Living in Singapore where sun’s bright rays often visit the falling raindrops, rainbows are a common sight. Today morning was no exception!

1. Shankachakra – Poornachandrika

It is because of this song that I became a fan of T.M.Krishna! Thanks to my neighbour who lent me the Kshetra Tirupati CD in 2004, I happened to listen to this song. I listened to the CD once and totally forgot about it. Almost an year later, I remembered that I liked the Poornachandrika krithi in that CD and went back and listened to it. Then, the usual getting hooked onto a single song happened and I started listening to this song like mad. (When I get hooked onto a song, all my other favourites including Rahman’s songs take a back seat at that time ) The very first concert of TMK that I went to was only on December 23rd, 2005! The reason behind going to that concert was only because of my liking the way he has sung this song. And one more thing was an interview with him on S.S.Music during the season that year. Though I now don’t remember most of what he spoke in that interview, After attending that concert, I became totally crazy about his singing and the rest as they say, is history.

All right, now time to continue the listing of my other favourites.

2. Alarulu – Sankarabharanam

I am generally not too fond of Sankarabharanam itself, but this song, especially when sung by TMK, is an exception.

3. Raga Sudha Rasa – Andolika

The fast -paced Raga Sudha Rasa is something which I frequently listen to, on a loop. Definitely the song to turn to when you want to drive away boredom.

4. Padavini – Salaka Bhairavi

This is yet another fast-paced rendition by TMK.

5. Vidajaladura – Janaranjani

Set in the best of the Ranjanis, Vidajaladura is a refreshing change from the often sung Pahimam Shri in the same raagam.

6. Elavatara – Mukhari

This one is from the Dasavataram CD. The Mukhari alapana lasts for some 10 minutes or so and its an absolute bliss to listen to it.

7. Ongi UlagaLandha – Aarabhi

Every other person might sing during the December Season, but TMK’s version is always special.

8. Sri Raamam – Narayanagowlai

This song from the album of the same name is such a classic! A longer

9. Tillana – Hameer Kalyani

A very beautiful tillana with a good mix of swarams and words!

10. Adi Nee Pai – Yamun Kalyani

This short song is such a joyous one!

11. Santana Ramaswaminam – Hindolavasantam 

If Shankachakra was where the fandom started, Santana Ramaswaminam is where it peaked! The lyrics, the raagam Hindolavasantam, TMK’s voice, the kalpana swarams in the end, the percussion matching the pace of the song – I just got hooked to this on the first listen & since then, it has always been there on my playlist.

I strongly feel that currently there is no one who can sing the words as clearly (spashtamaa) as T M Krishna and when it comes to Dikshitar’s kritis, his versions are the best (but only when not sung veryyyy slowly as it started becoming the case with TMK’s singing around the time of exit from the active December Season scene).

Coming back to Santana Ramaswaminam, during the Covid 19 pandemic, my daughter made an observation that every time I was getting impatient, be it even for a simple thing like waiting for a website to load, I used to immediately start humming Santana Ramaswaminam. This is the song that I keep humming all the time till date.

ARR surely knows how to tap into the beauty of a raagam like Dwijavanti (or is some part Sahana? That confusion remains till date for me). But the surprise here is the way it has been used not to express happiness which is what those raagams are all about, but to express longing, regret and repent.

A gentle rhythm, a slow tempo, mellow voices, piano, flute and violin aiding the feel softly in the background. The only time when the pace picks up is during that very beautiful violin interlude which appears to bring out all the pent up emotions. The song ends with a closing keyboard/piano which reminds me of the soothing phrases of Thendrale from Kadhal Desam.

With a very long gap between the initial planning days and the actual trip, we kept turning only to Vazhithunaye & PoovukkuL oLindhurukkum from Jeans & had forgotten the rest of the movie songs featuring the places. 

Now, back from the trip, I watched Yedho Yedho onru from Enakku 20 Unakku 18 and I realized that we have covered everything in that too! 

Haven’t movie songs always been our guide to finding some amazing places to see? 

But this post isn’t about the location, but about the changing times and the music. 

Take Enakku 20 Unakku 18, the heroine & hero meet each other by chance during a train journey, don’t share their contact details & then end up searching for each other. Even after they meet, they are hesitant to express their feelings and let the time pass by. That’s when yedho yedho onru is shown.  

Moving on to Dragon, a studious guy starts failing in all the subjects and becomes a rowdy simply because the girl chose a guy like that over him. He then goes on to become a fraud on top of this and even gets engaged to a girl without revealing the truth and that’s when the song vazhithunaye happens. I obviously couldn’t stand watching a movie like that beyond the first few minutes & only read the synopsis. 

