Double Treat by Guitar Prasanna

The 2 music programs that we attended were pure carnatic in guitar.
Earlier on Saturday (14th mar 09) for the 1st program , myself , Balaji and Sethu attended it at Kshira Sagara Hall , Villivakkam.
The scheduled time for the program is 6.00 pm whereas I went there as early as 5.15pm and there is literally none (remember the full crowd at 7.00pm is only 20 approx) at that time. Few women only then started to sweep, splinter water and dotted for a small rangoli at the hall entrance. Its indeed a very unusual & rare thing for North Chennai to have orthodox carnatic concert, that too at a place like Villivakkam, which is very near to the industrial area called Ambattur (padi)(though that particular surrounding did looked fairly residential).

Balaji and Sethu arrived sharp at time but the Hero is yet to arrive. I was kinda of trying to put a BOND with one of the organizer lady whom was equally enthusiastic, for me coming there so early. It did helped later when she became a key in meeting Prasanna on the back stage.
We shook hands, took few snaps with our premature camera mobiles.It was a thrilling moment for me. I had actually lost my voice out of that thrill and only kept watching Prasanna and his moments.If this would have happened before say 4-5 months , it wouldn’t have been so thrilling. Only before few months I started to hear Prasanna’s “Be the Change “ which really changed my way of understanding and listening music and triggered huge interest on guitar. It’s a fact that he influenced a lot, to the extent of searching for a guitar teacher for over a months time. It all ended well I could be able to find my teacher in my locality. Now just after few months of all these events I was able to meet GP was the real thrill. Was this happening specially for me, or is it just my imagination. Somewhere on 1st or 2nd of March 09, when I casually browsing GP’s webpage, I found that he is going to give these 2 concerts in Chennai. From then onwards, I was only looking for my calendar dates to reach 14th mar 09. And that day came and it’s just astounding.

GP arrived by around 6.30 pm along with Mannarkudi Easwaran (Mridangam) and Anirudh Athreya (Kanjira) and after meeting us it took him few more minutes to tune and to correct sounds and it started by 7.00pm.Sriram promptly came late at 7.00pm but he was on time due to these delays!
As it’s a pure carnatic based concert and I ‘m not that good (infact NIL) in knowing and understanding Ragas and other technical stuffs. But for someone who started to love guitar & its sound , style and begin to learn playing it , that too with his fav performer, no matter whether its carnatic or hindusthani a mere presence there is enough. I jus felt like this.
For me observing the playing aspects (skill) of guitar occupied a lot and it’s a real treat for someone who is just a beginner.
It was like , a small boy , who had jus started to play & watch cricket and developed enormous interest in it and had an opportunity to see Sachin's batting just in front of his house or in the nearest distance.
Watching Cover drive , square-cut , reverse sweep etc of Sanchin's will be like heaven.
May be there are more & more technics and aspects of sachins batting but with the boys littlest knowledge he would cherish it like anything of whatever he understands.
For me watching Prasanna playing live is very similar to this.
As I sat on the right side facing the hall , GP’s knees mostly covered his right hand fingers that was strumming. Hence I was able to watch only his left hand fingers on fret board. One can think that fingering on fret is very important and difficult than strumming. But with the case like observing legends play, strumming plays a key role in improvisations of vibes etc , which on the 2nd concert I was able to enjoy a lot.
The fret board fingers always had a vertical fixed movements even for a single note, which is the very requirement to play carnatic in guitar for to get those gamakams and other qualities.
Still the smallest horizontal movement gave the most enhancing output.
In one of the krithis he played a small note from his album track “Culture of silence – Peaceful” and the way he brought out that sound is really amazing to watch. He strummed on the fret, at this his left hand and right hand came very close , this is a very unusual & amazing sight and moreover the output was so beautiful.

On 16th March 2009 , Monday the second concert held at PS high sec school Auditorium , Mylapore. I met Balaji enroute to mylapore and we both reached there ontime.
This time i carefully chose a location that help me observe his left strumming fingers.
Today his companions are Prapancham Ravindran on Mrindangam and BS Purushotham on kanjira. (This trio believed to have rendered maximum number of carnatic concerts together)
His Ragam - Thanam - Pallavi (RTP) in Raga Bilahari was the highlight of that day.
As I already said I know nothing about Carnatic ragas, but Raga Bilahari is somewhat familiar to me and the concept called RTP is fairly new to me. But on that day with Prasanna’s performance I cud be able to understand a little of what RTP is exactly.
This RTP lasted for 50 minutes and Guitar alone ruled for over 38 minutes.
The multi-finger strumming during his play on that day was a real treat to watch, which I missed on the last concert on Saturday. Especially during RTP when he climbs up at A and E bass strings with his plectrum and modulates the lower strings with plain finger and reverse the same to get the desired sound was an amazing sight to watch. Infact , I’m not very sure of what I understood from his style, but I was in the process of making my own understandings with my very little knowledge in it.
Prasanna on his first day’s show himself said that “Don’t bother much about how, I struggled in developing this way of playing carnatic in guitar, it’s my worry, as a rasika you only enjoy my performance and give your appreciations or criticism” to one of the questions from the audience. But the question remains unanswered; it’s more than just uninterrupted practice, dedication, hard work etc. It’s a Divine gift. Isn’t it?

