I am Arun(k) from India, and I live with my wife and kid in a suburb near Chicago. I came to the US ages ago. You can say I am old enough to be close to a mid-life crisis and maybe that starting this blog is one of the symptoms.
Note: The (k) is there as some people on the web know me as arunk.
My current interests include carnatic music, programming as a hobby, (talking about) sports, and dreaming about vacations in exotic places! Sometimes those dreams do come true.
My past interests include classic rock (Pink Floyd, and a bunch of other bands), fantasy novels, tamil film music, and playing the guitar. They have sort of faded ever since I discovered the beauty of carnatic music (perhaps coincidental with a receding hairline, and graying sideburns), and also realizing the futility of using any of my past “talent” to play carnatic music on the guitar. I still relive these interests once in a while, but I note with some sadness that it is not with the same passion as before.
Just thinking out aloud ... 
July 13, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Sorry, I am not sure what happened the previous time, I guess I posted a blank post!
Arun, this is such a cool blog spot, really enjoyed reading all the posts.
– Latha
July 13, 2007 at 3:53 pm
thanks latha. No blank post (even so i would have been able to delete it)
July 18, 2007 at 9:31 am
I followed this blog from ramsabode and from rasikas. I feel like i am writing this blog. Looks like a parallel life going on. Came to US many moons ago. Right from trichy to pink floyd/Def leppard to computers. Instead of guitar I got violin. Kind of lost interest in rock only after discovering CM/HM.
One on midlife crisis to not remembering the dorm, just the nail…I can tell my wife now I not the only one.
Thanks man. Your are awesome.
July 18, 2007 at 9:38 am
Hey thanks Giri. You are right – our evolution (well, euphemistically speaking for me 🙂 ) seems to have followed the same path. Cool.
BTW, You a RECTian (or NITian)? Or from another Trichy college?
Please keep visiting.
July 18, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Product of St.Joseph’s…1989 Good old days man reminds of Bryan Adams’ Summer of 69…just the essence of it. I know the song has a different meaning from wikipedia.
I will…Keep on posting.
July 18, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Hi Arunk,
Just landed in your page from some other link..
You know me, in my other avatAra – neelanjana is my avatAra here on wordpress! I guess I have left enough clues to tell you my identity..
Read your post on sAranga. Quite nice 🙂
-neelanjana
July 18, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Thanks for visiting neelanjana.
Your clue is quite vague but a bit of investigation + googling has given me a better idea (I think).
July 29, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I hope you know me now 🙂 If not, you will!
Take a look at the following link on Youtube. I am sorry it took me so long.
It is a delightful composition. I can help with the sAhitya, but the dancer does such a good job with her expressions – you may not even need it!
-neelanjana
July 30, 2007 at 8:47 am
thanks. my guess was right even before this one 🙂 I will pass it on.
August 29, 2007 at 2:16 pm
[…] About […]
August 31, 2007 at 5:43 pm
>> Arunk you said on July 18, 2007 at 5:17 pm
–Your clue is quite vague but a bit of
–investigation + googling has given me a better
–idea (I think).
Arunk, Can you tell me your thought process that lead to me? Just curious to see how googling helped 🙂
You can e-mail me your steps!
-neelanjana
May 27, 2008 at 3:05 am
Hi Arun, if you have made the guitar on carnatic music or tried some experiments, you can upload some pieces so all of us here in taara can hear. Cheers.
June 3, 2008 at 7:11 am
Hi Arun, I arrived at your blog from the wordpress tag on carnatic Music. So glad I did! Enjoyed every moment I spent here. made me add your blog to my blogroll too!
Regards
June 3, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Thanks asarma – actually my experiments with guitar and CM have been failures, simply because I am not that good 🙂
Thanks sangeethas and welcome to my blog!
March 17, 2010 at 9:43 am
Dear Arun,
I am writing this years after you wrote this entry. Let me tell you, you’re good! Your experiments with Carnatic and Gamakam are very useful, so I respectfully disagree with you.
You Indeed are Very Good !!
Arun: Thanks and thanks for visiting my blog. But, what is it that you disagree with me 🙂 ?
March 18, 2010 at 12:15 am
I disagree with this statement of yours, “my experiments with guitar and CM have been failures, simply because I am not that good”
🙂
I hope I am clear now.
I would love to connect with you to demonstrate (!!!) some of the good impacts you have made…you can connect with me through the email address that I have provided.
Arun: 🙂 – Thanks. I will contact you via email.
August 7, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Happened to read about “The magic of ritigowlai” and your quote “I have heard interpretations that this plea is something offered to someone who has decided to leave, and thus has some anguish in it.” So very true..lost my son in a car crash..”Nannu vidachi kathalagura,,” affects me profoundly.
Still when I listen Maharajapuram S sings this song I get transformed to a magical world where we had some joyful years with our son. Carnatic music heals wounds..Keep up the good work
Arun: So sorry to hear about your loss. I can relate to your pain as such a loss did hit my (extended but very close) family too. But still I can only imagine what parents must go through. I hope that music continues to heal the wound
September 5, 2008 at 11:33 am
Nice to know about you Arun, Will keep checking your blog once a while!
Arun: Thanks and welcome to my blog!
