Keepers’ day out!

Sri Lanka tried to prove why they were second in the ICC one day rankings. Sangakara started the proceedings and went on to score a ton, he carried the bat thorough the innings and was unbeaten on 138. Lanka set a target of 299 for India.

Seriously, with an in form batting line up, I believed we would chase and reach the target though with some struggle. However I never guessed even in my dreams, [yes it was about 2.00am] that India would do this in the fashion Dhoni played.

When Sachin was out cheaply, I was wondering, Pathan would show up however Dravid made one more surprise! Move - Desi “Dhil” Christ aka Donni was promoted to number three. He took about 40 balls to reach half century. It was his day; he went on to score the highest score by a wicket keeper. India won, Dhooni remained 183 Not out, the ball was sent out of the oval about 15 times via FedEx Ground and about 10 times via FedEx Air. The 10th trip did not bring the ball back, the game was over. Frankly I wish Sri Lanka had scored 20 more runs, Dhoni would have got his double hundred. In the later part of the innings, Dhoni was suffering from cramps, Viru ran for him. Cricinfo commentators were discussing about this innings with full excitement. It must have been “One heck of an innings [Thanks Madden] to watch.

Indians have won 3 games in a row; victories were achieved with command and class. For Lanka the only batsmen who seemed to have form was Sangakara, rest of the batsmen are really in poor form. Hope the team recovers and gives a fight in remaining one dayers.

Keepers’ day out: About 600 runs were made,of which 50% was scored by the wicketkeepers.

என் இனிய தீபாவளி நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்

Great going!

My Match Review: Sachin! Sachin! IrFan! IrFan! Rahul Rahul! Team India Team India. We trashed Sri Lanka.

What do cricketing fans or maniacs get from these 2 games? Did it indicate anything? These 2 games makes me raise questions about Mr. Ex-Captain, for past few seasons, as a captain did he really do anything for the team or he did not bother to care? or The leaked Chappel's email did lot of good for Indian cricket?

How come a team that was in sheer disaster suddenly starts to play high level Cricket? How come a team that often struggled to maintain some consistency managed to win 2 games with authenticity? May be I am too early to celebrate or come to a conclusion, same happened against Pakistan. We won 2 and lost the rest, however this time I feel games against Sri Lanka a clear message is being sent by the new captain Dravid and the Coach. They are serious and care only about “Indian Cricket”. Few lucky Friends of mine who has Direct TV connection tells me that Indian fielding was at its best.

Various media outlets have been speculating Mohali dew conditions for past 2 days, true, during this time of the year D/N games are a mess. Like many, I was also assuming “captain who wins the toss” would bat and put a high score. Under such conditions batting first had better chance of wining.

However Dravid just did the opposite! And his decision was right on the money. In form Irfan Pathan did the magic from the word go; among Indian fast bowlers Javagal Srinath knows the knack of getting Jayasuriya out early, Jayasuriya often slashes over 3rd man, with proper line and length Srinath would often exploit this weakness, Dravid/Pathan & Co did the same, plan worked again. Probably India saved lot of runs by getting him out in the earlier overs. Pathan also got rid of Sangakara, a terrific player. I was half sleep when this happened, suddenly the commentator screamed in excitement, Dilshan was out the next ball. Sri Lankan under their new “Australian coach”, submerged deep into waters and never recovered. Pathan finished 4 for 37 runs.

Sachin in pumped up “form” and Sehwag on cards for a big score, 123 seemed too small. But knowing Indian cricket and its greatness for long now, I did have a fear. Usually in low scoring games, the game is wide open. "Wait till the fat lady sings" 2 or 3 quick wickets, Murali would eat the cake in full. And of course Indians have lost games in this fashion very many times in the past. But “Sachin” went onto score his next Fifty and more - saw “INDIA WIN THE GAME”.I hope Dravid and his men continue their aggression.

Ps: It is about time for Sachin haters to go on a long term hibernation, Alaska would be the best spot, you might have to share it with the Polar Bears or Gangully who was reported to be seen - walking on a glacier.

Sachin Inspires!

I was annoyed yesterday for not getting the game on the Dish Network. It was being shown live on Direct TV, The only person who has direct TV in my circle was my friend Vatsa, his VCR is broken! My “pulambal” reached red alert level , hence called Dish network! None had a clue. The automatic message recommended a WWF game for $45.99 instead. The only way was to get Direct TV in my home.

However as of 8.39am today, I don’t intended to get one more Dish on my roof top. Dish network though boasts about their so called “great” digital service, in reality they don’t really care about cricket, in fact about anything. They just need you to sign up for a year and keep their coffers filled very month.

The above lines are leftovers from yesterday’s pulambal’s.