Wow ...I played an Electric Guitar

Today one of the student bought a new GIVSON Electric Guitar. Its a maroon coloured one with black center design and it looked so beautiful. When the electrical connections were under progress and the boy (?) tried with few plugs , it sounded GREAT. With full consious mind this is my first time in my life i'm seeing an Electric Guitar under COMMISSIONING.
I was actually requesting my master to play with it, so that we can enjoy a LIVE electric sound with a definetly good player.But he didn't cared much and the boy once finished with all its connection activities, started to play few notes. He started with some song , probably a hindi song, as i was very much a beginner , i couldnt identify it. Eventhen it didnt follow any musical pattern. Later master asked him to play "Papa Kehte Hain.." . He tried it but as he couldn't recollect the notes immediately he again struggled to put the notes on strings.
I gave him my notes , still the flow didnt turnup and he stopped his tries and gave up saying
"Its so long ago i played those songs and i totally forgot it , may be u can try"
Master also encouraged me to give a try " Hmmm ... vaasichu parunga".
I couldnt beleive this . Suddenly i felt a small shiver on my fingers. Actually i loved to carry it in hand , just like posing for a photograph . But playing in it , i had my own doubts on my notes flow even on an ordinary Hollow / Pick guard guitar.
But i had also had my own attractions on it and unlike the guitar owner i had had only learned to play "Papa kehte hein " so far , hence notes were very much on my finger tips (Oh, now i understood , how this "finger tips" phrase came into practice) so i jus moved forward and started to play PKH.
Wow .....i just started it.... EE DCD ......the flow was very much perfect to my standards i was very much happy with that start ...come on, dilli keep going...GA CC FED .....WOW... what a sound it was , effortless but enormous output.
I jus kept my pace on with consistency and didnt miss any notes ...It was very much to my style as a beginner and to my own comparisons , i did a good job in completing the song.
" Enna, record panni YOUTUBE'la pottudalaama" said my master . Wow , What a complement, i was on my seventh heaven. Great Dilli ....did a good job. I patted myself.
"Sir , chance'a illa, super'a irukku .....naan kuda oru Electric guitar vaangidavaa" i said.
" Irunga , irunga avasara padathinga , innum flow set aagalai. 1-2 months aagatum , we'll see"
Hmmm.... okkkkkkkkk
But what an experience today it was.
It was totally a big surprise to me that i would play an Electric Guitar.
And added to that , I played it in a fairly good manner ( to my standards...!) on my first time itself.

A ride with me......

It's really long journey for me for about 25kms up and down to my factory everyday. There is no company-provided cab or bus for us to pickup and drop and so I have to take my own transportations. Normally in dayshifts i use the sub-urb trains upto avadi and then a share auto to the factory gate.
And there is no train in midnights, so I use my bike during nightshifts.
On both the cases it's the FM Radio that accompanies me throughout my journey.
Esp., during night shifts I'll take the Ayanavaram-K4 PS-SBOA School-ONGC Park road – Golden flats – Wavin – Mogapaiar west-Vanagaram rd – Thiruverkkadu- Veeraraghavapuram route and as it's a bike journey I can stop wherever I want and have a nice tea/coffee (Esp.,K4 PS tea/coffee shop ) jus relax and hear those songs played in FM throughout.The route is a mixture of all I shud say , like , thru Ayanavaram its a narrow thin road with always a water tank lorry blocking it. Then in K4 as i said , it's the Tea/coffee shop where u feel like all sales executives of the city assemled at one place. A big NO PARKING board with all hypothecated bikes , numerous small cars , the chinna Yaanai's (Tata ACE load auto) parked infront of it. Infact its jus infront of the police station itself. Ofcourse, all these are very common in any of the big cities in India , but , what is not very common is a good coffee in a road side tea/coffee shop. But the "don't know whats the name" tea /coffee/tiffin shop gives u an excellent filter coffee for 5 rupees. Its so good that its taste remains in my tongue-buds uptill the "bullshit-ist" tea that I take in my factory by around 6pm (I start from my house by around 3.30pm) and that tea totally changes the whole mood , infact If one draws a pareto chart it will show that 80% of the occasions that my workmen get scoldings from me are only after this tea, for whatsoever may be the reason.










