Incipient Confidence #7

Triplicane used to be an abode of illuminati and glitterati till about the late 1980s. Fine arts thrived here like nowhere during their time. I remember all the artistes performing their best at the Sri Parthasarathy Temple, ThiruvettIswarar Temple, Vasantha Bungalow, The Hindu High School, Kala Mandapam etc. Today Triplicane is a haven for bachelors, with roads and streets buried under 2-wheelers, cars, muck, - simply with all nonsense possible.

Ok what has that got with the title of this post. I'll come to it now. Last year a group of people organised series of concerts during the last week of December. The concerts were held inside the Sri Parthasarathy Temple Tank. This year again they are repeating this event.

Today I got back home early. During my usual routine of gazing the tank and temple from my home terrace I saw 3 kids clad in festive mood getting on to the stage. The weather slightly chill for Chennai with water all around, the tallest, presumably the eldest sat in the centre of the stage. Took a veena and placed it on her lap. To her right another kid, younger than the 1st one, sat behind a mrudangam. Both these kids where in blue pattu (silk) pAvAdai (full shirt or modern day midi) and green shirt. The one opposite the left of the centrally placed kid was on a maroon kurta and white pyjama.

For the next 1 hour I saw carnatic music safely, securely and happily enjoying her sojourn in the hands of Anjani the eldest of the lot. My good friend Sridharan once told me that he listened to the sisters, yes Anjani and Aswini are sisters. and Aswini is accompanying Anjani on the mrudangam. He very strongly insisted that listen I to Anjani. I ofcourse did watch her perform for PudhuPunal in DD podhigai some time ago and immediately called Sridharan and ridiculed at him for the recommendation. Am awfully sorry Sridharan, you made me lick the dust rather Anjani did by her performance this evening from 5 to 6 at the Parthasarathy Temple Tank.

Watch her video

The young angel literally transcends belief, atleast my beliefs. She should be all of 12 or 13 and understanding the veena at this age should be by ordain only. The way she handled the instrument, the graceful traverse of her fingers over the frets, the delicate handling of the gamakas just belittled me. She played gAnamUrthE, anurAgamulE which are or can be classified as authentic classical compositions with such elan which made me trash Rajesh Vaidya who played after her.

Ofcourse there was another 1 hour concert between Anjani's and Rajesh's. But fortunately for me nothing went inside my ears after Anjani's music. Anjani didn't maul or malign the identity of veena in contrast to what Rajesh Vaidya usually does. Every Indian musical instrument like Indian spice has an unique identity. And its the duty of the performer to keep it intact. Anyway let me write about this later as a separate post.

What impressed me is the sincerity of Anjani. There were only about 20 people of which atleast 5-7 would have the family members of the performers. But the slender audience didn't deter Anjani from giving her best.

It's almost half a decade I heard someone sing or perform anurAgamulE. Though there are few kritis in this raga saraswathi only a couple reside in me. The 1st time I heard this classic was some 30 years back at Srinivasa Sastri Hall, Madras. It was by Dr.MBK for Nadopasana with MSG and UKS. And I was prejudiced for long, till I heard TMT in 1980s at the same venue with TSV and CSM. I should also admit that I have not been attending live concerts over the last 3-4 years.

It's been long say about 15 years we had a good vainika emerge. There is one Sivakumar in AIR Trichy, who unfortunately had to settle for a government job and disappear from the Chennai concert scene. I've a few friends who are all great admirers of veena music and I can assure them that we have good scope of listening to some real veena music from the hands of Anjani. This young girl if continues to maintain her adherence to quality music and doesn't subvert will be the next E.Gayathri and Jayanthi Kumaresh.

I've to mention about the kid Aswini on the mrudangam. She is a disciple of Sri.T.K. Murthy. Thanks to Sri. T.K. Murthy. Aswini's fingering technique, playing style are still unadultered. And I wish she develops on the foundation laid by Sri. TKM and continues to accompany some of the best artistes who may germinate or have germinated somewhere in the world. Aswini is confidence and artistry personified. And the guy on the ghatam (awfully sorry I forgot to look at the name on the billboard) also proved his mettle. Am sorry. will look tomorrow and post.