Willow TV shows it on the internet for a price of $129.00; if you ask me, frankly I don’t trust my DSL connection; I feel it cannot take the load. Hence I went back to good olden days of listening to cricket commentary, Thanks to Cricinfo.org, I subscribed to their enthusiastic commentary.

Match result - India won! good start for the season, the new captain and Mr. Grumpy coach; To me I was very happy to see “my man” shine bright, from his long medical leave Sachin came back with a big bang, he sent SMS , emails, snail mail , “pura” messages to his “beloved” critics. He also sent a truck load “prasadams” to his life time devotees like me.

I had been stating this for long enough to all my friends, [most would kick me if I do it again];

Regardless of his form Sachin’s presence in the team is always a booster to the team in general.

This match once again proved my “Jalraculor” or “ChingChakular” statement; without him we know how pathetic our team played in earlier tours this year. The start he gave ensured and inspired even the patient Rahul Dravid to play aggressive cricket. Dravid played a captain’s knock of 85 in about 64 balls. This includes a six! & 8 fours; by this innings Dravid also sent messages to his critics, [yes! #include “Sriks.h”]

A pleasant surprise was IrFan Pathan, he scored 80+ and even over took the little master; he slammed 4 massive sixes as per the commentators it was something not to be missed, however as a dish network subscriber, my fate I missed a great batting display. Damn Dish Network and damn NIMBUS! And boo to BCCI;

Nagpur is known for high scores, 350 was little more than I expected. Harbajan, whose selection was also questioned, claimed 3 wickets. India won by 152 runs, a good start for the season. If I am right, this the 9th time Sachin gets out at 90’s; if he had made them all, 47 would be the magic number!...oh there I go! AGAIN Singing Sachin Praise.! Hey! What else you expect in this Blog;

T-18 the India/ Sri Lanka series

It is about T-18 for the start of the India/ Sri Lanka series; until this minute I do not know which TV is going to carry it live here in the United States. Dish network has no news, while Direct TV when I checked it last time did not have any information. I am sure some websites will carry it live; I don’t prefer to watch the game on a 19inch monitor ½ asleep.

Cricket telecast rights is the main source of revenue for the BCCI, it is some what a similar to duck that lays golden egg for the BCCI. However BCCI due to its unprofessional outfit is all set to kill this duck. I would have spent about $1500-$2000 at least for cricket till date, and it is matter of time before I stop caring to watch this live. Why can’t BCCI get their act together and make sure every crazy fan like me out there gets it live at an affordable cost? If Dish network carries it, I know they would charge a nose bleeding bundle amount. Let me keep my fingers crossed.

There were various unfair questions on Sachin’s selection for last few weeks. When it comes to Sachin, even his sick leave is treated to retirement, a pity. Here is guy who plays for the country right from 16 years and he has been playing long enough to get into some kind medical conditions. Many have forgotten this, just before Sachin went on his sick leave, he had scored a brilliant century against Pakistan.

And more over “Team India” did not do big without him also; they lost at every outing at regular intervals, in spite of juggling the captains, replacing the coach, fiddling with the batting order, replacing the straps in the pad, changing inner gloves color, adding one more helmet or change the red color of holy “kunkum” used by Gangully & Co to blue. Mmm What ever! Nothing worked till date;

Sachin being in the team is vital for others to perform well. This fact needs to be accepted! Dravid has clearly stated that he is very happy and pumped up on Sachin’s return. Indian team has to pick up their momentum and prove the fact that they are not “mere local heroes”. Greg Chappel has to do something better, else it is not only Sri Lanka who would win, his pal Gangully would come out with flying colors.

Finally,
OPEN the charity organization which recently featured “Rasika” the music band out of Virginia have released a 2 set DVD that contains edited portions from the show, this can be got for a donation of $10.00 + Shipping. Please contact Kumar Thiagrajan (kumart@interamerica.com) or Chox Solaiappan (schocku@yahoo.com) to order your copies. I will try to get an audio clip from the show and upload it in my Blog soon.

H1Bee News

My interview and an article Written by Subha J. Rao appeared on "The Hindu", dated Oct 20th 2005.

Few days ago, I spoke with Neki Bedi – [BBC ASIA NETWORK] on her show called "The Drive", went live at around 4.25GMT. BBC also carried an article about the album on their technologies section. Thanks to Clarke Boyd, BBC and Subha J Rao of the Hindu to covering about this album. Clarke Boyd also did a news clip on his very popular pod cast show and which was also aired on National public Radio.

Yadayada.....

