Hilarity in kutcheris

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 01 Mar 2009, 17:34

With the hope that rasikas will enjoy and continue to post, I am starting this subject. Let me begin with two stories,which I have already posted in different threads
Chembai's humour .This story was narrated to me about 50 years back and it has appeared in a Tamil magazine recently
C hembai was performing at mumbai, specially devoting the kutcheri to all the kshetras and the presiding deities, the audience was in tears hearing him singing with so much of bhakti and bhava. about their native places and the deities
one of the listeners asked him to sing about bombay. chembai replied 'oh ,besha padalame'
He started singing ''adu bombay, magishndadu bambe, arabikadal orathile nalla bambe, mahalakshmi koil konda selva bombay '' Need I tell you about the crowd's reaction.
TVS is audience friendly, as you all know. In a performance,as soon as he finished varnam, a listener who does not know much about kutcheri format, got up and shouted 'eppo varuvaro padungo' TVS coolly said 'wait pannungo. innum redu mani neram kazhichu than varuvar.
Friends pl continue with such humorous episodes' GOBILALITHA

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 01 Mar 2009, 20:21

Gobilalitha,
Not only did TVS come out with a hilarious answer, he also did perhaps help that person in becoming a better rasikA--by making him appreciate CM by sitting through the concert to the end. Interesting how newbies become diehards because of their various experiences...

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 01 Mar 2009, 23:15

Balu mama, that Chembai quote was hilarious! I've never heard it before though I'm well aware of his wit. Of course, there's the famous story of the wedding concert where Chembai was singing and somebody wanted his son to accompany on the mrudangam, and after the concert when Chembai was asked why he didn't give the boy a thani, he replied, "But he was playing a thani throughout the concert!"

Keep it coming.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 01 Mar 2009, 23:53

Chembai had such joi de vivre. That 'tani' is really funny!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Mar 2009, 00:50

That thani quip by Chembai is top notch. Quite funny

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 02 Mar 2009, 01:02

A singer sang appa rAma bakthi, as sub main in thyagaraja aradhana series. As it was a bit late, the main became a it short... the violinist told me, that he thougt panthuvarALi was main..

I said, "thayagarajarE, rAma bakthiya thAn 'main' -aa pAdeerukkAr.. ivA sub main-aa pAdeetaa... paravAyilla..."

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 02 Mar 2009, 01:05

once, UKS sir stayed in a house, where there was no mat, spread or table put for dining... He said, "mrudangam vAsikka enakku iru kai pOdhum... AnA, sAppidaNumnA, pala-kai vENum"

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Mar 2009, 01:55

erode, nice. UKS, the layaspinner, is quite a punner.

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 02 Mar 2009, 02:59

you can find a good collection of CM related funny stuff here:
http://www.karnatik.com/jokes.shtml

An example:
M.S. Gopalakrishnan was accompanying Ariyakkudi. The master musician was apparently annoyed by the violinist's taking too many liberties, so he said : "Nee paaTTukku vAsichindrukkaye, konjum en paaTTukkum vaasI pA!!" (you're playing for the song, but play a little for MY song!)

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 02 Mar 2009, 08:36

Yes, yesteryear's musicians had pun and fun. Some contemporary ones too, I guess--look at Erode, one of the resident pun masters!
They had plenty of leisure to sit around and shoot the breeze, unlike today's vidvAns who rush from place to place, catching a train or plane soon after a concert. All those wedding concerts, staying at the homes of patrons for days on end during festivals, gathering and gabbing, along with veTRilai chewing! Except in a few cases, it is true music comes hand in hand with stimulating conversation and humor.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 02 Mar 2009, 08:44

Erode sir, that was rather funny (your quip and UKS sir's)!

viswam · Post by **viswam** » 02 Mar 2009, 10:50

this poor listener had to endure the nerve cracking wrath of the 80+ Maami ,for disturbing her excited talk abt the 'menu list' in the music academy canteen ,by keeping the tala for a concert inside the academy.

She was expecting a sincere audience from me like the rest of the Maamis who were blissfully lost in their world of kkerai vadais and kaashi halwas while the poor artist was churning out some great phrases in Kamboji!!

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 02 Mar 2009, 12:55

T.K.Murthy sir and auto drivers....

1. Once, mama was looking for an auto from central to mylapore.
The auto man demanded too much money.

Mama asked,

"why are you demanding this much for mylapore?

"its raining..... thats why....", said the auto man.

