Ilayaraja songs - brings back old memories

Some of the melodious songs of Ilayaraja have become part of my life. These are some of the songs which always remind me of my childhood days since I grow up listening to these songs. I know I have company here because each and every one of us would definitely have some wonderful childhood memories and songs like these would definitely play an important role in bringing back those old memories.

I’ am putting across few such nostalgic songs of mine. When I listen to these songs, my heart beats faster and my mind races back to those vaguely glorious childhood days.
I have uploaded the full song here, so that you listen to it as well.

Rasaave unai nimbi.

RASAAVE UNNE | Upload Music
This is a very beautifully composed song by Ilayaraja, who has made sure that each and every tune and beats of this song touches your heart. It would be even more effective and romantic if you can understand the lyrics of this song. Though I cannot understand each and every part of the lyrics, when I listen to this, I get a feeling that a girl is waiting for her sweetheart to come back to her and she is very tenderly expressing her feelings towards him. This is one song which I used to listen a lot in one of our old recorded audio cassette. My dad had some wonderful audio collections of old tamil songs those days.

Vaan megham

vaan megham - original track | Music Upload
Another classic from Ilayaraja. Beautifully sung by K.S Chitra. Very very nostalgic song.

Nilaave vaa

Nilaave vaa | Upload Music
I remember this tamil movie ‘mouna ragam‘ where in a very joyful and full of life character played by actor Karthik, very much in love with the charming and beautiful Revathi, meets a tragic death in the first part of the movie. This song comes in the second part of the movie sung fabulously by SPB and no better song can suit the gloomy situation in the movie.

Antha nilaava than

Antha nilaavathan | Upload Music
This song is from the classic tamil movie ‘modal mariyaaday’. This movie is about a old man, the character played by the versatile actor late Sivaji Ganesan, one of the finest actors I have ever seen, falling in love with a girl of much younger age. Ilayaraja has composed this song and sung himself which again suits aptly to the situation in the movie.

Aalipazham

aalipaz - malayalam classic | Music Upload
This one is a typical Ilayaraja song. This Malayalam song from the 3D movie ‘my dear kuttichaatan’ is full of melodious background chorus and nicely supported by instruments commonly heard in many of his songs. Especially sounds good in the antra part and well sung by Sujata as well. You can immediately catch the innocence of the kids singing in the movie through this song.

As usual, the list is not over. I have many more such songs which are close to my heart but let me stop here and get on with my present. And I leave it to you to tell me which nostalgic songs comes to your mind.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS AND THESE ARE THE DAYS

Those were the days when summer season meant vacation = fun, play and more fun, travelling in train to visit our native place.
There are the days when summer season means just another season =just grumble about the sweating when you step outside your office.

Those were the days when prime time television at 9.00 pm = classic programs like surabhi, tehkikaat, superhit muqaabala, etc etc on doordarshan
These are the days when prime time television = reality shows, saas bahu ka serials, mythological blunders and many more confusions.

Those were the days when games we played = a healthy combination of indoor and outdoor games.
These are the days when games = indoor games only if you have company, otherwise play computer games alone.

Those were the days when we played outdoor games= laggori, chur chand, hide n seek, cricket and many more.
These are the days where we play outdoor games = none. (Only watch cricket :))

Those were the days when travelling in bus or any vehicle= enjoyable, not frequent and used only when visiting distant relatives and to reach potential far places.
These are the days when travelling itself = frustration.

Those were the days when shopping = an unforgettable outing with family, roaming around many shops in many reliable shopping areas.
These are the days when shopping = malls. Full stop.

Those were the days when we were with friends in real world = talking, laughing, hanging around places.
These are the days when we are with those friends in virtual world = orkut, sometimes chatting and not even a phone call.


List would continue……

THE DAY I MET A CELEBRITY AND AN HONEST AUTOWAALA

The day was 2nd November 2009. It was just like any other normal day. The only difference from the other normal days was this day I met a celebrity. It did not change my life in any manner, but felt good that I got a chance to meet the acclaimed violinist, Dr. L Subramanium all because of an honest autowaala.

