Net Gain

[This is my first full feature for Sound Box that appeared in the March 2011 issue. Sound Box is creating ripples in the music industry with the recent at-length discussion on India Copyright Act. February issue had Javed Akhtar explaining his stand and the March issue features the opinion from country’s leading musical labels – Saregama, Tips and Universal music. Check out the mag to get you up-to-date with the music industry buzz.]

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Roll back to pre-internet era in India. The chances of an aspiring musician getting noticed in the public were rare. You could try singing locally, in local bands or music troupes which would just be covering popular film songs. Your talent was scaled primarily on the basis of how close your version stood to the original or how much you succeeded in making yourself sound like the original singer. You just had to be a voice skeleton of someone else. And you would have a limited audience. Even if you had come up with an original set of songs, chances were still rare that you could reach your target audience. Until of course the Net arrived.

The arrival of the internet completely changed the lives of amateur and aspiring musicians. In the Web 1.0 era, it would let you register a website of your own and add your profile with music. People from around the world would then have access to your website and they would be able to download and listen to your songs. But the opportunity to interact with the audience was still lacking. Then came Web 2.0, with blogs and social networking sites, and this has led to some revolutionary changes in the field of amateur music.

The transformation

Music blogging was one major venture that drastically changed the face of music in the virtual world. It has helped many people who could not devote all their time to music but had great passion for music in their lives. So it was the amateurs or part-time musicians like Vidyu Appaiah who flourished.

Vidyu Appaiah
Vidyu Appaiah

Appaiah is a trained singer from Calicut, Kerala, and used to perform on stage from the age of 10. But she had completely given up on music after her marriage and moved to the US. In 2005, she put together a website that had her cover versions of popular film songs. Then in 2006, she started her own music blog. “Music blogging has given me the opportunity to share my music with friends and family. The desire to sing and be heard is there in every artist big or small, and this is perfect for me in terms of reaching out to a small, regular audience from the comfort of my home. Blogging also opened doors for me to get opportunities to sing on stage after moving to the US,” says Vidyu.

 

Murali Venkatraman

A heartening aspect of music blogging is that you do not need a promoter, a music label or even going to a studio to make yourself heard. All you need is a mic, a recording software and a free account on a blogging platform like Blogger or WordPress. You need not worry about the technical aspects of building a website. Murali Venkatraman, one of the earliest music bloggers from India, says, “I have been composing from 2001 and music blogging was a good platform to present some of my work without much of a website building fuss.”

 

It is not solely the amateur musicians that music blogging has helped to have a fan base. Pradip Somasundaran from Thrissur, Kerala, who was the winner of the Lata Mangeshkar award for Best Male Singer of India through Meri Awaz Suno (the first of its kind music reality show on Indian TV), got the opportunity to build a fan base across the globe through his music blog. Though he was offered a recording contract with Yash Raj as part the prize along with Sunidhi Chauhan who shared the title with him, it never materialised. He had been singing in a few Malayalam films and was doing stage shows but music blogging brought him many fans from different parts of the world.

Interact with your listeners

The comment box interaction with the listeners through the music blogs has given an opportunity for music bloggers to improve themselves. Based on listener comments, one can sing again and post a revised version of a song. Some listeners say “I feel the reverb was a bit too much”, or “in the second verse, you have sung too plainly”. This leads the music blogger to take notice of the details of singing, recording and mixing. Eventually this helps them become better singers or musicians. However there are a few setbacks to this, as some music bloggers have found out.

Sindhuja Bhaktavatsalam
Sindhuja Bhaktavatsalam

Sindhuja Bhaktavatsalam, a music blogger and a trained singer who has recently performed with Pt Ravi Shankar’s Ensemble at Hollywood Bowl, says, “Blogging (or any kind of performance for that matter) makes you more audience oriented and so you tend to focus less on your own growth as a singer. When blogging was new to me, I would crave for comments on my blog- I think that’s natural. It became more of “how will people like this and how many comments will I get?” rather than “how well have I actually sung this and how better can I get at this?”

 

Meera Manohar
Meera Manohar

Meera Manohar, a singer of the band Thillana and a music blogger, says that comments should help improve and not be detrimental or demoti-vating to artists. “Ideally, listeners should appreciate the effort that has gone into making a cover/original, whatever it might be. I do see some frivolous comments which in my opinion can be avoided,” Manohar says.

But since music bloggers have grown to become a large online community, honest comments are sometimes hard to come by. “The commitment, in my humble opinion, must be towards the art and not towards the person. In fact if you are a very good friend of an artist, it is only useful if you are honest about their performance and talent,” says Venkatraman.