Mama said ok and got into auto.... when the driver was about to start the auto, mama said...

"Yei.... wait untill it stops raining"

Auto man : ????

2. while returning from AVM studios after a recording, the auto driver asked for 100rs to go to thiruvanmiyur...

sir : yedhukku pa 100rs..?

auto driver : gaaliya thirumbi varanum sir...

sir : parava illa... nee thiruvanmiyur laye irundhudu... 50rs vaangikko...

auto driver : ???

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 02 Mar 2009, 13:40

Brilliant sir - keep em coming! There is one about Bhimsen Joshi who was known to have a fondness for the "finer things" in his youthful days....in one of those "moods", the maestro walked up on stage behind a performing instrumentalist, and bowed to the crowd which cheered him lustily. The instrumentalist, who had no idea about Panditji presence, was quick to attribute the applause to his own wizardry and acknolwedge his gratitude with another deep bow! Not to be outdone, Panditji came back to the stage for an encore by which time the audience was in splits...

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 02 Mar 2009, 14:11

Sooo, do these auto driver tricks work? I need to try them out because I always get taken for a ride by them (no pun intended)...

Bhimsen Joshi's repeated bowing is rather funny!

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 02 Mar 2009, 14:36

The episode below is courtesy of Shri T R Rajamani (son of Shri Palghat Mani Iyer)

http://bellurramki18.wordpress.com/cate … bulakshmi/

I have done a cut & paste for the benefit of readers:

Quote:

"There was this concert of Smt.M.S.Subbulakshmi that Chembai went to attend with his wife in a Sabha in Madras. The organisers wanted Chembai to felicitate M.S. by garlanding and blessing her. Chembai did not know what to say, so he asked the organizers to find out whether he garlanding M.S. was objectionable to her. M.S. said that she did not find it objectionable in any way. When Chembai heard this, he said “So she does not have any objection. But ask Sadasivam (M.S.’ husband) whether he has any objection to my garlanding her.” The organizers came back to report that Sri Sadasivam did not have any objection either. Chembai said “So M.S. has no objection, Sadasivam has no objection. Now let’s ask my wife whether she has any objection.” When his wife (Smt. Meenakshi Ammal), who was generally quite reticent in nature, conveyed her no-objection, Chembai observed, “So MS has no objection, Sadasivam does not object, and my wife also does not object, but I do object! She has my blessings but I will not garland her.”

Unquote.

Incidentally the latest book by Gowri Ramnarayan, “MS & Radha - Saga of Steadfast Devotion” carries a delightful photograph of this incident with a smiling Chembai waiting with a Garland in hand on the stage and addressing the audience with MS and accompanists in splits over his comments. !!

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 02 Mar 2009, 14:44

A typical Somu concert, started by 11.45 pm and continued till 4 am. By 3.30am as my mother got up to go home, he just stopped midway and said "ukkArungo , aduthadu kapi than" . (sit down , next is kApi).

At the fag end of a 3 hr concert, Santhanam was getting requests thick and fast. After obliging a couple of rasikas, he finished with "vilayAda ithu nerama"

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 02 Mar 2009, 14:54

Sanjay @ Vani Mahal last year. Mysore Nagaraj played a scintillating Shubhapanthuvarali response in kalpana swaras with a brief Adu pAmbE interlude and Sanjay, beaming with pleasure, pointed to Nagaraj and broke in: "nAgarAjar...AnAl visham kidayAdu" (Nagaraja, but he's not poisonous). The hall broke into laughter. I'm sure there are more Sanjay anecdotes- he seems to have a good sense of humour as well.

Niranjan Damle · Post by **Niranjan Damle** » 02 Mar 2009, 16:40

hello everyone, the humour in musicians is truly hilarious to witness!! though some of the posts were in tamil (which i do not fully understand), i can relate to the humour! i am a flautist and have a collection of some of Flute Mali's live concerts (audio). in one such concert of the 70s in Mumbai, TN Krishnan is accompanying Mali. During the alapana of begada raga, Mali demostrates some flashes of his mastery on the flute...... in turn expecting the same to be played by TN Krishnan. But when it goes too far, TN Krishnan stops playing and just waits.....

then starts a full-fledged on-stage conversation. he goes on to say in his typical tamil "some notes that you can play on flute, can't be played on violin and viceversa". to this, Mali replies "of course, there is a range of possibilities. but i'm playing what can be played on violin". TNK says "no, but i can't agree to that" and continues "now i will play few lines and you follow" then he starts a line and moves on till the second higher octave (ati thara)......... mali follows him toe-to-toe but in mandra and thaara only........ at this TNK quips "avalada, avalada". Finally the argument ends by TNK saying "let's not quarell but lets play happily together" to which mali says "not quarell. it's all just thamashe i say". i wonder what fun the audience might have had listening to this whole thing live!!!

look fwd to hear more such humorous stories!

