In your deepest of music-related memories will be songs from long ago that you are surprised you ever liked, that tickle you, or that take you down the memory lane. Vani Viswanathan recollects a few Tamil songs in her music memory that formed an indelible part of her teenage but don’t really feature in her regular playlists – the ‘crazy’ songs, she calls them.
When she listens to a favourite playlist on her iPod, Anupama Krishnakumar travels to a different world created by music—far away from the one we exist in. In this world, music sparks memories and ignites imagination. She shares the experience through a poem.
When we discuss Carnatic music, there are very many experiences out there that queue up, waiting to be heard. This month, we have three people sharing their thoughts and views on this form of music. While Ramya Shankar writes about two of her favourite ragas and Bhairavi Vaidynathan talks about the lukewarm response to live concerts, particularly those performed by upcoming singers, Jenani Srikanth discusses what Carnatic music means to her.
“Fields of Gold” by Sting is one of Nandeenee’s favourite songs since the time she was a kid. The melody no doubt is one of the reasons for her love for the song. But what strikes her too is the visual appeal of the song, particularly the lyrics that prompts her to dream up vivid images. The phrase ‘jealous sky’ fascinates her in particular. She tells us just why so in poetic prose.
The learning environment for classical music and dance has traditionally been rigid and conditional, forcing students to feel a lot of pressure rather than joy when they enroll for such classes. Deepa Venkatraghvan discusses her perspective on this tradition and tries to figure out where it’s all going wrong, taking instances from her own life. Creative inputs from Priya Gopal.
THE LOUNGE | THE INNER JOURNEY A newspaper article that talks about how cultivating one’s memory is neglected these days and how the virtues of memory are now entrusted to gadgets, prompts Viswanathan Subramanian to look within and explore a valid question – “Have we misplaced the role of memory in our lives?” Read on.
THE LOUNGE | SLICE OF LIFE Songs can do wonders: Gauri Trivedi tells us how one song made her feel more accepted in her foreign land.
THE LOUNGE | STORYBOARD | FILM FREAK This month, Yayaati Joshi picks two films to illustrate how movies in the ‘action’ genre need not be all about gore and violence but could also be about nuanced and subtle filmmaking. He insists that people who do not tolerate ‘action’ as a genre and dismiss many good movies that broadly fall under this category, indeed miss a lot by not watching such films. Catch him discussing Bronson and Violent Cop.