Monday, November 27, 2006

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL !

PROCESS 1 - YUMMY CHOCOLATE CAKE



PROCESS 2 ~ WRITE UP ~








PROCESS 3 - GIFTS !!!!
OFFICIAL MOMENTO (READ AND FIND THE FUNDA)



PERSONALIZED GIFTS

THE GATHERING

AN ODE TO OUR BELOVED SENIORS :)




Sunday, November 19, 2006

NAVARATHRI KRITHIS

GROUP 1 :

THE 'MAAMAVA' GROUP:

THE 'PAAHI' GROUP:



WITH PADMA MAM :)

TRIP TO KHETRI :)

KHETRI TRIP!!
Three –one without a raag trip ?!! ohh c’mon!! chanceless !
Long wanting to go to a nice ,smashing trip….we planned planned planned,I think since the beginning of the sem if iam not wrong…. ..with a preponderance of club activities in the and,this sem-say,fresher’s,NR,this-that association performance,vadhya vrindha,founder;s day performance n all tat where we cunt have possibly squeezed in a ‘raag-trip’ anywhere in the schedule……. finally realizing that 3-1 is almost gonna get over,the long inert plan of goin to a trip spotlit!!

A quick word on the retrospects of the trip plan:

Situation : ‘twas respected sec’s bday !
location : QT

After the bday celebrations n all tat …..the discussions tat followed,And then,wen to go(tests irukkakoodadhu !!),yaar yaarlam varel (if no is too less,then plan is highly likely to get gussed !!),psenti semites shud defntly come, coaxing n cajoling them into the trip plan saying psenti things like “hey itz ur psenti sem da ,see we r gonna miss u guys ,u shud defnty come” n all tat(if there is something that wud make the psenti semites maudlin and bathetic about,it can be only the ‘psenti’ sem issue), and the rest of ;em persuading the batchmates to come saying “hey hey neeyu vaaa plzzzzzz dono if I’ll be 3-1 on or 3-2 on” FINALLY !! after cerebrating too much on which day to go n all tat we fixed up everything and all set!!Ok ! ok ! I can see you guys getting impatient…….

Fine,letz not waste time and quickly get to the details of the trip !!

After filling our bellies in ptm grub,we reached ANC,n waited for ppl to get together….

Sweaters,shoes,socks,scarfs,Water bottles,lays,torches,most important of all---the logs,match box(bonfire matter !!) n we decided to get diesel on our way………all set,ready,GO!!!

Now we get into the bus of gajraaj travels,around 10.30 pm,10:11 guys-gals ratio,inspite of all the never go in gajraaj travels :he is worssshhht ! kinda gtalk status msgs by our honorable sec srirama !All the 21 erupted into an immdly enthused gang and started with the usual Anthaakshari game…..for the rest of the 2 hrs we were all full of rough and exuberant animal
spirits singing and dancing and jollification--> I leave it to your imagination,for there are other more interesting things which require special mentioning and detailing,so letz not spend much time on all of it……so finally we reached the foot of khetri :)

A nice moonlit night,we cud have rather not brought our torches ! it was soo bright !no spooky feeling ! no eeriness around ! worsht part, we soo badly wanted that spooky,ghostly feeling u see ! we then decided to walk in pairs,but it never happened,we jus proceeded in a Sloppy,disorderly way putting latcha here n there,exchanging groups and trying to click snaps
in vain,for it was dark ,we cunt possibly focus anything in the dark.we tried clicking the other ppl,but the flash was too burnishing,we almost closed our eyes in all the snaps L We were feeling slightly warm as we walked high on the hair-pin bends and the jalebi roads,singing songs like ‘hips don lie’ of shakira and walking away of craig david ……..we got tired as we reached the focal point of the king’s fort and a round-about route which led to the queens fort.we got slightly tired n hungry here……

King’s fort or queen’s fort ? big debate!

