Three Concerts and an Invite

There have been three concerts since my last post.
The first was at Perinthalmanna in Kerala which was eventful for more reasons than one. The biggest reason being that I overslept in the train and woke up only after my designated stop - Palakkad - had passed!!!
Eventually alighted at Trisur which is the next stop and took a taxi straight to the venue and started the concert after a quick shower backstage!!!

The second concert was at Malleswaram in Bengaluru for the Pu Thi Na trust.
This one was clearly the most memorable for me personally because it was the first time I was singing a concert without a single Thyagaraja, Dikshitar or Shyama Shastry kriti!!!
Instead, this concert was dedicated solely to the compositions of the poet Pu Thi Narasimhachar.
The first task was getting together a list of poems which appealed to me - this was done thanks to my cousin Surya who is a hardcore literary connoisseur.
The next was setting those to tune - now clearly that was a first time for me because I had always shied away from 'composiing' tunes.
But once I got down to it, it was rather enjoyable - so I set them to various ragas such as Athana, Mohana, Varali (my personal favorite), Kaanada and Todi.
Pu Thi Na himself is said to have prescribed tunes for some of his works, in collaboration with eminent vainika Doraiswamy Iyengar.
I included one such composition too.

The third concert and the last one to happen was at Coimbatore yesterday.
The occasion was 'Purandara Dasa' day and it was jointly held by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimbatore.
Sang Purandara Dasa compositions in the first half and some popular tukkudas in the second half.
The audience turnout was brilliant - considering there were three other programs in the vicinity.
The icing on the cake was a standing ovation at the end of the performance - thoroughly inspiring to work harder and harder.

Please find attached the concert invitation for my Ranipet concert the next Sunday (28th).