During the recently concluded the super one day series, ICC was boasting about experimenting technology for umpiring decisions. Field Umpires, if their regular pair of eyes fails to judge a decision would refer it to the third eye. This includes LBW, catches and every other decision. However in spite of 3rd eye, 4th eye and the 5th camera eyes, Ricky Ponting was trapped plumb by Ntini, other than the spectators, every other “ICC appointed” eye right royally missed it.

Most Umpires would not refer too much to the third umpire because if they start doing so for every decision, they would be mere coat hangers and a ball counter. ICC instead of wasting time on these worthless tactics, they could create measures to maintain a high level of umpiring competency and consistency. These are called “innovations” agreed but it becomes good only if they are used properly. It is like spending tons of money on an automatic motorized twin spinning damn tooth brush when you have 2 hands well intact and working to its full potential.

Murali will be playing in SCG, I think after about a decade or so. His stopped bowling in Australia after Mr. Hair called NO BALL for chucking. ICC has cleared Murali which means Mr. Hair was wrong in his initial judgment. Darrel Hair was never warned for ruling such a haste decision. However he is an Aussie hence ICC has a higher threshold for players and umpires from certain countries.

For past 2 days Media has been speculating Dravid to lead India for the Sri Lankan series. But BCCI has called it a ridiculous rumor. However the “BJ’s” are meeting in few days, they could have waited for Gangully to recover and met later this month. Looks like the speculation will come true. Sachin is back playing first class games, however he did not get any runs. Chappel has welcomed his return. Everyone wants him perform to stay in the race.

Head Line News, a news network channel run by India today/AAj Tak is now available live from India on Dish network. One week free promotional transmission is on now. The News casts are professional and as good as any news channel here. Live news! not a delayed news recording as show on Sun TV.

I watched an unbiased coverage on Headline news about the sad monster earthquake that has rattled Pakistan and parts of India. It was heart breaking and I could not take it further. When it comes to nature, human is no where. Most people who suffered this calamity were already under the poverty line had nothing for them. It is sad to see Nature being cruel to such people; it simply seized their only asset, “family and loved ones”. Hope relief efforts gets the survivors some peace of mind. More than that, at least now their government should take serious steps to protect people by enforcing rules and regulation for construction in these volatile seismic zones.

Finally, Last VijayaDasmi I officially inaugurated the recordings for H1BEES album in my studio, it is now 1 year since and I am happy to see its progress. Last week the album was featured on NPR/BBC. And many of my friends have heard it and took time to call me, thanks guys.

Game Day Super Series Aus vs Rest of the world

ICC’s dream cricket - The Super series kicked off yesterday. Dish network had scheduled a 11.30pm start, however maintaining “their tradition” the actual telecast started only at 12.00 midnight. For 30 painstaking delayed minutes it was Kenny’ G sax! Music “Good Lord”

This game was played at the Telstra Dome, a gorgeous indoor stadium that has a floating roof and a capacity of 40,000 seats for Cricket. The capacity can be increased based on the event; it seems for a rock show they can hold up to 70,000. However the sad part was it was not even filled to its 25% capacity. Given the prelude and the hype for this game, it was a big let down by the locals. May be most preferred to go to work; but in the thin crowed I did spot Indians with giant size flags. “சங்கு சுட்டாலும் வெண்மை தரும்”

The rest of the world 11 [+ 1 super sub] line up was star studded. The Shaun Pollock was captain for the one day squad. The squad: Sehwag, Sangakkara, Kallis, Lara, Pietersen, Dravid, Flintoff, Pollock, Vettori, Muralitharan and Akhtar. Afridi was the super sub. There was a buzz in the commentary box about Andrew Flitoff. Australia had the same side except 2 new faces. Pointing won the toss and elected to bat. Dean Jones and Sunil Gavasker presented both the teams with the official cap.

I felt this through out the game. Over all the captaincy [World team] was kind of not up to the mark for the world 11. I don’t want blame Shaun Pollock right away. It is very hard to deal the chemistry of such a powerful lineup. However the basics never change, he should have got the spinners little bit earlier. Instead he continued the power play and went on with Flintoff. Flintoff was mediocre and his line & length was questionable. Gilly happily singing “apidi pOdu pOdu” whacked him around the Dome. Flint off sucked to the core. Who knows for his poor performance he would not hesitate to blame Pollock however we need to wait for his next book to know about it. Katich managed to score runs but was fragile all through. Finally Kallis got rid of Gilly.

Pointing walked in for a “Kathak Batting Fusion”. His major weakness of “shuffling” was once again exposed. If Gangu dada’s weakness is short ball, Pointing has the weakness to shuffle more than a Vegas poker dealer. Ball hit his pads more than Sangakkara’s gloves. Finally he was pinned down by the Pollock and Kallis, he lost his patience and lifted one to the roof, Lara took a great catch and the dance show thus came to an end. Martin walked in and supplied some food materials for the supper break. He was out for a Duck. In spite of good bowling by Pollock Vettori and Murali, Aussies managed to score 250.

