It was about 8 months ago that I wrote my Trombone post. As I hinted in that article, the reason why I went behind tracking the Trombone songs in Raaja's music was that, some one was preparing the background for an interview with the leading Trombone player of India, Mr. Blasco Monsorate and I was asked if I can help.
The interviewer was one Mr. Shankar Iyer, one of the editors of a music e-zine named Swar-Aalap based out of Mumbai and now a good friend of mine. Recently Shankar concluded his interview with Blasco. When he shared his memorable moments of Blasco with me, I was equally excited too. During the interview, Shankar showed this blog to him. It seems that Blasco was really thrilled and appreciable of those Trombone tracks in the post. He actually played them for Maestro some 20-25 years ago. Particularly When Blasco heard the Prelude of Sangeedha Megam, he was delirious it seems. Because as musicians they are too concerned about just playing their part and never got a chance to listen to the final output again. So after 23 years, he got to listen to his solo piece in all its glory for the first time in this blog.
Similarly another casual writeup that I made once on the Ilaiyaraaja Yahoo group about the song "Radha Azhaikkiraal" and particularly of its usage of bass guitar caught the attention of Maestro's great guitarist Mr.Sadanandan and he was kind enough to send a word of appreciation through Eddie, another good friend of mine. When the people whose work you write about, acknowledge it themselves, its personally a very cherish-able and rewarding moment :-)
Mr. Shankar's interview to Blasco is not to be missed by anyone who loves Indian Film Music. Unlike asking mundane and formal questions for the sake of asking them, he really came up with some innovative and good questions, which in turn brought the life behind the curtains of recording theaters to us. Blasco uniquely explains the genius of both Raaja and RD Burman. On RD Burman, he talks about the richness of his orchestration, What a visionary he was, How his music was a team work..
While on Ilaiyaraaja he explains, How his work is much complex than any other type of film music in India.. How he is the sole proprietor of everything what we hear.. Honest about the anxiety of musicians that playing for him is no easy task... First hand account on the legend of his notation writing skills.. And some esoteric references to Raaja's other musicians, his brass players et al. Its great to get reaffirmation on the unique and genial working style of Maestro from someone who worked his side by side for 8 years.
With the author's permission, I am presenting you the maestro specific portions of that interview below.
With Love Vicky
The Interview:
Shankar: How did you get to play in the South? Why did you leave Bombay to play in Madras? Blasco M.: Kersiji itook me to Illaiyaraja’s recording studio while we were in Madras for the background recording of the movie Mahaan. When we met Illaiyaraja, he put up his reel of a background score and asked me play a Trombone piece. Since I had not carried my Trombone along, he asked me to come again on the following Sunday. He wanted me for a recording on a Sunday, while I was in a shopping mood since it was an off-day.
We returned to Bombay; but the Madras visit was playing on my minds. One fine day (in March 1983), I took my Horn and left for Madras to meet Illaiyaraja. That was when I met popular singer S P Balasubramaniam (SPB) there; he asked me to come for the background music recording of a Telugu movie the very next day. He was very thrilled when he heard my style of playing. “Your style is something different”. He wanted me to meet Illaiyaraja and was keen that I stayed in Madras for a longer time! And 4 days later I got to play for Illaiyaraja!
Shankar: How long did you play for Illaiyaraja? Blasco M.: I played for Illaiyaraja from 1983 to 1991.
Shankar: How did Illaiyaraja use the Trombone in his music? Blasco M.: Illaiyaraja’s music, in general, was different compared to Hindi film music. It had lots of syncopation stuff. The Trombone pieces he gave me were difficult to play; they were mostly played off-beat (demonstrates an off-beat playing style). In Bombay, Trumpets were played off-beat and Trombone played on the beat. However, Illaiyaraja’s Trombone was always on the off-beat. I had to be on my guard always while playing for Illaiyaraja. It was a challenge for me as a Trombone player to play for him. That difficult music I don’t think happened in Bombay. And nowadays, there is nobody to write like those days. They just ask us to pick up the notes and play them. Illaiyaraja was very fond of my style of playing. He used to lovingly call me “Blas”!
