[Raja thread] 'Voice of Raja' : Today I want to play some songs in the voice of Raja - solo and duets - of recent vintage. I know a lot of people are not fans of Raja's voice but I think when it comes to singing his own songs, there is better singer than him. And contrary to what people may believe, there is a huge fan base for Raja's voice. Raja has sung a lot of songs and we will be concentrating on the songs he has sung in the last decade.

Was in Trivandrum for a few days this week on a short vacation. The city as such has more the Mysore / Mangalore vibe than a big city vibe. So it is very easy to like the city. Visited Padmanabha Swamy temple, Aatukal Bhagavathy, Aazhimalai Siva and Parasurama temple in Trivandrum. Then headed to Kanyakumari for a day. Kanyakumari is a proper tourist destination. A lot of crowd throughout the day.

What a lazy elegance this 'Happi' album is. Both the women singers (Sunidhi and Anchal Datta) acing it superbly. Superb singing. The album reminds me of the two superb songs that Raja gave for 'Kathalo Rajakumari'. The next stop will be those songs. (Whenever I stop looping this.)

The soundtrack of the movie, 'Happi'. A very different Raja here. Loving it. @_0sagi @arulselvan @BChidam hear this soundtrack. Especially 'Barishen'. Such lazy elegance. The singer, Anchal Dutta Bhatia, (never heard of her) has done a lovely job.

[Raja 90s thread - Part 2] Last week I did the Raja 90s thread and as there were lot of songs that I couldn't play, I had said I would do a Part 2 soon. Here I am keeping that promise to you :)

https://twitter.com/Raaga_Suresh/status/1612134221845520385

We start the thread with this song that reflects what is in our hearts all the time. From Pandi Naatu Thangam.

[Raja songs thread] Long time since I did a Raja thread. So we will do some wonderful songs from the 90s. We start with this beauty from 'Pandi Natu Thangam' 'siru kootula ulla kuyilukku' Next up, a wonderful 'thenral katre' from 'Adharmam'. the folk song in first interlude is top class.

Got back to Bangalore yesterday after spending more than week in Chennai for the season. As with every season, this one was also a mixed bag. As usual, attended many lec dems. The best ones were Rama Ravi's lec dem on Subbaraya Sastry in the Music Academy. Malladi Brothers lec dem on lines for neraval in Tyagaraja krithis was another lovely lec dem as was Pantula Rama and MSN Murthy's lec Dikshitar's raga handling.

[Music thread] Playing some of favorite rock and country melodies. Do follow if you like those genres. I start with this wonderful Allman Brothers song. 'Ramblin Man'

If you are looking for a short drive out of Bangalore, and don't mind temple visits, Magadi is the place to go. Around 40kms from the ring road junction and there are two wonderful temples there: Ranganatha Swamy and Someswara. Both temples are ancient ones. They serve food at both temples, in case you want to be around lunch times. (Ranganatha Swamy on all days and Someswara temple on the weekends)

My friend @kanapraba has done lot of interviews with various musicians and this program on music director Dakshinamurthy Swamy is a gem. He has got Swami's daughter, Mrs.Gomathi and music enthusiast Mr.Saravanan to talk about Swami. The both trace his journey from his first film to the last going through some of his iconic songs. The focus is slightly more on Tamil songs but there are lot of Malayalam songs in this as well.

[Music thread] Some famous Malayalam songs and their covers. I am always fascinated by the covers produced by Malayalam artists. They garner a lakh to a million views sometimes and many of them are very well produced. So a short thread on some such covers. We start with the lovely Sahana based, 'chendar mizhi' from 'Perumazhakalam'

On the World Book Day one author I miss the most is the Tamil author Payon. A decade back he was in full form and was the toast of Twitter. An excellent writer with a great sense of humor Tamil writing has now become too bombastic and serious. Everyone talks about 'aram' and 'darshanam' and so on. No popular humorists around. Sujatha was probably the last popular writer who had a great sense of humor

[One more book thread] Sometime back, on the occasion of world book day, I tweeted some recommendations on books by Indian authors. Now I will tweet about some books by foreign authors. 'Honorable Schoolboy' by John Le Carre. That no one wrote spy fiction like LeCarre is a given. The Karla Trilogy is the pinnacle of his career. The trilogy consists of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', 'Honorable Schoolboy' and 'Smiley's People'.

[Book Recommendation Thread] Today is World Book Day. Thought I will recommend some Indian author books in this thread. (I have one such thread long back but it is still worth it :) ) 1. Pather Panchali (Bibuthi Bhushan Banerjee) Penguin has a good translation of this book by Rimi. It is difficult to find a better book than this on childhood. It also wonderfully portrays those times.

Read and heard too much hate for Raja today. Only way to get out of it is to listen to his, which I am doing now. 'poove sempoove' 'amritamay abhayamai'

[Music Thread] Some free time on my hands now. This being Ramanavami day, listening to some bhajans. (Not necessarily on Rama). If you want, follow along. Starting with this wonderful Kabir bhajan by Kishori Amonkar. 'ghat ghat pe panchi boltha'

[Raja music thread] Today the topic is going to be 'Raja - Andrum Inrum'. For those who don't know Tamil, this translates to 'Raja - then and now'. Before I begin, there will be a long preamble. So bear with me. (I will probably convert this thread into a blog post later) As you all know, Raja was the most sought-after music director for two decades, starting from 1976 to till around 1996. The demand for his music started declining after this.

Lata Mangeshkar, one of the greatest personalities in Indian music, has expired. This is a small thread about her. This is not a thread of her songs but about her. We will do a song thread later 1/n When Lata entered the field, it was dominated by 'strong' feminine voices. Kurshid, Noor Jahan, and Shamshad Begum were popular at that time as were singers like Rajkumari. 2/n

[Old Hindi Film Melodies] Felt like playing some of my favorite old Hindi melodies. No logic in the selection. Completely random. Follow along if you want to listen to some melodious numbers I start with an Anil Biswas number. Sung by a young Lata. From the year 1949. From the movie Jeet.

[Music Thread] A few of my favorite Hindi songs which are based on Hindustani ragas. Some of the ragas are close to Carnatic music and so I can identify immediately. For some others, I use this website : chandrakantha.com/raga_raag/film… 'kuch aur zamana kehta hai' from 'Choti Choti Batein'. Music of Anilda. Sung by Meena Kapoor. Based on the raga Gaud Sarang.

[Raja Music Thread - Tribute to Puru] Puru, short form for Purushottaman, was a conductor and drummer with Raja. He was one of the people who was very close to Raja, having worked with Raja even before Annakili times He and his guitarist brother, Chandrashekar, started playing for Raja when he turned music director with Annakili. Chandrashekar is the guitar player for the famous 'Illaya Nila' song. He later went on his own