Well ... I (nandhitha) would like to take over the job of blogging :) Yaa, as radha said, we were actually contemplating as to which path to take. Ppl who had already visited this place were quite confident in heading us to the right track that King's fort was the right option. But reaching King's fort will just take an HR ! And we wanted to spend the whole nite lollygaging the entire empire. So we took the other path shooting the queen's fort. That was a beeline with the walls giving the most direct route to the fort, I must say. Hmmmm... Queen's fort was all ruined and desolated. Having got an abstract of the place, we got back to the same, familiar path. But.. on the way to King's fort, we were lost and we got divided into two groups which was left unnoticed. Ooops! we realised it say some five minutes later and then... sms, calls, shouts...errrrrr... there was no signal then.. But surprisingly, Kau's BSNL helped u see :P Then, few from grp2 (which was not on the right track) went to grp1 (who were waiting for grp2).. Having found out the route to get back to the safe hands(grp1 here) , grp2 started lapsing down and finally it became grp1+grp2 :)

Few more minutes to reach the King's fort and we were there. The fort paved us to the outdoor area or the terrace which was glooming with the moonlite..We started off with campfire, lacha, Doss's spirit game, 5 diff flavored Lays packets, songs.... and blah ! The fire meant for warmth is the BEST part. Actually, we dint know how to start about lighting it. We were generally pouring fuel over it and then threw the matches. But that worked only for few seconds as the wood was damp and that it was only the fuel that was literally burning and not the wood. However, we gave it a second thot and acted smart by blowing, shooing with newspapers, etc... such that the wood could reach its ignition temparature so as to start burning. Jaggu baai was jaunty enuf to take small twigs left aside to add on to the fire :) Well .. Thats all about it.

Moving on to the next scenario, the spirit game! hehehe.. few ppl started running out from the place and few were actualy interested in knowing abt it and few others dozzed off happily. Kau and Radhe were the first to go about it after Doss's instruction..then sriram..then shyamala... all saying "Spirit please come spirit please come" !!!! Well... nothing actually came.. but the ppl who did it says that they felt something out of their senses.

That night was brilliant :) We had nice fun. Around 5am few from the grp left to investigate more about Queen's fort. People had test the next day and we had to wind off soon. HAA .. we got down the hill in some 15minutes time...jogging, walking fast.. had kitkat, water... all set to leave to our rooms and take rest :) Body pains persisted for the next 2-3 days. Things were set right by catching hold of Moov and Axe oil... Phew !

Monday, November 06, 2006

KHETRI - SNAPS

BUS - ANTHAKSHARI :)


ON THE WAY - 12:36 a.m.



DOSS - SPIRIT - BOOOO :P



CAMPFIRE - YAY!!!

OUR CHOUKI :P

Friday, November 03, 2006

' DOUBLE TREAT ' ...

‘‘Ragamalika welcomes one and all to VAADHYA VRINDHA-2. We have Nanditha Santhosh and Srividhya Doss on the Veena and Kaushik Parasuram on the Mrindangam’’-Time is ticking…and pretty fast too. Not too long before did I jus mention about the ‘Vaadhya Vrindha-1’ . Whoa! Here goes yet another round of updates. Read on…

The typical ‘scene’ in ET with people running around for ‘bed-sheets’, water bottles and standing outside vehemently giving missed calls – yeah, we know its concert time! Grin! The concert ended up making my evening pleasant and peaceful apart from ‘musical’. Ah!! Systematic practice sessions and splendid song selection only added more charm to the performance.



To get into more vivid details, here goes…A peppy, brisk rendition of ‘Sriranjani varnam’ as a concert opener was just about perfect. Subsequent to come was ‘Mahaganapathim’ and then yeah, my favorite in the concert – ‘Raghunayaka’! ( beauty of Hamsadwani afterall..!!) – sounded really appealing and the ‘alternating’ (duo concert mind you!) swarams kinda sounded professional and peppy. Next on stage – the ‘main’ piece- ‘Kamakshi Kamakoti’ in ‘simmendhramadhyamam’. A heavy raagam that it is…the kind of efforts that the ‘duo’ should have put in…my godd! The ‘alapanai’ did definitely bring out the nuances and elegance of the raagam. Whoa!! Cheers buddies!!! The ‘kalpanaswaram’ kinda went on to supplement the song to a great extent. Yeah..the ‘alternating effect’ too. J And..yeah, ‘thani avardhanam’ just about an icing on the cake with Kaushik absolutely rejoicing whatever he was playing. (all of us too!). If I havn’t mentioned this yet, here it is – the ‘mrindangam’ was absolutely in harmony and perfectly synchronised with the veena, and the ‘special effects’ at times – lovely, lovely!
A thyagaraja krithi in ‘Brindavana saranga’ was the next to come which was followed by the ‘english note’ by ‘mani iyer’ ..think I was practically swaying to the tunes. Grin!
Concluding note – a bhajan in mohanam.

