When I heard the news about Uma Ramanan, the first song that popped out of my memory is Aananda Raagam from the movie Panneer Pushpangal. Then the other songs flooded out. Songs make us remember events from our life. Songs from late 70s and 80s always take me to my hostel days at Guindy engineering college and bus rides between Madurai – Virudhunagar and Madurai – Chinnamanur. Our mess eating times were always accompanied by songs from the latest movies played on record players. The bus rides were always fun listening to Tamil songs. We chose buses based on their speaker system quality and songs collection – it was a healthy competition 😀 Playing songs tradition continues even today and Ilayaraja still rules those rides. Imagine listening to Kasthoori Maane or Poo Potta Thavani to dancing disco lights 5’o clock in the morning. Thanks to the hostel days and bus rides, I listened and familiarized myself with most of the playback singers. Uma Ramanan is one of them with her unique voice. She may have left the world. But her music will live on.

Aananda Raagam

Aarum adhu aazham illa

Kannane nee vara

Bhoopalam isaikkum

Ponmane Kovam yeno

Poongathave Thaal thiravai

Kasthoori Maane