Cricket & Concert trip to Karaikal!

The promise Sridhar anna, Swami anna and Nadas Bala anna made on my birthday - to play Cricket at the beach! - came true, thanks to Karaikal Venkat anna choosing our team to perform for his wedding reception at Karaikal on the 27th Feb'11! It was fun all through out the trip right from the word go! Yes as we left Chennai in the night around 1145pm we decided to watch movie instead of playing UNO! We reached around 530 am and were greeted with a great coffee at that early hour! The rooms were large and we decided to take a nap and be ready by 10am to go for the beach side match!

After having lovely breakfast went to the beach with our cricket kit and made two teams with Suri uncle and Pradeep uncle as the captains! Suri uncle, Sridhar ann, Nandu vikky, Nadas Bala and myself in one side and Pradeep uncle, AK anna, Swami anna and appa on the other side. Decided to play 3 match series naming itself as Kenley Empty plastic bottle Cup!

Having won the toss we decided to put them in! While i started the bowling Swami anna opened their innings! 2 wickets fell and appa came to bat. As he pushed a ball and started running - probably due to no active running / walking in daily life!! - he slipped and fell flat on the ground and got himself run out! The we all decided to give a bye for him and declared that ball as dead ball! In few overs later when he pushed a ball on the leg side where there was no run - Sridhar anna tried to act smart and dived to stop a ball of no reach at all! - He slipped and sprained his right knee and almost started cribbing to have joined the match! Later applying some ointment and with a real good sportsman spirit continued his participation. When we played appa and Arun anna bowled well but some how we managed to win the match scoring 57, with Nadas Bala anna being the hero! I am not detailing about myself here as i just could stand for few balls only scoring 5 runs! (suna pana immm apadiye maintain pannu!)

The second match was even more interesting with they winning the Toss and decided to bat first! They scored 68 with appa playing very well scoring almost 30 plus runs! Sridhar anna was the best bowler giving almost 10 wides and more!! Now in reply appa took 3 wkts in the first over itself and in the 3rd over i had to play single man innings to score off the runs. I did it in style and our score reached 67 when i just knowingly defended the last ball without scoring in order to ensure that both teams win a match each! I scored 58 runs and the rest were extras! We shared the cup as almost every one had lost energy and went to Venkat anna's home for lunch which was indeed a real feast!

The concert also went well in the evening and we decided to stay overnight and left around 530 am next day. Started viewing film again, we reached Pondy and had breakfast. Then started viewing "Payanam" and had a good journey back to Chennai!. What a great trip! Look forward to many more like this in future was the feeling not only for me but also for all in the group!

A great rewind of memory!!!







As i was looking at the hard disk in the system i found this video footage and was so happy to see it! It was funny seeing me speak like the way i have spoken and i am sure you ill all enjoy this clipping!

This is the one which appeared in the "Vijay News" on the 17th August, 2003, the day after the launch of my first Album in the year 2003!!

February 01.- A great day being My birthday!

It was one of the good birthday i celebrated, thanks to my parents who had a surprise gathering of my artist friends at home to play NO game and also to go for a grand dinner! After coming from school i was surprised to see one by one coming home with Nadas Bala anna, Sridhar anna (drummer) Arun anna (keybaord artiste) Swami anna (Mrudhangam) and we all sat for the game and planned to go to beach in the evening My mamoos also joined beore leaving for a concert and with the game going with great interest decided to skip beach and later proceeded to Dosa Calling a restaurant in Mylapore, one our friends had not been to! Nice thought dad & mom!!

At the restaurant I was once again surprised by the presence of Pyarilal uncle (my website designer and well wisher), karaikal Venkat anna (violin) and Mouli uncle (Studio Engg.). My mamoos also joined  us after the concert and we were there enjoying the delicious food till almost 1130pm! It was fun all through the day with almost 5 hrs of UNO and 3 hrs in the restarant. Every one gave me presents but i feel their presence with me for this day was indeed the greatest gift of all!!!

Concert at Thiruvaiyaru on January 25, 2011

I really enjoyed the concert at Kakinada performing for the first time with Sri Sathyanarayana Sarma on Violin, Sri Mandapakka Ravi on Mrudhangam and Sri Hanumantha Rao on Ghatam on the 22nd Jan'11 followed with a good enjoyable duet with my mamoos Embar Kannan for a private concert.

