SGC In POLITICS ! ! ! ! !

SikkilGCharan in politics????

Hi guys... How r u people? I am doing great .. COncerts and other musically engaging works are keeping me in high spirits... Ok Ok .. I can hear you... U r asking " What on earth is he talking about? , SGc in politics?? " Right??

haha.... Jus thought i would give a catchy phrase as a heading this time..So that more people will actually read whats in here!!! A method adopted by some of the leading daily newspapers and magazines in Chennai , for that matter, throughout the world!! SUch things sell...like hotcakes!!! So this time , instead of "I'm back" or" Hello" or any other mundane topic header, I gave a "misleading" one.. Sorry!!

But the topic is not false altogether... Let me say , it is 50% true.. No No .. I have neither started a party on my own nor am i nurturing hopes of revolutionising Indian politics.. To be true, my party is the one I mingle with on stage - my accompaniments.. and I dont think I can concentrate on politics right now.. leave alone politics in Music!!

" HEy charan? Since when did you get into politics??"
This statement from my friend Rahul jolted me and hence I wanted my dear readers to enjoy the same !!
I asked " What ? Me in politics? Who said so? "
He replied" I heard that you are now a member of Lok Paritran"
Aahaaa.. I understood everything at that moment... What actually happened was ......


(flashback starts) (a dramatic narration but true!!)



" It was sometime in April.... one rainy evening... I had come from Coimbatore that day and was enjoying the mann vaasanai and the cool breeze.. when i got a call...
Hello , is it gurucharan?

Yes...

Hi.. We are doing a service for Lok paritran, the students political party..

hmm..what should i do ?

We are a band of musicians called Oxygen and we would like you to sing a number for lok Paritran..

Ok...

So can you come over now?

Ok sure ..

(click!! ... line gets cut!!)

So the person who called me was prithvi , my school junior and a talented drummer.. So i went that night to their studio and we recorded a song .. It was actually a party song for Lok Paritran , a political party formed by some TRUE citizens of India.. a group of pass outs from IIT, IIM and so on.. I felt proud of them.and felt proud that i had something to do with them.. Paritran was having their party meeting the next day and so they invented a new idea of having a theme song during that meeting as MUSIC IS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.. The song had nice lyrics " Poruthhadhu podhum..pongi ezhundhom..porida vaareer Indiyare!!" which means" We have tolerated enough, come on indians.. rise " I had never sung such revolutionary lyrics before and it was fun recording it..;-)

After a few weeks, mails started pouring into my inbox saying that the song was great and rocking and stuff like that.. I had not heard it myself and my friends from the US and UK were all appreciating me after listening to it.. I was surprised. Such is the power of online sharing, i guess!!!

Anyway , people say I am very good at creating a mountain out of a molehill.. So this article bears testimony to the same... A simple one line story " SGC has sung for Lok paritran" has been converted into a longish masala movie-type story..

Anyway I have uploaded that song in the link given below..Listen to it and enjoy...A new experience , it would be, for those who have heard me sing Bhairavis and Thodis all this while..Hope you like it!!

Try listening to it using headphones because when I did it, it sounded better than when it was through speakers!!

http://rapidshare.de/files/24796070/Lok_paritran_theme_SGC.mp3.html

PLUS.. there was a mail for me saying that one of my concerts 6 yrs back in Chennai is on the net now.. So that too, for you..Natabhairavi raagam and song..
http://as01.coolgoose.com/music/song.php?id=253596

http://as01.coolgoose.com/music/song.php?id=253607

Cheers,

Until later ,
Gurucharan

I'm Back!!!

Hello all

Time to blog again.. I know its been quite a while .. in fact quite long a while since I came to this forum.Thanks to my schedule and my distractions during free time , although meagre. I mean Pc games .. especially EA Cricket 2005 and midnight club.. These 2 games have used the majority of my free time since Feb!! Before that , it was Hulk before that came NBA, Max Payne.. it keeps changing every season.. But my passion for Pc games remains undisturbed since 2000. So are the preventive measures!! , undisturbed!! ;-)

Any way , coming to back to some meaningful stuff, I wanted to share a series of "interesting" incidents this time.. You all may know it is Ramanavami time now in south india and all artists are busy running around chennai and other cities giving concerts.. even yours faithfully!! I begun a rather busy schedule during Apr 7th where i had a concert in Chennai and then subsequently to Tuticorin, coimbatore,Bangalore , Hassan etc..

