Say No to Cages – An Emotional Cry

Recently I happened to visit a Zoological park at Trissur, on my way to Guruvayoor. I love to watch Animals whether in zoo or in Animal Planet. But this time, a scene in the Trissur zoo triggered an avalanche of thoughts on my mind. I was watching the cheetahs, tigers and lions put on cages. I was explaining my 2-year-old Nephew about the animals and answering his questions about their habitation and behavior. Suddenly, I watched a zoo keeper coming with a bucket full of water. I just noticed, every cage had two compartments separated by a small pathway shut by a small door. Now, he unlocked the door to the pathway and with the stick in hand he ordered the Cheetah to get through the pathway. So far the Cheetah didn’t make any roar/sound.

As soon as it saw the zoo keeper, it started roaring and expressed its rage. Then as the zoo keeper ordered, it went to the adjacent compartment through the pathway and the zoo keeper closed the pathway. Then he entered the empty compartment, placed the water and then slid opened the gate to the pathway again after locking the main doors. Then my nephew asked me, why did the cheetah started roaring as soon as it saw the zoo keeper? I explained him, as they have put it on a cage, it is expressing its Anger. Animals have a great memory and it recognizes persons even after several decades. I remember a movie “Christian the Lion”, in which two friends meets the lion they bought, pampered after several years, the lion with great enthusiasm and emotion runs and embraces them.

An avalanche of thoughts started flowing onto my mind about the emotions and sufferings of these animals. They were separated from their parents and brought to zoological parks and imprisoned inside a small cage. They are deprived of their home environment/emotions and they suffer inside cages. Sometimes I even think, the birds caged inside these zoological parks may even question God, why they have wings/feathers which is of no use now? Caged big cats may question the Almighty why they have fast feet? I totally condemn the selfishness of human community in this aspect. I asked few people’s opinion on this. Their response is immediately, we protect them. We save their life. We give them food. They don’t starve. Are these the only reason we could find to substantiate our behavior? They never wanted us to protect their life. They would rather happily live and die in their home(Forests) even if their life span is one day. Now it suffers imprisonment for years together for not committing any crime.

I am questioning every single individual who supports caging of animals, if they are ready to spend even six months inside a cage, in some unknown continent, without having an option on the food, and being showcased for a group of animals on a line. We think animal’s need are only food and a safe cage. This is not true. I even browsed about animal suicides and the causes. Found few interesting things about animal emotions. They are almost similar to human beings in emotions.

I read some articles when searching about this topic.
Excerpts : Kolkata (PTI): People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), working for animal rights, has demanded that Alipore Zoo be closed down by the government for its alleged mishandling of animals, the recent being the electrocution of a giraffe during transportation to Nandankanan zoo in Bhubaneswar.
“http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200805271654.htm”

I see some of the zoo authorities support/ encourage adoption of animals, especially, tigers, elephants, crocodiles, lions and cheetahs. Probably, the animals would laugh/feel why would these guyz adopt us, if we have our own parents to take care of us? This is similar to kidnapping a baby from its parents and tendering for adoption, as we do not have sufficient funds for its basic needs. We should be ashamed to do this. To go one step ahead, Animal matings are cheaply decided by human beings. Their ecological balance/environment is totally screwed up by human beings. Human beings are indulging in deforestation and animals move from forest in search of space. So in view of preserving their own life, human beings are caging them. This is obscure selfishness. I see some of the animals are caged alone. This is even more pathetic. They cannot not have food preferences.

Sometimes, the zoo authorities, practice artificial insemination techniques on these animals for breeding. This is totally an unnatural behavior. The Animal may feel even more bad on seeing its offspring. For no reason a new-born is also caged. My heart is filled with mixed emotions. I do not know, why we don’t give a damn about this. We think we are so powerful that we can rule the whole universe. We should certainly be aware that nature is so powerful and we are nowhere near its strength. I see a lot of organizations/Communities raising their voice against Cruelty towards Animals. I believe one day these issues are also taken into consideration and the animals are let go free to their home[Forest] where they will enjoy rest of their life.

