Lately a lot has been happening in life.. Too many things in my plate.. Too little time.. No seriously.. As it is I am this emotional person who wears the heart out on the sleeve and then ends up worrying. That not withstanding, there have been too many turbulences.. professional.. personal.. emotional.. shabba.. I need to take a break.. Sooner than later.. Not from this space though * Evil Grin *

Ok.. So far it sounded like a full-blown rant which I dont want this to be.. So moving on.. Whats keeping me going all through this is some cute moments.. some unexpected, unconditional love…  some really nice friends, looong detailed mails [that explains where all my creative juices went! ]  and of course.. MUSIC! Really cute mushy songs to keep me company..

Once, over a casual chat with Cont, I told him how “Nenani Neevani” was driving me mad! He was surprised that I listened to Telugu songs.. I was like Duh! Half hour later he sent me more songs that were good in his opinion. At first I didnt listen to the songs.. Cos my playlist was already brimming.. But then.. On a whim I loaded a few telugu songs sent by him and man.. I chanced upon “Naalo Nenena“. This is one hell of a beautiful song.. Set to tune by Mani Sharma… and sung by Hemachandra and Saindhavi.. this song is a part of a movie called Baanam. I have no idea about how the movie is.. but the song.. Maaannn..

It takes a while to get started.. A long instrumental prelude .. But hold your breath.. what follows is out of the world!  While Hemachandra is soft, glides effortlessly into the varying pitches and utters each word oh-so-delicately.. Saindhavi is her usual “ghaneer” yet soft self.. The instrument arrangement is very very mellifluous and soothing.. So much so that you’d fall in love with the violin interludes instantly…

Fav Lines: Manase Naadhi…Maate Needhi.. Idhem Maayo……

The second stanza which Saindhavi starts off is BEAUtiful!!! aweosmest..

Daivam Varamayi Dorikindani…
Naalo Sagamai Kalisindhani….
Melukuva Kaani…. Hrudayani….

Chiguraiponi Sisiraani….

Maname Saaksham..Maatey Mantram
Premey bandham…..

As usual I don’t understand a word of it! Not that I care..

The next song has been doing the rounds in the FM radios a bit.. “Oru Kili Oru Kili” from “Leelai“.. A new male voice [Sathish Chakravarthy who also happens to be the man behind the tune] and our new Melody Queen Shreya Ghoshal team up for this soulful and haunting melody. It’s more like a ballad.. The way Sathish sings “Vazhigiradheyyyy Vizhi vazhi.. ” tugs at your heart.. The tune is slow and yet fast paced.. Yes.. It’s more like a fast paced melody.. but at no point you feel that speed to be jarring or out-of-place..

Fav lines:

Enakku naan alla … Unakku thaan endru unargiren… Nizhalena thodargiren…

Kaadhal thaan… Ennalulum oru vaarthaikkul varathadhu…

Kaalangal… Sendralum andha vaanam pol vizhaathadhu…

If you listen to Bollywood music, you’d have already heard this song and chances are you are as mad about it as I am. Before I say a word more, let me just state a fact for the records, I am crazy about Atif Aslam. Just about any song he sings manages to put me in a trance. From “Tere Bin” right up till this one, each song has a special memory attached. No surprises here.. “Tu Jaane Na..” from APKGK! Phew.. I am not gonna describe the song or the music or the singer.. Just one word.. Mesmerized! The chorus prelude.. The longing in Atif’s voice.. the lyrics and a simple tune do the trick! And thankfully, for once, they’ve managed to shoot a decent video for a good song.

Fav Lines: I could go on and quote the entire song.. But then..

Kaise batayein.. Kyun tujhko chahe.. Yaara batha na paayein!!
How do I tell you.. why do I love you.. My love.. I am unable to say!
Baatein dilon ki.. Dekho jo baki.. Aake tujhe samjhaein….
The feelings of the heart.. That still remain.. I will come and explain them to you!
Tu Jaane naaa…

Nigaahon dekho meri jo hai bas gaya..
The one who has managed to stay in my eyes..
Wo hai milta tumse hubahoo..
He/She resembles you to the last detail..
Jaane teri aankhein thi ya baatein thi wajah..
Dont know if it were the eyes or the words that were the reason..
Hue tum jo dil ki aarzoo…
Why you became the object of the heart’s desire..

