M S Subbulakshmi.. will we ever have another one?

do i have the right to write anything about MS?

every time i listen any recording of hers, i feel that the sublime music ferries me to a different world. a beautiful and divine world. a world filled with bhakti. today, i was listening to her "bhavayami raghuramam" and felt compelled to write something about her.

what makes MS so special and endearing to everyone is that her music has the power to reach the heart of every person out there. she "connects" with the listener, and this is what makes her one of the greatest singers ever. i refrain from using the past tense because for me, MS is still very much alive. a lot has been written about MS, so whatever i write here is not something new. we don't talk about MS as just a singer. we talk about her as a great human being, an altruist in the true sense, the one with the god-given gift of a mellifluous voice. i also remember my grandmother telling me how people used to flock to MS concerts just to get a glimple of the queenly lady on the stage. however, her music resides at such lofty heights of both technicality and divinity that one doesn't need to know anything about her philanthropic nature, humility or anything else to fall at her feet and worship her. the profundity in her music makes everything else inconsequential.

for a long time i believed that sticking to the rule book of carnatic music while rendering krithis had nothing to do with the bringing out of either bhakti or bhava. as a kid, i never paid attention to bhava as such. as i grew up, all the people around me started telling me that i should put more emotion, more bhava, more expression into my singing. yet, my gurus never told me anything beyond clear diction, shruthi shuddham, swara shuddham, adherence to tala, and singing every sangathi twice. why? is it because they ignored bhava? they knew that bhava is something that cannot be taught, but is in fact something that comes along with the krithi. but the key is to render the krithi exactly the way it should be. and MS's rendition of every krithi is a standing example of this fact. her diction is perfect. her gamakas touch the exact frequencies at the exact speed and with precision. every sangathi is sung twice. every syllable of the sahitya falls perfectly at the same place in the tala, whichever sangathi she sings. the shruthi is perfect to digital accuracy. the tala metre is unwavering. and the bhava comes along with it. this is something that i realized after i started listening to her renditions closely. you first need to have perfection before any bhava can come out. trying to put bhava into your singing without strictly following the rule book will do nothing but dilute the krithi and do no justice to the reason the composer composed it in the first place. you definitely need to "feel" the lyrics when you sing a krithi, but the expression will never come out if you don't sing the sangathis perfectly. i remember my teacher telling me that if MS sang a krithi now and sang it again 20 years later, it would sound exactly the same. i looked at my teacher with a bewildered look because at that time i didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. but now i know. my teacher meant to say that the perfection would still be there, and so would the bhava.

her raga alapanas are perfectly structured. but a great exposition of a raga is something more than structural perfection. her exposition of the raga goes beyond the nuances, brikas and raga bhava. there is a certain grandeur in her sancharas, a certain augustness in her improvisation, and above all that, she makes it sound so easy. the brikas are there, but there are no "acrobatics", because she doesn't need any. the magic is already there. the same thing applies to her niraval as well. again, every syllable of the sahitya falls perfectly at the same place in the tala, and the sahitya bhava co-exists with the raga bhava. and above all, there is balance. nothing is in excess, be it swara kalpana or niraval.

what i have written about her now is nothing. but then, i don't have the right to talk about anything else. this is all i understand. for me, MS stands for tradition, purity and divinity. she is loved by one and all. she might not be amongst us today, but her music is so powerful that she is still alive.. very much alive...

And I am back...

Loneliness and boredom are the two main driving factors behind a blogger's urge to blog. I do not fall into the category of people who write blogs that contain "messages for the people". My blogs contain only one message; Lalit Subramanian is bored.

I take this opportunity to "fill the gap" for the sake of the reader, who, I believe, would not, in my next post, like to grope in the dark to pick up the strings that I never left. I mean, the reader always wants clarity. He does not want to learn new facts without knowing the status quo. So here goes...

At first, let me bring to the notice of the reader that I am not ignorant of the fact that I have hitherto not made a clear distiction between "blogs" and "posts". Let me not go ahead without acknowledging this fatheadedness on my part. I accept my ignorance not too blithely.

Alright then. I am now in the US of A with an F-1 visa. Technically I am described as "an alien authorized to work". This description has fascinated me in many ways. The "alien" part is very true, except for the fact that when I came here I looked at my surroundings as alien until this description made me realize that it is me that is alien to the surroundings and not vice versa.

The "authorized to work" part is more intriguing. It seems to me to be a very apt description of my current way of life. It looks as if I am here mainly to work rather than study. My statistics professor would agree with enthusiasm when I present him with figures like 6 hrs of work against 2 hrs of classes each day. Besides, I work at a food court, where the job fails to provide any food for the mind. But should I be complaining? It is this food court that takes care of my living expenses. Moreover, it is this job that has given me a graduate assistantship this semester. So "I am glad that I am this fortunate".