After Apr 13th , I went to bangalore for a few concerts and stayed with my close friend Mr Ramesh from Mumbai.. I am sure he will chip in with some useful inputs soon..Kya ji? Ho jaye?? !! :-) He picked me up from the station and went to stay at Basavangudi. The concert was at Jayanagar that evening. In fact I was a bit sceptical about the concert because Karnataka was in a major spell of tension following the death of Dr Rajkumar. After being informed that the concert is going to take place, only then, I left for Bangalore.. It was a bit gloomy.. Even the day after the cremation , people were seldom on the streets! So yes, as i was saying , I was at Basavangudi. and left for the concert at Jayanagar Rama Temple. It was a good one, with many people attending and enjoying the concert. The concert got over at 10pm and I was supposed to have dinner with Ramesh. My close friends had come to the concert and wanted me to come and spend sometime with them at their place. I couldnt deny it and told Ramesh that I will join him for dinner. So I went along with them and as expected , we were caught in a frenzied discussion about our time at Hyderabad way back during early 90's and by the time we came back to 2006 April , it was 11.15 pm.. A bit early , I know!! I waved them good bye and went over to our apartment at 11.30pm. I was told earlier the day by my friend, perumal, that dinner becomes a rarity once it is 10pm in Bangalore. I didnt heed to his warning.. Poor Ramesh was waiting for me outside and we started off on one of the memorable food hunts in my life!!!

23.45: We visited a dozen hotels and restaurants but everything was closed.. There were people inside but no fresh diners were allowed. I was surprised to see Pizza hut closed too! I thought Pizza hut was open till 11.30 on weekends.. Hmm .. Anyway we were literally knocking on the doors of every restaurant at Basavangudi. I came to know more about the locality!! It was nearing midnight when we decided to get back and have a glass of milk and retire for the day.. But , as for all of us, temptation is the only thing I cant resist!! So we caught an auto and zoomed through the streets hoping to find a small "kadai" somewhere. In chennai , we would have a Patti kadai or a Kai yendhi Bhavan somewhere(hand held food stall!!, hehe) . But here, Nope!!

The auto driver helped us without any irritated remarks!! Poor guy. he took us to almost every hotel within the area. He gave us an idea" Saar, City market will have some good restaurants that'll be open" We said ok lets go. But it took us a good 20 minutes to reach that place.. But it turned out to be what I never expected- A small place cramped with people , mainly watchmen, labourers, auto drivers and who knows maybe some drunkards too.. I said" Yuck, Lets go somewhere else." He had meant this place only, earlier.. I was surprised because both myslelf and Ramesh were quite neatly dressed !!;-)

We then went to a main road near the railway station area. It was 00.20 hrs then. I was determined to find some food . Even though some say that one can survive without food for 3 days at a stretch, i didnt want to use that theorem now.. Maybe later.. In tamil we say " asattu dhayiriyam". I wanted to challenge the alter ego within myself which kept saying" dey charan, you are destined to go to bed without food!!" So there we were, below a fly over searching for a nice, well...decnet, well a kinda ok or SOME place to eat.. Our standards had dropped long back..After all, Starvers cant be choosers!!

We managed to get hold of a few plaintains , again thanks to the auto driver. He sincerely understood our situation. On the way back there was a small but decent dine place.. Bismillah.. We went inside thanking our stars.. The menu was heavenly, Crab chops, Mutton fingers, Chicken fried rice..!!!!! I dint gag but wished them good luck and came out. The auto driver said " sir , you cant find a pure veg restaurant at this odd hour, for heavens sake!!" He was true.. We moved into another similar place .. Shalimar.. The name was more pseudo-islamic than Bismillah so we felt we had a chance .. It was nearing 1 o clock.

We didnt enquire about the menu.. We asked for roti! he said Parota and Dal fry.. We jumped at it as it sounded like Schezwan noodles, Panneer butter masala, Banana split and hot chocolate!!! It was then something happened. Karnataka policemen came into the restaurant and ordered them to shut down immediately , banging the lathis on the shutters.. I shuddered.... Only a day before this area was almost burning with mobs attacking the shops and setting them on fire.. I started imagining scenes from the film"Bombay" .. the riots etc... the shutters were pulled down immediately and we were stranded there. The shop owner asked " Sir , can i put onion pieces ?" I was like" Romba mukkiyam!!" "Ok Ok" , i hastened him.. I was cursing myself and moreover i felt sorry for Ramesh.. So much for being a fan.. He was all excited.. " where else can i find such adventure?" he said!! I sighed....

