Music -- Truly boundaryless

I visited the Lantern Festival at the Chinese Garden on Sunday. The animals made out of lanterns were truly amazing. After a long walk , I sat next to the podium which was playing some chinese music. For the first couple of minutes I didn't notice anything unusual. But the carnatic music fan inside me could not help noticing that the Raaga being played was Mohanam. I was bewildered for a minute and listened more closely . It was unmistakable ( The swaras Sa ri ga pa dha sa ) . What was raaga Mohanam doing in chinese music ?

Googling tells me that Mohanam is used extensively in Chinese & Japanese music ( I now remember that the famous song "Sayonara Sayonara " from the hindi movie "Love in Tokyo" was based on Raaga Mohanam too ) . Also found an interview of ARR where he says composing for chinese films is quite easy because of their extensive use of the Mohana raagam. Mohana raagam is known as Raag Pahari in Hindustani music .

It just re-iterates my belief that music knows no language and is boundaryless.No wonder that I count musicians as diverse as Illayaraja,Saint Thyagaraja,Bob Dylan,Simon & Garfunkel,Mozart,Beethoven,S.D.Burman,Madan Mohan,Mehdi Hassan,Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as my favorites.

As they say,there are only two types of music -- Good or bad.