Music has an universal appeal and draws crowds, especially when the melodious strains of the flute waft over the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.
For the sixth Sunday, walkers on the Beach Road were treated to some excellent performance of Carnatic classical music organised by the Tarakeswara Foundation that had taken over the running and maintenance of Rajiv Smruthi Bhavan on the Beach Road.
This Sunday, incidentally the birthday of Carnatic maestro Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna, it was a concert by flautist Indraganti Kaliprasad.
Accompanied by Hanumanthu Ramacharan on the violin, Dhanwada Dharma Rao on the mridangam, and Thalada Chaitanya on the morsing, he held the audience who assembled at the Rajiv Smruthi Bhavan in thrall and, in fact, caused some welcome distraction to the walkers with his music.
A large number of walkers stopped and turned their heads to listen to the melodious strains of the flute. While some walked in and took a seat, some others were contended standing outside the compound wall listening to the performance.
The Carnatic exponent commenced the rendition with the traditional ‘Melukovayya...’ in ‘Bowli’ and then went on to ‘Vatapi...’ in ‘Hamsadhwani’. He concluded with Bapuji’s favourite ‘Raghupati Raghava...’ and a ‘Thillana’ composed by living legend Balamurali Krishna.
Undaunted by the power outage that threatened to mute his reed, the flautist rose to the occasion and his music was clearly audible over the sound of crashing waves to the joy of the audience.
Next Sunday, the foundation is organising a Nadaswaram recital, said trustee Sehdev Singh.
