And we had a talk.

Me: "Wait for a while. ARR's music will sink in slowly."

He: "But i've never had to wait for Raja sir's music to sink in."

Me: "Uh. True"

Sachin vittu pogum naal, athu, Cric-kettu pogum naal!

Cricket will have its Black day when the master leaves the field and calls it quits, but never will he leave our hearts. He will not only be remembered for his uncountable tally of runs and his mammoth number of centuries and for his contribution to the game, but for the man he was and all the delight that he brought to us by merely watching him on the field. On that day, however, Cricket will become Cricket again, for till then, Cricket was Sachin!

"It strikes me that there is a whole generation of Indian cricket fans who are, say, in their mid- or late- 20s, and recall no Indian cricket other than that dominated by Tendulkar. They will, once he goes, realize the strangeness of not having him there. They will deal with the awful vacuum. And they shall speak to the future generations of what it was like to have him around" - HT

Oru vaasal moodi, maru vaasal veipaan. IRAIVAN.

I was travelling in the roads of Bangalore. This incident made me feel soft. I reached one of the traffic signals where a poor woman was begging for alms. When she was nearing the car next to mine, the driver, who had the window open till then, without any care whatsoever shut it, waiting for her to leave. And then opened it almost immediately when she started walking away from the car. I felt, maybe God too sometimes does the same when we ask him for something.

Oru vaasal moodi, maru vaasal veipaan. IRAIVAN. or at least we believe so.

Dualism - My philosophy of music

Distinct, Unique, Independent. Yet Unseparable

When there is a battle or comparison between a prodigy and a skillful old-pro wizard, the battle is the winner and comparison- the loser. By no means is this article a comparison. It is again just a note of awe, devotion, reverence, respect, praise and love that I hold for these maestros. Also this is just my opinion, and it might not and more likely, will not comply with yours. When I listen to ARR, I feel he s the God. When I switch to Raja sir, I get the feel that he s the greatest. But the success of both these composers, I feel, lie in winning the hearts of listeners almost instantly, and convincing people that they are the best in business. Indian music is fortunate enough to have got Ilayaraja for the time he ruled. It was equally fortunate to get ARR at a time when Ilayaraja was leaving the stage. But on the whole, what they have given us, is a deep ocean to explore. And for us to explore, enjoy and admire every bit of it, I am afraid a lifetime may not be enough. What that has also done to people like me is, it has brought in a feel of contentment that this is all music is about, and a sense of belief that no music can be better or superior to the standards set by these two, thus making us lose out on other good music, if any. People live till their works and fans live. This makes these two legends immortal. However, if at all one wanted an empirical comparison between them, with some difficulty, thought and observation, I would confess Ilayaraja would get a few more points than Rahman. But, being a music lover that I am and a fanatic of Rahman and Raja sir, I shall be a Rahmaniac always devoted to Raja sir!

Simple. Yet Powerful. Yet Beautiful.

"Kaana thaane Kangal, Kanneer sintha illai
Vaazha thaane Vaazhkai, Veezhvatharku illai
Paada thaane Nenjam, Mounam enna enna
Vella thaane veeram, Kolvatharku illai"

Vairamuthu is nothing short of a poetic genius. And to pen down lyrics like these which live beyond decades, you got to be that. And you just cant ask more out of A.R.Rahman's soulful tune and the inspirational feel that he has given to these lines. All that is there to say is, gifted are these lines, to be given birth by Vairamuthu and to be immortalized by the maestro.

PS: I am not translating these lines cos, no way will i be able to bring out the actual feel of the lyric. And i dont wanna create a impression that the quality of these lines is average, cos its just not it So, Tams enjoy. Non-Tams, pray for another Vairamuthu to pen down in your language.

Shame on you Cricket.

Now that the FIFA world cup is done and over, we now are reassured about the fun and the excitement that the game can provide. On a lighter note, we had the Vuvuzelas, the Octopus, the Waka Wakas, the K'Naans, and the Vodafone ads to provide us with more entertainment, as if the high-intensity matches were not merely enough. A country like India staying awake to watch literally every match is a standing proof for this. That is the success of the game. It can make a country where football is played only in Computers and Playstations, follow the tournament like crazy. I feel, no other sporting game can reach even half this level. It would belittle Cricket if we compare the fan following of both the games. Half the globe doesnt even know that the game exists. All they might know about the game is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar! (For proof click "here" ). However, On a more serious note, after having looked at the intensity, patriotism, fanaticism and zeal with which the football was played throughout the tournament, the footballing nations would laugh if we told them that the Pakistanis fixed their cricket match in a WC final.

