I understand that RV does have students, so your wish is granted.
I think he has been teaching in Europe too, so he is certainly doing his bit with the musical horizons
Swathi Sangeethotsavam Jan 6 to 13, 2008.
-
srkris
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3497
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 03:34
A great veena rendition of Gopalaka Pahimam - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4wTgnqg ... ure=relate
For a person like me who is very partial to the veena of all melodic instruments, this was a very fulfilling rendition.
For a person like me who is very partial to the veena of all melodic instruments, this was a very fulfilling rendition.
-
Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Shree ji......I am completely in agreement with what you say. But I feel I have used up most of my good luck with
Gurus and have been as unlucky with students as I have been lucky with my teachers. With the result that these days I am more than content to continue to be mostly a student myself. I have had four gurus and each of them have been amazing in their own way. I have taught more than 300 students but don't have a single person
I think of as "My student" the way my teachers think about me. But as I said before, I am more than happy to continue to learn more and more myself as of now. If a time should come when someone should come along to learn from me all that I have learned from my gurus, so be it. As for reality shows, I once made the mistake of appearing as a "Celebrity Judge" (Two words that I dislike equally) in a supposedly "Carnatic Music" based reality show. I wrote a heavily censored version of what I felt afterwards in the form of an article that I would like to share with you now. But I couldn't find a single paper that would publish it in it's unedited form, for reasons
that I leave you to guess.
Thank you Nick, for your words. I am trying to be more TVM and Madras bound these days.
And to cut down my intake of Dutch cheese and Swiss chocolates and become half as slim and handsome as
you.....an impossible dream I know but oh well......man lives on hope, right ?
Srkris ji, I am so glad you enjoyed the Gopalaka Pahimam. My veena playing is rather sober and vocal based. And much less "exciting" than many of the veenas I've heard. My average is around one veena concert in two years or so. I am taking a poll among the few of my die hard fans, whose intensity make up for lack of numbers.....whether I should sing or play in January.
Here's the article on reality shows that I mentioned.
The Harsh Reality
------------------
According to our ancient scriptures the six deadly sins are Kaama (Lust/Desire), Krodha (Anger), Lobha (Miserliness), Moha (Temptation), Mada (Arrogance) and Maathsarya (Competitiveness.).
The last in the list seems to have been overshadowed by the previous ones in people's consciousness. Yet these days, Maathsarya seems to be the order of the day. One finds parents giving children names beginning with A in the expectation that later in life, should they share the same score with someone else for some competitive exam, they should get an edge over the other person at least alphabetically. It is only a question of time before we get to meet people with names spelt Aanand, Aaarathi, Aaaarsehole and so on. I remember reading somewhere that even if one were to score a victory in the rat race, one would still remain a rat. *Ouch!*
Yes, one has to earn a living. Yes, it is a cut throat world out there. Yes, one is taught to run faster, push harder, fly higher. While qualities like grace, tolerance, kindness, patience, generosity and gentleness take a back seat, attributes like speed, smartness, efficiency, competance, decisiveness and ruthlessness are lauded. Mass production is in. Individual attention is out. Excitement is in. Tranquillity, out. In the middle of all this, one finds the mad rush of desparately unhappy souls seeking solace in the anodyne company of so called enlightened souls and lifestlye gurus who calmly end up making more money than corporate giants do and quietly satisfy their love of power by spouting tried and tested cliches about the power of love. Consolation pours out, money pours in. And the poor devotees eventually end up seeing the so called Gurus as the ultimate destination rather than as guides to show them the way to salvation. Quite sad really.
In this scenario the need for each of us to find peace, solace and fulfilment Within is more urgent than ever before. And this is where the fine arts come in, be it music, dance, poetry or painting. Here's Gustave Flaubert writing to a friend about great art.
"The most beautiful works....are serene in aspect, unfathomable. The means by which they act on us are various : they are motionless as cliffs, stormy as the sea, leafy, green and murmurous as the forest, forlorn as the desert, blue as the sky. Rabelais, Goethe, Shakespeare and Michelangelo seem to me PITILESS. They are bottomless, infinite, manifold. Through small apertures we glimpse abysses whose sombre depths turn us faint. And yet over the whole, there hovers an extraordinary Tenderness. It is like the brilliance of light, the smile of the sun....and it is calm.....calm and strong." I know dozens of educated, affluent young people who speak with affected accents, write in text messagelike abbreviations and consider themselves super cool who would go "F*** man ! What the hell is this dude goin on about ?" if they were to read Flaubert's lines or for that matter
my own lines. While wishing them a safe journey to the therapist's couch later in life, let us ponder ahwile on the significance of the arts. And what is happenning to them these days.
Since the dawn of the fine arts, there have been people who have practised......rather, Lived....art for art's sake as well as those who have been hungry for fame and fortune. Many of the former have lived and died unknown and unrecognized and some of them have been hailed as having been truly great, long after their time. Many among the latter have enjoyed huge celebrity during their lifetime, but have faded into oblivion later. Having had the privilege of interacting closely with some amazing people from both categories and having seen the downside of sticking to either extreme (Completely idealistic or totally commercial), I have come to believe that it is possible to strike a healthy balance between these two courses of action in art and for that matter, in life itself. But I digress.
I wish to share some thoughts about Maathsaryam or competitiveness in the arts. While I enjoy the thrill of a well fought match as much as any normal person, be it the finals at Wimbledon between Borg and Mc Enroe or Federer and Nadal in recent times, watching, enjoying and being inspired by the timeless charm and brilliance of Muhammed Ali's legendary fights against Frazier, Foreman and others or experiencing the mad frenzy of attending a snake boat race, live at Alleppy, bobbing up and down in a boat surrounded by inebriated Keralite men and bemused tourists, I somehow fail to see the point in bringing an Unhealthy element of competition into the arts....."Unhealthy" with a Capital U. Why should we go into who was better.....Mozart or Beethoven ? Kishore or Rafi ? Van Gogh or Remembrant ? Thyagaraja or Dikshithar ? Shakespeare or Bacon ? Maupassant or Maugham ? Asterix or Tintin ? S.D.Burman or R.D.Burman ? Nargis or Madhubala ? While one may certainly have preferences, it is sad to be so fiercely loyal to one artist or school of art art that one is rendered deaf or blind to the charms offered by another. I see art, along with yoga and meditation, as a means to Ease tension rather than to generate further tension. By this, I don't wish to imply that all forms of art should act as opiates or sedatives. Not at all. Clarifying the mind is in fact the opposite of numbing it. There can be tension within art too. And it can be uplifting, energizing and beautiful too. One can be blown away by the passion in the music of Beethoven or the poetry of Jacques Brel. But this tension and resolution within art is completely different from the tension arising from trying to prove that Vilayat Khan was better than Nikhil Bannerjee or vice versa, for instance.