Music collaboration, virtually

The primary phase of music blogging had the bloggers singing cover versions. A music blogger would usually record over an available karaoke track and post it on their music blog. This would be a solo track mostly. Later on, with the freedom that technology gave them, they have begun posting duets for which they have a singer from another part of the world. With the ease of recording vocals alone, one singer from Kerala can record his vocals at his place and have the other portion of the vocals recorded by a singer who might be residing in the US and give it to a third person in Mumbai to mix the tracks. All the file exchanges are done over email and when the listeners hear the final track, it is like the song was done in one place with everybody involved physically present.

The ease of such recording techniques has made some bloggers think about creating original songs rather than posting karaoke cover versions of film songs on their blog. Thus were born many original songs in the music blogs, with each of the involved person living in different parts of the world – lyricist, composer, singer, orchestrator, rhythm programmer and the sound engineer. This led to further ideas and Blogswara (www.blogswara.in), the first of its kind collaborative music project, was born. Even though Blogswara was formed to create an album that consists of original works from music bloggers, it has continued to be a permanent platform for all amateur and aspiring singers.

The music network

The vast popularity of music blogging particularly in the South-Indian diaspora has encouraged the birth of many new websites and music social networking sites. Among the notable ones is Muziboo. com, a networking website started by Prateek and Nithya Daya, a couple from Bengaluru. Today Muziboo hosts a large number of musicians from around the world, some of whom have been noticed by prominent musicians in the industry. Music blogger George Kuruvilla was invited to sing for Sonu Nigam’s musical tribute to Michael Jackson, MJ, this one’s for you. Another Muziboo member Nithya Bayya recently made her debut in the Telugu music industry. There are many such success stories.

Today there are 120 music blogs listed at Audio india (www.musicblogsindia.com), an online directory of music bloggers. A majority of these music bloggers are from South India and most of them are non-resident Indians. Even though not all of them put up frequent posts and some have migrated to other music networking websites, bloggers like Sindhuja feel that a blog is where one can keep one’s own individual identity compared to social networking sites.

The enormous number and interest of music blogs and bloggers have been subjected to study in a university abroad. Jessica Dyck, a student in the Department of Music in University of Alberta in Canada wrote her graduate thesis in 2008 on the basis of music blogging in the Indian diaspora. Her paper was titled “Blogging Music: Indian Musicians and Online Musical Spaces”. In her 111 pages long thesis, she had mentioned why she chose the Indian music blogging scene for her thesis:

“Why focus on Indian music blogging? Within the entire blogging world, there are people from every place who post music blogs, and many have extremely high readership. However, after extensive searching, I was unable to find any music blogs other than these Indian ones used for posting recordings of the blogger’s own music in an amateur, noncommercial format. The vast majority of music blogs on the Internet are focused on introducing and reviewing indie bands or posting gossip, songs and videos by major label recording artists. The Indian music blogging community is one truly centered around making and sharing music for the pleasure of singing, listening, and growing musically.”

Bringing back original instruments to music

[I have started writing for My Smart Life, an initiative by Nokia India that features guest authors from various walks of life who have made use of technology and social media in their work and life. Here is my second article that has been published in My Smart Life. Go to the website and check out rest of the articles there.]

 

Sometimes back I was listening to a song that was submitted to Blogswara. It was a melodious song and was totally mesmerizing. I called up the composer of the song and told him that the song sounded really nice. While discussing the details of the song, I had also mentioned that I loved the Sitar played in parts of the song. The composer first laughed when he heard me. Then he told me that it was him who played the Sitar. Just one difference – he played the Sitar on his keyboard, using VST.

VST (Virtual Studio Technology) is very commonly used among musicians these days. With VST, you could emulate the tones of musical instruments and avoid the use of manual orchestra. Not that it is an easy thing. You will need to have absolute knowledge of how an instrument works or else it would be disastrous to hear. VST has helped musicians who have small budgets for their projects but what effect has it made in a musician’s life?

The truth is that except for the small budget projects, the musicians are still in need in the recording industry. But the scene is drastically changing. If there was a full piece orchestra recording in a studio sometimes back, now it’s only 2-3 musicians recording in multi-layered tracks to produce the effect of a full piece orchestra. The only essential instruments in a typical Indian recording studio seem to be Violin, Veena, Flute and Tabla. Or any other authentic instrument that cannot be produced or would not sound so perfect in VST. Even in the stage shows, instrumental musicians are just show pieces and it would be the electronic keyboard player who does the trick. So one major complaint that we hear these days is that digitization is killing independent musicians.

