My morning so white..!

Today, the 23rd of december, i saw something which i've never seen.. I got up early morning to learn car-driving.. As i went out to the road, i was gobsmacked.. I barely could see anything.. i saw torrent mist all over.. It was so beautiful.. I was'nt able to see anything.. the mist was so thick and cold.. I saw the beautiful trees, that was half clouded by the mist, smiling at me as they were fresh and green.. The climate welcomes me with its cloudy appearance with soft music of the breeze.. I drove for few kilometers and stopped in a coffee kiosk to have some coffee.. My words came out of my mouth and turn to smoke in the cold morning air.. It was awesome.. It was like Bangalore and ooty.. I rode for a while slowly and with an aesthetic view.. Each and every tree i crossed, said something to me that made me slow down my speed.. That was too good to see.. If this is going to continue, then i have to start my slumber party.. Lolz.. I tried to take some pictures in my mobile.. Please bear the quality..



This is the I.C.F road..


Perambur..


I.C.F again..

My Favorite Quotes..!

Some of my favorite quotes on music:


"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."
--Maya Angelou

When I am with composers, I say I am a conductor. When I am with conductors, I say I am a composer.
-- Leonard Bernstein


"Music is either good or bad, and it's got to be learned. You got to have balance."
-- Louis Armstrong


"Music has to breathe and sweat. You have to play it live. "
-- James Brown


Never compose anything unless the not composing of it becomes a positive nuisance to you.
-- Gustav Holst


"You are the music while the music lasts."
--T. S. Eliot


"Most of us go to our grave with our music still inside of us."


After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. Aldous Huxley


Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end. Igor Stravinsky


"The sonatas of Mozart are unique; they are too easy for children, and too difficult for adults."
-- Artur Schnabel


It is not hard to compose, but it is wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table.
-- Johannes Brahms


"The Opera is nothing but a public gathering place where we assemble on certain days without precisely knowing why."
-- Voltaire


"What is best in music is not to be found in the notes."
-- Gustav Mahler


I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.
-- Gustav Mahler


Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and violinist.
-- G.K. Chesterton


Loud is good.
-- Frank Loesser

Love is like the wind, you can also see it..!

There is some things in life that would impress and mark footprints in your heart.. And some thing in life, if you see, it seems like its already happened, and you feel as if you're just blessed with some godly power.. I believe, a thing that makes me happy for few minutes, is just another godly thing that has come down all the way to show its beautiful colors.. Lately, i saw a movie that got engraved in me.. The movie that made me mushy.. This has made me so impressed that i wrote a blog for it.. I saw the movie A Walk To Remember some few years back.. I got bored and wished to see some movie.. What got on hand was this movie A Walk To Remember.. This movie made me comment a 'WoW.!' the very first time.. Every single scene of this movie is so well picturised with a beautiful story.. This story is about a guy who falls in love with a girl, who is sick.. Yes, a very normal movie but very different on screens.. The dialogues and BGM adorns the movie.. One of the song was sung by Mandy Moore, who plays Jamie in this movie.. Other BGM was sung by Switchfoot.. I watched this movie for more that 120 times and i still used to watch it whenever i find time.. A Walk To Remember, the title suits the story best and has a intimate meaning within.. The characters Landon and Jamie in this flick was played by the well known singers Mandy Moore and Shane West.. If you guys find time, watch the movie.. The story of the movie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_To_Remember.


-S

EQ shoot..!

It was on 30th, we had our last practice, the rehearsal, or whatever we call it, before the main competition. But the practice was not that hard cuz we've already practiced the song for about a hundred times. We did it for 2 hrs and came back home early. The main shoot was on 2nd of November. Before writing about my EQ2 shoot experience, lemme name out the members of our band. The band comprises of:

Male Vocals --> Prakash and Praveen
Female Vocals --> Rehka (She really got an awesome singing voice)
Saxophone --> Janet
Drums --> Vinod
Guitar --> Myself
Keyboard --> Pughazh
Pads --> Balaji


On 27th, we went to purchase our costumes. We started by 8 in the morning and reached T-Nagar at 11. As it was Saturday, it was more crowded than any other day. We wriggled through the crowd somehow and got near Saravana stores. The streets were so crowded that it took 20mins for us to cross a few meters. Not after half an hour of walk, it started drizzling and we were all drenched. We got into the building and bought our clothes. It was so huddle up that it took 3hrs for the purchase. We came out of the building at 5 and rushed to catch the train. I came back home soon with the dress and the cold. The next time if i want to buy some dress, i never ever will go T-Nagar again. Shit..! It was one place where i see 25% of Tamil Nadu's population rush for the purchase.