Marathon snap sessions, loud laughter in air, quick-analysis of the things tht didn’t go the way the performers wanted, ‘sec-talk’, missing ‘rag room’ key (ok its been found also now!)—well, you know what I am talking about – post-concert activities.

Wow! 45mins of soothing music, peace and pleasure for a good number of audience. Everything apart, such a delight to see cheerful, confidant faces thoroughly loving what they are doing. Beaming smile!!

Here’s to the attempt of ‘vaadhya vrindha’! Hoping there’s more of it next semester.
Here’s to music!!!

And, I’d sign off on that note.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

TWOSOME AWESOME !!

Okay guys!! Welcome aboard to the duo concert!!

Vividhya,a point-in-time excogitation by the duo,gotten inspired by the antecedently happened “veena ranjani” by the soumi-srividhya duette concert,inspirited the crowd at the end of a tiring day!!!




The duo head-started the concert with the kaanada varnam,embellished with the exceptionally edifying chittai swarams and mukthayi swarams,exploding brigaas and elucidating saahithyam!! Kinda perfect start….actuating and eliciting the audiences with a brilliant experience ( more to come,you see ……… !!)and then the mellisonent mohana kalyani piece-siddhi vinayagam,with two equally mellifluous voices delighted the audiences………
Soon the duo started drawing crowd……….wingies,friends,profs,some surprising crowd from boys bhawan……. Two cute gals singing you see !!(wink!!)vsp’s mom and dad had also graced us with their presence,hmm hmm…….an inordinately large crowd though !!



Here comes the ‘seethamma maayamma’ in the rigorous and cogent pace of the vasantha educing the resplendence and the glory of ‘seetha’.Appending more beaut to the song is the pattern of the swaram with the kinda jockeying effect wherein u have the hop-skips in the ascension and declension of the swaram,an awe-inspiring jugalbhandhi!……..orey vocal chord fight dhan machee!!!kudos ganesh !! I would be remiss in my duty if I don mention the intensifying effect of the mridhangam that enhanced tempi of the swaram……………orey sirippu vera thaangala rendu perukkum !!the two gals flashing a cute lil smile here and there exchanging glances,their nice brilliant rapport, adding gusto to the concert !!

Hehee,the next piece is one of the fav of padma ma’am’s pupils……………the uncanny flavour of the raagam-poornalalitha,a quite rare compositon of thyagaraaja,is on anjaneyar,ahem……this song specially goes out to all the anjaneyar fans ……!!!!!
For the kinda mukhari mixed gaanamoorthe blend tat it had ( as anuraagini calls it …….mubbula irukkara maadhiri ,hehe…….. ) imparting exotic effect in the ambience……..was a good hit too !

The main piece !!!!

Poorvikalyani……….ahem……..i would warn u guys to tighten the seat belts at this juncture….for the kinda ostensibly slow paced rendu kala choukka start-off of at the inception of the song and the kinda pace that instigates the audiences towards the denouement,with a resplendent pattern of swaram,and the unexpected splendid changes in the pattern of the jathi of the mridangam symphonically orchestrating to the rhythm of the song,authenticating the expertise of jaggu here,astounding motifs of jathi!kowtow jaggu !!! Escalating the already heightened spirits of the audiences sitting in ET,with a surprisingly large crowd(I told,u !!!)the duo,entertained us all with an enlightening experience of poorvikalyani, transcending the whole crowd to the mesmerizing world of music,leaving behind a dubiety and ambiguity as to if its really some kinda music gods exchanging talks in poorvikalyani medium,I would say the duette were in their full form!!!not to mention the cognitive skilfullness of jaggu!!!ohh my!! what detonating jathis with the kinda a one-lakh wala cracker exploding effect!! Deepavali vera varudhonno innu one week la ………adhe nyabagam polarku jaggu ku !leaving the crowd spell-bound to digest the brilliance of the impact created herewith.

