Udhaiththa saramazhai pol

18th Dec.2009

Uma to Gayathri Venkataraghavan

I am just listening to Azhi malai kanna in Podhigai channel.
I am disappointed with your rendition. The song describes the way a
rain should come in a very scientific, aesthetic, philosophical and
poetic way - which is the trademark of Andal. You spoilt it all by
singing it in a way which does not suit the theme of the song. Please
understand and sing the song and choose the ragas and rendition to go
with the song.

Regards,
Uma

On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 9:04 AM, Gayathri Venkataraghavan wrote:

Dear Umashankar Sir, I take ur point..This Raga was choosen by Ariyakudi mama, I sing it faster normally, But the producer in DD wanted it to be for 5 mintues atleast, yes even I was not happy about the rendition today..It was a bit of a drag..Infact I sang this once in a concert, with neraval at Vazha ulaginil and i found it inspiring.. .However the raga has already been chosen by such a great vidwan so we do not like to change it..I have followed Ariyakudi amma's and MLV amma's raga selections for the differnt Thirupavais ..,
..Thank you for your feed back.
regards
gayathri venkataraghavan

From: Uma Shankar
Subject: Re: Message from GV website
To: "Gayathri Venkataraghavan"
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 12:35 AM

Madam,

Thanks for your prompt response and understanding of my message.

I understand your predicament and I truly believe that the talent of the artist is in bridging the gap of tradition with the "right rendition". If you have listened to Shiva Tandava Stotram rendered by Hindustani classical singers - the way the essence of the Tandavam is brought in the melodious singing but at the same time giving the audience the feel of a vibrant dance - you can use the same raga as selected by Ariyakudi, but render it in such a way - that the feel of a thunder, lightning and a rain can be brought to the audience through singing. I think that is where young artists like you can play a big role!

If I can take your few more seconds, I want to tell you something more..

We learnt Thirupavai as children ( 4 to 11 years ) under our grandfather and I remember the way he used to say this Thirupavai and we all used to sort of enact thundering, lightning and rain with show of our hands - we did not know much Tamil then and we did not know the philosophy behind it - but we understood that we were all praying to God to bless our place with good rains - we were in Ramanathapuram district, Sivaganga which does not see rains for years together.

The way he used to say OOzhi Mudhalvan uruvam, aazhi pol minni, valampuri pol Nindru ADRINDHU, and the word Udhaitha Sara mazhai is fresh in my memory. That is why I was so disappointed today to listen to the "raga" and not the essence of the prayer in Andal's heart. Remember, she is also from a dry area like Srivilliputhur where again rains do not come often. If it comes, it will thunder and drizzle and go away. So she must have felt from her heart the need for good rain and has put it as one of the foremost "demand" of hers - If you see, Ongai ulahalandha, there again she talks of rain - thingal mummari peydhu - in the next song She talks the type of rain she wants. Each song follows the other in a very logical way and that is why I love Andal.

Thanks to my Thatha who put the essence into our young minds!

Good luck!

Uma

PS: My name is Uma and my husband's name is Shankar - hence I am Uma Shankar :-)

Dec.19th Mrs.Gayathri to Uma :

Thank U mrs.Uma I do bring a lot of emphasis in AzhiPOl and OzhiMudalvan and sing a rain like neraval at Vazha ulaginil which begins as a drizzle and ends as a storm in concerts in fact in one Pondicherry concert a French man said the rendition reminded him of rain...So sad i could not do it in the rendition for Podigai...I thought I brought Yekkam and fervent prayer but missed other bhavas..That makes the rendition pavam..any way thank u for telling us about ur grandfather.My grandfather has instilled the Tiruvachagams in us the same way..For him Manikavachakar is God .may Andal bless the rest of the broadcast but not much u can do when it is recorded in two days flat...Thank u ,

Gayathri venkataraghavan

True artist - Mrs.Gayathri Venkataraghavan - ready to accept good suggestion, though coming from someone who does not know music.

Neengadha selvam niraindhelor empavai

Today is 3rd Thirupavai..

each word touches my heart, my soul... with the beauty of the Tamil in it and the meaning of the song.

OOngi Ulahalandha

Uththaman

Theengindri

Thingal mummari peydhu

Ongu perum sennel oodu kayalugala

poonkuvalai podhil pori vandu kanpatuppa

seertha mulai patri

vanga kudam niraikum vallal perum pasukkal

Neengadha selvam Niraindhelor empavai...

beautiful thought; beautiful words; best part is the concept - asking God welfare of the community and no selfish wishes for self and family...

I wish I lived in your era with you Andal...

Characters continued...

