Like many others, I engaged in some sabha hopping this season.

On Sunday the 18th, I decided to go attend two concerts by disciples of Dr. Sunder, a  friend of mine.

The first was a flute concert by ShrutiSagar a young flautist at the Indian Fine Arts Society; it was one of those afternoon concerts at an ailing German-Balamandir Hall in Tnagar on Prakasam Street. Indeed it is one of those halls that needs more than renovation.

A bunch of sponsor banners caught my attention as I walked into the sabha premises. What a range of businesses? Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing and more.All proudly sponsoring the music season. Yes, we are in an era where Royal patronage has transitioned into corporate sponsorship in return for banner exposure.

 Gentle flute music wafted through the air. I made my way to the front seat and sat next to Sunder. The concert picked up intensity as the flautist and the violinist and the mridangist matched each other in prowess and effective delivery.

The concert was a delightful experience but the crowd numbered to not more than 20 in a hall that could have seated a few hundred.

Outside, it was a quiet day in the canteen as well. The menu was displayed in grandeur featuring exotic combinations such as adai and avail.

The concert ended; Sunder and I and the flautist and a few others in the audience made our way across the city, past the still busy Sunday traffic to the ShringeriSankaramatham in Mandaiveli.

That is where Kirtana, a sister of the flautist was giving her performance. Again a good one, except that the audience was small in number. I do not remember who the sabha was, but there was no array of banners flaunting the names of sponsors and there definitely was no canteen.

With hundreds of concerts happening throughout the season, it is no wonder that some of these little known young and upcoming artists get only their family and friends as audiences. I am sure that there have been endless debates on the wild number of concerts during the season and the lack of audience patronage in many.

On Tuesday, I had tiffin at NaradaganaSAbha and went to the Music Academy to attend a concert. I had ordered ravapongal with aviyal, but the ravapongal was loaded with seppankizhangu that I don’t like. The aviyal was alright and the tea was great. One has to also complement the Music Academy canteen for their excellent tea.

The audience at the Music Academy concert featuring Jayaraj and Jayashree on the veena was a contrast from the previous day’s crowd experience. It was a 1;45 concert with a decent attendance; the lower level of the Academy Main hall was packed with a respectably sized audience. The concert featured compositions of Dikshitar such as VallabhaNayakasya, Visalakshim and Sri Subrahmanyaya Namaste and the audience response was pretty decent.

One thing that bothered me was the audience etiquette. I had picked a center aisle seat close to the rear as I had wanted to leave in the middle of the concert. Half way through a song, about a half a dozen people picked the very same row that I had picked and it was quite an elaborate and disturbing ritual as the six of them crossed me and went over and made it to their seats; they could have easily entered the row from the left side instead of cutting through the middle.

And there were the ubiquitious cell phones and a variety of loud offensive ringtones. Why cannot people turn off their cellphones before the beginning of the concerts?

I have seen fishy faces on the part of mamis as their cellphones ring and they just let it ring on and on and look at other people pretending that it is not their cellphone.

Then there are the loud conversations on cellphones where people try to locate their friends and try to find seating closeby.

Well, all this is a part of the Chennai music season experience.

PS: I couldn’t help contrasting the concert experience with some from the early 1970s where the number of concerts was much lower, audience turnout relatively higher; I don’t remember any corporate sponsorship.  Locally made soggy popcorn and crisp and spicy potato chips were sold in canteens (and a few other dishes as well) – but never such exotic items as seppankizhanguravapongal with aviyal!

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Kanniks Kannikeswaran
www.kanniks.com