Exotic Experiences at Exeter- Part 2

Monday, 14^th July 2014

Visit to Bath

We had been to Bath on Saturday, 12^th July. It is about 3 hours by coach from Exeter. Bath almost seems unreal. We were told that Bath is the place of the ancient Roman baths with a natural hot water spring and the picture in my mind was something like Gaurikund in the Himalayas. I soon discovered that I couldn’t have a more contrasting picture of it.

Bath is a beautiful city which seems to spring out straight from a classic. Beautiful buildings, serene, it seemed as if we had travelled not a few miles but a few centuries behind in time. It is on the banks of the river Avon.

 

First, we visited the Jane Austen centre. I was delighted to know Jane Austen lived here and this was one of the places which influenced her writings. Jane Austen centre is situated on Gay Street near Queen’s square. It is very similar to the house in which Jane Austen lived for 5 years during the early 19^th century. We were transported directly into her beautiful books before even entering the place, for there he was- Mr. Darcy all set to welcome us, standing beside a life-size image of Austen herself! We were in for more surprises when we saw that each of the people inside were dressed up as a character in Jane’s books. The interiors of the house were set in the period of Jane Austen, very easily taking us from the real world to the unreal.

The museum has a collection of things used by Jane Austen. There are videos that give us a peep into her persona and her thoughts, supplemented by the beautifully dressed and enthusiastic guides.

We then headed to Herschel’s Museum of Astronomy. I was all starry-eyed (literally) from the moment I got to know that there is a museum of astronomy here! It felt exhilarating to imagine that the great Herschel, who discovered Uranus, who discovered so many other things, whose name I had heard since my childhood which was filled with dreams of becoming an astronomer, lived here and I was actually here! My every step in his house was accompanied by a feeling of awe and wonder! Herschel was actually a musician and that was why he lived in Bath, a centre for music (wow!). He lived with his sister and trained her to be a musician and astronomer too! Their story is so enchanting and inspires admiration for all that they achieved. It is really hard to believe that astronomy was only a hobby for them and they discovered so many things (Caroline discovered 8 comets on her own!), in addition to building a 40-foot telescope! Remember, it was in those days when even making a 40-inch mirror was a big challenge. The amazing Herschel used to make his own tools when he found that he needed something for his “hobby”. So the house is filled with all the things they used, including Herschel’s tools, the equipment he used for making his tools, his harp, piano and other musical instruments, a ledger and so many other interesting artifacts. Believe me, each one of them is interesting and it could take you a quarter of an hour to look at one small cupboard kept in one corner. If you have ever loved astronomy, this place is a must-visit!

We then went to the Roman Bath. By this time, we were already in an unreal (thanks to Jane Austen) and awe-inspiring (thanks to Herschel) world. We were curious about what emotions the Bath would inspire in us.

The Roman Bath is in a beautiful Roman-style building. There is a detailed explanation of all the facts related to the building and the hot water spring. It is related to both history and science. The bath is surrounded by beautiful sculptures of important Roman figures on top. There are audio guides available, but the boards have sufficient information to give us an outline of the story. There are bubbles forming in the hot spring, which are not due to heat but due to the gases escaping out of the water. We even get to taste the water at the end of the journey. You are not allowed to touch the water anywhere inside the Roman Bath.

Post this, I walked down to look at River Avon and the Pulteney bridge. This bridge serves as a shopping arcade too. There are cruises on R.Avon that last for an hour. I was not aware of this and missed the opportunity. The sight of the river near Pulteney bridge is very pretty, with water falling down in steps and seagulls dotting the water in a beautiful array. Very close to this is the Parade Park on a lower level from the road, giving a surreal experience to the viewer. A walk down River Avon as I went back to the Riverside Coach Park was thrilling and refreshing and rewarding with some beautiful sights and pictures.