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 02 Mar 2009, 17:04

Expecting coolji to unload his basket ! gobilalitha

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 02 Mar 2009, 19:12

pganti · Post by **pganti** » 02 Mar 2009, 19:30

good heavens..adithathu kapi daan was just fantastic.....

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 02 Mar 2009, 20:13

Although ragam-talam gave the link to karnatik,
I have to mention these jokes:
M.S. Gopalakrishnan, violinist, was accompanying Viswanatha Iyer (or perhaps Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar). As MSG usually does he went to the upper octave and even higher, the vocalist remarked "pAtthu Gopala, romba mela pohAda. Bridge irukku, kezha vizhunduda pora" (Careful, Gopala, don't go too high. There's the bridge - on the violin - you might fall off!).

In a Trichur. V. Ramachandran concert, there was a man on the thamburaa... he seemed to be moving away from the vocalist for some wierd reason and V.R. was patiently asking him to come forward so he could listen to the thambura sruthi better... this was going on for almost more than an hour... then an impatient V.R. sang "sonnadhei seidhidaDa"

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Mar 2009, 23:56

At the fag end of a 3 hr concert, Santhanam was getting requests thick and fast. After obliging a couple of rasikas, he finished with "vilayAda ithu nerama"

I was a witness to that tamasha from Santhanam at the Ayodhya Mandapam around 11:30 P.M. ( ~1980-81 ) . That was quite well timed and the audience had a good laugh.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 03 Mar 2009, 03:40

Borrowing from the rasikapriya group where someone has written about an incident where Chembai had just started a concert and concluded a grand rendition of the Bhairavi varnam, whereupon the organiser got up to urge Chembai to sing his best that day. In response, Chembai remarked, "For the remuneration I'm getting, singing the Bhairavi varnam is more than enough. The rest springs from my devotion for Rama" or something to that effect. That was a nice way to deal with such a comment I thought. Not exactly hilarious but still interesting.

kamalamba · Post by **kamalamba** » 03 Mar 2009, 03:41

This was in Sanjay's Brahma Gana Sabha concert december last season.

The organizers had not kept water on stage for the artistes.

Sanjay requested and got 2 mineral water bottles.

Sanjay then remarked, "Innum NAlu bottle anuppongO; economic meltdown ithulayumA?"

kamalamba · Post by **kamalamba** » 03 Mar 2009, 03:46

Along the lines of Santhanam's "vilayAda Idhu NEramA"

in one concert in the US (Atlanta, I think), BMK was inundated with requests.

He then said "NirayA pAdalgal pAadanumnnu enakkum Asai thAn; AnAl ithallAm pAda--------------oru nAL pOdhumA"

fuddyduddy · Post by **fuddyduddy** » 03 Mar 2009, 03:59

i remember laughing for some jokes by sowmya too though unfortunately i cant remember the actual anecdote. she does have a good sense of humor!
the chembai jokes do seem so hilarious...
but i wonder if current day artistes responded similarly, whether people would take it in the right spirit as humor or if it would spin off pages and pages of venting of how head weighted he/she is....

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 03 Mar 2009, 08:19

kamalamba wrote:Along the lines of Santhanam's "vilayAda Idhu NEramA"

in one concert in the US (Atlanta, I think), BMK was inundated with requests.

He then said "NirayA pAdalgal pAadanumnnu enakkum Asai thAn; AnAl ithallAm pAda--------------oru nAL pOdhumA"

I have heard Sri BMK use the similar joke in Sydney. It was a late starting concert - 8pm and he had requested an interval as well. Towards the end of the concert the clock clicked over past midnight and he mentioned this saying, since it was the next day "oru nAL pOdhumA?", before launching into the song. He also joked that since he had agreed for a concert on a certain date and now he was performing on two days he should get paid for two concerts

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 03 Mar 2009, 10:45

kamalamba wrote: BMK was inundated with requests.
He then said "NirayA pAdalgal pAadanumnnu enakkum Asai thAn; AnAl ithallAm pAda--------------oru nAL pOdhumA"

balE, balE.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 03 Mar 2009, 10:57

m surprised that no Semmangudi mama incidents are yet quoted here...

is it because, they are all well known?

gowri narayanan · Post by **gowri narayanan** » 03 Mar 2009, 12:59

A violin vidwan happened to travel with MDR . He told MDR that he was returning after a solo performance. MDR quipped "Hopefully the performance was not so low".

