In America

 After I sang the song, you said "Aapne to mausam hi badal diya..". That was a beautiful compliment. And if you had not said that, I would not have known. I would not have felt the joy. If you had told me that the song did not come right, I would have to believe you. Live experience is something the audience has, the singer does not.  The singer can think that he did great. He can have a chip on his shoulder. Only you know.  I am always unsure. Only you know. I can never know. After I sang "Hoshwalon ko kya khabar", many kind folks offered me words of appreciation. And each of those words served as insights for me. Another room lit up. I really have no clue how well the song came out. I can judge a few things - my voice did not crack, timing was right. But the overall result is something only you know.  I am like a beggar receiving alms.

  Great participation across the board     It was gratifying to see even participation across the entire group. Heard some new voices at the karoake ad-hoc session. Visiting parents mingled with each other and with other members of the community. New folks introduced themselves and got themselves inducted. Lot of good banter.  Democratization of singing At a recent amateur singing event, I had sung directly from smule on the iPad. Typically, I need to download and provide the track file. I found this exciting for how easy it would be for anyone to come in ad-hoc and participate. A teenager suddenly feels like singing a modern english song - come over to the stage, search the song, and sing! A visiting parent has a desire to sing a nostalgic old song - come over, search and sing. Anyone can come in and sing their favorites! That was the vision.  Had a discussion with Girish on this, and we came up with the plan to bring in an iPad, an iPad stand, a cable that wou...

Art surpasses Life.  Art just got expressed through a person. The life of the person who participarted in the art really has no bearing on the life of the art itself.  The life of the art is determined by the art, not by the artist.  I heard Simbu reference a statement from ARR that he would no longer create anything "negative". In that conviction, there is a realization that he sees that the art is going to be "out there".  Bach's music feels omnipresent. He is referenced in many Bergman movies. I wonder if the new generations would have any appreciation for his movies.  ARR music should also live on far past his lifetime. I recently caught up on "Dil gira kahin per dafatan" which he released a solid seventeen years back.  Bach died in 1685, 340 years back! His music lives on strong.

  Packed two hour performance. Two lead vocalists, the drummer, the group lead were very impressive.  Drums were kept inside a transparent acrylic wall. The purpose is to prevent the drums' sound from leaking into the vocal mikes and overpowering the show. Sound quality is the goal. Sound isolation.  Drums was very impressive. From the perspective that there are enough singers in my friends' circles, drums stood out as something not easy to replicate.  Vocalists are the heart of the show. Instrumentalists do not come anywhere near the vocalists from the perspective of the impact they are producing on stage. So, if singing is your passion, then there is no reason to dissipate your focus.  A good percentage of the audience are here to support the group. People are not here because they are fans. They are here because they want to support a group of passionate musicians who have chosen this path of music for their livelihood, and that alignment in love for music is...

Second goal from Cape Verde was brilliant. Loved the way Cape Verde played.  Nice confidence. Level headed play.  I found myself vouching for them even when I am a Messi fan. These games basically reveal who you are.

 I had just finished the series "Twin Peaks - Return". Stylish. David Lynch writes up his fantasies, and films it exactly as he sees it. Beautiful models, surreal situations, state of the art technology.  Switched to Bergman. The idea was to watch movies which do not have the backing of the crazy technical support that current movies have.  Just finished "Crisis" - black and white movie, made in the 50s. Excellent dialogues and narrations. Very very impressive.  The depth of the characters, and how they talk. Pure poetry in the conversations.  Dissections into psyches. Those movies have to impress with way less access to "gimmick"s.  Even while I am a big fan of Lynch, Bergman has already surpassed him even while the viewings were in the morning,  partially distracted.

Thoroughly enjoyed the acoustics at IPAC event yesterday. Girish had introduced me to audiophile hobby. He had played a sample piece and asked me to observe where the violinist is, where the piano man is. That precision was there in the acoustics experience. Usually, the portion between vocals sits in my head as "background music". Instead, the instrument discernment was immediate. I could see the dark brown spectacles of the clean shaven senior violinist. The play of the beats dancing on both sides. It is no longer "background music". Jamms had sung "Thookki" from Vaazha 2. The raw confidence of the sisters! Sisters sang as two overlapping lines, and then suddenly one sound starts waving while the first one continues.  Expertise. Saw the same video on whatsapp. The magic at the hall is not there in the video.  At the mixer, I saw all kinds of graphs, and a plethora of controls, and terminologies. As the song was playing, he is continually clicking around,...

