The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Went for a speech, got music instead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Went for a speech, got music instead

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: It is not very often that a reporter who goes to cover a Chief Minister's function ends up with enough material to write a music review instead.

This happened at a seminar organised by Karnataka Rajya Dalita Sangharsha Samiti (KRDSS), with the organisers deciding to fill in the three-hour wait for the Chief Minister, who finally did not turn up because he was busy at a Cabinet meeting, with a marathon song session.

Protest songs

Along with the protest songs that Dalit activists always sing with great gusto, the event also featured Ambayyanuli, a noted singer from Manwi in Raichur District, singing some wonderful songs on Buddha and on poems of 12th Century philosopher-poet Basaveshwara in a semi-classical style.

Patience runs out

This music session, which almost turned into the main event of the function, went on till Mr. Ambayyanuli ran out of patience and lungpower.

When another request for a song came after he had sung for over three hours, he said, with folded hands, "I am sorry, I am not a machine."

More tolerable

The music session did indeed make the wait more tolerable for the guests. But the organisers did not explain why a seminar on the impact of globalisation on the Dalit community had to be held up endlessly for the Chief Minister.

As irony would have it, most of the songs celebrated the spirit of defiance against the forces of globalisation.

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