The rest of game for rest of the world was totally out of sync. I felt like watching India playing. Other than Sangakkara no one played to their potential. At the end the powerful star studded team lost the game by 100 runs. Jack “the stubborn” Kallis took the day off. Our own “Dharmer” Dravid was out in an odd fashion while Lambasting Lara was careless. Pietersen hyped resume did not do any good, he was out LBW. Poor Afridi did not have Agarkar or Zahir to hook on to; he was out in no time. Flintoff tried to get some runs however unfortunately for him this is not England where anything over the inner circle is 6-G [granted]. This is Australia where the oval is real and he has to cover more square feet to get the maximum. He will get right sooner or later.

The world 12 fielding was also not up to the standard. Sanjay “the perfect” Majeraker mentioned that the world team did not have great fielders in the squad. This made sense. As mentioned earlier I also felt captain’s attitude makes the difference in the team constitution. I hardly saw any body language from Pollock. The guys were playing because they were asked to play. The whole squad lacked the spirit to perform. Pollock also cannot do much, given their merits it is hard for him to scream at a world class player.

Bottom line, McGrath and Lee were the main force that won the game for the Aussies. Their batting is still fragile. This victory will boost Aussie confidence and can also increase their ego levels. We need to wait and watch the second game; I hope the world team will have its chemistry in place. For now Aussies are one up.

GOLU 2005 by Jayashree Srikanth and Sriya Srikanth

Stage 1: The steps are set. The concrete stones are placed near the base in order to raise the PKL to 2000LBS. [PKL=Playful Kids Load]


Stage 2: The rough looking Steps are given a clean set of dress. Carpet is protected with papers. The left and right will feature miniatures city /village and a music hall.


Stage 3: The steps are being filled.


Stage 4: Three zones are almost ready


Stage 5: Let there be Light


Stage 6: let there be some more light

Miniature Town Ship

(Aerial view)

Miniature Stage

The Weekend

After about 2 months, this was the first weekend I spent at home. However 70% of the weekend was spent on helping my wife and my daughter in setting up their Golu 2005. They have 7 steps and 2 miniature townships built. They had got various miniature city and village props from Chennai. Golu 2005 officially kicks of tonight. I will upload some pictures once the full setup is done.

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Flintoff's "Alley Sonata" [சந்துல சிந்து] came to an official end when Paul Russel, Chief of the Glamorgan county team for which Ganguly played this season categorically stated that “Ganguly is an outstanding professional who settled into the team and worked hard on and off the field”. He also adds that Gangully always came to team practice in time and did whatever he was told to do so. He expressed surprise about Flintoff's critical remarks in his autobiography. In fact, the team has the opposite image of Ganguly of what Flintoff has written. Bottom line, there was no hint of anything of what Flintoff has said. He was very friendly with the other team-members and used to often go out with them for dinner. I think Flintoff instead of using the current circumstance to sell his Book needs to get away from this cheap tactics and get a life.

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The World Series cricket starts this week, Dish Network will be is bringing it live here in the US. The charge will be around $65.00.

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Sachin recovered from his injury and announced that he is fit to play. He will be playing the Champion trophy. I happen to catch his interview on news broadcast. He was in his usual spirit. I wish he gets back into action quickly. Team India needs his services badly.

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Rest of the weekend went on watching the NFL. Vikings the team I support, sucked to the core and lost to Atlanta; however losers of the week award goes to Kansas City Chiefs. In fact today we a new addendum released for the meaning for the word Losers
Losers: One that fails to win: the losers of the game.
a. One who takes loss in a specified way: (a)A graceful loser; (b)A poor loser (c) The Kansas city Chief ‘s way.
Philly Eagles came back from an 18 point deficit to win the game. In 3rd quarter Chief was shutdown. Something similar to Indian cricket team where Sehwag and Sachin give a great start but the rest “rests in peace”,
Good day.

H1BEES News

Last week H1BEES the music album was featured on the Aaj Tak Hindi news channel, India. They featured the release function and my interview in their weekly program called “duniya”. The program was produced by Vidhushi Sinha of Voice of America/Aaj Tak.

Indian Express carried the Washington post article all over India.

TV Asia, USA featured the CD release in their community round up program. They covered the entire evening program along with my interview and interviews from others artists who worked with me in this album.

Urban India a magazine based out of NYC has a 2 page article on H1BEES.

