Nirvana

I start afresh today, after two long years. My mridangam is completely out of sync and needs to be tuned as it has remain unused for a long time. I have a complete set of lessons in the four thaalams - Aadi, Rupakam, Misram and Kandam.

I will record my progress over the next few weeks, maybe I will post a few lessons too for beginners. Good mridangam resources on the web include Forumhub and RohanRhythm.

Time to master my dhin, chaapu and Arachaapu!

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Latest update on A.R.Rahman’s 3-D tour - Oct 8 2005, Palace Grounds, Bangalore.

India Classic Arts

Enjoy!

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If this isn't a reason enough for me to be in Bangalore in October, nothing else is! The one and only A.R. Rahman in "Namma" Bangalore, which event could be bigger than this? Yoohoo Bangalore, here I am come!If you have never been to a live concert of ARR, you will never comprehend this sense of euphoria. It's the greatest, exciting and most entertaining event you would ever be in, in your life by any terms - Believe me, I am not exaggerating, I would know. I had been to his live concert at Nassau Coliseum in New York a couple of years ago.

I vividly remember driving to New York along with one of my friends - for 40 lousy bucks, it was a steal. It was raining when we reached the place at 6 pm and I saw desis all around us. It was the largest congregation of Indians in US I have ever seen - Tamilians, Gujuratis, Kannadigas, Teleguites, Punjabis, they had come to be mesmerised by the unassuming magician behind the keyboard for the next three hours.

The stage had a picture of ARR dressed impeccably in white in a large background and had two large boomboxes on either side of the stage. There was seating all around the arena and the place probably had a capacity of over 3000, it was filled to the brim. We were seated a distance away on the balcony but everyone had a good view of the maestro and the singers.

Guess who started off the proceedings? It was our own SPB singing "Muthu" opening soundtrack, enough to make all the tamilians whistle, wave their hands, hum along and tap their feet before they settled down on the seats. Udit Narayan, Vasundhara Das, Sadhna Sargam, Sonu Nigam, Chitra, Sukhvinder Singh formed the rest of the cast as Rahman kept us under a spell for over four hours - Saathiyaa, Lagaan, Roja, Gentleman, Indian, Dil Se, Sapnay, Kadhal Desam, Kannathil Muthamitaal and many of his other brilliant compositions.

I had shouted myself hoarse at the end of the concert, singing along Tamil and Hindi songs. A Kannadiga family was seated next to me and they were looking at me as though I was delirious. They were conversing in kannada about the noise I was making and I stifled my eagerness to shoot back in their own language. I did not care that night, I was there to have fun and no one was going to stop me.

Sivamani entertained us with percussion and in middle of it all stood the colossus - ARR himself. I recall ARR playing the piano and singing 'Vellai Pookal' from Kannathil Muthamitaal towards the end for world peace. And the biggest surprise of all, Americans (Yes, blondes, Afro Americans) from a Miami school performed Lagaan's "Chale Chalo" at the end, I kid you not. They sang with such verve and clarity, the audience was up clapping their hands at the end of the performance.

At around 1 am, ARR ended the show with the audience begging for more. This was one night they wished would go on forever.

One of my 26 wishes is going to be consumed this October. Be there or be square!

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I am a Mridangist - or so I would like to imagine. I have been learning Mridangam, a south indian percussion instrument as an avocation for a sum total of eight years. I was introduced to Carnatic music at a very young age - I recall sitting in the living room and watching the proceedings while my mom taught the veena to several students. My sis would also practise on the veena and test her vocal skills.

Around 1987, I vividly remember my mother concluding that I should pursue Mridangam at the end of a discussion with our neighbor one evening. So Mridangam it was and I along with couple of other friends in the vicinity enrolled for classes under Shri. TAS Mani.

We would board the local bus to Malleswaram in the evening and the lessons would extend for about an hour as the Guru would move about between different rooms teaching as many students as he could handle in that session. There was a russian by the name of Tunji Beier (which we thought was a really funny name who was under the tutelage of TAS Mani. Inquisitive, I googled his name today and came up with this link- http://www.tunji.org/percussion/percussion_mridangam.html

Anyways, a year passed by and we were making no progress as we went about the proceedings perfunctorily without evincing any interest in the lessons. Not satisfied, my mom decided to make changes and we enrolled under Shri. Arjunan who would arrive home on Sunday mornings at 6 am(!) and Wednesday evenings.

We were under his guidance for over six years learning to play at a snail's pace. I remember the earlier years when I would wake up late and run with the mridangam on my shoulders to my friend's place still sleepy and unkempt. I would be as late as half an hour and my friends would be totally amused to see me groggy and barely awake. I believe during the later years I made considerable improvement as I learnt to appreciate the nuances and composed my own lessons.Alas, studies took a higher priority as I graduated to tenth grade and I discontinued the lessons.

About two years ago, I was bitten by the carnatic bug and listening to Vikku, TVG, Palghat Mani Iyer play the percussion, I googled for mridangam tutors around the tristate area. I enrolled for classes in NJ under Shri. Shivakumar M. and I enjoyed playing the mridangam under him and would practise fastidiously with great interest. The lessons were run through quite fast and in a year I made great progress. I had to commute about 70 miles twice during a week and I eagerly looked forward to the classes. I have begun to appreciate carnatic music more than I ever did in the early stages. I discontinued the classes about a year ago hoping to take it up sometime in the coming year.That's my tryst with mridangam - hopefully not the final one!

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