A good kollam.


Today evening i went up to my house owner's house and saw the beautiful kollam outside their gate. I appreciated the same and on hearing me giving credits our owner Mr Lakshmi Kumar requested our house assistant to come back and do the same kollam in front of our portion also (See the photo above). I like kollams and he said this is his present to the first Gayathri Jabha i will be doing tmrw i.e. 29th Aug'07. Thank you uncle and thansk to our domestic assistant also.

Concert on the 26th Aug'07

The concert yesterday was for a sashtiappthapoorthi and it was attended by just close family members in a hall near my house itself. It came out well with the team of Rajeev anna on violi, Suri uncle on mrudhangam and Hari anna on the ghatam. I was very well blessed by all the senior citizens who were the maximum people who attended the concert.

A special concert with Aathi Choodi composition on 25th Aug'07

While every concert was performed with dedication and for success the one on the 25th Aug'07 was special for me. I had composed music / tune for Ovaiyar's Aathichudi on the 23rd morning and with just a rehearsal on the same day morning we performed it on the 25th Aug'07 in Chennai and it came out very well.

Our team was enhanced with Nivas Prasanna anna (who is in the team of V3 just qualified into the semifinals of Ooh La La Lah and also a member in Jus3 of Abaswaram Ramjhi uncle.) who played chords and also sang two songs during the show. The other members were Ananthakrishnan anna - Violin, Arjun Ganesh anna - Mrudhnagam, Hari anna - Ghatam, Sridhar anna - Drums and Pradeep uncle on Tabla.

A week full of concerts

It was indeed a great week for me right from 22nd Aug till 26th Aug'07 as it as back to back concerts all the days above.

Pls find the photos above of the concerts held on

01) 22nd Aug 2007 with Ananthakrishnan anna - Violin, Arjun Ganesh anna - Mrudhangam & Hariharasubramaniam anna - Ghatam - a concert in a small hall but had very good audience who appreciated every song we performed. We tried a new groove type of performance for Alaipayudhey i.e. mrudhangam in a pattern and Ghatam with another to be constant for the entire song. This was much appreciated.

02) 23rd Aug 2007 with Karaikal Venkatasubramaniam anna on violin, Trivandrum Balaji anna on Mrudhangam and Sowrirajan uncle on the Morsing & Ghatam. - A special venue as this was the same hall in which my parents got married and the concert was also attended by very knowledgeable audience. Performing with Trivandrum Balaji anna after a long time was indeed good as we were exchanging lot of jokes on the stage.

03) 24th Aug 2007 with Ananthakrishnan anna - Violin, Thillaisthanam Suriyanarayanan uncle - Mrudhangam and Sowrirajan uncle on the Morsing & Ghatam.- In this concert appa asked Sowri uncle to say konnakol and it was indeed very good.

04) 24th Aug 2007 a good photo of mine taken by amma

Please see the following link which has the review in The Hindu - Coimbatore edition on the concert for Naadham

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/08/17/stories/2007081750580300.htm

60th Independence Day celebrated at IOB Staff college, Chennai

It was just two days before appa got a call from Mr Mohan of IOB, Staff College, Anna Nagar checking with the possibility of me performing there today 15th Aug'07 morning. Appa readily accepted as it is nice way to celebrate the Independence Day with a performance. We were asked to come for the flag hoisting function itself but we could not make it as i had come very late after a rehearsal session ydy.

I performed with Rajagopal uncle on Tabla and played few carnatic, Hindi and patriotic songs as requested. It was well attended and also had some variety programme also apart from my concert. Another uncle who is a staff prof. in the college performed "Ajare" in his keyboard and also Churaliya on Guitar. One uncle, a retired officer performed mimicry. There were two probation officers who sang and one of their voice was really sounding good.

I felt happy to receive memento from Sri Ashok Dugade, Executive Director of IOB on this day and i also liked the auditorium of the Staff College. Sri Samir Baruah, Depy GM & Principal of the college, and his wife appreciated me for the presentation and informed that many General Managers and senior officers of IOB had attended the concert. Thanks to Mohan uncle who was instrumental to organize this concert for me. We had a sumptuous lunch after which we took some photos outside the College premises.

Wishing you all a Happy Independence Day.

My dedication to the nation along with Pyarilal uncle - Wow what a great work he has done!

Another happy trip to Coimbatore, on the 11th Aug'07

It was a nice feeling going to Gopi mama's house in Coimbatore. Every musician would enjoy the warmth extended by Gopi mama, his sister and entire family. Yesterday also we went to his house and enjoyed every minute of the stay including the fabulous lunch and a quick nap. Yes I was there with our team for the concert at Naadham which was at the Ratna Regent Hotel conference hall. It was house full through out the concert with every one enjoying our presentation. Full marks to the PA system provided which kept our energy level at its best.

I was thrilled to See Sri Krishnamoorthy sir (Special Human) who had traveled almost 20kms to listen to the concert and he was feeling bad for a bit late. His blessing are of high value and yes we were fortunate to have had him for the entire concert. Gopi mama's presence itself adds up energy to the artist and when he shows his enjoyment it is the ultimate you can look forward to present your best. We did just that thanks to Gopi mama and his sister for enjoying. Ms Saritha's (daughter of Mrs.Shanthini.V.Choudhry, Director Hotel Ratna Regent) comparing was very good and his music teacher was always smiling and blessed me for the future while giving away memontos. It is always nice to have your grand ma and grand pa attending the concert and here it was my father's chitthi and chithappa with thier friends who attended and blessed me. And so was my appa's dear most friend Narayanan uncle.

