How to describe it?
I met Raaja in his studio....and we had a talk!
Well, this was only a dream until a few months back when I actually got to meet this creative genius. On a sidenote, I did feel extremely jealous of my IIT batchmate Thoppai for having spent something in the order of 'weeks' with the Maestro. He got me thinking and introspecting very seriously when he brought in the concept of 'karma' in relation to this. Wondered if I have done any amount of punyam that will lead me to the abode of the genius - considering the number of mosquitoes that I have killed and the number of times I've woken up my wife at 6 am on Sundays, it didn't seem like I'd stand a chance. But never really felt that my wish would get fulfilled pretty soon, though I never got 'weeks' but only some precious 'minutes'. "You cannot be free" until this wish is fulfilled.
(I'd like to emphasize a point here (more like reiterate thoppai's point) - don't analyze this blog excessively for whatever it is worth. Just read it and enjoy it - it is whatever I felt, without any extra dramatizing passages.)
Turns out that my father in law's cousin is a producer (Lakshmi movie makers) and he somehow could get THE appointment for us. The previous day was meant to be the day, but the day was pretty much spent in waiting for THE call and nothing really happened. since the India trip was short and four times hectic than usual (due to quadrupling of the number of relatives after marriage), I decided to get something else done the next day inspite of the possibility of getting THE call. I kept my hopes low, as always.
At around 2:30pm, we got the much anticipated CALL from his manager telling us that he is free and will probably be for about an hour. I didn't believe it even then. We were in the middle of something very important, but on a relative sense, I wasn't even interested in whatever I was doing anymore - so I ran out with my wife and my brother throwing him his sunny's keys and grabbing the keys for the hero honda that we had. We were supposed to meet him at Prasad Studios (I only knew where it was with a few kilometers of error in all directions - never been there before). Thanks to the cellphone technology, we were able to coordinate and get to there by 3:15pm or so. In the middle of this I was required to pass the reality test of getting from one end of the Kodambakkam bridge to the other with my wife on the back plus keeping track of where my brother was (reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George takes off leaving Jerry far behind when they were all headed to the bubble boy's house). Anyways, with all the paranoia, we made it finally and it would be fair to say that I still couldn't believe it and I might have even been shivering a little bit. The mighty composer whose music has captivated much of the world is supposedly sitting inside expecting four of his millions of fans.
Well, we were invited inside the studio - it is pretty much the studio that I had imagined and seen in movies. On one end was the booth from which Raaja does his mixing. The rest was a big hall, fully sound proofed with designated places for different instrumentalists. When we entered, ofcourse I didn't pay attention to the people in the hall, but I did see a few people setting up microphones and the equipment for that evening's recording. Apparently there were some famous singers and instrumentalists (not SPB or the like) getting ready for the recording. We kind of walked diagonally across the studio and the person (you could call him studio attendant or something) leading us opened another door which led to a corridor, which in turn led to another room. That was THE room. We were asked to remove our slippers and shoes, which we promptly did with much respect. The attendant entered the room first and got permission to let in the four of us. This kind of happened quick - he let us in.
I saw this figure on the diagonally opposite corner of the saintly room. It wasn't clear to my eyes at first, but my mind knew who it was. He was wearing his traditional white clothes - kurtha and veshti and was sitting on the floor with some cushions for his support, with his hands on the legendary harmonium (which has been very faithful and helpful to him in mapping the tunes leaping in his head onto a piece of paper). My first natural reaction - mothama avar kaalla poi orediya vizhundhachu. I got up from the floor with a namaskaram and a joy that he couldn't have comprehended. He offered his namaskaram without any kind of superior air and a smile. I confessed "kadavula paartha madri irukku", which evoked his laughter and made me feel completely at ease with him. Following my procedure, my wife, brother and my father in law fell at his feet too and sat down calmly in anticipation of how the forthcoming minutes will be spent.
Then I started to talk and was outrageously selfish - I never stopped talking or gave a fair chance to anybody else that came with me. Most of the time was spent in me singing his praises, without knowing where to start and where to end. Seriously, what would you do? I told him that I grew up listening to his songs and that I consider him to be the best musician that ever lived in my time. I added certain superfluous statements like "only you are capable of doing this and much more". I commented on his new project "Thiruvasagam in Symphony"
and that I was looking forwarding to hearing the English verses come as counterpoint to the Tamil verses. He smiled in acknowledgement.
