Kshama :

Well i can think of only one word.......sorry, its again been a really long time.......but yes lot of changes, a new job, came back to chennai and now again its december.

Will keep posting regularly hereon.

Anil

3 days of Bliss

July 1 2011 -
We set off by bus to Thanjavur and from thereon by jeep to Konerirajapuram, our ancestral home (actually the birth place of appa and amma's native -thereby a double connection). A small village housing the Cauvery and our ancestral temple, Sri Lakshminarayana Swamy Koil.

The occassion - The Sathabhishekam of our Grandfather Sri Soundararajan (Soundra Thatha) on 4th July. Preceding the sathabhishekam was the first ever Kalyanotsavam in the history of the Temple on 3rd and on 2nd we had the Stapana Tirumanjanam and in evening a sangeetha upanyasam on "Rukmini Parinayam" performed by me :-)

I was accompanied on the Violin by Sri Raghuraman and on the Mridangam by Sri Venkata. This was a very special kalakshepam for me as i had done my arangetram here and reminensces of my first upanyasam were flowing in. Appa was there with us at that time (he's there even now, in spirit) and at 6PM we started.......it was a wonderful kalakshepam and thanks to the blessings of the almighty and acharyas, there were many revelations too......

The second day - 3rd July 2011 - The Kalyanotsavam..........that's the next post

Long time !!!

It has been really long since have posted in the blog, almost six months. Quite eventful they were,and just providing a recap of all that happened since December 2010.

December 2010 saw the start of a series of Kathakalakshepam concerts in Delhi. The first one was at a Vinayagar (Ganesh) temple in Mayur Vihar on 19th December 2010-The topic was "Sundarakaandam" and its application in daily life.

 The second programme was on 21st December 2010 at a small but lovely Krishna Temple - Venugopalaswamy temple in Alaknanda the topic being Sri Krishna Leela with a focus on the Bala Leela or the Childhood pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna.

The Third concert was at the famous Sri Uttara Guruvayurappan Temple in Mayur Vihar on 23rd December 2010 on Krishna Leela again.

Am currently uploading the videos in youtube and will post the links soon !!

Amidst this , we also had an opportunity for an impromptu pravachan at the residence of Mr Srinivasamurthy, a devotee and a friend of my aunt (who had organized these concerts). The topic chosen there was "Ganga Avataranam" (The descent of Ganga).This was recorded and produced into a CD.

Soon after this we travelled to Kadayanallur (near Madurai) wherein we performed in the "Akhanda Nama Sankeerthana Mela" and the topic being Sundara Kaandam again.

Thus ended the December trip. It was in itself a wonderful experience to meet many learned vidwans and scholars who have kept this amazing tradition of harikatha alive throughout the years. (It also reiterated the words that Guruji had told when we met him in Vellore prior to leaving. He had said that there will be many opportunities coming my way to perform and i must keep this going. At that time we had only 3 concerts fixed. By the time we reached Delhi 3 became 5!)

After this on 26th Jan 2011, had another performance at the Hosur Sathsangam on the importance of Sathsangam in todays life. It was the frst full fledged pravachan (non musical discourse) and went off really well.

Subsequent to these events, occured my meeting with N Viraraghavachariar Swamy / Pattanna Swamy. A very close friend of my father, when we went to meet him, I had taken a copy of the DVD recorded at Delhi (Krishna Leela) and amma played it for him. He sat through 30 minutes of the upanyasam and his comments were so encouraging and heartening. The Vaishnavite Guru Paramparyathanian's modification that i had done (including Guruji's name) was noticed by him and he told me that i could chant it the original way and even the original included all the Sathguru's till date. A really heartening moment, thanks to the Grace of Guruji!

Then came April 2010 and began the first event in the series of many (hope so!) - Sri Ramakathamritham. More details on this and the Kathamritham series in www.ramakathamritham.blogspot.com

And as i conclude this post, take great pleasure in inviting you all to the next upanyasam - Rukmini Parinayam @ Sri Lakshminarayanaswamy Temple, Thanjavur on July 2 2011. All are welcome