Rudali - Stories by Mahasweta Devi

Believe me I bought this book in a second hand book shop.
Why do such books end up in wayside stalls and second hand book stalls?

Mahasweta Devi is a celebrated author.
The title story Rudali is made into a motion picture also.
I really do not know how the film is!
The story is moving!
There are five stories and an article on Rudali in this book.
Telugu readers were exposed to lot Bengali literature thanks to Chnadamama groups Chakrapani and  afew other publishers like Desi Grandhamala..
Chandamama groups monthly magazine Yuva used to print a lot of translated novels.
How many people know the name of Panchakadi Dev.
Detective novels from Bengali are very different.
After a long time when I saw this translation published by Hyderabad Book Trust I was excited.
The book is worth reading.
To comment on the author and her works will be like showing a candle to the Sun.
I leave it to you.
Get the book from HBT.
Read it!

Here is some information that will tell you why you should read the book.

This is what the writers says about why she wrote the stories.

 A women who never cries when she is supposed to takes to crying as a business. Rudali means one who cries. The other stories are equally compelling. Go on and read the stories. May be you will cry, at least within.

Paintings and Autographs.

I am bringing two more paintings from the Souvenir of The First World Telugu Conference held in 1975.

There are paintings and there are autographs.
Usually if it is an autograph on a painting, it would be of the painter.
These paintings are a little different in this aspect.
The autographs are of the celebrities who attended the conference.
Thus the paintings have an added value.

(Click on the paintings to see them in bigger size)

This painting is by Sri Varada Venkataratnam.

Not many people know his name.

Not many of his paintings are there in circulation.

I know one thing about him for sure.

He taught painting to my good frined Sri Seela Veerraju.

Sri Veerraju is a great man.

His Guru is greater than him!

The autograph is of a tall man.

Sri Bezawada Goplala Reddy was a tall man in many respects.

He need no introduction either!

The second painting is by Janardhan.

I really no nothing about him.
The painting speaks about his personality.
Majesty, detail and things like that.
The autugraph is of a personality who is well known to all Telugu people.
I was his students for a few days.
Though there were enough chances I have never gone very near to him.
In one of those meetings where we shared the dias, he approvingly nodded at a critical point I made.
That is enough for me.
Do you know Sri, Dr, Prof. Cingireddy Narayana Reddy?
Yes. Cinare for short!
That is how he siged on the painting!

More paintings from many other collections in the pipeline!!
$$$$$$$$$

T V Shankaranarayanan Concert

T V Shankaranarayanan was a great friend.
I am saying 'was' because we lost contact for a long  time.
I remember the long discussions I had with him on muisc.
He is not just a great musician but a refined gentleman.
After a concert in Muisc Academy when I went on to the stage, he got excited and introduced me to the team saying "look at him! He came all the way from Hyderabad to listen to our performances".
Great man he is!
I cannot forget the gesture he made at me starting a Kanada when he sang in the Vinjamuri Memorial Concert decades back. That morning I told him that I like Kanada!

This is what Hindu wrote about him when he was conferred Padmavibhuashan award.

A lawyer turned musician, he is one of the few classical exponents of an art form that he has carefully nurtured and preserved in all its pristine beauty. His concerts, meticulously planned and modelled on the debonair style of his illustrious uncle and guru, Madurai Mani Iyer, have mesmerised audiences with their rhythm, grace and melody. It could be a raga alapana, neraval or swaraprastharam - they all have the special TVS stamp. An unaffected technique he has honed to perfection. After one such inspired concert, he was heard to remark: "How I enjoyed singing Kapi today." Maybe, there lies the secret of his success. He becomes so totally involved in his music that he forgets himself and his surroundings. It could be an open-air theatre; a 3,000-seat auditorium; or, a cosy hall with the audience spilling over onto his mat. He sings with the same zest and verve. Once, during a concert in this city, when the rain drove away many in the audience, he continued to sing for a handful of listeners without diluting the quality or cutting down the length of the concert. This again a lesson learnt from his guru who used to tell him: "When you sing, don't compete with others. Listen and judge your own music. And sing even if there are only ten listeners." These were lessons in humility that the young disciple learnt at the feet of his mentor.

Thanks to Sri Srinivasan, Mumbai, I bring to you an excellent concert of TVS with eminent accompanists.

