My current favourite songs are Manamadurai and Poo Pookkum Oasai from Minsara Kanavu and Chinna Kuyil Koovum from Yavarum Nalam (Yavarum Nalam songs deserve a separate post). Though I like the entire lyrics of all the 3 songs very much, my current favourite lines from two of those songs are related to rain and I just can’t stop humming those!

From Manamadurai:
thandhaane thandhaane maega kooTTam thandhaane
iDiyellaam taaLam dhaane
mazhai thuLi maNNil vandhu sindha chindha ezhugiradhe oru vaasam
adhu ennai vaanavillil koNDu saertthu viDugiradhe sila naeram

From Chinna Kuyil Koovum:
mazhai thuLi aayiram
kaDal maDi thaeDudhe
alaigaLaaga maaRi thuLLi aaDiDave

If only it rains here now, how great it would be! 🙂 And what a great respite it will be from the veyyil!

P.S.: Just as I was about to publish this post, I saw that Word had auto-corrected chinna of Chinna Kuyil to china and this old He-She was what I remembered immediately 🙂

I was telling a friend about how almost all the movies that I recently watched unfortunately turned out to be ones which I, forget about watching again, couldn’t watch even once and all I wanted to do was watch a really feel-good movie. Knowing how very few English movies I watch, she asked me to watch ‘You’ve Got Mail’. I watched the movie today and I really loved it. 🙂 It was exactly the kind of movie that I wanted to watch.
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anaivarukkum en iniya putthaaNDu nalvaazhtthukkaL! Let Virodhi (what a name! 🙂 ) be a great year to you all! 🙂 Happy Vishu to all you Keralites!

A talk by Dr. Chithra Madhavan on 17th January at Tattvaloka

Part 1 here
Part 2 here

vaikuNTa perumAL temple

This temple, currently being maintained by ASI, was built by Nandivarman 2nd, who was a vishNu Bhakta. It is one of the 108 divvya dEsams. Tirumangai Azhwar, who was a contemporary of Nandivarman 2nd, has sung on the deity here. The original name of this temple is paramEshwara vishNu graham, where Parameshwara happens to be Nandivarman’s name.
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A talk by Dr. Chithra Madhavan on 17th January at Tattvaloka

Part 1 here

Till whatever I have written in the previous post, no photos were shown during the talk. But once Chithra started speaking about the temples in Kanchipuram, she showed lots of photos of each temple and for a major part, spoke about whatever was shown. kailAsanAthar temple was the first temple that was covered. Luckily, I have some photos of kailAsanAthar temple which, as you might know, I had taken when I had been there quite sometime back.
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Can there be a better way to relax than reading a good book with some good music for company at the end of a day, a major part of which saw me being in an irritated mood? Am now reading P.G.Wodehouse’s ‘Service with a Smile’ (a Blandings story) and listening to a recording of a concert of Sanjay.

It has been really long since I listened to a full-length concert recording of Sanjay and that has made the listening experience even more blissful now! I have already started reminiscing about the Dec Season 2008. 🙂 Those amazing Darbari Kanada, Madhuvanti, Chayaranjani, Saramati, Chandrakauns, Abheri and Desh RTPs, those fast-paced Aarabhi swarams, Yadukula Kambhoji & the brilliant Todi at Narada Gana Sabha, the brigas-laden (or so I remember it was) Purnachandrika alapana & the Vakulabharanam & Kanada pieces at Kalarasana, Shanmukhapriya at Indian Fine Arts, Ravichandrika Alapana at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Janaranjani alapana at Kartik Fine Arts, Kapi at Krishna Gana Sabha, the Hamsanadam piece at Margazhi Mahotsavam, tunbam nergayil, nijagadasa and that veryyyy beautiful ninnaye rati (in Bhageshri) at Music Academy! I want to listen to it all again!! With a concert of Sanjay on what seemed like every other day and all the concerts turning out to be equally brilliant ones and me spending most of my waking moments listening to just Sanjay’s recordings, what an absolutely blissful and most satisfying month it was!!! I, now, so very badly want to go for a Sanjay’s concert! Somebody please organize a concert of his soon! 😛

P.S.: With the P.G.Wodehouse book providing some laughter in the form of some humorous moments and Sanjay’s awesome singing providing that indescribable and unsurpassed magical experience, I see no signs of my irritated mood anywhere near me. 🙂

• Mandolin Srinivas’ Enta Muddo

• Mandolin Srinivas’ Giriraja Suta

• Roja Janeman sung by Hariharan

• Kanava Illai Kaatra from Ratchagan

• New York Nagaram

• July Maadham Vandhaal

• Rahman’s ‘Spirit of Unity Concert’ Music

• Guitar Prasanna’s ‘Peaceful – The Effect’

These songs will forever remain some of the most cherished ones in my life. The memories that these songs hold are special to me! 🙂 It’s amazing how songs can capture so many memories so vividly!