Violin concert by A.Kanyakumari

Today (15-Sep-09) morning in FM Gold, Violin Maestro A.Kanyakumari's concert was broadcasted (7 AM to 8 AM IST). Shri K.V.Prasad was on the mridangam and Shri Govindarajan was on the ghatam. It was a fantastic treat for the morning. The concert steadily begun with karimukha varadha in the rAgA nAttai. There were swift flowing kalpana swaras. The rAgA's majesticity was well shown in the sAhityA and the swArAs.

Then was the song composed by Shri G.N.Balasubramanian in the rAgA yadhukulakAmboji, paramakripasAgari. Since it was a G.N.B's composition it was in a fast tempo when compared to other yadhukulakAmboji rAga songs. It didnt let the listener to sleep. Instead it was like a revolutionary song!

The third was tyAgarAja's aadamOdi galadE in the rAgA chArukEsi. Kalpana swaras were played at the end in a traditional way. The fourth song was Smt Ambujam krishnA's Aum NamO NArAyaNA in the rAgA karNaranjani. The brihAs for the line "kinkini kini Ada.." in the charanam proved the innovative thoughts of the artiste.

Then was Arabhi mAnam vaithaL, a 12 rAgA rAgamALika song. The highlight here is that the artiste played all 12 rAgAs - Arabhi, Anandabhairavi, kalyANi, Hamsadhwani, SArangA, SAmA, MOhanam, Lalitha, darbAr, bhairavi, poorvikalyANi, kamalamanOhari - both in forward and reverse order in the AlApana. The transformation from one rAgA to other using a common swarA is commendable. In the kalpanA swaram also this transition was there. It was a genius work. Tani Avartanam by the percussion artistes needs a special appreciation. Since I am not that much informed about the jathis and korvais I am unfit to write about it. But I enjoyed the rhythm. The concert concluded with a durgA rAga composition by sri dayAnanda saraswathi on Lord RAmA. RAmam bhajE shyAmam manasA was studded with melody.

A good and innovative concert.

Ambujam Krishna Memorial Concert - Bombay Jayashree Ramnath

I had been to Music Academy to listen Smt Ambujam Krishna's compositions rendered by smt. Bombay Jayashree, this Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 6:30 PM.

The concert was started with an introduction about the artiste, composer by none other than ambujam amma's son and daughter. That was a half an hour talk that carried our memories decades back.

Jayashree started the concert with a swift chakkaravAga rAga kriti, Ranganai thudhi seidhiduvOm, dedicated to Lord RanganAtha of Srirangam. The song's pallavi, adorned the lord with elements like kasturi, parimala which was evident from the singer calling Ranganatha as Kasturi Ranganai, parimala ranganai and so on. River kAveri's greatness was also specified in the anupallavi - "gangai nigar punidha kAvEri naduvilE pongaravadhanil pallikkoNda parimala ranganai thudhi seidhiduvOm". i.e we shall bow parimala ranga who is lying on the serpant on the banks of river kAvEri whose greatness is equal to that of the ganges. The composer has also explained about the way thiruppalliyezhuchi (procedure to wake up the lord in the morning) is done there. The charanam goes like this - "sruthi layam koodi veenai yaazhOdu thiruppalliyezhichi paadi paramanai - narumalar kondu nattral poojiththu - marugina
manadhinil urugi urugi.." - with fine tuned veena and yaazh (stringed instrument) we sing the thiruppalli yezhuchi (set of songs written for waking up the lord) and by offering good flowers we pray to the lotus feet of the lord. There was a quick kalpana swaras that was simply superb.

The second song was nindra thirukkOlam in the rAga kalyAni set to adi tAlam tisra nadai. It was a traditional kalyAni that I heard after a long time. The sangathis sung for the pallavi line was a wonderful experiment that was brought out excellently. And the rendering of the line "neela mEga vannam nenjai aLLidudE.." was really heartful. This song was dedicated to Azhagar kOil sundararaja peerumAL of her home town Madurai. It had descriptions about the chitra pournami festival when the lord descends down into the vaigai river. There was also description about the 5 weapons (conch, discus, mace, sword and bow - gathi saarngi shangi chakri cha nandaki) that Vishnu use to have with him.

The third was the soulful kAnadA. It was a telugu kriti parAmukhamu sAnurA neeku paritApamu lEdA. This was dedicated to lord Rama. The expression of "will you not grant boons to me?" was well captured by the artiste. This was a composition on par with Saint Tyagaraja when it comes for rAmabhakti.

Then came the beatiful nAtakkurinji. Jayashree sang sondham vEruNdO rAmA, set to rUpaka tAlam. The last few lines of the charanam was so nice - aNda brahmmNnda akhilANdam paNi kOdhaNdapANi uNNai nambi vandha pin. The complete saranAgathi thathvam was portrayed well in this kriti. Kalpana swarams were also rendered. Each aavarthi of swara ended with the swarams Ni Sa Ri ga sondham vErundo which was saying like, is there anyother relation apt than you rAmA?

Then was the delightful dharmavathi. Jayashree sang a sanskrit composition of ambujam krishna, Janaki vallabhAya namastE in misra chapu tAlam. In the anuppallavi, there came a line "mama hrudayAmbuja vAsa" that beared the composer's signature. I think this is a rare one. I could not see her name in any of the other songs sung. This too had a good set of kalpana swaras that was very innovative.