Shankar: Please explain why Trombone playing in the South was different to its playing in Hindi films? Blasco M.: South music directors preferred the solo Trombone sound to a group of Trombones. I mostly played as a soloist in the South, whereas I was always part of a brass section in Hindi films. In the south, even if there was a section of Trumpet players, the Trombone was almost always used as a solo instrument. Illaiyaraja used to call 5 Trumpet players on the set, but only one Trombone player!
Shankar: Which other South Indian composers have you played the Trombone for? Blasco M.: Besides Illaiyaraja, MS Viswanathan, Shankar-Ganesh, Hamsalekha, Deva, Raghavelu, Johnson, Shyam and Ravindran are some other south composers I played for.
Shankar: How about AR Rahman? Blasco M.: I have done concerts and shows with AR Rahman. I have also played in some jingles for him. As you may know, he played the keyboard with Raja and Telugu composer Rajkoti for a long time. I also played the Trombone in the famous Asha Bhosle song “Vennila Vennila” from the Mani Ratnam movie Iruvar.
Shankar: What do you think were the reasons for your success in the South? Blasco M.: I would say most of the composers liked my style of blowing. My style of listening first to the composer to understand what phrase he wanted also possibly helped. Also I think my playing blended well with the overall brass section used in songs.
Shankar: Do you remember any of the hit Tamil movie scores that you played in? Blasco M.: I can’t recollect the names. Some of the names like Nayakan, Appu Raja and background music in a movie called Vellai Roja have stayed in mind.
Shankar: What was Illaiyaraja’s style of composing while creating background music? Blasco M.: It was no different to the song recordings. It was all just notations. He always wrote the score, the musicians had to read the notations and play. He used to hand over notations to me, which I used to transpose for the Trombone. All his musicians played music based on the notations given. Once Illaiyaraja okayed, all was final. The responsibility was with the musicians’ to play with feeling and passion.
Shankar: Having worked with RD Burman and Illaiyaraja the most, what have you to say about their composing styles? Blasco M.: RD Burman’s team of musicians always sat together to produce music. On the other hand, Illaiyaraja composed his music keeping the musicians in mind. We as musicians never knew what was in his mind. With Panchamda we had an idea of what was coming. He used to suggest things like “Put one chord here; add this piece here“. There was a sense of excitement for the musicians as there was always some discovery happening. With Illaiyaraja, it was the opposite. He used to sit thinking for the music piece and after a few minutes would get down to writing the notations. He was sure of what he always wanted. He then sat with the musicians for their part and checked if he was happy with it. In about 30-45 minutes, the entire song was finished. When he went back to the monitor room for the final recording, the entire score was in his brain! Many a time, he even challenged musicians on the sequence of playing of their own notes. And not once did he end up on the wrong side. It was a one-man show, literally!
Panchamda had two different types of arrangers for him; Manoharida and Basuda. Manoharida was strong with Western music; Basuda was strong with classical music. It was a combination of the heavy and light musical pieces. This served as a good mix for Panchamda’s songs. With Illaiyaraja, it was all a solo effort. Nobody could tell him to change the style of playing. What was given to the musicians was final.
With regards to the overall styles, they showed 2 different schools of instrument playing. Panchamda was more rhythmic, even his brass section was full of rhythm. The demarcation was clear with a full spread-out harmony. Panchamda also gave a lot of focus to the Strings section. With Illaiyaraja, it was more technical stuff, more hard music. You had to be a good musician to play for Illaiyaraja. It was tough to play for his music. He wanted exactly what he wrote. With Panchamda it was working together, adjusting to everybody’s capabilities and requirements. For Illaiyaraja, what was put on the score sheet had to have no deviation. Musicians had tough times with him. But he definitely had a soft corner for me. It may also be since I was from Bombay or even maybe because I was RD Burman’s Trombone player!
Shankar: What did Illaiyaraja have to say about RD Burman? Blasco M.: Of course, he liked Panchamda. On seeing the big Orchestra section, he used to jokingly say “Big people, big orchestra”. He used to also like Manoharida's Saxophone playing.
Shankar: Which musicians from Raja’s team have you been closely associated with? Blasco M.: All from the Violin, Cello and rhythm section. There was Shashi the bass Guitarist, Purushottaman the Drummer, Viji Manuel the Piano player, Narasimhan the Violinist, and Sada the lead Guitarist. And don’t forget Raja himself played the Guitar.