Much awaited ‘arupadai veedu’ song of the day!! Duo,sriram,myself and most of the raagamalikans exchanging glances here n there ………a nice combo of raagamalika,not to mention again the brilliance of jaggu and ganesh here !

The penultimate piece of the concert ,govardhana giridhari with a soothing darbhari kaanada added refreshment to the already poorvikalyani-refreshed minds of the crowd.orey HEAVY refreshment dhan inniki ! adikkadi ipdi yaaravadhu paadindrundha ……..”I wanna break freeeeeeee from the tut and tests and reports and submissions and deadlines.” Makkal can take a break and come over to the raag concerts,rejuvenate and get back to work , u see !

The final resplendent revathi thillana is the kinda perfect utopian concluding piece I would say for any concert.Again, jaggu’s cracker effect of the jathi’s…….we were kinda having a mini diwali experience here……..heehee…i was tempted to doubt if Nandi god,on the spur of the moment has incarnated in jaggu and playing the mridangam or something!!!!ohh my ! astounding experience!!!asperity and the severity of the raagam,depicting the sternness and the crux of the song.

Finally !!!!!!! concert is over …..phew!! wat a brilliant concert man!!
Sriram imparting his SEC- advices to the club makkal….. “so we all understand that practice makes man perfect…….,adhanale next concert lendhu idhemaadhiri practice venum,dedication venum, !!”PPL……CAN U SMELL RAJIV NOSTALGIA IN THE AIR?hehee…I can !!
We then headed to c;’not ………orey MNB’s yellarum!! courtesy-jaggu !!we then took leave of jaggu and other boys.

The concert was an amazing hit because of the enormous dedication and the tremendous effort that the two put in,ganesh’s swaram’s ofcourse!and jaggu’s apropros presence on campus !!!
THE DAY!!! for the duo,of the duo,by the duo!!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

NR Snaps upload

VFAST - ECSTACY :

POSE 1 :


PLATE DANCE : THARANGAM



PD - CUTE:


NR POTER + BACKDROP:


MEERA BHAI:


THE ENSEMBLE:


POSE 2 :


GAALA TIMES:



NR - 2006

Saraswathi pooja went on well. Vishnu sahasranaamam,
kandhasasthi kavasam and few more shlokas were recited after
which, many of us went to VK redi and had our psetisemite to
open an account and treat us all :D Gen trippings and leg
pullings were happening then. After lunching all of us were
there in audi on dot at 2 for the 1st run through :) Not
much effort actually, as everything did go in a smooth
track. Again after dinnering 2nd runthru at 8. Btw.. Nivy,
thanks for the one card u had sent us wishing good luck for
NR :)

okay..Guess wat? There was PRESIDENT CALL at 9! Heyy..
there was shyamala with 2 cakes, just blowing out of the
water!! Yummy it was..Thanks shyamu :) The run thru
apparently got over before 11 and the non-dancers
volunteered to 'dance', rather we were fictitiously trying
to show off our expertise.. hehehe.. Dance poses from NR
songs.. few of us were actually 'OB' adichifying ;)

The clock struck 11 and we were IN to the enthu session..
C'mon... we shldnt waste our late nite perms u see...
**WINK!!!**'
'Ayaarettu naatukattai' followed by 'thirunalveli alwada'
and some more of Dapaankuthus. We had total fun then.
Meanwhile, Rao entertained us with one kind-a kuchipudi . She had
2 vessels filled with water and danced, by having them over her
head. Perfect balance and silence indeed as we were watching the
dance with wide eyes and mouths openAnd then came the game of Mafias. Our moderator was Niveramesh and we were enjoying the game..
few had their eyes half closed - half open, which was against the rule of the game ;) Well.. that apart, whoever knows this game will appreciate the scene of killing the Oracle -Mr.Manojh.. and luckily the mafias won!
That is it ! It was time for the gals to wind up and so we did the same.

