Great news on Mrudhangam Suri uncle

Great news on Suri uncle and his Mrudhangam school in Dinamalar today. This article is indeed a great recognition for his efforts. We all are very happy on same.

Happy to have known Ms Vinidhra Mani - a good dancer from SanJose - USA

Here is an article which appeared in Deccan Chronicle, Chennai edition on the 20th July'09 which speaks very high of this dancer from USA. I attended this performance and we were so happy to have made it for that performance. For more details you can contact her father on email mmani at yahoo.com

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VINIDHRA COMES FROM THE USA AND HAS LEARNT DANCE THERE.

The art form of he art form of Bharatnatyam is such that unless there is precision combined with grace, one is likely to be bored while watching the same. Which is why one was pleasantly surprised to see the performance of Vinidhra Mani at the Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall on July 18. It not just brought out the beautiful geometrical precision of Bharatnatyam, but was also laced with so much grace that all the angularities came across as aesthetic.

This comes with sound training and dedication. Vinidhra comes from the USA and has been learning dance there. She had her arengetram and has been placed in the `Top Five' at the First Cleveland Aradhana Dance competition in April 2007.

Now into her second year of undergrad at UC Berkeley, California, the artiste gave an account of herself and the margam she chose to display. Beginning with the Mallari -- one of the most traditional pieces in the Bharatnatyam repertoire, the Gambheera Nattai piece was a prelude to a recital that was filled with some very memorable moments. The stances, the positioning of the hands, the manner of being firmly in control over the nritta, and the easy mobility of expressions that came in smooth transitions -- all of these and more were evident in all the pieces chosen.

The Sadashivan Maindane in Hamsadhwani, a Maharajapuram Santhanam composition brought back nostalgic memories of this musical maestro and Vinidhra Mani gave this item a unique empathy while describing Shiva. The ode to Shiva continued into the Varnam, Konjum Salangai in Lathangi, a Madurai Muralidharan, composition, which had several beautiful jathi por tions with a wealth of devo tion attached to it. tion attached to it.

It was particularly in this that her stances bore the strength of training and practise, as she appeared light foot ed and yet firm when it came to footwork. In praise of Goddess Lakshmi, Ranjanimala in Ragamalika, was eloquently done also thanks to the sensitive vocal by Hariprasad. In fact the entire ecital felt uplifted also thanks to this element.

The Theruvil Vaaraano in Kamas, and the Thillana in Kadanakuthoohalam, concluded the recital that reiterated that for a good Bharatnatyam recital there needs to be more than just years and mere knowledge of the dance form. Guru Vidhya Subramanian must also be credited for this -and on the nattuvangam conducted the recital with quiet grace. Sigamani on the violin, Nellai D Kannan on the mridangam and Sashidharan on the flute provided good orchestral support despite the indifferent acoustics at the hall.

article link is:

http://dc-epaper.com/DC/DCC/2009/07/20/ArticleHtmls/20_07_2009_104_001.shtml?Mode=0

Pallavi of Carnatic Muisc will live in our minds for ever!

I just used part of the caption from today's (Friday, July 17, 2009) edition of The Times of India Chennai and i am sure every one will accept to my view. I still remember the day i had the blessings of this great Legendary Musician, Dr. D. K. Pattammal on the 25th April, 2008, when i visited her house along with my parents and Pyarilal uncle. She was so nice to me and listened to my playing on my Yamaha PSR 640 keyboard. She asked me to perform Konjum Purave and when i did she hugged me and blessed me for a bright and successful future. I a sure it is all the blessings like this which has made me come thus far and i am sure will take me to where ever i am destined to! I was blessed when she offered and wrote her blessings with her own had in my well wishers register and it is now indeed a greatest treasure for me and our family!

Dream come true! under the tutelage of The Musical Genius.

I Just cannot forget the oppurtunity i got through Raja uncle who is friend of Abaswaram Ramjhi uncle which was for performing for Vipanchee on the 25th December'08! Yes! that day i had the great blessing of PadmaVibhusan Dr. Balamuralikrishna sir seeing me perform and asked me to come to his house for learning. What a great varam i got that day! It was just a dream for me then and now it has become true!

Yes i am blessed to be under the tutelage this great musician, living God of Music - Dr. Balamuralikrishna uncle, from the 9th July'09, another d-day in my life! Have already attented two classes and i just still cannot believe that he has accepted me as his sishya.It will take some time for me to realise this great reality and i pray and hope to live up & become a good sishya for him. Thanks Raja uncle for that oppurtunity at the "Vipanchee".

