The 5 things of me and Raaja that You May Not Know About

There is this new tag game going along and Kamal has tagged me to write about some Raaja specific questions. The first question is a journey in itself and I guess I have to digress a bit on that.

1.) The moment that introduced you to Raaja

I see my Raaja association as distinct phases which for the uninitiated might be indistinguishable. The earliest memory of Raaja that I can recollect is my brother recording Anjali which was in my 3rd standard. He bought the cassette with little idea of the songs and that proved to be the best decision he made.

My college life shaped my music and movie sensibilities a lot and every year in my college was marked by a specific music artist affiliation. I was exposed to the pop music world during my school days and in the first year I was infested with a heavy metal addiction which weaned away in the later years with only my Pink Floyd association which stays good till date. The second year started with the Rahman addiction(which stays good till today too) and I was picking out the lesser know numbers - En Swasakatre, 1947 Earth being one of the favorite albums.

It was during the third year that I realized that my play lists were more frequented by Raaja than any other. I still remember the times when I played the entire interludes vocally, with a lot of kindals from everyone of course. By that time I realized that Raaja is so damn good.

But the true Raaja moment happened a year after the college with the Reetigowlai numbers. Thanks to orkut, I stumbled upon Meetatha Oru Veenai which opened up a new world to me. It showed me that a new level of pleasure can be derived out of songs especially his songs. And then I had a play list of Chinna Kannan Azhaikkiran, Ramam Kathai Kelungal, Thalaiyai Kuniyum Thaamaraiye, to reinforce my Raaga awareness. And that was the time, I realized that I have reached the pinnacle of music pleasure and he is simply the best in world(by that time, I didn't realize that there was another genius Thyagrajar and Bala Kanaka was his composition and there is another set of treasure waiting to unwind). So when SPB sings "Raama atho parappa..alangaara seethai", my heart swelled with pleasure and eyes with aanatha kanneer

Finally I'm in a phase where I can identify some of the common tricks that Raaja employs in the songs and I look for the new things in his songs and it is always a internal conversation with me about how this song is structured and how the tune went in any particular way which cannot be expressed as it was a meta-level discussion and my absolute lack of knowledge of the formal representations of music.
Now it is usual to get lost in the world of that song with little regard to the present world and have musical conversations with myself.

2.) Name one occasion where Raaja's music directly/ indirectly influenced your life.

This kinda ties in with the previous question. The year after the college turned me into an agnostic from an atheist and the prime reason which I think is because I now have the proof that people can feel an absolute elated level of happiness which they owe it to an supreme being. So the question of an existence of a supreme being can be set aside as what they felt is real. The only difference is that I attribute that state to Raaja.

3.) Lets take Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi into account. Assuming that one of this is either your mother tongue or native language, name a favorite song in each of the other 4 languages that immediately comes to your mind.

Telugu - Bala Kanaka. Yes though it is not Raaja's composition. Raaja adds a great deal of beauty to Thyagarajar's composition which even the stalwarts of carnatic music simply cannot.

Malayalam - Kaiyetha Kombatha from Vinodhayathra. An impeccable album which no one except for Velraman seem to rave about.

Kannada - Jothiyali from Geetha. SPB & SJ all the way

Hindi - Lajja's title. This piece trumps every other title music done by him.

4.) One song of Ilaiyaraaja that you consider rare and think a song that many people should have known but don't

Since Kamal has taken away Kannirendil, I would pick Chandirarum from Avatharam. Impeccable orchestration which made me dance on the road as if to reinforce the fact that his music makes me go mad at times.

5.) Lets keep the last one simple...Raaja's number that you are hearing right now/ most recently heard..?

Idhu ilamai ilamai - Ambigai Neril Vanthal. Ah what a prelude.