Vatsa [Co-Producer] and I gave interviews to the NPR/BBC and few popular POD cast shows in the east coast. NPR Washington, DC had requested a copy of the CD; they might soon do a feature on the CD.

CDs available at:

www.h1bees.com

TamilOviam.com

DVD Unlimited Online

South Indian Specialties,Oak Tree Road, Edison, NJ 08820

DVD Unlimited Stores - 1734,Oak Tree Road,Edison, NJ 08820

BombayBazzar,NJ

Malabar Indian Mart, Gaithersburg, MD

Introducing The EyeWash...

The best remedy for Catch22 syndrome

"Side effects Warning"
1.Coach can be branded as a "fool" or a "liar"
2.Gloom feeling in the dressing room will continue
3.Poor and pathetic performance by Gangully will go unnoticed.
4.Team-India can be called as Scheme-India.
5. Distort the world cup dream

தேவுடா தேவுடா

The Chappell’s email that was leaked to the press has created some serious controversies for Indian Cricket. I am not supporting Gangully or the coach here because I am confused to take sides.

Excerpts from the Email
1. At no stage did I ask Mr Ganguly to step down from the captaincy of the Indian team. But my confusion reaches it heights when I read the following lines in the email

On the basis of this and other observations and comments from players in the squad about the unsettling effect Sourav was having on the group “I suggested to Sourav that he should consider stepping down from the captaincy” at the end of the tour in the interests of the team and in his own best interests. Don’t you feel these lines contradict his first line of the mail? So I am really confused to see the culprit.

“The next day I enquired with a number of the players as to what they had thought of Sourav's retirement” , People, why in the world a coach would worry about captain’s retirement and his provident fund balance? It is for the Board to worry right? Makes me feel Mr. Chappel over did his portfolio. Chappel also goes on further and trashes the former coach of the side. “John Wright obviously allowed this to go on to the detriment of the team. I am not prepared to sit back and allow this to continue or we will get the same results we have been seeing for some time now.” Here is new coach, who is yet to prove his capacity goes around asking about the captain to other players and comments on his predecessor performance. When Mr. Chappell walked in, did he not give a clean chit on Gangully &Co? What happened suddenly?

The dirt pot is stirred further now; BCCI officials have started to finger point each other. Mr. Dungarpur complains or may be revealed yesterday that John Wright stepped down as India's coach because of Ganguly and Mr. Dalmiya's high-handedness. Wright spoke to him in private it seems. Duh! Why in the hell Mr. Dungarpur did not call the press and reveal this before? If Mr Dungarpur’s intention was to improve Indian cricket, why was he waiting for a favorable position to score points? The team manager Mr. Chowdhary for his part has a little statement supporting Gangully. He claims points made by the coach on Gangully missing the net practice was incorrect. BCCI apart from this mind blowing issue, they have their own internal problem in picking their office bearers.

Today, after the strong email dose from the Coach, the world knows how the Indian Cricket team and its board work. This is totally pathetic, BCCI apart from themselves being a bunch of jokers now have paved way for the players and fans to be called as jokers.

"தேவுடா தேவுடா ஏழு மலை தேவுடா....
சூடுடா சூடுடா BCCI பக்கம் சூடுடா
எங்காளு உள்ளங்கள் தகர டப்பாக்கள்
நீ கொஞ்ஜம் பட்ட டிட்டடா..." [Repeatu]

The following segment is
sponsored by இதயம் நல் எண்னை,
Cycle Brand ஊது"வத்தீ..."

Ps:Kaif played well at number 3 position and was dropped; there are 2 major competitors for this position? If you know what I mean? “Which snake pit has what snake”, you never know.

Gangully a/c Dr - 2005 to Chappel A/c -2005(Being the Account Settled)

Greg Chappel comes out with a strong message through an email. It is speculated that he has written 6 pages about Gangully’s behavior, according to him Dada is not mentally or physically fit to lead India. Wow! that’s a bold statement for a brand new “foreign” Coach to make.

Some might claim Chappel makes sense, my question to them but why there weren’t any issues with the previous coach? There was no complaining or even sarcastic hints from John Wright till date about Gangully or the team. Team performance was much better during his tenure. The whole environment was healthy.

On the other hand the day Mr. Chappel stepped into the Indian side the team lost his focus and started to see only defeats. We lost in a sequence to every little team. There seems to be no harmony in the team, team selection seems to be haphazard. I feel going by past records, Gangully has been leading the side for quite some time and he did not have any issues with the magnitude Chappel complains. There were complains but were mostly by the media and from the commentators box, Australian media and their band wagon of commentators in particular.