The most important concert after "AIR" recognition on keyboard is the performance at Thiruvaiyaru this year which actually got out of my hand! Yes originally they had asked me to perform on 24th Jan'11 and as i had committed a concert in Chennai on that day and requested Sri Raja Rao uncle to change the date to 25th Jan'1. He was so nice and said that he will try his best and thanks to his efforts and with the grace of St. Thyagaraja i did get the oppurtunirty and here is the video clipping above and hope you will also like it!

The great thing about this trip was that we went by our car and on return actually reached Chennai from Trichy in 3hrs! Great roads and i am any way not canvassing during this election period!!!!

2011, January 15 - Chennai Sangmam concert at my home ground

After a lovely concert at Sri Ganapathi Sachidananda Ashram for Nadasudha - Velachery on the 13th Jan'11, it was once again a great home coming for me this year as Chennai Sangamam gave me the venue as KK Nagar Sivan Park on a important day - Kanum Pongal day! There was indeed a sea of people assembled at the venue watching a lively old dance performance with great rhythmic patterns! In fact our team was actually feeling if we could hold on this audience  immersed with pure folkish music and thought if we should start of also on a folk tune!

My dad had clearly made up his mind and decided to go with our original idea of starting with a Mallari and believe me it worked! Thanks to Nadas Bala anna, Mrudangam Swaminthan anna, Drummer Sridhar anna, Bass guitar Suri uncle, Tabla Pradeepuncle and Percussion Rajagopal uncle and of course the audio provided, made it a grand evening with crowd actually started growing up instead of going done which we thought would happen initially!

It was one of the most successful concerts performed in terms of holding a huge audience after a good popular show with instrumental music and i just remembered our performance for Rasika Fine Arts on the Jan 02nd evening we performed after a great vocal concert of Sow. Sriraranjani Santhanagopalan's concert. Full marks to the team and the audio support for this great success! I am sure you will agree with me after seeing the video clippings above.  In fact i was pleasantly surprised to get good report on the performance from Smt. Neyveli Santhanagopalan, when we happened to meet in a private function! It was so nice of aunty to praise me and my team's effort including my dad's anchoring the show as usual in a great style! 

Concerts with Sri Malladi Brothers party at Kakinada & Hyderabad.

I was really blessed to get an oppurtunity to be performing with sri Malladi Brothers and their father Sri Malladi Suriyababu for two concept presentations made by them at Kakinada on 10th Jan'11 and the other at Hyderabad on 11th Feb'11. The first one was on Utsava Sambaradhaya Krithis on Sri Tyagaraja and the other was lyrics composed by Sri Samaveda Shanmugasharma for which music was composed by Sri Malladi Suriyababu. I was happy to be part of these presentation and the fortune of playing with them.

Pleasant Experience at Hyderabad!

I was very eager to go to Hyderabad this time for two reasons! one i was to meet my good old friend Drums Wizard Siddharth Nagarajan and 2. meeting my well wisher - rasika Smt. Revathy and her children! Revathy aunty (in the first photo) had come to the hall almost 1 hour before and we reached little late due to traffic jam! Traffic is really bad in Hyderabad. I was moved when she gave me gifts and two write-ups (in this photo album). Her children Srivatsan and Anushree were also very nice and all of them stayed back for the entire concert. She also presented me with a beautiful Perumal Photo and it is now in our Pooja room! Thanks aunty and i hope i live up to all your expectations!

After the concert on the 11th we stayed at Taj Mahal Hotel Secundrabad and was taken to my friend Siddhanrth's house by his mom Vidha Nagi aunty. It was so nice of her to come all the way and i was happy to met his sister Dhanashree and the entire family after almost 5 years in their house! I met Siddhu and his mom in November last but was just for a short time after the concert at Sivam - Hyderabad with heArtbeat concert.Spending time with Nagi uncle - Siddhu's father, a great drummer was indeed special too!!!

We spent lot of time interacgting with each other and i was amazed the way Siddhu has come up as a great drummer! Very stylish and he now looks a real great Artist! Vidhya aunty had prepared good food for us and we all went to Siddharth's school to see the annual day function where he was to get 1st Prize for running 400 metes! As it was getting late for the train we left without having the fortune of seeing him get the prize! All the best Siddhu! Looking forward to interaction on stage soon!