Bath is a small place and is easily covered on foot with a good map in hand. For more information on Bath, see http://bath.cityofbath.co.uk/

A day out in town

Our plans of visiting Oxford on Sunday had to be abandoned as getting to London before 8 a.m. was next to impossible (we had planned for a package tour leaving London by 8.45 a.m.). This actually turned out to be good, since we could spend an entire day in the pretty little city of Exeter.

We visited RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum) in the morning. I’m not a big fan of non-science museums, so I did not have many expectations from this. I went in thinking I would just breeze through and out. This thought lasted for not more than 2 minutes. I entered the geology section and… whoosh! All hopes of leaving the museum within an hour vanished. I sat down, looked at the video about evolution and Devon being displayed on a large screen, turned around to look at hundreds of fossils well-preserved in one single room, and was just spell-bound! This was just a small section of the museum. There are sections with artifacts from far-off lands, natural history, paintings, photographs of Devon sights and several others. One can easily spend a week looking inside this museum full-time! An absolute must-visit if ever you got to Exeter. Visit http://www.rammuseum.org.uk/ for more information.

Our next destination was the mysterious underground passage network of Exeter. There are guided tours available at frequent intervals. So you can head straight down, buy your tickets, look around in their little museum and take the tour. The first person to greet you as you go down is a person from the medieval ages- takes one aback, really! If you have a normal level of claustrophobia (like I do- can’t stay indoors for too long), then don’t worry, you can still look at these passages. Only people with a high degree of claustrophobia should avoid this. The passages can be narrow sometimes. Quite interesting and fascinating!

We then went down to the river quay. I expected beautiful scenery like the rest of the city and nothing more. But again, this is Exeter, the land of surprises, and it just threw another surprise! As I headed towards the river I saw two beautiful white swans sailing gracefully down and was in raptures as I ran down to capture the glorious sight. After a couple of minutes I turned to my right and lo and behold! The surprise- multitudes of swans, seagulls, ducks and other birds! Whew. I hadn’t seen these many swans in all these years put together! It was such a marvelous and wondrous sight- marvelous for the beauty and wondrous for the comfortable relation these birds shared with the people there- none of the birds were afraid! They blended in with humans like friends or siblings! This was a sight beyond description and I can say only one thing- you have to see it in order to believe it!

We then took a long walk to the city centre and on the way we saw “The House that moved”- a house that was not demolished and rebuilt, but actually, physically moved- you can see the details from google.

Exeter shuts down at 6 p.m. on weekdays and at 4.30 p.m. on weekends. And I really mean “shuts down”- almost all shops close by this time and the streets start wearing a deserted look. I am here in June when it is broad daylight till 10 p.m. and still the streets go silent by 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Shopping is interesting and shops are aplenty in Exeter. You get lots of gift items to take back home, so it is better to leave sufficient space in your luggage to carry home a lot of souvenirs. 

One of the shopping areas-

Some tips

1. Bring sports shoes. If you are not comfortable with them, bring any other footwear in which you can walk and walk. And walk. Don’t bother bringing anything fashionable or any other. For, this is a place where you walk uphill, walk downhill, walk into town, walk everywhere. There are buses available, but walking is so much more enjoyable! It is a mile-plus from the university to the City Centre, where most of everything is. And don’t forget, there is plenty of walking to do inside the shops! 
2. My mug and shower-cap have been the two most useful things here. 
3. If you are from India and vegetarian, you would do well to get a few ready-to-eat, non-sweet dishes. The idea of vegetarian here seems to be the diet of primitive man- fruits and vegetables. For the amount of walking that we do here, you may need more than that for sustenance. Again, you can manage with what is available here. But since it is either fruits or dessert or some fried stuff which does not fill, I recommend bringing something from back home if staying over for more than a week. 
4. A hat, sun-glasses and sun-screen are a must. 
5. Have a small camera always handy- you never know what sight suddenly springs up to enchant you! Spare memory cards are not a bad idea. 
6. The weather is quite unpredictable and keeps changing very frequently. So bring light clothes and always carry these in your bag- a hat, sunglasses, a jacket/sweater to keep you warm, a scarf, an umbrella. You might want to keep a light rain coat too, as an umbrella can prove to be useless in heavy rain.