But some thoughts strike me again. Those who have watched the movie “The shawshank Redemption” would know, [Analogy] how much difficult it would be for the animals to adapt themselves for the forest life again. They do not know to hunt, as they were totally brought up inside cages. I believe, it would be a great thing if we stop accumulating animals inside the cages and just let the existing animals to die a natural death inside these cages.

If you are really moved by this, please say “No to cages”.

Pain and the Gain – A chain reaction

Life is full of mysteries. As we reach the end of the maze the mysteries unfold. I have read several theories on cause and effect chain. But believed it only when I experienced it myself, but in a painful way.

Hmm….where to start???? hmm…wrrrrrrrrr….haan…. It was a saturday. From office, We had planned for a movie that night and the original plan of mine was to return to my Aunt’s home after the movie. But my friends asked me to stay @ their place that night and start by morning. Sunday morning there was an intra-Office, Inter team cricket match (KLEAN BOWLED) planned. Most of my friends know, what is my relation with cricket!!!! lolz.

I went to my friend’s room @ Saidapet after the movie. But that night, Guyz were planning on how to reach the ground the next day morning. They were short of one bike. They asked me if I can drop one of them. I agreed for the same. But told them, I will be leaving the ground immediately after dropping my friend, as I have to attend my Music class. They agreed for it.

The next day morning I woke up and told my friend, I have woke up on a fox face[Nari mogathula muzhichurukken]. As per plan we headed to the cricket ground in Meenambakkam. The intended plan was to drop my friend in the gate and then head for my class. But my friends forced me, if I can join the match. Obviously for witnessing the match as part of cheering group. I thought for a minute and then agreed to stay. There started the effect chain.

The match results were declared. I and my friend headed towards my bike. To my sadness, my bike’s rear wheel got punctured. I told for the first time to friend. Dude….”You are really a fox“. I inquired for the puncture shops nearby. I dragged my splendor+ for 200 mts and reached the automobile shop along with four other friends. The mechanic took 500 Rupees from me and left for buying tube. Meanwhile we headed towards a small tea shop nearby and then started having tea and biscuits. Prior to that, a small kid(around four years old) in the street dragged our attention. He took our bat and asked my friends to bowl. Then he started misusing the ball and the bat by throwing it on my friends. We then managed to hide the bat and the ball from him.

We also took this kid to the tea shop. The kid had no hesitations in taking what we offered him. Probably he knows the shop and the owner being a localite. we got him almost everything he pointed in the tea shop. We almost finished our breakfast there. The bill was around 200 rupees. This was the first time I think, I paid more than 100 rupees in a small tea shop for four of us. Normally the bill never exceeds 50 rupees. After an hour, the mechanic fixed the puncture and we drove towards Madipakkam for having breakfast. After having breakfast I headed towards my aunt’s home. That noon I had to attend a relatives marriage. Me and my cousin started from Adyar and headed towards Kovilambakkam[18 km from Adyar] in my bike. While returning from the marriage, I felt something is unusual in the bike. To my sadness, again there is no air in my bike’s rear wheel. I dragged the bike again for about a km to a mechanic shop and the mechanic told, it was just a problem with the pin on the tube’s mouth and there was a leak of air. He inflated my rear wheel again and then we started our way back to home.

In the evening, I felt like going for a swimming. I headed towards Anna University’s Swimming pool. Reaching near Anna university, again my bike’s rear wheel rim was creating some friction with the ground. Again I had to hunt for a puncture shop. Found a nearby road-side puncture shop with a manual air pump. After dismantling the tube, he told, there is a mold problem in the new tube installed. He told me, I can get a replacement without any additional charges from the shop I procured this tube. He then took 200 rupees more and then fixed an old tube. The old one already had bunch of patches. I asked him, if it would stand for couple of hours, till I reach Meenambakkam to get the replacement. He told, there is no guarantee for human life and you are asking for a tube. How can I give guarantee? I laughed at my fate and then proceeded towards Meenambakkam for the mechanic who bought this tube.

To my sadness, the mechanic shop was closed. The mechanic’s house was nearby and his father came out and asked me to come the next day for getting it replaced. I nodded and then went back to my friend’s place to get my bag back. I shared the whole story with them and then started from there. Few yards away from his house, again my rear wheel got punctured. I thought I would drag my bike for few more yards to find a puncture shop again. After an hour of my hunt in the locality, I found none of the shops were opened. I called my friend again and informed him about this. He asked me, how far I am from his house. Then as per my friend’s suggestion, I parked the vehicle near a closed puncture shop. I side locked it and headed towards my friend’s place again after giving my bike a nice kick on its back.

