The Concert

I heard about it in the most disrepespectful manner….an orkut scrap!!!!!!!ya…just said dat sanjay is singing tomorrow at ASU and u better land up at so and so place blah blah blah……only then did I realize how ignorant I had been…..my association with music began almost ever since I was born….my mom would have me on her lap while her “vaadiyaar” taught her music….she hosted her guru every week….and he would make me sit on his lap and enjoy listening to me rattling off lyrics of all the songs that he taught……I wonder how he did not feel humiliated or insulted listening to me rendering the famous compositions of stalwarts like tyagaraja and dikshithar in my own sweet way….he always used to say that he enjoyed the way in which I “narrated” the songs….i promptly joined music classes at the age of 4……and this was to continue for another 10 years…..every concert every event …..my parents would be there….they had this awesome collection of songs too…...i turned a blind eye to most of these once I was in secondary school. The practice sessions etc slowly diminished… so much so that they happened only if there was a power cut and I had nothing better to do!!!!My mom was quite disturbed and offended thanks to the audacity with which I refused to comply to her numerous requests to listen to my voice…..it was “bold and beautiful”….and she could never understand why I was so dispassionate about it…..i continued to be so ..even in college…when I refused to even audition to join the club for classical music and dance namely “Raagamalika”. I went the first time and flunked it….mebbe that was another reason why I never went again….my friend would come down every semester just before the auditions; she was a very active member and wanted me to join the club….but I would just not do it……yesterday’s concert was a wonderful experience….contrary to my usual indifference, I actually enjoyed the soul rendering music….i could relate to it …every second of it….i could indentify almost all the ragas…..one of them..none of my other friends could recognize…..I knew some of the songs that he sang…most of them were on siva and in tamil( that was when I realized it was mahasivaratri) and the “gult” that I am, I would have been happier if he would have sung some of saint tyagaraja’s krithis…..but still, I cannot forget the lilting raagamalika that captured the audience……hamsadhwani,saveri,kapi and so many ragas….even before we figured what they were…he would switch to the next one…amazing control….he practically played with the swaras…the RTP just transported me to a different world altogether…..I am happy I decided to be there after all….