Ilayaraja -The Wizard of Music

I read in news columns that Ilayaraja is planning a concert in Delhi,Mumbai and Chennai in 2010.First concert wil be in Mumbai on January 26th.The concert is organised by Sheetal Talwar,Producer of the Pankaj Kapur starrer 'Mausam'(Hindi).The Hungarian Symphony Orchestra from Budapest will accompany the maestro in the concert.Laszlo Kovacs would conduct the orchestra.With The Philharmonic Orchestra Ilayaraja is also expected to play his 'Tiruvasakam' symphony composition in these concerts.When I read the news I travelled down the memory lane. I was fortunate to enjoy two of his concerts at Madurai way back in the late 70's.(Might have been between 1977 and 1978).One was held at Sethupathi High school grounds and the other one was held at Gandhi Museum Open air theatre.

I am an ardent fan of Ilayaraja.I don't know about the techniques and nuances of music except that I learnt playing a percusssion instrument for about 6 to 7 years during my school days and I was fortunate to hear Carnatic Classical Concerts of many greats of that time.I have always enjoyed good concerts and would call myself a music buff and nothing more than that.But somehow listening to an Ilayaraja song especially from the 80s to 90's have always fascinated me. Listening to his compositions,I have felt many times, I was under the influence of a trance like spell.Many of his songs are immortal.Incidentaly this is my second blog post on Ilayaraja(First on was in June 2008).I feel he is the greatest Film Music Composer India has ever produced.His compositions have something special in the orchestration,preludes and interludes.Harmonies and the small pause given for a split second in the orchestration in many of his compositions are simply superb.There are many die hard fans for Ilayaraja songs.One Private bus operator in the Madurai Thondi route plays only Ilayaraja hits of 80s to 90's in his bus and he has a good collection of his compositions.I have seen many youngsters in their teens and early twenties enjoying the foot tapping numbers and singing along with the song.Many of them would not have been born when these films were released.He is a great music director who can carry a film on the strength of his background score.Persons like Ramarajan and Rajkiran owe their box office success to this great composer.Experts in the film music world felt he was the first complete music director in the history of Indian Cinema who could do everything like Composing Orchestration Arranging instruuments and write notations.

The fact that many of his background scores of yester years are currently being used by the Ad media in many jingles,shows his old scores are still catchy and in great demand.I do not know if this is being done with the maestero's permission.A.R.Rehman has composed the theme music for Airtel Jingles.But idea Cellular has found it fit to use an old score of Ilayaraja for their Jingles.The theme music of idea cellular Jingles is music of a kannada song 'Naguva Nayana' composed by Ilayaraja in 1983 for the film 'Pallavi Anupallavi'.Incidentally this was Maniratnam's first film.There are some more jingles that are using Ilayaraja music like 'Little Orange'(Telugu Song 'Jallantha' from the film Geetanjali),'Kissan Jam'('Ithu oru pon malai pozhuthu' from the film Nizhalkal),Kissan fruit drink'('Putham Puthu Kalai' from the film 'Alaikal Oyvathillai')LG Plasma('Uravenum Puthu Pathai' from the film Nenjathai Killathey) and many more.
I have listed below some of the Ilayaraja songs that I liked most.It is very difficult to list his best compositions.Because it could be very lengthy.(This is apart from the one I mentioned in my last post on the masestro)

Azhagiya Kannae

Chinna Thaayaval

Kaattu Kuyilu

Rakkamma

Poove Chempoove

Innum Ennai enna

Valai Osai Kala Kala

Enna Satham intha neram

Van megam

Manram Vantha

Pani Vizhum

Kanne Kalaimane

Karpoora bommai ontru

Mannil Intha kathal

Nee Pathi Naan Pathi Kanne

Naan thedum sevanthi poovithu

Ennai Thaalatta

Kathoram Lolaakku

Oliyile therivathu

Ilam kaatru veesuthe and more recently Sivoham and Pitchai Pathiram

Ilayaraja is currently busy composing music for Pankaj Kapoors Hindi film.Understand Kamal Hassan has sung an Hindi song in Ilayaraja's music for this Hindi Film.The audio release of Hindi film 'Paa' an Amitabh Production has recieved rave reviews.Ilayaraja has also composed music recently for the Malayalam blockbuster 'Pazhassiraaja' .The mastero is back with a bang.

Stem Cell Banks

Storing the new born baby's stems cells for a period of 21 years in stem cell banks is the latest trend to fight diseases in the family.It is a guarantee for the family against a host of diseases.But the cost of storing the stem cells is porhibitive and beyond the reach of an ordinary person.This is a kind of 'Bio insurance'.But it is an undeniable fact there is a mushroom growth of stem cell banks in the recent past in India.The government should come forward to start 'stem cell banks' in government hospitals,at least in important district headquarters and make it available to the general public at affordable prices.An awareness campaign should also be started to make the general public to opt for stem cell storage in their own interest.The collected stem cells are preserved at -195 degree at stem cell banks.The donor and his immediate family members can access it any time for stem cell therapy.The normal storage period is 21 years.But longer period storage is also possible on payment of extra fees.
Stem cell therapy is all about injecting new cells in to the body to repair damaged or diseased tissues to cure a host of dieases.The most remarkable advantage of stem cell therapy is that there is no risk of rejection by the body.As on date,it is believed stem cell therapy can cure more than 75 diseases,and many more might get added to the list in the future.This has given hope to many patients smitten by chronic diseases.Hence there is a great demand for stem cell storage .The stored stem cell culture would be used at a future date to regenerate damaged or diseased cells in the body and thus relieve patients from incurable diseases.
The most unique property of a stem cell is that they are capable of renewing themselves for a considerably long period.Stem cells per se are unspecialised.But they can develop as a specialised cell type such as heart muscles,blood cells or nerve cells.Stem cells can be collected from different sources.The potential of a stem cell depends on the source from where it is collected.The different types of stems cell sources are given below.