After reaching my friend’s place I realized my mobile got switched off as the battery charge had drained. As soon as I connected it to charger and switched it on, I got a call from my aunt and mom asking my whereabouts. I totally forgot to inform them about all these chaos and confusion. All they know was that I headed for swimming. They started fearing about me and had tried calling me from hours before. After getting a nice package of advise from them, I spent the night there at my friend’s place. The next day morning(Monday) around 7’o clock I headed towards the puncture shop where I had parked my vehicle the previous night. God’s grace, the bike was safe. I had to wait till 8’o clock for the owner to open the shop. I explained the whole incident to him and asked him to check what’s wrong with the rear wheel.

He told the old tube installed by the roadside guy was a weak one and had lot of leaks. I then asked him to dismantle the tube, tyre and the rim and asked him to do a thorough check. After removing couple of nails from the tyre and fixing something in the rim, he asked me whether to fix a local tube or a company one. I already had one company tube in hand which has to be replaced @ meenambakkam. Having this in mind I asked him to fix a local tube worth 200 rupees. Then I headed towards the office. During the lunch break I told my friend about the consequences for having commented him as fox. Then I headed towards Meenambakkam and got the tube replaced and now I have a spare one. At last the chain reaction came to an end.

Couple of days later I was just relaxing and just thinking about the pains I underwent for almost 2 days. Around 1000 rupees of money, 10-15 km of dragging/walk, 8-9 hours of waiting @ puncture shops, confusion and chaos @ my home as I didn’t contact them, so on and so forth. But suddenly a thought struck me. What about the gains? The tea shop owner had sales for 200 rupees on a Sunday morning. The mechanic shop owner, the hardware store guy, the road side puncture shop guy, the little kid enjoyed nice biscuits and tea, so on ad so forth. Life is a Maze. Some enjoy gains and some suffer pains. This is a intertwined mesh laid by god only time can reveal the pattern. I felt there is someone really out there creating this mesh patterns and we call him GOD 🙂

Extremes of chennai – Photowalk on 8th of May 2011

All ready set go for the next day and I went to bed. I came out of my dream and then slowly opened by eyes after hearing the loud bang of my alarm. Soon with great enthusiasm in the morning I went to wake up my sister. Within half an hour of time, both of us were ready to start our journey for the day. I had fully charged my android mobile, in which I had already set the maverick destination to Talanguppam the previous day by feeding in the latitude and longitude of the place accurately.

The first destination was around 28 kms from my home. We started from adyar sharp at 4:00AM as planned and took the beach road after taking a U turn around the corporation grounds. We stopped the bike near the Napier’s bridge and took few snaps.

I switched on the GPS on my mobile when we reached beach station and took the suryanarayana road to reach royapuram. Then we continued on the state highway 114 to reach Kasimedu. As soon as we took the surya narayana road from beach station, we could find trucks lined up in a queue. When we reached Kasimedu, we gotta feel that we were very near to the sea. It was around 4:20 AM when we reached Kasimedu after crossing the Chennai Harbour. Trucks aligned in a never ending queue were waiting for the Harbour gate to be opened. We could actually hear the sound of waves. At a place where we could find a gap in between the trucks in queue, we peeped out to see the shore. To my surprise, the sea was just 5 meters away from the shore.It was then My sister asked me, what if a Tsunami strikes now? It was then we really understood the magnificence of the nature and its unlimited mercy over us.

Then we crossed the Tiruvottriyur and then continued on SH 114. The road was full of ups and downs. The road was absolutely dark and we could hardly find any lamps. I stopped my vehicle near a temple on the road and pulled out my mobile to see where exactly we were and to know the target distance. It showed the distance as 6 km and I confirmed we were on track. I asked my sister whether to proceed or to wait until the sky becomes a bit bright. She was keen on capturing the sun rise at Talanguppam. So we proceeded on the same road. After traveling for another 2 kms, we found a board reading “Thazhanguppam” and an arrow pointing upwards. It was then I understood the real meaning of the place. People screw up the meaning by their horrible spelling when they transliterate in English. Then we started to proceed on the same road.

