"A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step"
So it is with this little experiment that we started exactly one year ago called Raga Surabhi. Yes, it is a special moment for us, as Raga Surabhi turns one - it is a moment to reflect and look back with happiness, satisfaction and indeed pride. Around the same time last year, Raga Surabhi had a small collection of 10 ragas and today, as we complete one year, we are thrilled to see the count touch the magical figure of 100!
Raga Surabhi stands testimony to the fact that something special, is indeed possible, as we cope with the demands of the daily grind that is life. We cherish all that is part of Raga Surabhi - the Weekly Raga Quiz, Surabhi Post, Identifying Ragas and Raga Comparisons. But, above all that, what we cherish the most about Raga Surabhi is You! - the many rasikas, who have encouraged us all along to fare forward, week after week. To get mails from new visitors who stumble upon our website is really a thrill and that alone acts as a tonic and keep us going! A mail we got recently from a new visitor sums up both the goal and the tiny accomplishment of Raga Surabhi:
"Hello Hats off to you people... one understands the value of internet when we get to see these sites. I get the feeling that even I can learn ragas..."
Now, that we have crossed the 100 raga milestone, we feel it is time to switch gears. We plan to go slow on adding new ragas as the 100 covered so far is sizable and forms a good set for carnatic music appreciation. We hope to continue the other segments as usual, especially the Weekly Raga Quiz. Do continue to participate in the Weekly Quiz contests and keep your feedback coming to us. We really like that. Also, an important task we plan to undertake in lieu of adding new ragas is updating the existing ragas with new audio clips. As some of you may be aware, we recently upgraded our audio recording equipment and the sound quality with the new arrangement is much better. We hope to rerecord all of the old audio content with the new equipment in the course of the next several weeks.
And, last but not the least, we would like to thank Mr. Shafeek from Chennai (colleague of Ramasubramaniam) and Ramu Adapala (colleague of Sriram) from Bangalore, who helped us put up the special visual effects on the website to celebrate the occasion of Raga Surabhi's first anniversary. Hope you like the beautiful stars and balloons as well as the popup window. (Alright, yes, the popup will be removed after some time :)
Week 53 Update:
New Ragas added: Kurinji, Nadanamakriya, Punnagavarali, Shenjurutti, Yamuna Kalyani. The new raga segment for this week features five ragas that are commonly sung in the madhyama shruti.
Surabhi Post 11 - (A must read before listening to new ragas of this week). Talks about the meaning of madhyama shruti and how it differs from the normal panchama shruti
Weekly Quiz 53 and DIY exercises - We have a special question in our weekly quiz apart from the regular three questions. Its quite some time since we introduced the DIY exercises, so we thought it would now be appropriate to move on to akaram exercises along with swaras. Hope rasikas like the idea and find it useful.
Testimonials updated
Golden Jubilee Raga Crossword Results and discussion on Weekly Quiz page
Full song added: Raga Rathna Malikache
Full song for the week
"Raga Ratna Malikache Ranjillu Nata Shri Hari Sata" in Reeti Gowlai set to Adi tala believed to be Saint Thyagaraja's hundredth composition. In the pallavi, Thyagaraja says "Lord Hari is immensely pleased with my offering of the garland made of hundred melodious ragas".
Is it not an apt number for this week when Raga Surabhi also completes a garland of hundred melodious ragas?
Thank you again rasikas, and you have a great week!
Raga Surabhi Team
This week's update features the following::
