Eliot on Kalla Bekkanthe

Eliot, a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Toronto was in the studio Sunday, 16 Dec 2007. Once we had walked through how he was planning his work, and how we could schedule studio slots with him for January, we played him "Kalla Bekkanthe".
The first comment he made was about the sound -"very rich".
His ears latched on to the harmonium and the violin. When the solo strings interlude came up, he was fully into the song. Though he couldn't make out the language, in fact, he asked me if it was a Hindi song, he came up with, " But this is such a playful song. The form is so strange and playful. What are the lyrics about? The chord progressions are unique perhaps because Ram is into Indian music?"
And yes, he did ask whose voice it was, that was so good and "smoky"!

Ninna Nenapu words

Nitin sang this for the album, but I had first recorded Kalavathy singing this song in 1989. She came back in 2007 to sing a second version. When she first sang this song, she was so moved by the words she broke down and cried. Will post the first version some time. You can even hear her sigh during the interlude!

Copy paste this on to Baraha if you wish to read it in Kannada. It's free to download.

ninna nenapu

omme kadaDida koLavu
matte tiLiyAgiralu
taLadi malagiha kallu
ninna nenapu

hoge hiDidu kariyAda
sAluvRukShada tudiya
giLiya hasurina chiguru
ninna nenapu

muridu biddaramaneya
moolekaMbada mEle
bADada kusuri hoovu
ninna nenapu

nooru janagaLa naDuve
nakku nalidAdutire
dhuttaneraguva duguDa
ninna nenapu

manake eTukade hOda
kliShTa kAvyada naDuve
iLidu kADuva hADu
ninna nenapu

Coffee and cover art

Raghav Shreyas, my friend, had taken some coffee house pictures for the cover of Ninna Nenapu. He wanted to take the final pics after we had checked out the trial rolls.

But as it turned out, he fell ill, and couldn't do the final round. He is much better now, thanks to some unconventional new treatments, and his mother Vasanthi's determination to get him back on his feet.

At the last moment, I took this picture at the Barista inside the Leela Palace. Those of us on the early morning shift at MiD DAY sometimes stroll up for coffee to this cafe.

We used Raghav's pictures on the CD, and on the flip side of the jacket.

Ram

Ninna Nenapu

I started working on this album sometime in 2002. It finally got done in December 2007. Someone said a translation is never completed, it is abandoned. Same with this album. I had to let it go! Lahari is distributing it, and some friends have already heard it.

Ram