I got a call the previous day of the shoot, that confirmed my timing, place to get assembled and stuff, from my friend. I told everyone that evening and planned to assemble near perambur. We reached the destination (Prasad studios near AVM) by 12:30p.m as it was said that our program was scheduled at 1 p.m. Later, our shoot was put up at 6p.m. Every college had a lot of their college students who had come to cheer them. But we hardly had 3 to 4 along with us. Ram and sayan (my brother) came along with us. I called guru and vijay to come as we were in need of audience. They showed up at 3. Some of my classmates also came and we were waiting for our call. There were a lot of students assembled, and most of them hardly were single. Never a frump was seen. All dressed up well that clearly showed their asset. It was nice ogling around, grope about the whole place, getting conspicuous and wandering in search of beautiful bints.



It was 5:30 and we were called for the make-up. We had everything done and i was waiting for the call. We were gabbing outside with friends when surprisingly i saw the man who taught me guitar. I actually discontinued from my guitar class cuz i was'nt satisfied with his teaching. I found the same guy sitting right next to me. He doubtfully called me up and asked "Is that you..?". Darn..! got caught up with him for 15mins. Then somehow manage to get rid of him and went to my make-up room where my team was waiting.



Our competitors were Sathyabama and Jerusalam. The order goes like this- Sathyabama-> Jaya-> Jerusalam. The juries were Pop Shalini and a famous dancer, a thingummy. Sathyabama came out after their music performance. It was our turn to show up. Before getting in, we prayed for a minute and built confidence within us. We got into the hall. It was a huge set beautifully built. We got on stage and arranged our instruments. The technicians were checking the sound level, cameraman was adjusting the automated cameras, and the whole place was very busy. I was a bit nervous. While i was tuning my guitar, one of the two compere asked me "What song..?". I said that it's our own composition. With an optimistic smile, she wished us good luck. Everything was ok and the camera was rolling. We started performing. While playing i saw shalini enjoying our song, and even the audience enjoying and cheering us. After the song, Shalini told that the song was awesome and awarded 9/10. The other judge awarded 8/10. Wow.! we were leading in the first round. I did'nt expect this and surprisingly, we won in the first round. The only thing that was missing in our band was that we did'nt enjoy or move rhythmically. Anyway, we were awarded good mark.



After the first round, the results were announced and we topped the chart. We were so happy and everyone around came and wished us for our own composition (seems like everyone liked it.!). The second round was DANCING. Sathyabama went in, came out with a score of 10/10 from both the judges. They really were like professional dancers. Our guys did well, but the judges were not so impressed like how they felt for sathyabama. Its obvious for the judges to give low marks for our medium performance after seeing a stage blowing performance from sathyabama. We got 7/10 from both the judges. We were disappointed about the score. Even jerusalam did well and scored good marks from the judges.



The third round was VARIETY. First was sathyabama. I still could'nt able to figure out what actually sathyabama did for VARIETY. Their skit was like this -> There were five girls standing in the middle of the stage. After the music was played, everyone started a cat walk on the ramp, almost touched the five corners of the stage, came back to were they were standing. They did this for three to four times. When asked, they explained some unrelated concept and got 8/10 from both the judges. WTF.? Thatz not a VARIETY man.! When compared, we were far better than them. We performed some martial arts for our variety, something that related. We scored 8/10 from both the judges. It's very clear that Sathyabama won the competition, we were second and Jerusalam at third.