Exotic Experiences at Exeter

Wednesday, 9th July 2014

I am now sitting in my room at Holland Hall in University of Exeter, UK, not quite sure where to start.

Exeter is a small city which developed around a university. The university stands on a hill and is one of the greenest and most resplendent with the beauty of nature among all the university campuses in UK. Holland Hall overlooks a valley in which you can see the entire city (town?).

The first impression I got when I entered this beautiful city is that some perfect artist has painted this entire city in a perfect mood on a magical canvas and then when he finished it, it all came alive. Such is the perfection and aestheticism of this place. As in London, there are beautiful and exotic flowers all over the place in every house and every building and every footpath. The university is full of ups and downs. Natural, as it is completely on a hill.

It is bright by about 4 a.m. and starts growing dark slowly only after 10 pm (it's June now- summer time). This makes the place even more beautiful and makes it easy for us to explore. It gives us a lot of time, really! The sun sleeps for only as long as we do :)

The side of the building facing the valley has a beautiful view from the window. My side has a very limited view of a small section of "undergrowth" as the building curves into a C and faces the hillside. There is nothing to see except beautiful yellow flowers in a bush. So even the undergrowth here seems picturesque!

Seagulls lend aural life to this region. Their calls are so beautiful and make me wonder if they can even speak human languages! Last night at 10 they seemed to be laughing. Today one seemed to be almost speaking. They are simply beautiful to look at and a pleasure to listen to! Guess describing fairyland starts with something like this! I am still trying to capture a good video of these splendid and graceful birds to show my mom n dad, hope to succeed soon! There are rabbits and other birds too. I need to figure out their names.

Initially, I thought that, given such a beautiful campus, I will never study. Today's visit to the library made me wish to lose myself in the library and never find myself again! It is beautiful. A perfect library again. Loads n loads of books. Wish I had done my masters here, in any subject!! I feel graduation and post-graduation are the perfect courses for this perfect looking university. I am not sure about research though- research hardly gives us time to look around and enjoy!

My experiences at London are yet to be shared- hope to do that soon enough!

Rangageete - Vid. Paramashivan

The programme for March 2014 at Vanamala Centre for Art and Culture was a special one- “Rangageete” by Vidwan Paramashivan. It was quite amazing that even at the ripe age of 84, he stood up and sang for the entire duration of the programme- that is nearly three hours! Another point to be noted was that he sang all the rangageetes from memory, without having to refer to the lyrics at any time- he said he knows 1200 of them by rote!

Describing rangageete as “Panchamrutha”- a blend of Carnatic, Hindustani, Marathi, Folk and Western genres of music, he commenced his lecture demonstration with a brief narrative of his life and experiences. Male singers used to sing at a very high pitch, thus enabling the blending of emotions (bhaava milana) with female singers. Rangageetes in those days were mostly based on ragas in Carnatic music- not just the popular and easy ones, but tough, proficiency-level ragas such as Devagandhari and Athana. Every aspiring rangageete artist had to commence his career by learning and performing “koti haaDu”, which was rife with naDe bheda and challenging grahas (place of commencement of the song with respect to the rhythmic cycle).

The veteran then embarked on a medley of skillfully and soulfully rendered rangageetes, demonstrating the vast variety of music in this genre. Some of the rangageetes performed were Baa siri lOla (Kalyani raga, Adi tALa, Akroora says this to Krishna), Enna siriyE (Abhogi, Adi, KaNNappa nATaka- this used to be sung by the yesteryear film stalwart Dr. Rajkumar), Ninnolu dayAnvite yaaramma (another song sung by Dr. Raj addressed to “mother” in the nATaka “SAhukAra”). One of the rangageetes he presented, Raamanentha cheluvane ammayya in the raga tODi, was almost like a pallavi (one of the crowning glories of Carnatic music with rhythmic intricacies and creativity) with changing grahas of kaaleduppu and mukkaaleduppu! He also demonstrated a few songs tuned along the lines of Carnatic compositions- kritis, javalis, padams. Later, he demonstrated rangageetes based on Hindustani compositions, Abhangs, folk tunes and western music.