The BCCI, whose quorum can be termed as the world’s most unprofessional bunch, is clue less in this issue till date. They are busy fighting amongst themselves to pick their head. They will soon face the contempt of the court. Yesterday their AGM went into a dead lock and was adjourned ignoring orders from the Calcutta High Court. The board election was postponed to the year 3205. So we cannot look for proper or sane explanation from these people.

I wish Sachin recovers and gets back into the team. If you see until Sachin was around, let us not worry he scored runs or not but others played much better to their potential just to match Sachin’s standards. Sachin was a catalyst in the team whose presence was vital in the team’s chemistry. This is what I feel.

Gangully might be going through a bad patch or his final cricketing days, I don’t care, having been selected as the captain by the BCCI [or the bunch of jokers], it was not appropriate for a coach to ask the captain to resign just before the game. This was not a prudent move by the coach. This can demoralize the entire team and will power the opponents.

Gangully on his side was also childish when he opened the can of worms about this incident to the press. Media seems to be against Gangully, his hundred in first test was termed as “painstaking century in the Bulawayo Test” where he took 240+ balls to score 101. In the next test Rahul Dravid scored a 98 in almost same number of balls. But media never cared.

Having opened the can of worms Gangully has to face the repercussions, while I don’t trust Mr. Chappel’s claims about Gangully. Chappel is merely settling accounts with the Indian captain for his recent outbursts to the media.

As of now Indian cricket is doomed.

Mixing a live Band - Part 2Meet the Vocalists

The orchestra can be accurate, perfect and very professional agreed, but every thing counts only if the singers rise to the occasion. Rasika is also blessed in this area. Apart from having a talented and dedicated orchestra, they have exceptional vocalist who carried the show well.

Priya Raman, this is the first time I am meeting Priya. She is a direct product from the 80’s and early 90’s era; Priya based out of NC, a senior member of the band gave a brilliant performance. Katril from “Johnny”, second song in the show was her highlight. She also sang perfectly my favourite song "pAratha nyabagam illaiyo" from pudiya paravai.

Raghu, Carnatic musician trained under TNS captured the audience with his vocal acrobatics. The song “oru naL poduma” was his highlight. Sapna Kartik, another senior member, “pAdava un pAdalai” was done remarkably well by her. I was surprised when she hit few lower notes while singing the famous “apidi podu” from Gilly, Tonality in her vocals was very unique and distinctive. Composer Srikanth has already taken a note.

Singing accurately is 40% of the task. Meaning basics are to be addressed first however 60% of the effort goes to the emotion, pronunciation, brightness or feel [what ever you call] the vocalists could produce. The next man I going to talk about is blessed with plenty of talent. As far as Rasika is concerned, Suresh Ramachandran is a new comer, however knowing him well I was not really surprised by the energy he got on the stage. Suresh can carry any song to a different height by his natural emotions and his stage presence. The show opener by him, devuda devuda clearly marked the beginning of a great show and indicated what is going to follow to the audience. His medley with other artists was real fun. The way Suresh and Priya sang “vanitha mani” from Vikram,man this was out of this world. This includes the opening dialogues. I would say this was the best song of the evening.

Kartik is a vocalist in the band, since Kartik is already suffering from heavy cold due to the intro I gave about him in the first part; I will let the album H1BEES do the talking about his singing ability.Prabodh, based out of Richmond, a naturally talented stage vocalist. He knows the knack to get the audience go along with him, though his Tamil pronunciations were questionable, he peeked well at the end.

The band had a new lady voice this year, Uma Ravishanker, her vocal range was quite high. When ever she went on higher octaves I had do some manual limiting. A great find for the band. Apart from the above Rasika had few part time singers Aswin, the mimicry guy and Guru.

Finally, I have to mention about the great “backing vocals” by Vatsa [Vatsa okva] . Vatsa was also the MC.

Mixing a Live Band…

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to sound engineer an excellent live music show in Chantilly VA. “Rasika” the east coast based Tamil music band gave their annual performance for the charity organization OPEN at Chantilly High school auditorium. It was a full house; the hall was filled with 500-600 people. It was a great team effort, I was really happy to be a part of the evening or as my friend Vocalist Suresh rightly pleaded to everyone to adopt him into the band. I think I would also do the same; these guys are fun to work with and have plenty of positive energy around them.

“Man of the match”, Kartik, yes the same Kartik who sang H1BEES title track.
Few have confused him with Play back singer Karthick in my album. The song I recorded with Play back singer Karthick was for a different album [Yes! one more big step].

If you ask me, Kartik is the first musician ever to play my compositions with full heart, soul and dedication. He made sure he got out all the nuances in my composition. The guitar solo in the 3rd section in track h1bees was played by him.
This was a great effort because the note placement in the track was more suited for a keyboard player and it is very hard for a guitar player to get the flow. But patience and practice paved the way, he did it right. He lives 60 miles from my house, still in spite of his very tight schedule, he had patience to drive down to the studio with his gadgets and do this for me. Thanks Q!

