Shyam's Blog

This video in BBC's Planet Earth Series is one of the best wildlife videos even captured. In this video, an elephant is attacked by 30 lions in the night. It is said that lions usually don't attack elephants. In this case, because of lack of food, this pride took this extreme step.

It is 4:30am and I am writing this blog to share this music recording! All started at 11pm when one of my musician friends called me to record a song. Here is the piece - A thillana, in raaga 'Des', set to 8 beat. I am on the vocals. Drums - Charles Mallela Keyboard - Charles Mallela Bass Guitar - Charles Mallela (that was all he had, else the list would have continued) Recording started at 2:00am and we both were almost tired and ready to watch India-Pakistan cricket match. But, soon, our energy was just enough to give it a shot and complete it. About Charles Mallela... Charles Mallela is a music composer and keyboard artist who has had passion for music since a very young age. With his dad being a Guitarist, Charles started playing songs on the keyboard as a kid and today, he is no doubt the most wanted artist in the Utah area. Known for his simple sounding and melodious, yet complex music, he has a great fan following club around the globe. You can listen to his latest compo...

Click on the first link on the sidebar of this blog under "My Favorite Bloggers", which reads "Runup to the Big Day".

Sree gaNanaatham bhajare in "EeshamanOhari", a rare composition of Muttuswamy Dikshitar. You can learn this simple song Click here for Lyrics. Choose from tracks below to listen to audio - Single voice track . Dual voice track. My brother and I learned this song in 1988-89, i.e., when I was around 10 years old. When I sang this today, I felt that I still sing in that old style of a kid. We have not sung this song very often.

Was practising music. Recorded this at the end of my practise. Was full satisfied singing to myself many of my favorite songs. This song ( sree raamana pujisalilla ) is one of the songs I and my brother have sung many times in concerts. This is one of the favorite song of Valli auntie, our Guru Vid. D V Nagarajan's wife. Listen it here... I don't know what's there in this song. It has its own effect and feeling which makes the Kumars' hair follicles to raise. Let me know what you feel of this song. You need not know the meaning of the lyrics. All I am asking for is, 'what feeling does this give you?' If yours is the same as mine, then, it is normal. Else, I am seeing or feeling something different than what you do.

Photo - Courtesy fohn.net It is "Tiger week" on Animal Planet. Known for its majesty, it is said that, there are more tiger in captivity in the US and around the globe than in the jungles of India. Fact is that, in 10-20 years from now, Tiger will be extinct. I just can't believe such a thing happening when people can just talk about Tigers, but can't see them in real! So sad to even think of it's extinction. Save Tigers and save their habitats. One thing which tags itself to the name "India" is Tiger. The Royal Bengal Tiger is our national animal! It is proud indeed that India is an unique land to find such diversity of wild animals. We have the elephants, the lions, the peacocks, the India deer, and not to forget, Tiger! It is time to showcase the world our wildlife and promote tourism. This must in turn earn revenue to preserve our wildlife.

Watch this video and tell whether it is true or false. Click here. My view - "looks true".

Wishing everyone a very happy Diwali

Title of this is NULL - because, my mind is blank. Last night was India Night here in Salt Lake City, where I performed. I liked the atmosphere and the crowd - 500 or so cheering for the music is just great. But, I was tired after the show. Tired in the sense that, I am not getting what I want. My inner feeling was not refreshing. The feeling was that, I enjoy more singing for myself. People come to me and tell, "You sang really well...". Some come with an expression I can't believe - "Wow..., you sing so well.. Your voice is ....(pause) I just can't explain it". My mind goes blank when people tell such things. I am not able to understand that what they say is what they really mean :(. I really doubt and think to myself, "was it really good? I didn't feel so standing there on stage". I feel like retiring from onstage performances. If everything is NOT perfect as to my expectations on stage, I don't get the mood to sing. This is what I defin...

Thought of writing this blog to recollect all the people I saw on TV - this is people in the news - and not the "news makers". Let me start from people I saw first - the days when we got our TV - 1986 or so. People in the news were - Meenu (that pretty lady who was reading the news for a long period - upto end of 1990s), Geetanjali Iyer (that long face, thin lady!), Komal G B Singh (more a announcer and host) and couple more men, the names I don't recollect! Men - one was that beard-wala and one more, that bald and thick glasses-waala. In Hindi news, "Raman" was very common. Don't you remember - Salma Sultan of Hindi news? Another bunch of readers - Rini Simon (Rini Khanna), Usha Albuquerque, Neethi Ravindran, Sunith Tandon, Tejeshwar Singh. Coming to other channels - Pranoy Roy started a 20-minute news in DD-2 between 7:40pm and 8pm in early 90s. He used to have his own bunch of readers -Vikram Chandra, Srinivasan Jain and Barkha Dutt were the main readers....