I have successfully(?) completed one semester and am almost midway through the second semester. I have taken 3 courses this semester. Currently I am so overloaded with homework that I have reached a point where I have stopped bothering about deadlines. I have actually started to dare forego deadlines in order to indulge in other activities such as sleeping and eating. And I do this purely to maintain my mental integrity. One hardly wishes to spend one's entire future in a lunatic asylum.

Has anyone of you tried writing a decent sounding blog when you are in class listening to a professor talk about a squid axon? Let me stop here before I lose it completely. I trust the reader is now sufficiently acquainted with the status quo. Adios for now...

as i set foot on US soil (part 2)

i trust that the reader has returned after a restful sleep, an invigorating shower and so forth to read this augmentation of the tale that i began relating in my previous blog...

as gayatri pointed out in her comment, i endeavored to maintain a nonchalant (for the want of a better term) disposition throughout the tense wait at the airport, chiefly by "cracking silly jokes" as put by gayatri very simply and effectively. and although her levels of patience must have soared to new heights, i am sure she would agree with me that the technique was more than effective in lightening the atmosphere. in fact, i even remotely remember the presence of a song on my lips as we rode to the hotel and checked in.

however, the atmosphere did not remain light for too long. it was one of those instances where one inadvertantly makes oneself look like a fool. imagine this scenario. A and B check into a hotel and are allotted rooms P and Q respectively. A agrees to meet B in 30 minutes at room Q so that they can proceed together to the buffet room for dinner. A then goes to his room, shaves, showers, dresses and leaves the room to meet B as planned. suddenly he realizes that he has forgotten the exact digits that Q is comprised of. you will now know exactly why i alluded to the instances that i alluded to when you learn that A knocked on the doors of rooms such R, S, T, and so forth trying to locate B, getting educated in pejoritives in the process, only to finally find B already on her way in the elevator to the buffet room!

dinner wasn't too bad, and the bed wasn't bad either. morning saw me fully reconditioned for the day. everything went smoothly as we checked in our bags and things and waited for the announcement to board the flight through cleveland via cincinnati, until we were told by the airline official that the flight was full and we couldn't get in! and our bags had already gone with the earlier flight! the events that followed consequently were dramatic and have been arranged chonologically below:

1. we look at the airline guy in disbelief.
2. the airline guy (let's call him mr. asterix, just for convenience) looks at us with a serious face but with a small sadistic smile playing on the corners of his lips.
3. a second official walks up and expresses concern, but simply walks off.
4. we try to plead our case.
5. we are told by mr. asterix that the boarding passes that we have are "standing" tickets (believe me, this is exactly how he described our boarding passes) and there is no way he can get us on the flight.
6. all of us see the flight taking off.
7. we look at each other in disbelief.
8. mr. asterix smiles.
9. a third official walks up and mumbles something about a direct flight to cleveland scheduled to leave in 5 minutes, and walks off.
10. we plead to mr. asterix to put us on the flight.
11. this time, ol' asterix looks at us in disbelief (tit for tat i guess... it was some relief!).
12. ol' asterix makes call to the captain of the flight and learns about exactly 2 vacancies on the flight.
13. good ol' asterix starts running.
14. we take the cue and copy him. we run in the order: good ol' asterix - self - gayatri.
15. as all of us achive a speed that would embarass athletes, a bus looms large. the automobile presumably was to take us to the imminent flight.
16. the automobile performs the function descibed in point #15. we reach the airplane, but only to see the door closing!
17. our dear pal asterix jumps out of the running bus (a proclivity i had hitherto observed only in passangers at indian railway stations and bus stops) and knocks on the door of the airplane.
18. the door opens (believe me.. all this is true) and we get in.
19. before asterix bids us good bye (read the following carefully because it shall be of importance later) he takes away our boarding passes.
20. the door closes.

the reader would now assume that all was well. i don't blame the reader. there is absolutely no way one would anticipate at this juncture that the flight would get cancelled and the passangers would come to learn that there were no other flights to cleveland departing that day! apparently someone had fiddled with the cargo door because of which it wouldn't close!

we found ourselves back on terra firma. an intense discussion between me and gayatri brought us to believe that we were practically helpless. more so because of the absence of boarding passes (refer above to point #19); we couldn't even prove to anyone that we were actually on the flight, even if we were to fight our case with the officials. there was only one thing that we could think of, namely, hunt for our old friend mr. asterix and reclaim our boarding passes.

and believe me, JFK is not the place to be in when you are in such a situation. we had to run all the way back to the terminal at which we had begun the running to get into the flight (refer above to point #13). i do not remember the exact time for which we were running, but it seemed like eternity. we did finally reach our destination and we also found good ol' asterix, but only to learn that he had destroyed the boarding passes long back!

following good ol' asterix's advice, we retraced our path to the place where we had gotten out of the flight. after about an hour's wait, we heard the announcement that the door had been fixed and the flight was reay to depart!