Jackie - we are proud of you! People do talk about achieving and i think this is one of the best one can think of - representing your country at teh age of 16! Wow! Jacqueline - my appa's friend - Mr. Thomas Kunnath's daughter has achieved this and hats off to her and to her family for the support they have given. We wish her all the very best for the tournament and beyond for greater achievements India call for Jacqueline

The 16-year-old earned her first international call for the Badminton Asia Youth U19 championships next month in Kuala Lumpur

Dev S Sukumar. Bangalore

Bangalore girl Jacqueline Kunnath, a trainee at the Tata Padukone Badminton Academy, has made it to the Indian team for the Badminton Asia Youth U19 championships. The tournament will be held in Malaysia from July 12 to 19. Although Jacqueline – 'Jackie' to everybody – is primarily a singles player, she was selected for the doubles based on her performance at the three All India junior tournaments in Chennai, Kochi and Bangalore this month. Jackie and Prajakta Sawant made the (U-19) semifinal at Chennai and the final at Kochi and Bangalore. "I'm not too happy, because I got selected for the doubles," said the 16-year-old. "But I plan to try and play the singles at the ABC. I can get to know how the others play. I didn't do well in the singles at Kochi and Bangalore because I'd stubbed my toe and it was hurting." Jackie is a product of East Cultural Association's badminton programme. Her early lessons were under senior coaches ND Murali, Biju Prasad and Suresh Kumar. It was with the arrival of former doubles international Vinod Kumar at ECA in 2002 that the programme took on a different level – two of his trainees from those days, Prakash Jolly and Jackie – are junior internationals. Jackie's primary assets are her speed and power, but there are some creases that need to be ironed out. "She needs to improve in many technical aspects," says Vimal Kumar, coach at the Padukone Academy. "She's very quick, but skill-wise, she needs to improve. She has a problem with the grip – she's unable to change grip quickly from the forehand to the backhand." That's something Jackie is aware of. "I need to work on my patience and precision," she says. "I need to play an opponent twice to get used to her style. My game is a more attacking style. I like it when I'm up against rally players, because they push me and there's a lot more going in their game." Her natural athleticism is derived from her parents, Thomas and Sarah. While Thomas was a university badminton player, Sarah was a sprinter at the school level. Senior athletics coach VR Beedu was impressed with Jackie's athletic ability and persuaded her to focus on athletics, but Jackie was keener on badminton. "She had the qualities to become a good athlete," Beedu said. "Jackie could've made a mark in national athletics. She has primarily done well in badminton because of her speed. Some of our sprinters would even find it difficult to beat badminton players like Jackie and (senior international) Ashwini Ponnappa in the 800m."

Publish Post

Article courtesy DNA, Bangalore and click on page 17 on the web link: http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=9&eddate=6%2f26%2f2009

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Reporting from Toronto airport

Hi all,

The two months long tour of USA Canada is now completed and i am on the verge of taking a flight to Chennai by Lufthansa. It has been great time and thanks to everyone who made it a grand success.

I am excited to write as i just saw a huge Emirates aircraft with 700 person capacity airbus 380-800 series, probably first of it kind in the world! I had the privelage to just see this aircraft on its maiden visit to Toronto. What a way to sign off from Toronto! Here is a video clipping of this flights arrival into Toronto airport parking bay!

Ellam iraiva Seyal. Avan indri oru anuvm asaiyadhu!

Will report details later.

Memorable trip into Toronto & Niagara, 31 May, 2009



What a way to complete my 1st concert tour of USA & Canada with a presentation applauded by the learned audience of Toronto and visiting Niagara by Night, thanks to NewYork Raja uncle for having driven us to Niagara and back, apart from having a greal aerial view of the same when coming from Washington to Toronto from the aircraft!

I shall detail all news later but could not resist sharing the photos!. Thanks to New York RAja uncle who took us to this great drive to Niagara and back for making this a lifetime unforgettable tour!.

Trip to the capital of USA Washington DC 29-30 May, 2009

It was indeed a great experience in Washington which i shall detail tmrw. Enjoy the photo taken here on way and during the cocnert.

In Tampa from 26 - 28 May'09

It was a great new experience at Chicago in term of concert reception and also experienced heavy rain for the first time in USA. I am sure if it was same in Chennai, the city would have paralysed for at least 4 days. Well this was just for a shower of rain for just few hour! Mr & Mrs Usha Ravi were so nice and so was their children Hariharan and Akshy. I had good time and also made some shopping here for my family, thanks to Usha Ravi anty to have taken us to Best By store.  The milk shakes bought by Ravi uncle on both the days of our stay was indeed great. We had a great get together dinner at Mr Raghavan uncle's hose were almost all the artist who performed at CTU were there and i had the opportunity to mingle with all of them very freely. 