Having said all that, long live cricket. longer live Sachin :) :D

P.S: Cricket was compared to Football only cos I am Indian.

""Sachin? Who?"" ???

There is a popular story saying that wherever you go, you will find atleast ONE Sachin Tendulkar fan

Here is an interesting new story...!

SRT was telling Ricky Ponting one day, "You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them."

Ricky Ponting replied "OK Sachin, how about Tom Cruise?" "Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it" SRT said.

So SRT and Ricky Ponting fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door, and sure enough, Tom Cruise shouts "Oh The Master ! Great to see you! You and your friend come right in and join me for lunch!". Although impressed, Ricky Ponting is still skeptical.

After they leave Cruise's house, Ponting tells SRT that he thinks Cruise knowing SRT was just lucky. So Ponting asks SRT to prove it once more. SRT says. "President Bush?", Ponting quickly retorts. "Yes", SRT says, "He knows me, let's fly out to Washington". And off they go. At the White House, Bush spots SRT on the tour and motions him, saying, "Little Champ, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let's have a cup of coffee first and catch up". Well, Ponting is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced.

After they leave the White House grounds, he expresses his doubts to SRT who again implores him to name anyone else. "The Pope?", Ponting replies. "Sure!" says SRT, "Some of my fans are from Poland and the Pope knows me too". So off they fly to Rome.

SRT and Ricky Ponting are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when SRT says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, All the guards are my fans. So let me just go upstairs and I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope." And he disappears into the crowd headed toward the Vatican.

Sure enough, half an hour later SRT emerges with the Pope on the balcony. But by the time Sachin returns, he finds that Ricky Ponting has had a Heart Attack and is surrounded by paramedics.

Working his way to Ponting's side, SRT asks him, "What happened?"

Ricky Ponting looks up and says, "I was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man next to me said who's that on the balcony with Sachin?"

(Old Wine in a New Bottle....remake of a similar story... Source: Unknown)

Ignis Fatuus

In the middle of a barren desert. No1 s asleep. Its a chilly night. Late night. Real late. Ppl are talking in loud voices. The loudest that they are capable of. Different genres of music is jamming all around the place. All at the same time. Heavy metal, Rap, Old classical, Hip hop. I felt, the lateness of the night is not making much of a difference to us. The loudness is deafening. I, though, can distinctly listen to Rahman, even amidst all this chaos. Call it concentration? No way. I am not even paying attention to whats playing. Now, I focus on the music properly. And to my astonishment, I dont find any Rahman playing at all. But I am damn sure, I still can hear it. I can listen. I can feel it. What do I call this? Its just gotten too much into my system.

The Avalanche has begun, yet again!

If at all people like me still watch the game of Cricket, its cos of him. From a little kid when asked what he wanted to do when he grew up replied with a naive, simple and straightforward historic reply, “I Want To Play Cricket”, who had the raw passion toward the game, to a young matured man who changed the approach to the game single handedly, to an elderly godfather in the team, the aggression, the passion, the dominance, the consistency, the hunger to succeed has not diminished a bit! The aggression might have changed in manner but not in magnitude.

Smoothness of the Storm

The Piano is one instrument where the room for error is absolutely ZERO. It requires guts to perform a piano recital in front of a huge learned audience, and a few other million ppl following you from all around the globe. And an unplugged version with the Piano requires more than just guts. If at all there is some1 who could do it with such perfection, it would be none other than the maestro himself! He, yet again, proves himself with his soulful music, divine chords and a flawless performance. I doubt whether i will get to listen to a better unplugged medley than this. When you close your eyes and listen to this, the feel is even more heavenly. 4 highly talented singers: SPB-do i need to say even a word about him?; Hariharan- with all his improvisations; Sujatha- with her gifted expertise and a pitch-perfect singing; Kavita Krishnamoorthy- with her voice of an angel , you literally get drenched in Music. n music lovers who dont get to listen to this, you would have missed something very SPECIAL!

