Far from the ‘Carnatic crowd’

As an ardent rasika and student of music, staying far from the kutcheri circuit is difficult. Shifting my residence from Adyar to the southern tip of Chennai and getting accustomed to it as an early teenager was even harder. The houses were far and few. My journey from Pallikaranai to Mylapore and to many other sabha-s in the city was a daunting task in the early 2000s. The unreliable and infrequent bus services would call for long hours of wait and travel time. A student like me could afford it, but, what about rasika-s in different age groups with varied responsibilities?

In the year 2008, my paternal uncle (P R Ganesan) and aunt (K V Leela), founded The Seethalakshmi Ramanathan Trust, a charitable organisation, in the name of our grandparents. In early 2010, I came up with the idea of having chamber concerts at our residence in Pallikaranai as an initiative of the Trust. We would organise one concert every month, mostly in the first weekend. We had the privilege of hosting artistes like Akkarai sisters, Sri Vishnudev K S, Sri Akshay Padmanabhan, Sri Raghavendra Raja (Sean Roldan), Smt Kritika Natarajan, Tirumarugal Brothers among many others.

One of the real challenges in taking this initiative forward lay in publicising the concerts to a larger audience. Given the space constraint at our residence and privacy issues, we could only accommodate an invited audience. Also, because the Trust was focusing more on charitable activities and taking baby steps in organising concerts, planning commutation and appropriate remuneration to the artistes on a regular basis was equally challenging. Even though we could not continue organising monthly concerts, we have been hosting concerts now and then.

In recent times, the neighbourhood has seen a surge in population and tremendous growth in terms of residential apartments, communities, schools, colleges, parks, etc. As part of the Navarātri celebrations, ‘Navarātri Saṅgīta Samarpaṇam’, a one-day music and dance festival was organised at Euro Kids, Kamakoti nagar, on the 6th of October, 2024. The performances included many eminent young stars, mostly from Velachery, Nanganallur, Madipakkam and nearby localities. It also featured performances by students of ‘Bharata Kala Mandir’, a dance school run by Guru Smt Vijayalakshmi in IIT Colony, Pallikaranai and by students of Dr TVG’s AIMA, Kamakoti Nagar, Pallikaranai. With the advent of technology, every Rasika has access to their favourite artiste at the touch of a button, yet, nothing can match the experience of a live concert. The main intention of initiatives such as this is to build a strong rasika community in our neighbourhood.

The beauty of Carnatic music should never be overshadowed by commuting struggles or otherwise. A coming together of artistes living in the surrounding areas, organizers, music enthusiasts, sponsors and donors can bridge the gap and ensure that the melodic allure of Mylapore’s concerts remains accessible to all.