Team:


Sri T V Shankaranarayanan - Vocal
Sri M S Gopalakrishnan - Violin
Sri Vellore Ramabhadran - Mridangam

List of items:

01 Rara Ma Intindaka - Asaveri
02 Venkata Ramana - Latangi
03 Paramapurusha - Vasanta
04 Rama Ika Nannu - Shahana
05 Kamalamba - Ananda Bhairavi
06 Kambhoji Ragam
07 Lambodaram Bhavaye - Kambhoji
08 Tani
09 RTP - Kalyana Vasantam
10 Eppo Varuvaro - Jaunpuri
11 Note

Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=10f3f26dc390f408ab1eab3e9fa335ca491dc450e2074889

Heavenly music! Enjoy!!
*********

Smt M L Vasanta Kumari - Old Discs

Continuing our tributes to Great GNB, here is a collection of items by Smt. M L Vasanta Kumari, his principle disciple.
MLV needs no introduction  for the music loving Rasikas.

Here is an excerpt from a write up from Hindu, published on the occassion of MLV's 75th birth anniversary.

Madras Lalithangi Vasanthakumari — this was how a Sabha announced her name for her `solo' concert in Bangalore in 1941. The 13-year-old was substituting for her mother who had taken ill. But the `substitute' was far from a compromise.



On the contrary, she created a tremendous impact on the minds of all her listeners. While many admired her, there were some proud of her too. Amongst them was G. N. Balasubramaniam. Her guru and mentor, GNB taught MLV for ten years. He advised her to absorb all the good aspects of his music but to cultivate her own style. MLV did just that and the `MLV bani' emerged that was a combination of melody, rhythm and intellect. She stunned the audience by making unfamiliar ragas familiar and lacing known ones with new contours. With great alacrity she would just shift the tonic note to another swara and out of this exercise would emerge a kaleidoscopic portrayal of a new raga, another one and yet another. Her Ragam-Tanam-Pallavis were cerebral.

The List of items:

01 Nadatanum Anisam - Chittaranjani
02 Nijadasavarada - Kalyani
03 Srijalandharam - Gambhira Nata
04 Yake Nirdayana
05 Kavava - Varali
06 Tillana - Dhanasri
07 Sudimudi Thevaram
08 Sriganapathini - Saurashtram
09 Emani Pogadudura - Veeravasantam
10 Bagayenayya - Chandrajyoti
11 Kanulutakani - Kalyana Vasantam

The link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=10f3f26dc390f408ab1eab3e9fa335ca1f5227945c969d83

Let us enjoy good music.
**********

Sumati Satakam - 12

(The picture has nothing to do with the post please!)

Sumati padyam

కరణముల ననుసరించక

విరసంబున దిన్న తిండి వికటించు జుమీ

యిరుసున గందెన బెట్టక

పరమేశ్వరు బండియైన పారదు సుమతీ

Meaning of the words roughly.

కరణములను = the village account keeper

అనుసరించక = without following

విరసంబున = in confrontation

తిన్న తిండి = food that is eaten

వికటించు జుమీ = will cause distress

యిరుసున = on the axle

కందెన బెట్టక = without adding lubricant

పరమేశ్వరు బండియైన = even the cart or chariot of the supreme lord

పారదు = will not move

సుమతీ = O, the wise one!

We are all now victims of corruption in the administrative mechanism.

Perhaps this was the case even in the days of Baddena who wrote Sumati Satakam.

In this verse Baddena tells the world that people have to go by the wishes of account keepers.

They are now called the revenue officers.

He tells that food eaten against their wishes will not be digested.

Moreover, it will cause illness.

It means without satisfying the officers you cannot keep your wealth.

If you keep it, it will cause you troubles.

As an example he says that the lubricant in a vehicles axle as a necessity.

Even if the vehicle belongs to the Supreme lord, it still requires lubricant!

Bribes have several interesting names and lubricant could be one among them!

All the Bofors and the current Raja case are all a different game.

There also, since the fellows have not taken care of all the concerned people, things get to a wrong position. On the whole the poet says that enjoying wealth all by yourself is not good. That is the positive message we have to derive from the poem. This is not to glorify bribery. But to tell that you have to take care of people who take care of your affairs.

Does that mean you have to pay people for everything?

These days, employees get their wages from the Government. Not satisfied with that they look for additional appeasements. That is out and out bad.

When Baddena wrote these lines village accountants must have had a bad time with low emoluments.

Meaning of verses change with time, I feel!

@@@@@@

N S Srinivasan - Flute

Allow me the happiness of sharings Sri Srinivasan's music with you.

Earlier I announced one RTP on the Sangeethapriya forum and lot of people liked it.