If you thought the was an emotional overload.. Wait till you hear this one.. This one is the icing on the cake. Cal, I can never thank you enough for suggesting this song. Well, its pretty straight forward. The song is from an upcoming Tamil movie called “Naanayam“. Music by James Vasanthan.. So no doubts here that this is the stand-out-most-melodious song of the album. But wait.. That is not all. Its sung by SPB and Chitra. Not thats a heady combination and they dont let you down at all.. Not one bit…

Right fro the flute prelude.. till the last second.. you’d be hooked on to it! Chitra with her usual bubbly voice which brims with excitement and SPB with his konjals and improvisations..Its vintage Chitra and SPB at their best.. Beautiful lyrics.. really… it can’t get better than this.. and of course.. the lilting tune.. The song canters a bit in the introductory stanza.. By the time Chitra finishes the first line you ought to fall in love.. with the song of course.. It’s from the “Na na na ” humming that it picks up pace.. No just there.. All “Na na na”s in the song are lovable..

Fav Lines:

Yen unnai paarthen endre ullam kelvi ketkum
Aanaalum nenjam vanthu nerathai nesikkum

En veetil neeyum vandhu serum kaalam ekkalam?
Poomalai seidhey vaadudhey..
En methai thedum provai yaavum selai aagadho..
Vaaradho annalum indeeeyy..

The jerk SPB gives after this line sends my heart into somersault.. Anga eppudii??

After a long tiring day, put there 4 songs in your ipod.. with noise cancellation headphones.. you should be in 7th heaven.. No less..

Enna baass paisa vasool ah??

About this time last year, it was the talk of the town.. The patronage to this blog also skyrocketed at times thanks to it! Yes Margazhi Ragam was a humbling experience. We had many ppl querying if the DVD was available. Esp the ones outside Chennai who didnt get a chance to experience the out-of-the-world trance!

News is .. After a year long wait.. the DVD is finally out! Yes yes yes.. The description and their promise looks great.. I’ve ordered mine.. Go grab your copy now!

The moment mine comes, this space will be plastered with photos of the cover etc..!! He he .. yeah we like to flaunt!!

PS: The regular folks.. Music reco post coming up!!

It was 10 past 9. I was on my way back home after a nasty day at work, feeling pretty low and dejected… I got down from the train.. loong face..droopy eyes and a grumbling stomach and started walking towards the staircase, when I noticed that there was quite a scene playing out in the platform.
The station where I alight is usually home to a few families. Arbit fruit/vegetable/flower hawkers and the likes.. The station is their home cum office.. you get the drift.. So coming back.. What I see is.. There is tramp who is drunk like crazy, strewn all across the floor. And in front of him stands a woman tramp cowering and mumbling something. Between them.. a teeny-weeny kid.. Hardly 2 yr old looking around as if he were in a candy store.

The man was yelling rubbish.. throwing around stuff.. while the woman was silently weeping.. wiping off her face with one end of the tattered rag that she was wearing.. For a moment.. I forgot everything else.. I actually stopped walking and stared at this scene dumbly. While people around me kept walking as if it was not happening at all. I continued to stare.. as the lady, with a resigned look on her face.. took the child and went and dropped in a pile next to the man..
I fought off the urge to empty the thrash can on the man’s head and walked off with a sigh! I felt like a piece of thrash though. Had I been a man, I’d have landed a couple of blows on that moron for sure! Gawd knows what trouble that poor woman went thru that night.. My heart went out to her… I mouthed some choicest expletives at the man… of course… inaudible to the rest of the world.. and went away.

The next morning… by chance, I happened to start a bit early.. and guess what scene meets me at the platform? The aforementioned couple.. at a shouting match.. the lady a bit in denial.. and the man.. still in his drunken stupor… and the kid.. running along with other kids out there..