But is the digitization of music that bad? Will it really take your bread away? The answer is no. To survive in any profession, you need to constantly keep updating your skills and prove that you play an essential part in the whole structure. Same goes with music too. If you fully rely on playing accompany music, there isn’t much in store for you in the future. So you got to do something unique, define your niche. Once you do that, you could use the technology, which you thought would take away your bread and butter, to help you grow.

Let us take the example of Zoë Keating, a Canadian Cellist from California. She calls herself a ‘one-woman orchestra’. I first heard Zoë in one of the Radiolab podcasts where she had explained and demonstrated a device that she invented. She uses a cello and a foot-controlled laptop to record layer upon layer of cello, looping and creating beautiful music. Zoë release her albums by herself, online, and she has sold over 35,000 copies and has 1.3 million followers in Twitter. Her website showcases her work with the option to buy her albums. In her music page, she says “No middlemen involved other than PayPal and your purchase allows me to keep making music, for which I am profoundly grateful”. No middlemen. No music labels and the royalty fights. No big hoardings and marketing managers. Yet she sells thousands of copies of her album online and gets the show bookings.

Zoë is the perfect example of how instrumental musicians can use technology and social media – the very same thing that they thought had threatened them and their career – to their advantage. For if they have music in them and want to build a career in it, nothing can take it away from them. Not even VST.

Nilaa Nilaa Mizhiye (from Tournament)

It’s been a long long time since I have sung or recorded anything. The little one is taking most of my time, not that I am complaining. With him, life is so much different but in a very positive way that I forget the sleep interruptions, waking up early, spending time with him and all that. I just love being with him. 🙂 He is the most precious thing ever in my life. But last weekend, I took sometime off baby sitting with wifey’s permission and recorded this song. The thing is, I have not been singing much these days and music blogging is an excuse to get back to singing. To sing properly after a few months was really tiring but I enjoyed every moment of it.

Here is yet another gem from Deepak Dev. Let me know what you think and thanks for listening. 🙂

A note to M Jayachandran, the music director

Dear M Jayachandran

I like your music because your songs are melodious. I have done some cover versions of your songs in my music blog because I loved them so much. And then I happened to read an interview of yours in Manorama newspaper and I have a problem with some of the things you have said there against singers. You, in an effort to paint yourself white has gone overboard with your comments on the singers. You were asked “why do you hate singers so much?” and there is something in your answer that I want to talk about here.

You said: “Singers see us as a ladder to fame. When the song becomes a hit they forget the ladder. Then they behave as they wish.”

I don’t get this. Of course, everybody in the industry is using everybody else for work. There are so many music directors out there who use singers to sing for them free of cost. These music directors don’t pay a single penny to the singers. Instead, they promise a hit. Obviously the singers would have the same attitude to music directors as well. And what exactly is your concern? The singers to whom you give songs don’t behave like slaves? That they need to treat you as if you are some colonial landlord or something? Times have changed, MJ.

You said: “I pay even the new singers. But they should be convinced that their performance was worthy of getting paid.”

First of all, it is not your generosity that you pay the new singers. I mean, what the heck! You choose a singer only after the audition rounds and when you are fully convinced that the singer can deliver what you want. And when you get the singer to sing your song, you are supposed to pay him/her the money that he/she earned with their time and effort. Your words, that you pay “even” the new singers, come from a cheap industry standard where you guys – music directors – do not pay the new singers for their efforts so that you can keep all the money that the producers give you. You do that in the name of giving them “a chance”. Shame on you!

You said: “Those who sing well in ganamelas (music troupes) would be like a cat in the water when it comes to recording in a studio. Because even the small mistakes would be audible in a recording studio”.

Singing well on a live stage show is not an easy thing. To dance when you sing is even harder. Singing in a studio and singing live are two different things. One has to learn the techniques of recording in a studio and it needs good preparation if they are inexperienced in studio singing. In fact, I don’t see any problem for a live singer to adapt to the studio recording techniques after a few tries. On the other hand, have you ever heard those “perfect” studio artists struggling to sing when they do live stage shows? Have you noticed how many of them do the lip-sync business on stage?

You said: “After the recording, we have to spend two days to correct their pitch. We have softwares available to do that. The great songs sung by Yesudas or Sujatha were not pitch-corrected this way.”

