Sunday, October 28, 2012

Discovering a lot of things!! Means gaining commonsense!!


Learning a lot of things that are actually "commonsense''.  Not that i did not know.  I always knew their existence.  But always missed, no.............avoided to see.  Principles................ that is what i thought and still think.  They do not allow me to "see'' the reality or the commonsense.  So always I am like someone 'not from the present days'.  People may think i am, old aunty or old fashioned or person who lacks................... courage, 'not smart', not to be living in these days.  A person who leaves the given opportunity with slightest "competition".  But what they do not understand is I shall take the challenge if it is with someone of my caliber, my convictions, my capabilities............. my knowledge, my experience .......... not someone who is mediocre, who is selfish, who is petty, who is adamant, who has no convictions or principles, who is very proud (looking at what!!!), who is stubborn, who is above all........ HIGHLY EGOISTIC.  i do not and need not compete with such people.  i am totally different.  and is above all this.  i have required knowledge, experience, innovation, imagination and artistry in the given form - chemistry and dance.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Dealing with the death of a loved one

this is from Times of India - The Heart Chakra by Pooja Bedi - I liked it and is now very relevant - especially after kanna, appa and now amma....................... day in and out gurutuvastaaru............ emi cheyyalooo teleedu............. ala ani not sad but all the nice things, all the things i wanted to say and could not or all those things that they said and in their company........... ala anevaru, ela anevaru........ etc....

Dealing with the death of a loved one

Pooja Bedi, TNN Jul 15, 2012, 12.00AM IST
Tags:

My mom told me that she wanted everyone who loved her to laugh and dance at her funeral. And if not possible, at least to promise her there'd be no tears, sobbing and wailing.

That when her soul looked down at her loved ones she didn't want to see them grieving and sad and to know she was the cause of their pain. She wanted us to always remember her as someone who made us happy. Everyone has to die someday, but what's important is how they lived and how they made you feel. I see every moment spent with my mom as a warm and wonderful memory. I laugh when I remember her funny antics; feel grateful for her generosity, feel happy when I remember her 1000 watt smile, I feel strong when I recount her fearless spirit and feel warm when I think of her tight hugs. What she did was create a blanket for me of amazing memories to keep me warm on emotionally cold days. I miss her tremendously, but I don't grieve in her memory. The only thing you should cry about when you think of someone you love is what was left unfinished, unsaid or undone. The pain of regret is tremendous and unfortunately can never be corrected. So while your loved ones are alive, let nothing be unsaid or undone. Take them to that park/restaurant/holiday spot they've wanted to visit for months, say "I love you", and "thank you", because you want them to hear it and know it, and give them that gift they've been hoping for! When they're gone, you're going to smile as you cover yourself with the warm blanket of wonderful memories and sleep content knowing that they are smiling from above.

 
(Dealing with the death of…)

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Project that i have written - COMPARITIVE STUDY OF KUCHIPUDI YAKSHAGANAS ON LORDS SHIVA AND KESAVA DEPICTED IN THE WRITINGS OF SRI TARIGONDA VENGAMAMBA IN LIGHT OF THEIR SHRINGARA RASA (MOOD)


Another project that was submitted for SRF to Ministry of Culture in year September 2010 - not awarded - but is being executed

 - Never claimed knowingly!!


COMPARITIVE STUDY OF KUCHIPUDI YAKSHAGANAS ON LORDS SHIVA AND KESAVA DEPICTED IN THE WRITINGS OF SRI TARIGONDA VENGAMAMBA IN LIGHT OF THEIR SHRINGARA RASA (MOOD)

Submitted by: Dr. G. SWARNABALA
NATURE OF STUDY: ACADEMIC RESEARCH ORIENTED AND FOCUSES/HIGHLIGHTS THE SUITABILITY TO DANCE EXPRESSED, ESPECIALLY IN KUCHIPUDI TECHNIQUE