November 19, 2008 at 8:34 pm
hello
I have started a web blog to feature many artists in USA to perform this December season. We will have a different artist each day, with links to their videos online.
It is a humble beginning and I am hoping to get your blessings and encouragement.
Please check it out, and also inform your friends here in the States to participate.
http://musicseason08.wordpress.com/
thank you very much
Nandini Kambi
Nashville, Tennessee
December 7, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Hi Arun,
My name is Samanth Subramanian, and I’m a journalist working on an article about new media in Carnatic music — innovations that have been independently developed, such as your online transliterator. I was wondering if I could get your email i.d. (or your phone number, if you happen to be in Chennai for the season now)? My own is samanth [at] gmail [dot] com, so if you could write to me, perhaps I could ask you a few questions about the transliterator?
Regards,
Samanth
Arun: It was nice talking to you!
July 29, 2009 at 4:14 am
Sir,
I am from chennai, really happy to know your interest in Carnatic Music. My sons aged 14 and 12 are learning carnatic ( keyboard )for the past 3 yrs. Last month we recorded some songs and i uploaded them at Muziboo
my link address:www.muziboo.com/ourown/music
kindly hear them when you have time and you can send in your comments at my mail id:meena.m.raman@gmail.com
April 23, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Dear Arun
Please send me a test mail.
Cool
June 8, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Hi Arun ,
Loved your piece on nattakurinji . a wonderful expostion to say the least… there is one beautiful song composed by MG Radhakrishnan a gem of a composer in Kerala and sung by none other than the legendary Jesudas for a film called Ananthabhadram in this raga.. the song start is ” thira nurayum ..” Pls find the link here :
this is a typical NK in letter and spirit.. enjoy.. also post more and more .. BW
Arun: Thanks and thanks for visiting my blog!
August 8, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Thanks for building the typesetter Arun. I came across it by chance and have used it with great results. One question though. When I convert to PDF format, the output displays content only on one half of the page, and then leaves a lot of empty space and moves to the next page. Some other times, the first page fills completely but the second page has leading empty lines until the half page mark on that page is reached. I am not able to figure out how to make these empty lines go away. Is the PDF converter inserting the empty lines or the typesetter? Any thoughts? I am using the BullZip converter. Thanks for your input.
June 16, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Hi Arunk
I stumbled into one of your posts, on arohana and avarohana + saveri, by accident. Being an illiterate fan of carnatic music, I am learning by things by “random walk and assemble” process (for many years at snail pace, I may add). To get to the point, Have you got a corrected piece of the write up after the comment on g3? your write up is great for random walkers like me. many thanks. Venky
Arun: Thanks Venky. As far as I know, all corrections have been made i.e. current content of the post includes corrections. If not, please let me know.
February 7, 2012 at 3:49 am
Hi Arun,
I am writing to congratulate and thank you for the excellent cm typesetter. I am currently notating a book for a well known artist. Is there a mail id where I may be able to ask you a few questions ?
Thanks,
kumudha
September 10, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Landed here on googling “rudrapriya”. Great blog, very insightful!
-Sindhuja
March 21, 2015 at 7:38 am
Hi Arun:
Thanks for your blogs on Karnatic music. I would like to write a program that can generate (random) sequences of notes that follow the arohana/avarohana rule (not worrying about the gamakams in the beginng). Do you have any advice for me as to how to get started? Or any examples of work that you or others have done in this area.
March 23, 2015 at 8:28 am
Do you have an iphone/iPad? If so my app “Swarasthana” actually has this feature now (as part of Scale Identification game) – again no gamakas (doing with gamakas is much much harder I think). With flat notes, for most ragas (including asymmetric ones) the rule is simple – if a swara is in arohana you can ascend from it, if a swara is in avarohana, you can descend from it. So that tells you the underlying axiom. For patterns: break them down into smaller chunks: 2, 3 matras e.g., and for each chunk you pre-define what kinds of combinations. For example, a pattern that takes 3 matras can be swara pause pause (i.e. a long swara that takes 3 matras), or swara pause swara, swara swara pause, or swara swara swara and so on. Then you can define (if you want) patterns of 4 and 5 based on this (4 = 2 + 2, 5 = 2 +3 or 3 + 2). You then randomly select a pattern of 2/3/4/5 and then within that you select which kind (i.e. swara pause swara or swara swara swara etc.). Then you generate first swara based on the aro/avaro rule for last generated swara. Once you know get that, you can generate next swara in pattern (if any) following same rule. The resulting one may not be “as melodic” (this is why swarasthana actually follows a somewhat canned underlying melodic pattern) but it will get you going.
November 16, 2015 at 8:45 am
I Liked it your block,Did you Studied western music ?
April 2, 2017 at 3:16 pm
Hello,
I would like to use KrithiBook app, as I am interested in carnatic music. But my mother tongue is different and cannot understand all songs. Is there a trial period or something, before I pay 10$.
November 30, 2017 at 4:23 pm
Hi Arun, I cam across yours transliteration and I really like the way you have anusvara and other phonetics addressed in Tamil and other languages. I took iTrans and modified to get similar outputs based on my teacher’s corrections. Would you be able to share the mapping data or help me out how to map the Tamil from unicode? – Thanks
Mahesh Reddy