Met this gentleman in the train to Bangalore from Mumbai. He is an engineer working with MSEB for the last 20 years and his daughter is in 10th standard now.

He was talking about how the syllabus is good but the teaching is pathetic and how Tutorials make the students become parrots and not thinkers.

As I entered the train this man was sleeping in my berth and he told me that may be I cannot climb up to middle-berth ( which is his) and hence, he will have to use his middle-berth. I told him that in case he needs help, I can help by way of giving up my lower berth, but he need not say that I cannot climb to middle-berth. I gave my berth to him and he slept in my lower berth.

Next day he narrated his problem. On the rainy day in July 2006 when Mumbai was flooded with torrential rains, he was in his electrical sub-station at Mulund. There was a fire in his station and he really had nothing to do with it other than calling the fire department. He went out of his way in putting off the fire by jumping into the under ground cable trench and ran to switch off certain instruments, risking his own life. In the process he fell and damaged his spinal cord which in 72 hours made him totally paralytic.

With good treatment he had come out of the worst situation; but he cannot climb, cannot sleep in anyway he wants and is under medication. MSEB initially refused to pay for his treatment saying that paralysis did not happen while in office - but the same MSEB paid for treatment when a junior staff sent a sms to the board Chairman directly. Still he had to shell out nearly 5 to 7 lacs in getting himself back to whatever he is now.

Thank God for keeping me healthy!

Another young man with us in the compartment with a slightly damaged face then narrated his story. He was travelling with his family in Innova from Vijayawada to Hyderabad when his car hit a lorry and his face dashed against the stearing wheel with such force, his face was in pieces. His mother had too many fractures and he had to take care of her, forgetting his pain. But a good passer-by had rescued them and put them all in Apollo hospital Hyderabad. This man had spent 2 months in Apollo Hospital spending nearly 25 lacs. His mother is still undergoing treatment even after 8 months now.

He said that he realised the value of having all parts of the body in proper shape and having them all functional! Now he has decided to spend 1 week out of every month in a school for children afflicted with Autism. He said that he feels thankful to God that he came back to normalcy with only little disfiguration of face; as a gesture of thanks giving he does free teaching to autistic children.

At Bangalore, met a relative who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Money is not the problem - but the agony, tension and restlessness that goes with the treatment and the problems faced by everyone around the patient is something that cannot be understood.

The service tax issue which has put my financial health poorer had made me feel little depressed. Listening to the stories of these people made me realise that my problem is insignificant in comparison.

Thank God for giving me good health - physical and mental - financial health can be corrected with some more patience and good work.

Time to be thankful!

It is almost end of year and suddenly I realise that this year has gone real fast. Yeah, I remember the cold ( real cold - snowy)morning at Hazard, Kentucky when we wished each other happy new year 2009.

2009 started with Satyam scam in the financial - IT world - which shook everyone about the corporate ethics.

At personal level, I realised how relationships work - at crisis point and at happy points:-) Looks like wisdom came knocking at my door and I was left with no option but to become wiser. Learnt the true meaning of Vittu Vidudhalaiyahi.....
Learnt to take situations as it happened and not expect situations to happen as I want... learnt more acceptance, tolerance, understanding and yes, I am thankful to God for giving me all these wonderful lessons in not so harsh way....

Then came the Madoff scam which was more shocking to see how clever Jews can also be duped by another Jew... that was selective swindling at its best/worst!!

Waited for my academic qualification accredition in USA - how strange for us to expect them to say that what we have studied is worth something or equivalent to something that they know. I wonder how they will evaluate me in case I had done masters in Hindu Mythology or in Tamil Vedam!

Pleasant surprise came in the form of 124 credit hours given to my B.Com+ICWA and my GPA being 3.80+ out of 4. Thanks to Madurai University for having given me a sound foundation in commercial subjects!

Started preparation for CPA exam in Urbana, Illinois, sharing the apartment with my daughter and two more girls. New experience. Studying all day, cooking, cleaning,washing, shopping for vegetables, groceries and milk could not have been more interesting. I should admit that not a single day went without its own share of drama, suspense, thrill, laughter and learning.

Learning to live with 3 adults who are 30 years younger to me was fun and I think I could have done better in terms of relationship-building. I think I should grade myself at 3 out of 4 in this, whereas I should have tried to score 3.99 in this examination. Anyway, hopefully, if God gives me one more chance to practically apply understanding and tolerance to strangers, may be I will do much better and score better and make my maker proud of me!

