Get together of rasikas at BengaLooru

svkashyap · Post by **svkashyap** » 07 Jan 2009, 11:26

Dear Rasikas,

Starting this thread as suggested by Gobilalita sir. We have seen good crowds in concerts at Essae foundation and informal get together organized by Coolji. So there are obviously a good number of rasikas in BengaLooru.
As suggested by Gobilalita Sir let us make a list of members and decide upon the venue for meeting with Sri MS Akella Sir and probably a concert. I would suggest a short Lec-Dem concert by Sri Akella Sir himslef if he agrees to this. I request the rasikas for suggestions.

Regards,
Satwik

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 07 Jan 2009, 11:39

Jan 18th Sunday is OK for me.

sakthi.balan · Post by **sakthi.balan** » 07 Jan 2009, 11:53

It would be great!

If time permits I will surely come for that......

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 07 Jan 2009, 20:04

Dear brother& sister-members, On one hand having given up my professional-Violin-artist-life even 15 years back and being out of practice of that instrument and on the other having never been a professional Vocalist, presently, I am neither a professional Violinist nor a professional Vocalist. However, I give Lec-dems only to enlighten the aspirants but not to entertain people that too only with the accompaniment of Tambura designed by myself. More over, even though many will not and cannot appreciate my pen and tongue are very sharp and also being free, frank and outspoken I relish it. That is why generally I refuse to talk in any meetings unless it is inevitable not to hurt anybody. But, now, as suggested by one of our rasikas I am ready to give a Lec-dem on music when we meet at Bangalore if our rasikas are ready to bear with me. amsharma

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 07 Jan 2009, 20:44

After Chennai it is BengaLooru...
Keep up the good Rasika orgites get together and post pictures and details...
Good Luck!

espras · Post by **espras** » 07 Jan 2009, 21:21

Please count me in for MSAkellagaru's lecture demonstration in Bangalore.

I look forward to learning quite a bit by attending an erudite artist's presentation.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 08 Jan 2009, 07:53

girip1979 · Post by **girip1979** » 08 Jan 2009, 10:28

Hi All,

I can accommodate the LecDemo in my house. My house can cater upto around 20-25 people.
I can arrange for commute inside Bangalore for Dear. MS Akella Sir.

Someone suggest the date and time.

PS : My house is in Bannerghatta road after meenakshi temple.

Cheers,
-Giri.

girip1979 · Post by **girip1979** » 08 Jan 2009, 10:29

It is my pleasure to have Sir.Akella at my house for a demo.

Cheers,
-Giri.

niyer · Post by **niyer** » 08 Jan 2009, 12:28

Giri

I would like to attend Sarmaji's lec-dem. My telephone number is 9886148095. Let me know how I can help you

girip1979 · Post by **girip1979** » 08 Jan 2009, 16:12

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 09 Jan 2009, 20:37

Hi! all brothers & sisters,
I shall be arriving at Bangalore in the morning on13th January and it has tentatively been fixed to stay with Chis.Vinay Ragahava and Vinay Sharva (who recently demonstrated Simhanandana-tala) on 13th & 14th at Uttarahalli (land-line-080-65999872 & M-9739215295 & 9845983823) to teach them the rare topic, Talaprastara and move to Mathikere on 15th to stay with Chi. Shrikaantham Naagendra Shastry (080-23606380, M-9845415592) up to the evening on 19th. My mobile No. is 9908822992. As I have very extensively worked on the easy, effective and innovative methods in teaching both Vocal and Violin and found some very successful methods in making the process of teaching ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‹Å“TIME-BOUND & RESULT-ORIENTEDÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢, unlike any other musician, and also as I like to serve our community even without any monetary benefit I remain always ready to serve anybody at any time. All are welcome to meet me at any time. amsharma.

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 11 Jan 2009, 16:08

Dear sri KASHYAP,while I whole hartedly back up your suggestion , the response from other forumites is still awaited.I am sure that there must be nearly 50 members. we are grateful to sri msakella for his valuable voluntary service vide post above. Apart from the above highly educative performance , if the members want a seperate gettogether for getting introduced to each other, exchanging pleasantries, we must look for an easily accessible venue , convenient date etc. Dear forumites , please come forward with suggestions .A thousand thanks to any member,who can offer a suggestion in this regard. we are very grateful to girip 1979 for offering his premises. the problem is transpor,especially for an old man like with arthtitis problem,as I live at the eastern end of the city GM PALAYA,near Tippasandra , 3km from INDIRANAGAR. impossible to hire autos . the middle class luxury

sowmya · Post by **sowmya** » 11 Jan 2009, 22:18

It's a very nice idea to have a get-together, and 18th Jan is fine. But as said, Bannerghatta Road is too far away... It'd be great if we could find a place somewhere nearer to the center of the city... But then, I guess that's a problem in a huge city like Bangalore. Any place will be far off to somebody or the other...

