Saturday, August 15, 2009

Remembering Smt. Rajeshwari Padmanabhan


The Yajnavalkya Smriti mentions:

“Veena vadhana tathvangna sruti, jathi, visartha talanjaaprayasena moksha margam niyachathi”
(”The one who is well versed in veena, one who has the knowledge of srutis and one who is adept in tala, attains salvation without doubt.”)

Well it is exactly one year since Smt. Rajeshwari Padmanabhan, the veena maestro and my Guru, passed away. It had been a day filled with listening to her veena pieces. While the day went by, I felt a celebration of music.

Yes, I would like to remember her as a great maestro, a warm motherly figure and someone whose talent was not commercialized. She was a musician of par excellence.

Nostalgic memories of her classes rushed back to my thoughts. While playing one of the pieces – Vinayaka in Hamsadvani, a surge of emotions overwhelmed me and I found myself crying for a while. Then composing myself, I decided that her life should be celebrated in her remembrance. I found this short video of her taking classes by Raghunath Manet on youtube.


Sunday, August 9, 2009

Heartsong



Remembered the amazing Mattie Stephanek today. What a child. What a darling. So much of wisdom, so much of love, so much of compassion. I need to learn from him. He is and will always remain my special inspiration. My angel Mattie Stephanek.......

“...A heartsong is something deep inside each of us. It’s our sense of why we are here and how we can keep going. It is like a purpose. It may be to live as a mommy or a daddy, or a firefighter or a deliver person, or a child with a disability who teaches others about patience and love and acceptance. Heartsongs are usually easy to hear when we are young, but we sometimes get too busy or hurt or angry to listen to them as we get older. And, just like any gift that isn’t cared for or used well, it is possible to forget how to listen to the message of each song, But even if we completely lose our heartsong, we can share someone else’s song until we are able to reawaken or recreate our own. ...” - Mattie Stephanek