Thanks Revathy aunty and the person who attended my previous concert in Coimbatore to have initiated for this concert. My sincere thanks to Gopi Mama and Mrs Shatini V. Choudhry for having co-ordinated this concert with great perfection. Looking forward to many such concert under your forums.

The train journey was very comfortable both ways. Kudos to the enchansing team - B Ananthakrishnan anna on vioilon, Kumbakonam Swaminathan anna on mrudhangam and Harihara Subramaniam anna on ghatam, for the great concert after having to travel a full day journey and also perform a concert the same evening.

An excellent day with great experience gained.

7th Aug’07 is indeed a great day for me as it was a day when my dream of doing a performance in AR Rahman uncle’s studio was achieved. Yes I had visited the studio two months before with my uncle Embar S Kannan who performed in the same studio for a re-recording bit for “Sivaji”. On that day when I saw the studio I was telling myself that one day I should also come here to perform. I did not think it will be so soon and that too for my own DVD project.

This project was suppose to be shot at the Alliance Franchise on the 4th Aug’07 but could not do due to unforeseen circumstances. So we were all little worried but Paul Jacob uncle gave us the pleasant surprising news that we will be doing the shooting on the 7th Aug’07 at AM Studios i.e. the studio where I had been with my uncle two months back. I sincerely thank Paul Jacob uncle for his efforts and also Rahman uncle for having given permission to do our project in his studio.

I had left home around 745am to attend school early to write my exam. Thanks to my school management for giving permission to write the exam early in order to go for my shoot. As I finished the exam and came out I saw my uncle and amma waiting at the gate. We then went to the studio and it was thrilling to see the set up of 7 cameras and the huge unbelievable studio set up of A R Rahman uncle. After the initial sound light check up we started the project recording around 1245 pm and finished it around 1030pm.

Amazing it was because we did 10 numbers and all of them came out very well. We took time break between pieces and also ensured to hear them once it was over. Only the last three songs (not in the order to be in the album) were performed straight with out break and also hearing them. Paul Jacob uncle's administrative manager Mr Hemanth had made all arrangements for food and it was well organized.

Mr Balaji with Mr Aniwas took care of the camera and Mr Siva with Mr Tony was handling the audio. Every one of the team members encouraged me and in fact all of them gave their best which was the major reason for the success. Appa decided to make my uncle a singer in this album apart from being a violin artist in two numbers. In the keeravani composition of mine mama has performed a grand alapana and it will for the first time for many to listen to a rendition of music on a violin.

On knowing Ananthakrishnan anna’s (who normally plays violin for my concert) talent to sing Hindustani appa was made him to in the Thirukural music composition made by my self. He has done his best. Donan uncle made my job easier with great backing and improvisation on the lead guitar. Paul Jacob uncle was the source of inspiration to all of us on the Bass guitar and made us feel cool all the time with his advices. Balu uncle’s perseverance on playing grooves was in deed a great thing and it is indeed very difficult to do that. Durbuka Siva anna was excellent using different percussion instruments in all the songs and enhanced the numbers very well.

The engineers Siva & Tony uncle were great in getting work from us and also gave excellent sound for us to perform well. Muthukumar uncle of Mosarbaer was there for almost 4 hrs and appreciated me so much.

I really happy that my dream of playing in this studio has come live so soon and now look forward to achieving more with the grace of god and well wishes of my ell wishers.

Paul Jacob uncle & Appa informed that we would come out with a live show of this concept soon and I look forward to all your participation as audience. I share few great moments with the pictures above, with you all.

I always like to travel and so this once again was a favorite concerts i had to travel 77kms to Vizag. We went in 3rd AC as i had to perform same evening and it was really a pleasant journey. I Had a good time spent with Venkatasubramaniam (violin) anna and Suri uncle during the journey.

The concert was well attended and i had the blessings of a good knowledgeable audience who had wanted RTP for sure. Thanks to Ram Babu uncle, Trustee for having given me this oppurtunity to perform in one of the best auditoriums in Andra Pradesh. I look forward to performing many times here in future.

I was happy when our return ticket also got confirmed in 3rd AC. How ever when we returned to Chennai, we were informed that due to derailment of some trains near Chennai all trains were going late by almost 4 - 6 hours.

As we had a commitment to attend a rehearsal scheduled for the Video shoot, myself and appa got down at Ennore where our train was held for almost 1 hr. We got a Pallavan bus to Mint terminus and then took an auto to Nungambakkam straight to the rehearsal venue. It was indeed hectic more so because lost his pouch with all credit cards and some cash. We reached home at 1130pm after the rehearsal and it was one of the longest day as i had woken up at 330am to catch the train to Chennai leaving at 415am.

I now look forward to the video shoot happening for "Sathya's Synthesis" on the 7th & 8th Aug'07 and lots of good concerts coming up for this month.