The SBOA route from 100ft road upto golden flats is a nice "sight-seeing" route, one can find a good number of pretty good looking girls of all ages in this route . There are numerous women hostels near ONGC quaters and Its like the Spring season of the whole route.Its a avenue kinda rd with tree shades on both sides and crossing girls along the road. What a chill ride. !

Then it's the start point of the asias biggest industrial estate – The Ambattur Ind Est. Its jus less than a km that i have to travel thru the estate ,but I can see so many things. Like the lengthiest containers turning in full speed from the est bus stand road onto golden flats. "Justu miss machi" kinda feel will cherish (?) u .Then the girls from the export garment companies, whom the boys of small scale industrial companies use to " route poottu , peelaa vittu , daavu katti , ushaar panni , ooram kattify " and the common thing u can notice in this, is that the combination keeps changing almost every alternate week. I had always wondered ,how-come these boys cud do it so fast (the sequence).
Then comes the (IT is new to Ind estate) IT field. The HCL , TCS tagged persoanlities. A specs , a neatly greased shirt, branded pants , perfectly in'ed , glossy shoes of the male or, a starch REVIVED salwar kammez , a Honda Activa, very less jewels of the females, all these seem to be perfectly ok ,but still they have a very stiff face on them and always looks very tensed . On the roads ,either they search for ATM centers or a cigaratte shop or at the worst case looking for an auto. I had always felt like asking them " boss ,whats the problem".
The west mogappiar route is a residential one and there u can see all the "Reliance fresh" , "More" , "Heritage Fresh" etc. the current dated FRESH type super markets in one single road in less than 50mts distance apart .How do they together do a good business is the real big question .There is a new Dominos pizza coming here it seems.
The Vaanagaram road is a "hidden" short route to ponnamalee High rd to bypass all the city traffics to reach upto karayanchavadi , from where, if ur travelling in a car, u can jus keep a full brick above ur accelerators and jus control ur steerings & u can reach bangi.
The common thing in the entire distance of about 2-3 kms is that the road penetrates thru a semi-slummish area, so the people of that place always wants to share the happenings in their life.Like ,u will find dozens of vinyl printed boards/banners along the road that carries , " Giri Weds Jesi " here Ultimate star Ajith smiles from the corner and the couple expects his wishes to them. On the next one Ilayathalapathi wud honour a "Kaathu Kuthum" function of Selvan .Selvaraj from the banners . Not jus Vijay , ajith , Rajini , kamal u'll also find local pisthas standing in a 50ft vinyl board , here he wears all the jewels that a male cant imagine, a thick lengthy moustache on his face and widely smiles at the travellers of that road. I use to wonder, what am I expected to do after watching these boards.U will also find locally arranged cricket , football matches around these areas. There is a nursing / pharmacy college present in this road which is an odd one out in that area. Sometimes those college girls tries to stop the bike riders of that route and I once had that experience in which, I jus started to shiver out-of-fear and jus rashed out of that area. I don't know why , may be , I thought " Would a fairly goodlooking homely typed girl asks for a lift ?" – Shit, typical conservative Chennai-ite thought.
Then thru the thiruverkadu route , u will find those yellow dhoti male and red sareed women pilgrims roaming here and there , except ,near the temple.Often I use to visit that famous Devi Karumaari Amman Temple and on all occasions I find there is no big crowd inside the temple , instead , number of yellow-dhoties & red-sarees and their siblings on the roads. I would understand that a temple is not just a worshipping place but also a social spot to mingle with people.
There is a govt primary school along this route and during my travel time , its their school leaving time. Those kids jus rash out of the school like huge wave and I worry I shud not hit them and not other vehicles too. Though they all wear an uniform ,it still clearly shows that most of them are from economically backward families. Their mothers wud be working as a servant maid, fathers in the nearby factories , brick ovens, paddy farms, cycle servicing shops , auto drivers etc. In jus a fraction of second It feels like very sentimental & emotional and I cud do nothing but to wish these kids to come up to great heights in their life.
Immediately after crossing the amman temple , u ill find a tidy shiva temple . it's a NOT Very Popular grade shiva temple and hence it looks very neat. It seems to be an ancient temple but I don't have any authentic infos on that.I once visited this temple. Here the uncommon fact is that Lord shiva with Parvathi , blesses his deities in actual Shiva (stone carved) form along with the usual Shiva-linga Form.










After that , in less than a km from this temple comes my factory. I wud jus cross small river and the the main road & enter into the factory maingate , unplug my earphone , in which , I was all along listening to various songs from any of those famous radio stations of the city.
I have to rush fast near the electronic attendance card punching machine ,becos I have to arrange work for around 100 workmen for the next 8.5 hrs. The machine sounds , semi-oily floor , half slept nightshift workers , fully tired relieving dayshift workers , yes, yet another night shift starts for me.
Observing people of variety of categories & varied social backgrounds is a different experience altogether. Above all it makes u forget that u travel a long distance , that too in a bike , which is actually a tiresome one.