I'll try to make it, wherever it is...

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 12 Jan 2009, 09:53

I have spoken to Giri to say I can attend on the 18th. If that is going to be the date, I am bringing a musical someone with me as well.

svkashyap · Post by **svkashyap** » 12 Jan 2009, 10:18

gobilalitha wrote:.I am sure that there must be nearly 50 members.

I spoke to Giri an he told me that so far only 2 people other than myself have confirmed their participation.

gobilalitha wrote: we are very grateful to girip 1979 for offering his premises. the problem is transpor,especially for an old man like with arthtitis problem,as I live at the eastern end of the city GM PALAYA,near Tippasandra , 3km from INDIRANAGAR. impossible to hire autos . the middle class luxury

If there are more people attending then I can request a friend of mine for the venue which would be easily accessible.
So I request the forumites to please email or Giri and confirm their participation as early as possible.

Regards,
Satwik V Kashyap

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 12 Jan 2009, 10:48

As mentioned in my earlier post on this thread afternoon of 18th Jan would be ok with me. In my case BG Road would be ideal distance wise, but in view of the concerns expressed by Gobilalitha I wouldnt mind attending at a different venue.

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 12 Jan 2009, 16:41

I think I can manage anywhere, 18th jan may be confirmed . arasi . we are very happy that you will be able to attend on18th . gobilalaitha

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 12 Jan 2009, 19:04

Likewise, GBL.

Cienu,
Isn't the meeting from 10AM to noon?

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 12 Jan 2009, 19:18

If the meeting is at Giri's house as above then it is at 10 am. Are all Rasikas ready for the meeting at Giri's house at BG Road and Gobilalitha has also agreed?

We need to firm up the venue, timings, agenda (Sharmaji's talk for an hour and a get together of Rasikas for the next hour - maybe a jam session if there is time etc.) Is BG Road OK for Sharmaji to attend or would it be inconvenient for him?

I have a some guests in the morning and maybe if the meeting is in the afternoon it would be better. However if all are agreeable for 10 am then I am OK with it

niyer · Post by **niyer** » 13 Jan 2009, 10:26

dear rasikas

sarmaji is available in bangalore only till 19th. I would suggest Lets meet at Giri's residence on 18th as per the timings proposed by him ( 10 am to 12 noon) . We have myself,arasi,giri,vkashyap,gobilalaita , my friend dinkar and hopefully arasi's musical someone , and sowmya who seem certain to attend. couple of others have agreed tentatively. So it makes a decent number to begin with. Later we can have a poll based on choice of venues available

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 13 Jan 2009, 10:40

Dear niyer,

May I request that the meeting be held in the afternoon. I did try to make myself free for the morning, however unable to do so. 2 TO 4 PM will be fine. Hope this is agreeable to other Rasikas and Sharmaji too.

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 13 Jan 2009, 17:01

Dear members, Here is another interesting, important announcement. SMT.Gayathri Girish ,a family friend of ours is performing at cultural academy BTM Lay out on 23rd janat 5'30 pm I am sure members will attend . Apart from this ,accepting my personal request . she has very graciously consented to give a lec -dem on grahabedham at 2pm on 23rd jan , as she is leaving for CHENNAI on the same night. I NEED NOT TELL YOU WHAT TO EXPECTFROM HER BEING A DISCIPLE OF THE LEGEND SRI TNS. The venue will be notified later. Of course,I am aware that 23 is a workingday But pl manage , as it is the only time available. gobilalitha
this is apart from our meeting on18th.

girip1979 · Post by **girip1979** » 14 Jan 2009, 07:17

Dear Rasika's

I believe 10AM-12 Noon would be the ideal time for such musical topic discussion.
Anytime in the afternoon after the lunch would turn to be little sluggish.

Hence let us keep the same time of 10-12.

About Sharmaji, i would arrange for pickup and drop.

I shall bring him in my car from his place of stay.

Cheers,
-Giri.

sowmya · Post by **sowmya** » 14 Jan 2009, 15:21

So, is that decided? 18th morning 10 to 12? I'll come, and I think a friend of mine will be coming too.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 14 Jan 2009, 20:10

Unfortunately I will not be able to make it in the morning. I wish the meeting all success.

girip1979 · Post by **girip1979** » 15 Jan 2009, 13:43

Hi Ceinu,

Please do be bothered as we are planning to record the session.

Hi All,

Please suggest the topic for lec-dem. I had a talk with AMS and he suggested that 'Easy methods for Swara Kalpana/Alaapana" would be the appropriate one.

Please discuss the relevant topic in this forum.

Cheers,
-Giri.

svkashyap · Post by **svkashyap** » 15 Jan 2009, 14:08

Giri,

I feel Sharmaji has chosen a very good topic.

