A pioneer Radio Jockey - Ceylon Radio, Malayalam
transmission During the 70s and the early 80s, youngsters of our
generation were glued to transistors - small portable radios, a marvel that
arrived after the bulky old valve radios of yore. They were a heaven-send for
not only music enthusiasts, but …
In Memoriam - Sarojini Sivalingam
A pioneer Radio Jockey - Ceylon Radio, Malayalam
transmission During the 70s and the early 80s, youngsters of our
generation were glued to transistors - small portable radios, a marvel that
arrived after the bulky old valve radios of yore. They were a heaven-send for
not only music enthusiasts, but …
When Ruby met Finkel This had been in my drafts folder ever since I came across its mention in Ruby’s book on the Cochin Jews. Recently Arun at Intach Palghat organized a Pallankuzhi session in Palghat, to bring about an understanding and some resurgence to the ancient Malabar game, and that sort of…
And its origins Without a doubt, it is a favorite of mine, and I eat a
couple of fluffy Idli’s manufactured to perfection by my wife, for breakfast, at
least two or three days every week. Sometimes, it is eaten with chutney, or
with onion chutney (Ulli Sammandhi) made the Palghat way, but most of th…
As the oceans churned – WW II 1942 – the incredible
story of Paul Luckenbach Many of the WW II stories we have read thus far touch on
glorious and inglorious land and air battles and missions, but there were an
equal number of risky ventures and fights, daring exploits and missions
performed in the …
The Comma Nut’s Tale - Quilon (Kollam) It was the mention of the Vitapack technology that drew me to this research and went on to uncover the story of how the cashew industry was set up in India and detail the role America had to play in it. As I continue, you will find interesting intersections wit…
A Soulful Singer Today is the great singer’s 101 st birth
anniversary, he was born on 22 nd July 1923. He passed away in 1976,
just 53 years old. Without a doubt, he (or for that matter, his voice) has been
a fellow traveler for the longest time in my life. In an era where Yesudas and
Mohammed Rafi rul…
The Hindu Merchant at Novgorod and Khrushchev’s
visit to India I was drawn to this tale while referring to Khrushchev’s
memoirs, which interestingly took me to the story of Sadko, and made me listen
to a glorious tune titled “Song of India’ by Rimsky Korsakov. The haunting tune
led me to the Indian …
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Cochin to Calicut – Australia and Britain, their
journey There are so many people of Indian origin living in
Australia, these days. Many of them as well as tourists view Sydney with wonder,
but few would know the connections between the Australian ‘Father of the
Nation’ Lachlan Macquarie, Sydney, an…
Menon, Nehru, Portugal, and the USA This is a hotly debated topic and as always, there are many
sides to it, with the pro-Portuguese lobby, mainly the descendants of the
Portuguese, against the liberation and the pro-Indian lobby which strongly
supporting its accession. Then there is the argument on…
Part 3 Melakkar and the breach of the Isai Vellalar
borders. As I mentioned in the previous article, there were two
distinct aspects to the Carnatic music tradition, the vocal and the non-vocal
performers, i.e. the backing instrumentalists. While both were dependent on
each other, the development of…
Part 2 - Brahmins and Carnatic music Things always look vastly different when viewed in a narrow
context, with glaucomic eyes. Add to it a bit of political manipulation and the
matter is blown out of proportion, people get riled up and hell breaks loose, like
a perfectly serene blue sky taking on st…
Case 1 – The story of Vedanayagam Sastri There is much talk involving religion and caste in the field
of Carnatic music these days, we read about musicians boycotting festivals, of
musicians getting castigated for collaborating with other religions, and of the
sole book which airs some of these issu…
A New Assessment Some years ago, I had covered this subject, dwelling mainly
on the connections between Travancore, Britain, Sir CP, and the new administration
at Delhi, trying to complete the accession of all the princely states. It was
not complete and lacked study of certain angles, and so, I am …
Our recent visit, and of course, a little bit on
India-Mexico relations. This trip had been in the making for quite some time, we had
planned to go some years ago and had to abort after COVID restrictions forced
us to cancel it. But we made it last month and it was no doubt, a fascinating
week in a …
