Amba and Sunanda Tharoor!

Women never stay quiet when it comes to resurrecting their reputation and/or bringing injustice rendered by their menfolk to light . On that count Sunanda Tharoor resembles Amba, a character in Mahabaratha. Though the world may  perceive this as washing their linen in public, but what choices do such women have?

Amba ran from pillar to post to seeking justice. She shared her story with the King of Hastinapur, represented her case in his assembly, and lastly, took the matter to Parasurama, guru of Beeshma. Surprisingly, the wise and righteous didn’t act and let her down. Similarly, Sunanda started her justice seeking mission on Twitter and then contacted journalist to expose the face behind the mask, but before truth could be exposed, her voice was muffled and her life was extinguished.

A few days ago, Sunanda tweets clearly exposed her pain, disappointment and desperation, something doctors at KIMS/AIIMS would have never detected or diagnosed. She blew the cover when she exposed the affair between her husband and the Pakistani journalist with a link to ISI on Twitter.

Call it damage control or control the dame, Mr. Tharoor desperately twiddled his thumbs to spin the web of stolen identity to cover up his exposed low morals. He coerced Sunanda to retract her confessions to a few journalists, and announced a happy marriage. But a few hours later came an unhappy ending!

Was Dawood’s money involved in Sashi’s IPL stake? Was the Pakistani journalist a messenger of ISI and Dawood? Was Sunanda an innocent benami who got punished for speaking up and making efforts to save her man and marriage? Did Sunanda misread the conversation between the female journalist and her husband as an affair?

Autopsy reports may turn inconclusive, CCTV footage may fail to identify the culprit, government controlled investigation agencies (CBI) may cover up the truth, and the bench of judges may never be able to deliver justice, and a few journalists may never reveal her confessions, but it is not hard for us to connect the sequence of events and corroborate the true story.

Let’s us hope that Sunanda will reincarnate like Amba to avenge the guilty. H(e)ar h(e)ar Mahadev!

PS: Sunanda may compare to Amba, but it doesn’t mean Mr. Shashi Tharoor compares to Beeshma. Never! No way!

2013 December Season Vambu

I am continuing the second part on the 2013 December season on vintage musicians and other popular artists.

R Vedavalli: Was too good and I felt that I should not hear anything after her concert. She was supported by her disciple Sumithra Vasudev. Started off with Sukhi Evvaro in Kannada of Thiagaraja and ended up with Poorvikalyani javali.

Parasa Ponnamal – sadly no concerts this year in chennai.
Suguna Varadachari - not been to the concert at raga sudha hall. there was a lec dem as well.

Suguan Purushothaman - She dint sing this year.

Aruna Mami - No concerts this year. Understand that her daughter is not keeping well and she in US. She dint sing at Chettinad vidyashram as well.


Neela Ramgopal concert at Music Academy was good. The Hindu Friday review carried an article as well.

TNS: Rasikas were nodding their heads, the hall was full, but I need to reserve my comments.

Sudha R was given the Sangita Kalanidhi yesterday at the sadas at 5pm by ELV Narasimham AP Governor. Many are unable to digest this. There are senior artists like TV Gopalakrishnan,, Kanyakumari, etc. I also understand there was competition between Chitra Veena Ravi Kiran and Sudha and the later was chosen for the title.I was going through the Shruthi magazine about Sudha and gosh she is close to 58 years. I was taken aback and all that make up, mallipoo and silk saree does cover up ones age.

2013 December Music Academy – Young Artists

 

While my Paris sojourn has given me an opportunity to attend western classical concerts and Operas, but that hasn't taken my ears away from Carnatic Music and specially the December Music Season and the gossip that comes along with it.

I reached out to people asking for season updates from the ground apart from reading blogs, newspaper reviews and watching clips on YouTube. Here is an interesting update shared by a friend in Chennai who attended performances of young artists at the Music Academy, the Salle Pleyel of Chennai.

The December festival was ok... Mostly I was at Music Academy listening to the upcoming artists which I prefer to.

Dec 16, opening day was Vishnu Dev Namboodari (2013 Carnatic Music Idol Contestant) - Good singing.. started with Devamanohari (Kanna thandri na pai), a brisk alapana on Vasantha (Brihadambikayi - dik comp), followed by Todi of Thyagaraja comp.

Amrutha Venkatesh: Was ok, it was more of a nasal singing. Kalyani was good, (Bhaja re chitta balambika).

Vignesh Eshwar: Good singing... Started with Sriranjani (Marubalka), and main was Shankarabharanam - manasu swadheenamu.

DB Ashwin concert was good. He is a disciple of Seshachary (one of the Hyd bros).

Bharat Sundar : nothing great..... Sri ragam - varnam, Vachaspathi – Parathpara – Papanasam Sivam.

Prasanna Venkatraman: Sanjay Subramanyam’s disciple. He struggled to reach higher scales.

Akkarai Sisters: Was a mind blowing concert.... started with ragamalika varnam (Intha kopa melara - Veena kuppaiyer), Srinathadi (Mayamalgowla), brisk alapana on Lathangi (Mare vera dikkevvaru), and Sahana (Emaya - Thiyagaraja)..

RTP in Todi was too good.......

Sriranjani Santhanagopalan: I moved out of the hall since she was shouting.

Trichur brothers: Somehow I felt they should slow down their pace with every song on the run way mode.... nothing new ones repeating the old ones like Natya narayani (maha ganapathe). Valaji RTP, and others. Todi (Thaye yasodha) tamil pronunciation should improve and it became more evident when they sang Enneramum undhan in Devagandhari.

Btw, Amritha Murali was given the prime slot (6.30 pm).

Swarna Rethas (disciple of sanjay) was very avg. diction problem.

Sandeep Narayanan: was ok.

Ramakrishna Murthy - jam packed and was more devotional singing.

Rithvik Raja: Matured singing. His Poorvikalyani was good rendering the composition of Shyama Sastry.

K.Gayathri, Ranganatha Sharma, Kunnakudi Balamurali, Surya prakash were given prime slot sat 4.15 pm at the Music Academy.

(NOT BEEN TO ANY CONCERTS OF R&G, SANJAY, TMK, GAYATRI.VENK, MALLADI, SUDHA)

Come back for more season vambu next week!