I sincerely thank Smt. Sarada Srinivasan, herself an outstanding, top ranking radio drama artist, for allowing me access to the music collection.

Srinivasan was a versatile man.

Apart from playing flute he did a lot of things with unparalelled quality.

He produced a lot of radio and TV features of excellent quality and won laurels.

He wrote and lectured on music profusely.

He also wrote dramas which were very popular.

Srinivasan was an excellent humorist.

His mimicry of famous artists was a hit with elderly musicians also, I am told.

As for flute he stuck to the Sruti and Style of his Guru Great Sri Mahalingam.

Srinivasan shifted to Hyderabad to join AIR.
That was AIR's gain and a kind of loss to the music world.
Had he been in the regular music circuit of Chennai, we would have seen another popular flautist.
Not that he has not performed in the music circles.
Wherever and whenever he performed the house was sure to go into raptures.
Interestingly he reminds us of Mali sir with very first notes.

Srinivasan stuck to things dearer to his heart, namely music and its spread, not stage performances.
He has groomed many a youngster into fine musicians.
Made music for some good dance performances.
He also stuck to being silent and not making noise for publicity.

We will have a chance to enjoy the creativeness of Srinivasan through couple of Radio Features and a drama in the coming days.

First, we shall enjoy his flute recitals.
The first one in the series is here.

The Team:

Details not available.

List of items:

01 Ninne Bhajana - Nata - Adi - Tyagaraja
02 Mayamma - Ahiri - Adi - Shyama sastry
03 Gnanamosaga rada - Poorvikalyani - Rupakam - Tyagaraja
04 Swararga Sudha - Shankarabharanam - Adi - Tyagaraja

Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=10f3f26dc390f408ab1eab3e9fa335ca6dc2703d1ff8d0fc

I already mentioned that wind instruments are my favorites.
There will be more such concerts coming up here.
Let us enjoy good music.
***********

Pineapple - Sour or Sweet?

Ask a question and you will get an answer!
There are some questions that you always wanted to ask.
But, you never asked!

To question is to learn!

Why does adding salt to pineapple make it sweet?

When Pineapple not sweet enough reaching for the salt shaker may not be such a bad idea.

But, interestingly, why the pineapple then tastes sweeter may have more to do with what's going on in our head than what's going on in our food, thanks to the complexities of our sense of taste.

Technically we only have five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami [savoury]. We never think about such things at all. There are also specific places on the tongue where a particular taste is perceived predominantly. These things do not sounds simple enough until we start looking at complex foods that are composed of multiple tastes, like pineapple.

How salt can make pineapple sweeter "comes down to interactions between tastes" , but it's not a straightforward process.

In this case we're looking at how three different tastes — sweet, bitter and salty — interact.

To start with, bitter and sweet tastes can mutually suppress each other. A simple example of how this works is when you add sugar to coffee. As well as making the coffee sweeter it also reduces its bitterness.

It's the way we process the flavours, say scientists. The signals are still going up to the brain, the brain perceives sweet and bitter, and mutually suppresses both flavours. So while the coffee is sweet and bitter, it tastes less sweet and less bitter to us because of the way our brain cancels out some of the sweet and bitter tastes coming from our tongue. Into this situation we then add salt.

Common table salt is primarily made of sodium chloride and sodium is a very good bitterness inhibitor, meaning it can reduce the bitter taste of foods it's added to. So when you add salt to pineapple the sodium actually reduces the bitterness of the pineapple.

This is something that is happening at a tongue level and the signals are not going through to the brain. This sure sounds very interesting. We always think that brain is the centre of all information!! And if you don't have this bitter signal going through to the brain, it can't be suppressing the sweet flavour. So with some of the bitterness being removed by the salt, that means there is less bitterness to suppress the sweetness of the pineapple and voila — your pineapple tastes sweeter!

Food scientists say there may also be another mechanism at play. When the sodium chloride dissolves into the pineapple it will break apart into sodium and chloride ions. The sodium ion will then react with the malic and citric acids present in the pineapple to form neutral sodium salts. Acids normally have a tart or sour taste but when they are converted into neutral compounds they lose this sourness, and so the pineapple tastes sweeter.

Science is interesting as long as you want to explore it.
If you simply resist questions life and science are equally bland!!

I am and will remain a student of Science.
I don't know why I am not reading and writing science as I used to do!
I should get back into it.
Sooner the better.
By the way, I have not written the above answer!!
I collected it from the net!