It has been more than four years since I have written anything here. It has been longer than that since I have touched a tanpura.
The past few months have been especially difficult. Watching the ravages of Covid. Weeping for the untimely demise of a business partner. Mourning the end of a business one has put a lifetime into. Obviously music was the last thing on my mind. Till a dear friend told me that I should get back to my music and it would provide me with the healing that I needed.
And on Gokulashtami day, 2020, I located my Radel and started singing Chetashri..by the time I had come to the Mukundam at the end of the Pallavi, I felt a small shift inside me. By the time, I had come to the last Madhyama kala sahithya - Navathulasi vanamaalam, Naaradadi Munijaalam.. I literally felt a presence nearby and this clear feeling that things would work out. This too shall pass. Yes, life will be different. But not necessarily worse. And that in a nutshell is why I sing. Not to perform. Not to teach. Not to be a renowned musicologist or a scholar. Not to have any living soul listen to me, except a few people . Not to post on youtube. Not to be known as a good amateur singer. Not to have friends say nice things. This music provides me with a rich inner landscape, I can disappear into. Even when the sound that is coming out of my throat is execrable, I can hear the phrase in all it's pristine beauty in my inner ear
Revisited some more old favourites: Shri Kaarunya( BMK), Saagara Shayana( MDR) and Shri Venkatesham Varam( Poochi Sreenivasa Iyengar)
Will get to detailed pieces on compositions shortly