I           INTRODUCTION
“EXPRESSION” or “Abhinaya” in any form of dance brings out the inner essence of conscious and sub conscious feelings in the form of “bhava” and “rasa” enlightening the performer’s soul. This enchants the audience watching the performer, they are influenced and so their soul also experiences the thought process watching the performance in a “great silence”, in an absolute vacuum created between the two during the presentation of the art form, be it dance, music or any other form of art. A bond or a bridge is created between the soul of the artist and the soul of the audience watching them.  It is the writer of the script who forms a platform on which the artist and the audience connect and experience several emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, agitation, turbulence, uncertainty, sensuality, philosophical thought process, etc.
In this light, the present project chosen to depict the essence of the writings and the literary works of 18th century poetess, Sri Tarigonda Vengamamba.  In her writings, she has portrayed the shringara rasa of Lords Shiva and Kesava in a very subtle manner, which is different from what has been portrayed by some others. Generally the mood is sober when it is Lord Shiva and gay when it is Lord Kesava.  The works of Sri Siddhendra Yogi’s ‘Bhamakalapam”, in which the rasa in its entirety revolves around Satyabhama, the mood is gay with Lord Kesava participating in it.  Several other compositions such as King Shahaji’s Shankara Pallaki Seva Prabandham, the mood is again more sober with Parvati and Lord Shiva enlightening the world with their celestial dance together.  However, it is interesting to note the “gay” form of shringara mood between the celestial pair, Lord Shiva and Parvati, portrayed by Sri Tarigonda Vengamamba in her writings and the mood variations of Satyabhama being more sober when she is waiting to meet Lord Kesava.  The aspect of “Hari-Hara”, Lord Shiva and Kesava, being not different from each other or are one and the same is very evident in this point of view.  It appears that they are two sides of the same coin.

II         SCOPE OF THE PRESENT PROJECT
Vengamamba penned several of the above listed literary works, which have different forms of Telugu literary grammar including yakshaganas, poetry, kritis, daruvus, tatvas, satakas, dvipadas, philosophical writings including good mixture of shruti and laya.  Her love for Lord in the form of madhura bhakti involved a lot of shringara rasa, imagining Him as her husband.  They are comparable to the grammatical, theoretical forms of traditional Kuchipudi dance written by Sri Siddhendra Yogi and others.  Since all nine rasas, especially the Shringara rasa, can be separated and presented in the form of beautiful Expression or Abhinaya of Kuchipudi dance, this form of dance is chosen as a best mode of presentation.

III        METHODOLOGY
The essence of about 12-15 keertanas - depicting Lord Shiva and Kesava being not different from each other or are one and the same - their ‘bhava’, ‘rasa’ shall be considered for deeper study and presentation.  The interludes of the “charanam’s” of the keertana verses will be interspersed with “jatis” – simple and complicated.  They shall involve “sapta talas”, choreographed in the style of Kuchipudi.  The bhavas and nava rasas shall be made to use involving some ‘sanchari – bhavas’ too for the elaboration of some stories which are hidden in the verses.  Several times, the author’s suggest and leave it for the imagination of the reader a number of known short stories in their works.  Such works leave scope to the researcher or the performer to take over and depict that in the ‘sanchari’ to explain and make the work more meaningful in its presentation.  It shall be a philosophic approach of natya-nritya combination for the aesthetic pleasure of the performer and the audience.

IV        TARIGONDA VENGAMAMBA’S LIFE AND WORKS
In Telugu literature, Tarigonda Vengamamba earned her own special place and is known as “Telugu Meera”. She rebelled the existing orthodox society refusing to follow the norms that existed for a ‘widow’, which demanded her to shave her head, wear a white saree etc. She believed that Lord Sri Venkateswara was her husband. She, as an ardent devotee, has special love and dedicated her life and works to Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala or Lord Narasimha at Tarigonda. Her literary works are in the praise of Lord of Tirumala or Tarigonda. She performed rituals all day long and in the night, she performed special prayer, in the form of ‘Mutyala Harati” which was specially designed by her and is being adopted till date.
Vengamamba was born into a family of ‘Nandavareeka sect’ of Brahmins in 1730 A.D. Her father was Krishnayamatya and mother was Mangamamba. Since childhood, she was an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara and her devotion made the villagers believe that she was insane. Married at a very early age (which was a common practice in those days), she lost her husband Venkatachalapathi and became a child-widow. However, she refused to accept anyone but the Lord as her husband and continued to dress as a married woman.  The priest and descendants of Annamayya, all of those who had heard of her devotion to Lord Venkateswara, welcomed her.
Matrushri Tarigonda Vengamamba inspired the society and whole humanity with her life style, poetry and writings, which came into lime light recently.  The simple and lucid form of Telugu language used by her in yakshagana forms (dance dramas), finds the essence of pure love for Lords Shiva and Kesava.  Moved by her devotion, it is told that Lord Venkateswara allowed her to enter the temple, after temple hours, to hear her poems and songs.  She attained Moksha or Salvation through her unconditional love expressed in her philosophic approach to day-to-day common expressions of affection and feelings.  She has depicted the most complex issues of spiritual liberation in terms of madhura bhakti.  The only other example of such a similar situation is the character of Meera Bai who expressed her love for Lord Krishna and dedicated her life and works to him.

