I am an Admirer of the Music Maestro Ilayaraaja whose work could be praised only with new superlatives that are yet to be created. Understanding and Learning Ilaiyaraaja's music is a penance to me.
People seldom try to bother about what is on the other side of the world and try to be happy in their own world thinking that’s what the whole world is. I tried to climb upon the hill to look at the world that is not seen to me from my place. Staying there I could view and appreciate both the worlds. A time came when I had to make a decision whether to stay in my present world and peep into the other world or move to the other side permanently. I preferred the latter and made my world a beautiful place to live in by filling it with His Music.
And when the door to His Tamil music world opened, it was a downpour for me. I was constantly collecting and treasuring every drop....
‘Sitara’ was my first Ilaiyaraaja movie and it introduced me to the words ‘Re-Recording’ and ‘BGM’. Realizing that His BGM gives life to each and every scene in the movie, I decided to continue with matinee after the morning show and for the first time in my life had to savor the ‘time out’ given by my people to me and to my cousin who obliged to repeat watch the movie with me. Her role was great in keeping me updated with new Raaja releases. It was also the first ‘Telugu’ movie that I could understand fully. There after, I learnt to tune my ears not only to His songs but also to the BGMs. That's what makes a Composer complete, this’s what I could understand. With my little knowledge, I always tried to be a part of the musical discussions that often took place among the family members. When they were busily discussing Naushad and ‘Shankar jaikishan’, I used to poke in with utmost curiosity to introduce Ilaiyaraaja’s name to them. Success adored sometimes and happiness filled me when they appreciated the tunes that I played or hummed for them.
Only my trials to show Raaja to my friends were not as expected since their musical discussions revolved mainly around LP and RD. Even after willingly participating in their discussions, the deep urge to tell them something that they were missing was always there within me. Without leaving a single opportunity I continued my trials. A few of them were intelligent enough to grasp what I wanted to share and they were the ones who later on appreciated me for my discovery and thanked themselves for heeding to my words abating which they thought, they would have lost something in their lives.
After some years, each and every visit of mine witnessed people at my native place swinging in the cradle of Raaja’s music. Those happy faces with natural smiles always looked like good things are continuously happening to them. Now, they were requesting me to croon His numbers.