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Believe it or not!

I had wanted to write about Sachin for a long time. So here i go. But i wish i had something else to write instead of this! Right from my childhood days, i have been very fortunate. I have had the opportunity to meet and spend some quality time with A.R.Rahman and Sachin very frequently. . . . . . .*in my dreams*! Most of them have been very exciting, some weird, some crazy and a few funny ones as well. In recent times, some of them seem to come true as well! I guess I have developed an ESP of late!

Dream1 : India vs SL- I has watchin the 4th day of the test match till late night. I knew Sachin would bat the next day, and i had this dream of Sachin getting his century off the last ball of the 5th day's play, n guess wat?, yes he did get his century just a few minutes before play ended. Had it been any other batsman in his 90s, the captain wouldn have cared for him, n play would have been called off! But, this time it was Sachin! So no1 dared to call off play even when they knew that the game was heading nowhere!

Dream 2 (read as nightmare) : India vs Bangladesh- Bangladesh was batting, or were at least trying to bat! n I, as usual, was watching the game till late night. Now, this night's was really weird. I had gone skiing in NJ a few days back. n here in Raleigh, my friends n me had planned to go skiing again. So probably that had gotten inside my mind, so that night it was me n Sachin going skiing! We were having a race, n i beat Sachin at it!! Apparently Sachin had tripped over n hurt his arm! I had this customary practice of checking Cricinfo for the news even before i get up from my bed. I was shocked to see that Sachin had injured his shoulder while attempting a catch!

Dream 3 (read as nightmare) : India vs SA- Ya right, u know what i was doing-watching the match till late night. SA were 2 down for almost nothing on the scoreboard. But then, some inspired batting had taken them to 550 odd. I regret having slept that night! I had a dream of Sachin scoring a boundary and getting out the very next ball! However, the scoreboard in my dream read India-233/7, n then eventually 640 all out thanks to ZAK n Bhajji. Sachin's dismissal came true. 200 odd/7 came true. But, unfortunately the 640 all out didnt!

I wouldn mind staying sleepless all night, if only i knew i would have such NIGHTMARES!

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Man's Godly invention

Talk about invention, Man has come up with innumerous inventions. But, none as divine as the Flute, at least according to me. I am not gonna write about the technicalities of the Flute, or its evolution over the period, or anything even remotely related to it. To be frank, I dont know about all that. This is just a simple and 'straight-from-the-heart' love letter from me, to the Flute!

Nothing pleases and elevates me to heaven as the sound of Flute does. I, eccentrically, have this syndrome of getting extremely excited whenever I hear a mild sound of a tune thats played on the Flute. And when its a ARR's or Ilayaraja's tune, its just an icing on the cake! From all the very little music that I have listened to, I would say that no one has used the divine invention to a greater effect than the elder Maestro! But then, the God of Music is not all that far behind. Again, when the God makes use of it, its Innovative divinity! When u listen to 'Yamunai Aatrile', 'How to name it', 'Chinna Kannan Azhaikiraan' and certain BGM pieces of 'Hey Ram', 'Nayagan', 'Pallavi AnuPallavi', 'Olangal', 'Veedu' and other stuff, u will know whats divinity. When u listen to 'Thikkuruvi', 'Poovukkena Pootu','Kandukondaein Kandukondaein', 'Thee Thee', 'Kathal Rojave', 'Worldspace theme', and other stuff, u will come to know the meaning of Innovative Divinity!!

Ok, I am not here to justify the greatness, excellence, grace and nobility of the two geniuses. That would be like trying to justify an universal truth. I just wanted to explain the heavenliness of the sound to people who didnt know about it, to just do my part to tell ppl to listen carefully to the instrument the next time they happen to listen to it, and to share my eternal love toward the Flute!

My small tribute to the Flute-

Unbearable sound is Noise.

Bearable Noise is Sound.

Pleasing Sound is Music.

Divine Music, I call it the Flute!!!

Fake CSE-A Student...Tring-Trings and Taan-Taans!!!

I was wondering what to write about. Just then, my friend called me to discuss some important topic about my project. I was blank till then. Then it suddenly struck me. No, not about the project, but about my topic to write about! Our phone calls and messages during our College-Life (the word ‘College-Life’ was used just to make Buttocks smile J ) !

