan, Nick, and Ahiri (all of whom were active participants), Vijay, Arun, Cienu and myself (who were veritable rasikas)! We were a minority - most of the participants were friends of Vainika who were great hosts and good singers. I will let one of the others write an expert and erudite review. All I will say is that this was very blissful, and Nick undersells himself!

THANKS, Vainika and sunAdavinOdini!

This will be my last 'meet' before I wend my way back home tomorrow. Thank you one and all for providing the only real fun during an otherwise trying trip!

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 28 Dec 2008, 23:37

It was a nice way to spend an evening and Ravi will testify to the fact my miserable morning had transformed into a more cheerful afternoon by the time the session was over...of course ravi's prescription (not to forget Mr. Krishnan's tablets!) was partly the reason but the serenity of the afternoon must have played its part as well.

My thanks to the hosts and Vainika.

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 28 Dec 2008, 23:59

Thanks to rasikas Ahiri, Arunk, Cienu, Nick, Vijay and Rshankar for participating in the meet. It was so good to be able to meet everyone! We missed Mohan, Rajumds and Uthra, three other members of the forum, who had planned to attend but were unable to make it.

Listening to Ahiri, Shiv Subramaniam (Chicago, IL) and Ravi Srinivasan (Austin, TX) was a treat. I look forward to more sessions with Nick playing on his morsings.

A svarajati and kRti of Shyama Sastri were sung to celebrate the 90th birthday of musician-scholar Smt. Vidya Shankar, a close relative of the hosts of the meet.

Some photos are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/33427652@N ... attherams/

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 29 Dec 2008, 00:16

Thanks Ramki!
That shot of Nick in bliss is worth millions!
Any audios?

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 29 Dec 2008, 01:41

Audios in a day or two...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 29 Dec 2008, 01:45

I mis-registered what vainika wrote above and wondered for a few seconds where vainika is heading in a day or two

I have to wake up for real.

Happy to read about the Jam session and thanks for the pictures and looking forward to the audios.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 29 Dec 2008, 08:07

I really enjoyed the session. The talent at display was excellent - ramki, ravi - ramki's friend from texas, Shiv - a performing artist from Kansas (studying in chicago), and "ahiri".

Here is the "song list":
* Started off with sAvEri varnam (i joined in mumbling what i could remember - although in reality I should have been able to remember it all

)
* then shiv presented a tamil malayamarutam(?) krithi - i cant recollect the details now.
* then ravi presented SrI mAtrubhUtam with ramki joining in on the veena
* ramki presented a nIlambari krithi (perhaps after my earlier suggestion:) )
* then shiv did a latangi alapana, with ravi and ramki extending it - ramki did tanam on the veena. This was followed by the patnam krithi, and then shiv and ravi did kalpana swaras
* then a lady, who I presume is the neighbour (?) of the host sang the dikshitar amritavarshini krithi.
* then ahiri treated us with the paTdIp varnam
* they all then played "raga alapana" antakshari. One starts an alapana in a raga and choses to end in some swara. The other must pick another raga, and start with that ending swara. It was very well done.
* One of the friends of the hosts presented a short hindustani bhajan piece
* This was followed by bhairavi swarajathi by ravi - excellently done with meditative kalapramanam
* ahiri presented the SS gowlipantu krithi - taruNamidamma
* they ended with mamava pattabhirama

Nick contributed with the morsing for all krithis.

I wisely opted out opening my big mouth for anything other than exchanging pleasantries, and consuming snacks.

I think In the hurry to get back home (visitors) I forgot to personally thank the hosts. Ramki please convey my thanks to them.

Arun

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 29 Dec 2008, 13:15

Thanks for the photos, vainika, and the blow-by-blow, arunk. Did Nick get a thani?!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 29 Dec 2008, 13:21

I did not come as I wanted to listen to smt rAji gOpalakrishnan, nice to hear that you all had fun...

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 29 Dec 2008, 13:33

Nice to put faces to some of the names that I had not met before... sounds like a fun session!

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 29 Dec 2008, 13:54

It was a great meeting at Ram's place. The "antakshari" session was truly fantastic with Shiv in particular instantly on the ball. I was so happy to meet with Ravi, Arun, Vijay, Ramki, Nick, Srini, Ahiri & Shiv and the others too. A big thanks to Ram and family for hosting the event.
Nick thoughfully had more than one morsing for different srutis and the sound was so pleasing. Hope to see him on a bigger stage soon tackling more Misra and Khanda Chapus

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 29 Dec 2008, 18:26

arunk, thanks for the songlist. There was also kamalAmbA samrakShatu (Ananda bhairavI) rendered by Shiv.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 29 Dec 2008, 20:26

I too have some pics that I will upload once I get back home. Ramki/Vainiika, I join Arun in requesting you to please convey our heartfelt thanks to the thoughtful hosts. Hope Keshav is feeling better!

