“ Enna raagam ma? Anandabhairaviya? “ asks a woman with jasmine in her hair and a shining diamond nosepin.
She’s so intent it is almost as though her life depends on knowing the name of the raga. Even though I am a Carnatic music student, my level of technical expertise is limited to enjoying the aalap and putting the thalam.
Fortunately I have attended enough concerts this season to wriggle out of this dicey situation. I pretend the name is on the tip of my tongue and shake my head thoughtfully, looking around. The man sitting beside me comes to my rescue; he’s a bespectacled 40-year-old hooked to a WhatsApp group that is enthusiastically discussing Carnatic ragas throughout the kutcheri . “No, ma. This is Ritigowla,” he says, on checking with the group.
For an average concert hopper, this is a regular scene. From seventy-year-olds jotting down notes on ragas furiously in their notepads to chirpy, young kurta-clad percussionists jamming to tharikitathoms in the middle of the road, the rasikas who flock to sabhas are passionate. And they mean business when they come for kutcheris .
The spaces still retain an old world charm. Technology, surprisingly, has still not made in roads into the Carnatic circuit. For instance, you cannot book most tickets in advance through online platforms but, instead, have to physically be at the sabha ticket counters early enough to snag them. More challenging than tapping a screen for sure, but it does lead to fascinating interaction. Concert goers develop a strong camaraderie while standing in line — music connoisseurs rubbing shoulders with the tourists — as early as 5 in the morning. You may start off by grumbling about the waiting game, but are soon bonding with new-found friends over ragas, early morning snacks, and sun screen lotions.
- Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha – By Mountbatten Mani Iyer @Bheemasena Garden Street, Mylapore. USP: Lunch, priced at ₹350, and served on a leaf. Also vaazhaithandu dosa
- Madras Music Academy — By Mint Padmanabhan @T T Krishnamachari Road, Royapettah. USP: Malli idli with vada curry, Bombay kaja
- Vani Mahal – By Gnanambika Caterers @ GN Chetty Road, T Nagar. USP: Kasi halwa, sevai
- Narada Gana Sabha – By Sri Sasthalaya Caterers @Alwarpet. USP: Moong dal halwa, paniyaram and adai aviyal
The entire city comes alive during this month for music, drawing a large number of travellers and NRIs. A German musician and his artiste friend are fascinated at the mass appeal of the sabhas, saying that that in their country people do not attend Western classical concerts on this scale. Nor are the tickets this incredibly cheap. (They start at Rs 150 at many sabhas). Waiting at The Madras Music Academy for tickets to Sanjay Subrahmanyan concert feels like the run up to the First Day First Show movie release of a superstar. People in their jogging shoes, armed in sweaters and mufflers, brave multiple early mornings for the best seats.
Tune into old and new musicians, chat with fello music lovers and dine at the canteens to immerse in the festive food.
As always, the discussions on the sidelines are the valuable takeaways. Plenty of raagam and thalam talk of course. Then there’s the inevitable gossip on the who’s who of the Carnatic circuit. And of course the annual hunt for the best filter coffee.
Lunch and tiffin at the sabha canteens, originally set up for hungry rasikas, have become the most popular places to eat in Chennai during the season.
It’s become a city tradition to canteen hop, and is always a good idea to get different kinds of people to accompany you for maximum exposure. I hopped between concerts with rasika friends. Then spent a fascinating evening in the company of an IIT research scholar and sixty-year-old philosophy professor.
Neither is trained in Carnatic music, but both take great interest in it. The professor had an interesting perspective on the raga identifying games held everytime a concert is in progress. “Why do I need to know the name of a raga to appreciate the music’s essence? It plays as much a role as a name of a person when you are trying to know her/him better.” The researcher was spell bound by the lecture demonstrations on the science of rhythm and melody, stating that they seemed as complex as her thesis. Which led to a discussion on academics, aesthetics and how the two disciplines can meet.
A night at Spaces in Besant Nagar marked the true, real flavour of the music season for me. We were there to listen to Uday Shankar, an engineer and music lover, play Chitra Venu, an instrument he invented.
There was something about the ambience at Spaces and the pathos filled music of the complex slide/flute/string instrument which slowed down my thoughts. Here was a man rebelling against the conventions of tradition, yet deriving his creative energy from it. He said he was inspired by Chitravina, a musical instrument played by Sangita Kalanidhi recipient of this year, N Ravikiran, while designing the instrument.
That night was a necessary addition to my Margazhi experience because it made me wonder: How deeply do we need to engage with tradition to be able to break away and create something new? How does one use art, anchored by technical rigour and classical canon, for meaningful dissent? Dive into the last few days of the festival to find out for yourself.
