Happy Birthday!

She loves you for what you are.
She loves you without expecting anything in return.
She supports you even when you are wrong.
She is the only soul who is with you ever.


Happy birthday mom!! :) :)

Rendezvous with Balamuralikrishna

There's no doubt about my passion towards music. And that too after I got an Ipod, it has literally become a part of me! (I can hardly sleep without my dose of ARR and Hariharan!)
But carnatic music was never my cup of tea. I did listen to it but never enjoyed as much as other forms of music. Moreover, I had many conditions to listen to it like I should listen to one particular song a few times before I could decide whether I like that song or not. And I listened only to veterans, and that too a very few of them like MS, Balamuralikrishna etc. But one incident is enough to change my attitude towards something. That was my meeting with Sri. Balamurali Krishna.

It was sometime in 2005 when I met this legend. I was traveling alone by air from Hyderabad to Chennai when I met him in the Hyderabad airport. I was in the counter where the boarding passes were being issued. I never realized he was right behind me until my cousin yelled from outside as she had come to send me off. She yelled on top of her voice that Sri. Balamuralikrishna himself turned around to see who that person was! It was soooo funny that time.

I had booked the flight ticket online and so my ticket was just a sheet of paper. As soon as I got the boarding pass and quick good byes to my cousin, I went around the airport lounge in search of him to get his autograph. Finally I found him and got his autograph in my ticket! We started conversing as he asked my residence and what I was doing and my future plans and stuff. I casually asked him if he could sing for me (That was a bit tooo much... I know... Still I asked him :D) He was just about to sing a line (for me :D) when one idiot suddenly intruded from nowhere! He didn't even realize that I was there talking to Sri. Balamurali, and never had the sense that already a human being was there talking to him! I couldn't bear it and left the scene after bidding Bon Voyage to Sri. Balamurali.

But apparently Sri.Balamurali was also traveling in the same flight to Chennai! I sat right behind him in the flight (It was Air Deccan by the way... anybody can sit anywhere!). And that idiot was sitting beside him... sigh. After a safe (?) landing in Chennai airport, I rushed to my mom and with full excitement, told her "I spoke to Sri. BalamuraliKrishna!!!!!!!" just for others to give me a nasty stare. (I did squeal a bit :D)

After that one incident, my total attitude towards carnatic music has changed. I, now, put in effort to know what a song means, its raaga and other related things. I still don't know why, but it has changed. There’s no special reason, this rendezvous is not such a great thing after all. It was just a 10 minute talk to a singer to say the least. Still it has made a difference in me.

Some meetings do change the approach towards certain aspects of life!