  Singing is an introspective activity. You lose yourself in the lyrics, in the emotions, in the notes, in the nuances, in the orchestration, in the story. Select songs that resonate with you and immerse.   However, I need an event like the IPAC singing event yesterday for me to zero in on a song, and put in concerted effort into the song.  The event is the catalyst. It gave me the permission to do the song exploration that I wanted to do anyway. I also needed to perform. As the time was ticking, I got worried about whether I will get chance to sing the second song. But if the idea was to do the exploration and immerse yourself into the song, then why does it matter whether I actually sung or not? It is not just the exploration. I wanted to have been able to sing the song including the learnings on the song that I earned through the exploration.  And I would have been disappointed if I missed the chance at the mike.  People have been kind with their gesture...

 It is evening time. No snacks at home. I remembered the Aval that Geethechi had sent across from India on Divya's last visit.  Frozen shredded coconut broke their tight bond in the microwave heat. Jaggery powder. Kattan chaaya from the keurig cup. No sugar in the kattan chaaya. Nostalgia.  Next day, decided to embellish more. Banana got mashed in with the same mix in with raw fingers. On different days, aval-pazham-jaggery-shredded coconut-kattan chaaya served different roles. Some days,  it was the evening tea, other days, it was the dessert after dinner, other days it was breakfast.  Nostalgia charms.

 I had recently listened to an ARR interview where he spoke about how India lacks state of the art facilities to have an excellent listening experience.  Jazz has been growing on me slowly. Robert Miles and other nominations that my audiophile hobby brings in.  I have an equally crazy daughter who loves music just as much. I decided that she will enjoy the auditory experience at SFJazz. As an Indian parent in America, I gingerly presented the idea to her and she accepted. Man, parening a teenager in the US is crazy.  AI Drive I had recently listened to Naval's talk on how AI is like a motor cycle for the mind. I have been using AI at work, and have felt it. I could hear the resonances of his talk in my experience. Niya has a negative view of AI, and how the AI is bad, and takes away from the artists.  During the drive, I shared my personal experience of how my day to day work has changed radically. She listened through all that as she had no choice. Once all my ...

  While I was waiting for my turn to sing, I was weighing down the pros and cons of my long commute...    That is when the performances really started pulling me in. "Madhura kinavin" performance from one of the senior members of Maithri - Anil was eye opening. My first stage performance was "Musafir hoon yaaron" at MIF, and Anil had sat next to me, tapped on my shoulder and appreciated me with minimal words. And then had walked away. That mould broke. This is a totally peppy song and full justice was  done - confident, energetic notes.     "Careless whisper" rendition was mind blowing and humbling. I like this song, and I have considered trying it, but I had got nowhere close, and had given up. Against that back drop, listening to the youngster 'Ishaan literally knocking the song off the park was truly humbling. I needed that.       Polson's approach to singing. The amount of respect and care that he puts in as he gently presents the no...

   My father had sent me a video wish with some of our older photographs at the time of the actual birth time which falls a day earlier.  Geethechi had called and said it has been a while since I heard your voice and we spoke for a little. I did not tell that it is my birthday. Rameez called to let me know that he may not be reachable if there is a power shutdown in Texas, and then we spoke for an hour plus. And then I was about to warm the Bathura for dinner, and was planning to smule "Thaamasamendhe varuvan.."     That is when I suddenly see Aiza and Leiba appear in front of the microwave, coming in from the dining area. Sudden change in scenery. Aiza said wait don't go in front. So, now I knew that my dear friends and neighbors are throwing a surprise. Now that I have realized that this is the surprise, I am no longer surprised. Vijesh was disappointed at the extent of surprise that came on my face. I see the whole gang come in - Anjali, Nimmy, Vijesh, Gafoor...

  Brinner When Solomon returns from his Mysore wineyards in his lorry and honks, Kaviyoor Ponnamma would turn the lights on and Lal would be served his dinner, albeit in the wee hours of the morning.  When our family and Cyril-Sheeja landed at Mahesh and Sindhu's home close to 4 AM with multiple flight delays, Sindhu served us with rice, dal, chicken etc - nice homely healthy food. That was how the trip started -- with a Brinner - breakfast time Dinner.  Morning tea Inspite of having slept in the early hours of morning, I woke up relatively early. I had some work to catch up on, and I was doing that while enjoying the expansive puget sound view. Meanwhile, Sindhu woke up and offered morning tea. I had not expected that after the Brinner. Early morning teas had a nice feel to it - especially in the cold weather. This was the pattern for the three days we were at their house.  The house  The house had started to impress everyone with it's humongous, curved living ...