I was waiting outside and consoling our dance troupe cuz they felt that they were the reason for not winning. One of the staff called me inside and told me to wait until i was called. It was subtle. I could'nt understand why i was called. I called the staff and asked her the reason. She said It was for giving me THE BEST PERFORMANCE award. Gosh.! i got goosebumps all over. An award.? for me.? Jeez.. I got that from Pop Shalini. That moment was a very special and i got that award for my composition. Its not actually an award, but the title goes THE BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD. That really meant a lot to me. One of the compere asked me to talk a few words, but i somehow evaded just by saying something that i could'nt remember. I was nervous at that time. Guru and vijay did'nt know that i got this award. I came out and everyone congratulated, even the compere. I went and congratulated the other two, who got the COOL DUDE and COOL DUDETTE awards. I was so happy that moment. Even if we could'nt able to get through the second round, we atleast managed to do the best of what we've practiced. That one positive thought made me strong.



It was 11p.m when we started from there. Ram, Vijay, Iyer, Guru, Vijay were some of my friends who stayed with us till the end. Me and sayan reached home at 12 sharp. It was so a different experience for me. That was the first time im participating in a TV show. I feel like this has built my confidence level a bit higher for my next music war. Waiting for this to see on tv..

My EQ experience 2..!

My first session audition got over last week. This post will be about my second session audition. After the first auditions, we were a bit nervous cuz of the weird thing happened on that day. So we thought we should practice a little more tougher. As usual, we all assembled at my friend Vinod's place on 25-10-07. We practiced for the whole day hard. We had nice time there. The atmosphere of the place was completely different. I really enjoyed each and every moment of our stay. His house was in the middle of somewhere, somewhere so pleasing. Everywhere you turn around is green with the aroma of fresh air. I really liked his house.


The auditions was on 26th. We were practicing real hard. One of vinod's friend came to our place jus to see our composition. He taught some drum beats to vinod, whoz the drummer. He requested us to sing the song cuz only then he could think about the right beats. We started playing the song and at the end of it, he said there was nothing to change and the song was so catchy. We really were happy cuz he, being patiently listening, his comments were really a very big one for us. He was a musician and also have released some albums. Hearing such a comment from a person whoz really into music, made us happy. After a while, he called me outside and said that he liked it very much. You should know how it feels when someone congratulate your creations. It was like i was carried in a golden chariot with thousands of people praising me. oh.! that was awesome. We shook hands and he went back home. We left from his home by 5.


It was 26th morning. We all assembled there at Nungambakkam, the same place where the first session audition took place. They said that the auditions will start by 1. We were there by 12 and awaited for our call. But one of the staff came out and said that our slot was put up at 5. Damn.! i really felt boring. I tried to call up my friends but no one really were interested to come, except my friend guru. He came and we were talking for some time. Time was nearing 5, and we were called to perform. Guru was standing out and was listening as no one other than the participants were allowed to get in. There were three judges. Everything was set and we were about to perform, by the timei had some problem with my guitar. Damn.! it was not tuned. It takes atleast 2-3 minutes for me to tune, but magically, it took jus some few seconds to tune up there. "Wow.! that was the fastest tuning", i muttered myself. We performed and the judges were impressed. They said that this, being an own composition, have a very good chance of winning. One of the judges also commented that we had no attitude or body language or the feel while singing. Other than that, everything was good, he commented. We promised that we'll surely win and came out with a big YELL. While coming, one of the judges called me up and told me that everything was good except the band's attitude. He was so stupid that he told us to PRACTICE attitude. How on earth can one practice attitude.? I stupidly said that we'll practice. My guitar has a unique style, something like how a rockstar has. He said that my guitar looks sinister so i should show some more attitude like running around the stage and cover the attention of the audience. These were his words "Kneel down, show yourself up, play guitar as of you are in some concert, run around the stage". Man.! i almost started laughing, promised him that i will and came out.


While i came out, i heard something weird from guru. He said that other college guys were saying that our song were rocking, and the sax especially was awesome, and praising our song like anything. Guru started laughing along with me, listening their comments. Anyway, that really pleased me in one way cuz they enjoyed the song, and thatz something wat we wanted.



