Music Programme at the Music academy, Chennai-an experience to remember!

20th february, 2011.
My heart and soul was feeling happy that I was going to attend a musical program at the Music academy. Being a Sunday, the roads were quite empty and the traffic was sombre.My early start from home ensured a car park within the premises of the academy! The evening program started with a Santoor vadhan by sh.Satish Vyas accompanied by Ram Mohan Mishra on the Tabla. Santoor is an instrument founded by the Indus valley civilisation dwellers and passed on to India. This Persian instrument when kindled produces such melodious notes of music that your heart starts jumping with joy like a Deer and dances within!  This was picked up well and nurtured by Pandit shiv Kumar sharma hailing from Kashmir and found its popularity and acceptance amongst the Indian classical music audience! The instrument is difficult to handle as it has  many strings to tune and play with utmost care and precision. Pandit Vyas payed Jhinjuti raga followed by Raga charukesi and both were captivating and provided absolute thrill to the lean audience who were scattered here and there! Following a short intermission of 10 minutes as announced by the organisers, the audience swelled a bit more to listen to Pandit Jasraj who started his musical fare with Raga Darvari which  is contained with melancholy and at certain points touches  the soul! The mastero presented raga Basant and brought a sense of color and enjoyment to the audience who were quite mesmerised with the cultured voice of the octogenarian performer! The audience got transported into trance when Pandit accompanied by Sh Ratan Mohan Sharma, his disciple sang a bhajan on Lord Krishna who was portrayed as a "Chor" meaning thief who stole Butter from the houses of gopikas around and went on to steal the heart of "Radhika"! Braje Vasantham, Navaneetha choram, Sri Krishna Shyamam, Krishna Krishna Shyamam, Manasa smarami..... The musical treat that flowed into the ears kept on ringing in the ears and minds for many hours!!
The Academy claims itself to be one of the oldest musical hall but lacks parking space. The Academy has not evolved to keep pace with time and has only about 30-40 parking lots which is totally cramped and people have to go to a neighbouring school to park their vehicles and walk back to the hall. The older generation who come in self driven cars find it difficult and sometimes are deprived of participation due to this constraint. The mosquito menace disturbs one and all during the concert due to which attention is diverted and one could  find many hands clapping without any relevance to the performance only to be realised that people were trying to kill the mosquito flying right in front of their eyes and nose!! It will be worthwhile for the Academy to seek the assistance of the super star Rajinikanth who vanquishes the entire clan of mosquitoes in his recent film "Robot" to give uninterrupted music to the lovers who gather at the academy!!!