Ennamo Vagaiyay Varuguthu Maane

The train that we were on, the Tiruchendur-Chennai Superfast, pulled into Chidambaram station at the break of dawn. Our second-class compartment was mostly empty by then. Walking around the town of Chidambaram, we asked a shop about a place where we could freshen up. The man directed us to a lodge. The place he recommended declined us, but empathetically directed us to another. We booked a room there for around two hours to shower and get ready. Sannidhis in the Nataraja Temple  From there we headed straight to the south gopuram of the grand temple. Adorning the inner walls of this gate were reliefs depicting Indian dance. Thillai Chidambaram is Natarajar, the lord of the dance. We left our bags and footwear outside and walked in. Seeing the vimanas of the grand sabhas as soon as we walked in was a profoundly spiritual experience. We first worshipped Dakshinamurti , whose sannidhi is immediately in front of the south gopuram. Dakshinamurti is a bhāvam of Shiva representing wisdom a...

I took a seat in this concert with no expectation of a 'strictly' classical concert. However, the main vocalist of Carnatic rock band Agam  presented a kacheri  that was as traditional as any kacheri in the modern day could get. Just before the concert began, I heard from the row in front of me that Harish was a maverick and that his popularity was mostly with the new generation of Carnatic rasikas, comfortably disconnected from 'traditional' Carnatic music. He dismissed all such beliefs, proving that he is a Carnatic rock musician precisely because he is a Carnatic musician. Joining this outstanding vaggeyakara that evening were Sri Edappally Ajith on the violin, Sri Radhakrishna Kamath on the mridangam , Sri Vellattanjoor Sreejith on the ghatam and Sri Paravur Gopakumar on the morsing.  Harish began the evening by testing the new venue's acoustics on the pallavi of Vatapi Ganapatim Bhajeham. This was an auspicious beginning not only for Harish, but for the re...

One fine September afternoon in Trivandrum. Own picture. As I wrote earlier on this blog, Carnatic stalwart Sangīta Kalānidhi Sanjay Subrahmanyan performed in Thiruvananthapuram at the Padmanabhaswamy Temple's annual Navaratri concert last week. These concerts, one for each of the nine evenings, are held in the Navaratri Mandapam in the Kuthiramalika Palace, near the temple's eastern gate. He was performing on the sixth, for which Maharaja Swati Tirunal has composed the Kamavardhani kriti 'Saroruhasana Jaye'. Only the compositions of Swati Tirunal are performed here. I was slightly late to the show. The city's traffic held up the bus I had boarded, and I could only reach the temple by 18:05. I felt embarrassed: concerts like those at the Navaratri Mandapam are not meant for people without a sense of punctuality. In fact, Prince Rama Varma had written on his blog that no one would be allowed to come late. There is also the rule that patrons cannot leave before the c...

Source: MD Madhusudan, Wikimedia Commons. My parents and I visited North Kerala last weekend merely to listen to Sanjay Subrahmanyan, undoubtedly my favourite artist, who was performing at Thureeyam . For those unaware, this is an annual music festival organised by the Sampujya Krishnananda Bharati Swamigal of the Anandabhavana Ashramam of Pothamkandam, Kannur. Many great musicians have performed here, and this year's iteration Involved TMK, Jayanthi Kumaresh and Hariprasad Chaurasia, to name a few. The evening of the 15th of July, Sanjay was joined by his regular team of S Varadarajan on the violin and Neyveli Venkatesh on the mridangam, and on the ghatam by the illustrious Tripunithura N. Radhakrishnan. He began with a medium-paced padam in Gambheera Natta, 'Hara Hara Shiva Shankara', which rasikas may know from his Tamizhum Naanum concert in 2019. The piece soon escalated into the next speed. The percussionists got to show their mettle as he stepped it up yet another...