Madras Music Season

I was forced into learning Carnatic music as a child. I think it will be quite safe to assume that most kids are forced into doing various things when they are young in the name of 'Culture'. For me and my sister, it was two sessions of music per week. I was the sincere one. I would practise between classes and try to perfect the high notes. My sister (whose real interest lay in dance) just could not be bothered. She would liberally use the generic terms 'not well' to define her continuous state of disinterest. We had some interesting tutors: some who did not last beyond few sessions, few who always wanted more fees and ONE who stole Reynolds ball point pens from our house (I was an eye witness). However, it all ended rather abruptly when I was 11 and the family couldn't find a suitable substitute to the pen stealer...

My interest in Carnatic music caught on when I spent 5 years of my life in Australia. I had few cds as part of my 'home sick' box and would play them over and over again while studying. I fell in love with Ganesh-Kumaresh, Bombay Jayasri, T.V.Sanakaranarayan and Sanjay Subramanium. Shashank's flute sessions were ideal for mathematics sessions. Everytime I came home for holidays, I would try to get to at least one session of my favourites and soon I had seen Sanjay (if I may call him that) LIVE! I didn't know anything about the music- I just found their voices/instruments soothing.

I am now in Madras after many years for the Music Season. It's an incredible treat! I get to listen to live music just around the corner. Once again, I don't know anything about the music. But I am loving being her and being part of the festival. Today I saw T.M.Krishna live in Ananta PadmanabahaSwamy Kovil Auditorium. It was fantastic! He was fantastic and so were his accompaniments. The only drawback was the insane crowd and the lack of proper seating for most of the two hours. The crowd was a mix of the young and the old (mostly) and NRIs and music teachers. I couldn't help but notice a certain level of pretension among the crowd. I don't mean to be offensive but I found it very amusing. I have noticed in the past week of concerts that there are the 'genuine' listeners and the 'pretentious' listeners. The latter category is the one which starts bobbing their heads and mimicking the thallam even before they are seated in their chairs. They usually fall into my generation of listeners- the ones who probably see Carnatic concerts as 'their dose of elitist culture'. I acknowledge that I may be completely wrong in my assessment but I realize that I better start 'genuinely' learning about this music I am so fond of. Otherwise I may indulge in the overuse of adi thallam- the only one known to me.

My Swades: We, The People Moment

Last night I was continuing my love affair with 29C. The bus was the right quantity of full (or should I say empty)? I was observing the masses around me and going over the rules of the unwritten 'Bus Code' i.e. in the event a particular seat falls vacant the person standing exactly adjacent to that seat has complete claim over it. Of course you can choose to give up that claim to someone more deserving but hey, who thinks like that nowadays?

I had received the right signals from the 'outgoing' passenger and just when I was gearing up to be seated I observed an older woman (lets call her X) to my right. I knew I had to give up my claim. It's that ingrained goodness from the family I have been brought up in. Sigh! So instead I was patting myself on the back and feeling proud of my selflessness when I was pushed onto Woman X by Woman Y ( from left). She pushed, she shoved and she was seated.

Empty seat again but further back. I rushed over and sat down for exactly two minutes only to give it up to another old woman Z. They were out to get me! She offered to hold my bag while I stood their pretending to read my book. Half way home, I finally sat guilt-free. A woman got onto the bus and gave me her child to hold. Woah! How am I supposed to explain to mommy that I am not very child- friendly? They scare me! I had no choice, so I sat there with a bag on one knee and the kid on the other. The little one had special fountain ponytails for the outing and these were permanently in my nostrils. Then it happened that out of body experience that makes you see the humour in it all. But instead I was Shahrukh Khan having one of those ridiculous We, The People Moments.