Illaiyaraja’s trumpet player Eugene Lazarus, from Chennai, was a good friend of mine. We worked a lot together. He passed away a year ago. Another good friend was Frank Dubia, Trumpet soloist for Illaiyaraja.
Shankar: Can you tell us something about Illaiyaraja’s music assistants? Blasco M.: Mr. Govardhan and later Mr. L Vaidyanathan were Illaiyaraja’s conductors. Then came in Judy; even Ram Subu his Viola player conducted some times. One day his drummer Purushottaman conducted; I think he has hence been Illaiyaraja’s conductor till this day.
Shankar: Noted Mumbai musician Uttam Singh also conducted for Illaiyaraja? How did that happen? Blasco M.: Once when Mr. Govardhan, Illaiyaraja’s conductor, was unwell, I had suggested Uttam Singh’s name. I used to like Uttam Singh’s style of conducting. Slowly, Uttam Singh started to work with Illaiyaraja, becoming a regular with him later.
Source: To read the complete interview of Blasco in the Swar Aalap magazine, click here.
My first blogging experience was way back in 2002. Google was just 4 years old then and was an young and upcoming rookie.. The idea of blogging was rather alien to even many net savvy users.
Tripod and Geocities were two very popular free web page hosting services then. They offered users a non-existent sense of achievement by providing a platform where one could 'host' one's own web site (while in reality they were nothing more than a rudimentary html editors where one can type and publish - Which in turn generated web pages where what you typed can be found somewhere in between all the advertisements which you had no control to remove.)
I also jumped the bandwagon then. I used to maintain few web pages on 'geocities.com/violinvicky' about Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. My first web site !!
That website was called as "How To Name It" - based on my all time favorite of Raaja's works. As a true predecessor to this blog, It was about Raaja brand of Fusion and Orchestration. It was established on 2002; Between 02 and 03 I wrote a few articles in them. Many of my Raaja's name-de-guerre such as "Boss of Bass" which have since become part of regular lexicon of Raaja fans, were invented during that time frame.
Yahoo recently discontinued the Geocities service and hence that website is not available any more. (Now, seriously what sense does that make in the era of freebies all over the internet. No wonder their share prices keep going down :-P !!)
Since I don't want to loose those articles, As a stopgap arrangement I am placing them at the Google Sites. Soon I hope to revamp these articles with audio clips so that it gives a better reading experience to the visitors and post it in this blog.
All right ! This post is not about Raaja. But nonetheless its about Music and I thought its worth sharing with the readers of this blog. My second article in Tamil is published and its about the Ghazal maestros from Pakistan - Mehdi Hassan and Ghulam Ali. Although I do listen to a lot of Ghazal including those of Indian stalwarts Jagjit Singh, Anup Jalota, Hariharan etc., I particularly find the Ghazals of these two Pakistani legends to be a bit more meatier(Musically). I have also been doing a small time research on Ghazal, its history, grammar and some popular compositions. So this article is a culmination of all such efforts over the past few years.
An article on Raaja that I wrote for Comment Factory can be read here. My thanks to the editor of the website Matt, for providing me with the opportunity.
A Frontier that's been talked about enough through stories of legends.. Enough to the point that its considered fashionable just to pretend knowing it all through some easily available jargon irrespective of you actually know the subject or not..!! Now, did that sound like a confession !!?
(In a larger context) I am talking here about the the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are "written" as opposed to the traditional Indian way of rendering music straight out of heart and head... And in the specific context of this blog, its about Raaja's knowledge of writing Western classical music in staff notations at the blink of an eye. (No.. wait.. I am not going to talk about it anymore.. But do something about it.. Check the next post.. )
My fascination to the staff system of Western classical goes a long way back to my school days. The Physical education teacher of our school is also easily the best Western classical violinist of our town (we call him the PT Sir.. PT for Physical Training). PT Sir used to have a small team of school boys who played violin and because of my interest in music I also joined that team. But there was one problem.. He plays Violin the original western classical way of playing by notes while I knew it by the Carnatic way.. And I couldn't read those notes for nuts.. But thanks to my Carnatic background, I could easily memorize the song by head if I hear it a couple of times.. A temporary refuge that I then took instead of learning the notes.. A huge mistake as it still haunts me by stopping to learn the system the way it is...