After the audition, we were asked to go to 2nd floor of the building, for the off-stage shoot. We were so nervous to stand in front of the camera. Prakash, the singer of our team, somehow managed to give an intro and explained about our feelings. They told us to show thumbs-up in front of the camera and yell "EQ2". That was the only thing i did perfectly in that shoot. It was drizzling outside, we stayed there in the building for a while. We planned to leave before a heavy rain show up. Then myself, prakash and praveen went to munch something.We got into a hotel, and had a decent food and reached home at 9. I really enjoyed this EQ audition sessions. And i also have to say that i got a lot of new friends through this. Everything was new to me. The shoot, the competition and everything. But i enjoyed everything. Will catch up with my next post about my experience in the main shoot, soon.

Our IV video..!

This is our IV video.. The so-called 'Industrial Vist'.. I created this using the Windows Movie Maker.. a good food for your eyes.. lolz.. watch it..

My EQ experience..!

I really got bored and thought to write something. And i end up with this. k.. let me share my experience i had in the EQ audition session. I hope everyone would probably know what EQ is. For people who does'nt know, its a college cultural show in vijay tv. The program's last season got over and was a big hit among the other programs telecasted in vijay tv. Because of that, they planned to hit the screens again with EQ2.

We registered our names and we got the invitation no sooner. We were called for the first session auditions on 6th of this month. We started arranging the team for dance, light music and some variety skit. I know to play a bit of guitar so i put myself in the music session. I composed a song and that was what we were practicing. To say it all, we had a nice time bunking classes all day with this so-called 'practice'. The other section of this was 'dance'. The only thing that make dancers harder is that they practice burning calories, but for the music session, we burn thoughts, our feelings. But to heart, this own composition was different and it gives out immaculate harmony. I loved this song very much, not because i composed it, but was my very first composition and hopefully came out well. My team also gave me some ideas while composing, even their part were played in this. We bought new drums and pads and made a good touch with the song.

It was 9:00 am, 6th of oct. we were practicing hard. We had to be there at nungambakkam by 4:00 p.m. I felt really tired cuz i were on fast that day. It was like something unusual happening around me. I was not at all interested cuz i was'nt able to do anything. The team was in heavy practice while i was running in search of rest. We arranged a car to take the instruments as the place was too far from our college. We sent the car with all the instruments while we reached there in an autorickshaw.

We reached there by 4:00 sharp, enquired about our slot. We waited in the waiting room till we were called. It was a different atmosphere to be. I really was happy that day cuz i had all my friends around, sharing jokes, having fun. It was'nt really like we were there for the auditions. We broke the absolute silence, had an acquaintance with everyone around. Finally, It was our time to perform. We arranged the instruments perfectly. But the whole song would be empty without the guitar. I connected the guitar and I was getting some electric shock from the strings. It was because of the stranger, the stranger actually was for heavy instruments. It gave a high output and i started getting electric shock of around 10-12V. Damn.! that was the first time i experinced such a anomalous thing. The level of our contingence started getting high. We somehow managed with the other instruments without playing the guitar. But still, it came out well. We got selected. But that was the first time i experienced that kinda freaky thing.

We started from there by 6:00 p.m. I broke my fast by then. I got a very good friend called Naresh, who is my junior. From nungambakkam, we had to go to the railway station, which none of us know where it is. We walked 2-3 kms, but i could feel any pain cuz i was talking with this brotherly chap Naresh, who was that sweet who almost shared everything with me. It was 9 when i reached home. I could'nt able to move even a part of my body cuz i was that tired. I took bath and hit the bed early. The funny part was, i had model exam the next day. Even my models was fun, and it always be so. I stared this post cuz of some other reason and ended up sharing everything. I'll keep posting cuz we have lot more auditions to come and to hit the main program. I guess that it would obviously gives oodles of fun. More twaddles, in my next post.

Srirangam trip..!

It was tuesday, the fourth week of july, Ram, my very good friend came personally and invited me and my twin brother for his sister's marriage. I thought the marriage would be held somewhere in chennai, but it was'nt. It was in Srirangam. I have not been into outing much. This was the first time im going out of chennai with my friends [Sounds pathetic..?]. Ram also invited some of his friends who were also my good friends and with some i had acquaintanceship. We all planned to start on 17th of August as the marriage was on 19th. Ram already bought tickets for all of us. It was 7:00 p.m and we all were there at the Egmore Railway station waiting for the train. Unfortunately, the train was a bit off time. Ram's family, his relatives, my friends, and a few more of his friends were there at the station and it was all a bit messy. We caught the train at around 9:00 p.m and started off. We had a chat for an hour and then everybody went to bed as they all were really very tired. It was me, sayan [my brother], Kaushik, Bhimal, GG, Ram, Dinesh, GG's cousin [forgot his name], Ganesh who had a blast. Kaushik and I did'nt sleep as we took care of the luggages as there were many. 18th morning 6:00 a.m we reached Srirangam. I was half asleep cuz i did'nt had a nap for about 6 hrs. and so was Kaushik. The Mandapam was 3-4 kms from the station. We hired a van and reached the mandapam. The mandapam is so situated that the Kauvery river runs nearby. It was 7:oo a.m and the climate was too good.