Vid. Paramashivan was ably accompanied by Vid. Srinivas on the harmonium and Pandit. Narendra on the tabla. A very soul-satisfying performance and one that everyone would look forward to witnessing again!

Vid. Paramashivan has brought out a book containing nearly 2500 rangageetes and a CD containing his rendition of 1200 of these. The book and CD are available with the stalwart.

Meditative Manirangu

Saitejas performed at Vyalikaval Sri Rama Mandir on 23^rd March 2010 as part of the Sri Rama Navami concert series.

The concert started off with a Varna in Todi (Eranapai) at a brisk pace. Telisi rama chintanato (Poornachandrika) was lively and took the minds of the audience to a different plane. The place in the kriti selected for svarakalpana (Rama eni chapalakshula) was innovative and the svaras tumbled out one after the other in melodious waves. A serene alapana in Simhendramadhyama was followed by Maharaja Swati Tirunal's ever-glowing gem Rama rama gunaseema. The neraval at Munimaanasadhaama brought out more facets of the raga, followed by contemplative svarakalpana. Sri Thyagaraja's Sompaina manasuto was an unhurried Ahiri. This was followed by a blitzkrieg Garudagamana (Nagasvaravali). 

The main raga of the day was Manirangu (Mamava pattabhirama- Dikshitar). The artiste set out on a meditative exploration of the raga starting from the mandrasthayi and traversing all three octaves. His treatment of the 'ni' deserves special mention. Manirangu is a tough raga to sing, when one aims to sing it without shades of any other raga. Saitejas was successful in maintaining the pristine purity of Manirangu, while simultaneously bringing out its glory layer by layer. The kriti sung at a leisurely tempo had a majestic gait. His clear enunciation only added to the mystic atmosphere he created. Strands of Svaras at the end served to further decorate the already beautified Manirangu. Sri J.K. Sridhar supported him ably on the violin. The tani avartanam by Sri Phanindra Bhaskara on Mridangam and Sri N S Krishna Prasad on Ghatam was enjoyable.

The latter half of the concert consisted of Innu daya barade in Kalyanavasanta, Darsan deejo- a Meera bhajan based on raags Hemant and Bhinn Shadj, Sita kalyana vaibhogame in Kuranji. The concert concluded with a mangala in Surati (Janakiramanage jayamangalam).

The artiste's effort in bringing out the best of Manirangu was commendable. Overall, it was a very good concert.

Gayana Samaj Music Conference- 2009

Here are the details of the 41st Music Conference of the Bangalore Gayana Samaj.

Welcome!

Life is a long journey which is both arduous and beautiful at the same time. All the hardships we experience during the journey make it arduous, but the lessons learnt from each hardship faced energize us into travelling on better roads. Every pleasure, be it small, be it big, make the journey beautiful. The experiences we have are the scenes we witness from the window of the train we are travelling in. These scenes are made more picturesque by the people in our lives- relatives, friends and even strangers. Travelling along with us are our parents and teachers who at every step tell us which way to look, to enjoy the same scene in a better way. Some of us look for beauty in trees, stones, clouds, rivers, birds and even mud and grass, while the others tend to look at them as mere objects. Some of us tend to view even inanimate objects as having life, some of us see art in every little thing we see, some of us hear music in the rustling of leaves and babbling of brooks, some of us see everything as raw material to make something beautiful and creative, so on and so forth- and there are millions and millions of 'us' on earth- so one can hardly imagine the numerous ways in which it is possible to view the same object!
This blog is an attempt to share my views and ideas, interests and thoughts with the world, hoping to reach out to those who think like me and share my interests!

Welcome to my Magical World of Mellifluous Meanderings!! :)