A disciple had just joined SSI on scholarship. One morning SSI wanted her to get him some
"sa theertham". the lady who had spent considerable time in the North promptly went to the kitchen and returned with a cup of tea. SSI then explained to her that it was not chai he wanted and that sa theertham means the water in which old cooked rice had been soaked.

coolkapali · Post by **coolkapali** » 03 Mar 2009, 13:56

I have heard this SSI incident. Once he performed at some auditorium. He wanted the A/C switched off as it was affecting his voice. After a few minutes a gentleman got up from the audience and requested to mama, "Please let the AC be switched on. Lot of mosquitos are coming in as the door is open." Mama replied...." Kindly put up with it........The mosquitos are biting all of you I know. But look at me....It is not only biting me all over but even my hair less head." The audience am sure would have laughed their hearts out.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 03 Mar 2009, 14:39

SSI was examining students in college and one lady was completely shredding mInAkshi mEmudam (I think) to pieces and SSI hastily stopped her and gave her a pass. When questioned he replied, "I couldn't have let her go on much longer, God would've gotten angry!"

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 03 Mar 2009, 14:55

The famous Airport concert of Sri SSI is renowned for both the awesome quality of the music [harikAmbOdhi, Anandabhairavi, sriranjani, mukhAri, kharaharapriyA, varALi etc are treated expansively with the master in dominating form egged on by LGJ, Sankaran and THV] as well as the perfect timing of the jokes:

'vanduTTan asuran' - the first time a flight takes off.
'kAdu repair Agartukku konja nEram Agarudu' - the second time
'inniku enna speciala viDarALa' the next time
'ivanukkum oru Avartanam kuDukkaNam pola irukkE'
'ivA strike notice kuDutu oDana nInga vecchirukkaNam inda series a' etc etc...

The remarkable thing is that the music would continue in full flow the moment the plane had sped away. There is one more priceless SSI Thatha moment here:

'nAn enna cinema artiste A, ippiDi nInga koNDu kuDuttunDirukkELE?' - when presented with a chit, and then immediately moving into an epic kSINamai [which must have been requested].

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 03 Mar 2009, 15:03

SSI when asked to sing a slOkam about 3 hours into a concert: 'bEshA pADarEn, romba pEr shAppaDAma iruppALO, adu dAn kavalai enakku'

After an mind-blowing yamunAkalyANi and sahAnA in the same slOka [shringAram], when LGJ is a little slow to respond after the sahAnA [he took his time to respond after the yamunAkalyANi too prompting a 'vAshIngO yA' from SSI], SSI gives a resounding sniff and repeats 'vAshIngO yA' followed by the pricless, 'avarum pAvam dinam vAshiCCinDu varAr, nAnga ellArum shEndu dAn vandukkuNDirukkOm, avar enna machine A?' followed by another resounding sniff before handing the stage back to LGJ...

In this viruttam, LGJ's yamunakalyANi is the stuff dreams are made of.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 03 Mar 2009, 16:30

Yeah the Airport Concert has been institutionalized in CM lore - probably the most famous/talked about concert ever...the Sholay of Carnatic Music...

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 03 Mar 2009, 20:09

I've heard the tani thing with ARI.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 03 Mar 2009, 21:25

Once at Trivandrum during a concert of SSI the MC went for a loong-winding speech whence quite a few sitting in the audience got restless and left. Finally he finished and said to SSI 'inimE nI^Nga paaDu^NgO' (now you may sing).
SSI replied in almost a disgusted voice 'kEkkaRavA irunthAtthAnE paaDa muDiyuM' (I can sing only if there are listeners left).
Of course many came back later and SSI gave a scintillating concert!

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 04 Mar 2009, 09:39

blackadder · Post by **blackadder** » 04 Mar 2009, 17:52

The name of this Music College Principal escapes me at the moment but in response to a request from some students to teach them ragamalika he retorted, "neenga ellathayum appadithaney padarel".