Rooms were allotted for us in the second floor. We all took bath and everybody had a good sleep for 4 hrs. Ranganathan Kovil is 1 km from the mandapam, but we did'nt had time to see that renowned temple. The only pastime for us was music. Ram brought his laptop along with and that helped us to kill some time. We enjoyed the whole day scrabbling around, scoff snacks, hit jokes and doing some stupid stuffs. That night, it was about 11:30 p.m, i was listening to some soft rock, some were playing cards, and some went out in search of apparitions, but no one slept. It was 2:oo a.m when we started taking some wicked snaps. We thought of taking some extraordinary snaps by one lying on top of the other, the other on top of him and so on. Somewhat like a human pyramid. But that eventually ended up in breaking the cot. It was 3:00 a.m, we were trying to concoct a reason for the mishap. We somehow managed to put the cot in some other room blaming it on them.

It was 19th, the day ram's sister Ramyaa getting married. Suresh was the bridegroom. She is so lucky to get a spouse like him. They were made for each other. We all attended the marriage and it was so grand and so beautiful. That was the beautiful Brahmin marriage i've ever seen. They were in their traditional clad. After the nuptial knot, we all went to fill our bowel and the food was too good. Ram introduced some of his school friends and we had a chat. After all that, we came to our room and took a nap. We woke up at 5:00 p.m, formed a small orchestra in our room. We enjoyed singing till our throat get sore. It was fun. We did'nt feel the rush of time and it was time for us to leave. We reached the station by 8:30 p.m. as the train will leave by 9:00 p.m. The train was on time and we reached Chennai on 20th morning at 5:00 a.m. We waved goodbye to each other. Myself and my brother came home hiring an autorickshaw. It was hell lot of fun and those 2 days were something special to me. The togetherness was something which we shared a few moments of happiness. I am waiting for my next trip with my friends and if i get a chance, there is no way i would neglect.

Talent or Heroism..?

Tamil cinema is giving out some remarkable movies these times. Sivaji was one of the outstanding flick with the awesome threesome Rahman- Rajini- Shankar. The movie was apparently a big hit and was one of the most expensive movie of all time in the history of Indian cinema. It was Rajini who ruled each and every single scene in the movie with a mind-blowing background score by the legend, Rahman. On the day of release, Rajini fans filled the theaters and the film was running house-full for about a week. When this is about Rajini, Padmashree Kamal Hasan, a renowned eminent actor who gives out his director's thoughts as a character, has done many challenging roles. One of his remarkable roles include Avvai Shanmugi, in which he plays as a old nanny. Kamal is a three-time National Award winner and 18 times Filmfare Award winner for his extraordinary roles. The contradictory part is that, Kamal has done roles which literally was eye-poping. But when it comes to Rajini, he has not done roles as outstanding as kamal. But still Rajini has enormous number of fans when compared to Kamal Hasan. This is because the aesthetic level of the audience is strongly focused on style and heroism. Actors like Kamal gives out roles which could probably show people some roles which they would'nt even have imagined. Rajini walks easily through peoples heart and finds the right place. Whereas Kamal puts in enormous effort, yet the fame and name is less when compared to Rajini.