About 3 months ago, Kartik voted to get me on board into this wonderful band called Rasika, he requested me to join the fun and help them in sound modeling and engineering. Coming from a studio background, working on live mixes is a specialization on its own accord. Though I loved sound modeling and engineering I did think twice before saying yes.

I did not want to do a MIC testing 123 job, I wanted to give something extra in the mix. At the end of the day their efforts should not go waste because of my poor handling of sounds. But with Katik’s trust in me I thought I will do it. To live up to their standards I took the job with real seriousness. When working on live mix, unless the sound engineer knows the music, he/she cannot mix the parts in the right proportion. Something like cooking, if you do not know the ingredients and its proportion, the output will suffer.

Its my luck, 90% of the songs picked by the band were my favorites from the 80’s, I would quote my song 80s in Chennai “azagAna in isai isaigani thandida” So it was a matter of few hours for me to grove into this effort. In spite of my tight H1BEE schedule, I made sure I joined them in their rehearsal sections; took time to understand the chemistry behind the team.

The Band has 2 excellent keyboard players, Vilon Vidwan turned KeyB player Sundu and Mirudangam Vidwan Turned KeyB player Ajith [every weekend drove all the way from Richmond]. Both of them are very talented and played every little lead and counter points composed by Raja. They did not miss or mess anything from the original composition.

The guitar section consists Kartik [of course] Suresh, Pankaj and Sydney on Bass. Sydney pumped in breathtaking bass parts and was surprised when he told me that he has never heard some songs in the list. Suresh has a fantastic midi controlled electric guitar [Roland GTs], meaning he plays flute on his guitar, and he is a classical trained guitarists, even took lessons from my good friend Guitar Prasanna. Pankaj, he does not talk Tamil, but his guitar work was very honest. These 4 guys along with the Keys had worked for about 5 months almost every day to get the musical parts in place.

Drum and percussion: Das, - very skilled Drummer on a powerful Roland V drums kit. I have not worked with Das before, this was my first time, I enjoyed it, and Das being a senior musician was very patient to take my inputs on the drum mix. Das along with his friend Shyam are working on Hindi movies and progressing towards Bollywood at a rapid pace.

Next - Drummer Karthick – He plays Roland pads, and every other hand percussion including Bongos and “Tappe”. He rocks and makes merry. A very funny person filled with humor and energy. When he saw me at the rehearsals, called me "periya thalai is here we better do well", and I still think he referred to my age :) You got to listen to Karthick singing while drumming, yes! I heard it thru the over head mic that I placed for the cymbals. It was just fun talking and working with him. Just a note, Karthick’s wife Priya wrote the song Thedi Thedi in my album H1bees.

Finally, On Tabla - Pro player Topo. The way he played for “poo vee sem poove” is still ringing in my ears; he was totally authentic and very impressive.

The mix board that was given to me was a “Midas [Venice] 320” often used by pro bands like Elton John, NSync . It made me go WOW! When Bill, the sound guy told me that he was getting me a Midas.

This is a wide band! Already 16 channels on the mix board,

• 1- Bass
• 2 & 3 : drum 1,
• 4& 5 : drum 2
• 6,7,8 – Kartik [Electric, acoustic, and 12 string]
• 9,10 - Suresh [Roland GT’s]
• 11 – Pankaj
• 12 &13 – Sundu – kb [Korg Triton/Roland]
• 14 – Ajith – Kb
• 15 /16 Tabla


With this I will stop it here today, I wish to write about the singers and then I will give a narration of how I mixed this live show.

Thanks to Actor Srikanth.

Just few days before the release, popular tamil film star “Srikanth” visited Studio1234. He patiently heard all the tracks and congratulated all the artists. He really enjoyed all the numbers told me some of them were movie material right away.

Srikanth had to leave to India for a film shoot; he was flying back when we released our CD. However he was kind enough to provide voice over promotions in various Indian languages for the album.
Thanks “Srikanth” for your time, thanks for making it to the studio in spite of your tight Schedule. Thanks to Sudhir who made this happen.

We have new promo clip uploaded in the H1bees.comwebsite. If you have not ordered the CD, I request you to place the order today, Click here..

H1BEES

The Album was officially released by
Mr. Jason Chung.
Executive Director
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Office of the Secretary
Governor's Commissions
Asian Pacific American Affairs
The first copy was accepted by

Dr. Pradeep Ganguly,
Deputy Director
Department of Environmental Resources
Prince George's County Maryland
President of MKK USA, Inc.