I needn write down the characters now, cos the character names are more popular than their original names now :P

Alexander Graham Bell would have never invented the phone had he known we were all gonna use it some day! Especially if he had KNOWN where Buttocks would keep his PHONE (oh wasn’t it a kavithai? Thnku.. Thnku fr the whistle J)! That’s an insult to Alexander Bell! That’s almost like having Bell himself in the buttocks! First I was damn annoyed with Buttocks as he never used to attend my calls. But then I found out that he always had his phone in silent mode and you all know where he used to keep his phone. So whenever I called, when his phone vibrated, it never struck him. He blamed it on his heavy lunch! When I messaged, he blamed it on his breakfast! He thought, lesser the intensity and the duration of the vibration, smaller the meal that was responsible for it!

BT was the first guy to have a Ngage. That was the time when he started assigning ringtones to ppl very intelligently. As I had already written about this, when some gal called it used to sing Jaane tu; some other gal, some other romantic song; cometh Arun/Balaji’s call, it sang Ella pugazhum; n when we called, it was Nokia’s default tanananana tone; n when Buttocks called, it would automatically divert it to the voicemail! And all the gfs of BT had supercool names in his phone. He had the complete catalog of Vijay’s movies in his phone, not in his memory card, but in his contact list. ‘Madurai calling’! I thought some1 from Madurai was calling him, but it was some1 right behind me giving a missed call to BT. Another game, which BT thought was damn cool was giving missed calls to ppl and annoying them during class hours. Gym was known for his famous ringtones! Some of them were ‘shoe’-‘shoe’-maari, hara hara sambho and other not-even-close-to-bearable stuff. I guess he did all that just to bug me L ! Omg, I don’t even know how one could choose that as a ringtone! I suppose Sleeping Beauty would have put in a lot of thought in buying his cell phone. It was well chosen and bought. Like himself, his phone would respond only after 20 minutes! Before even u could type 1 small reply, BT would have finished chatting with ‘Cool’, ‘Ghilli’, 'Cute', 'Nice', ‘Lucky’ and a few other girls.

Superstar and Music’s phone were like doing injustice to Alexander Bell. They were never used for making calls or sending messages. To be frank, no1 called/msgd them; and when they called/msgd, no1 responded. Their primary use was to listen to Music. SS had Harris’s discography in it. Music had ARR’s discography in it. The sad thing about Music and SS’s phones were, their phones were used just in the morning to inquire where the train was, and whether Music and SS would be able to make it to the 3^rd hour class!UN used his phone only when India played cricket! He had a phone just to inquire about the scores and update us!

Chiru was the most sought-after guy on a windy day when one had a lot of papers around! His phone could be used as a paper-weight! See how kind I am to even call it a phone! It required special skills to even unlock Chiru’s keypad! Chiru’s inbox was a collection of forwards and jokes which he used to browse 3 times a day.

And now comes the introduction of our hero, LM. LM was one guy who had mastered the art of ‘lock keypad-unlock keypad’! I just told you abt the renaming stuff that BT did. But no1 can beat our LM. I have never seen creativity exhibited more creatively than LM! The other day, when I was having LM’s phone, some1 had called, it said 100 calling! I was shocked. I thought it was the police. LM was one guy who was very capable of getting calls from the police! So I couldn rule out the chance of the police really calling him. I ran all the way to him and told him the matter. He just gave me a naïve smile and told me it was Nooruddin Mohd. From EEE dept! “Noor” = “100”!! Wow. I even doubt whether, Mr. Tamil, the Mylapore man, Thiruvalluvar could have thought of it!. Tats wat I meant by creative creativity! Another instance is, once one of my friends wanted to buy an economic and fuel efficient car. I suggested him REVA. He wanted the contact number of the showroom. I remembered seeing REVA's number in LM's phone and gave my friend the number. He called, and ended up speaking to Mrs. REVAthy Purushothaman!!!!

Pookutty was a Yellow Pages book! Whenever our staff forgot to get their attendance register with them, they would borrow Pookutty’s phone. He had the names and numbers of every single guy/gal in the class! I, on the other hand, didn’t even know some of the guys in the class! Also, Pookutty had around 1,56,789 songs in his 128 mb card. Only thing being that u needed a 20000 dB amplifier to listen to it. They were all stored in compressed format.