These days, tension and competitiveness of the ugliest and unhealthiest kind invades our lives and our homes every day in the form of reality shows on television. Who am I to complain if there are people who are prepared to eat cockroaches or drink vomit to try and win $25000 ? Or to remain cooped up inside a house for weeks together with a dozen other similarly ambitious souls and be constantly monitored by cameras and judged by the viewers ? And who am I to rue the state of mind of the people who view these shows ? It is just a question of economics......supply and demand. And the silver lining is that these reality shows eat up into a lot of time otherwise devoted to TV serials revolving around sordid family dramas. What pains me is how something as divine and sublime as music gets treated in these shows......by the producers of the show, by the judges, by the participants and by the viewers. British comedian cum author Ben Elton has written two books.....Dead Famous and Chart Throb....spoofing shows like Big Brother and American Idol respectively. Apart from the fact that they are extremely funny and incisive, they both are rather heart breaking too.....especially Chart Throb...since there is so much truth in what the author says, about what exactly happens in these reality shows. The rigging, the politics, the power play, the artifice, the drama, the destruction of dreams and the total absence of any kind of ethics or morals, purely for the sake of entertaining the viewers, consequently roping in more people to send text messages and ultimately making even more money for the producer. Ben Elton sums it up succinctly in one line "One winner. And a whole bunch of losers." (The winner being the producer of the show, by the way...not the second best contestant who is usually made to win, supposedly based on SMS votes.)
What provoked me to write this article was a so called "Carnatic Music based" reality show that has started recently in a Malayalam channel. The contestants are aged between 10 and 15. Since most of them are ordinary kids and not little Mozarts or Ramanujams, their knowledge of and grounding in the science and art of carnatic music is limited at best and quite normal for their age. While the best thing for these kids to do at this stage would be to listen to hours and hours of good classical music concerts by various great masters and Not get involved with any other kind of music till their grounding in the classical idiom becomes firm, solid and unshakable, the producers of the show have added rounds for light classical music (Which pollutes the real thing like few other things do, if one indulges in this before one is firmly grounded), singing for dance, jugalbandis and fusion. According to these parameters, set by the grossly misguided producers, most of the great masters of South Indian classical music would fail to win this contest. Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai, M.D.Ramanathan, Semmangudi, Madurai Mani Iyer and others would be knocked out in no time at all. Yes, the times, they are a changin' as the song goes. And it may not be fair to plant musicians from half a century ago in this context and wonder how they would have fared. But what is undeniable is just how wrong a message is being transmitted by the producers of the show both to the viewers in general and to aspiring children and their parents in particular.
The major reason why nobody seems to be able to make the kind of perfect violin Antonio Stradivarius did more than two centuries ago, why nobody seems to be able to build a structure like the Acropolis any more, why nobody writes the kind of music Beethoven wrote and why nobody seems to be able to accomplish a tiny percentage of what Michelangelo accomplished doesn't seem to be because of a short supply of brilliant minds around.....on the contrary, seriously talented and brilliant children are a dime a dozen these days.....but because the time, energy and focus of our kids these days gets scattered over a variety of things. And we get generations and generations of kids who are okay in several things, who do well in a few things but few of whom eventually do anything so great that they would "leave their footprints in the sands of time", even if the phrase may sound pretentious. And we hang our heads in collective shame each time the Olympics comes around when India comes back with a single bronze medal and perhaps a silver, while countries so many times smaller and poorer than ours rake in the gold medals. But I digress again.....somewhat, though not totally.
To come back to the point in question....why this so called Carnatic music based show bothers me so much.....
1) It gives people the completely wrong impression that one has to sing several kinds of related and unrelated music to become a Carnatic musician, Especially during the Formative years when itis in fact completely destructive, damaging and dangerous for a student of music to do so.
2) When the participants are innocent ten year olds who may not yet be familiar with the harsh realities of life,
it would definitely crush their spirit and injure them deeply at a psychological level when they know that though they sang better, a less competant singer with greater political clout and consequently more SMS votes walked off with the trophy.
3) While it maybe a noble idea to render classical art forms less exclusive, the right way to do it would be to educate and enlighten the listeners and not pervert and bastardize the art form itself in the guise of making it more "User friendly."
I already feel sorry for the poor parents of the losers, each of whom will have to cope with a bitter, depressed, demoralized and confused kid in their hands. And because of what ? Because of competing by singing songs composed by people like Thyagaraja, most of which are replete with messages which go Directly against Every Single thing these TV shows stand for ! Ironic, really. At this rate it won't be long before they have reality shows featuring competitions in Yoga and meditation. The kids may suffer, people like me may rave and rant, but the producers laugh all the way to the bank. A handful of heart broken and messed up kids doesn't seem to be too great a price to pay for the money they make or at least hope to make.
I do wonder about the parents though. Are they simply misguided or are they so totally blinded by ambition that they fail to see what a mess they are getting their children into ? At least Hollywood has the honesty to call it "Show Business" which is what it actually Is. But it is sickening how these people try to promote it as some sort of noble service they are rendering by "bringing more people......children as well as adults....closer to classical music."
Wise people from all parts of the world ask us to view everything in a positive light. So let us celebrate the fact that our children get a significant head start over people of our generation in gaining first hand experience of one of the six deadly sins. Whether they ever get to sing Thodi or Bhairavi correctly or not, the smart ones from among these kids will soon learn about the six Ms they would need to succeed in life. Money, Money, Money, Money, Money.....and Money. And the show goes on. May the best win.
Rama Varma.
January 2008.
Gurus and have been as unlucky with students as I have been lucky with my teachers. With the result that these days I am more than content to continue to be mostly a student myself. I have had four gurus and each of them have been amazing in their own way. I have taught more than 300 students but don't have a single person
I think of as "My student" the way my teachers think about me. But as I said before, I am more than happy to continue to learn more and more myself as of now. If a time should come when someone should come along to learn from me all that I have learned from my gurus, so be it. As for reality shows, I once made the mistake of appearing as a "Celebrity Judge" (Two words that I dislike equally) in a supposedly "Carnatic Music" based reality show. I wrote a heavily censored version of what I felt afterwards in the form of an article that I would like to share with you now. But I couldn't find a single paper that would publish it in it's unedited form, for reasons
that I leave you to guess.
Thank you Nick, for your words. I am trying to be more TVM and Madras bound these days.
And to cut down my intake of Dutch cheese and Swiss chocolates and become half as slim and handsome as
you.....an impossible dream I know but oh well......man lives on hope, right ?
Srkris ji, I am so glad you enjoyed the Gopalaka Pahimam. My veena playing is rather sober and vocal based. And much less "exciting" than many of the veenas I've heard. My average is around one veena concert in two years or so. I am taking a poll among the few of my die hard fans, whose intensity make up for lack of numbers
.....whether I should sing or play in January.Here's the article on reality shows that I mentioned.
The Harsh Reality
------------------
According to our ancient scriptures the six deadly sins are Kaama (Lust/Desire), Krodha (Anger), Lobha (Miserliness), Moha (Temptation), Mada (Arrogance) and Maathsarya (Competitiveness.).
The last in the list seems to have been overshadowed by the previous ones in people's consciousness. Yet these days, Maathsarya seems to be the order of the day. One finds parents giving children names beginning with A in the expectation that later in life, should they share the same score with someone else for some competitive exam, they should get an edge over the other person at least alphabetically. It is only a question of time before we get to meet people with names spelt Aanand, Aaarathi, Aaaarsehole and so on. I remember reading somewhere that even if one were to score a victory in the rat race, one would still remain a rat. *Ouch!*
Yes, one has to earn a living. Yes, it is a cut throat world out there. Yes, one is taught to run faster, push harder, fly higher. While qualities like grace, tolerance, kindness, patience, generosity and gentleness take a back seat, attributes like speed, smartness, efficiency, competance, decisiveness and ruthlessness are lauded. Mass production is in. Individual attention is out. Excitement is in. Tranquillity, out. In the middle of all this, one finds the mad rush of desparately unhappy souls seeking solace in the anodyne company of so called enlightened souls and lifestlye gurus who calmly end up making more money than corporate giants do and quietly satisfy their love of power by spouting tried and tested cliches about the power of love. Consolation pours out, money pours in. And the poor devotees eventually end up seeing the so called Gurus as the ultimate destination rather than as guides to show them the way to salvation. Quite sad really.