And then there is this MVI special (cannot vouch for its authenticity): MVi was just leaving the Academy when SSI fell at his feet. MVI said, "pdoum ezhuduru. ellarum paarthachu".

sindhupriya · Post by **sindhupriya** » 04 Mar 2009, 18:59

SSI presided over a function organised to felicitate Dr Padma Subramanyam who was awarded the 'Kalidas Samman'. The award carried a cash prize of rupees one lakh. During his speech SSI remarked, "Yenakku indha award 1981 la kudutha. Indira Gandhi (then PM) kaiyaala kodukkanumnnu aaru maasam wait panni kudutha. Naan nenaichu paarthen oru laksha rooba aaru maasthaukku vaddi yenna aagarthu?

(They gave me this award in 1981 and waited six months to get Smt. Indira Gandhi to give them an appointment to preside over the award function. I thought, one lakh rupees for six months what about the intrest?)

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 04 Mar 2009, 19:29

This story was related by TRS a few years ago:
A famous artiste sang the Kambodhi kriti 'Chani todi' in his concert. At the end of the kutcheri, a major industrialist who was a big (financial) supporter of music in the city (but with little musical knowledge), walked up to the artiste and told him that his Todi piece was brilliant and was his personal favorite. To this the musician replied something on the lines of "I don't know about the Todi, but the other part must surely be your favorite!!"
(TRS said this in Tamil, so some of the humor is lost in translation)

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 04 Mar 2009, 19:52

Someone posted this in our forum quite a while back, hope I recall and paraphrase properly.

SSI was a thesis advisor to an University Doctarate program. There was a procedural glitch in the last minute: Only those with PHd's can sign off on the final thesis.
SSI seemed to have quipped: 'yAr yArkkellam doctorate kodukkareL, enakkum oNNu koduththudungo, prachanai theendudu' ("You are giving PHd left and right to all these people. Why don't you give me one first. Problem solved. ).

( The sarcasm and wit is set up by the tone of ''yAr yArkkellam', it is hard to portray that in writing )

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 04 Mar 2009, 20:16

VK
Honorary doctorates do not count as PhD in the university setup. They are just honorary titles. That is all.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 04 Mar 2009, 20:33

CML, ah.. you are letting truth stand in the way of good humor!!

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 04 Mar 2009, 21:14

Not really. SSI was the Principal of the Swati ThirunaaL Music Academy and he knew the University regulations quite well! He is not the type who will make a flippant statement even while joking! He was accorded the title 'RAjya sEvA nirata' by the Highness of Travancore which he prided more than even SK since it was given in honour of his fundamental research on SWati kritis.

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 05 Mar 2009, 00:18

Once, in a concert of TNS, in nanganallur, the organiser gave a lengthy speech, that too a major portion of his speech was about a concert happened in the previous day!

The concert resumed with TNS singing, "sAramaina mAtalendhu chAlu chAlu rA..."

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 05 Mar 2009, 02:35

Erode sir, what does the song mean?

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 05 Mar 2009, 03:44

prasant, that airport concert's mukhAri is definitely very special. At the end of a brilliant spell of svaras, semmanguDi mAmA says "appaDiyE pADinDE irukkAlAm pola irundudu". mAmA was probably in his peak. Those 10 years (1965-75) has concerts with mAmA's voice at best and then some how the old age took over.

A few years ago when sanjay was singing at SrI pArthasArathy svAmi sabhA (SPSS), a big tavil vidvan walked in the second or 3rd peice. karaikuDi mani and the ghatam vidvAn blasted through tani and obviously when it finished the tavil vidvAn requested for them to play some more. kAraikuDi maNi obliged. This tavil vidvAn instead of listening to the tani started talking to the person sitting next to him. karakuDi maNi finished the tani again. The tavil vidvAn continued to talk. Sanjay with smile on his face started, ini yenna pEchhirukkudu.

Same year BMK mAmA was honored by SPSS. mAmA as usual was very ethusiastic. He first gave a treat to his oratorical skills and then to his mastery over kaNakku svarAs. Even the flute accompaniment couldn't return certain sangathis and svarA phrases. BMK mAmA generally sings about 2 hours or so. It was 925 pm on the clock. mAmA looked at the sabhA secretary and asked mangaLam pADalAmA. Immediately, some one from the audience shouted, aSTapadi pAdungO (please sing an aSTapadi) to which he quipped maNi ombodara agardhu ippo aSTapadi pAdinA kaSTapadiyA irukkum (Its already 930 pm. If I sign an aSTapadi now, it will be painful for you). But mAmA gave us a treat, a dessert for a 3 course meal. rAdhikA kRSNa followed by rAmachandrAya mangALam.