Escape your papa in life with Punya

Sometimes all it takes is a few strings and chords to calm your thought packed mind and when it happens your eyes into a lotus pond. The first track in Punya Srinivas’s latest album Veena in Vienna is enough to set all our entangled soul free. Is it melancholy, is it rock, is it melody or is it a medley? What is it in Track 1?

Here is my strum by strum, beat by beat, and finally second by second review for the song.

At 0 min – track starts with a melodic hum of Kurunji (both a raga and 1 of 4 types of landscape mentioned in Sangam Literature) and few chords in the back supporting the open voice

At 1.04 - now the beat and cymbals transports you on another landscape

At 1.27 – the African chants makes the world of music wild and wholesome

At 1.40 – for the first time you get to hear the strum of the first string in her Veena and every passing second she ascends the frets with fluidity and without letting your fret

At 2.14 – the tune swivels and swirls in your head leaves you in a state of inebriety

At 2.50 – Punya moves to the second string and takes you the wonderful inward journey that mutes your present and the world around you and if you in a seated position then your hips move from left to right like a pendulum. Even elephants can dance on hearing this music!

At 3.00 – she holds back the second string and lets the vibration the travel fret without moving her fingers and delivers a big blow with her melody and knocks you down

At 3.14 – she then finally comes back to string one and helps you ascend the steps of heaven

At 3.26 – with full safety gear she lets your heart do a free-fall into Saramathi

At 4.10 – the sound of pause, congos, cymbals a brief silence rattle the BOSE in you

At 4.17 – she plays the 3^rd string in the Veena, very rarely used, and leaves you lost in the valley and with a volley of fresh music. The third string is also made of an alloy and this fusion all comes together on that string.

At 4.25 – She comes back to string 1 and slowly travels beyond the upper Shadjam and let you escape gravity

At 4.40 – She plucks  string 2, pulls it back to generate the sound of upper note on the lower note effortlessly. Then she does acrobatics on the string making your eyes close, your chin up stay up and jaws open.
At 4.56 – the cricket noise in the background makes you long for an endless night

At 5.06 – She almost touches and trespasses raga Saramathi leaving on your knees and eyes flooded with tears – divine and dulcet

At 5.17 - She comes back with a vengeance to string 3 and does her rock star kind of a strum and her Veena suddenly turns into a guitar

At 5.30 – She is comfortable walking alone the tight strings of 2 and 3 making life look like child’s play

At 6.14 – She strums the thala strings and the voice brings you back to the earth – almost a rebirth moment!

At 7.28 – by then you are ready to put this on repeat play mode and start your endless affair with her

This Saraswati on the Veena packs the tune of creation and recreation in this one track and lets you enjoy and escape life and enslave you at the end. I am just caught in her strings, to be clear, Punya Srinivas’s veena strings! Every time she moves from the strings on the front to the ones on the back and as she ascends the notes, I am being transported to worlds that I have never visited before, making it exciting and enthralling. Some moments are intentionally slow and at times silent like the old black and white movie, but then the sudden shift to the strings on the front and keeps the present relevant, fast and flowing. This is an easy escape route from your papas (sins) in life, so get hold of this Punya!

Glossary: Papa- sins, Punya- meritorious deeds