2 more kms, we could find the waves of the sea gushing on the stones and the rocks. The sky slowly became brighter and we decided to park the vehicle and capture the dawn here. The scenery is so beautiful and the whole place is silent except for the sound of waves. My cousin sister is ready with her DSLR and I had my cannon powershot(I know its chota compared to the DSLR). slowly the whole sky became red and the sun started playing hide and seek amongst the clouds. We started taking photos and it is then we understood nature is to be perceived(natural) and capturing it as a photo can never get you the real feel of it. Some sort of happiness started blossoming within us. I don’t have words to explain the total scenery!!!!



We then proceeded further to reach the beach of Thazhanguppam. After reaching the beach, I parked my vehicle in one of the houses there and ensured it was safe. Then we moved towards the beach and saw the beautiful vanishing piers taking us into the sea. We clicked as many pictures as we could until we felt it is sufficient enough, so that we get couple of good ones from the pool of photos. We then met some of the police officers on duty there and they asked us where from we were coming. Then the police officer started explaining about the movies that were shot at that spot.

After spending half an hour there, we started our way back to marina. On the way we snapped couple of photos of war memorial, marina, vivekananda house, Santhome church and reached mylapore.

We had a nice breakfast in Saravana bhavan and headed to Mylapore temple. Then after spending couple of minutes, we headed to Mamallapuram via ECR. We took some photographs of Tiruvanmiyur beach, Pattipulam beach and the beautiful ECR road,Tiger caves before we reached Mamallapuram. A day’s time is not enough to see mamallapuram. As our theme is different we didn’t spend much time there. By this time, the glucose and the energy bars that we carried ran out of stock. Eventually we had to rely on the road side shops selling tender coconuts, water melon and ice apples to keep us safe from getting dehydrated.

Around 2:00 o clock in the afternoon, we started our journey back from Mamallapuram to Adyar. On our way back, I asked my sister if she has enough patience to go to one more place and then I suggested about “Dakshin chitra”. Dakshin chitra is situated on the ECR road next to MGM traveling from Adyar. If you wanna see/know the traditions and culture of south india, this is the place for you. We reached dakshin chitra around 2:30PM. We thoroughly enjoyed the puppet shows that depicted the story of vali,sugrivan and hanuman from ramayana and some of the live pottery makings and weaving of silk sarees here.

We took couple of pictures and started our way back to home as we ran out of energy. We had planned to start to broken bridge near besant nagar after taking a nap for an hour or two. But never knew that the nap would extend to a sleep. All together the total trip was around 200 kms. I think, I found a nice way to spend time on a week end.

Extremes of chennai – Plan for a Photowalk

I was feeling tired and bored at office. So started browsing through the photos posted in the “I luv chennai” group in facebook and was fascinated by the way they were taken. Suddenly a thought flashed in my mind, why not to go roam around chennai for the whole day and capture whatever we encounter. I immediately called my cousin sister(doing her B.Sc Electronic Media) and shared my thought. She immediately agreed and we decided to do a ground work on this when I return from office. Then I started browsing the photos again. Then I continued browsing through the photos in a faster pace. But suddenly my hand stopped clicking the mouse and I pressed the back button to go to the previous photo. I was surprised to see the photo. It was nothing but “vanishing piers” of “Talanguppam”. Suddenly I got a feeling is this really in chennai or somebody posted this photo by mistake in this place. But the name seemed to posses a tamil or a malayalam origin.

The next step is obvious…..Google where this place is……OMG, this is part of north chennai near ennore….I have been to ennore only once as part of Industrial visit during my college days. Then I opened google maps to exactly spot the location. It is then I strongly decided to cover this place as part of the photo walk we gonna do that week end.

I shared my thoughts about talanguppam, with my sister and then she told me that she had already heard about this place from her friend. She immediately said this is part of our plan. Then we started jotting down the list of places we gonna cover as part of the photowalk. Talanguppam, Kasimedu, Royapuram, chennai central, city center, thiruneer malai, mamallapuram, and list goes on and on. Then we came to a mutual agreement that the list was exhaustive and cannot be accomplished in a day. Then we decided to stick on to the coastal chennai and obviously by now you would have guessed our starting point. Yes our plan was to start our photowalk from Talanguppam from north chennai and proceed till mamallapuram (south of Chennai).