Similar locations – two different songs – one a long, slow, romantic song full of longing, with the interludes matching the vibe (blame my kids for me using this word instead of something like atmosphere or ambience) of the place, another a short, peppy, fun-filled song with interludes matching the pace of life today full of thoughtless partying & selfies. Do you realize that the duration of the song itself shows how impatient we as a generation have become? 

Take the lyrics and the way they are sung. There is no way that nowadays someone is going to pause long enough to sing uyireyyyyyy idhayammmmm as it is sung in yedho yedho onru. It’s another fact that even 20 years ago, it was already too slow for the times. 

In Vazhithunaye, it’s a continuous stream of  words matching the pace with which they are travelling – oor paarkkum nalla nalla thaLangaLellaam unai kooTTikonDu kaikortthukkoNDu! 

Coming to the musical aspect, one might expect a core Carnatic-based music for the first theme & a western-kind of music for the other. Ironically, here’s where the surprise factor kicks in!  

Though yedho yedho onru has some Charukesi in it matching the melancholic aching feel of the song, it still has a lot of western touches. Oh that interlude! 

Would you imagine a Reetigowlai with fast beats for visuals featuring the lead pair strolling outside Moulin Rouge?! Well that’s Vazhithunaye for you! The joyous Reetiwgowlai matching the energy level of the young lovers happily exploring some of the beautiful sights of Europe! 

The contrasting moods created by the pathos of Charukesi and the verve of Reetigowlai showcasing two different kinds of love during two different periods of time but set in the same place! Isn’t that the power of music! Wow! 

P.S.: I came to know only today that Vazhithunaye is composed by the son of Noel James, whose name we used to see in the credits of so many of A R Rahman’s albums! 

If travelling in India is a breeze given that we can hire a taxi for the entire duration of the trip and there will also be no dearth of good vegetarian food, travelling in South-east Asia is also quite comfortable, since we can still have a taxi at our disposal, even though getting good vegetarian food everywhere is not a possibility. Except for some places during some of the months in the northern part of India, the weather is also otherwise what we are generally used to, both in India & SE Asia. That’s why I had to spend quite a good chunk of time planning for the weather as well for this trip.  

Living in Singapore, there are three things which we are used to, which we might otherwise not have gotten adjusted to in India:

• Since it frequently rains in short bursts in Singapore, rain is no longer a deterrent for us in stepping out.  
• We are still stuck in the days of pre-Instamart/BlinkIt/etc. So, we step out to buy everything from bulk monthly groceries to a single packet of bread. 
• Given that we extensively use only public transport for which long walks to and from the MRT station / bus stop is a given, commuting while hauling our bags is also not a big hassle for us. 

So, rain or shine and with or without the convenience of taxis, we planned to cover as many places as possible within Italy & Paris.   

With all these in mind, I started making several checklists. I scouted around the ongoing offers in different shops and websites to find the best deals for everything from disposable plates and cutlery to body butter and winter jackets. After drawing up a rough itinerary, we frequently kept checking the availability of tickets for all the attractions until we found the best deals, which, by the way, was only through the respective official websites. Then there were all the inter-city trains for which we had to keep monitoring the prices. 

As and when we shopped for something, I made sure that I kept those in the suitcase and not in some cupboard. That way, half the things were already packed. A few weeks before the trip, we stocked up on all the biscuits, candies, Haldiram’s snacks and puLiyodharai, vatthakuzhambu mixes from Grand Sweets that we needed for the trip and those too went right into the suitcase. Despite all these, still there were lots to be packed till the last minute – rice, rice cooker, dresses, general medicines, toiletries, dishwashing liquid, etc. The winterwear had to be segregated into hand and check-in luggages. Everything had to also be repacked to fit it all compactly into 2 small and 2 medium luggages – that was the max that I felt we could haul and walk 700-800m from the railway stations to our accommodations. 

A month later, here I am, sitting and typing this, even as I am processing through all the wonderful memories made and also all the anxious moments dealt with. In retrospection, I realize that the trip itself was therapeutic, though the anxiety still persists. Life is but a mixed bag of feelings, emotions and experiences.           

There is something so very satisfying about being able to turn your thoughts into words. Oh and in times of crisis or confusions, it’s therapeutic too when you write it all down.

Talking about words, recently I started playing with my children some word unscrambling/forming game on the mobile and I can’t tell you how much I have been enjoying turning random letters into words.

Coming to the blog itself, the first thing that I did was to sort every single uncategorized post of mine into the correct categories. Everything had gotten marked as ‘uncategorized’ a few years back when I was migrating the site from one hosting provider to another and I never got around to completely recategorizing it all. It was a time consuming task to actually sort hundreds of posts. But it also helped me to reconnect with all that I enjoyed and also reminded me of some of my preferences and the reasoning behind some of my choices.