In this scenario the need for each of us to find peace, solace and fulfilment Within is more urgent than ever before. And this is where the fine arts come in, be it music, dance, poetry or painting. Here's Gustave Flaubert writing to a friend about great art.
"The most beautiful works....are serene in aspect, unfathomable. The means by which they act on us are various : they are motionless as cliffs, stormy as the sea, leafy, green and murmurous as the forest, forlorn as the desert, blue as the sky. Rabelais, Goethe, Shakespeare and Michelangelo seem to me PITILESS. They are bottomless, infinite, manifold. Through small apertures we glimpse abysses whose sombre depths turn us faint. And yet over the whole, there hovers an extraordinary Tenderness. It is like the brilliance of light, the smile of the sun....and it is calm.....calm and strong." I know dozens of educated, affluent young people who speak with affected accents, write in text messagelike abbreviations and consider themselves super cool who would go "F*** man ! What the hell is this dude goin on about ?" if they were to read Flaubert's lines or for that matter
my own lines. While wishing them a safe journey to the therapist's couch later in life, let us ponder ahwile on the significance of the arts. And what is happenning to them these days.
Since the dawn of the fine arts, there have been people who have practised......rather, Lived....art for art's sake as well as those who have been hungry for fame and fortune. Many of the former have lived and died unknown and unrecognized and some of them have been hailed as having been truly great, long after their time. Many among the latter have enjoyed huge celebrity during their lifetime, but have faded into oblivion later. Having had the privilege of interacting closely with some amazing people from both categories and having seen the downside of sticking to either extreme (Completely idealistic or totally commercial), I have come to believe that it is possible to strike a healthy balance between these two courses of action in art and for that matter, in life itself. But I digress.
I wish to share some thoughts about Maathsaryam or competitiveness in the arts. While I enjoy the thrill of a well fought match as much as any normal person, be it the finals at Wimbledon between Borg and Mc Enroe or Federer and Nadal in recent times, watching, enjoying and being inspired by the timeless charm and brilliance of Muhammed Ali's legendary fights against Frazier, Foreman and others or experiencing the mad frenzy of attending a snake boat race, live at Alleppy, bobbing up and down in a boat surrounded by inebriated Keralite men and bemused tourists, I somehow fail to see the point in bringing an Unhealthy element of competition into the arts....."Unhealthy" with a Capital U. Why should we go into who was better.....Mozart or Beethoven ? Kishore or Rafi ? Van Gogh or Remembrant ? Thyagaraja or Dikshithar ? Shakespeare or Bacon ? Maupassant or Maugham ? Asterix or Tintin ? S.D.Burman or R.D.Burman ? Nargis or Madhubala ? While one may certainly have preferences, it is sad to be so fiercely loyal to one artist or school of art art that one is rendered deaf or blind to the charms offered by another. I see art, along with yoga and meditation, as a means to Ease tension rather than to generate further tension. By this, I don't wish to imply that all forms of art should act as opiates or sedatives. Not at all. Clarifying the mind is in fact the opposite of numbing it. There can be tension within art too. And it can be uplifting, energizing and beautiful too. One can be blown away by the passion in the music of Beethoven or the poetry of Jacques Brel. But this tension and resolution within art is completely different from the tension arising from trying to prove that Vilayat Khan was better than Nikhil Bannerjee or vice versa, for instance.
These days, tension and competitiveness of the ugliest and unhealthiest kind invades our lives and our homes every day in the form of reality shows on television. Who am I to complain if there are people who are prepared to eat cockroaches or drink vomit to try and win $25000 ? Or to remain cooped up inside a house for weeks together with a dozen other similarly ambitious souls and be constantly monitored by cameras and judged by the viewers ? And who am I to rue the state of mind of the people who view these shows ? It is just a question of economics......supply and demand. And the silver lining is that these reality shows eat up into a lot of time otherwise devoted to TV serials revolving around sordid family dramas. What pains me is how something as divine and sublime as music gets treated in these shows......by the producers of the show, by the judges, by the participants and by the viewers. British comedian cum author Ben Elton has written two books.....Dead Famous and Chart Throb....spoofing shows like Big Brother and American Idol respectively. Apart from the fact that they are extremely funny and incisive, they both are rather heart breaking too.....especially Chart Throb...since there is so much truth in what the author says, about what exactly happens in these reality shows. The rigging, the politics, the power play, the artifice, the drama, the destruction of dreams and the total absence of any kind of ethics or morals, purely for the sake of entertaining the viewers, consequently roping in more people to send text messages and ultimately making even more money for the producer. Ben Elton sums it up succinctly in one line "One winner. And a whole bunch of losers." (The winner being the producer of the show, by the way...not the second best contestant who is usually made to win, supposedly based on SMS votes.)
What provoked me to write this article was a so called "Carnatic Music based" reality show that has started recently in a Malayalam channel. The contestants are aged between 10 and 15. Since most of them are ordinary kids and not little Mozarts or Ramanujams, their knowledge of and grounding in the science and art of carnatic music is limited at best and quite normal for their age. While the best thing for these kids to do at this stage would be to listen to hours and hours of good classical music concerts by various great masters and Not get involved with any other kind of music till their grounding in the classical idiom becomes firm, solid and unshakable, the producers of the show have added rounds for light classical music (Which pollutes the real thing like few other things do, if one indulges in this before one is firmly grounded), singing for dance, jugalbandis and fusion. According to these parameters, set by the grossly misguided producers, most of the great masters of South Indian classical music would fail to win this contest. Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai, M.D.Ramanathan, Semmangudi, Madurai Mani Iyer and others would be knocked out in no time at all. Yes, the times, they are a changin' as the song goes. And it may not be fair to plant musicians from half a century ago in this context and wonder how they would have fared. But what is undeniable is just how wrong a message is being transmitted by the producers of the show both to the viewers in general and to aspiring children and their parents in particular.
The major reason why nobody seems to be able to make the kind of perfect violin Antonio Stradivarius did more than two centuries ago, why nobody seems to be able to build a structure like the Acropolis any more, why nobody writes the kind of music Beethoven wrote and why nobody seems to be able to accomplish a tiny percentage of what Michelangelo accomplished doesn't seem to be because of a short supply of brilliant minds around.....on the contrary, seriously talented and brilliant children are a dime a dozen these days.....but because the time, energy and focus of our kids these days gets scattered over a variety of things. And we get generations and generations of kids who are okay in several things, who do well in a few things but few of whom eventually do anything so great that they would "leave their footprints in the sands of time", even if the phrase may sound pretentious. And we hang our heads in collective shame each time the Olympics comes around when India comes back with a single bronze medal and perhaps a silver, while countries so many times smaller and poorer than ours rake in the gold medals. But I digress again.....somewhat, though not totally.
To come back to the point in question....why this so called Carnatic music based show bothers me so much.....
1) It gives people the completely wrong impression that one has to sing several kinds of related and unrelated music to become a Carnatic musician, Especially during the Formative years when itis in fact completely destructive, damaging and dangerous for a student of music to do so.