Embryonic stem cells

These cells are derived from an early stage human embryo approximatley 4 to 5 days old.They have the potential to develop in to more than 200 types of cells.(There is an ethical and moral outcry against this source)

Foetal stem cells

These are stem cell types found in the organs of the foetus. (This is also opposed by many, as it tantamounts to killing )

Adult Stem Cells

These are stem cells found in the developed organism.Adult stem cells are referred to by their tissue origin.Adult stem cells were used for many years to treat early stage bone/blood cancer by bone marrow transplants.(Bone marrows contain stem cells)A person known to me,who was in early stages of bone cancer was completley cured by bone marrow transplant in late 70's at Adyar Cancer hospital,Chennai.

Peripheral Blood

Peripheral blood cells are the cellular components of blood like RBC,WBC and Platelets.These are stem cells.

Bone marrows

Bone marrows are tissues inside the hollow cavities of bones.The bone marrow stroma contains stem cells.

Umblical cord Blood

Umblical cord blood is the left over blood of placenta and cord after the birth of the baby.This blood is a rich source of stem cells. Until recently cord blood and umblical cords were thrown as a bio medical waste.But stem cells in cord blood can be used to treat 75 life threatening diseases .

The harvested cord blood is stored and preserved for future use of the child and its family for the tratment of a host of diseases.Cord blood stem cells are preferred over bone marrow stem cells because bone marow stem cell requires a surgical procedure.It could be painful and risky to the donor.Cord blood stem cells have other advantages like lesser chances of infection,quick and easy transplantion .The biggest advantage of cord blood is that it need not match the patient's tissue type precisely.
The donor of the cord blood stem cells can decide whther it is to be used entirely for his/her family or for the general public. This can be conveyed to the stem cell bank at the time of donating the cord blood.One can also donate cord blood for research purposes.Umblical cord blood collection is safe for the mother and the child and is the most preferred stem cell source by the doctors.
India's first stem cell bank was started in Chennai by Asia Cyro cell.Other leading stem cell Banks in India are Life Cell and Cyrobank .The latter has a country wide network in almost all major cities of India.Most of the cord blood harvesting centres collect blood from the hospital where the baby is delivered,if registered with the bank well in advance.Some of the stem cell banks have different payment options.
The government should accredit Blood Banks attached to Government hospitals to collect cord blood samples and preserve them at affordable prices for private as awell as general public use.This could go a long way in alleviating the suffering lot.Government should consider giving subsidy to Government Blood banks collecting stem cells and thus make it affordable to the common man.

Frenetic Carnival of Faroe islands

Faroe Islands are situated between Scotland and Ireland.Faroe is an archiphelago(a group of islands).It is an autonomous province of Denmark.They have their own parliament and administraion.This island has a disgusting,barbaric and brute annual carnival to celebrate young men entering in to adulthood. This is absolutley savage and uncivilised.Thousands of pilot whales(Refer link below for Pilot whales) are killed merrily every year.The entire bay turns red with blood splashed all over.A nauseating sight for any civilised person.There is growing protest all over world over this annual celebrations of Faroe islands.Denmark has distanced itself from the allegation on the pretext that Faroe is an autonmous province and is not a member of European union,where as Denmark is a member of the EU.understand this was practised elsewhere also many decades ago.European Union has banned such celebrations in European Union States.But strangely Faroe laws permit killing of certain species of cetaceans.This include some species of dolphins also.It is loathsome to note that islanders drive the entire school population of Faroe to this bloddy carnival.If you can retain your poise read the mode of operation followed by the islanders to kill the friendly Pilot whales and Dolphins.At first the whales and Dolphins are driven to the bay by the islanders in motorboat.The poor creatures are finally driven in to shallow waters.Then they start hitting the poor creatures with spiked hooks.Once caught in the hook,they slash the flesh with long knives.Soon the bay is filled with butchered whales.Every year thousands of whales are killed like this.After the festival the whales meat is consumed by the islanders.Experts opine the pilot whate meat is highly toxic.This is amply reflected in the diabilities and health problems of the islanders.whales and dolphins are social animals.Dolphins are called the 'friend of a sailor'.International appeals against this slaughter have made no headway so far.One sincerely hopes faroe youth would come forward to celebrate their adulthood in meaningful constructive ways and stop this inhuman act forthwith.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/460640/pilot-whale

URL typing in TAMIL

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is contemplating to introduce URL typing in languages other than English.At present,even if the site has a Tamil name,it has to be typed in English in the browser .ICANN is experimenting other language URL typing currently.For this purpose they have selected 11 languages. Tamil finds a place in the list of 11 languages selected by ICANN.It is another honour for Classic Language Tamil. Only two Indian Languages have figured in the list,Hindi and Tamil.The other world languages selected for this trial are Arabic,Persian,Russian,Chinese,Hindi,Greek,Korean,Yiddish,Japanese and Tamil.

For further details on this visit

http://www.idnnews.com/?tag=tamil-idn

When this comes into vogue,Tamil domain names can be viewed in Tamil in browser and one can type URL in Tamil itself in the browser.This is likely to come in to effect from november 16th.