Songs and Signs

During our initial days here we were forced to watch Hariyudan Naan (Roughly translated as With Hari) in Jaya TV. We do not have DTH in the guestrooms here and the local cable guy did not have any other Tamil channel. Only Jaya TV gave us good company and in addition to hitting upon many creatively boring programs, we luckily ended up watching this music contest-reality show on the weekends. The idea was the winner of the show would get a chance to work with Hariharan, one of the most versatile and successful singers around. How can one ever forget his “Uyire…” (Bombay/Tamil/1995) that foretold us he was here to stay; and stay at the top. Close to two decades after his arrival Hariharan’s distinctly pleasant voice continues to enthrall us till this day. There are two other eminent South Indian music composers in the jury with, of course, Hariharan taking the centre stage. All the songs are from Tamil movies. There are many contestants and many rounds of the contest. But that thing that sets this program apart is the comments the jury give after every contestant finishes singing. “Very good”, “You can improve a bit”, “You are not singing well”… these are some of the comments that do not find a place in this program usually. Rather the comments are highly pin-pointed and technical to the extent that I do not understand most of them. In many cases Hariharan even sings a line or two to drive home a point. It is lovely to listen to him. The other members of the jury are equally technical with their comments but rather extra-frank – just to help those young contestants blossom as great singers. The show has moved into its final stage where only the last twenty are left. These days I’ve realised music is as technical as chemical engineering or accountancy.

As a kid most of us have a fascination to give “autographs” or keep signing (scribbling?) in the last pages of our notebooks. This usually happens during the History classes or whenever one gets hold of a new pen. It kind of gives a kick. This liking to see one’s own signature in various styles and pen colours continues even during the college days. The “signature” also gets a new status when one opens the bank account for the first time. You try out various patterns of your signature till you hit upon the most impressive one and fix that one in your new bank account formalities. Some of us are known to relentlessly improvise our signatures and keep them contemporary with the changing times just like the way companies like Tata, Videocon have done with their logos. You can witness this stylish evolution of a signature if you pull out all your certificates from Class X to Graduation, Driving Licence, job offer letters, and the bank accounts opened, and arrange them in the time axis. As a kid I too have had a love affair with my signature. But with a difference. I have always had a plain vanilla signature – I just write down my name. Since the usual practice is to write down one’s name below the signature, I write down my name in CAPS just to differentiate it from my signature. At times, a few have even returned the forms to me saying that I have just written down my name while I was actually supposed to sign there. Nevertheless, my love with my autograph continued until May 21, 2010. That was the day I took charge as a Group A Officer in the income tax department. To begin with I had to sign in a specific form meant for people taking over a charge. It was just a single form, accompanied by 12 xerox copies of the same form! Initially there was a kick as it was the first time I was signing profusely with a green ink pen. Over the next 2-3 days I had already hit a century of autographs! Now I have married my childhood love of my autograph and I no more count the number of signatures I make in a day. Rather I have made a few amendments in my autograph systems and I only keep tab of the number of minutes I sign. For example, today I had to sign non-stop for close to 15 minutes. I recommend ADD Gel.