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1998 - Sandhosha Kanneere
Memories From a Distant Dream
by WN

1998 was one of the most memorable years of my life. And the year I realised I was a true-blue AR Rahman Fan.

I was born in Singapore and lived there all my life till 1997. In Feb 98 I moved to Australia. I slowly started liking my new environment and was adapting really well, but something significant was missing.

Having been pampered with Oli 96.8 (as the radio station was known then) all my life, close proximity to Indian audio shops & Indian cinema (all of which I used to take for granted), I was unprepared for the way I was going to miss Indian music when I came to Perth. As I wasnt hooked to the internet by then (little did I know about the existence of TFMPage or the mp3 sites), I had little idea on how to access Indian songs. I was however fortunate enough to have thoughtful friends who deviced for me every possible imaginable compilation of TFM songs and mailed them to me from Singapore.
One of them sent me a new song cassette called Jeans. I listened to it once or twice but remained unimpressed and left it aside while I was busy preparing for my exams.

When the winter break came (July 98), I left for Singapore. Imagine my surprise when I saw a gigantic cut-out wit Aishwarya Rai's pretty face and a mainstream masala Indian movie called "Jeans" showing at the Cathay/Picturehouse theatres. Before long, myself and another friend, who had jus returned from overseas as well, were watching Jeans. Having spent several minutes snearing at the posters outside (which read "0%Cotton, 100% Love"), we were even more contemptuous when we heard Columbus, Columbus & Vaarayo Thozhi. However as the movie progressed we fell in love with both the ridiculous storyline and the beautiful songs. Even while my friend decided Aish Rai looked like a famine victim in Anbe Anbe, that became one of my fave songs ever. Kannodu Kaanbathellam had many members of the audience falling off their seats (literally) from laughing too hard. I didnt get to appreciate this song till later. Ennake Ennaka & Athisayam were simply mesmerising. After the movie was over, I dug out my cassette and listened and listened to it non-stop. My friend did something she had never done before in her entire life. She bought an Indian audio cassette (another one of ARR's powers). Looking back, some of my memories makes me smile.

In 98 December I went shopping and left behind my Jeans cassette on my car seat. It was sweltering 40 degree summer in Perth. By the time I came back a few hours later, the cassette had literally melted out of shape. I couldn't listen to the cassette any longer. From then till I came back to Singapore in January 99 and managed to buy the Jeans cd, I was left on a limbo. That's how addicted I was.

Around October 98, I received another gift from another one of my friends. This time it was Uyire. I instantly fell in love wit En Uyire. I used to listen to the Turkish radio station in Perth for songs with an Arabic feel (long before Uyire was released). Listening to Tamil songs with such a feel was just like a gift from Heaven. Sandhosha Kaneere is among my top 10 fave
songs ever. Last year I went to the Deepavali fair in the Fremantle Esplanade held by the West Australian Hindu Assn, and the Gujarati Dance Group presented for Jiya Jale. Not surprisingly almost all the songs used were AR Rahman's (both Hindi & Tamil).

Another album released this year (1998) was 1947/Earth. By September 1999, I was hooked to the net, had bumped into Karthik S' arrmp3 site and had my own burner. I was doing what comes naturally when you have such things handy. It
was time for me to return all the favours to my beloved friends in Singapore. My friend who had sent me Uyire requested for the Earth songs. I downloaded all the songs for her and fell in love so much with them, I burned myself a copy as well. Eventhough Earth was released in 98, I only heard them for the first time towards end of 99. Ishwar Allah surprised me.
I fell instantly in love with Ruth Aagai Re (and still remain unforgiving on the way this song was butchered in Tamil). Banno Rani was another fave as well. Everything else from Dheemi Dheemi to the theme music pieces are simply heart wrenching. It is sometimes hard to believe that the same fella who gave us Pettai Rap is responsible for an album like 1947/Earth. ARR's versatility knows no bounds.

Epilogue :

Right at the beginning, when I came to the point when I had to make a choice on which mp3s to download, I decided that choosing ARR's songs always kept me on the safe side. Now, I have decided that for the great amount of
pleasure I have derived from listening to ARR's songs, the least I can do in return is to start buying the original cds. I have stopped downloading mp3s and seek only the original versions.

Sometimes when I listen to a song by AR Rahman, it takes me a while to like the song and when I do become addicted to it, I feel like I have finally "recognised" the music which my soul had heard in say, a previous life or
somewhere in my subconscious mind, something I had heard in my dreams. It's like after a long long separation, taking a few minutes to recognise a loved one. When you finally recognise what you feel you already knew, you dont want to let go forever. It reminds me of the lines from Enigma's Odyssey of The Mind :

"There's no teacher
Who can teach anything new
He can just help us to remember
The things we always knew"

AR Rahman's songs have never failed to bring me tears of joy from a Distant Dream half-remembered. I remain eager to unravel yet more music from my distant dreams, forgotten by the mind, but always remembered by the soul.

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2002 Constellation - A group of ARR fans from TFMPage.com