The next day morning was hajaar vetti, just that we learnt a
new song from Padma Mam in the afti. The evening was packed
again with run through(s), wherein sound check was also
done. This was the first time for few of us on stage to
check the sounds and it was really a nice experience. End of
the day everyone of us was tired and throats were also
slightly off scaled. So, the songs were taken down in pitch,
amplitude, frequency and wat not!

aaaaah... The Backdrop:
Lord Natraja's silhouette outshapened by Proff.A.K.Sarkar's
daughter was made from thermocol piece. And luckily
backstage had a blue cloth to fit in the background and the
entire thing came out well.

Moving on to the NR FRONT - CRACKING SHOW!
The programe started at 8:10pm with an instrumental
piece(2veenai+4violins+1mirdhangam). 'Sounds' people could
have actually set up a better scene then. But despite the
fact that Sounds tended towards negativity, 'we the people'
of rag did cast a good show, which is a very obvious one.
Shree Mahaganapathe and Naatakurinji varnam succeeded the
instrument piece. The varnam depicted the story of gajendra
moksham
and Dhropathi, which were one among the hit ones of
the night's programe. Next was Ashtapathi, wherein PD's
expressions were well defined and they still stay serene in
our minds. Good work BP and PD :) YO 2004 uh? ;) The crux of the depiction here was Gopika decorates herself, waits for krishna and dreams. Well, I cannot miss out on the tharangam. Shyamu and Rao- kudos to u guys. First time in Rag a kuchipudi dance piece was recited. The jathi by ramana -> indeed tongue twisters and machaan urs was brilliant on stage da :) This piece was followed by shivaashtakam.

This time, Meera bajan was yet another attracting piece and
it gave chance to tabla players too. Story of Mahishaasura
mardhini was depicted in Shree kamalaambike song. The
programe came to and end with thillana in ragam Behag and
mangalam. Pretty good show and it does feel much better to
get a good audience response. All of us pushed to VFAST and
got a belly filling treat from dear psentisemites. Thank you
darlings. Huh! That was a long, extended and successful weekend.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Vaadhya Vrindha - Part1



There is no projection, nothing deceitful or hypothetical here. The words are gonna come right away from the bottom of my heart. Volumes can be talked about the dedication with respect to learning and practicing. The gals really need a word of appreciation for the sincerity. The mail (on-campus one!) was sent on august 8th 2k6 listing all the songs along with the groups alloted. Practice for veenai ranjini, rechristend VAADHYA VRINDHA, started on 9th aug :)


Its right time ..6 veena players in the club...No individualism and hence comes the effect of 'Share knowledge Share music' one liner. Both soumi and srividya learnt as many songs possible. And thanks to Ganesh for his timely help on ragam-swaram for Brocheva in kamas. Hehehe..small effort from my side too, wherein i taught Raghuvamsa in Kadhanakudhoogalam . On the outset was vasantha varnam, gajavadhana, Paridhaana and a sai Bajan.


Here comes the Violin execution! - Sriram's solo performance. Indeed a talented hand, castling over the chota fret, was pleasant to the ears. Naadhopasana, marivere and the part1 was brought to an end with a thilaana in ragam sindhubairavi, composed by our fellow clubber - Ganesh. Great job man!

Choreo perfect and now, NR run through is at the scene of action. The initial practice sessions were good, despite test1 series,CDCs,on time... blah!!!Today the 1st run thru in 2214 was much better, one must say. Time and again the routine follows: cam clicks, timing the songs, songs correction, dance pose corrections, e.t.c. Well, special mention needed about the people forming the publicity team. VSP(the brainstormer),Radhe, Srividya,Hardhik, vamshi, prathik..rest of you guys involved, Seriously the notices rock! Their snaps will be up in the next post.And this time the invite was very cute. It was 3 folded with a dancer and the songs list on either side. Credit goes to the brainstormer again Grin! :)

Follow up: Saraswathi poojai, Vijayadasami[Padma Mam's house:)], Audi slots - 4 runthrus scheduled and finally the much awaited "Nrithya Ranjini" o

Friday, September 22, 2006

September 16th – ‘Aha!’

