Musician Madurai R Sundar: Madurai Profile

Musician Madurai R Sundar's Self Narrating Profile

I was born into a family where Carnatic music, in some form and degree, was part of day-to-day life. While my grand parents and parents were knowledgeable listeners-connoisseurs of Carnatic music, I had in my aunt Smt. Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan a reputed concert musician, who had had her training under stalwarts like Sathur A.G. Subramania Iyer and Semmangudi Sriinivasa Iyer. All these set the tone for what was to become an integral part of my life.

The initial lessons and several kritis were taught by my aunt and I had the privilege of singing with her in a few of her concerts. She, apparently, saw in me a sincere yearning to pursue music and since she visited us only for a couple of months in a year, she persuaded my parents to put me through rigorous training under a guru in Madurai. At that time Sri. T.N.Seshagopalan was setting out in his career as a performing musician and it was Smt. Ambujam Krishna, a close friend of the family, who suggested to my aunt that I should learn from TNS. My parents Smt. Vijaya and Sri.A.N.Ramaswamy put my sister Radha and myself under TNS’s tutelage in 1971. That was a turning point in my pursuit of music. My sister and I had our debut in concert at a marriage reception in Pazhani in May 1974. We performed together for a few years until our srutis dictated a separation.

There were a few sabhas in Madurai that hosted concerts regularly, giving me memorable moments of listening to musicians like Semmangudi, DKP, MDR, Chembai and so on.

My five years at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras gave me opportunity to compete in the music competitions in Chennai and also listen toattend music concerts regularly.Participating in the competititons helped build both my repertoire and confidence. After securing my bachelors degree in Engineering, I joined IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Ahmedabad for an MBA in Finance and Computer Systems. Despite the excruciating schedule, I had opportunities to both practise and perform.

After my MBA, I branched off into information technology as my mainstay. Padma and I got married in Aug 1985. We have been residents of USA since 1989. We have a son Sai Karthik (b 1998) who is a student of the Mridangam Maestro Dr.Trichy Sankaran

I pursue a dual career - of IT Manager and musician-cum-teacher. My wife and myself run a school by the name Trinity Academy of Fine Arts and offer one-on-one lessons in vocal music.

When I am not singing or teaching, I enjoy a quiet moment reading novels (English and Tamil, especially Tamil) or watching tennis and basketball or riding an exer-cycle. Another favorite past time of mine is long distance driving with my family, while listening to good music.

Madurai R Sundar

Please check out his profile in his personal website

Nakkeerar - Madurai Profile

Lord Shiva performed "Thiruvilayadals" for poets who prayed to him for succour. Once the Pandiyan king had a doubt as to whether the scent from a woman's hair was natural or artificial. He announced a price of 1000 gold coins for anyone who clear his doubt. A poor poet named Tharumi prayed to Lord Shiva to make him get the award. The Lord gave a poem to the poet and asked him to take it to the King. When this poem was read in the court, Poet Nakkeerar found fault with it and stopped the giving od the prize. Alas! Tharumi's grief grew and he again appealed to the Lord. He said he was not for not receiving the prize but he could not bear anyone finding fault with the Lord's poems.

Thereupon, Lord Shiva himself came to the court and challenged Nakkeerar. But Nakkeerar could not be cowed down. Though the divine poet asked him if the hair of Ganapoongodai,the consort of Lord Kalathinathar,whom Nakkeerar worshipped ,did not have the natural scent,the undaunted Nakkeerar asserted that it was so.

Suddenly the Lord opened the eye in his forehead (Netrikkan) which emitted fire and looked at Nakkeerar to show the poet who he was. Even then, Nakkeerar persisted in his statement. As he could not bear the scorching heat, emanating from the divine eye he jumped into the water of the Golden Lotus Tank. Then at the request of the other poets, the Lord took Nakkeerar out of the tank, forgave him and made him study under 'Agasthiar', the tamil Sage.

Source: madurai dot com

Madurai M.K.Azhagiri

MK Azhagiri | M.K.Azhagiri | M K Azhagiri

Muthuvel Karunanidhi Azhagiri, generally known as M. K. Azhagiri, Madurai, is an Indian politician. The elder son of the head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, Karunanidhi, he is a candidate to succeed him as party president.

Although he harboured hopes of eventual accession to the post of President, Karunanidhi always appeared to prefer his younger son, M.K. Stalin, a former mayor of Chennai and currently a minister in the state cabinet. In fact, in 2000, orders went out that partymembers should 'distance' themselves from Azhagiri.

Following clashes between the supporters of M. K. Stalin and M. K. Azhagiri, he was sent to manage the party in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu from Madurai, while M. K. Stalin was retained in Chennai to manage the party in the northern districts.

M.K.Azhagiri has two daughters and one son. He lives in Madurai.