We prepared a excel sheet with a table of places in our plan, distance and the travel time in bike. The photo walk was planned on that Sunday. So we had enough time on Saturday to plan. I started browsing for the routes and the distance in the Google maps. We also have to decide about where we gonna have our breakfast and lunch. My sister then reminded about the TV commercial for glucose where the sun sips out the liquid from the boy’s head through a straw. We know about chennai’s hot weather(furnace). We procured few glucose sachets and energy bars to keep up our energy levels and to avoid dehydration.


The other thing is the glucose for my bike….Yeah I fueled my bike for Rs.500 and this is one of the few times when the needle of my bike’s fuel indicator has touched the right most extreme. All ready set go for the next day morning. We planned to go to bed a bit early as it is going to be a long day. I set the alarm in my phone to 3:30AM. Our plan was to start by 4:00 AM in the morning and our first destination is Talanguppam.

To be continued in my next post…..

A State of unison

Recently I went to my Friend’s village kattuputhur, Trichy (40 kms from my home town) and was gifted to witness the Seetha Kalyana Maha utsavam. The total trip made a great impact on me and I wish I could share it here.

It is their 49th anniversary of Seetha Kalyana Mahotsavam. I came to know that they generally celebrate the total festival for five days. On the fourth day of the festival is the main event of Seetha kalyanam. The highlight of the event is the Namasankeertana by Sri Rajagopala bhagavathar. Of late, I rarely get chance to hear to bajans and nama sankeertanas. But this time, got a chance to sit at a nearest position and listen to the whole event.

The Bagavathar is accompanied by a flutist from my home town, a mridangam player, a Dolak player and couple of his group members playing jalra. The Bhagavathar’s voice need a special mention. What a great range and a bold nature. His renditions were totally clamped to the sruthi. The mridangist and the dolak player were enthusiatic and their playing was awesome. They were switching from Tisra nadai, kanda nadai and Misra nadai appropriately for songs. The total crowd started following/repeating the sangatis. This is what I will call a unison. I could not find anything odd or infact there is no second entity. I could not dissociate anything. I started getting goose bumps and now I am struck up with words to explain the situation.

I had always seen my parents and grand parents telling me the reason for conducting such Bajans. People come out of inhibitions only in group events i.e., bajan in this context. when a group of people perform an activity, we are influenced to do the same. The inhibitions are killed and you come out. The easiest way to reach god could be this.We have crores of cricket fans here. What is the state of their mind when they witnessed India’s worldcup victory? How about the people who are in the stadium to watch the finals? The happiness level is inexpressible. I experienced thousand times greater happiness and peace of mind over here. People please forgive me for this analogy. I know the experience in listening a namasankeertan is incomparable. But just wanna quote an example of the state of mind.

I know the principle of a trans-receiver, the receiver has to be tuned to the same frequency as that of the transmitter to receive any data. similarly this is a way you tune to the frequency of god. As per advaita, the only entity that separates us from God is the abstract mind. If you are capable of bringing this mind in unison with god, what else do you need. I saw people clapping their hands for the tune and this is the outcome of a perfect blend of music and Bhakti. This really took me to a trans state. It is then I understood the importance and significance of bhakti through bajans and nama sankeertans.

The Ragas chosen by the bhagavathar such as Sindhu bairavi, Surya, Hamsadvani, Hamsanandi, Durga, Shudha dhanyasi, Mohanam, kalyani etc were beautifully rendered. I was surprised to see such a great musical knowledge/ skill. We were tied in place for couple of hours that I almost forgot about everything. The total group was immersed in the river of bhakti. Where the ego and jealousy annihilates, the Godliness creeps in automatically. I had a great peace of mind after a long time. Thanks to my friend Arul Murugan for giving me such a great opportunity and a divine experience.

Forest Fires – a Scientific Angle

I watched an interesting article about Forest Fires about an year ago. Couldn’t find a better place to share this than my own blog.