I don’t know how all our guys use their phones now, but all I know is, Buttocks still seems to hate Mr. Bell! Though he now has an iphone, the place where he keeps it is still the same. One funny incident that I would like to share before I sign off is this. A week ago, Buttocks happened to call me. I picked up the phone and imitated my voice mail and said, “Hi, U ve reached Music, I am currently unavailable. Pl leave ur name, num and msg, Ill get back to u shortly” and yes Buttocks did leave a message!!!

When My Life Was Average

Morn 830 class. Comfortably seated in d last row, I was yawning. The Prof. says "Some ppl are already sleepy........." I was abt to apologize. The Prof. then adds, just in time, ".........in the first row" !!!

Everything is fair with ARR

Talk about reusing and recycling. Sounds good?, not so much when it comes to Music. U might call it repetition. U might even call it Plagiarism. But, it all depends on who reuses/recycles/repeats it! When it is the Boss himself, everything is fair! He s got that Midas touch, which makes even the repetition sound so beautiful and leaves me awestruck! The other day, I was watching this movie Roja. I was watching it for the 3rd time I guess, but this time i noticed something new and exciting. There was this scene where the Heroine's sister is betrothed to the Hero. And there goes a mild and melodious BGM. The tune seemed so familiar to me, but I could not recognize it distinctly. On repetitive hearing, I discovered that it was the very tune that has been on repeat mode in my playlist for quite so many days. 'Telephone Manipol'/'Telephone Dhun Mein Hasne Wali' from the movie 'Indian'/'Hindustani', it was! Had it been any other Music director, I would have damned it as plagiarism or shortage of ideas and tunes! This time, though, I applaud it as 'Work of a Genius'!

Bliss by the Boss

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Sometimes, ppl ask me, whats special in Arr's Music. I always say its ineffable. Its gotta be felt. I say his Music has got this thing called Innovative Divinity! They asked me to define 'Innovative Divinity'. These videos were my answer! n, If u are an Atheist, I am sorry!, just blame it on the Music!

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Oh Music, Happy B'daay!!!!

Symbolic representation!-Happy bday Music(PS-Music is a noun here!!)

Ungal first padamo Roja

Jodha Akbar la engalku pidichathu Khwaja!

Neenga music compose pannuveenga Range aa

Athanala than neenga industry ke Raaja!!

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Vayaluku poduvaanga Veli

Unga isaiku ezhudrathu Vaali!

Unga paata ketta engalku Jolly

Athanala than naanga kekrom Daily!!

Jaladosham ku poduvaanga Vicks

Music ku neenga use pannuvatho Digital mix!

Hindi la, unga latest hit, Delhi 6

Athanala thaano unga bday January 6!!

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Photo edukka pannanum Click-u

Magicians pannuvatho Trick-u!

Thayir saathathuku thottukalam Thokku

Naan ketta first song, ungal Chikku Bukku!!

Grains store panra edam Granary

Garden la enga paarthaalum Greenery!

Neenga poranthadu January

Unga music iruntha, ennaikum engalku No-Worry!!

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Neenga padichatho Trinity University

Aana, Unga best trait, ungal simplicity!

Neenga adikadi povatho London and New York City

Unnal perumai kondadu Madras city!!

Ulagengum, ungal album Virkum

Insomniac ku kooda, un melody ketta thookum Sokkum!

Unga paatu ketta, paranthu pogum Dhukkam

Ungal music irunthaal, heaven engalku romba Pakkam!!

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Madras la iruku Marina

Ungal sister peru Rehanna!

Ungal latest paatu Hosanna

Engalku therinja music la neenga thaana!!

Party la ellarum adipatho beer, whiskey and rum.

Engalku bothai eruvatharku kaaranam, ungal Vanthey Mataram!

Athanal, engalku patriotism vanthatho romba Seekaram

Innum pala album, naanga ethir Paarkarom!!

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Turban kattina Tamil poet, Bharatiyaar

Puratchi kalaignarin peyar MGR!

Isai ulagin puyal ARR

Ungalai vittaal engalku Yaar? Yaar? Yaar?!!!!!

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--By The Craziest Rahmaniac Ever!!!!