Do you believe all Yesudas songs were recorded in one take? I heard that in the early days, when there was no punch-in recording or multi-track recording, the whole team including the singer and orchestra had to repeatedly perform the entire song if there was a single mistake. The time and energy wasted on this was humongous, let alone the money that a producer has to pay for the studio time. With the advanced technology you can record the orchestra and singers separately, that too at the convenience of the music director and artists. This saves you time, helps you schedule your recording sessions better and to spend little time on correcting a specified line or word. So what is wrong in using the advantage of technology? Of course, I understand that the option to correct the pitch has made singers lazy and the singers have to work on their part to deliver their work perfectly, but your words seem just an excuse to not pay the singers.

You also mentioned that there are singers who offer to sing without getting paid. Likewise, I have heard of music directors approaching new movie directors with the offer to compose music for free. Ahem… Also I have heard of a music director often being described as the beacon of caste-politics in the Malayalam film music industry (the so called Nair spirit is what I am referring to). Any words on that? 😉

So here is what I really want to say. Clean your yard first and then talk.

Thank you.

To all the girls I loved before…

The Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean a thing to me personally and I have never celebrated it. Except for one time when Muthalik and co. were out in arms against the couples in Mangalore who wanted to celebrate the day. My mode of celebration (or protest) was music though (check out the song “Let them sleep“). This year, I take the opportunity to recall all the good and bad memories of my boyhood, teenage and early adulthood crushes and infatuations. These memories, good or bad, have only added value to my life at the end.

The first crush I had was to a girl who used to come for group song practice sessions. I was too shy even to take a straight look at her and would put up a serious-about-music look myself. The group was a mix of senior and junior boys and girls and obviously there would be senior fellows eying on girls who spent too much time on talking than singing and they made jokes to impress the opposite sex. I, being the “good guy” was rather irritated of all these. Then this girl whom I mentioned would take a note of this and would ask the other girls to stop talking and start singing. The “good guy” was impressed that the girl focused on music and took a notice of my feelings. Later on I found out that she has an interest in literature too, which was an added reason to be more impressed. However, it was just a crush and I did not even know how to express it.

In my boyhood, there was another girl who used to come for music competitions in several stages. She was tall, lean, fair, had cropped hair and a very peaceful look on her face. I saw her for a few music competitions and there was something about her that attracted me so much. Perhaps it is how peaceful she looked. Or perhaps it is just that she did not have a giggly girlish thing about her. She did not seem to talk too much. And I did not know anything about her – her name, where she came from or anything. I just observed her with some kind of curiosity from a distance. I would even imagine going out together.

During the teenage, there was this girl from the local neighborhood. I had to help a team for Christmas carol choir practice that year. Though my gang of friends used to take a note of this girl, I never had a chance to interact with her. So there I had my chance with the choir practice. Occasional smiles and gestures were passed to each other and I could see her friend noticing the whole thing. I could see the girls whispering to each other, looking at me and giggling at times. I would do anything to impress her, would go to her house to call her for practice sessions and would make silly jokes when we traveled together for singing competitions. She was beautiful and I remember writing in my old diary at that time that “she looked like an angel in those white robes” when I saw her one day. That was probably the first one-way love affair but I was sure she had something going for me too. Probably, she wanted to hear from me first. But I, being the shy guy I was, blew off that chance.

Then came a pen friend, from a distance. We wrote to each other. I sent her a hand-painted birthday card for her birthday and that really impressed her. The inland letters from her moved way to heart-shaped papers. I would try hard to improve my English writing skills because her language seemed scarily perfect. That was the time I quit college and was working as a gold smith. She would insist me to continue the studies. And one day she gave me her phone number. I was earning very little those days, just about 600 bucks a month, but I spent so much of it on the phone calls. Scariest part was when she spoke English and I had a hard time understanding what she said. Then finally one day I went to her hometown to meet her. There she was! A typical NRI child, not so cute but all so modern. She came with her friend wearing a black T and jeans. I could tell from the shock on her face that she did not expect a short, lean, un-interesting guy who stood before her. Then came the worst moment. She said some of her friends would come along soon and she did not want me to tell them that I am her so-called pen friend. I just had to pretend I’m just a casual friend of her friend. She did not speak a word thereafter. I just sat there, humiliated.