Walking in 20 inch snow with normal shoes in unknown places, searching for bus-stops and looking for some shelter was something that kept my adrenalin pumped-up. Barnes& Nobles at Urbana used to be my camp-site from 11 am to 4 pm for many days. How I used to curse the bus service for taking away 1 dollar for a small ride! In India such distance would have attracted only 5 rupees and not 46 rupees. Nothing to beat our public-transportation, though it is not so clean. The rates in India are really people-friendly. Thanks to our State and Central Governments for the fantastic buses and trains that they run. They can be better is another point, but the fact that they are available for use by common man is what makes me thankful to our Government.
Thank God I am not born outside India!

I wonder why Prometric goofed up CAT entrance exam. I gave CPA exam through Prometric and I should say that they are meticulous, strict, follow rules absolutely, and are very very efficient.

ASHA at UIUC gave me the wonderful opportunity to make Carrot-halwa for their fund-raiser. For someone who has never cooked much in all these years, it was a challenge to make 100 cups of carrot halwa, that too during my exam preparation time. Frantically I googled for recipes and I got this Manju's kitchen where she demonstrates the preparation. Thanks to her recipe, I managed to make carrot-halwa for 4 consecutive ASHA fund-raisers. It was all the more thrilling when I came to know that carrot-halwa was a big-selling item on all those ASHA sessions.... thanks ASHA and thanks to all those volunteers who helped with scrapping the carrot and enthused me on my preparation.

I got to meet some lovely youngsters - who are all research students at UIUC and have reached there after so much of hardwork academically.

I should thank my relatives in USA for encouraging me on my attempt and for congratulating on completion. Special thanks to the Doctors for their continuous support - financial and moral!

Thanks also to Princeton friends for showing so much love to me who was not known to them at all till then.

So 2009 is year of completion of CPA! I am sure 2010 would start with my career getting into audit related work.

From 1991 till now, being in marketing related roles, has sort of made me talk more. I wish 2010 onwards I internalise my energies, talk less, look more and be a good and ethical auditor, thus preparing me for my next phase in my career. Assuming I will work till 2020, 10 years in audit would be something that I am looking forward to.

Thanks 2009 and welcome 2010!

Mothers and Daughters

I have recently met some pairs of M&Ds and I felt I must record my thoughts on this subject.

M&D 1:

M thinks that she is always correct and has trained her D to be a photocopy of herself. D's brain is totally full of thoughts of a person 30 years older. D dresses her age but thinks like M.

M does not even comprehend the fact that D has to be different from her and she has every right to think for herself and decide for herself and live a life for herself.

Doommmm........ things do not work with mind of 55 year old in the body of 26 year old.

M thinks that world has to understand that she is correct; she is not capable of comprehending that noone has any duty to understand her and think and live like how she wants them to be.

Problemsssss.................

M&D 2:

D is too independant and just pretends that she obeys her M. M knows that D is not correct, but is incapable of showing her love in the right way. M thinks that love and affection is in just preparing food and giving it in time.

Problemss............ D goes out of boundaries many times and blames everyone for whatever happens to her.

M&D 3:

M has made D her mental slave, all out of love. D thinks that it is best to be her M's slave than anything else in life.

M has not taught D that different people behave in different ways and it is little adjustment, little understanding, little sacrifice, little acceptance which all culminate in happiness at the end but lots of small and big difficulties in the beginning.

Hence D is encouraged to just walk out of her husband's place and be totally dependant on M and F along with her husband! They do not think that D and her husband should be allowed to live their lives the way they want it... the idea of "want" itself is so misunderstood, and M thinks that she is doing good to her D by just dictating everything! Funny........

PeeD Paraayi JaaNe re - continued

Read about Babar Ali of West Bengal who is the youngest headmaster of his own school of 800 students. His living is a shining example for Peed Paraayi JaaNe...

BBC had a special report on Babar Ali

By the way, NDTV, Zee and Star etc. have not captured his story even after BBC covered it... may be such stories of determination and conviction on ideals do not capture their imagination; Rakhi Sawant and her stories of mimicking motherhood is their type of story.

Here is the link to the BBC report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8299065.stm

On my forwarding this, Jai, my cousin's wife has replied her own story along with that of her Professor, which again is very inspiring.

I have copy pasted it here:

My Professor Syed Ali who lived in an outhouse, took chemistry tuition classes most of it for free from 5am to 10pm [30 students in a 10x10 room] everyday enabling many of his students become Doctors, engineers, Ph.Ds, etc etc. He inspired me to take Chemistry as my life!

He was a pious Muslim, a bachelor, who died at 72 years when I was in the final year of my M.Sc He ate rice, rasam and roasted papad everyday for his lunch and dinner.No meat please!Boys in the age group of 15-18, who are not very responsible took the tuition fees from parents but never paid the Professor-hehehe. This Professor taught in St. Philomena's college Mysore,http://www.stphilos.ac.in/.

