Today is the final day of Kanda Sashti, the popular 6-day celebration of Lord Muruga in these parts. Here is a personal musical thread on His songs that I grew up (and continue to live) with🧵 Our kula deivam is Lord Muruga, so our household reverberates with Kanda Sashti Kavasam and Arunagirinathar songs every day. Needless o say, Sulamangalam Sisters' offerings were/are a cinch.

As Vinayagar Chathurthi fills the streets with Pillayar idols, one's mind drifts to Trichy, 1953, when EVR & his minions smashed Ganesha idols in public. A moment of bigotry that could’ve spiralled unchecked, if not for one unheralded man: S Veerabadran Chettiar.🧵(Pic: Internet) A 'devout Shaivite', Veerabadran took EVR's bigotry to court. Not once. Not twice. But four times, all the way to the Supreme Court. Despite personal threats, technical dismissals & pressure to withdraw, Veerabadran stood firm. His fight wasn’t just legal. It was civilizational.

Another🧵:
Ever since I wrote this

I have been receiving mails from people surprised that there is a KJ Yesudas Malayalam version of Raaja's show-stopping Ananda Ragam song from Panneer Pushpangal.swarajyamag.com/people/k-j-yes… Yes, the song in female voice in Tamil is a male one in Malayalam. Listen to it. Tharunya Moham. Vintage Yesudas voice. You know why it was changed in Malayalam

K J Yesudas and Kalyani ragam, a love story🧵 I was recently at a concert where a top singer (not going to name the one) rendered a Kalyani ragam krithi that was flat without much spirit. Mortified, I came back and listened to the same ragam by my most favourite singer K J Yesudas.

In praise of the humble podi idli. A thread: These days almost all the standard restaurants in major cities in TN have podi idli on their menu. And that, sirs, can be a problem. For, podi idli, if it's true to its conception, does not belong in a hotel menu.

Many people tend to remember actors, who have not been big stars, through the songs that were picturised on them. If there were even half-decent songs on the actor, there is a good chance of him being recalled even more fondly. In that sense Pratap Pothen was lucky. Aside from iconic ones in Tamil like En Iniya Pon Nilave (Moodu Pani) and Kodai Kaala Kaatre (Panneer Pushpangal), he was lucky enough to get some handy melodies and fun songs. A small thread on them.

The death of well-known industrialist N Sankar yesterday is an apt occasion to talk of one small geographical belt that has thrown up pioneering entrepreneurs from TN: Kallidaikurichi. From this quaint town in Tirunelveli district and nearby areas have hailed some top industrialists. The most well known is, of course, S N N Sankaralinga Iyer, the founder of Sanmar and India Cements group, and the grandfather of N Sankar.

Over the last two days we saw Rahul Gandhi's rousing speech in Parliament and his rhetorical taunt that BJP would never win in TN. In the State, the NEET Bill is stuck. There's an invisible thread connecting the two events. So a 🧵 First up, Rahul is indeed right and India is a Union of States. While the BJP is making it worse, the federal spirit was originally dealt a body blow by his grandmother Indira Gandhi, as she felt slighted by, well, TN.

Today being Cho's birth anniversary a small but interesting anecdote to his film Muhammad bin Tughluq. As a stage drama, it had triggered a lot of ire from the DMK men. And after its success when it was announced as a film, they were even more upset. 1/n And so they went about creating troubles for the film. Actors and technicians were threatened. But still the film shoot progressed due to Cho's pluck. The film shoot had ended when the DMK floated a rumour that by satirizing a sultan the film was mocking the Muslim community 2/n

K J Yesudas can be likened to Dravid (that these two gentlemen have their b'days just a day apart may be just a coincidence. Or may be not) while SPB can be said to be the Tendulkar of film singing, the bigger legend in most reckoning.
But for some, Dravid is the real thing. For me, growing up in the late 70s & 80s -- peak years of Yesudas -- his impact was particularly resonant. It was because of him that many of us like me, then impressionable youngsters, got hooked on to Carnatic music. His contribution to Carnatic music goes beyond mere singing.

