Vinnaithandi Varuvaya soundtrack- A bold attempt.

Each time I listen to ARR's new album, it makes me feel that he is raising his own standards in terms of quality and experimentation. VTV is a bold attempt to take Indian Music to the world stage. Will he be successful? Will he collapse under his own weight? This remains to be seen. However, he has made sure to break away from the stereotypic charanam/pallavi combination in most of his songs.

My personal favourite is AAROMALE where he has cleverly managed to fuse soft rock (inspired by Pink Floyd) with country kind of music while still trying to maintain the Indian classical mood through the chorus, chords and violin (Not sure of this instrument). The way he juxtaposes two different chords in the background during the chorus completely intrigues me.

VTV title track by Karthick is another favourite which actually took time to grow on me. His use of just guitar makes this track even more difficult to compose.

This is another bold attempt to try to conquer the world through his music. JAI HO ARR.

DO WE REALLY ADAPT

May be I sound anti-indian but this has been lingering in my mind ever since I stepped foot in this great nation called UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. At first, it was a cultural shock and took few months to get adapted. Once adapted, this thought crept into my mind - Does 'WHILE IN ROME BE A ROMAN' apply to NRI's here(as they are proudly referred to back in our home country). Till date, I have hardly met people who have adapted to this culture (I do not mean to say that we forget our culture). This is making me increasingly difficult to mingle around with my country-men as I feel that I have changed the way I live/think in United States. This is just my opinion and has no direct or indirect reference to anyone I have met here until today.

Peer Pressure

Not sure if this is happening elsewhere but I have noticed this increasingly among the so-called NRI parents living in US of A who try to pressurize their kids to pursue different interests at young age in an attempt to prove that his/her kids are superior to their neighbors' who in most cases are indian-origin parents. Do not be surprised if you find kids rushing back from school since they need to be on time for Soccer practice followed by Piano classes followed by Swimming, Taekwondo, Tennis and the list goes on and on. I might be exaggerating a bit but this is what happens in most cases. I did ask one of my colleague (mother of 2 girls) who is in the same boat and she mentioned that her intention is to get the kid trained until they hit the age of 12. After this age, she would prefer her kids to stay at home and concentrate on studies. My opinion is that this kind of thinking is absurd as it never gives the child a chance to hone their extra-curricular skills. You are basically halting the process before the kid even realizes his/her strengths in pursuing these activities to the next level. Since I am not a parent yet, may be I do not realize it now but I will surely try to overcome this peer pressure as a parent and also make sure my child is not bitten by this bug. All I want to say is that let the child decide what he wants to get into and you as a parent should only assist him in making some good decisions.

This is my first blog post and hope to continue posting more such opinions.