Look at the irony, all the years when my Prof was is service, he was paid Rs.3000 as salary, and the day he retired, UGC proposed a new scale and Profs got Rs.30,000 and more. All his colleagues and students felt very sad for him[he didn't care] and gave him a huge gift of few lakhs of rupees as they respected his service a HOD,a nice human being and a great soul! Lo, he turned that money with some money he saved, into charity, which educates many children who cannot afford education in Chennapatna, near Bangalore[even to date].

He did not get married, as he said he liked someone and could not get married to that person and that was it! I loved my Prof so much so that my father feared that I will get converted to Islam. At that point I would not eat in any other Muslim house,but for my Prof Syed Ali's as he cared for me. He was proud[it is not important here to mention why, and bore you all] of me and went on telling my success stories to all batches of students like many of my other Profs who were all very proud of me[I am blessed....].

I made him angry when I took Chemistry in my Masters, as he could foresee that even a smart and intelligent person in non-it stream takes more time and hard work to compete with computer oriented fields and make a decent living.He was more angry as, I also had a seat for MCA and could go with it as it was IT boom time. Hmmm,I have not seen my Grand father[father's father] and my Mom's father had too many grandchildren to care for!So, my old Prof was my friend, teacher, grandfather .... GODFATHER......

I told him, I will study chemistry and make him proud, I will teach for free like him in his place......[He shouted at me, he knew I could be that emotional and foolish-at that time I did not know much about outer world, I just knew him]. It was very shocking for me when I heard about his death as I just had a nice chat with him the previous day and another student of his who was a Doctor told us that he had no health problems at all. Next day was Id-Milad and he walked to the Mosque, prayed peacefully, came home had Kheer and his simple food and sat in the chair and left me alone...... He did not have the patience to wait for my GOLD MEDAL and Cash prizes[ I was not very lucky to get the gold medal instituted in his name in my Bachelors- I was just in top 5, there was not one in his name in Masters-I missed his name on my Medal].

I did keep my focus and did well, got my Medal, Prize, Rank Certificates went straight to his house[ my father was very angry, he felt insulted-I could not help, My Prof was resposible for all the chemistry I knew!]and kept everything in front of his Picture.Other people from his community would not let me teach there. This is a majority Muslim area 90% muslims.

I started my journey of teaching chemistry [though I was already working for CFTRI], free of cost to all our friends and their families[ who were struggling to pay college tuition and special tuition fees to get into ENGG or Medicine....]. I had turned down, Indo -Canada research fellowship, just to be in India and help people who need it.I did not enjoy being a teacher in particular, I enjoyed teaching Chemistry as nobody could do it as I did it! I became a threat to all senior teachers.I started hating all that, in school level teaching, PU level teaching, College chemistry, Masters teaching, teaching IAS and KAS folks my study circle.The government Policies, delay in things everything made me think, I SHOULD MAKE MY PROFESSOR HAPPY, by using my chemistry for something better.By then, I had completed my Ph.D,our struggle in the family was almost over, as all my sisters got decently educated and employed. After nine years of teaching from 8am to 8pm [6am-set up experiments in the lab, go back and check after tuition - 8pm] and using all my holidays for doing research for five years, I decided to transition completely into research.

I am proud of what I am doing, I am proud of my experiences in life which have made my personality, I know I have a long way to go and I know I WILL, I know I try to help educate people who have struggled for knowledge like me, I love simple life and WANT TO HELP ANY KID WHO WANTS TO STUDY.

You are another true Vaishnava who understands the PeeD of others!

Nobel Peace Prize

Barack Obama - Nobel peace prize 2009 - I am speechless! Or should I be more vocal and say more now??

Words enough than action? Words are very important when one is in a visible, audible position. Words of hope, words of faith in goodness is very important is what is announced to the whole world through this Nobel peace prize.

Thought comes as words, words become action and action makes the world.

Obama - President of US - winner of Nobel prize - all with his words. The right words used at the right place with the right persons - Power of Positive Words!!

Remarkable!!

My thoughts on smile and the visuals we leave for many on many occasions is on the same line...

Yes, what we get to see, what we hear and the persons at some positions making some right sounds and giving some right visuals - that is what will work on the mass psyche!

Obama is one of the luckiest, chosen son of Almighty! I wonder whether he was vocal about his thoughts as a student ??? I wonder when his journey with "words" really started and brought him to wherever he is now.

Keep going Obama! Do better... do what you say and may the world be a better place to live for billions of people from now on!