I had to visit my neurologist, Dr. Sreenivasa at Ramaiah hospital in Bangalore this day. I had taken couple of weeks off for my brothers wedding in October ending on 1st week of november. Initially I thought of taking an appointment in mid October before I go to kerala for the wedding. But since I was occupied with the wedding and reception preparations, decided to postpone the appointment to 2nd November.
So all went well and my brother and bhabhi went for their honeymoon trip. So here I was with just few more days left in Bangalore as I had to travel back to pune to report to work. As I said earlier, I had an appointment on 2nd November to visit my neurologist. My mother accompanied me to the hospital that day and we decided to travel by auto rickshaw. Now, anyone who has travelled in a rickshaw in Bangalore will be very much aware about the rudeness and the unreasonable charge demanded by most of the autowaalas. Each time I’ am in need to catch an auto I get irritated just thinking about their attitude. And they charge such an exorbitant sum of money; you will be made to think that they just gave you a ride in a Ferrari in a race circuit. The ride in an auto is not less adventurous though, as they take all kinds of twists and turns whenever they get a chance. I would just wonder what would be the plight of the poor pedestrians if he was riding a bike or a car instead.

Coming back to the topic, on a good day I think everything goes well. I saw an auto on the other side of the road, so immediately I crossed the road and asked him if can take us to ramaiah hospital. Very humbly, he agreed at once. My mother had to still cross the road and since she had to cross a divider in between, the autowaala waited for her very patiently to get in. I also noted that he kept an eye on the moving vehicles to see that my mom crossed the road safely. The journey to the hospital hardly took 15 minutes. Somewhere near sanjaynagar, we saw an old lady trying to jump a big hole dug in front of her house. It was a very funny sight to look at the trap laid by our bengaluru corporation, the hole was dug up and left as it is, may be they wanted to experiment to see if a car can be parked in that hole :). So our autowaala gave a piece of advice for our trapped lady and asked her to be very careful, if at all she wanted to do any stunts to cross that hole :). I was impressed by his caring nature for the general public as he waited for sometime in case she needed any help and then he proceeded with the journey.

So after a smooth ride we reached the hospital and as I got down from the auto, the first thing the autowaala asked was not for money, but he pointed to a swamiji standing nearby the entrance of the hospital and said ‘that swamiji is a well known and powerful man’. I was not sure who that swamiji was, but I saw another short and familiar person standing next to him. I then asked the autowaala for the autocharge and he being very sincere charged according to the meter. Usually meters in autos are just a showpiece which comes as a fitting to complete the definition of an auto. Autowaalas generally do no want to disturb the meter so that they can demand any sum of money which they like, so the meter remains useless most of the times. So I was happy that this guy was really sincere to his profession. We then wished thank you to each other and he left in search of his next customer. My mom immediately said to me that very strangely we get to see such a nice and honest autowaala and I also agreed.

As I was about to enter the hospital, I again stared at that familiar short person and he too stared back at me. Usually if you come across a familiar person, but if you can’t remember exactly who he/she is, you put a question mark on your face and stare at that person and wait for the other person to recognize and respond to your awkward look on your face. But he did not give any such kind of known response to me, so I dismissed the thought that he also knew me and I moved on.
Later when I was sitting at the hall waiting for my call to see the doctor, I saw the same familiar person sitting alongside the swamiji and another boy on the other side of the hall. It then clicked to my lethargic mind that he was none other than the renowned violinist, Dr. L. Subramanium. I immediately asked my mom as well about this person and she also recognized him. The boy who was sitting beside him was his son. I was so thrilled that I immediately called up my brother, me totally forgetting that he was at lakshwadeep at this time celebrating his honeymoon and I gave him this news. He asked to do something which never occurred in my mind i.e to get an autograph of the legend. I was in two minds whether to disturb him or not as he was sitting as any other concerned patient as others in the room. But I took courage and decided to go ahead and speak with him anyway. Even my mom encouraged me to do so.

I took a piece of paper out of my purse but I did not have a pen. So I requested for a pen from a nearby guy and took slow steps towards Dr.Subramanium and stood right in front of him. He just looked at me without any change in his expression, waiting for me to say something. I then asked him with a smile on my face ‘I guess you are Dr. Subramanium ?’. for which he responded very politely ‘yes, I’ am Subramanium’
I was not prepared to ask or say anything, so without any further thoughts I handed over the piece of paper alongwith my purse to keep it as base for him to write and asked him for an autograph. He agreed by nodding his head and said ‘yes’ and took my pen to write something. He then asked my name and made me to spell it as well, so he ensured that he wrote down my name correctly. While he was writing I noted that he was such a calm and composed person that I did not feel as if I’ am standing in front of a genius musician. Such was his simplicity. I was also surprised that none of other public sitting in that room recognised him. Then he handed over the autographed paper alongwith my purse and the pen and wished me good luck. The swamiji who was also sitting next to him gave me the impression as if he was ready to assume meditation at any moment :). But he also gave a warmth look at me and we exchanged smiles.