20 minutes inside a small restaurant without knowing whats going on outside , that too at 1.30 am was really scary.. I didnt know what could possibly happen.. Then our parcel came, the manager( he looked like one!!) slowly opened the shutters to see if everything is safe.. Actually what happened was there was no mob and all.. The cops wanted to check if everything was under control and didnt want to take any risks.. Surprisingly the auto driver was still waiting for us.. Tamil readers can recollect what I did that time.. Vivek's comedy scene where in he says to a tea vendor, ada paavi shutter a pottu escape aayiruppannu paatha tea aathindirukkiye da dey!!!" Like that I said to myself" Ada paavi, gear a pottu escape aayiruppennu nenachhen..ingiye irukkaane!!...:-))) Maybe he wanted to help us.. So nice a man...

We reached the apartment at 2.00 am.. Phew.. twas one heck of a food hunt.. but ultimately my alter ego was defeated.. I gave a proud sigh of relief.. The auto driver demanded 200 bucks.... maybe thats why he was waiting for us all the time!!! We settled him and had .... hmm... I dunno what to name it exactly... well.... dinnfast .. at 2.30 am... believe me, It was one of the most tastiest, sumptous, slurrrpy food I had tasted for a looong time... Reason?? It was hard earned!!!

Well... Thats it for now... have bored u guys enuf.. Please get back to work.. As a bonus , I have uploaded one of my Video clippings in this blog..A small excerpt from one of my concerts last November.. Enjoy ... and thanks for ur time, guys...

until later

Cheers and regards

Gurucharan

SONG CLIPPING- RAMA IKA NANNU

HI PPL

PL CLICK ON THE LNK BELOW TO LISTEN TO A CLIPPING FROM ONE OF MY PVT COLLECTIONS..
smt.PADMA SHANKAR ON THE VIOLIN AND SRI.VELLORE RAMABHADRAN ON THE MRIDANGAM.

http://rapidshare.de/files/13458149/Rama_Ika_nannu.mp3.html

UNTIL THE NEXT POSTING

GOOD BYE!!

Thiruvayyaru Thyagaraja Aradhana

Hmm.. Hi everyone!

Just now got some time to bring some fresh inputs into this blog of mine. Had been to Thiruvayyaru last week. It is always the same experience over there. One marked by divinty, tranquility, gala festive spirit and a dash of chaos!! I sang theliyaleru rama , lokavana chatura and Meevalla in Kaapi. Srimushnam Raja rao was really amazing on the mridangam and took the concert to greater heights. Usually you find a sense of calm and total oneness with the Divine Presence once you enter,not Tyagaraja's samadhi, but more so in the small and dilapated building he used to live in. It is situated just a few streets away opposite to Aatkondar temple. But I was in for some rude shock once I entered that street this time, at around 10 pm on 17th January just after my concert. I never expected this at all..
The house had been demolished!!!
Perhaps I must have enquired about the proceedings before hand. The immediate feeling that I had was like "Oh My God!! Whats this? Looks as if I am entering an "under-construction" apartment complex by Arihants!!" . I heaved a sigh of relief when one of the by-standers remarked that a Tyagaraja memorial is getting constructed soon over there.
I ,too, have made it a point to render a song inside his house every year like others do. This time it was no different . Just that, instead of the small Ramar statue, there was this brick pile and instead of the pooja-place there were cement bags!!! :-(

I couldnt stay back for the aradhana owing to some domestic reasons. Moreover I had some concerts in Chennai , Bangalore etc . So , i had to return soon for preparation. Looking forward to next oppurutunity to sing there !!

Until the next posting,
Goodbye..
Charan

Me, Myself n Music- Whats that?

hi people,
You must be wondering what exactly does the title of this blog mean. It is so similar to one of Jim Carrey's movie titles huh? Me, Myself and Irene - one of my favt films,too . Well, I jus wanted to stay in contact with all the viewers of my site as often as possible and the quickest possible way is -jus blog!!
About Me , About myself and About Music : All these have been dealt with seperately in my site www.sikkilgurucharan.com but what about the confluence of these three?? Thats what I am gonna deal with in this blog. When music interacts with my self and with the 23 going-on-24 guy Charan, what all happens?? My day-to-day or atleast week-to-week experiences with Music!! Thats it ..
Please keep reading!!!
More (confusion) follows !!! ;-) Until then.. see ya.
CHARAN

Welcome

Happy New Year 2006