Timing is crucial in almost every thing and only when I see how often my well-laid plans go for a total toss do I appreciate once again the existence of God!!
I know I am starting off with my usual pseudo-philosophy, but then when one is dealing with situations beyond one's control, what else can one do but (pseudo) philosophize!! Anyway, back to matters actually at hand (or maybe already out of hand), it is a wonder how our customers, on-site and offshore managers - everyone really - know how much I look forward to ensure that I am in Chennai during December every year and precisely time my on-site visits at that time! I had to go exactly before the music season started - mid-November - and return towards the fag end of December(on Christmas really) so that I can go concert hunting half-groggy from jet-lag like a beggar goes after left-over food and lap up what I still can during the remaining few days. Yet surprisingly, I have managed to attend about 3 of them so far and am hoping to catch one or two more in the next 2 weeks.
However, this post is not about my on-site trip, the assignment, my achievements there or the lack of them etc. Nor is it a scholarly write-up on the concerts that I attended. It is more about some things that I noticed during the concerts - much like the post I had written last year about the same time.
- Audience punctuality - This is something we seriously lack and it is extremely frustrating to see people walking in to the concert hall anywhere from 5 minutes to a full hour later and disturbing the others who are enjoying the concert. People moving around in a concert hall does not make for a pretty sight. Also the shifting in seats to let the latecomers settle down and the entire settling down process itself is quite noisy and distracting - definitely to the rest of the audience, and may be to the artist too!! My aunt had been to an opera in NY and she told me that apparently the doors to the hall were locked once the show started and people were not let in if they were late. Why can't we do something like that?
- Audience discipline - Raga identification is a serious affliction most carnatic music aficionados suffer from. For some of them it is like getting hold of the newspaper first thing in the morning -the brain starts functioning only after reading the day's headlines. Similarly we have to identify the ragam of a song within the first 5 seconds of the song/ alapanai. It is a secret race that all of us in the hall know is on, but pretend otherwise. So while I understand the need to identify the ragam of the song, what I cannot understand is that buzzing sound that I hear even after it is identified. This time, during a concert by Jayashree Ramnath, two elderly gentlemen who sat 2 seats away from me, were oblivious to the rest of the people in the hall including the musician on the stage. They identified the ragam and then launched into some serious discussion on the technicalities of the ragam and so on. I tried glaring at them, vocalizing my irritating through 'tchh'es and sighs. But like I said, they were in their own world. I only wish that my world had not come in touch with theirs at that time!! I was grumbling to my mother all the way back home, on how horrible it was that these old men had to choose the same concert that I had and chose to sit in the same row too!!
- The Costume - Male artists can choose to be simple like Sanjay Subramanyan and his accompanists. They were clad in simple white dhotis and shirts. On the other hand, artists like TM Krishna come in different coloured kurtas and some young music enthusiasts come to check out Krishna's kurta along with the music! The definition of simplicity for Female artists on the other hand is very different. Jayashree Ramnath, the simplest of them all, still has to wear at least a silk sari with a broad zari, a necklace and flowers. The showiest of them all (and arguably more popular) Sudha Raghunathan on the other hand, comes to perform like a walking advertisement for a silk saree shop , gold jewellery shop and a florist. Her interviews in magazines during the season are also more on the sarees she plans to wear for the different concerts, how she has never repeated a saree on stage and so on. In CM world, one often uses the term 'ghanam' (heavy) often to describe some ragams, voices etc. Sudha's voice may or may not qualify as ghanam, but she definitely does. I am eagerly waiting for the day when a female artist wears a cotton saree and bare minimum or no jewellery and the audience can listen only to the music and not wonder where she shopped for this concert!
- The food - Technically my first foray into this music season started with food!! My mother and brother had already sampled the food at Narada Gana Sabha and had made plans for my first day back in Chennai. So I jumped directly into the season with a lunch at the sabha canteen on the same day I landed! The sabha parking lot was full and all along I thought it was for the music. Now I know otherwise!! My brother who still thinks that it is a crime to step inside a sabha, insisted that we should go to Music Academy on the 1st of January, because my nephew told him that the food at that canteen was great!! It turned out that the canteens functioned only during the peak 'season', i.e., December 15th to 31st, so we had to come back disappointed.
- And finally the Music - Although I could not attend all the concerts from the start of the season, I tried to make do with the shortened concerts telecast by Jaya TV which were available for viewing in the US too. But a live concert is so much more than the songs themselves and I had asked my father to get me tickets for Sanjay Subramnayan's concert on the day after I landed. Sanjay may come dressed very humbly, but the concert on the other hand was extremely colourful and joyful. Sanjay's enthusiasm on stage is often infectious and he was almost jumping with verve throughout the concert. My mother who pretends to not 'understand' carnatic music and often tells me that she does not particularly care for male singers, was with me during the concert and was enjoying herself thoroughly. The effort that Sanjay puts in for every concert is unbelievable. He was belting out popular and new songs with equal ease left right and center and in the final RTP (ragam tanam pallavi) segment, showered the audience with rarely sung Hindustani ragas teasing the audience with the swaras and then with his trademark sly smile giving out the name of the ragam. It was pure musical bliss and after the 3.5 hours concert we came out fully satisfied like we had had a ten-course meal! Jayashree's (popularly called Bombay Jayashree) concert which I attended 2 days later was a complete contrast. Her voice is soothing and weighty ('ghanam') at the same time and the overall effect was very pleasing. TM Krishna, who had not performed the whole season was the star of yesterday's concert. In Chennai music circuit, TMK and Sanjay are like Rajnikanth. They are both crowd pullers and can do no wrong in the eyes of their fans. TMK has a great voice quality and his concert was full of fireworks with many popular krithis in tamil, telugu and sanskrit.
So once again, Chennai's music season draws to an end. While I missed the better part of it, I still intend to catch a few more, even if it means missing work. Work can wait, music season cannot. Talkative mamas and mamis and insensitive audience members notwithstanding, a live concert experience has no equal. In every good concert, there is always a moment when the musician, the audience and the music become one and there is that microsecond of pure unadulterated bliss. This microsecond is worth any number of annoyances!!