I have always wondered at the ecological balance maintained by nature. For that matter nature itself is full of mysteries and wonders yet to be explored. I had always thought forest fires are caused either because of human involvement/negligence or due to heavy lightnings. But I recently found a new and interesting cause for this.

We know drizzle on a sunny day leads to formation of a rainbow. This is because, every single raindrop acts as a prism that refracts the sun light into seven colors. But I never knew these rain drops are also dangerous. Actually these rain drops are capable of triggering a forest fire. Now coming to the science behind this happening. Everyone knows the refractive index of the water drop is 1.33. This is the base for the whole story. The water drop can actually act like a prismatic convex lens(magnifying glass). This lens can intensely converge and focus sun’s rays upon dried out vegetation/leaves, which will in turn get ignited and there starts the whole movie. We can witness yellow dots near every droplet in the picture above.

Ideally in most of the cases the water drop gets evaporated before it could initiate a fire. But a group of water drops intensely focusing on a dried leave could achieve this.

Facebook syndrome

I have always thought about writing a post on “Facebook Syndrome” and to tell u the truth, I am no exception to this. Facebook has victimized crores and crores of wise men,women,boys, girls and children too.

It is not fair just to quote the Negative sides of Facebook. So lemme start this post with some of the Positive sides of it.

Everyone will accept, If I say Facebook or any social networking site for that matter, has literally shrunk the world. People who are total introverts in reality are making loud noise in the virtual world. In fact, a friend of mine who never opened his mouth in college is now writing great posts in Facebook and socializing like anything. In fact I then understood, introverts have a great analyzing skills and capability after seeing his post. It is just that they are keeping things within them. Now Facebook has brought out his hidden talents and you can stay connected with all your friends.

Now to the darker side of it, the list grows like Pinocchio’s nose. I have studied about the principle of induction of charges in my 5th or 6th standard classes and to recollect it again,

“If you try accumulating +ve charges on one side of a dielectric plate, it automatically induces negative charges on the other side of it.(even if you don’t wish that to happen)”. Same thing is applicable to this. Good things never come alone.

The main bane of Facebook is its ADDICTION. Before five years, the first hit page after opening the browser was Yahoo or Google. But now it is Facebook. People get themselves lost in this limbo. They don’t have time for any sort of physical activity and in fact they are secluded from the real world relationships and emotions. They can just boast on the count of friends they have but in reality they are devoid of good and true friends.

People are expected/forced to talk about themselves which is not liked though and this has increased the level of obsession. Now people snap photos only for posting them in Facebook. A month ago, I went to a nearby browsing center for getting my irctc e-ticket printed. I was just waiting as every system is occupied. It is then I saw a five year old boy logging into his Facebook account. But to my surprise there were no friends added to his profile. Then he opened farm ville from his apps and started playing. This is the condition that Facebook has pushed us all to. I am not sure whether to feel happy about the reach and access of technology or feel bad that he is missing all fun around with his friends. But one thing is sure that these browsing centers are minting money from these boys.

It is nice, if you treat your fb account like your any other mail accounts and access them once or twice a day. We should really weigh the values of human emotions, stop being secluded and try to come out of this illusion of virtual world. we should really tick a Count down timer in the mind as soon as we login to the fb account. This will really save us a hell lot of time to do some productive work.

Request to classical Instrumentalists

I had been to my friend’s Wedding reception yesterday and witnessed a classical flute concert of a twelve year old boy. The boy possessed great talent and knowledge which was evident in his ‘manodharma‘. He was accompanied by senior artistes on mridangam,violin and ghatam.

After listening for 20 mins, I started feeling something was basically missing in his rendition. It is then I found that his phrases and sangatis were very fast and there was no Raga bhava in it. People think they are acclaimed as great musicians when they are capable of rendering songs with great “Brihas”[fast sangatis]. This is totally a delusion. The real taste of the food lies in the recipe and the preparation. Brihas are like garnishing a food item. This adds beauty however, it should not cover the whole food and it will not help in improving the taste of the food.

I remember the words of my guru, “Brihas should be like pickle in a great meal”. Just because it is tempting to eat, we just cannot eat pickle as a meal. Doing so would result in severe consequences at the back.