I thanked Dr.Subramanium and I left towards the place where my mom, who was watching all this happen, was waiting for me with a smile in her face.
Later I saw Dr. L. Subramanium, his son and smamiji being led to a private room for consultation with another neurologist. Now I thought about the honest autowaala because of whom I was able to identify this great violinist. I then waited for my name to be called to meet my neurologist, with the autographed piece of paper in my hand which now had some significance to its existence. It read like this.

Dear Praveen V S,

I wish you all the best,

Subramanium’s signature

In my mind

After a long gap today i' am posting some of my thoughts on not so serious topic but a kind of topic which we are always thinking about. We all go through the roughs and toughs of the ever complicated events in our life. Our mind or the so called brain goes through a variety of unimaginable emotions; some of them are so complicated that we strive to express them through words, such that we still have to create new words for them. Though I' am not a expert on this topic but I will try to analyse some of these situations which our mind tackles through, an attempt to walk through the world of mind.

Is it our heart or mind which gets affected when we are in any kind of emotional situations? According to me both our mind and heart gets some tasks to do. I don’t know what exactly will be found in medical terms for this scenario. But what I’ am trying to say is all of us go through this roller coaster ride of emotions now and then, a peculiar kind of feelings varying in many form.

Whenever we get to go through any bad or tragic or extreme happy events as well, we feel a pinch in our heart and our mind gets to the task of imagining the scenario concurrently.
When we just sit for a while and try to recollect any happy and bad events which we underwent recently, the mind does not take much time to switch between these happy and sad events. It’s built so marvellously that such kind of concurrent thinking can help us to overcome the difficult and complicated situations in the most effective manner. Each and every one of us goes through tremendous pressure and tense situations which is not the first or the last time encountered, we can expect many more. At these times, disaster will be approaching us fast if we do not use our thinking skills appropriately. All these which I’ am mentioning are known basic facts, but humans being human always tend to give in to pressure, forgetting the basic thinking process and fall prey to the disaster very easily. So it’s important to maintain our cool and never succumb to pressure. It may vary from person to person how he or she thinks and takes any decision to move forward in a tight situation. But we are provided with this ability to talk to ourselves leading to internal discussions, the same discussions must be streamlined effectively to lead to a positive conclusion. The decision took due to any conclusion of this internal discussion may not be rewarding all the time. But you can definitely back yourself on why this decision was taken as long as you can justify yourself. I will be repeatedly stressing on the word yourself because all these actions leads to a sense of internal satisfaction and we are not bound to explain to others on what we do and how we do and no need to break our head if it was a bad decision or if the outcome of the desion was not good as we all know that any kind of learning will always be useful in future. Is it not?

It is very important that we have good control on ourselves, in any kind of extreme good/bad situations. The way you control yourself through your mind is very tricky. It’s always nice to take some time to analyse yourself regularly, may not be a conscience one, and know what exactly a kind of person you are. There are certain weak and strong qualities within you which sums up to your individuality. Once you are quite aware of your individualism it will be easy to judge your abilities and mould to the nearest possible actions as per the situation which in turn will lead to some positive outcomes. And believe me once you get through such situations will result in a sense of satisfaction which is the kind of reward you always strived for unknowingly.

There are certain aspects which I’ am trying to highlight here but may be I’ am not very clear to you. Will definitely look for feedbacks and continue on this subject in my further blogs if possible. Till then bye and please do mind your mind.

Dreamz Unlimited

Have you ever wondered why and how you would get those wonderful dreams while you are asleep? Quite often you won’t even realize that you had a dream few hours back while you were trying to give rest to your mind and body. But the poor brain has some work to do even in sleep and fight the emotions within you even at its rest time :)

Dreams are good. It’s a form of virtual entertainment while you are busy sleeping and important thing is what you see in the dream will not be out of your choice. Dreams are like imaginary motion picture of your frustrations or your feel good factor situations.
Dreams are tricky and confusing. It changes the direction and situations dynamically that you keep wondering whether you are playing a part in the dream or you are just watching some sort of non sense movie with characters being a combination of movie stars and your friends or family members :). The events just jump from one situation to another and it would never reach a logical conclusion.