2) When the participants are innocent ten year olds who may not yet be familiar with the harsh realities of life,
it would definitely crush their spirit and injure them deeply at a psychological level when they know that though they sang better, a less competant singer with greater political clout and consequently more SMS votes walked off with the trophy.
3) While it maybe a noble idea to render classical art forms less exclusive, the right way to do it would be to educate and enlighten the listeners and not pervert and bastardize the art form itself in the guise of making it more "User friendly."
I already feel sorry for the poor parents of the losers, each of whom will have to cope with a bitter, depressed, demoralized and confused kid in their hands. And because of what ? Because of competing by singing songs composed by people like Thyagaraja, most of which are replete with messages which go Directly against Every Single thing these TV shows stand for ! Ironic, really. At this rate it won't be long before they have reality shows featuring competitions in Yoga and meditation. The kids may suffer, people like me may rave and rant, but the producers laugh all the way to the bank. A handful of heart broken and messed up kids doesn't seem to be too great a price to pay for the money they make or at least hope to make.
I do wonder about the parents though. Are they simply misguided or are they so totally blinded by ambition that they fail to see what a mess they are getting their children into ? At least Hollywood has the honesty to call it "Show Business" which is what it actually Is. But it is sickening how these people try to promote it as some sort of noble service they are rendering by "bringing more people......children as well as adults....closer to classical music."
Wise people from all parts of the world ask us to view everything in a positive light. So let us celebrate the fact that our children get a significant head start over people of our generation in gaining first hand experience of one of the six deadly sins. Whether they ever get to sing Thodi or Bhairavi correctly or not, the smart ones from among these kids will soon learn about the six Ms they would need to succeed in life. Money, Money, Money, Money, Money.....and Money. And the show goes on. May the best win.
Rama Varma.
January 2008.
-
devi
- Posts: 196
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 18:16
Can ordinary fans (since hard death for 'fanhood' seems to be quite a tall order for the momentMusique4ever wrote:My average is around one veena concert in two years or so. I am taking a poll among the few of my die hard fans, whose intensity make up for lack of numbers
hehehe) cast their vote here?If I may appeal to you Sir; I would be so very happy to attend your veena concert for Swathi Sangeethotsavam 2009 !!! That would be the high note of the 10th Anniversary of Kuthiramalika Music Festival with You at the helm.
-
cmlover
- Posts: 11498
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:36
Dear Varmaji
welcome to the couch
All of us Indians suffer from the Hamlet Complex, indecision. Like the fabled Anjaneya we never know our own inner potential and always look to others to make up our minds. As such we can only be followers and never leaders. The father decides what is best for his child; the husband decides what is best for his wife; the Government decides what is best for the people and so on and the first casualty is Individuality, Creativeness and Free Enterprise.
The spirit of Competition is good. It is intrinsic and biological and is at the Foundation of Evolution. But then the different species compete against each other and for the present the Homo Sapiens have won! But in India we are competing aginst each other brother against brother states against neighbouring states in an internecine competition which is sapping our energy. How can we think of winning the Olympic Gold as the best in the world when we cannot even decide who is the best in our own country.
The other meaning for 'mAtsaryam' is 'jealousy/spite'. It is in our psyche to think that it is OK to lose one eye if our neighbour loses both eyes! When Gandhiji was leading us towards Independance there were many who preferred being ruled by an outsider than by one among us (Their slogan was nammil oruvan nammayE ALvatha? (how can we tolerate being ruled by one of us?).
Times have not changed and the CM field is no exception!
Regarding your query as to whether you should sing or play the veena, I suggest: Ask your heart....
welcome to the couch
All of us Indians suffer from the Hamlet Complex, indecision. Like the fabled Anjaneya we never know our own inner potential and always look to others to make up our minds. As such we can only be followers and never leaders. The father decides what is best for his child; the husband decides what is best for his wife; the Government decides what is best for the people and so on and the first casualty is Individuality, Creativeness and Free Enterprise.
The spirit of Competition is good. It is intrinsic and biological and is at the Foundation of Evolution. But then the different species compete against each other and for the present the Homo Sapiens have won! But in India we are competing aginst each other brother against brother states against neighbouring states in an internecine competition which is sapping our energy. How can we think of winning the Olympic Gold as the best in the world when we cannot even decide who is the best in our own country.
The other meaning for 'mAtsaryam' is 'jealousy/spite'. It is in our psyche to think that it is OK to lose one eye if our neighbour loses both eyes! When Gandhiji was leading us towards Independance there were many who preferred being ruled by an outsider than by one among us (Their slogan was nammil oruvan nammayE ALvatha? (how can we tolerate being ruled by one of us?).
Times have not changed and the CM field is no exception!
Regarding your query as to whether you should sing or play the veena, I suggest: Ask your heart....
-
arasi
- Posts: 16873
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
Rama Varma,
Asterix AND Tintin!
Personally, I wouldn't give up swiss chocolate with the hope that I can get to look as slender as a particular Brit ...
You have written such a thought-provoking essay. You echo the feelings of many of us who despair when 'mAtsaryam' invades the arts (CM here), misleads and messes up the children (our future). Yet, our hopes cannot be quelled by all that is happening in the media or the mEDai (concert platform) in some instances. Hope some parents who are tempted to enter their kids in such competitions get to read what you have to say.
The examples of such unrealistic ambition (specially on the part of the parents) will not lead to nurturing the children with CM. If they do so, the young ones will be arrested in their growth when it comes to loving music, let alone in practicing and propagating it. And the heartache they will go through when they lose ! It applies to the bulk of them. There is a lesson for such parents here. Which do you put first? Your child or his exposure to the callous competitive TV world out there?
The unfathomable ocean of CM can be miraculous for the kids to explore, and they can keep exploring it all through their lives with a good teacher and parental guidance initially.
Whenever there are complaints on the Rasikas about competitions from parents, we wonder if all such programs on the TV have an impact on them.
For your January concert, go with your heart, as CML says, but the vINA sounds like a good idea. Bonne chance
Asterix AND Tintin!
Personally, I wouldn't give up swiss chocolate with the hope that I can get to look as slender as a particular Brit ...
You have written such a thought-provoking essay. You echo the feelings of many of us who despair when 'mAtsaryam' invades the arts (CM here), misleads and messes up the children (our future). Yet, our hopes cannot be quelled by all that is happening in the media or the mEDai (concert platform) in some instances. Hope some parents who are tempted to enter their kids in such competitions get to read what you have to say.
The examples of such unrealistic ambition (specially on the part of the parents) will not lead to nurturing the children with CM. If they do so, the young ones will be arrested in their growth when it comes to loving music, let alone in practicing and propagating it. And the heartache they will go through when they lose ! It applies to the bulk of them. There is a lesson for such parents here. Which do you put first? Your child or his exposure to the callous competitive TV world out there?
The unfathomable ocean of CM can be miraculous for the kids to explore, and they can keep exploring it all through their lives with a good teacher and parental guidance initially.
Whenever there are complaints on the Rasikas about competitions from parents, we wonder if all such programs on the TV have an impact on them.
For your January concert, go with your heart, as CML says, but the vINA sounds like a good idea. Bonne chance
Last edited by arasi on 26 Sep 2008, 04:27, edited 1 time in total.