Vengamamba’s writings:


In Tarikonda
In Tirumala

  1. Tarigonda Nrusimha Satakam
  2. Nrusimha Vilasa Katha
  3. Siva Natakam
  4. Balakrishna Natakam as Yakshaganam
  5. Rajayogamrutha Saram, a Dwipada Kavyam

  1. Vishnu Parijatham
  2. Chenchu Natakam
  3. Rukmini Natakam
  4. Jala Krida Vilasam
  5. Mukthi Kanthi Vilasam (all Yaksha Ganams)
  6. Gopi Natakam (Golla Kalapam-Yakshaganam)
  7. Rama Parinayam
  8. Sri Bhagavatham
  9. Sri Krishna Manjari
  10. Tatva Keerthanalu
  11. Vashista Ramayanam (Dwipada)
  12. Sri Venkataachala Mahatyam (Padya Prabhandam)
  13. Ashtanga Yoga Saram (Padyakruthi)


V         Performance by Researcher relating to Vengamamba’s works:
In 2006, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam has revived the works of Tarigonda Vengamamba in the SVETA project and has published several of her works and released them in the form of CD’s.  Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao, Director, Lasya Priya, and GURU of researcher, has conducted several Ballets using this material given to her by the Project Director.  Researcher also participated in several of these ballets in Lasya Priya and has come across this as a good topic for further research in it.  As the Researcher has been an ardent lover of dance and participated in almost all the Lasya Priya productions since her return to dance in year 2001, she has chosen to take up a major project as a subject of dance to work along with her Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao and broaden her knowledge, learning from her Guru for future development in this field.  She wishes to do projects of Kuchipudi dance independently in the near future and develop the art form involving the younger generation of dancers and be of help to her Guru.  Other productions are given in the CV of the Researcher. Only Vengamamba’s productions are given below:
  1. Researcher has performed in the Vengamamba’s jayanti celebrations participated by Lasya Priya academy, in which she played the role of YASHODA, the songs taken are from Bala Krishna Natakam at Sri Tyagaraja Gana Sabha, Hyderabad in May 2009, conducted by her Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao.
  2. The above was presented at Annamayya Hall at Tirupathi in July 2009.  Again the researcher has performed the role of YASHODA in it.  Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao, also conducted it.
  3. She has enacted the role of VENGAMAMBA, fitting very aptly, in Lasya priya’s Shiva Natakam presented at Ravindra Bharathi in November 2009 by her Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao.

VI        CONCLUSION
The project analyses the subtle relationship between the two, Hari and Hara - the Lords Shiva and Kesava, in the form of madhura bhakti which will make it as a comparative study and highlights the grace or Lasya aspect that is suitable for Kuchipudi style of dance.  It shall be an offering to Sri Tarigonda Vengamamba as well a rightful submission to the Almighty exploring the literary lyrical expression in Tarigonda Vengamamba’s writings.

VII      REFERENCES:
1                    :”Matrushri Tarigonda Vengamamba” Julakanti Balasubrahmanyam, Publisher Tarigonda Vengamamba Vangmaya Project, Sri Venkateswara Udyogula Shikshana samastha (SVETA), Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanamulu, Tirupati
2                    “Vidushimani Vengamamba”, Sri Aandra Sheshagiri rao, Publisher Tarigonda Vengamamba Vangmaya Project, Sri Venkateswara Udyogula Shikshana samastha (SVETA), Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanamulu, Tirupati
3                    Prof. K. L. Krishna Murthy, book on Tarigonda Vengamamba, 2009.

The Projects that i have written - DIVERSITY IN THE LITERARY WORKS OF “MAHADEVA SHAMBHO” IN LIGHT OF “BHAVA” EXPRESSED IN KUCHIPUDI AND BHRATANATYAM STYLES


Study proposed to be undertaken:  Was prepared to be sent for SRF to Ministry of Culture in the year 2009 - August and given for verification - discouraged to apply........but found executed soon...

 - Never claimed the idea, allowed to be executed knowingly!!!

a)      Title of the proposed project document:

DIVERSITY IN THE LITERARY WORKS OF
“MAHADEVA SHAMBHO” IN LIGHT OF “BHAVA” EXPRESSED IN
KUCHIPUDI AND BHRATANATYAM STYLES

b)     Type of the study: Academic research or application oriented:

IT SERVES THE PURPOSE OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH AND IS ALSO APPLICATION ORIENTED – SUITABLE FOR A STAGE PERFORMANCE

c)      Synopsis of the project document:

“EXPRESSION” or “Abhinaya” in any form of dance brings out the inner essence of conscious and sub conscious feelings in the form of ‘bhava’ and ‘rasa’ enlightening the performer’s soul.  This enchants the audience watching the performer, they are influenced and so their soul also experiences the thought process watching the performance in a ‘great silence’, in an absolutely vacuum created between the two during the presentation of the art form, be it dance, be it music or any other art form. A bond or a bridge is created between the soul of the artist and the soul of the audience watching them.  Thus, the writer of the script for the performer forms a platform on which both excel to understand the depth of feeling for several emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, agitation, turbulence, uncertainty, sensuality, a philosophical thought process, etc.