and the reader would again undoubtedly assume that all was well. i again do not blame the reader. we were not allowed to enter the flight because we didn't have boarding passes on us! a long discussion ensued after this, the participants of the discussion being the airline official (who denied the possibility of the presence of a mr. asterix who would do all that mr. asterix did), self and gayatri (who tried to convince the official otherwise), and co passangers (who finally convinced the official about the existance of a mr. asterix and the truth in our words). we finally entered the airplane. the flight took off and we reached cleveland.

popular television soaps owe their success to "fast-forward"ing the story. as usual, i shall emulate the makers of these soaps. my next blog will not be a continuation to this story. the events shall be more current (hopefully). the reader may now breathe more easily...

as i set foot on US soil (part 1)

i don't know how a tiger would feel after his exoneration from a cage that possesses addictive attributes such as security, regular food blah blah..., which he unsuspectingly got used to, and then be deported to the free wilderness to live his life as "he" wants... but there was one chap who definitely felt very much like the ferocious animal i just alluded to when he submitted his resignation letter to his boss and expressed his desire to pursue higher studies in the US. one seldom commiserates with such chaps, and before he knows it, the chap finds himself at the airport checking his bags in and consuming the tips of his own nails.

on the 3rd of august 2006, this chap was me and the venue was mumbai intl airport. i waited in the waiting lounge, as that is what the name indicates that the sojourners of the lounge do. to say that i was unruffled by the fact that my flight was delayed by 2 hours would be inaccurate, mainly because i had a connecting flight to catch at new york (the destination of the first flight). pardon me for leaving out details such as the time and duration of the flight as 5 and a 1/2 months is a long time for the memory of a fellow such as me to retain. however, the memory clearly recollects the presence of a charming lady of the name ms. gayatri, who travelled with me till cleveland, ohio.

snacks from our hand baggages kept our company till we boarded the flight. being an air india flight, the culinary hospitality was quite satisfying (i say this in retrospect, after being for 5 and a 1/2 months in a land that looks exceedingly condescendingly at individuals who abstain from consumption of meat and forces them to redefine vegetarianism and become akin to herbivores). i shall spare the reader from the details of what all i did on the flight. of all the things that i did, there is only one thing that is worth mentioning, namely, the endearing game of "dots & crosses" that gayatri and i played for a large chunk of the time on board (the remaining time was spent sleeping), the stationery being the paper napkins that were given by the considerate air hostesses after meals. however, i am compelled to express the childlike enthusiasm expressed by chaps writing about their journeys that contain behemothic structures like the heathrow airport and the JFK airport. take it at the face value when i say that heathrow is HUGE.

another thing worth mentioning is the entertainment (?) provided by a particulary unglamorous member of the sex that accompanied us during the second part of the first leg of the journey i.e. the stretch between london and new york. the lady seemed to derive immense satisfaction out of expressing extreme dissatisfaction at each and every thing that came her way, the orientation of my hand baggage in the overhead rack being one of them (this event saw me almost faint under the booming vociferation). she did not like the food served, and chose to remain on liquid diet, the liquid being a highly intoxicating mixture with a color that would make other fluids like tea and coffee jealous. consumption of too much alcohol is unadvisable, but one would assume that any female with the above characteristics would be known well in her close circle for her exploits with the said beverage. however, there was one more aspect that the lady presumably ignored, namely the fact that she was on a flight, a place that makes the digestive system a little weak, and our fears became true when she created a pandemonium in her immediate neighborhood, more so because of the absence of a plastic bag at the right time. i choose to spare the reader from the not so entertaining expletives that became audible immediately after the event.

we landed exactly 2 hours later than the expected time. i do not know if a chap setting his foot on US soil for the first time is supposed to feel any kind of exhiliaration, but this feeling completely eluded me, for the only thing on my mind was the connecting flight to cleveland. gayatri would agree with me at this point because we were (pardon the cliche) sailing in the same boat. immigration officials seldom care about connecting flights when they interview entrants, and by the time we reached the check in counter of the airline that we were supposed to travel by, it was already late. however, the situation wasn't bad. it was even worse. our flight had been cancelled and the "helpful" official behind the the counter did not know of any flights to cleveland that evening!

we were booked on a flight that flew the next morning. air india was benevolent enough to arrange for a two rooms at a nearby hotel. as we were chauffeured to the hotel by a bus driver, we thought all was now well. all we had to do was to spend the night at the caravansary and leave early the next morning, and we would be in cleveland by afternoon. but little did we know of the drama that was looming ahead of us.

makers of television serials believe in ending episodes at such junctures in the tale that the viewers are so curious to know about "what happens next" that they fail to respire in the waiting period. i shall employ the same technique. readers are now compelled to wait for my next blog with baited breath...