At this instance, I would also like to vent out a feeling that I had bottled for a long time. I really do not know what is the problem of great musicians. They think they have horns? probably yes. But they definitely think, they possess the right to commit mistakes. Having understood that the public/people have recognized their talent, they go crazy. Mr. Kadri gopalnath having respected for his talent and knowledge has never always impressed me.

They set a wrong example for the future/younger generations.

Now coming to the exact point, I really do not know why instrumentalists do not care about how they split a “sangati”? meaning where they take a pause in a line and how they split/splice the sangati. Instrumentalists should be aware of a great fact that, they are being listened to by other musicians/people who know the original song. And the fact is that the original song/lyrics is simultaneously rolled in their mind. For an instance, the famous song vatapi ganapatim bajeham is being played in the following pattern.

va—-ta—–pigana—–patimba—-jeham [—- denotes pause]. This not only spoils the meaning of the line but also causes great distress to the listeners. People can argue, the actual lyric is not spelled out from an instrument. This is answered in my earlier statement.

The beauty of music lies in its simplicity and the Raga bhava. I place a humble request to all the instrumentalists to understand the reality and simplicity of music and ragas and try to bring out a paradigm shift to this trend and preserce the aesthetics,purity and beauty of a great science called classical music.

A.R.Rahman’s compositions – A classical view

Right from his debut in Roja, A.R.Rahman has given numerous songs of classical background. And this space is no big to elaborate each of them. But let me share my views/word of appreciation on few of the songs which I am gifted to listen to.


Abheri – Kannodu kanbathellam from the movie jeans is based on this Raga. Especially the chittai swaram part of the song affirms the Raga.

Vasantha – Minsara kanna from the movie padayappa

Darbaari kanada – kaatre en vasal vanthai from the movie Rhythm

Desh – Rahman rocked in his dubut movie Roja and the aalap portion of the song kadhal rojaave is based on the Raga Desh and the song is set in kapi. The National Song “Vande Matharam” is also based on raga Desh.

Madhyamavathi – The song “Thom karuvil irundom” from the movie star is based on this raga.

Raga Durga is effervescently used in the song “En uyir thozhiye” from the movie “Kangalal Kaidhu sei”. The Raga chayal is preserved in the whole song. Especially the running chords after the pallavi, “DŔśś DŔśś” is set so nice that it brings out the essence of the Raga.

Yamuna kalyani is beautifully brought out in Sakthi kodu from Baba.
“Nila kaaigiradhu” from the movie indra is also based on Yamuna kalyani.

The song mettupodu from the movie duet is based on Anandha bairavi. Especially the prelude of the song “aaya kalaigal arubathu naanginaiyum” brings out the essence.

“Anbendra mazhaiyile” from minsara kanavu is one other composition in Anandha bairavi.

“Enge enadhu kavidhai” from the movie “kandukonden kandukonden” is a classic mix of lathangi, keeravani and sindhu bhairavi.

“Kannamoochi yenada” is an excellent composition in nattai kurinji raga. However in the charanam Sahana creeps in. The song “Oru Naal Oru Polzuthu” from the movie “Andhimandaarai” is based on nattaikurinji and in some places use of khamas is seen predominent.

“En veettu thottathil” from the movie gentle men is based on the ragas Nilambari, kurinji, sankarabaranam and chenchurutti. But the interlude is based on hamsadhwani.

“kurukku siruthavale” from the movie mudhalvan is a crystal clear presentation of raaga vaasanti. The song “Theeyil vizhunda thena” from the movie “God Father” is also based on the same raga.

The songs “oh vennila and thendrale” from the movie “kadhal Desam” are based on shankarabharanam.
The song thoda thoda from the movie Indra is also based on the same raga. But usage of anya swaras are more in this.

The song “Thaai sonna thaalaattu” from the movie Desam is mellifluously dipped in Charukesi. The Song “Udhaya Udhaya” from the movie Udhaya and the song “Yedho Yedho ondru” from the movie “Enakku 20 unakku 18” are also based on the same Raga.

The song “Uyirum Neeye” from the movie Pavithra is composed in khamas.

The song vellai pookkal from the movie kannathil muthamittal is a master piece of Rahman and is based on the raga Hamsadhwani. My heart gets filled with peace and happiness whenever I hear this song.

