Avial, you make the Malayalee proud!

Yesterday and today belonged to Avial. I did write earlier that I had ordered the CD. When I didn't receive it I called the courier company who luckily had an office here in Perungudi and went there and collected the parcel myself. The CD is simply AWESOME! The packaging is creative and superb. It looks like a slice of Kerala. The songs that I have already heard sound better with the cleaner studio recording. But the surprise was the 4 new songs that I haven't heard or seen before. "Njaan Aara" and "Ettam Paatu" two lovely ballads simply blow the listener away. "Njaan Aara" has a blistering guitar solo from Rex Vijayan rivalling any good lead solo out there in the market today. The instrumentalists haven't also wasted trying to solo as most rock bands in India do. Writing of Rock bands from India, Avial is a creed apart purely because of the way they have adapted Malayalam to rock. That also speaks of the versatality and beauty of the powerful Malayalam language which has its origins in two of the world's greatest and oldest languages of the world, Tamil and Sanskrit. Lyrics are not the shoddy stuff you hear written in English like many bands from India have done when they attempt rock. Instead they are meaningful and most of them reflecting the music and culture of Kerala.

I first listened to the CD on my computer, then on Suji's computer but the best part was when I listened to it on Sathish's Bose and today on his car stereo. Good audio gear only further emphasizes the beautiful recording. There are suprises in other songs too, particularly "Arikuruka". Pay attention to the voices you hear at the end of the song and let us see if you can make out anything.

As I write this I also cannot help writing about the tragedies that you and I read about in the newspapers and watch on T.V. Over 35 are killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan. Indian TV channels are transmitting like crazy footage of an ambassador car trying to run over two Government Officials (in the midst of police protection) in a failed assasination attempt. In Orissa naxalites go on the rampage killing innocent people. In Maharashtra a Marathi is killed amidst all the violence that is being perpetrated. In the U.S a gunman takes the lives of 6 people in a campus shooting. Will there be an end to this violence and loss of life? I feel immensely blessed for my life.