Dreams are always in bits and pieces of your likes and dislikes. Rarely would you be able to recollect any dreams completely however good your memory is. Sometimes the dreams would be so scary or saddening that you wake up worried and sometimes you wake up with a nice feeling as a result of some beautiful incidents in the dream but at the same time you won’t be remembering exactly what was just dreamt.

From my early childhood days I always have this belief that if I saw a dream then that would never come true in my life. Many of you would also agree with me on this. According to me, dreams are just results of what you want or like and what you really don’t want or hate, no matter how significant it might be. It might be a small incident in your office which you wished would have happened the other way around and you see that happening exactly in your dream and then you may wonder why the hell did I dream this part as you may think that you have forgotten the incident long back but the real thing is somewhere in your mind it was still wandering around like some small unnoticed dust particles in the storm.

Most of the time I dream about is that I have an exam to be given the next day in school or college and I’ll be getting tensed very much during the whole period of my dream and I would be going through the same feelings which I was facing in my earlier days when I was studying in my school and college days. When I wake up, I give out a sigh of relief that it was just another dream and I actually don’t have to appear for my exam today :). May be I was under great amount of stress during my school and college days that even today I dream about those horrible moments again and again :)

As long as you have worries in your life, dreams are always going to haunt you and as long as you have happiness in your life, dreams are always going to delight you. I guess a combination of both good and bad incidents are essential so that when you are in deep sleep surprises of all sorts can visit you in the form of dream. So I keep wondering more on this God’s gift of dream and what you could do is just speculate what you would dream today. May be you would just dream that you are trying hard to understand whether you are now in a dream itself or not :)

My Incomplete Story

Welcoming myself to the world of Bloggers today......I will begin my blog with some memories of the days when I tried to write up a story of my own..which still remains incomplete and lost like my heart in some dairy at my home in Bangalore.

I do remember the days when I was very much eager to build few characters engrossed in some interesting activities to form a story. Thanks to some novels and story books brought by my brother during my engineering college days, I always wished I could write a story and my first attempt was in my final year of engineering (I think it was the end of my 8th semester in mid 2005) that I could start a story which revolved around my real friends enjoying a trip to Goa. I was just in the intro phase with the characters built and the story begun and unfortunately I lost interest in moving these characters in a logical sense. I gave up then as I thought I was not yet prepared for this. I bet no one would be able to find the book where I had scribbled my first failed attempt.

After 3 years i.e. 2008, the year which I would consider one of the most amazing and unforgettable year of my entire life till now, I began reading more books when I used to travel between office and my sweet home in office cab in Bangalore. Not surprisingly I was eager for the second time to come up with a story again.
This time I was cautious not to be in a hurry and I began thinking of the plot for the story and did several researches on the internet on how to complete the plot and eventually the story successfully. After a few days I had a visibility of the plot though still I was not clear on how to bring it to an end.

I once again began inventing the characters and pulled them into some sort of situation. I was in a good flow where in I had the confidence that I’ am better this time as I was able to move around the characters with some strong feelings in them. I used to write in my office spare time and after I reached home, I would collate and write them up in a dairy. The story was about a normal boy who tries to remember his old friend who was totally different from other boys that he knew. He tries to think hard why a genius (i.e. his old friend) chose a simple and not so brilliant kid like him to be his only friend.

Although the story did move along boringly at a very slow pace, I was happy that I was doing something different and I thought that I would ask my brother to read once I’ am done with this piece of work of mine. But I never imagined that this would be my second failed attempt to complete a story as one day I was told by my then manager that it was my turn for the lucrative onsite opportunity and I will have to fly to UK within a month. I was not prepared for this change as I was very comfortable in my own small world and with some hiccups I did accept the offer and the story lost its way and I lost my interest once again.

Now you would wonder why all of a sudden am writing all this stuff in the blog. Well, if you could observe here, both times I got the inspiration to write a story whenever I did some serious reading of books. So once again I was inspired to blog now after reading a few blogs in the past few days.

I wonder this blog is also incomplete similar to my two incomplete stories. Sometimes it’s good that stories are not complete since it gives you opportunity to mould the stories to a new beginning or to begin afresh and it creates space to think more and think differently.

And who knows I might be lucky in my third attempt and I would complete a story someday. Till then I will accept by incompleteness and post some more blogs. What you guys say huh!!...shall I continue to blog till then?