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Thank you very much for your comments. Yes, this article was literally a cry of pain. The thing is that people like you who understand and empathize with the sentiments expressed in this article do so Anyway, even without having read this article. The question is whether any of the blinded - by - ambition - parents would change anything at all in the way they bring up their poor kids after reading this or something similar. Oh well....
What will be will be I guess.....and what won't be won't be.
As for January, things definitely seem to be leaning veenawards as of now.
I only wish veena playing didn't come with so many strings attached, so to speak
What will be will be I guess.....and what won't be won't be.
As for January, things definitely seem to be leaning veenawards as of now.
I only wish veena playing didn't come with so many strings attached, so to speak
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PUNARVASU
- Posts: 2498
- Joined: 06 Feb 2010, 05:42
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PUNARVASU
- Posts: 2498
- Joined: 06 Feb 2010, 05:42
Varmaji, what you wrote about the competitive world is absolutely true; I think children nowadays do not have a childhood at all; right from the word 'go' it is a competition. In the long run it is going to cause damage to the morale of the children and they will burn out quickly.Wish a change comes over in the mindset of the parents and they let the children blossom in their own pace.
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arasi
- Posts: 16873
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
There is still hope. Why should I lose heart? Surely, even among today's parents, there are those who want their children to grow up without the shackles of feverish competition. I would think.
As a 'foreigner', I do not know the details as to how it all works, but I have heard of a school in Bangalore which does not burden the kids with homework but concentrates on encouraging the children in developing their knowledge and talents. I have a feeling there are more schools of that kind.
Among those parents who believe in their children growing up--away from the madding state of schools--some may want to start a movement to bring about a different quality to schooling...
As a 'foreigner', I do not know the details as to how it all works, but I have heard of a school in Bangalore which does not burden the kids with homework but concentrates on encouraging the children in developing their knowledge and talents. I have a feeling there are more schools of that kind.
Among those parents who believe in their children growing up--away from the madding state of schools--some may want to start a movement to bring about a different quality to schooling...
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Shree
- Posts: 31
- Joined: 21 Sep 2008, 17:56
Varmaji.
Thought provoking article.Well written.
I gave a second thought about this reality shows.Parents need a stage for their children.There are many unknown talented geniuses in our society.Why they are still unknown?They dont have a platform.You being in this profession will be familiar with the "BIG SHARKS" here.Even in that reality show which you have mentioned, a child who has many godfathers won the contest.It was so obvious and people with commonsense could easilty smell the stink in that.Though those people who worked hard for that child has not realized that because they lack even commonsense.
Youth festivals were actually meant to encourage young talent.But what is happening now.?Court cases, political influences and more importantly MONEY.What do they gain?Our rulers have kept reservation for "Kalathilakam and Kalaprathibha" in professional courses including MBBS. But these people will be there for 10 yrsin these professional institutes, finally they come out as neither doctor nor artists.
The other day i read an article in newspaper.A person who did his masters in music is working as watchman in Malampuzha dam.In the beginning his salary was Rs.30/- and now they have increased that to Rs.90/- per day.
The lacuna is in stage.We need to give them a good platform to prove their talent.
Thought provoking article.Well written.
I gave a second thought about this reality shows.Parents need a stage for their children.There are many unknown talented geniuses in our society.Why they are still unknown?They dont have a platform.You being in this profession will be familiar with the "BIG SHARKS" here.Even in that reality show which you have mentioned, a child who has many godfathers won the contest.It was so obvious and people with commonsense could easilty smell the stink in that.Though those people who worked hard for that child has not realized that because they lack even commonsense.
Youth festivals were actually meant to encourage young talent.But what is happening now.?Court cases, political influences and more importantly MONEY.What do they gain?Our rulers have kept reservation for "Kalathilakam and Kalaprathibha" in professional courses including MBBS. But these people will be there for 10 yrsin these professional institutes, finally they come out as neither doctor nor artists.
The other day i read an article in newspaper.A person who did his masters in music is working as watchman in Malampuzha dam.In the beginning his salary was Rs.30/- and now they have increased that to Rs.90/- per day.
The lacuna is in stage.We need to give them a good platform to prove their talent.
Last edited by Shree on 27 Sep 2008, 22:00, edited 1 time in total.
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vijay
- Posts: 2522
- Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 16:06
True - it is such a pity to watch young kids go through reality shows...while I think exposure to a little bit of competition is Ok for children, these shows really stretch it to absurd limits. Often, an emotional climax, and the resultant eyeballs, is what these guys are after...no wonder we hear of all kinds of unsavoury incidents surrounding these shows.
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vganesh
- Posts: 263
- Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 16:25
Sir I feel this is/was always there. People always want to become famous by some or other way. I only feel the degree of Maathsarya is on the higher side nowadays because of the media availability. And after all many of them are just ordinary people (poor souls). If one do not get a forum how others will come to know about him/her. Who is ready to take somebody just like that. Tomorrow If I say, I am the shishya of Sri Rama Varma, who is from Trvancore Royal family then people would accept me [with some more recommendations of sabha secretaries]. Otherwise I am an ordinary. It is popularity that matters. For example most of the people know KJY, Nithyasri and Unnikrishnan not because of CM but because of cinema and then there is a curiosity to see them than Soumya or TMK etc..VarmaJi wrote:The last in the list seems to have been overshadowed by the previous ones in people's consciousness. Yet these days, Maathsarya seems to be the order of the day.
But all said and done If a person is not talented then he/she can not sustain. I think this is the law of nature.
PS : Neither myself nor my children have ever seen a reality show so far, except watching few episodes on Asianet [8.30 PM to 9.30 PM] /Jaya TV (SPB show). I am only putting forth my arguments.
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Yes.....so many of these things are "sad but true" I guess. Shree ji, I teach some people at Trivandrum.
I would be happy to teach at Madras too if there were any takers, but I go there mostly to be with my
Guruji myself. Since I never seem to be at the same place for a long time, I have taught mostly students
who have had some basic training rather than totally new students.
Here is something bright and beautiful to lift one's spirits after the preceding sombre discussion
Hope this will tempt many of you to make it to Trivandrum on the 6th of January 2009 to see the same Maestro in action again in the same settings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDtJ4Xb9 ... ture=email
I would be happy to teach at Madras too if there were any takers, but I go there mostly to be with my
Guruji myself. Since I never seem to be at the same place for a long time, I have taught mostly students
who have had some basic training rather than totally new students.
Here is something bright and beautiful to lift one's spirits after the preceding sombre discussion
Hope this will tempt many of you to make it to Trivandrum on the 6th of January 2009 to see the same Maestro in action again in the same settings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDtJ4Xb9 ... ture=email
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sunaada
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 09 Jun 2008, 17:45
Many many thanks, Varmaji for uploading this Sanjay is absolutely brilliant in this power-packed performance. Will definitely try to make it on the 6th of Jan next year.
Its quite incredible that such a high profile event is not ticketed I suppose these events are funded by corporate sponsors?
One other little question- does one have to collect passes in advance- if so can these be booked online?
Sanjay is absolutely brilliant in this power-packed performance. Will definitely try to make it on the 6th of Jan next year.Its quite incredible that such a high profile event is not ticketed
I suppose these events are funded by corporate sponsors?One other little question- does one have to collect passes in advance- if so can these be booked online?
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Nick H
- Posts: 9472
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03
My vote...
It is a tough decision, but having seen you sing twice recently I vote for a veena concert.