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 30 Dec 2008, 01:09

cmlover wrote:That shot of Nick in bliss is worth millions!

Then there is also the not-misra-chapu-again photo!

Got to see the photos tonight: they are a lovely memento of a very enjoyable few hours

rshankar, looking forward to your pics too.

Although I did thank Mrs Ram, let me add my name to the on-line list of thanks to our hosts.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 30 Dec 2008, 06:49

Thanks Arun for that shot-by-shot commentary..
I thought you would have done a solo! Not ready yet?
What about the aalaapana of kamalamba that you have not mentioned..

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 30 Dec 2008, 09:03

Looking at the photos , looks like you had seen Schindler's list starring liam neeson and ben kingsley. Identify liam neeson and ben kingsley , we never had a visual round of quiz in this forum??

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 30 Dec 2008, 09:33

yep - i left out the anandabhairavi.

cml - i have been known to be intimidated following even a 5 year old's rendition of lambOdhara. So, I dont have to explain what the talent on hand there did to my psyche

Arun

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 30 Dec 2008, 12:23

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 Dec 2008, 18:21

coolkarni wrote:on Jan 6th at 5.30 pm ., we could all meet again .
Occasion will be the kick off for the year long GNB centenary year celebrations.At German Hall Tnagar
We will be heading to the German hall straight after the Prashanth-Ram Concert

Oh How I envy those of you who can!

But, OTOH, I am SO GLAD to be back home!!

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 Dec 2008, 19:19

Some more pictures from the rasikas meet jam session organized by Vainika at the residence of his friends, the Rams.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33862969@N04

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 Dec 2008, 19:32

Seven pictures (#15 to 21) in the page at the link I posted above are from the bhajanai session we attended on the 24th December. Jananee and Jeyaar had to leave, and so, are not featured in the pictures. At the end of that morning, we (Vijay, Sagar, Bilahari, and I) went to the MMA for breakfast. Pics 15 and 16 were taken at the cafeteria there.

Here is the link to the bhajans I recorded from the Haridoss Giri group.

http://rapidshare.com/files/178440489/m ... ajanai.mp3

Same caveat for listening - vocal booster with pre-amplification.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 01 Jan 2009, 08:40

Thanks Ravi for all the pictures. Enjoyed seeing all our forum members and especially Nick in action with his morsings!

Was vainika playing vINamacpustakadhAriNIm AshrayE?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Jan 2009, 08:48

Prashant,

You are welcome!

Unfortunately, he did not..

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 01 Jan 2009, 10:13

rshankar
Nice pictures, she is mrs padma shankar , not miss padma shankar.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 01 Jan 2009, 13:37

Thank you for the pictures, rshankar! Nick on the morsing is indeed a treat.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 01 Jan 2009, 13:46

Thank you Ravi. The pictures were wonderful.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Jan 2009, 15:47

You are welcome, cienu and bilahari!

Rajesh, are you sure?

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 01 Jan 2009, 17:37

Rajesh, are you sure?

Do I detect disappointment?

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 02 Jan 2009, 09:22

rshankar, thanks for the lovely pix! II have conveyed all of your messages to the Rams, and will send along this FlickR link too.

[hint] I hope we don't have to wait until December '09 for the next music jam session! [/hint]

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 02 Jan 2009, 10:45

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 02 Jan 2009, 10:56

Bad luck for me since I land in Chennai only at 12 noon

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 02 Jan 2009, 11:20

prashant wrote:Bad luck for me since I land in Chennai only at 12 noon

If you have a parachute just drop at times the plane hovers around nungambakkam too, at around 11:30 to 11:45ish,There is a big playground near mantra's house we will welcome you so that you get a taste of rams thani and decide if you want to take your main a little longer and give rams a shorter tani or you shorten your main to give rams a tani that is just right.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 02 Jan 2009, 12:04

rajeshnat wrote:
prashant wrote:Bad luck for me since I land in Chennai only at 12 noon
If you have a parachute just drop at times the plane hovers around nungambakkam too, at around 11:30 to 11:45ish,There is a big playground near mantra's house we will welcome you so that you get a taste of rams thani and decide if you want to take your main a little longer and give rams a shorter tani or you shorten your main to give rams a tani that is just right.

I will definitely not be shortening Ram's tani!!! I want to listen too, up close and personal, as much as possible

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 02 Jan 2009, 15:05

coolji - i plan on attending.

Arun

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 02 Jan 2009, 16:30

Vainika,

You are welcome!

Kji,

I am jealous!