Soumya,
Jan 18th morning 10- 12 is confirmed at Giri's place.

girip1979 · Post by **girip1979** » 16 Jan 2009, 11:00

Hi All,

I wanted to post the route to my house here. But i am unable to do it.

Kindly send me your email ids to [email protected] with subject as "Route".

I will send the detailed route to your ids.

Cheers,
-Giri.

sowmya · Post by **sowmya** » 18 Jan 2009, 08:20

Hi! Sorry I couldn't mail you my ID. I was in Hyderabad, and came back just now. I'll try to make it with the address you provided in the beginning. In case of problems, I'll call you and find out the route. Hope that's ok..

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Jan 2009, 15:36

Sowmya did make it. Even for a novice like me, AkellagAru's lecdem was very interesting. I bet others who are knowledgeable found it enlightening. It was nice to meet the innovative man who has dedicated his life to teaching CM to youngsters, covering all its vital aspects.
Vasanthakokilam, I was thinking of you.
I hope Giri, Sowmya, Naren and Prakash will add substance to this post, illustrating AkellagAru's contribution today.
Vidwan Bangalore Shankar graced the occasion with his son (who sings with him) and his student forumite Prakash (of Essae Foundation).
About fifteen of us attended.The 'musical one'-of dance too-who was with me, was Sumitra Nitin.
Such nice hosts Giri and his wife were and besides the lovely cup of coffee they offered us, they served a delicious lunch as well, the aroma of which filled the house. Unfortunately, Sumitra and I could not stay due to other commitments. The
Bangalore Rasikas.org community is growing and I will miss it when I leave India in a few week's time...

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 18 Jan 2009, 19:27

Arasi and Team,
Nice to hear bangalore rasikas.org

, Apart from the report would be nice to see photographs. Was the lec dem recorded, would love to hear akellA gAru's insight apart from few of you posting the lecdem review.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 18 Jan 2009, 20:30

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 19 Jan 2009, 00:28

Excellent to hear of the worldwide rasika congregations, and looking forward to a detailed writeup of Akella sir's lec dem as well.

sowmya · Post by **sowmya** » 19 Jan 2009, 00:34

It was an immense pleasure to attend this get-together. We were late, having had to navigate through half of Bangalore to get there, but it was worth it. The lecdem was very thought-provoking. As sir kept reminding, we need to ask ourselves if we are right in sticking to some method of teaching, simply because that's how our guru taught us. What's wrong in applying new principles, if that'll help the student to learn easily? He gave so many examples to illustrate his point - Like, say, to start teaching alankaras with the Ekatala, the simplest of them, is surely better than scaring the kid away with a ridiculously complicated Dhruvatala. I also found fascinating his explanations on how to train a student in both shruti and laya, going hand in hand. The laya aspect has been sadly neglected in the current system of teaching. I'm not knowledgeable to actually describe all that he explained. I think the recording, if posted, would be much more helpful...
I just wanted to share how much I enjoyed the experience. Giri and Madhavi, our hosts, were extremely gracious. And having stayed back for lunch, I can testify that the food was as good as the aroma promised

Thanks, Giri, for having us all over at your place, and treating us so well...
Arasi madam, very glad to meet you. I had been hoping to meet you since a long time, and my wish was fulfilled today, though I wish all the rasikas had more time to just sit and chat a bit. And if you call yourself a novice, I wonder what I should call myself?
So, basically, I had a great time. Hope such meetings keep happening, and hope more and more rasikas attend and add value to it...

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 19 Jan 2009, 05:47

One more sigh of disappointment from me for having missed yet another opportunity to meet with the group and benefit from the wisdom of Shri AMS.

svkashyap · Post by **svkashyap** » 19 Jan 2009, 10:36

AMS sir's lecdem was a great success. Sir had brought the electronic tambura which he has himself designed. He explained all the easy teaching methods with various examples and proved the success of his experminents. Thank you Sir for the wonderful lecdem.
I am not knowledgeable to comment on or even repeat the contents. Giri and Narayanan have recorded the audio and I request one of them to please post the same for the benefit of all rasikas.

Narayanan Iyer (niyer) presented to Sri AMS Sir a small token of appreciation - a ganaesha idol - on behalf of the rasika community. Narayanan thanks for the same.

We had some great home made food for lunch. Thanks to Giri, his mother and Madhu for the same. Unfortunately most of the attendees missed the mouth watering bisibele bath

Also it was my great pleasure to meet the forumites especially arasiji, soumya, anand,niyer,prakash, etc.