(I can quite see, having a slightly wicked sense of humour, how that could be read as "I've seen him sing, so it had better be veena." You will understand that that is not how I intend it to be read
)
If I get any more votes, I would like that veena concert to have no other accompanist other than a first-rate mridangist.
I remember one such at Besant Nagar a year or two ago...
It is a tough decision, but having seen you sing twice recently I vote for a veena concert.
(I can quite see, having a slightly wicked sense of humour, how that could be read as "I've seen him sing, so it had better be veena." You will understand that that is not how I intend it to be read
)If I get any more votes, I would like that veena concert to have no other accompanist other than a first-rate mridangist.
I remember one such at Besant Nagar a year or two ago...
Last edited by Guest on 30 Sep 2008, 03:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Ha ha ! Nick......I read you and you are Most welcome to come and check out for yourself what finally happens in January. And Sunaada ji, you are most welcome. I hope to upload at least two more songs from the same concert, which was one of his Best Ever. And yes. Entry is free and there are no tickets or passes. I funded the festival for the first four years myself. These days it is officially conducted by the "H.H.Sir Rama Varma, Maharaja of Travancore Trust" which accepts donations that are exempt from income tax, from mostly music lovers + a few local industrialists + the money I spend. The thing is, I can not only get sponsorship but even MAKE money if I didn't stick to my guns with regard to the selection of artists......If I were to have a lineup comprising solely of people who have sung playback in films and those who are into fusion, for example. Throw in a few dance performances too and I would be financially set for the rest of the year But I simply can't seem to do without the Parasala Ponnammals and the Malladi Suribabus and the Amrutha Venkateshes of the field since all said and done, my heart lies in this sort of music. There are a few musicians like Sanjay Subrahmanyan himself who have attained a star status without indulging in any of the usual dilution + crossover + whatever else that so many others seem to be inclined to do for the sake of mass appeal.....and I pamper myself as a listener by inviting him again and again I am hoping that at some point I will meet a very rich and generous person/corporate giant who has total faith in my abilities/inclination/ethics as an organizer who would donate to the trust WITHOUT saying "I'll give you Rs.1200000 if you make a certain bearded playback singer from Kerala sing on all seven days." As Balamurali Sir has put it succinctly in the following song......"Hariye Gathi !"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSn9D-Cuv8w
and you are Most welcome to come and check out for yourself what finally happens in January. And Sunaada ji, you are most welcome. I hope to upload at least two more songs from the same concert, which was one of his Best Ever. And yes. Entry is free and there are no tickets or passes. I funded the festival for the first four years myself. These days it is officially conducted by the "H.H.Sir Rama Varma, Maharaja of Travancore Trust" which accepts donations that are exempt from income tax, from mostly music lovers + a few local industrialists + the money I spend. The thing is, I can not only get sponsorship but even MAKE money if I didn't stick to my guns with regard to the selection of artists......If I were to have a lineup comprising solely of people who have sung playback in films and those who are into fusion, for example. Throw in a few dance performances too and I would be financially set for the rest of the year But I simply can't seem to do without the Parasala Ponnammals and the Malladi Suribabus and the Amrutha Venkateshes of the field since all said and done, my heart lies in this sort of music. There are a few musicians like Sanjay Subrahmanyan himself who have attained a star status without indulging in any of the usual dilution + crossover + whatever else that so many others seem to be inclined to do for the sake of mass appeal.....and I pamper myself as a listener by inviting him again and again I am hoping that at some point I will meet a very rich and generous person/corporate giant who has total faith in my abilities/inclination/ethics as an organizer who would donate to the trust WITHOUT saying "I'll give you Rs.1200000 if you make a certain bearded playback singer from Kerala sing on all seven days." As Balamurali Sir has put it succinctly in the following song......"Hariye Gathi !" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSn9D-Cuv8w
Last edited by Musique4ever on 30 Sep 2008, 10:05, edited 1 time in total.
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Nick H
- Posts: 9472
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
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Shree
- Posts: 31
- Joined: 21 Sep 2008, 17:56
Sir,
Navarathri sangeet festival is going on now in Trivandrum.We expect Varmaji to give us "the unfortunate" who are unable to attend the same, a review on each day's concert as he is a native of Trivandrum as well as its organiser:-):)
Navarathri sangeet festival is going on now in Trivandrum.We expect Varmaji to give us "the unfortunate" who are unable to attend the same, a review on each day's concert as he is a native of Trivandrum as well as its organiser:-):)
Last edited by Shree on 01 Oct 2008, 13:03, edited 1 time in total.
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Profuse apologies Shree Ji. Since I am the organizer myself my hands are tied as far as reviews go.
I certainly hope to record (With a hidden camera as usual) and upload certain select pieces from select artists who don't have a problem with this though. And then you can watch those clippings and review them yourself if you like
I certainly hope to record (With a hidden camera as usual) and upload certain select pieces from select artists who don't have a problem with this though. And then you can watch those clippings and review them yourself if you like
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Meanwhile here is rather a charming version of Aaj Aaye Shaam Mohan sung in Raag Yaman by Pandit Ganapathi Bhatt during the 2007 festival.
Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BKjW3Csvic
Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE_WiE_YIV0
Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BKjW3Csvic
Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE_WiE_YIV0
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devi
- Posts: 196
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 18:16
Very interesting interview of Varma Sir..Quite insightful and entertaining!
http://www.ramavarma.synthasite.com/bol ... -words.php
http://www.ramavarma.synthasite.com/bol ... -words.php
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Here is the tentative schedule for Swathi Sangeethotsavam 2009.
Jan 6 Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan
Jan 7 Malladi Shri Suribabu Solo.
Jan 8 Pandit Venkateshkumar (Hindusthani)
Jan 9 Shri Prasanna Venkatraman
Jan 10 Prof.Parasala B Ponnammal
Jan 11 Me (Probably veena)
Jan 12 Ms.Amrutha Venkatesh
Jan 13 Kunnakudi Shri Balamuralikrishna
Jan 14 Thamarakad Shri Govindan Namboothiri
Jan 15 Bombay Ranjini and Gayatri
Jan 6 Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan
Jan 7 Malladi Shri Suribabu Solo.
Jan 8 Pandit Venkateshkumar (Hindusthani)
Jan 9 Shri Prasanna Venkatraman
Jan 10 Prof.Parasala B Ponnammal
Jan 11 Me (Probably veena)
Jan 12 Ms.Amrutha Venkatesh
Jan 13 Kunnakudi Shri Balamuralikrishna
Jan 14 Thamarakad Shri Govindan Namboothiri
Jan 15 Bombay Ranjini and Gayatri
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arasi
- Posts: 16873
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
Nice line up, Musique4ever.
Malladi Suri Babu's solo? Has he performed solo before?
By the way, the clip of your playing the vINA on Sanjay's podcast was lovely. Quite an appetizer for your forthcoming vINA (?) concert!
Malladi Suri Babu's solo? Has he performed solo before?
By the way, the clip of your playing the vINA on Sanjay's podcast was lovely. Quite an appetizer for your forthcoming vINA (?) concert!
Last edited by arasi on 31 Oct 2008, 07:43, edited 1 time in total.
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VK RAMAN
- Posts: 5009
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29
Great line up for Swathi Sangeethotsavam 2009. Good luck with your efforts.
How about organizing a similar summit for cm artists of Kerala from whom you can screen some for future such events?
How about organizing a similar summit for cm artists of Kerala from whom you can screen some for future such events?