Source: Wikipedia

Someone in crowd tried to attack Stalin in Madurai

Tamil Nadu Urban Development Minister M.K. Stalin, son of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, escaped unhurt as an unknown assailant threw a knife at him while he was surrounded by admirers at the Madurai railway station Tuesday.

According to police sources in Madurai, as Stalin disembarked from a train, someone pulled his shirt from behind. As his attention was distracted, someone else from a distance threw a knife into the crowd.

The attacker escaped, police said. A policeman, Suresh Kumar, sustained injuries to his hand as he tried to catch the assailant. Police are reluctant to give details of the attack or the number of people involved.

However, the opposition parties claim that this drama is for getting a 'Z' category security for Mr.Stalin.

Read More here

Notable People from Madurai

Thanks to Wikipedia for this information. We are posting this information in this blog, just for social cause - not for any personal benefits.

Carnatic singer M S Subbulakshmi
"Madurai Gandhi" N M R Subbaraman
Mathematician Augustus De Morgan
Carnatic singer Madurai Mani Iyer
Carnatic singer Madurai Somu @ Somasundaram
Carnatic singer Madurai T. N. Seshagopalan
Carnatic singer T M Soundrajan
Bharatanatyam dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale
Writer Indira Soundarajan
Pattimandram Specialist Solomon Papaiah
Nagaswaram Vidwan MPN Ponnuswamy
Industrialist Auto T V Sundaram Iyengar
Biologist David Raja Premkumar
Poet Vairamuthu
Educationalist Peter Isaac

and much more, not mentioned here..

Madurai Kamaraj University Staff

please note - this incident does not want to hurt all the staff of the university or government employees. this article is written just for fun and this is to be taken in a comic sense, even though it is a real incident.

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I went to Madurai Kamaraj Univeristy couple of years back with my friend for his distance education course on Marketing Management. We were waiting for his uncle to reach his department in the university, so that we can get his help for getting the admission for his distance education course.

We waited..waited..waited. At around 11:30AM, his uncle came after all his side business activities (his side business - is to give loans and get interests!!). After reaching the university he ordered for vada and tea. In fact, we were also offered for the same and we had! Point to be noted here is till afternoon he didn't look into his files for his work!! Not sure he worked after we left the office in the afternoon!

We also noticed that there were few folks reading kumudam and ananda vikatan tamil magazines.

If you are thinking this is what happens in government office, it is not the case - they also do work - otherwise how does the things function. We cannot always crib about them!! There are exceptions!!

In fact, today's few of the software engineers - are reading dinamani, kumudam and vikatan.com online for timepass!! I don't see much difference, when both of them read the magazines in the office time!

If the job is done by them somehow, it should be fine. If the job is not done, the question should be raised to the staff - otherwise he/she should be fine. This is one way of seeing it.

Having said all these, we are all really proud of having Madurai Kamaraj University in Madurai. It offers huge set of classes and some of the great students are prepared there. Great scholars are made in this place!!

Professors are great and if you take a look at the set of courses they offer - it is huge! All over India, people are taking courses from the Distance Education Courses.

In fact, BioTechnology course www.biotechmku.org and the department is very famous in India. Campus interviews are also there in this university for placement of the students of this university.

Check out http://www.mkudde.org/ for more details.

Madurai People and movies based in Madurai

There are lot of movies based on Madurai and they had been very very successful. Madurai belongs to the south tamil nadu and if we take up South Madurai - it is even more fun.

The slang of Tamil spoken in Madurai is different than other districts of Tamil Nadu. "Vandaangae...Ponaangae...". There is no respect in the language, but the people are really nice! they are excellent people.

If you are a guest to a house, you will be treated like a king/queen. You will be asked for everything and you can have nice food, mixed with love and affection.

Kadal, Madurey, Kizhakku Cheemayile, Thevar Magan, Virumaandi etc., were sooper dooper hits and they were all shot in Madurai.

If you have to feel the nicety of Madurai people, you got to visit Madurai, India!

Attitude of people in Madurai

Attitude of people in Madurai is kind of different than the people in Chennai.
There is a word in Tamil - Kaattaan, which is not a complete derogatory term.

Madurai Kaattaan is referred to a person who is unrefined and uneducated. In other words, uncivilized! Well, you might think it is not wonderful to be a person like that! But you are wrong...

It is really fun to be with these kind of guys, because they are good at heart. That is the point to be noted. Unlike Chennai guys, these Madurai guys care about others, if there is an emergency.

Madurai guys might spit inside a bus, but they will help you if you are hurt in a bus.

Madurai folks might be kaattaan's but they are good at heart. That's why they are great!

Well, from a professional point of view, they need to be refined to become improved in their life and their life style for a better living.