So I used to happily accompany his troupe and play on all christian marriages, deaths, Church inaugurations and Christmas carels. While playing, I was always told to pretend as if I am playing by the notation so as not to disturb the stage presence of the team where as only PT Sir and our team knows I had converted the whole song into Carnatic swaras, mugged them up already and was playing by head.. So there we were.. A team of 4 trimly dressed young boys in white shirts and bow, lead by a brilliant master, playing so many songs from the score sheets.. Except that one of them was a black sheep :-)
While playing in those days, I have always watched this frontier from distance with awe and never really made an attempt to learn the art. How can everything, i.e., absolutely everything including the articulations and dynamics can be so methodically expressed in paper? How can someone read and process it simultaneously to produce music? Why don't you call 'Sa' as 'sa' or 'C' as 'C' instead of putting a round on a line. Especially when there is a treble and bass clef to be played in parallel, how is it possible for someone to "read" it differently that are made with same symbols...? For instance can you imagine a book where you have to read two sentences simultaneously.. One sentence is in English and the other in French.. made of same alphabets but mean completely something else.. All these simple unanswerable questions fortified my fear towards the system...
Further to that whenever we used to hear about the rich history of this system and all about the great western Virtuosos like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart from PT Sir, all the more the frontier would move in to a land of mythical surrealism.
Then I started seriously listening to Ilaiyaraaja.. and all the stories about his prowess in writing notations... How he is one of the few (or rather the only one) in this part of the world who can write, say an invertible counterpoint up the 10th (as quoted by Guitar Prassana)... And that too writing the manuscripts from his head without the need to use an Harmonium or a Keyboard or... err ... a computer these days....
An opportunity to understand Western Classical system a bit broader (but not deeper) and to appreciate Raaja's musical richness was presented at the music club of CIT. For 4 years we would learn music intensely (wasn't that an engineering college !!?) and play countless number of Raaja songs on many many occasions. Finally I could understand the basic concept of Western Classical system, realize all the chords, understand the time signatures at a practical level and so on. But still the ability to read and write the notations was elusive and remained a final frontier.
After College I made serious attempts (twice!!) to learn the Western classical, taking regular classes from a master. But I could only go as far as learning the new symbols and the conventions. The moment I got to play a song looking at the notes, damn it on my Carnatic instinct, I was memorizing the melody and decoding it to "Sa Ri Ga Ma" paradigm. On subsequent playings only the eyes are looking at the notes while the 'note processing engine' of the head was already switched off. However lengthy the passages where, it would render only the 'unprocessed swaras' as output!! ..!! So the real problem is, If you give me a new score that I didn't knew before, I was caught like a Rabbit in front of the headlights. Besides on both occasions I couldn't continue the lessons beyond 3 months each time for personal reasons.. Thus its honest to say that my efforts to learn Western classical formally were still born.
So, neither could I read the notes with fluency nor write a song in staff notations.
Phenomenal improvisation. spontaneously flowing.. (and well played too.. Source: You tube video by: Widiar)
What we guys down south here in India, don't realize is a peer of this caliber among us, right at our backyard... In my view, Conceptualizing such a harmonic melody with seamless arpeggios is been staple diet of Raaja for decades..
For instance, listen to that famous BGMs of Mouna Ragam (the last 27 seconds):
or .. Should I talk about his songs of same type.. Oh! Butterfly, Kaathal oviyam, En Vaanile, Pootukkal Pottalum, Devanin Kovil.. I can go on and on...
Instead of raving any further, With due thanks to the guys who have uploaded the You tube clips, I leave you alone with these Contemporary Maestros..
In the meantime, I've had some consistent feedback on improvements possible on its usability. So finally I tried to address these issues...
1.) Earlier, A portion of the text used to get drowned behind Maestro's picture. I have moved the image to the right. I hope the text is unhindered and is more legible now. Thanks Ramesh, For helping me with a modified background of reduced opacity.
OK.. Now at the face of it (pun intended !!) that may seem the only change.. But thats not all..
2.) I also did some rudimentary java scripting and introduced a custom "Archives Menu" to enable better navigation within this Blog. Due credits to: Kang Rohman's adoption and Geir Landrö's original.
PS: Please let me know if the menu works without any issue (as I would imagine that browser compatibility and their security settings might still pose some problems..)
