Margazhi Musings_Episode1 : Galata Katcheri

Margazhi is always something I connect with music, sabhas and upanyasams. More than a Christmas December, it was always a musical December for people in Madras. There was no reason one would  stay home to avoid attending concerts. As usual, we headed towards Mylapore.  It was a forenoon Kacheri. Forenoon katcheries ( concerts) were usually given to the upcoming artists, which would not be  rasika's first preference. So you cannot expect ,a swarm of audience at this period of time. I entered a place something that would look much like a school Auditorium without a couple of cutouts , the name of the Sabha written in the middle in bold letters , a portrait of Triplicane Parthasarathy Perumal on the left and Sangeetha mummoorthigal on right of the stage hanging upright. There were two clocks on either side of the stage which showed almost the same time. Perhaps this was the only hall with maximum head counts in the given slot of  day. In the stage there wasn't just one but two main artists. Yes! It was a vocal dual. They were twins almost identical in all aspects other than the saree colour. When I enter the hall planning for a seat, a couple of grey heads turned towards me giving me a look as if I entered a restricted area. Perhaps they never expected a teenager to attend the concert.I  then realised that I was the youngest of all audience there until a kid wearing a pink frock with neatly plaited hair entered the hall. She was just 10 years old. She and her mother took a seat exactly diagonal to that of mine in the front left.

Unlike pop or Jazz concert which would have the singer bubbling with enthusiasm making him/ her to jump up and down as if their pants got on fire, carnatic music is not as much visual friendly. Carnatic music deals much about bhakthi and inner peace. Although we have a couple of artist who could dance just sitting in one place with funny abhinayas and comical mukha bhavas, these weren't of that kind. The visual extrapolations of the artist could not be seen clearly and enjoyed unless zoomed like a camera or by watching it from the first two rows. So my eyes fell upon the audience around. The kid whom I mentioned earlier was now busy munching a packet of chips having her entire head inside the big polythene bag. Her mother was really happy to keep her engaged so that she could listen the concert in peace. By then a varnam in Sahana and Ganapathi thuthi in hindolam was over. When I intended to look at the stage again ,I saw a couple of people irrespective of grey/ black hair were busy with their mobile phones. More curious to know what they were doing, I peeped into an old man's mobile. He turned on the mobile at once, looked at all the apps( probably downloaded by his son), ensured if they were safe, looked for the time and kept it back into his pocket. Perhaps he never noticed two big clocks hanging right before him. He closed his eyes to listen the song,"Kaana vendaamo?( Don't u want to see this?)” in raga saaramathi. What an irony! In due course of time , a young boy, probably in his mid school had entered the hall,who engaged himself with " Subway surfers" ( a game) in his father's mobile. Seated beside him was his father giving him an angry look ,at the same time having his leg shaking in the same kaala pramaana of the mridangam beat. Sometimes there had been instances when mridangam artist at this slots would take the responsibility of taking the concert alive, waking people up from their nap ,beating the mridangam as hardly as he can. You could identify the sleepyheads from the horrified startled look they give you once they are awake.

By then another woman in her mid 50's entered the hall. She was outshining artists with a bright saree colour, and matching earrings and necklace. For a moment I thought that she was an artist for the next concert. Because during this season we have back to back performances on stage. She went straight to the front row took a glance of who was seated there and took a place in the front row. Just then a similar looking woman and a man waved at her from the left hand side corner. They all stood up at once, went to the corner and started their daily gossips. Their  gesticulation was a complete show off, distracting everybody's attention towards them. They were discussing about the talents of the junior artists at high pitch which juxtaposed with the artist's upper Ri. Their disturbance continued until a heavily endorsed disciple of a famous musician entered the hall. She wasn't so satisfactory as she was expected to be. The people in the disgusting round table conference gossiping about the world ,waved at her expecting her to come and join the chat. But she merrily declined​ the offer, and found a convenient place  and sat.

By now , a couple of old lads adjacent to me started discussing about what would be the next composition and guessing the raaga.While one guess the raga right as Devamanohari, the other expected the artist to sing "Evarikai Avatharamu", the artist disappointed them singing another composition, "Oyindidu, Oyindidu yen maname" signifying them to stop overthinking about the intricacies of Carnatic music. Vocalists usually have a unique way of expressing their thoughts through compositions relevant to the scenario. My thoughts now drifted to the concert which I attended last December where the artist sang a thirupugazh,"Pralayathukku appal oru andam aagi(the world became one, after the flood)" right after the Chennai floods. In the other concert when the mridangam artist went off beat after Pallavi, the anupallavi which started as "Idhu nyayama(is this justifiable?)", was sung by the vocalist in a satirical manner indicating the missing beat missed. While most of them gave a heavy laugh at this, others gave a bland stare , as if woken up from  sleep without understanding anything that was going on. Now almost half of the population  drifted towards the canteen. Of course Margazhi is full of feast to both ear and tummy. Suddenly my eyes fell on something peculiar oscillating. It was a person in the front row who had his hair cut short like Alan Rickman ( prof.Snape) in Harry Potter series. His head was rotating almost 180 degrees with the greatest angular velocity I had ever seen. Almost 10 times a second. This was not normal, I know rasikas nod their head when they encounter a wonderful bruga or sangathi , but I had never seen a person enjoying so much that his hair rotated so fast challenging the blades of fan up above. I wanted to ask him if everything was ok. But then I realised he was perfectly normal. Thank you very much.

When it was the second last piece of the concert, I witnessed a dark man with a camera hanging around his neck gave an entry. Taking a couple of snaps and scribbling on a notebook, I confirmed he was a reporter. My curiosity of what the reporter would have scribbled arriving so late ( 1 song prior to mangalam)to the concert made the second last song go unnoticed. Meanwhile during mangalam, some of the heads from the third row turned back one after the other uniformly. The kid by now has finished munching her chips, which left her impossible to be seated. She now started counting the number of heads by physically tapping them from behind. Thank God I choose an appropriate seat , which avoided me from an unexpected bang on head. By now the concert got over, and the artist came down with pride to have completed the concert successfully amidst all the disturbances. I continued glancing at the stage waiting for the next concert to begin.

By

Balanth