Then came Internet and one chat friend. Again, phone calls and offline meetings. Then the first kiss which went just great. I remember sending her a cheesy message that evening which said “you made me feel like a man”, which was a rip-off from the Celine Dion song “you made me feel like a woman” from the album “Falling into you”. There was a personal record of a phone call that lasted 10 hours one day- from 10 at night to 8 in the morning. Many adventures followed and I enjoyed every bit of it. Everything about that relationship was too perfect to be real and obviously it began to break up. In an year and a half, we realized that we would be better being just friends.

Then there was one, who did brighten up each of my day with her words. A lovely girl. A good soul. A wonderful friend. By that time I had passed the boyish notions about love but was still looking for a soul-mate. I thought this girl would fit my life like a T emotionally but then there were many other things I considered and I realized it would be totally unreasonable. Moreover, I did not want to humiliate her a bit with telling her about what I thought of her. We remain good friends.

This valentine’s day, I remember them all. I thank them for the whole thing because at a time when my life had nothing interesting going on, the thoughts and dreams about them kept me alive. Some of them helped me learn a lesson or two about life too. And if you ask me, I would never regret any part of it.

Today I have a lovely wife who could tell what I am thinking or if my mood is changing by just one look at my face. With her I know that the tiny fights we have would only strengthen our relationship. And just a tight hug would do to ease out any problem between ourselves. To her, I toast on this valentine’s day.

Here is a song I had posted earlier which I think would be perfect for the occasion. Have a good day, everyone. 🙂 Oh, and about the post title? That’s a Willie Nelson song. You should check it out. 🙂

Wilson Pereira

Wilson Pereira is a short film by Dhaneesh Jameson and it has vocal narrations of Mohan Lal (Malayalam), Nasirudeen Shah (Hindi) and Tom Alter (English). The film tells the story of Wilson Pereira, a cemetry keeper. The story that unfolds take you for a mystery ride. Beautiful animation, music and voice overs by some very talented actors. Check it out.

Wilson Periera (Malayalam) from Dhaneesh Jameson on Vimeo.

Ente Sampathu – Malayalam Gospel Rock

Here is a song that perhaps you could call the first Malayalam gospel rock song. This song was written and composed by the 19th century Christian missionary and poet Sadhu Kochukunju Upadeshi and this version was done by Sanjeev Thomas on the vocals (lead guitarist for A R Rahman), Baiju Dharmajan on lead guitars (of ex-“Motherjane” and now “Wrenz United” fame) and bassist Keith Peters (lead bassist for A R Rahman). The song was recorded at music director Deepak Dev’s D Major studio. I like this song for the distinct vocals of Sanjeev and the treatment of Baiju and Keith on the strings. Check it out!

Music review – Payyans, Living Together

(This music review was first appeared in Sound Box – India’s Premier Music Trade Magazine. Do check out the magazine from the nearest news stand.)

Movie: Payyans
Music: Alphonse Joseph
Lyrics: Kaithapram, Anil Panachooraan
Rating: 3.5 stars

People outside Kerala would know Alphonse Joseph as the guy who sang the ballad “Aaromale” in Tamil movie Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, composed by A R Rahman. Alphonse’s plus point, be it in singing or composing, is his strong influence of western music and his ability to sing high-octave songs. Payyans, the new filmy album from Alphonse is also a satisfying album in that genre. The album consists of four original songs, an unplugged version of the opening track and three karaoke tracks.

The first song “Thennal Chirakundo” is sung by Karthik and Jyotsna. The song starts off with a beautiful guitar riff and bass. The good thing about this song is that it does not over kill the vocals with orchestration and each compliments the other beautifully. One thing that does stand out though is Karthik’s Malayalam pronunciation at parts. Other than that both the vocalists have done a good job on this song. The unplugged version of this song is also included in the album.

The music arrangement at the beginning of the second song, “Route maari nadakkaam” would remind you of the song “Oru koodai sunlight” from the Rajnikanth movie Sivaji. This is a trendy song and the vocals of Benny Dayal and Reshmi is a perfect choice. What irritates us with this song is its lyrics. Many of our lyricists seem to think that just throwing in some words like style, blue tooth, pizza, facebook, chat etc would make a trendy, peppy song. But in fact it is the lyrics that puts us down. If not for the vocals of Benny and Reshmi, you would have skipped to the next number right away.

Katha Parayaan” is a beautiful melodious number sung by the veteran singer P Jayachandran. This song would steal your heart in the first listen.  “Doore vazhi” is sung by Alphonse Joseph himself. The song fits his voice and range like a T. It’s mid to high octave singing is a perfect fit for Alphonse. The orchestral arrangement is also very interesting with a mix of eastern and western style.