....it is unbelievable - I am stammering to write about the actual experience. I seem to remember all the irrelevant details.
I asked him what I considered was one of the million dollar questions out there - whatever happened to the symphony he composed about 13 years back. He gave me a very convincing answer - I'll try to articulate it even though I didn't fully grasp it - he said something to the extent that his symphony wasn't regarded as a true western symphony owing to its Indian nature and that it won't ever come out. Too bad, I thought. In the middle of talking to him, I couldn't help notice some newly written sheet music scattered in front of his harmonium. How precious!
I asked him if he had plans of coming to the US and having a show there. The answer was kind of vague, but he was positive about going to New York the following week to wrap up certain things on his new project. I asked him why so much effort went into recording just the back ground score for the hindi movie Lajja (it was played by Hungarian Budapest Orchestra and recorded in Hungary). I don't remember if I waited for his answer before shooting the next question - I asked him about making several albums out of his golden background music themes for movies spanning his entire career. He acknowledged that they were pretty popular and lot of people are asking him about it. He said some effort may go into that in the future. I heard from other sources that he would like to phase out of movies slowly and concentrate on other non filmi albums.
somebody called him on his cellphone and interrupted our conversation briefly. I heard him talk nicely in English. He asked about me - where I am from and all that. The rest of the people had to tell Raaja that I play the keyboard and that I am very crazy about him. He smiled. Told him my wish was that the entire world should recognize his great tunes and conveyed my best wishes for his Thiruvasagam in Symphony project. Well, praised him in whatever possible way I could in the short time we had. Remembered to enquire the well being of his family members - his two sons, daughter and his wife. Told him I like Karthik Raja's music in dum dum dum.
hmmmmmmm................
I think it would have been 20-25 minutes or so and he was ready for his next appointment. He was very polite about it and we didn't want to take any more of his precious time. We got up, I did one more namaskaram and got back his in return. Then I walked backwards till the door, always looking at him. I exited the door, into the real world. I did consider myself lucky. Quite curiously, I asked my brother why he didn't say much. He was polite enough to say that he didn't know where to start and where to end, but the truth is, I didn't let him!!
Of course, I proudly narrated this story to lot of other people :)
Well, this was only a dream until a few months back when I actually got to meet this creative genius. On a sidenote, I did feel extremely jealous of my IIT batchmate Thoppai for having spent something in the order of 'weeks' with the Maestro. He got me thinking and introspecting very seriously when he brought in the concept of 'karma' in relation to this. Wondered if I have done any amount of punyam that will lead me to the abode of the genius - considering the number of mosquitoes that I have killed and the number of times I've woken up my wife at 6 am on Sundays, it didn't seem like I'd stand a chance. But never really felt that my wish would get fulfilled pretty soon, though I never got 'weeks' but only some precious 'minutes'. "You cannot be free" until this wish is fulfilled.
(I'd like to emphasize a point here (more like reiterate thoppai's point) - don't analyze this blog excessively for whatever it is worth. Just read it and enjoy it - it is whatever I felt, without any extra dramatizing passages.)
Turns out that my father in law's cousin is a producer (Lakshmi movie makers) and he somehow could get THE appointment for us. The previous day was meant to be the day, but the day was pretty much spent in waiting for THE call and nothing really happened. since the India trip was short and four times hectic than usual (due to quadrupling of the number of relatives after marriage), I decided to get something else done the next day inspite of the possibility of getting THE call. I kept my hopes low, as always.
At around 2:30pm, we got the much anticipated CALL from his manager telling us that he is free and will probably be for about an hour. I didn't believe it even then. We were in the middle of something very important, but on a relative sense, I wasn't even interested in whatever I was doing anymore - so I ran out with my wife and my brother throwing him his sunny's keys and grabbing the keys for the hero honda that we had. We were supposed to meet him at Prasad Studios (I only knew where it was with a few kilometers of error in all directions - never been there before). Thanks to the cellphone technology, we were able to coordinate and get to there by 3:15pm or so. In the middle of this I was required to pass the reality test of getting from one end of the Kodambakkam bridge to the other with my wife on the back plus keeping track of where my brother was (reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George takes off leaving Jerry far behind when they were all headed to the bubble boy's house). Anyways, with all the paranoia, we made it finally and it would be fair to say that I still couldn't believe it and I might have even been shivering a little bit. The mighty composer whose music has captivated much of the world is supposedly sitting inside expecting four of his millions of fans.
