Kuhu kuhu bole koyalia...

I heard this song at first sung by the Amrita TV Super Star participant and eventual winner Roopa. A melodious classical song which is actually a ragamalika(garland of ragas). I wanted to get the original song and with www.4shared.com, i could get the Hindi duet sung by the greats Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd Rafi. I was reading the review of this song and it said the original composition of this song "Hayi Hayigaamani Saage" was made for the Telugu movie "Suvarna Sundari(1957)" by music director Adi Narayana Rao. This film was later dubbed to Hindi. So I went on searching for the Telugu original and eventually found it. Thanks to www.google.com. This song was sung by Shri Ghantasala and Jikki. Jikki was the one who sung "Kadhali vaazha thayyil irunnu" song in Malayalam. Further googling helped me to get the Tamil version of this song "Thesuluvathe". This was sung by Ghantasala and P. Susheela. In this ragamalika, the ragas switch from Sohni (Hamsanandi), Bahar (Kanada), Juanpuri (Juanpuri) and Yaman (Yamuna Kalyani). The Hindi version had won the national award in 1958, where as the Telugu original was neglected. One more interesting observation is that the female voice in Telugu version of this song is of Jikki, whose mother tongue is Tamil while the female singer in Tamil version, ie, P. Susheela's mother tongue was Telugu.

Music surely has no barriers, at least not language.

Telugu version:
http://www.oldtelugusongs.com/newsongs/vintage/SuvarnaSundari_1957-Ghantasala&Jikki-HayiHayigaaamaniSaage-SamudralaSr_AdinarayanaRao.mp3

Hindi version:
http://www.4shared.com/file/36871029/11805392/kuhu_kuhu_bole_koyalya.html?s=1

Tamil version:
http://www.4shared.com/file/80769179/5a0d5706/gandasala_thesulavuthe_with_susila.html?s=1

Lyrics(Hindi version) :

Raaga: Sohni

kuhu-kuhu bole koyaliya

kunj-kunj mein bhanvare dole

gun-gun bolen... kuhu ...

saja singaar ritu aayi basanti

jaise naar koi ho rasvanti

sa ni da ma da ni sa, ga ma ga ma da ni sa

re sa ni da ni sa re sa ni sa re sa ni

da ni ni da ni ni da ni, ma da da ma da da ma da

sa re ga ma da na

saja singaar ritu aayi basanti

jaise naar ho rasvanti

daali-daali kaliyon ko titaliyaan choomein

phool-phool pankhadiyaan kholen, amrit gholen, aa ...

Raaga: Bahaar

kaahe ghata mein bijuri chamke

ho sakta hain megharaaj ne baadariya ka

shyaam-shyaam mukh choom liya ho

chori-chori man panchhi ude, naina jude aa ...

Raaga: Jaunpuri

chandrika dekh chhayi, peeya, chandrika dekh chaayi

chanda se milke, man hi man muskaayi

chhayi chandrika dekh chhaayi

sharad suhavan, madhu manbhavan

virahi jaanu ka sukh sarasaavan

chhaayi-chhaayi poonam ki ghataa, ghoonghat hata

aa ... kuhu-kuhu ...

Raaga: Yaman

saaras raat man bhaaye preeyatama, kamal-kamlini mile

kiran haar damke, jal mein chaand chamke

man saanand, aanand dole re

ni re ga ma da ni sa, da ni sa, sa ni sa, ga re ga

sa re ni sa da ni ma da sa, ni re ni re

da ni da ni ma da ma da ga ma ga ma

ga ma da ni sa, ga ma da ni sa, da ni sa

My rendezvous with Butterfly effect...(An old mail)

(Posted as a mail on 30/9/2009... )

Hi Hui Hi All,

Heard of Butterfly effect… Today morning I had a taste of this…

“If a butterfly makes a flutter in Africa, it creates a hurricane in America”…. That is what scientists tell about this effect… It is actually a combination of relatively small events which at last creates havoc. The movie “Dasavatharam” is based on this effect…

What happened today:

As all of u know, Lehmann Brothers crashed few days ago…
ICICI bank seems to have a small share in it….
From last evening, some hoax mails and gossips led to fear in everyone’s mind that ICICI bank is going to collapse and become bankrupt… …

All took money from ICICI bank ATMs, and reports say there where long queues in front of all ATMs in the city…

Situation was same in Infy ATMs also…
Today morning, I was having not even a single paisa in my purse…
I came to Infy with my room mate Anoop but said to him that will have breakfast only after checking my mails…

Checked my mails and went to get cash from ATMs… One two three four… ATMs in all the corners of the sprawling Infy campus were virtually penniless or bankrupt…
Long queues dispersed within a second…

Went to another room mate Vinumon’s desk to get cash… Got a 500 Rs note… :)…
Rushed to the food court at 10:25am… Food usually would be there till 10:30 only…

Purchased coupon for one and only thing left there – Aloo Parata…
Went to the counter to get Aloo Paratta… Only Parattas available…
“Eat with chutney or sambar” adviced the servers…

“No thanks” My reply…

Got back 16 Rs on giving back the coupon…

Totally brain dead, I am back to my cube to get back to what one calls “hectic schedule” …. Hope 12’ o clk dings early today as I am suffering from hunger and drowsiness…

All in all, Butterfly effect took me for a ride…. :(:(:(…. What happened in America, made me suffer from hunger today morning… Poor me… :(:(:(…

Blabbering from a wailing heart and hungry stomach,

Sridhar

The Ticket Rush

Whether it be for a festive season or a normal weekend, the preparations to go home for an NRK(Non Resident Keralite) in Bangalore starts exactly 90 days before. Yes.. that is the day when the railway ticket reservation starts before a particular date of journey. Costing deliciously at around 200-300 Rs for a Sleeper class ticket as compared to 500 - 1000 Rs in private buses and other modes of transport and the less tedious journey to top up; almost every Bangalore Malayali (or more lovingly called Mallu) tries his/her luck to get their names in the railway reservation chart. Just 4 trains to savour the gluttonous rush for tickets, it is a race against time and as always the few lucky early birds catch the pray. The others are left behind with RACs and WLs and a lot of chaos and vagaries to deal with. The same exercise happens 5 days before the date of journey too... That is when our next hero "Tatkal" comes into play. Though costing 150 Rs more, but surely less than the cost of most of the other modes, the failed birds give a try to this also. I was a bird of this kind on 21st Jan 2009. Pledging precious morning sleep at always cool M10, Gopalan Gardenia and determined to book a Tatkal ticket from Ernakulam to Bangalore for 26th, I glued into the www.irctc.com site from 7:30 am onwards without even brushing my teeth. The booking exercise starts at exactly 8:00 am railway time every morning and lasts for a few minutes usually. Clicking on the "Find Trains" tab every half a minute and logging in multiple tabs in Opera and Firefox, I didn't gave any chance for relegation till the booking started. Booking started at 8:00 am. My reflexes were agile and clicked the "Find Trains" tab and followed subsequent formalities. The make payment screen came and when I was about to make the payment, my eyes fluttered over the Total Availability.

Total Availability at IST 8:02

WL 96/WL 96 Sleeper Class(SL)

More than 96 birds had flew over me to grab the prey in a time less than 2 minutes.

I realized at that moment 2 minutes meant a lots of time in a game like this. :(:(:(

The unethical Silk Route...