Last edited by VK RAMAN on 31 Oct 2008, 03:11, edited 1 time in total.
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devi
- Posts: 196
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 18:16
An interesting website created by some dedicated fans of Sri Rama Varma. This contains most updated information about his concerts, reviews, articles, weblinks etc. Very interesting to explore if you are a Varma Fan !
http://www.ramavarma.synthasite.com/index.php
regards,
Devi
http://www.ramavarma.synthasite.com/index.php
regards,
Devi
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Shree
- Posts: 31
- Joined: 21 Sep 2008, 17:56
Here is a nice veena recital by Varmaji (Neelambari).
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=clbamieeb ... re=related
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=clbamieeb ... re=related
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cmlover
- Posts: 11498
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:36
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universy
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 02 Nov 2008, 08:34
ADMIN NOTE: Personal attacks are not appreciated on this forum, in fact they are prohibited. This user is requested to use better language, and this being the user's first and only post on the forum yet, this user is not banned for indulging in personal attacks of another fellow member. Hope this member will take it in the right spirit, as mudslinging is strictly out of bounds for this forum. All personal scores may be settled elsewhere. - The Administrator, Rasikas.org
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Arasi ji, of the four Malladi musicians who sing (Malladi Brothers Senior and junior) I am drawn to Shri
Suribabu's music the most though I like all four. He has sung with his brother many times before. But this time he has agreed to sing solo.
Raman ji, I've always tried to call people whose music I like, irrespective of whether they be from Kerala or not, young, old, male, female.....whatever Thamarakad Govindan Namboothiri and Parasala Ponnammal are both from Kerala and I revere them greatly. and thank you very much for your good wishes.
Prashant ji, the Kapi was part of a CD I made privately called "Thaanam. The Pulse of the Veena" that I peddle at the venue during my veena concerts. Some friends of mine who like it very much keep buying bundles of it from me from time to time and sell or give it off to music lovers of their choice.
Shree ji and Sir CMlover, I am so glad you enjoyed the Neelambari.
And "Universy"...you are entitled to your views just like I am entitled to mine. You may certainly ask me
"Where are this kind of composers today ?" and more, but I am afraid you shan't be receiving an answer from me There !
Suribabu's music the most though I like all four. He has sung with his brother many times before. But this time he has agreed to sing solo.
Raman ji, I've always tried to call people whose music I like, irrespective of whether they be from Kerala or not, young, old, male, female.....whatever
Thamarakad Govindan Namboothiri and Parasala Ponnammal are both from Kerala and I revere them greatly. and thank you very much for your good wishes. Prashant ji, the Kapi was part of a CD I made privately called "Thaanam. The Pulse of the Veena" that I peddle at the venue during my veena concerts. Some friends of mine who like it very much keep buying bundles of it from me from time to time and sell or give it off to music lovers of their choice.
Shree ji and Sir CMlover, I am so glad you enjoyed the Neelambari.
And "Universy"...you are entitled to your views just like I am entitled to mine. You may certainly ask me
"Where are this kind of composers today ?" and more, but I am afraid you shan't be receiving an answer from me
There !-
wordpecker007
- Posts: 46
- Joined: 16 Mar 2008, 18:33
Dear 'Universy'
You seem to have created a login today and posted just one post to taint this platform with unsavoury personal attacks.
Your post seems to be focussed on personal attacks and in a language that does no good to the forum. Please don’t compare yourself to cm lover on any account. The gentleman’s erudition, class and grace is evident in every post of his. You are entitled to your views on ‘competition’ as you see fit. But any musician or rasika in India knows the ‘ripper’ effects of these reality shows. In case you have forgotten Shinjini, let me jog our memory with this link to the report.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories ... 680800.htm
Moreover, the Prince very clearly states what prompted him to write the article.
‘What provoked me to write this article was a so called "Carnatic Music based" reality show that has started recently in a Malayalam channel,’ says the Prince. He has not written against all sorts of competition. Moreover, several musicians and participants have spoken about the problems of SMS voting and judging based on SMS votes. So, it is utopian to believe that all reality shows are above suspicion.
And oh, by the way, here is a link to the boxing legend Muhammed Ali. Please take a look at the comments that viewers have written about the ‘charm’ of the man who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.
http://in.youtube.com/results?search_qu ... type=&aq=f
Let me again remind you that we are now talking of fine arts and not sports where one can compete according to the rules of the games. Hence the term sportsmanship. But there seems to be a distinct lack of the above in your post.
Can we stick to music and more music and avoid the dischordant notes please.
You seem to have created a login today and posted just one post to taint this platform with unsavoury personal attacks.
Your post seems to be focussed on personal attacks and in a language that does no good to the forum. Please don’t compare yourself to cm lover on any account. The gentleman’s erudition, class and grace is evident in every post of his. You are entitled to your views on ‘competition’ as you see fit. But any musician or rasika in India knows the ‘ripper’ effects of these reality shows. In case you have forgotten Shinjini, let me jog our memory with this link to the report.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories ... 680800.htm
Moreover, the Prince very clearly states what prompted him to write the article.
‘What provoked me to write this article was a so called "Carnatic Music based" reality show that has started recently in a Malayalam channel,’ says the Prince. He has not written against all sorts of competition. Moreover, several musicians and participants have spoken about the problems of SMS voting and judging based on SMS votes. So, it is utopian to believe that all reality shows are above suspicion.
And oh, by the way, here is a link to the boxing legend Muhammed Ali. Please take a look at the comments that viewers have written about the ‘charm’ of the man who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.
http://in.youtube.com/results?search_qu ... type=&aq=f
Let me again remind you that we are now talking of fine arts and not sports where one can compete according to the rules of the games. Hence the term sportsmanship. But there seems to be a distinct lack of the above in your post.
Can we stick to music and more music and avoid the dischordant notes please.
Last edited by wordpecker007 on 02 Nov 2008, 14:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Amalika
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 24 May 2008, 06:36
I hope you will not see it as "personal attack" if I ask some questions.wordpecker007 wrote:one post to taint this platform with unsavoury personal attacks
Rama Varma performs at many venues where they receive applications from many other musicians too, and the persons in charge of the selection have to select some musicians and discard the other applications (many rasikas believe that some of these discarded musicians are far better than Rama Varma).
Questions.
Is Rama Varma aware of HOW musicians are selected for these events and festivals?
Does he believe that the selection process is FAIR and free from the political clout?
If Rama Varma is against competition, why doesn't he follow what he preaches and let other musicians have opportunities to perform instead of him?
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Dear wordpecker ji.....much as your having come to my defense is appreciated, I really don't think you need
to waste your time and energy responding to posts like these. Thyagaraja himself wasn't spared by sad cases who sniped at him during much of his lifetime. I have taken printouts of some of the Me Bashing and Murali Bashing posts here and shown them to Balamurali Sir and both of us had a good laugh
I suggest you have a good laugh too and leave it at that.
to waste your time and energy responding to posts like these. Thyagaraja himself wasn't spared by sad cases who sniped at him during much of his lifetime. I have taken printouts of some of the Me Bashing and Murali Bashing posts here and shown them to Balamurali Sir and both of us had a good laugh
I suggest you have a good laugh too and leave it at that.
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Shree
- Posts: 31
- Joined: 21 Sep 2008, 17:56
Am sorry Amalikaji..
