PLAYING BALL
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Responses to the music season from a cross-section of the audience
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As a child I lived opposite Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar's house in Devanathan Street. As we played, sometimes our ball would fall into his compound. Either he or his beloved Dhanam would call us in to take the ball back and ply us with kadalai urundai and kolavadai. Sometimes, he would ask us to sing a varnam and sing along with us, his oonjal chain creaking out a rishabha in tune with the tambura strings. With this kind of background, I never took to Hindustani music, though I do enjoy listening to masters such as Chaurasia.
The guitar-sitar recital by Kamala Shankar and Rajeev Janardhan at Hamsadhvani was something of a novelty.
Raga Yaman posed no problems as we know it as Kalyani. I felt closer to the sitar though the guitar had more continuity. Both instruments achieved great coordination. Yet the recital did not rivet me all the way through. May be it was because the sound was uneven. I didn't hear the tabla (Vinod Pathak) as the mike didn't do its job well. What I liked was the way the couple enjoyed each other's music.
ANURADHA RAMANAN,
MANDAVELI
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