3.) I have added a "Reader Recommended" section in the archive menu with the posts that have received maximum feedback so far through personal emails as well as comments in the blog.
Recently I read about Yours Musically's Journey with Illayaraja.. Then it occurred to me that there are so many of us out there who all have our own "Raaja Secrets" which our friends and well wishers may not know about but no harm if you let them know.. A way of paying a small collective tribute to our beloved Raaja..
So why don't we play the Blog-Tag game, A concept which is by now age old in the blogosphere. If you are new to tagging, this is nothing but a cheeky game of making a blog post of 5 things about a topic (in this case Raaja) that others may not necessarily know about you and then tag 5 other bloggers to it. So these 5 will share their experience and tag another 5 each and so (Of course on a absolute voluntary basis).. Think of MMM except that you don't have to buy or sell anything :-PP
Ready ..?
Here I start:
The 5 things of me and Raaja that You May Not Know About (Please be as spontaneous as possible.. don't think too much..!! :-)
1.) The moment that introduced you to Raaja.. (I know it could be difficult to pin point a moment.. So treat this question as the Very first Raaja Experience in your Life that you are able to recall... For Example: The very first song of Raaja that you remember.. The very first movie that introduced you to Raaja and so on..)
There are a bunch of about 4 - 5 songs or so from various movies that I still remember watching in the theater with my parents as a very small kid (as a UKG to 2nd std or so). These songs got implanted in mind for some reason and I can't remember which one of them is the first one. Pani Vizhum Malarvanam, Ilaya Nila Pozhigiradhu, Naanaga Naan illai Thaaye, Raaja Magal .. I wasn't humming these songs as a child.. But the visuals and the Audio of these song are as if its tattooed in my mind, that whenever I see/ hear this songs in retrospect I feel a vague sense of Dejavu... I recollect my 1st std.. my school .. the house that I lived at that time.. etc., So the association is deep enough to bring back those very nascent memories as a 6 year old that I had.. Thats the first impact of Raaja's music on me.
2.) Name one occassion where Raaja's music directly/ indirectly influenced your life.
As a 7th std boy, I heard the track "Mozart I Love you" from NBW for the first time. Then I walked up to my mom and said, "Amma.. I want to learn Violin"
3.) Lets take Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi into account. Assuming that one of this is either your mother tongue or native language, name a favorite song in each of the other 4 languages that immediately comes to your mind
My native language is Tamil. So here I name 4 songs that immediately comes to my mind from the rest 4.
Telugu - Edalo Laya (Anveshana) Malayalam - Kulir Aadunnu (Olangal) Kannada - Keli Sade (Gulabi) Hindi - Dilwale (Mahadev)
4.) One song of Ilaiyaraaja that you consider rare and think a song that many people should have known but don't
Ponnumthingal (Anuraaga Kottaram)
5.) Lets keep the last one simple.. Raaja's number that you are hearing right now/ most recently heard..?
Of course, this is also an open invitation for one and all who would like to log their experiences with Raaja. Please feel free to take these questions and add to your own blog. If you do not have a blog, you are very welcome to log your experiences in the comments section below..
I leaped out of my seat listening to the Jaladharangam in the prelude of the song - "Kothamalli Poove" - a not so famous song from the movie 'Kallukkul Eeram'. Ever since I heard the Jaladharangam in the song "Dheena Karunakaranae", I have had a fascination towards this wonderful instrument. But blame it on the 'too-many-choices-available' world, I never really had a moment so far to reflect on this instrument... And this song was a trigger to revive my (listening) interest on Jaladharangam..
Contine reading on Jaladharangam, Ilaiyaraaja and "Kotha Malli Poove" below.. Contine reading on Jaladharanagam (only) here.