Was at a small temple today. As is the case these days, only limited crowd. A discourse was being aired and heard through the speakers inside. At one point, the voice said that he knew persons who, despite wearing masks and adhering to prescribed protocols, were infected by Covid-19. He added that he also knew persons who are still unaffected, in spite of being brazen about not following health rules of the times.

Another small thread on SPB songs mostly from the 70s. But all under music directors other than MSV and Ilaiyaraaja, just to showcase the point SPB's voice was found most versatile by all music directors. We start with the obvious, and one of Tamil cinema's all-time classic, Nanda En Nila from the eponymous film. Legendary Dakshinamoorthy's masterpiece. You may classify it as Dharmavathi or Madhuvanthi. Heck, either way, it's too good.

A small thread on SPB songs under the baton of music director V Kumar. It is well known that SPB primarily shaped himself under the remarkable MSV & became a legend while singing for the peerless Raaja. But the beauty of SPB voice is that all music directors had to almost willy-nilly use him. And he had sung memorable songs under almost all of them.

The issue of their discussion of irrelevant here.
But the specific use of the word 'mami' is decidedly casteist here. But in the skewed politics of TN the one is who is referred to as mami will be branded as casteist. And also those folks, who wear their wokeness on their sleeves should remember, the Dravidian types will eventually come for you and your caste. No matter what! Exhibit B:

A brilliant song in the film Athma. I had long wondered why Ilaiyaraaja had TN Seshagopalan sing this, and not, say, KJ Yesudas, who was the go-to singer for such type of numbers at that time.
The song, of course, is set to the rare ragam Gowda Malhar.
This ragam is widely credited to have been conceived by Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar. He well and truly belongs to the pantheon of greats in Carnatic music.
And his well known disciple was Ramanathapuram Sankara Sivam, who in turn was the guru of, well, TN Seshagopalan.

It's on a day like this you get upset with the Indian media.
Mathematician C S Seshadri passed away last night. The most casually used word 'genius' deserves to sit alongside his name. He well and truly belongs to the Indian mathematical lineage of Ramanujan. As his primary subject was algebraic geometry --- one that is beyond the ken of us ordinary people --- his greatness cannot be truly understood by many of us.

K Balachander's 90th birth anniversary today is a good occasion to talk a bit about why his cinematic association with Kamal Haasan is special and interesting. A thread based on just 3 small scenes from their last movie together. My own formative years were in the late 70s and the 80s --- the period that the duo's partnership mostly covered. And they had an important hand in shaping the cinematic sensibilities of many like me in these parts in that era.

One thing I have noticed as a journo is, it doesn't take much to hoodwink the Indian media. Most edit rooms don't have specialists. In these times of layoffs and understaffed newsrooms, it looks like it's easier to pull the wool over media's eyes. A thread: The last two days news outlets have been carrying a report about a Pune-based startup about to launch a constellation of 35 satellites to help in 5G transmission in India. ToI, Businessline, The Asian Age, Business Standard, ET, among others, have all reported it.

A cheesy, self-indulgent thread.

There was Bharatha Vilas film on TV this evening. As a movie, it is typically 70ish --- high on sentiments and emotions.
But the film has a special place in my heart as it harks to my childhood days in a house in Madurai Now, this was a rental place, and it had 7 houses in it. Four houses in front --- two over two. And at the back, there was a single- storeyed row of three houses.
As coincidence would have it, at the front, in two houses atop each other, 2 Hindu families (one was mine) resided.

Trivias from history never cease to amaze you. During the last season of controversy in TN over EVR followers breaking idols of Hindu Gods in the past, I chanced upon, in a piece of writing, the name Shanmugam. 1/n He apparently was a strong follower of EVR and had participated in Pillaiyaar idol breaking events that the DK had organised then.
This is his pic with EVR sourced from an old DD programme. 2/n

Was researching and reading up for a piece on Tamil film music when I found an interesting bit of info.
The year was 1971.
The 'TVS Productions' was making a film named 'Uyir'. It had Muthuraman, Sarojadevi, Lakshmi, Balaji, Nagesh, among others, in the cast.
1/n The producer & director had fixed a new music director for the film and tentatively okayed his tunes. And they arranged for the film's puja & song recording. The day before the recording the young music director had gone to a temple as he had got a good break in the industry 2/n.