There are many actors who takes their profession as their soul. Actors like Vijay found a different approach as a guy-among-the-crowd in his flicks. Whereas Ajith really finds roles which suits him best. In Godfather, Ajith has done double action one as a young lad, and the other as old man. Ajith was also into car racing, but could'nt continue it as he met with an accident few years back. When its comes to Ajith-Vijay, Both has equal number of fans. Vijay was recently honoured with a Doctorate for his acting. The biggest part is, Vijay has not done any exceptional roles in any of his movies. Whereas, Ajith have tried some characters which really was challenging ones. This controversial topic has some reason over it where people must not only support their favorite actors but also must respect skills of actors who really get into acting big time, taking every role with great endurance. Talent, and the way in which they give out perfectly will eventuate in success. Kudos to eminent artists. Wise people are always buoyed by the sucess.

A.R.Rahman.. My Musical GOD..

I would say, no one in the world can bring music which really gets into you and tune every single cell of your body, except one who stands out of everything, A.R.Rahman. I'm a Rahman fanatic, like everyone. Rahman renders his immaculate musical style into every song he composes. I'm really inspired by this legend who always looks simple, yet powerful. Rahman needs no introduction, but let me come up with something i know about him.

It was the ace director Mani Rathnam who gave Rahman a chance to make his movies look even better with music. He came to know about this genius when he went for an awards function, a young man received the award for the best ad jingle for Leo coffe ad. Rahman invited Mani to his studio but Mani turned up only after six months. Mani was flabbergasted by the music Rahman played along with his best buddy Bala, a music he composed on the basis of cauvery river water issue. Mani, without a second thought signed on the composer to score music for his next film. At 1991, he got into his first film as composer, Roja. It was a massive musical hit and hit the chart at number one. After that, Rahman and Mani tagged in giving out some super hits.

Going to the past, Rahman's was born actually as Dileep Kumar to R.K.Sekhar and Kasthuri on the 6th of january 1967. He is the second of four children. He had three sisters Kanchana, Bala and Israth. Kanchana being elder and the other two younger. He started playing keyboard at the age of four and his guru was Dhanraj master. What made him turn to muslim..? His father R.K.Sekhar, who was a composer, died when Rahman was 9. Unfortunately, he died at the same day his first film as composer was released. When his father was suffering from his illness, he was taken to eight to ten hospitals. They even took him to Christian priests and Hindu ascetics. But no hope. For some years, he started believing that there was no God. As Rahman said There was a feeling of restless within me. I realised that there can be no life without governing us, without one God. And i found what i was looking for in islam. We resolved to stick to the faith. His mother encouraged his father's footsteps. He joined as a troupe member of ace music director Ilayaraja. He even played keyboard for one of Ilayaraja's masterpiece Punnagai mannan theme. Continuing his stint in the advertising industry, he composed many jingles. He also composed title music for tv channels like Sun tv, JJ tv and Asianet.

He was given Rs. 25,000 for his first film Roja. He received a National Award and the filmfare R.D.Burman award for Roja. Now, he was given Rs. 1 crore for his latest flick sivaji. Rahman has laid his hands on hollywood, tollywood, bollywood, and other languages and scored the best. He also support to charities and composed many songs related. Recently he released One Love, in favor of The seven Wonders, in six different languages. It reached the people well and it made our very own Taj Mahal stand out of the rest. Now or ever, his music always stays in hearts. Rahman always the best, always the one who produces music in its way.

My very first blog.

Wow, im here for the first time.. This will be my first blog and i dont really know what to scribble.. But one thing im sure of, im exited, contented.. I read hardly some three or four blogs before getting into bloggin.. Those blogs were really very different to my eyes.. I believe even i could create something more useful and valuable.. I would post one soon.. As of now, i would like to share something regarding myself.. I'm doing my engineering in electronics and im in my third year now.. My passion is music.. If you let me sit in a couch and hit some good music, i would apparently sit the whole day long listening.. In short, a music maniac.. Genres does'nt matter to me.. What matter is good music.. I'v heard some musics which literally tears the eardrums, as from my view, its futile.. Maybe there are people who really get into heavy and hard rock.. Head-bangin' to each and every tune of the dexterous guitar players.. I dont say, and i wont say that heavy metal and other related hard rock genres sucks.. But hearing it continuously gives us headache.. I play guitar whenever i get bored or whenever im off my mood.. It really gives something in me which never gives a occasion for frown.. My other interests are collecting Mp3 songs no matter what language it is in.. I have many other interests but I guess this is enough for my first post.. More scribblings, later..