'Kotha Malli' or Coriander or Dhaniya as you may have known, is a herbal LEAF adding aroma to quintessential Indian cuisine.. So how bizarre a song can be - that glorifies Kotha malli's Poo (flower) while paying no attention to its leaves...? As bizarre as an authentic Jog raag getting no attention in a beautiful rustic south Indian folk song.. This song, Kothamalli Poove from Kallukkul Eeram (Listen to it here) is a high quality melody in Jog Ragam set to a very rural arrangement for a typical Bharathiraja backdrop. This is certainly another hidden Hero'sglyphic :-)
Now Coming to the topic of the blog post, I am fully convinced that the prelude of this song predominantly employs a original Jaladharangam, although its often paired with another instrument in the backdrop. Bbut towards the end of the prelude, you can listen the unique timber of Jaladharangam quiet prominently.. that too in a fast tempo typical of this instrument. The tone can be further confirmed as original (and not electronic) when it appears for brief passages in the interludes again.. Also the application of the instrument alongside Mirudangam and sometimes as an answer to it is quite interesting. The overall setup of the song truly amazes me.. You can visualize a bunch of villagers doing their daily jobs and the village life is well captured in the melody, making the facts of Jog and Jaladharangam insignificant..
Now thats Ilaiyaraaja for you...
The only another Jaladharangam in Tamil film music in recent memory, that immediately pops out in my mind is the song "En Veetil Thottathil" (Gentleman).. But AR Rehman, went for an artificial Keyboard based Jaladharangam tone that clearly lacked the rustic punch of waves moving back and forth across water.. It leaves a mouth 'watering' proposition to imagine what if a perfectionist in sound like him took pains to use the original instrument instead..
Though not popular now, this instrument was very widely used in the Tamil Film music by the likes of G Ramanadhan and KVM. So in that context, its unique that Raaja has used the 'real' instrument, although I must admit sporadically. I am quite curious to know if there are other songs where this unique instrument is used...
I am having a Nokia 3500c; And the ring tone I have is that of the defauly Nokia tune..That descending Sankarabharanam bit.. Whenever I am in a public place, I keep checking my phone for incoming calls every 2 minutes only to find out its not my phone but someone else' in my surrounding. Few days back suddenly I heard my phone ringing and much to my annoyance, it was a phone ringing in the soap being played in the TV. Then I had it.. Enough is enough. All these days, its one of those stupidities that given all the resources and tools, still you don't do the small things in life... Finally I shrugged off my laziness off and sat down to clip some captive tracks of Raaja for my ring tone. I came with these 6 tracks after a first sitting.. I thought of some categories while cutting the tunes.. One typical ringtone, One for outdoor, One for calm settings etc..
(Click on the track name to download)
1. Aadum Neram - Ideal ringtone. starts of slowly and picks up momentum if you are still out of reach.
2. Hey Unnaithaane - Let me borrow Sivaji here "Chumma Adhirudhilla...". This one is a good choice for outdoors.. But remember to switch it back in indoors...
3. Pudhucheri - I guess this one sounds like a typical mobile phone track.. I guess you can call it as, "Marching Mix" or something like that and it wouldn't look out of place in the standard phone pack..??
4. All the Time - This one is too mild I guess.. May be for indoor settings.. Let me know if its usable..
5. Oru Kili - I guess the Opening Flute overlaps makes it a catchy tune that gently distrubs you...
6. Kaatu vazhi - An ideal ring tone with a great Raaja Punch to it.
I have tested all of them in my phone.. (Don't use Nokia media manager or something.. Do a simple file copy to your mobile and set it as the ring tone...) and its Rocking !! My current favorite is Aadum Neram.. What would be yours...?
Entering my 9th year of IT career.. And what good is it if I am not able to make my own template for my blog !! Well, That was the question I had to ask myself to get to this background that you are seeing now...
A cue from blogspot templates followed by a few long nights of customizations and some (first ever) serious HTML programming, I think I have a decent banner for this blog which captures its essence... Isin't ?
This blog offers my perspective on Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, The soul who has undoubtedly been a great influence in my life. Its a sequel to
my older Website that I used to maintain for Ilaiyaraaja in '02. Apart from
giving my objective thoughts and subjective emotions on his songs, I hope to bring out some anonymous ultimates. Also a regular feature of this blog
would be 'Vicky's Virtual Playlists' .
I hope
to make this blog, home of my (and of course your) Ilaiyaraaja Experience
One of those run-of-the-mill Indian techie who thinks "I am different!”.
Apart from occasionally junking (I mean Writing), I also do a bit of Violin, Keyboards, sequencing in my PSR 730 and assorting albums.
I listen to a lot of Ilaiyaraaja (a South Indian Film Music Legend), Carntaic, Western classical, Country, Soft-Rock and Jazz.
Personal Finance, Traveling, History and Tamil Literature are my likes too. View My Complete Profile