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!