Almost a usual lazy Saturday –sleeping real late the previous day, day opening with a first hour tut (that inevitably has to go bad!...oops the CDC syndrome!), the usual running around with classes throughout the day, yeah …blah, blah, blah! Okk, I guess am not doing the reporter’s task quite right…reads like one of my diary entries. Wink!

Basically, it bottles down to the fact that, the evening with ‘Rag’ on the 16th of September was more than a welcome relief.















The program being scheduled at half past 6, all of us were there ‘ages’ before that …doing the usual rounds of ‘soundzz checking’ and most obviously shrieking curses at those guys for being their usual best. Wink! Given the fact that we didn’t have too much of practice, owing to NR practices that have been happening in full swing, most of us were around with ‘paper bits’ humming tunes to ourselves. Well, I was vehemently trying to get the sequence in ‘Endaro’ right. Grin! Well, the prelude to the ‘event’ was quite dragging, thanks to an exceedingly long video that was screened. Bah!

Yeah…we had two songs for the dancers – ‘Thodayamangalam’ (done by the guys) and ‘Enadaro’ done by the girls. Preceding the dance, we had the all veena players (playing in pairs) ‘entertaining’ the audience. The songs that were played included ‘Vathapi’ for an opener, Nandy and niveramesh -'maamavathu' and 'anbenum mozhi',srividya and swarna- ‘Giriraja sudha’ and a ‘thirupugahzh’ in Bhageshree to end the vadhya vrindha. Yeah, btw…that’s the new ‘attraction’ for this semester. Yay! We’re going to have ‘instrumental concerts’ that are going to be called ‘that’. J. It’s going to take off on stage this Saturday! Yay!!



Wait, there’s more to chew about…not over yet! Well, the round of applauses had to come from all corners…prof’s, guests, old bald men (ah..sigh of anguish!...Soumi would agree!).. et all. We kinda made sure that we were entitled to have dinner in ‘VFAST’. Oops… Did I just spill the ‘driving motive’ of the performers??!!! Well, cmon…if there’s something that doesn’t change, doesn’t fade away with time – it defly wud be the ‘enthu’ to go have grub in VFAST!! But then ‘twas quite a long wait to get there..took a while for the dancers to get off their costumes. Without wasting time, the other folks were kept engaged by the juniors! Ah..the bundle of energy that they seem to possess…adorable! My god…we were LOUD, NOISY and what not! Dances for hindi songs (includes Choli ke peeche!), popeye show, close-up ad…all of it was in air. I’d say it again…keep up the spirits…you guys!!! We quickly made time for the ‘club snap’ after the dancers decided to grace us with their appearance. And then…’twas time for the tummy to work! Aha!! Then ‘twas the usual scene that saw all of us pouncing on the food and then settling for a hearty lacha session in the lawns.



On the whole, it was a very typical musical, colorful and vibrant performance from
‘Rag’. Yeah, personally, to take a critical stand…it stands no where to our usual performances…a lot of ‘goof-ups’, patching up, lack of co-ordination and all that, still defly would be rated as a lovely treat to the audience.

Ah! So well be life!!! Beaming smile

Well, we are working in full swing for NR and praying hard that turns out to be a success. The practice sessions are going in full swing and the dancers have been doing a wonderful job so far- cheers to you guys!

Up on the list are these events in the near future –

Ø Vadhya Vrindha – Part I – Soumi and Srividhya – Sat, 23rd September 2006
Ø Nrithya Ranjani – October 3rd


Well, its time to disable the write signal for now. The ‘blog girl’ shall fill up the space sometime soon. And yeah, you guys take care and keep us posted! J

Ragamalika – ‘where the music never dies’ – well, this has been inscribed on the walls in ‘bstage’, amidst some obscene crap written there – thanks to Archana’s brain wave!!

Shine on…

p.s
Readers (especially the ones not on campus) are strictly requested to read every line! That’s a threatening comment. I’d test you guys on it! Muhahaha

Nivy, I am unable to log into the blogging thing. Send me the invite again if you can.