TM Krishna for Madhuradhwani, Singapore

[kvchellappa]

TMK said music is different from food and an analogy is not appropriate. He has a brilliant mind, even if over-reactive.

[VK RAMAN]

At kaaladi Sankaran
madam, payasam is served after Thayir.

[Ponbhairavi]

"the analogy is NOT appropriate "is only his view. He has not explained why it is inappropriate.
Buffet type ??. but in real buffet type i the choice is that of the consumer and the consumer knows what are all the items available.

[KSJaishankar]

An analogy or simile is not intended to be a perfect replica of what is being described through it, but to use some factors to highlight what is common and describe the original through an evocative example, rather than just a string of adjectives or adverbs. If these were supposed be fully applicable, Kalidasa (supposedly the king of simile) would have failed miserably. Consider the poem that is apocryphally is supposed to be his last composition:

kamalE kamalotpattihi Sruyate na tu driSyatE (We have heard of lotuses blooming from lotuses, but never seen the phenomenon)

bAlE tava mukha bhojatAm katham indIvara dvayam (But O young maiden, what about these lotus eyes on your lotus face?)

Now imagine if the face were actually like a lotus - layered and fibrous, and on top of it having two bulbous eyes protruding out of it! Forget a beautiful maiden with lovely eyes, it sounds straight out of a cheap Ramsay brothers' movie

A simile can be taken only thus far and not be applied literally. Anyway, on the subject of a concert listing to a meal at a wedding, the artiste is the equivalent of the caterer, not the guest. The guest is the counterpart of the audience - the role is to partake of what is on offer; the only choice is to reject it if not to your taste. If the caterer decides to serve payasam after thayir sadam (or go even more crazy, serves pasta with sambhar instead of rice), the guest only has the choice of not accepting it - not demanding that the payasam be trotted out before the thayir sadam, or demand Arabiatta with the pasta instead of the sambhar. The yajaman (kind of akin to the Sabha) can influence it to some extent yes, but it is more like not choosing the caterer next time round if the output is not what you wanted.

Over time, the caterer may develop an impression in the market of being weird or crazy and hence lose market share, but that is indeed his prerogative.

What do we as an audience want the artiste to do? We appreciate (adore indeed) artistes like Brinda-Mukta or MDR for not bothering about audience tastes and beating their own path, staying true to their own sense of the artistic - yet berate TMK for not caring about our preference. We idolize ARI and MMI for being sensitive to audience tastes and staying within that, yet chew out Aruna Sairam and other current artistes for "playing to the gallery'!

So what should an artiste do? Damned if they do, and damned if they don't

[vasanthakokilam]

Good post Jaishankar. Well articulated.

(btw, with the advent of indian cooking sites, there are now umpteen variations on the traditional 'age old' items. If your 'camp' thinks that only 'grand-ma handed over' recipes are good, you will be missing out on some tasty and healthy variations on the food we grew up with. There are a plethora of grand-mas so to say, young and old, to learn from. There is a lot of experimentation going on and the good ones get propagated )

What we see among us rasikas is similar to what happens in politics. You have your party/person where you exaggerate the positives and downplay the negatives and you have the opposite party/person where you downplay the positives and exaggerate the negatives. This is basic human nature and it filters down to music as 'conditioning'. We do not look at each instance on its own merit, we let our self assigned 'camps' influence our enjoyment of the music to varying degrees. This is seen more among those who are closer to the beltway than those outside. I do not think it is good or bad, it just is.

[kvchellappa]

Sometimes, people who want to be fair and neutral also fall to a similar trap.

[vasanthakokilam]

Since they are middle of the road, they get run over!

[Ponbhairavi]

Creating new items of menu is different from serving the same old grandma's recipes in a reshuffled order

[vasanthakokilam]

Sticking to the food analogy for a second just for some amusement.. ( and keeping in mind Jaishankar's point above about the scope and limitations of analogies )

There is a good reason and a not so good reason to reject such a chef's offerings who re-orders things.

The good reasons are you just do not like the individual items stand alone anyway, or you like the individual items but the order does not suit the ‘aesthetics’ imposed by the taste buds or stomach, like too many hot foods, or the subtlety introduced by the prior item is spoiled by the bold taste that follows etc. Taste buds and stomach chemistry of individuals vary

’not so good' reason is you do not even want to taste the good individual items because the sequence is something you are not used to, takes you away from your decades of established comfort zone, or you just do not like the chef because he/she has offended you in the past or they have talked disparagingly about other chefs/the traditional order others follow or you just hate his guts.

It is not bad for the Chef, he/she has enough other consumers ( or he will have to change his ways since the public at large has spoken ) but you as a rakisa are forgoing something you would have enjoyed if only you did not let those non-culinary aspects interfere with your palate.

It is not the end of the world in any case, there are enough other chefs in the world for you. But it will be good to keep the reasons as honest as possible and not think of the first category as the reason when it is actually the second. And when it is actually the second, resist the natural temptation to attribute non-culinary reasons as to why this chef is doing all this ('cheap publicity') or consider those who want to sample his food as tasteless or blind followers or idiots ( nri or otherwise )

[SrinathK]

At the risk of setting the forum on fire, is it really such a big deal?

On the plus, it seems to me that there is heavy manodharma and neraval and swaras on just about everything, even thillanas. Reading the reviews, it also appears that the kevala raga alapana was one idea that was dropped.

[Essem]

I attended this concert. From the beginning TMK tried his best to prove to the audience that he is a non-conformist (he was introduced so by the Announcer). After the first three songs he asked H.M.Baskar to play a raga and kriti on the violin first. Baskar played Bahudari alapana and started the kriti Brovabarama. TMK said he will join later! He joined only for swara singing. He took up Bairavi alapana and sang thanam also. When everyone expected a Pallavi, he sang Viriboni varnam! At the end he announced he sang the full varnam. He started singing swaram and midway he stopped and listened to Murugaboopathy's beats and said "very good, you continue" and asked him to play Thani. Like many others said, he sang managalam and sang Thagarajaya Namaste after that. The whole concert was in slow pace and the Kanjira player just kept quite throughout the concert as he could not make out how to play for a whole song sung as alapana and neraval. The concert was not worth the time and money spent.

[ramamantra]

Like many others said, he sang managalam and sang Thagarajaya Namaste after that.

Must have been a bong in pona janmam - starting dinner with dessert...

The concert was not worth the time and money spent.

Appreciate the directness. I'll never go to such concerts where there is unpleasant surprise.