Life just goes on!

I had drafted a nice post with juicy tit bits and startling revelations lined up and then kabooommm! This happened. I decided that the gossip post could wait and this rather real life incident deserved to be narrated. I shall stick to the facts here.
Disclaimer: All incidents and characters in this story are real. Any resemlance to any one dead or unreal is purely co incidental.
Yes you read that right. Now shall we move on to the actual narration.

Monday morning : Home : 830 AM
Maaa… Pls ma… don’t scold me early in the morning first day of the week.. pwweesss… I mumbled sleepily.. Mom stormed into the room.. broom in hand.. Its about time you get some sense into that head of yours. Do you realize what time is it? Why cant you ever stick to a routine properly.. Go to bed on time.. Get up on time.. Makes life a lot easier for all of us you know… She boomed.. But Ma.. I squealed.. and then realized that Ajju was also not up yet. Dang.. No wonder mom had hit one of her foul moods. Last night was one big rollicking night.. The high of making it to a biz quiz final was just too much to sleep off at usual time. Group chat.. chat and more chat… later i reluctantly went to bed at midnight.. [RT you know what I am talking about dont you?? ]

I smiled to myself and slowly climbed out of the bed. A whirlwind of half hour later I was ready for office. Mom meanwhile was still grumbling. She packed some breakfast for me to eat on the way. I wore a nice white salwar [one of my favorites] and hauled up the lappie in a back pack. Armed with my regular handbag in one shoulder and the kutti tiffin bag in the other, off I went to the railway station. [FYI: I use the suburban train in Chennai to commute to my office everyday].

A train left just as I was slowly making my way down the crowded staircase. So I ended up waiting for the next train. Meanwhile I called up Pridi and talked to her at length about my weekend and hers… [ * No no.. Don't glare at me just yet. You'd know how this saved my day later on.] The train came.. I got into it and continued the conversation.. We had just toooo much to catch up on. The train then dumped me off in Guindy. The day was just beginning to get worse. I ended up waiting for almost 45 mins in Guindy bus stop. And then finally a bus showed up and I reached office at around 11.
I was just settling down in office with my bag and baggage. Setting things up and all.. A msg popped up in my mobile. It was  from dad. It read:

” Your purse found by AAAA. 1233456777 “
I was amused. Yes.. Out of the blue, dad sending such a msg was funny, if not anything else. Smiling I rummaged through my bag, only to find that my purse wasn’t in there.. OH no.. shoot.. I hurriedly called up the number in the msg from my office phone. The voice at the other end belonged to a man who calmly explained that he had found my purse and there was no money in it. And that he also found my dad’s business card in it so he called up my dad and informed him. [I silently thanked my Dad for showing off his new business card. He'd given each one of us a card and I had kept it in my purse. Thankfully. ]

I asked him where exactly he found the purse. He said it was lying in the railway track in Mount station. I get off just one station before. It was lying there open for sometime. He picked it up. But there was no money in it and that there were just a couple cards in it that were intact and some loose change. Meanwhile dad called my mobile.Since I was talking to this person, I didnt pick dad’s call. His description of the purse was fairly accurate. I thanked him profusely and told him I’d call him back and inform him when and where I’d pick it up. My heart was threatening to pop out of my mouth.

I ddin’t have much cash in the purse. A crisp 10 Rs note and a crisp 5 Rs note. I had spent most of the money I had over the weekend and was left with just 100 bucks. Instead of keeping the money in the purse I’d just loosely kept it in my bag. And that day I was carrying every single card that I own. Only .. they weren’t in my purse. The 2 “cards” in the purse were a membership card to Titan and a gift card from SBI which had close to 1 grand left in it. I hurriedly checked my bag and found the cards and cash intact. And no blade/ tear marks in the bag also which meant that the bag had been opened and the purse was taken. Realization dawned very late. The train was pretty crowded and there were people around me all the time. Only lady was constantly maintaining eye contact or rather staring at me. Gawd.