Following the release Mr. Jason Chung presented me a citation signed by the Governor of Maryland. This was a great honor; I did not expect this. He gave me a big 11x7 certificate with my named engraved along with state of Maryland’s golden seal. This was amazing, I felt really happy that I made this far.

Thanks to Mitra Kalitam from the wonderful article in the Washington Post. Our story also went on the Economic times and Times of India. Thanks to Mr. Chidanand Rajghatta. We are honored sir. TV Asia carried our interviews, thanks to Mr. Devasish Ray for making it for releae. Thanks to all the Bloggers who wrote about this album. Finally, thanks to everyone who made it for the release. Hope you guys enjoyed the evening.

Wait, there one More big surprises to come, after the memorable CD launch attended by family, friends and the Media/press, I came home at around 10.30pm.

Jamillah Knowles , Producer BBC Radio 5 Live called me to check if I would be available for an Interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, she gave me 10 minutes. I was thrilled! Accepted the call right away; It’s the BBC! , do you believe it, I was on air talking on the BBC!; the channel I am been hearing for past 30 years. I was on it!, they asked about my background, the album, the guys around me, and why did I make it to music apart from being a software engineer. It seems Rock music and Software engineering does not go together. They asked me to sing 5 lines of track from the album, I managed it to sing! They seemed impressed.

I am very happy today that we are getting lot of press. The album does deserve it, my team of musicians has worked along my side with their heart and soul.

Thanks guys!

Photos by Mr.Raman.

H1BEES! On "The Washington post"

H1Bees made its way to The Washington Post.

CLICK HERE.....

Few weeks ago, reporters/photographers from the post visited my studio to interview me and my artists. Mitra Kalitam was the lead reporter who visited my studio twice. She interviewed me and my gang of musicians and producers. It was a great pleasure talking to her. She patiently heard our story, including how I was able to gather such a wonderful set of talent.

Jennifer Crandall from Washington Post dot com also visited and spoke to us about the album. She enquired about my studio hardware with great interest and was surprised to see me work on state of the art technology like Pro Tools etc. She was instrumental in making the slide show along with the post’s photographer Preston Keres with whom we had photo shoot that evening. When talking to him I came to know that he was from Davenport IA. We lived in Davenport around 1998, where my musical journey in this country picked up the initial pace. Mr. Keres served in the Navy for twelve years before joining post in 2003. He is a also the prestigious winner of Department of Defense’s Military Photographer of the Year for his coverage of Navy operations in Guatemala, Ground Zero rescues and the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake for DoD athletes., It was a real honor to work with him.

How in first place the album got their attention? ,
Apart from a catchy name H1BEES and my music, 1st - thanks to my little friend, Swathi Raman. Swathi is a very interesting personality. She is an aspiring classical vocalist, classical dancer and a “want to be” journalist. Swathi subscribes to an email group run by SAJA.ORG. She sent a lovely little email describing about this album to the Saja group. Mitra Kalitam [a member in the same group] got the email and called me at once, to keep the story short, Thanks to Swathi for talking time to help me.

Thanks to the Post and its reporters for this coverage. I have come a long way with my talented team, Thanks Kartik, Alisha, Swathi and others for working patiently with me, finally Thanks to my producer Vatsa who trusted my talent. Thanks Buddy!.

Guys we rocked! The world famous “the Washington post!” has covered about our album….Congratulations!

H1BEES SAMPLE CLIP!

H1Bees Sample clip
now available!

Click here..

Wish us good-luck

I am finally free, because the album post production work is complete and we are all set for its launch on September 10th. I have convinced my producers for a low price $5.99 + [applicable Taxes] + [applicable Shipping] for the album. This low pricing should enable more people to listen to this album.
Once the CD goes on sale, you can order the CD directly from TamilOviam web store. TamilOviam.com will be our online agents. For people in DC/VA/MD/NJ area we are still working to get it across to local stores around your area.

Please wish us good-luck - we just have about week to go for the product release.

TamilOviam.com has introduced a new webpage called Music, in which they have featured most of my songs. This is the first time you get to you hear all my song by a single click. Even my website does not have such features. Please visit this Blog Radio in TamilOviam. Thanks to Ganesh Chandra [GC] for taking pains to put up this page.

Finally,Congratulations to Arun. ManiaTV will be playing Arun’s short film ’Brailliant’ from September 16th .This will be featured in their show titled “Too short for Hollywood”. I did the back ground score for this funny little short film. This short film has no dialogues, and the plot is unveiled by clever shot placements and of course my background score. This was my first venture with Arun. Frankly, the honest effort put forth by every one has started to reap its benefits. Way to go guys.