The arrival in Chennai of the month of December heralds what we have come to christen the Music Season. To those who object to my use of the term ‘christen’, semaphoring another religion, I mean no disrespect. The fact is, every time December inexorably comes around, we hold forth on this unique cultural phenomenon.
But the trouble is, everything that needs to be said has already been said on the subject, year on year. The statistics and attendant highlights duly trotted out, ditto the number of sabhas hosting concerts, performers who will be seen in action, how many NRI musicians will feature, interviews with artistes who are being honoured by sabhas, interviews with the Season’s officialdom, sabha canteen chatter for the gourmets, the art of cadging tickets for the handful of performers who draw packed houses — all this and more we trawl through every year. Last but not the least, we have concert reviews in the conventional media which, by and large, tend to be laudatory, and in the social media that tend to be either hagiographic or vitriolic.
I therefore decided, for the sake of novelty, that I shall turn my hand towards poetry to provide an impressionistic view of how I see the forthcoming Margazhi Music Season that has just kicked off. Again, I trust the expression ‘kicked off’ does not get the goat of some hypersensitive who may go, ‘How can you use a word like ‘kick’ when talking about something as pristine and pure as Carnatic music?’ You never quite know whose touchy toes you are treading on these days, what with so many prickly types all around us. Anyway, my riposte to such an asinine query would be, ‘Take a long walk off a short pier’.
So I pay my curtain-raising tribute to the Season this year through the medium of verse, more specifically, limericks. While I have attempted to touch on a variety of standard as well as current issues that the Music Season attracts every year, the list is by no means exhaustive.
Many of you can add your own peculiar angles and concoct your own limericks, and have the time of your lives during this wonderful period in Chennai, when the weather is bracing, the music passionate, the air festive and many of us strut around humming a Bhairavi alapana, as if to the manner born.
December in Chennai heralds the Music Season,
Aficionados lose their sense of reason,
Lurching from sabha to sabha,
Morphing from raga to raga,
The purists may even call it treason.
The musicians are primed and ready,
Their voices sound and pitch steady,
To belt out a Shanmugapriya
Close on the heels of a Natakapriya,
Leaving their fans high and heady.
The evening concerts are all ticketed,
Doors close once the fans are billeted,
Which happens for a Sanjay sell-out
Or a RaGa dual joust.
MeToo left the Carnatic world buffeted,
Those in the glare felt unfairly targeted,
‘Never laid a finger’, they sighed,
‘Tell that to the marines’, the victims cried,
The authorities still had them docketed.
In the canteens they come and go,
Talking of Sudha’s Rangasayee O,
‘What’s today’s special?’
‘Wheat halwa or akkaravadisal?’
Aruna Sairam will be crowned Sangita Kalanidhi,
Observers will reflect on her nalla vidhi,
The talk will turn to who missed out,
The Academy will guts it out
And declare, ‘Enjoy the music, prithee’.
The lec-dems educate us every morning,
Techniques of music and knowledge dawning,
Some witty barbs here,
Some verbal volleys there,
Keeps most of us from yawning.
All good things must come to an end,
The Season no exception to this trend,
We journey home with a heavy heart,
The musicians have played their part,
It’s back to Carole King and ‘You’ve got a friend’.
Some English Literature smarty-pants will point out that the metre or syntax of these limericks do not strictly adhere to that of a text book limerick. Mea culpa. If you are that pedantic, you should read Edward Lear or Ogden Nash, but you won’t get much from them on the Music Season. I should further caution you that international limericks often go for the smutty stuff. If you don’t have the stomach for it, best give it a wide berth. My conscience is clear. Have yourselves a great Music Season.