I would go with 3.5 out of 5 for this album. This is certainly one good work from Alphonse Joseph, the music director.

Movie: Living Together
Music: M Jayachandran
Lyrics: Kaithapram
Rating: 3 stars

When it comes to M Jayachandran’s music, what you would primarily expect is some melodious numbers coupled with a semi-classical number. MJ does not disappoint his fans with this album. His choice of singers for this album is also notable. There are 8 tracks in this filmy album.

Paattinte Palkadavil is a melodious dance number sung by Shreya Ghoshal. Shreya has done an awesome job on the vocals of this song. It’s admirable to see this singer rendering her songs to perfection, no matter which language it is. There is a male version of this song, sung by Vijay Yesudas.

Raaga Chandranariyaathe is a beautiful duet by Karthik and Swetha. Karthik’s vocal in this song is quite good. Saamarasa Ranjani is a semi-classical number sung by M G Sreekumar. MGS has done this very well.

It looks like M Jayachandran cannot do an album without Yesudas. He has spared a beautiful melodious number called Mayangoo Nee Sakhi for Yesudas. Yesudas’ voice is straining with his age and it is obviously evident in the songs which he have been singing lately. But still it’s amazing to see this man singing quite well for his age.

Kuttikurumbaa Vaa is a fun song that opens with a children chorus. Anila has sung this song and she has put so much energy and fun into the song that it requires. Sudeep has sung the male version of this song which is also an energy-filled version. Ilaku Naage is sung by Sannidhaanandan and Janardhanan. Sannidhanandan is the perfect choice for this folk-ish song.

To sum it up, this album is a mixed bag of folk, dance, semi-classical, romantic melodies which you would definitely like if you have always liked M Jayachandran’s music, but do not expect any surprises here. I would go with 3 out of 5 stars for M Jayachandran’s music for Living Together.

(Images courtesy: Metromatinee.com, Kerals.com)

Happy New Year and a song!

First of all, Happy New Year everyone! May this year bring lots of happiness, peace and prosperity in your lives. May this new year also teach you to be your betterselves. What better way to spend a new year eve than composing and singing a new song! Nisikanth (from Eenam) sent me his beautiful lyrics for a new year song. The song is meant to be the first song for the new effort called “Naadham”. I composed the song instantly because I loved the lyrics so much because it had the flavour of New Year and friendship of the virtual world. I sang a rough draft and sent it to Krishna Raj (who has composed and orchestrated a song for Blogswara V6). This is the first time I talked to Krishna and we got the tempo going. Krishna created an amazing orchestration for my composition, almost instantly. I am awestruck by the talent of this guy, Krishna. When I got the minus track to record the song again, I was taken to another plane because of Krishna’s magical touch.

So here comes a song that was born in just 2 days, through emails. My first song in 2011. Do hear and let us know what you think.

Song: Swaramunarum Manassukalil
Lyrics: Nisikanth
Orchestration: Krishna Raj
Composed and sung by: Joseph Thomas (Jo)

Download “Swaramunarum Manassukalil” (7.69 MB)

Lyrics:

സ്വരമുണരും മനസ്സുകളിൽ
ഇതൾ വിരിയും നാദലയം
ഏതൊരാജന്മ ബന്ധമായ്
പൂത്തുനില്ക്കുമീ സൗഹൃദം
ഏതപൂർവ്വ സൌഭാഗ്യമായ്
നമ്മളൊന്നുചേർന്നീവിധം
ഈ വേദിയിൽ കൂട്ടായ്‌വരും
ഈണങ്ങളായി നേരാം
പുതുവൽസരാശംസകൾ….
പുതുവൽസരാശംസകൾ….

ലോകമെങ്ങുമീകൈവിരൽ
തുമ്പിലേക്കൂടിനുള്ളിലായ്
കോടിവർണ്ണങ്ങൾ കൺകൾ തൻ
മുന്നിൽനീർത്ത കണ്ണാടിയിൽ
തേടുന്നൊരീ നവ വേദിയിൽ, പ്രിയ
മോടിന്നു നാം കൂട്ടായിടാം
പുതുവൽസരാശംസകൾ….
പുതുവൽസരാശംസകൾ….

കാണുമെന്നെങ്കിലും യുഗം
കാത്തിരുന്നിടാമെങ്കിലും
കാത്തുവച്ചിടാമാദിനം
കണ്ണടഞ്ഞുപോകാതെ നാം
ഈ യാത്രയിൽ, ഈ വേളയിൽ, നാ-
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