Coming to Tampa, the photos displayed - its a city with climate as good or bad as Chennai and on arrival we were met by Mr Latha Kumar and her son & Smt Geetha Saharsanam. The hoe of Lathakumar aunty where we are staying i huge and Target store is just rght behind! We went ot to look for more shopping but the price i bit higher than Best Buy (it has to be!) store and so had a long walk inside this huge store. All rehearsed ith mr Patrick Hernly, who perform steel drum (in the photo) and Ms Katerine Ocampo who plays Saxophone. We are jamming in on the concert stage today evening and hope it come out good!

Our Trip to Chicago from New Jersey



It was a new experience of traveling by Surface to Philadelphia to take a flight to Chicago and i was really blessed as i could be in the presence of Great Maha Vidwan Sri VV Subramaniam mama & family during the van drive from New Jersey. Also it was a great blessings to meet Sri Thiruvarur Bakthavatchalam uncle, Sri Thiruvarur Vaidhyanathan uncle, Gurucharan anna and Nagai Sriram anna at the Philadelphia airport as we were all taking same flt to Chicago. On reaching Chicago we were again splitting as respective groups as we were to stay in different houses.

We were picked up by Sri Rangam uncle and we had lunch in their house. The greatest thing was we could watch the 2nd part of IPL finals in a big TV with our web link given by Seattle Vishwa uncle and enjoyed the same. Then we came to Usha Ravi aunty's house and saw group of talented children - Shashank playing Flute (student of Smt. Sunitha Granthi), Sanjay on Mrudhangam (presently nder the tutelage of Sri Gruvayur Durai), Hariharan (student of sri B.. GaneshPrasad)  on Vocal and Akshay (still to dance so no photo of his action - learning from Smt. Sowmya Kumaran) a good dancer. Hari and Akshay are children o Mr & Mrs Ravi. I am on to playing Wi games now and will report later. bye for now.

This trip to New Jersey has been different in all ways alike we had to spilt ourselves into 2 groups with appa and self in Mr/s Venkatraman, VP CIMANA's house and Poongi uncle and Kannan mama in Mr/s Sankaran's house (President, CIMANA). While i thought this would affect our smooth flowing trip both our groups were kept busy by both families. We here enjoyed our stay with natural sorrundings with bird's sound always and fish tank at home. I also enjoyed playing / experiencing GOLF for the first time in my life.

Mr Venkat was so nice to take us to a Golf Pro coaching zone and we enjoyed it very much. I was so happy when he said i was playing Golf very ell and also told him hthat i wold like to call myself as Squirrelwood - (like TIGER WOODS!). I also had the greatest opportunity to meet Dr Ravi Dattatreya uncle at his residence, thanks to Prakash anna - Mr Venkat's son, who took us there. We experienced the Train rides all through and spent good time there. Dr Ravi uncle's family were so nice to us and we tasted Pasta for lunch apart from good chappathi's. Ravi uncle plans to make some album project and hope it comes through. Mr Mahendra - his brother was nice too and so was Srivatsa anna - Ravi uncle's son who plays Piano in a great way.

The concert here went well and we sincerely hope the good run continues. The only sad thing is that appa got sick with soar throat and hope he becomes alright soon witht eh kashayam given by Smt. Venkat mamai. The stay here has been very good and have been enjoying it with Golf, UNO and also playing Trade game for the first time in this tour. I also had good time with RIA & Rishi children of Mr Govind uncle (appa's friend for last 25 years!) when we went to their house. I played wi games and tried new games too and it was great fun. Tomorrow we are all going to Philadelphia by surface and then to Chicago for a concert on 25th May'09.

Our trip to Charlotte

Every city / venue is indeed a great experience in this tour for me and this kind of twin cities as far as music organisers are concerned namely Raleigh and Charlotte has been very special for me. It was after the great stay at Raleigh we moved by surface to Charlotte and if not for the team thinking of all of us including Mr/s Akila Arun and Mr Ravi , ho drove us, we would have had great trouble driving the distance of about 170 miles. It was raining and Mr Ravi uncle was indeed great and self, Kannan uncle and Poongi uncle played UNO cards throughout our travel.

In Charlotte it was in my god's brother's home we were staying i.e. Dr Ravi Dattatreya's (who had presented me with a Korg Trinity workstation in Nov'09 and we in our family really think of him as god) brother's house. I enjoyed the concert on May 17th 2009 after having good lunch and has been enjoying the stay here. e have been playing Tennis, went to IMAX theatre and had the experience of being to Grand Canyon - Colorado River film and playing UNO. I also recorded few krithis for Ravi uncle. Pooja and Rupa akka (one in the photos dancing) were also nice and so was the dinner hosted by committee members with Mr&Mrs Krishna family, Mr & Mrs Vijay family and Mr & Mrs Muthukrishnan & family. Thanks to Jayashree Pandurangan aunty and Pandu uncle for having given us great time in their house with great homely food. They also took us to Cizi's Pizza and e enjoyed the buffet spread! Hope our good run on and off the stage continues!!

