Chennai. 36 degrees before noon.
Bangalore, 27 degrees after noon.
In the 'garden city', the green is slowly being consumed by the fumes of countless vehicles of men and women who fuel the BPO and IT boom.
The air holds good though when you withdraw into the green nooks like Cubbon Park or a campus like the United Theological College in Bangalore Cantt., where I usually stay.
I am not taking a break this time around.
A sabha is celebrating a milestone. The Percussive Arts Centre is 25 years old. And the occasion is special because the PAC is probably the only organisation which has a special place for the percussive arts in India.
Percussionist Bangalore K. Venkataram, now no more, started it all as a tribute to a man he most admired. The great Palghat Mani Iyer, a mridangam maestro, who was worshipped like a film star of today.
So when the maestro passed away, Venkataram felt that an institution devoted to the percussion arts would be a nice memorial. Thus, the Palghat Mani Iyer Memorial Arts Centre, came into being. Besides, concerts, it promoted research, lectures and festivals. And it decorated the best percussionists. The Centre was then renamed as 'Percussive Arts Centre' to be in line with local registration rules.
After the passing of Venkataram, his son Krishna and its president M. R. Doraiswamy Iyengar, took care of this arts organisation.
The silver jubilee celebrations started on a quiet note at Bangalore Gayana Samaja hall. People do not seem very enthusiastic when it comes to honouring vidwans. But Chingleput Ranganathan, considered to be a master of the 'pallavi' in Carnatic music, and to be honoured on the opening day, wasn't too bothered. He and his wife sat in the lobby enjoying the nadaswaram as the stage was prepared for the show.
The commissioner of Bangalore City Corporation, now called the Bangalore (or Bengalooru?) Mahanagara Palike, Jairaj, was the chief guest and the high profile IAS officer seemed to enjoy his role. (Jairaj often slips into Bangalore's sabha's to listen to kutcheris, we are told). Other guests included IAS officer Srinivas, who heads the Culture Dept. and patron Dr. Rama Rao.
Jairaj said classical music could not shake off the 'music for the elite' tag. But surely, the music could be taken to the schools, to the 100 plus schools managed by the city Corporation if any sabha came forward to lend his and his men a hand.
He got a round of applause for the idea.
There was bigger applause for the awardees of the evening - guru Chingleput Ranganathan, mridangam vidwan G S Ramanujam and a prize for the young khanjira artiste, G Guruprasanna.
The award for Ramanujam was sponsored by the well-known khanjira artiste H P Ramachar. And he was applauded too, as PAC's Executive Director V Krishna said, “This is a rare gesture of a senior artiste instituting an award for an artiste."
The hall filled up for the concert though. Percussionist Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma has made a name for himself with his percussion ensemble concerts and on this special occasion he had a 25-member troupe on stage, including three drummers raring to go.
The group had had rehearsals at the Jayanagar home of Sharma who is popularly known as Shibu, over the week, during the late hours.
At the end of the hour long show, they got a huge round of applause. Artiste-scholar Dr. T S Sathyavathy came on stage to appreciate critically the troupe's concert. It was a Sunday well spent for the rasikas.
Chingleput Ranganathan started the event with his concert on Day Two at the Samaja hall but the rasikas packed in for the bigger one to follow - a laya vinyasa by Chennai-based Karaikudi Mani on the mridangam, backed by the veteran V. Suresh on the ghatam and young khanjira artiste N. Amrit.
The hugely respected Mani started with a dialogue in Thamizh, talking about the place and space for the mridangam and gently nudging the rasikas to switch off their mobile phones. They did and sat mesmerised through a 50 minutes concert. When it ended, the rasikas, in a gesture, rose up and gave Mani a standing ovation.
On Day Three, mridangam artiste T S Chandrasekar and khanjira artiste ASN Swaamy jammed up before the enduring vocalist R K Srikantan took the stage, assisted by his son R S Ramakantha, with T A S Mani on the mridangam and young Charulatha on the violin, veteran Ramachar on the khanjira and R A Rajagoplan on the ghatam.
The event shifted to Chowdiah Hall on Day Four for a big event. The day when a percussionist is given the Palghat Mani Iyer award now sponsored as the K Puttu Rao award by K K Murthy, the man who heads the team that manages the Chowdiah hall and the Academy of Music here which celebrated its silver jubilee with year long programmes last ear.
The 'groom' of the evening was the tall, ever-smiling mridangam vidwan from Chennai, Mannargudi Easwaran. The Chief Minister of the state, H D Kumaraswamy was expected to be here but he did not turn up, probably engaged in handling the monsoon excesses on the coast.
But we had celebrated space scientist and former ISRO chief, Dr. Kasturirangan, now a Rajya Sabha member too.
The scientist told us the story of how the Nobel laureate scientist, the late Dr C V Raman who ran his institute in Bangalore had been fascinated by the percussion instruments and by Mani Iyer playing at kutcheris, had invited him to a special lab to study the effect of the rhythms of the instrument and how the study had been published in an international physics journal, with proof that the sounds of the mridangam created better music than the western drums, backed by loads of data.
Easwaran kept smiling throughout. After he had been decorated with a title, the shawl and a cheque, and he got his two minutes at the podium, he kept his speech short. “I only know my music and the mridangam, the railway stations and about the money I am paid. I hardly know what happens at home and my family. The credit for keeping us going is my wife!” he said innocently.
It was perhaps a rare moment for a decorated artiste to also celebrate the contribution of his spouse the rasikas never get to see or hear.
That evening, Easwarn supported flute maestro N Ramani at the concert B S Purushotaman on the khanjira and B Rajashekaran on the morsing.
The 25th thaalavaadyothsava went on till Sunday, June 4. That Sunday morning, a lifetime achievement award was given to the veteran R K Srikantan.
Concerts by Tala Tarangini of the Karnataka College of Percussion, Dr T S Sathyavathy, lec-dem by Dr. H S Anasuya Kulkarni on the gong, Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Chitraveena Ravi Kiran and a laya lahiri by the Sri Ayyanar College of Music were scheduled for the PAC jubilee.
If the show went off well, it was thanks to many unknown faces like the family of Krishna and well wishers among the artistes of Bangalore besides the PAC team.
The PAC is based at 183, 8th Cross, 2nd Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore 560 011. Phone - 080 - 26609100.
