My best discoveries for year 2010

Embar Kannan – I discovered this young talented artist when I attended Unni Krishnan’s carnatic concert last summer in Portland. I loved his rendition and enjoyed every minute of it.

 His violin guru is smt. Kanyakumari. Kanyamukari aunty played violin for  my periyammas Nagercoil sisters Leela and Saroja before she was well known.

Emila Yousuf: I found the Malaysian illustrator Emila Yusof’s blog last year. I love her illustration. It transports me to my childhood memories and the books I had in my collection as a kid. I ordered few of her prints from her original illustration and she was kind enough to send me few more free goodies. For the first time I entered for a giveaway on her site and won it too.  

I am still fond of my childhood story books mostly in Tamil . I remember a couple of titles like Pappu paravaikalai peedipathillai en?(why isn’t pappu catching the birds? Pappu name of the cat), Masha en uranga villai (why isn’t masha sleeping?). I vividly remember all the illustrations from those two books .Emila’s drawing takes me to that time.

My mom forced me to donate entire collection of my story books including all my Muthu comics to “Nehru Bal Bhavan” when I was in 5^th or 6^th grade.  I was sad, annoyed and bit angry with my mom. Our city's Bal Bhavan location was so remote. It was located on the top floor of the stadium in my town which was not accessible by bus in those days. Only government functions and inter state sports meet were held in that stadium.

On our  trip back home  in an auto, I  questioned my mother if kids would go there to read my books. My mother tried to convince me it will be really used by kids and they would be thankful to us. But till date I doubt if any kids really used/read my precious books. I bought around ten titles from my childhood book collection in 1999 for my niece.

Harpsichord: I discovered this music instrument Harpsichord .  My fav TV station OPB’s Art Beat program featured the local artist Byron Wil who makes Harpsichord here in Oregon. You can check out his website for more info on harpsichord. I envy such talented artists, who makes a living doing the things that they love.

I was familiar with few western classical composers like Beethoven and Mozart when I was in India.  My curiosity led to the discovery of lot of new composers (new for me) and my favorite one is  Johann Sebastian Bach.  And thanks to our local western classical radio station 89.9 KBPS , I was able to listen to many composition of Johann Sebastian Bach. Before the MP3 era, this was my constant source of music at work.  If you are western classical fan, they are available 7/24 on the internet. Check it out.

My interest in western classical led me to Andre Rieu , the best entertainer ever. Oh, I love his music. His orchestra, Johann Strauss Orchestra plays in Portland during holidays season .

I watched this video in 2005. This little maestro is a blessed soul to play along with Andre Rieu. Can you believe Akim Camara  is just a three-year old baby during this performance? . NR’s first  concert was Andre Rieu’s . I was 12 weeks pregnant with NR. I am secretly hoping , wishing and praying that NR will choose music as his profession.

God sends every kid with skills needed for their survival.  It's up to the parents to nurture it , admire it and respect it without worrying about other's POV. And when the kids put their mind to it they will shine and nothing can stop them. And this little guy is just an inspiration for my thoughts and beliefs. Check out his amazing performance of  Dances of the Fairies.

Andre Rieu’s orchestra presents classical music in more lively form. You will come back feeling rejuvenated after his concert. We were planning to attend his concert in Europe especially at Schönbrunn Palace.  Life changed, I got pregnant and with that came all the responsibilities, concerns and worries of motherhood. I hope god will grant my wish of attending his concert as a family with NR.

Lastly, I had a friendly office mate (we shared office) Johnny (tech writer)who shared the same interest in classical music like mine. He would play music in his computer,  so we both can hear it. Those are the good old days of working, enjoying and getting fat pay check by the end of the month. A part of me definitely misses the days of happy work life.

Year-round Santa sends more books

NR loves books. Well, he is crazy about books. He would glance thru his books throughout the day. Currently he is in the “bend and break the book” phase. His father spoils him like anything and NR has damaged couple of his books. I warn him when I see damaged books but he is unstoppable. These days, I give his books only when I am around.

NR entertains himself by glancing thru the books for hours or playing with his toys or just listening to music I play on the CD when I make our daily meals. I would go in between to read him a book or to play with him. He hates to see me rush back to the kitchen to finish the cooking.  

 I felt he was ready for Tamil language books when he was around two years. I’d asked my sister to get my favorite childhood Tamil books from Chennai . She was not able to find the shop. But she sent loads of books  thru my brother when he visited us for NR’s second birthday.

                            

And for Christmas my sister had sent couple of more books and dresses for NR, me and CB.  He received books from his favorite “Pepper” series. Thanks to his year-round Santa aka Chitha , he has a decent collection of  Tamil and English books(Indian Edition). I've been reading tamil books regularly which he fancies and kept other books out of his reach. His favorite tamil books are

1. Aa Vilurundu akku varai 


2. Suvatril Nadanam (NR loves shirvi)


3. who am I


4. Engey antha poonai


5. Para para patti Erumbu


6. Thakita tharikita kuthikum bandhu


7. Pepper goes to school


8. Pepper brushes his teeth


9. Bruno learns to share 

NR gives his favorite tamil books to CB, to read . CB is not comfortable reading tamil . He is forced to read tamil books by NR. From our Kitchen, I would listen to him read tamil like a first grader making so many mistakes at each line. It frustrated me and made me really annoyed angry.  It was ackward to listen to a grown up reading his own language like a kid.  But I kept quiet,  since I don't want to spoil NR's happy time.  And it was around that time, CB complained about the spelling/grammar mistakes in my blog.  Since he was reading my blog, I wrote this post. 

He loves the illustrations from the "My mother’s Garden". This book is written  by my new favorite  illustrator . He cries a bit wanting to see the pictures in the book by himself but I refused to give him. In my absence his dad gives him that book. CB doesn't even feel bit guilty about breaking the boundaries I’d set for NR.

Appa brings loads of books from library everyday mostly Diego , Dora and other popular children series books. Being a book-a-holic, CB visits Barnes Noble, Borders almost everyday (before NR he lived there) and his office is located to closer to one of Portland biggest book shop Powells. CB buys beautiful books for NR regularly.

Papa and son regularly visits the bookshop on summer days followed by a an hours walk and play in our community play ground. We have a yearly pass to our local zoo so papa and son used to go at least twice or thrice a week visiting his favorite animals and having a cool choo choo ride.

It’s challenging to entertain NR during winter since he gets sick so often when he goes out in the cold weather. But still his dad takes him to the nearest play gym, his favorite pet store and to book shops. And at home NR gets limited time on TV and computer.