Our stay in Raleigh 13 - 17 May'09

It was wonderful stay at Connecticut with Mr Vir Gopalan and family continue to host us in the best way done by all the hosts during our tour till date. I enjoyed playing Tennis here for the first time in the tour apart from the opportunity to visit New York which photos are already there in my earlier post. 

It was a hopping flight from Connecticut to Raleigh via Washington Dulles airport and were received by Mr Mohan (who helped us to be dropped) and Ms Akila Arun, our host in Raleigh. It has been very good here with good food and pleasant stay. We are enjoying the cinema viewing and UNO cards here. Also having fun with Dia, 18month old child of our host. IPL matches viewed here has been great with close finishes.

I also had the opportunity to try out cycling here for the first time and had fun at both the dinners at Mr Manohar's family, both the daughters Preethi & Namitha playing Piano and Mr Arthanareeswar's family (his son Karthick, a talented singer under the tutelage of Sri O.S. Thyagarajan uncle, sang a Thodi raga krithi for us which was very good). We also had Charan who as good on Piano and with him we had fun trying the jumping jack game, Trampoline which was really a good experience. It looks easy but really pains at the joints after few jumps. The theatre style setting to view dvd made us watch couple of songs from Chandramki at Mr Manohar's house. We have our concert today night and hope it goes well. We will be proceeding to Charlotte tomorrow  by surface and report further from there. 

 

Great day of this tour. Thanks to Dr. Vir Gopalan uncle for the NewYork trip today 12th May'09



details follows

Concert in Hartford & our day on 11th May'09



details follows.

Concert photos in LA 09 May'09



details follows.

A great day in Los Angeles - Visit to Disneyland my amma' review in Dinamalar

More than me my mama Embar Kannan was waiting for this day as he was always wanting me to be taken here to Disneyland. He was also scarring me with lots of inputs from Seattle here we had a good stay in Seattle and reached Los Angles on 6th May'09 evening. First few photos are taken at the airport and on way to our host's Mr & Mrs Ramamurthi's house. Here too they are very nice with two children here and one in India. Surprisingly he is working for a company in India on deputation from USA! As soon as i arrived i started playing TT ith Siva anna, thier last son now studying in 11th grade.

I was very excited and also little scarred of going to Disneyland in the morning but it was all a different feeling in the evening when e finished all the rides and amusements. Yes Poongi uncle told me not get scarred and so did my appa & i just enjoyed every ride. My mama as so happy and i am glad i could full fill his desire here in Disneyland by taking all the rides he wanted me too!

Really a great day and thank to our host who had dropped and picked us from Disneyland and also for the wonderful lnch they had packed for us. Appa and Poongi uncle were enjoying the match seeing it live! and also saw Mozhi - tamil film.

We came back around 9pm and appa showed me the Dinamalar article on amma's concert, and i was doubly thrilled and was really happy. Technology has helped me see this article at the same time when my amma was seeing it at home! I understand appa and my chithappa made all in our family to come on skype conference call and shared this joy.

I am now watching the match, thanks to Vishwa uncle from Seattle who has given a special link to see the match in full now!

It was indeed nice to have performed a concert for ISKON temple yesterday and it as a full house concert. Every one enjoyed and had a great dinner and played UNOtill 1am. The host Priest Lakshminarayanan and Priest Vasudeva uncles were very nice and the highlight of this city's visit was the viewing of IPL matches on both days. Thanks to Vishwa uncle who had specially given us a link today for us to see the match ninterupted. It was done ydy by LN uncle. We all enjoyed this stay in Seattle to the greatest extent.

It has been a great stay in Seattle hat with a new concert fixed up after seeing our performance on 3rd May, now at ISKON temple on the 5th May'09. e are really blessed to have Mr Lakshminarayanan & Mr Vasudevan who have have been taking care of us so well with great food from Mr LN's house. Here are the photos taken on 4th May'09 with some exercises, visit to a temple and the highlight of visit - MICROSOFT office thanks to Gayathri akka for arranging same. thanks to LN uncle for having taken s to the temples of ISKON and Nithyanandam with his father.

Todays' concert at Seattle 03 May'09

Pleased to upload photos of today including the concert held today which well received. Will detail later as i thought of uploading it at the earliest.