Khamaj

Shafqat Amanat Ali belonged to Fuzon. He left the band. But this track from their first album created ripples in the soft pop space. I have not heard such a trained, taut voice anywhere except amongst classical musicians.

Again, one of the tracks I just couldn't help trying. The support track can be ignored, but I would like to think it helped me sing.
And this is one of those songs which seem so darned simple to sing and turn out to be so twisted in their composition. I took an hour and a half to do this and yet....

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Mouname Paarvaiyal

I was never exposed to Tamil Oldies as a child and frankly, I never felt as if I missed much. Until with the right of kind of company and my own effort at connecting with my roots, I did pester my father to play the oldies out every Sunday morning. He gladly obliged. "Finally", he must have thought. So out came AM Raja, Ghantasala and PB Sreenivos. Now one of the old tapes he played had PB Sreenivos belting out some simply beautiful romantic songs. Much like the golden period in Hindi Cinema, where we had greats like SD Burman, OP Nayyar and Madan Mohan giving music to voices like Rafi, Kishore, Manna Dey and Mukesh, Tamil cinema had one of its best periods of movies and music.

I particularly fell in love with this one song by PB Sreenivos. Penned by the great Kannadasan and some simply superb music by MS Viswanathan, the song had me playing it on repeat for hours. I don't understand the lyrics in the entire song, but Mouname Paarvaiyal has this litling tune that oozes romance in its simplicity of sound. Especially the overlap of a hum at the end of every stanza, a master stroke from a genius of a composer!

Here's the piece...go ahead, reminisce.

Discover P. B. Sreenivos!

And as luck would have it I saw the man recently at a restaurant. He might have entered like a nobody, but his head gear and flowing angavastram were a clean give-away. The fur cap was replaced by a very grand brocade, maharaja-style toppa. Surely enough, I greeted him, exchanged pleasantries and promptly launched onto the more important subject of getting him to sing a line from my current obsession. And he was such a sport, offering not just a few lines of the song but also some extra information on how abominable Tamil music had become now.
Here's to the man and his music.

Sakhi

Such a wonderful piece by Shakti. I don't do any justice to the original, but it was hard to resist singing it anyway. And if only I had Mandolin Srinivas plucking a string or two, i would have said, "I am dancing at the feet of my Lord, all is bliss, all is bliss".

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Patterns in the Ivy

Some songs just do it for me. This very unlikely soft number by Opeth was introduced to me by a heavy metal band member 5 years back. This song puts me at ease when it hits the very first note. And the high piano notes with the guitar refrain is just awesome.
Hope you guys enjoy it.

The Sweet Wait

I was at the airport today and spent an awful lot of time there too. And I saw many others like me waiting, looking restless in anticipation. Some were families, some friends, others, business associates, but mostly there were couples. And I saw 2 separate people and had the chance to observe their expressions closely. In the new plush expanse of the waiting area in the arrival lounge was a girl of 20 something, biting her well manicured fingernails, one minute standing against the railing craning her neck to get a clearer glimpse of the gate and another minute scurrying off to read the update of flight arrivals on the digital display board. Then she'd look at her watch and let out a 'psch'. She looked happy being that nervous.
The other was an older guy, probably married, early 30s I thought to myself. Nice looking chap too. Looked like a jat. You know 6 feet tall with a robust asli ghee ka body and all that. Ok. Maybe I stared at him for too long. But the point is, he was fidgity too. Both the guy and the girl, unknowns, shared the moment of excited anticipation.
And then, like a warm iron ironing out creases, the knit eyebrows and crumpled chin turned into smooth, peach skin glowing with the radiance of love. The metamorphosis was a beautiful sight. I would have done a re-wind on that one. As if catapulted into flight, the girl let out a huge scream and leaped straight ahead to give her man a bear hug. And our guy of 30 made no fuss. He walked to his girl, put his hand around her waist, gave her a light peck on her forehead and walked her away, his hand still safely secure on her waist. That confirmed his age by the way and probably marital status too.

I wish I could be either of the two. More the girl. I would love to feel that rush of emotion, go pale with nervousness and then feel overwhelmed at the sight of him.