In this age where everything is considered to be aided by AI even if one puts in the time and effort to actually create something, I am yet to explore the AI aspect for designing templates for posts or managing the layout of the website. I continue to have a basic, old theme. This is where my next focus will be.

In this age of shorts and reels, the questions I ask myself is who will have the patience to read someone else’s thoughts & experiences when they can actually watch and hear others. Would you prefer to a watch a GRWM vlog or read a 500+ words post on my prep for a trip?

I also tell myself that this blog has continued to exist during the last decade despite no one reading it, only because I wanted my writings to exist in its own space.

Let’s see if I post here regularly or whether like the umpteen times I keep repeating here, this will also turn out to be a one-off post.

What starts off with some simple guitar chords and humming transitions to some poetic yet so simple words describing the longing of a man for his wife, sung with so much feel by A R Rahman! Those interludes between each stanza, the varied humming by chorus singers and ARR himself and, above all, that climax go on to make this one of the best songs which conveys so much feeling with and without words!

There was a time when I spent a good chunk of time reading books & watching videos on decluttering, organizing and minimalism. As the years passed, I realized that there was no way that I will ever be able to adopt minimalism as a way of life. Then came the time when I realized that decluttering too was becoming more & more difficult.

We, as a generation, are owning a lot of stuff. There is no longer only the saree or the salwar kameez than an Indian woman wears. You have the lehengas, the western formals, the workout attire, the loungewear and what not! Footwear too isn’t any simple. You have to own at least a pair of slippers, sandals & walking shoes. The gadgets with their endless tangled cables and all the digital media documenting every other moment of our lives are no longer easy to manage too.

You never really realize when your kids outgrow playing with their toys and you are suddenly left with all sorts of toys, board games, cycles, scooters and what not! The same goes with books too as the kids transition from cloth books to board books to fairy tales to Geronimo Stilton to Harry Potter.

As yet another new year has begun, I am still debating as to whether or not I should even take a resolution to make my home more organized.

Coming to the reason why I didn’t watch Thug Life, to begin with, I am not a big fan of Kamal Hassan’s movies & I didn’t want to watch the movie without checking out the initial reviews. The very storyline of the movie itself made me not want to watch it.

On the Carnatic music front, I went to just 2 concerts of Sanjay Subrahmanyan, 1 fusion-like concert of Sandeep Narayan and 1 Jannal Oram programme of Sikkil Gurucharan. While the concerts of Sanjay were top-notch as usual, his recent interest in singing ‘compositions’ of Sean Roldan and composing music of a film lyricist’s verses & singing them in Carnatic kutcheris isn’t really something of interest to me and that’s why I didn’t really prioritize attending Sanjay’s kutcheris over other plans during December in Madras.

I attended 4 fantastic lecture demonstrations on Dikshitar’s compositions in Music Academy during the Season and felt all my excitement for the Carnatic compositions rekindled yet again.

2025 was when I was in Madras during Navaratri after more than a decade and I absolutely enjoyed the Navaratri atmosphere of Madras replete with golu bommai shopping in Mylapore. Of course, I did slightly miss keeping my golu in Singapore.

2025 saw us doing a lot of travelling and exploring new places, just like the previous few years. We did a good mix of temple-hopping, seeing nature’s beautiful landscapes and admiring a lot of architectural marvels.

2025 too continued to see my kids’ interests expand beyond academics and I was juggling between accompanying them to their sports & arts pursuits.

2025 saw me struggling more than ever in fighting a losing battle over my kids’ screen time.

2025 continued to see LLMs & Agentic AI ease the life of a software engineer like never before & it makes those yesteryear days of coding totally outdated. Didn’t we all go through those woes of having to write lengthy lines of Java code on your own, compile it & run it only to see that you have missed out a semicolon in one line?!

2025 continued to see me struggle with my weight loss pursuits & I experimented with everything from all-millets diet to no-sugar diet. The good part is that I have finally incorporated a good mix of strength training, cardio & yoga into my daily routine.

2025 saw me cooking more of new millet-based recipes and not experimenting with anything else. I had already mastered cooking a variety of side dishes for chapathi and 3-4 recipes of sambhar and rasam. I continued to struggle to make an upma of the right consistency & taste.

2025 had its share of highs & lows. 2025 saw me struggling to let go. 2025 saw me having my own anxiety moments. 2025 saw me seeking inner peace. 2025 saw me prioritizing my fitness goals. 2025 had some very special happenings.

Passing on wishes to an exciting 2026!