The song “Ennavale Adi Ennavale” from the movie “Kadhalan” is based on the Raga kedaram.

The song “Vidukathaiya” from the movie Muthu is based on the Raga “Ahiri Bhairavi” or in some places “Chakravaham”.

The song “Anjali Anjali” from the movie “Duet” is based on the Raga Maand

To be continued…

Here is my continuation

https://ravikumarv.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/a-r-rahmans-compositions-a-classical-view-part-ii/

A Rare lyric for a famous song

A Rare Lyric for a Famous song “Onnum Onnum Rendu Thaan”

I searched for the lyrics in net and couldn’t find anywhere. So thought about penning it down myself. Hope this will help other people. Please comment on the lyric perfection and clarity.

Singer : Pushpavanam kuppusaami
Album : Megham karukkuthadi
Genre : Folk
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Onnum onnum rendu thaan rendu moonum anjuthaan
anjum anjum pathu thaan avaraikka pinjuthaan

aaya potta vethala paakillama pathala pugai illama suthala
purinjikitta thappilla (2)

onnangalla eduthu pottukka en muthamma
ottiyaanam senju pottukka (2)

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eeru yampirendaiyaam eeya kaappu thandayaam
ramanathan kondayaam aattu kada sandayaam

thandu muthuna thaduthaan thaamara poo thanduthaan
atha petha azhagu pulla aanum pennum rendu thaan (2)

rendaangalla eduthu pottukka en muthamma
rathina kolusu senju pottukka (2)

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moovanam raavanam sandhiyila muthu rasa pandhiyila
moovatti aathula raameswarathula

moova moova nallenna moonaazhaakku veppanna
moonu thoppu iluppenna muzhigi kulicha velakenna (2)

moonangalla edhuthu pottukka en muthamma
muthusaram senju pottukka (2)

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naala patchi rendodu narayanam perodu
naavil kuthi meen kothi navva pazhangonthi

naalu mala roattoram, naduvil ulla aathoram
naalu sangili koodaaram railadiyil vyaabaaram (2)

naalangalla eduthu pottukka en muthamma
naagarathinam senju pottukka (2)

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anjakuthi alukkaatha manja poosi manakkadha
koppa pottu kulukkadha kulikki minikki nadakkadha

aivaazhappu thaazhampoo porichedutha ozhakappoo
anjam kunjam mavarasi manjalaraikkira mavarasi (2)

anjaam kalla eduthu pottukka en muthamma
arakku manjala alli poosikka (2)

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aarukka pulla aarathaa ambala pulla pethaakka
ennadi ponne sinnaathaa izhuthu moodadi vaayaatha

aagasama boomiyam paaka vandhadhu saamiyaam
thangaathaala kozhavi senja engalaathu maamiyam (2)

aaraangalla eduthu pottukka en muthamma
addiyalum senju pottukka (2)

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yaezhanna enganna ezhuththaani kaalanna
kuruthola kondanna kudimi vecha sinnanna

ezhaam padaa naathhana enna konjam thoothhunaa
porandha ooru thaedi ponaa kadhavizhuthu saathhinaa (2)

yezhaangalla eduthu pottukka en muthamma
yezhu saram senju pottukka (2)

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etta solli pudi pudi pattanathula padi padi
puttu thaaren idi kidi podava thaaren madi madi

ettum thattum kodai pidi muthum vittum kathai padi
ettayinam kottadi velli kolusu kattadi (2)

ettangakalla eduthu pottukka en muthamma
ettu saram senju potukka (2)

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onbathila sambaavam santhanathil sumbaavaam
oosaiyidum dosai kallu orasi paaru nalla kallu

onbathadi ooradi oorpayanam poraadi
unmayathaan solladi onakkum enakkum ennadi (2)

ombathaangalla eduthu potukka en muthaamma
ottiyanam senju pottukka (2)

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pathu maadha sithira panamulla koppara
pandhayadhula nikkira paandiyanaar muthira

pathaam maambazham thanniyila palaa pazhukkum koorile
sitha vandhaa kaaturen sedhiyathaan solluren (2)

pathaangalla edutha pottukka en muthamma
pathu saram senju pottukka (2)

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