March Madness...

It was different type of March madness for me – like a basketball bouncing between hoops, I was shuttling between events from one city to another.

Mar 6th -Tampa Malayalee Association celebrated their inaugural function and I was invited to perform with Biju Narayanan who flew in all the way from India just for this program. ASIANET, the Malayalam channel , covered this event which was colorful and well organized . Got to catch up with Biju who is a family friend and who I have grown up with since my childhood.

Mar 20th- Rock Island Telugu Association celebrated Ugadi, on Mar 20th- the name of the town may sound like it is off an island by the sea- It actually is a suburban town a few hours from Chicago,Illinois. Harnadha Raju and I had a great time performing for this crowd. Great sound system and a great audience vindicated my belief that small towns are great places to derive artistic satisfaction.

Mar 27th-Bharathi Kalai Mandram Houston celebrated their 30th anniversary at the Meenakshi Temple auditorium in Houston. This is probably my fifth performance at Houston and like the previous ones, C.S.Ainkaran led the efforts and with his impeccable organizational zeal and attention to minute details, this concert was very well received by the audience and organizers. It also reinforced my belief that all my concerts in a temple auditorium are hugely successful.

Jab/Feb 2010

January is festival time for Indian Associations- Pongal /Sankranthi programs are usually the first of the events for the New Year. Tennessee Tamil Sangam celebrated Pongal on Feb 6th at Nashville- the seat of country music. Under the stewardship of Ainkaran, this turned out to be an amazing roller coaster- with a great turnout and response bundled with some great performances. The energy and enthusiasm of the Tennessee Tamil Sangam committee members was very infective and the hard work and toil of the team certainly paid off.

Harrisburg Telugu Association celebrated Sankranthi on Jan 23rd. Baba Sontanya ,the President indeed did display his organizational skills with a unique style of putting together a variety entertainment. It would not be surprising to see him play a key role at TANA, ATA or NATS :).

Happy New Year - 2010 !

Like a candle that flares up before dying, December was a slew of unexpected musical events before 2009 faded out into 2010…

NEMA- New England Malayalee Association (http://www.nemausa.org/) under the stewardship of Ms Rema Nair celebrated Christmas on Dec 19th at Boston. The event had skits, dance and music and the performances were of high quality. This was one of the really well organized events I have been part of the recent past-Kudos to Rema and team!

When I returned home after the Chicago concert, there were a couple of voice messages from none other than M.G.Sreekumar, the Malayalam playback singer- He had completed 25 years in the music industry and Florida Malayalee Assoication was felicitating him and he invited me to the event and the concert that would follow. I first met MG in Houston(thanks to Vincent) almost 6 years ago but it was during the Europe tour that my relationship with Lekha(his wfe) and MG was reinforced. At that time, I was wary of celebrity singers from India and expected a similar experience but MG and Lekha turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. It was great catching up with them in Florida.

There is another person who made a lasting impact on me in 2009. It was my ambition to be able to read and write in Telugu. I made some attempts with the Teach yourself series without much success. During the Telugu Maazza cruise event, I met Kallakuri Lakshmi Rao garu from Cincinnati, very accomplished in Telugu literature and education who agreed to help me out with my 2009 resolution. Her methods were truly amazing- she did not follow the traditional methods and had a very unique method of imparting the skill and did it work ! In one month I was able to read through articles and write the song list and lyrics. Lakshmi garu, I will forever be indebted to you!

For more photos please click
http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091228FloridaMg?authkey=Gv1sRgCPfQh5KhgaWTuAE#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091221Boston?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWcloCY39-7rAE#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091213?authkey=Gv1sRgCNSn-d6X5N_z6QE#