In this light, the present project is selected to depict the essence of the writings and the literary works of “Sri Mahadeva Shambho”, Goparaju Venkata Subbarao (A retired cash keeper).  His works have been published in 1928 in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh and were reprinted recently by his daughter and shishya, Smt. Vaddadi Sowbhagyam.  They have several types of literary works such as poems, slokas, keertanas, philosophical write ups, bhajana keertanas including a lot of bhakti bhava and aadhyatmika chintana.

The most important and noteworthy of these writings is that they all had a “Akshra niyamam” means that every first letter of the stanza of the verse created will form a word after the verse is completed.  This is the “Aksharahamsalu” the bhajana keertanas.  The ‘akshra niyamam’ for all the keertanas have been very creatively molded with poetry, which is very apt with the ‘bhava prakatana’ in the individual verse.  This poetry has become very much known amongst the godmen and the general public who have faith in the Lord.  They all have revolved around Lord Shiva to a large extent and so he was given the nickname as “Mahadeva Shambho” and was known by the same name.

There are a number of keertanas, which were sung by several musicians on All India Radio and there are some more known very popularly.  His daughter and student, Vaddadi Sobhagyam, also released several of the keertanas in the form of Cassettes for which good dance choreography can be done and performed on stage.
Infact, several of the keertanas such as ‘shivudu tandavamu chesenamma’, ‘entavada vavura sankara’, ‘bhava mruda haea shiva namo namo’, ‘sivuni tatvamu nerigina vaariki’, etc. have been performed by students of Lasya Priya in several occasions.

The essence of about 12-15 keertanas, their ‘bhava’, ‘rasa’ will be considered for deeper study and presentation.  All nine rasas mixed in different forms of the literary work will be separated and presented in the form of beautiful Expression or Abhinaya of Kuchipudi dance.  The interludes of the ‘charanam’s of the keertana verses will be interspersed with ‘Jatis’ composed in both the styles of Kuchipudi and Bharatanaryam for a full length of about one hour natya – nritya combination of presentation for the aesthetic pleasure and philosophic approach of the performer and the audience.
 
The songs that are chosen for the project to be executed:
1                    Sidhhi vinayaka buddhi pradayaka
2                    Saraswati ninu golchiti
3                    Bhava mruda hara siva namo namo
4                    Raja rajeswari raavee
5                    Adi lakshmi kaameswari kanumaa
6                    Raa raa samba raa raa
7                    Siva tatvambunu erigina vaariki sivude taanagu satyam
8                    Ramaa ramaaa ramaa stita ramaa ramaa
9                    Ksheera saagara sayana naarayanaa hari
10                Dorikenamma venna donga naaku dorikenamma
11                Hari harulu venchesinaaruu bhakta varula
12                Aanjaneya neeku pranjali chesedaaa



Wednesday, April 18, 2012

New lesson of management................................ learnt...............understood!!!!

merely knowing something isn't enough.................understanding the vairagya or the principle of detachment is very much essential!!! for example, one of the management stories goes....

Ravana, king of Rakshasas, was well versed in the Vedas. He knew so much that he needed ten heads to contain his knowledge. Being a great devotee of Shiva, the supreme hermit, he would travel every day from Lanka in the South to Kailas, the abode of Shiva, in the North. "Why don't you come with me to my city? he once asked Shiva. "Why don't you take me with you?" said Shiva. "I will", said Ravana, his eyes gleaming. "Good", said Shiva, who shut his eyes, and continued meditating.
Ravana then used his massive strength to uproot Mount Kailas with the intention of carrying it to Lanka. "What is he doing" screamed Shakti, Shiva's consort, as the mountain shook, terrifying all its residents. "Have you asked him to do this?" she angrily asked her husband.
Shiva opened his eyes and looked down. "As usual, he misunderstood", said Shiva, pushing down his big toe on the floor. Such was the pressure that Shiva generated, that Ravana buckled under the pressure and found himself trapped under Kailasa's weight. He sang songs in praise of Shiva until Shiva eased the weight, enabling Ravana to slip out. Ravana then went back to Lanka sheepishly.
As he left, Shiva spoke to Shakti, who was looking at him impatiently for an explanation, "I told him he could take me with him. I meant he could understand and internalise the idea that is Shiva and take me wherever he went, for I would be embedded in his soul. He, however, understood it as possessing Shiva. That is why he is very knowledgeable, but not very wise".