Silk happened to be an accidental find for man but an unfortunate and brutal accident for the Bombyx mori species. All round the world the fibroin segregation from the 'silkworm of the mulberry tree' has a huge demand. India is the second largest producer of Silk in the world, which from an animal rights activist's perspective means, lakhs and crores of silkworms are being steamed and gassed alive, just to produce the silk threads which subsequently is woven into costly silk garments.
Fine, tightly woven silk is valued not only for its smoothness, lustrous beauty and luxury, but also for its purity. As per Hindus, silk is a symbol of sanctity and used for the purity of soul at two important events of human’s life – marriage and death. In recent Priyadarshan film "Kanchivaram", which tells a silk weaver's story, the sense of pride that silk has on a man's life is pointed out. Some people even feel there is no need to wash silk clothes before ceremonial use. The hard core Brahmins, who boast of not harming any animals and preach Ahimsa, as they do not include meat in their diet, are much biased against these gentle worms, when it comes to silk sarees and dhothis and ironically believe it to be one the most pure substance. I doubt many of them dumbly follow the traditions, without even questioning their origin and process by which they are made. The process of silk manufacture, involving mass murder of these gentle beings was kept a secret when it was first exported into an Ahimsa influenced India, under the Sanskrit name "Chinanshuk" from China some 2000 years ago. From that time it is just viewed as the most expensive and beautiful fabric available and a pride asset for many.
How millions of life can be wasted just for the sake of man's greediness is seen explicably during silk making... For getting 1 gram of silk about 15 silkworms are killed which corresponds to massacre of 1500 of them to get one metre of cloth and again about 5000 of them make an elaborate Kanjeepuram saree with exquisite zari work.
The cocoon the silkworm spins around itself as a protective covering, ironically, spells doom for itself. These cocoons are boiled killing the chrysalis inside them to get silk threads. Some cocoons are not boiled and are allowed to become the moths. That is not coz of sympathy but for mating them and let the female lay the eggs. They are also not spared and once the eggs are laid they are crushed to death. This is to see whether they have any diseases and if so the eggs are destroyed. (See:  http://www.bwcindia.org/Web/Awareness/LearnAbout/Silk.html).
There are some organizations which voice against this cruelty.
Beauty without cruelty (http://www.bwcindia.org/) organization is an organization which publicize cruelity hidden in beauty industry and provides alternatives to such products.
Researches by Kusuma Rajaiah has conceived a new, innovative concept of "Ahimsa Silks" (See: http://www.ahimsasilks.com/) where there is no killing or cruelity involved while the manufacture of silk. Only after the silkworm has completed its metamorphosis and emerged from the cocoon that Ahimsa silk is extracted. This silk may not replace exact silk but surely has an ethical value attached to it.
Life is precious even if it is in the form of a man or a worm and hence if someone does want to do something against this cruelty, the following suggestions may help you:
Do not buy silk items: Apart from the cruelty involved in its production, silk is expensive and becomes useless when wet—unlike cruelty-free synthetic fibres, which retain their insulating capabilities in all weathers.
Get alternatives to silk: Which includes Nylon, rayon, polyester, tencel, milkweed seed-pod fibers, silk-cotton tree filaments etc.
Rather use Ahimsa silk.
"Live and Let Live"

Jhini re jhini re...

This was a song I heard while watching the Anwar Jamal picture "Swaraj-The Little republic" some 2 years ago at the Film festival on Water in Bangalore. Came to know that it is from the album "Indian Ocean". Further research revealed that the lyrics wrote by Saint Kabir Das about life, as a finely woven cloth. The lyrics describes that man should try to keep the cloth clean and be given back to God untorn and clean. The folkish touch accompanied by guitar and percussion makes the memorable lyrics flow...

झीनी रे झीनी रे झीनी चदरिया, झीनी रे झीनी रे झीनी चदरिया
के राम नाम रस भीनी चदरिया, झीनी रे झीनी रे झीनी चदरिया
अष्ट कमल दल चरखा डोले, पांच तत्व, गुण तीनि चदरिया
साइँ को सियत मास दस लागे, ठोंक-ठोंक के बीनी चदरिया
सो चादर सुर नर मुनि ओढ़ी, ओढ़ी के मैली कीनी चदरिया
दास कबीर जतन सो ओढ़ी, ज्यों की त्यों धर दीन चदरिया

This is fine, this is fine cloth.
It is been dipped in the name of the lord
The spinning wheel, like an eight-petal lotus, spins,
with five tatvas and three gunas as the pattern.
Lord stiched it in 10 months (the gestation period)
The threads have been pressed to get a tight weave.
It has been worn by gods, people, and sages
they soiled it with use.
Kabir says, I have covered my self with this cloth with great care,
and eventually will leave it like it was.

Me as a blogger...

My first post as a blogger... Hello world... :)