I have autographs from three great singers so far: Ms Aruna Sairam, Mr T.N Seshagopalan and Ms Lakshmi Shankar! While the first one I got from a concert I attended back in Chennai at Bharat Kalachar during my last India trip, I got the latter two from concerts I attended on Friday and Saturday respectively last week in UW.
Obviously I remember the latest two concerts a whole lot better, although I still have not forgotten my experience listening to Shubha Pantuvarali by Ms Aruna Sairam. It was a celestial experience.
Madurai Seshagopalan has an unbelievable vocal range. His Aalaapanai of Raga Lalita was perfect in the balance of feel and technicality. The bass parts were especially moving as they completely brought out the meditative and spiritual nature of the raga.
During the break in this concert, some women in the restroom were confused between Raga Lalita and Raga Vasanta. When I tried to recollect Vasanta, I thought the only difference was that you go "S M G M" in it and "S R G M" in Lalita. I was cracking my brains about how the moods of the two ragas are so starkly different. I just found out that they are quite, quite different, essentially because of the D.
Lalita:
S R1 G3 M1 D1 N3 S
S N3 D1 M1 G3 R1 S
Vasanta:
S M1 G3 M1 D2 N3 S
S N3 D2 M1 G3 R1 S
This only goes to say that I need to revive my memory and do my Riyaaz more. To make things worse, the internet seems to have some incorrect information that confuses you. The first website had *G2 (and D1) for Lalita and the second one had *D2 (and G3), which completely confused me and led me light years away from Lalita. My ears were so tainted by my own incorrect humming that I had to search for an audio track to listen to Lalita and figure out the correct notes. I hope the above is accurate. If not, please leave a comment. (In the above I am assuming that G3 and D1 are the G and D that appear in MayaMaLavaGowLa). It made sense to me since Lalita's janya raga is MayaMaLavaGowLa. One thing I was surprised about was that somewhere on the web I read that Lalita is a night raga. The feel of this raga is so much like that of a morning raga, and so much like MayaMaLavaGowla, which is its mother raga and a morning raga. Is Lalita really considered to be a night raga?
Ms Lakshmi Shankar was awe inspiring. It was impossible to hear any strain in her voice due to her age. My favorite piece in the concert was her very first one, which was a Khayal in the lovely Bihag, a raag close to my heart. Her Khayal in Keervani was also wonderful.
I was fortunate to get to meet her backstage even if for just a few moments and touch her feet. If only I could touch the crescendo of a feeling through some art form... I'd feel liberated!