Well, we were invited inside the studio - it is pretty much the studio that I had imagined and seen in movies. On one end was the booth from which Raaja does his mixing. The rest was a big hall, fully sound proofed with designated places for different instrumentalists. When we entered, ofcourse I didn't pay attention to the people in the hall, but I did see a few people setting up microphones and the equipment for that evening's recording. Apparently there were some famous singers and instrumentalists (not SPB or the like) getting ready for the recording. We kind of walked diagonally across the studio and the person (you could call him studio attendant or something) leading us opened another door which led to a corridor, which in turn led to another room. That was THE room. We were asked to remove our slippers and shoes, which we promptly did with much respect. The attendant entered the room first and got permission to let in the four of us. This kind of happened quick - he let us in.
I saw this figure on the diagonally opposite corner of the saintly room. It wasn't clear to my eyes at first, but my mind knew who it was. He was wearing his traditional white clothes - kurtha and veshti and was sitting on the floor with some cushions for his support, with his hands on the legendary harmonium (which has been very faithful and helpful to him in mapping the tunes leaping in his head onto a piece of paper). My first natural reaction - mothama avar kaalla poi orediya vizhundhachu. I got up from the floor with a namaskaram and a joy that he couldn't have comprehended. He offered his namaskaram without any kind of superior air and a smile. I confessed "kadavula paartha madri irukku", which evoked his laughter and made me feel completely at ease with him. Following my procedure, my wife, brother and my father in law fell at his feet too and sat down calmly in anticipation of how the forthcoming minutes will be spent.
Then I started to talk and was outrageously selfish - I never stopped talking or gave a fair chance to anybody else that came with me. Most of the time was spent in me singing his praises, without knowing where to start and where to end. Seriously, what would you do? I told him that I grew up listening to his songs and that I consider him to be the best musician that ever lived in my time. I added certain superfluous statements like "only you are capable of doing this and much more". I commented on his new project "Thiruvasagam in Symphony"
and that I was looking forwarding to hearing the English verses come as counterpoint to the Tamil verses. He smiled in acknowledgement.
....it is unbelievable - I am stammering to write about the actual experience. I seem to remember all the irrelevant details.
I asked him what I considered was one of the million dollar questions out there - whatever happened to the symphony he composed about 13 years back. He gave me a very convincing answer - I'll try to articulate it even though I didn't fully grasp it - he said something to the extent that his symphony wasn't regarded as a true western symphony owing to its Indian nature and that it won't ever come out. Too bad, I thought. In the middle of talking to him, I couldn't help notice some newly written sheet music scattered in front of his harmonium. How precious!
I asked him if he had plans of coming to the US and having a show there. The answer was kind of vague, but he was positive about going to New York the following week to wrap up certain things on his new project. I asked him why so much effort went into recording just the back ground score for the hindi movie Lajja (it was played by Hungarian Budapest Orchestra and recorded in Hungary). I don't remember if I waited for his answer before shooting the next question - I asked him about making several albums out of his golden background music themes for movies spanning his entire career. He acknowledged that they were pretty popular and lot of people are asking him about it. He said some effort may go into that in the future. I heard from other sources that he would like to phase out of movies slowly and concentrate on other non filmi albums.
somebody called him on his cellphone and interrupted our conversation briefly. I heard him talk nicely in English. He asked about me - where I am from and all that. The rest of the people had to tell Raaja that I play the keyboard and that I am very crazy about him. He smiled. Told him my wish was that the entire world should recognize his great tunes and conveyed my best wishes for his Thiruvasagam in Symphony project. Well, praised him in whatever possible way I could in the short time we had. Remembered to enquire the well being of his family members - his two sons, daughter and his wife. Told him I like Karthik Raja's music in dum dum dum.
hmmmmmmm................
I think it would have been 20-25 minutes or so and he was ready for his next appointment. He was very polite about it and we didn't want to take any more of his precious time. We got up, I did one more namaskaram and got back his in return. Then I walked backwards till the door, always looking at him. I exited the door, into the real world. I did consider myself lucky. Quite curiously, I asked my brother why he didn't say much. He was polite enough to say that he didn't know where to start and where to end, but the truth is, I didn't let him!!
Of course, I proudly narrated this story to lot of other people :)
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