Music is my life
I really forget when I sang last in a stage. I remember the setting though. It was in Varasidhdhi Vinayagar temple in Besant Nagar. I was to sing a devotional song on Lord Shiva “Gangadheeshwaram Sankaram…”. I was in 9th or 10th standard at that time and my voice was at the stage of breaking(I was becoming an adult and was losing the shriekness in my voice). I was low in confidence because I could no longer reach the pitch in which I was singing comfortably not long ago. I was the first singer in the competition; the sruthi box was set and as I started I missed the rythm and pitch and what not and the whole performance was a forgettable one.
That was the last time I sung in a competition. I felt this was not my cup of tea and never bothered to formally learn music again. It’s more than a decade now. When I look back, I feel I made a mistake. How many times in life do we avoid doing things that are close to our heart (be it singing, dancing, asking sorry to a friend) just because we are not comfortable/embarrased doing it at that moment and later realize how wrong we were.
Today as I was in stage in ISB for a inter-section music competition, I felt so happy to be there. I may not be singing so well or getting the nuances right. But I can still appreciate good music and enjoy myself singing. Whenever I sing, I forget everything else around me and attain a state of bliss for a moment. Today we sang a piece called “English notes” made famous by Madurai Mani Iyer. This piece also features in the famous Tamil movie “Thillana Mohanambal”. We didn’t get a long time to practise it, but four of us put up a very co-ordinated effort and it was received well by the audience. It was a tribute to the group that we learnt the piece so quickly and made it look good despite the mistakes that we made. Among the four of us Mani is an accomplished singer of Carnatic music, Shankar is learning Carnatic music from his wife (who’s a great singer and winner of many awards; she also teaches Carnatic music to students at ISB), Murali is a born genious (it’s hard for people to believe that this bloke didn’t learn music formally at all; he gets his pitch and rythm right all the time and sings the nuances beautifully) and myself, probably the least accomplished among the four.
To me, the greatest learning from today’s performance was that I love singing and no matter how badly I sing, I just cannot live without music.
- School Related, Personal, Music | Time: 4:44:40 PM (UTC+8)
I am ignorant of carnatic music… but I still enjoyed your performance… great piece of music and well sung.
Comment by Raghini Rajaram — October 1, 2005 @ 9:01:05 PM
All three of you sang well. English notes was a very good choice and it looked even more appealing with the slightly different set of notes mixed with it towards the end.
Continue singing !!
Comment by Ram — October 5, 2005 @ 1:28:57 PM
ada paavi, four of us sang da.
Comment by rkarthik — October 5, 2005 @ 1:30:31 PM
I think you sang well (from what i could make out from the voices)…great going
Comment by giks — October 11, 2005 @ 9:40:59 AM
Shankar-a discount pannitten. Avar sangeetha kudumbathula irukkaravar aache.
Comment by Ram — October 18, 2005 @ 11:53:53 AM
Hiiiiiiiii Karthik,
Lonnng time.
I love singing and no matter how badly I sing, I just cannot live without music. - Did you consider that others cannot live without life???
I cannot thank you enough for keeping your singing abilities in low profile during our undergrad days. And thank the Gods for there were not competitions that kindled the artist - the killer in you.
Comment by Srinivas — November 12, 2005 @ 4:13:29 PM
Dei thadiya, gammunu iru da
Comment by rkarthik — November 12, 2005 @ 4:24:08 PM