I called home but mom’d gone to grandpa’s house. So filled Ajju up on all the details and told him to keep his mouth shut until someone else told him about it. An instant later I called uncle and updated him of the proceedings. After giving me an earful about generally how careless I am and how I should keep my eyes open while on train etc, Uncle, who thankfully lives near this AAAA’s office offered to pick up the pruse from his office. Phew that was close.

Mom was trying to reach me at he same time and since I was on the phone with Uncle, I thought I’d call her back. But man.. When I called her the next instant in mom spoke in a trembling voice. She asked me first if I was alright and if my phone was indeed with me. She then went on to ask if my cards were ok as the man who’d found the purse had informed dad that there were 2 cards in it. . All this in extremely hushed tone. I explained to her that all was well and a grand sum of R.s 15 was missing. All important cards and other stuff including me were absolutely intact. As I mouthed these words a shiver ran down my spine and I lost all my calm composure.

She told me how Daddy dearest had panicked and in turn had scared her as well. Since I’d not picked his call he assumed that my phone was also taken and I was in trouble. [Now is where the * comes into the picture. Had I not been on the phone it might have been taken also. No I am not taking any other explanation ] She asked me to call him assure him that all was well. I promptly call dad and could sense from his voice how panicked he had been. I spoke to him for a few seconds and then hung up.

My hands were shaking. I was terrified. It scared the living day lights out of me. Why? Usually the beginning of the month is when the purse is fully loaded. It was by divine intervention or sheer dumb luck that the purse was relatively empty that day. When I broke the news to my friends, they all managed to make a joke out of it saying my purse would always be empty irrespective of the day. And that the person had wasted a lot of time and effort in picking it in the first place. Some one else said,  that I should check the purse thoroughly when I got it back as the person could have left some money in it and a note saying which might say, “Please keep some more cash in it the next time around so that the efforts of people like us does not go down the drain”. Lol.. Indeed. And then one said, “Cover your face while going back home. The person might still be waiting in Guindy railway station for some revenge. ” Lol revenge indeed!

Thanks to all this my breakfast lay forgotten and the story was promptly repeated at the lunch table amidst some more wise cracks and laughs. At around 2, uncle called up to inform that he’d picked up the purse from that person and that he’d give it to me the next day! When I reached home, mom gave me a bigg hug for the trauma that I went through and I quipped, had you not screamed at me this morning none of this would have happened. She gave me a “yeah right” look and went about dinner. And thus ended a maniacal Monday!

When the purse came back to me, I had a strange feeling. My eyes moistened a bit as I opened it and found all the contents there.. For some strange reason, the pictures of various Gods I had kept inside the purse, memorabilia from trips to various temples seemed to smile back at me! The purse has been lying in the Pooja Room for the last week. I promptly gave mom all my cards and carry only 20 bucks on me each day!

Moral of the story: Moms shouldnt scream at children !

• Homes cleaned up furiously!
• Sweets made and home and orders placed for the ones to be bought!
• The entire city wears the festive look – lights and discounts, heavy crowds and furious selections in shops.
• People rush to get to their homes – not minding the endless crowd.
• The mood is light.. There is cheer around..
• The festival is round the corner!

On the D Day!

• No one’s in bed after 5 am.
• There is race amongst flatmates to see who is the first one to start the proceedings for the day.. Who makes the maximum cracker “kuppai“.
• The entire family is decked up in glittery new clothes and jewelery.
• The lunch spread is delectable..
• There are so many sweets to be relished.and shared amongst friends.
• Loads of TV programs lined up, movies to be watched..
• Friends and family to be called and wished.. Relatives to be visited.
• Truckloads of crackers to burst !  Nothing beats the thrill of running for cover after lighting up the wick!
• Smiles of contentment all over!

Love and be loved!
Give and be bestowed upon with!
Spread cheers and smiles as much as you can!

Its the mother of all festivals people! Soak up every milli second of it.

Scribbling Away and I wish you all a very Happy  and prosperous Diwali!

God Bless!