  Old fashioned Vipin Vasudevan Vipin has not caught on to the current trends. The flat hierarchy thing. He doesn' really get that. So, he is very respectful to other Thaaram members elder than him. It starts with the affectionate "Chetta.." vili but it does not stop there. He listens patiently to all the suggestions coming from all the folks he interacts  with while handling the overall coordination of the Christmas celebrations this year. Vipin has a huge reservoir of patience, and humbly gets thing moving in the right direction. Another old fashioned thing that Vipin sticks to is hard work. He is always available to put in his work, and his time, late nights, early morning - whatever it takes. Hats off to you Vipin - awesome work! Unreasonable Girish The entire sound setup of the event for the songs and dances, ambient music came from Girish. Girish comes in in the morning of the event - with the laptop for the karaoke, two sets of mike receivers for the four mikes, th...

 It is rainy season. The theme for the amateur singers at Music India Foundation was rain. I had sung my rain song, and had come out to call my kids and ask them to have dinner. I called on whatsapp couple of times, and then on the phone couple of times.  He had blended into the parking lot, like the cars - possibly apprehensive about the clause that would disturb his status quo.

 As planned, everyone including Gafoor and Ramshi arrived around 2:45 3 PM timeframe at Greymont Park. We started off with a round of warm up Dumb Charades. Then Bharathi started unpacking her magic box of games. Collecting tennis balls thrown by team mates into a stack of paper cups, blowing the balloon into a special paper cup that looks like two cups stuck together on the narrow edge, and passing on to your team mate who picks it up using another half blown balloon and passes on. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do my part as well and guys' team won the game. Sorting M & Ms by color with straw suction, catching a potato on a fork, vocabulary quiz,  enacting a song while the guesser is forced to listen to unrelated song playing on noise cancelling headset, the games list was never ending. Innovative games. The most popular one was an improvised version of "What's the good word". We all stood in a circle. One person comes up with a category, and says one w...

  We had our Fremont potluck Onam at Amruth's home. We started with a group photo.  And then family photos.  Then, it was time for the sadya - and what is special about this Onam Sadya are Ashok's fish fry and Anjana's prawns fry. Those plantain leaves are from Amruth's backyard. This Onam celebrarion had got postponed from couple of week's back as Amruth fell sick on the original planned date. Hence, this sadya brought in some extra freshness unlike it would have been if it had come back to back with the residents' association sadyas that were happening last month.  Once early evening kicked in, Amruth made special "Wagh Bakri" tea. I really liked it and appreciated the tea. Amruth appreciated the appreciation and made me one more extra cup.  After that we had multiple engaging conversations - about Amruth's japan trip, about AI and the ever changing landscape, the immigration situation, about Alok's new San Jose home. The conversations contin...

   pothichoru restaurant A new restaurant has started in Tracy that serves pothichoru, the traditional kerala meal of the common working man. Nostalgia has a power that the Michelin does not. As soon as I clicked go, the map said you have arrived.  Omelette, poricha meen, meen kari, chammandhi, payaru ularthiyathu, cheera thoran, puzhungalari choru, vaazhayila, news paper - andhassu! After wresting the mildly annoying software issues, and the long hard commute, when you come home to a pothichoru like this, it is a pothichoru to remember.  I am reminded of another pothichoru from a Fremont restaurant IIRC that we had had to celebrate Divya Brennan's story being published in a book. 

Minimal Elegant Decor The hall decor was planned out to be minimal for this year's onam, and had a quiet elegance to it.  The Maveli cutout is very effective and good value for money, an idea that Vipin Vasudevan had introduced last Onam, and executed on this one as well. Vipin Viswanathan's handmade vanji from last year made a reappearance as well this time, bringing in some grandeur. Pookkalam Pookkalam had looked good in the morning, and then a layer of rose petals were added all around, elevating the look considerably. Sruthi had done most of the work at the hall today morning, while Nithya, Ramshi, Divyas had done a lot of background work, with chasing flowers, and getting the petals ready. Lot of hardwork behind the beautiful pookkalam. Sound System Setup Girish came in with his two speakers, speaker stands, a woofer, two transmitters, two receivers, four mikes, a mixer, the sound cables, wires, laptop etc. Arun and myself were apprentices as Girish explained the setup he...

The humility with which Navneeth performed and spoke won over my heart instantly.  He started off with "Sripadham vidarnna saraseeruhathil". And continued to bring to light exquisite gems from the classical era of malayalam film music, carnatic music, hindi, bengali etc.  He delved into the details of the brilliance of the compositions. Not a lot of it registered for me. What registered was the grandeur of the songs.  It was a lovely evening and was well worth the three hours drive up from Tracy. It is thanks to the Music India Foundation's initiative that I actually got to experience the performance of Naveeth Unnikrishnan.  Ravi Menon has a passion for encouraging the music loving community, and yesterday evening was a wonderful manifestation of a lot of behind the scenes work, thanks to the entire team who worked behind this.