Sreeni Rajarao · Post by **Sreeni Rajarao** » 19 Jan 2009, 17:36

It's good to read about the event and it's success!
Thanks for the initiative and hardwork!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 19 Jan 2009, 18:28

Besides pointing out the foolishness of introducing druva and maTya tALams to beginners (while even pros don't include them in their concerts), his teaching saraLi varisai in SankarAbharaNam rather than in mAyAmALava gowLa impressed me, and last evening when my two and a half year old grandson spoke to me on the phone, I asked if he would sing with me. I sang in S bharaNam the saraLi varisai he responded by mixing the svarAs up. After hearing my singing them a few times, he reproduced them just as I sang them. The child likes listening to music and loves to sing too, like most children. He is not a prodigy. AkellagAru, wish I could let you teach him but he lives far away, indeed...
AkellagAru does not believe in cramming his students' heads with too many krutis either. He lets them use their own initiative in singing svarAs, etc. He coaxes them to sing on their own after teaching them initially. Very interesting observations like that filled is lec-dem, peppered with some expressions to emphasize his point (amusing a sthey were, coming from this scholar

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 19 Jan 2009, 18:38

Wish I had spent more time getting to know all the rasikAs, let alone missing that fragrant bisi bELE bhAt. Wish I had interacted with little Shashank who conducted himself very well during the lec-dem hugging his trains and construction set. Narayan, I thought you were Naren. Was Anand or Satwik the one in the blue shirt who stood at the street corner and waved to us to guide us to the house?
Are you all going to attend the BTM series of concerts? I am planning to attend a few of them.
The team work of you all made it happen and Giri and family's hospitality. If Rajesh said Arasi & Team, it was because he knows only me among the bengaLUru rasikAs. I was just passing by and was happy to be have been there...

niyer · Post by **niyer** » 19 Jan 2009, 19:17

It was a very enriching experience . Sarmaji's candid demonstration of flaws in existing methods and easy methods to correct the same was a revelation. The emphasis on acuaintance with different gamakas before learning varnams made me wish I had learnt exactly the same way, but at the same time made me very happy that these precious gems of knowledge can now be passed on to the future generations in line with Sarmaji's mission

I was extremely happy to meet our fellow rasikas . I think the place itself was filled with very positive vibrations, thanks to the presence of Sarmaji, the rasikas all of whom are such wonderful human beings , and of course the warmth from Giri and family . I was glad to get a couple of minutes to introduce the organization that I work with to serve thru music( Swarohan - website is swarohan.blogspot.com) . We presented a shawl and ganesha idol to sarmaji on behalf of the rasikas

Now this is something Ive been dreading to write !!! Unfortunately, my recorder gave up in between and I only have part of the recording . Im hoping Giri has the full one. We will upload the same soon.

Hoping to have more of such meetings .

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 19 Jan 2009, 21:22

Good to hear about this. Uploads of photos and the lec dem would be great

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 19 Jan 2009, 22:53

Touched by the comraderie among the Rasika membership. Sarmaji should be the focus of more such get togethers. Pl u/l the lecdem if that was recorded...

svkashyap · Post by **svkashyap** » 20 Jan 2009, 10:30

arasi wrote:Was Anand or Satwik the one in the blue shirt who stood at the street corner and waved to us to guide us to the house?

That was me arasi madam

anandganapathy · Post by **anandganapathy** » 20 Jan 2009, 12:32

Arasi Madam, I was in a violet Tee shirt and grey jeans. (I came to the venue a little late). Wish we had had more time to chit chat after AkelaGAru's lec-dem. But it was wonderful meeting you all and interacting on this forum. I am an IT professional and maintain my music blog at http://andymusicblog-thodi.blogspot.com/ where I post concert schedules / reviews / music I am listening to etc.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 20 Jan 2009, 13:29

Ah so!
My name is 'royal' enough, however 'common' my status is-so please drop all the tags. Arasi is fine.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 20 Jan 2009, 13:34

That is what I love about Arasi's name- the respect is included in the name, so need to worry about Smt and Ji and Madam!

girish_a · Post by **girish_a** » 21 Jan 2009, 21:12

Photos, please! And the recording too.

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 22 Jan 2009, 07:46

Dear brother-member, punarvasu, You need not sigh in disappointment that you could not meet me on 18th, January. Again I shall be arriving at Bangalore in the morning on 14th February, 2009 to hold a two-days-work-shop on music on 14th & 15th which tentatively runs from 9 am to 5 pm in the music institution run by Chi. Sow. Rupa Shridhar (Ph: 080-23312231, M-09741190832), a reputed and commited music-teacher in Bangalore to get her permission to attend. amsharma

girip1979 · Post by **girip1979** » 22 Jan 2009, 10:44

Hello All,

You can download the Lecture demo by AMS in Bangalore at :

1) http://www.sendspace.com/file/t7eq2r
2) http://www.sendspace.com/file/ilwz02
3) http://www.sendspace.com/file/p76ep0
4) http://www.sendspace.com/file/ul4sjo

Cheers,
-Giri.