Do you think they should conduct an exam like in IAS, with Prelims, main and interview to get slected.Ofcourse it is quality of the performance that counts.We need to remember each individual is different and their ability to appreciate music will be different.If you think Rama Varma is below average it is your own opinion and no one is going to question you.(Each citizen has right for the freedom of expression.).Most of the time as far as we all know it is ( Selection of artists for Navrathri Mandapam Festival and Swathi festival )free from the political clout, otherwise Amrutha Venkatesh wouldn't have got the oppurtunity this time to perform at Navrathri Mandapam.In other places what can me or you or Rama Varmaji can do?If we could have done something, then we would have cleared the society and moped bureaucracy from all the corruptions..
I would like to know what do you denote by this"why doesn't he follow what he preaches "?What does he preach?
Denise Linn in his book "The Soul loves the Truth"says one need to vote for himself.That means he/she accepts himself/herself.There is nothing wrong in performing at your own doorstep.It is your wish to perform or not.
Do you think they should conduct an exam like in IAS, with Prelims, main and interview to get slected.Ofcourse it is quality of the performance that counts.We need to remember each individual is different and their ability to appreciate music will be different.If you think Rama Varma is below average it is your own opinion and no one is going to question you.(Each citizen has right for the freedom of expression.).Most of the time as far as we all know it is ( Selection of artists for Navrathri Mandapam Festival and Swathi festival )free from the political clout, otherwise Amrutha Venkatesh wouldn't have got the oppurtunity this time to perform at Navrathri Mandapam.In other places what can me or you or Rama Varmaji can do?If we could have done something, then we would have cleared the society and moped bureaucracy from all the corruptions..
I would like to know what do you denote by this"why doesn't he follow what he preaches "?What does he preach?
Denise Linn in his book "The Soul loves the Truth"says one need to vote for himself.That means he/she accepts himself/herself.There is nothing wrong in performing at your own doorstep.It is your wish to perform or not.
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devi
- Posts: 196
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 18:16
@ Amalika:
So rare are his public performances, sometimes I wish Sri. Rama Varma let go some of his principles and concentrate in giving more concerts. But unlike many of us he believes in Quality and not Quantity. There are people who admire his music and are dying to listen to him.. Its only because of Musiquebox's (bless that soul) youtube channel that we are able to savour 10mt clips from his wonderful performances.
Although 'How Musicians are chosen to perform' is unfamiliar territory for me I wonder whether Varma Ji will ever ever put in 'application' to perform. I have heard him state in one of his public performances held recently that as an Organiser and as an Artist, he strongly believes that it is the Organiser who has to request the Artist to give performances and not vice versa. Having seen so many men and women who preach one thing and practice the opposite I am so impressed by this One Man who strives to practice (FIRST) and 'preach' ( Varmaji wont ever refer to his words as preaching..) the same.
Moreover he being available for such open ended discussions in forums like these itself shows how "FAIR and Free from political clout" this Man is.
Regarding giving opportunities to other musicians... just in case you are not aware of this; Varma Ji organises TWO major music festivals which feature many popular and not so popular Musicians from ALL OVER INDIA. One is just over and the second one is scheduled to be held in January 2009, please see Post # 184 in this thread and kindly be informed about the list of performers to understand the 'opportunities' (apologies for using the word as i feel it is demeaning for an Artist) he has offered to other musicians.
And just because integrity and self worth are qualities disappearing at a faster pace than the depletion of Ozone Layer it doesn’t mean that people who possess such qualities are to be targeted at.
Thank you very much,
Devi
So rare are his public performances, sometimes I wish Sri. Rama Varma let go some of his principles and concentrate in giving more concerts. But unlike many of us he believes in Quality and not Quantity. There are people who admire his music and are dying to listen to him.. Its only because of Musiquebox's (bless that soul) youtube channel that we are able to savour 10mt clips from his wonderful performances.
Although 'How Musicians are chosen to perform' is unfamiliar territory for me I wonder whether Varma Ji will ever ever put in 'application' to perform. I have heard him state in one of his public performances held recently that as an Organiser and as an Artist, he strongly believes that it is the Organiser who has to request the Artist to give performances and not vice versa. Having seen so many men and women who preach one thing and practice the opposite I am so impressed by this One Man who strives to practice (FIRST) and 'preach' ( Varmaji wont ever refer to his words as preaching..) the same.
Moreover he being available for such open ended discussions in forums like these itself shows how "FAIR and Free from political clout" this Man is.
Regarding giving opportunities to other musicians... just in case you are not aware of this; Varma Ji organises TWO major music festivals which feature many popular and not so popular Musicians from ALL OVER INDIA. One is just over and the second one is scheduled to be held in January 2009, please see Post # 184 in this thread and kindly be informed about the list of performers to understand the 'opportunities' (apologies for using the word as i feel it is demeaning for an Artist) he has offered to other musicians.
And just because integrity and self worth are qualities disappearing at a faster pace than the depletion of Ozone Layer it doesn’t mean that people who possess such qualities are to be targeted at.
Thank you very much,
Devi
Last edited by devi on 02 Nov 2008, 19:43, edited 1 time in total.
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manikand28
- Posts: 79
- Joined: 29 Mar 2008, 18:48
Varmaji,
I am hoping you do a production with Charsur and release a audio vocal CD and a Veena based instrumental CD, Sanjay podcast may have hinted it is coming soon, but please do. We are waiting for it. Also do you have plens for a visit to California bay area for a concert. There is a big rasika base now in bay area.
I am hoping you do a production with Charsur and release a audio vocal CD and a Veena based instrumental CD, Sanjay podcast may have hinted it is coming soon, but please do. We are waiting for it. Also do you have plens for a visit to California bay area for a concert. There is a big rasika base now in bay area.
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Musique4ever
- Posts: 97
- Joined: 17 Mar 2007, 12:10
Thank you Shree ji and Devi ji. And Manikand ji, if a CD happens then the credit goes to Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan for doing the "Match making" I sort of stopped touring the U.S. since I found the schedule too tough. (Concerts + travel - sleep on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and nothing to do and nowhere to go from Monday to Thursday.) I did sing there a bit during the early 1990s, with local accompanists at each city ! It was quite a thrilling experience actually, come to think of it But these days
I am older, fatter, lazier and more complacent and laid back. So it would be more practical for You to come down to Trivandrum from 6 to 15th January than have me come there
I sort of stopped touring the U.S. since I found the schedule too tough. (Concerts + travel - sleep on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and nothing to do and nowhere to go from Monday to Thursday.) I did sing there a bit during the early 1990s, with local accompanists at each city ! It was quite a thrilling experience actually, come to think of it But these daysI am older, fatter, lazier and more complacent and laid back. So it would be more practical for You to come down to Trivandrum from 6 to 15th January than have me come there
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devi
- Posts: 196
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 18:16
prashant wrote:Any chance of that kApi showing up as a commercial recording? It was beautiful...
Again posting another Kapi from Varma Ji. And YES this time it s veena. Thanks again to Musiquebox!!!
The videos are from Kuthiramalika (Swathi Smruthi) 2005, Varmaji rendering Maharaja Swathi Thirunal Kriti 'Vihara manasa raame'. You can listen to a short explanation by Sir contrasting Kapi with Pilu followed by a spellbinding recital. Swarams following the kriti are unbelievably awesome!!!
Part 1
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=9KLfzWjhGXE
Part 2
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=OSIRbqzTdkQ
Part 3
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=v-fACMyRYt4