The main piece of the concert is surutti rAga kriti written in telugu, "rAmA neevE gathiyani nirathamu namminA nannubrOva thAmasama" set to Adhi tAlam. The song was rendered in a steady way and swarams were flowing like a water fall. There was a tani aavartanam by the mridangam and kanjira artistes which was a good support for the song. The artiste announced that she learnt this kriti from smt. kamala kailasanathan who spent most of her time at thiruvananthapuram. That was a good rememberence by Smt Jayashree.

This was followed by pozhudumiga vAcchudE in the rAga rEvathi. Believe me this was the only composition that I have heard before. All the others were entirely new for me. The way Jayashree expressed the lines yennai vittu pOna kannan innum vara kaanave portrayed the longing feeling that any krishna bhaktai (gopis) will have if krishna was not by their side.

Then was a hindi composition in the rAgA bhAgeshri, mil tEjA iqbar poojese. It was a soothing one.

She concluded the concert with a rAgamaLika that was written as a lullaby(thAlattu). Devaki than kula kozhundhai was the starting. It had rAgAs like Ananda bhairavi, vasantha, Abheri, paras and neelaambari.

The concert was completed with the mangala stOtram sri rAmachandra sritha pArijAtha in the rAga nIlAmbari itself.

That was a wonderful evening treat by Bombay Jayashree.

An Appeal to all magazines

This article I am writing with uttermost dissatisfaction with most of the magazines. I use to read most of the tamil weeklies or fortnight magazines. Most of the content are good and informative. Of course they are also interesting. But a single part brings me dissatisfaction. I think most of you would have thought about this. Nothing new. There use to be jokes. Jokes are of course fictional and not aimed at hurting any body. But I use to see some jokes related to nurses. Nurse is a divine profession. A profession that takes care of the sick people who really need proper care. Most of the jokes unfortunately portrays that nurses are kept in the hospital only to attract people. Believe me, they had not been portrayed in good sense, but with a filthy thought. Its such a bad part on us to be in this society, criticizing nurses. My sincere appeal to all magazines who have written jokes related to nurses or who plan to do so is to just stop writing such things. Write jokes that doesn't affect any person or any group.

Thanks for your patient reading.

Regards,
Saranya.

EMI Calculation for Home loans

This is a popular topic where most of us need help nowadays. Though there are bank websites which will give Rs.X is the EMI for the loan amount of Rs.L @ R % per annum for a term of say N months. But it is very important for us to understand the underlying principle of this EMI.

EMI – Equated Monthly Installment

For the loan amount you have got, you need to pay back the principal as well as the interest. But altogether you can’t repay the same. So you are splitting your debt (Principal + interest) to the financial institution in an equal way so that you can set aside a fixed amount every month for repayment.

Assume the loan amount (L) is Rs.1,00,000/- @ rate (R%) 12 for term (N) of 12 months.

Before calculating EMI, you need to convert rate percent per annum as rate per month – i.e., divide R% by (12 x 100)

Divide by 100 to convert to absolute number from percentage and 12 to get monthly rate value.

So let us recalculate as r = R/(12*100)

In our case, r = 12/(12*100) = 0.01

EMI = (P * r) * {[(1+r)^N] / [((1+r)^N) – 1]}

Principal - 100000
Rate per annum - 12 = 0.01
Term (in months) - 12
EMI = 8885

Month No	Outstanding	Int Paid	Principal Paid	EMI	Balance	Rate
1	100000	1000	7885	8885	92115	0.01
2	92115	921	7964	8885	84151	0.01
3	84151	842	8043	8885	76108	0.01
4	76108	761	8124	8885	67984	0.01
5	67984	680	8205	8885	59779	0.01
6	59779	598	8287	8885	51492	0.01
7	51492	515	8370	8885	43122	0.01
8	43122	431	8454	8885	34668	0.01
9	34668	347	8538	8885	26130	0.01
10	26130	261	8624	8885	17507	0.01
11	17507	175	8710	8885	8797	0.01
12	8797	88	8797	8885	0	0.01

How to generate the table?

1. EMI and rate has been fixed now.
2. Now write numbers against the month column equal to the loan term that is already known to us.
3. For month 1, outstanding = loan amount (i.e. Principal)
4. Int Paid = outstanding * r [in this case r = 0.01]
5. Principal Paid = EMI – Int Paid
6. Balance = Outstanding – Principal Paid
7. Outstanding for next month is the balance of the previous month

Thus keep going for the rest of the months. You can also prepare an excel in the same format and copy formulae and generate the EMI and the table.

If you see, EMI = Principal + Interest and thus you are paying both interest and principal every month. If you observe, the interest you pay will keep decreasing with the progress of time and the principal keeps on increasing with the progress of time.

Softsmith Webinar for September 2009

This september, softsmith offers the following free webinars:

1 Linux, Visual Source Safe (VSS), Adobe Photoshop
2 Programming - Php, VBScript, C, COBOL
3 Insurance Fundamentals, CRM Features
4 Time Management Techniques, Project Scheduling - Microsoft MPP
5 MS Excel, MS Word, Demo creation - Instant Demo, Documentation Techniques
6 QTP, Rational Performance Tester, Quality Center, OpenSTA, Silk Test, Manual Testing
7 Spoken English Level 1 (Tamil Medium)
8 MySQL, Oracle and PLSQL

Visit www.softsmith.com or www.openmentor.net for more details and registration.