Sanjay Subramanyan - Live @ Nadasurabhi

Being the mother of a three and a half year old, attending music concerts 'live' is almost like a luxury for me. It was the Children's Day weekend and our apartment complex was hosting a wide variety of sports events for the young as weel as the 'young at heart'. My kiddo participated in a couple of games and so did hubby and I. The exhausting activities during the day did not actually dampen our spirits and I'm really glad I was able to go to this particular concert. We reached the Venue (St. John's auditorium, Koramangala) a little ahead of the scheduled time of 6pm. What this meant was we had ample choice in where we wanted to sit. We picked a location neither too close to the stage, nor too far from the exist.

The stage was beautifully done up with colorful flowers and some fresh green plants at the corners, against an elegant blue backdrop. The organizers were getting ready with bouquets to welcome the performers for the evening. By now, our little madame, who'd been closely but silently monitoring the bustle of the organizers close to the stage, was beginnging to get quite inquisitive. In her characterestic non-chalant and loud manner, she asked : "Appa, Sanjay Mama engendu Varuva, left side lendu aa, illa right side lendu aa?", "Mrudangam mama enga okachipa?", "Sanjay mama ceiling lendu parandu varuvala?". A couple of our neighbors looked our way with much besmusement.

Trying to suppress a chuckle as well as slight embarassment, I gently chided her - "Ved, when the concert begins, you need to maintain silence, or else the other mamas and mamis won't be able to listen to Sanjay mama singing", to which she promptly rejoined "Illai, we can speak softly no?"

The gentelman sitting right ahead of us, unable to contain his amusement any more, snapped our little exchange short with - "Oh my God, she's such a doll", and directing his affectionate attention towards Vedika, egged her on saying "Nee onnum bayapadadei maa...unaku enna venum naalum pesiko, enna venum naalum padiko" :-)

Meanwhile, the husband had wandered off in other direction and was deep in conversation with an elderly gentleman, when Sanjay walked on to the stage with his entourage, to a warm but prolonged applause. Vinod later identified the gentleman as Mr. Suresh Subrahmanyan, Sanjay's uncle, whom he had happened to get acqauinted with during his visit to Chennai last December, during the kutcheri season.

After the customary welcome speech from a member of the organizing committee (Nadasurabhi Cultural Association), the concert commenced with a lively varnam. Over the next 3 hours, we were drenched in a melodious ocean of raga and laya. Sanjay is known for experimenting with a lot of unusual ragams especially for the main piece / RTPs. But, for this concert, he stuck to the popular but offering-tremendous-scope-for-variety Shankarabharanam, for the RTP. The main piece was in a not-very-often heard ragam called Kumudakriya.

Sanjay was accompanied on the violin by Vidwan S Varadarajan, on the Mridangam by Vidwan Neyveli Venkatesh, and on the Khanjira by Vidwan Guruprasanna.


The song list for the evening goes something like this :-

- Sami ni rammanave – KedAram - Thiruvottiyur Thyagaiyer
- Ra Rama intitaka – AsavEri – Thyagaraja
- enta rANi tanakenta – HarikambhOji – Thyagaraja
- Ardhanareeshwaram – kumudakriya – Dikshitar
- Anandavalli – Neelambari – Swathi Thirunal
- Marugelara O raghava – JayantasrI – Thyagaraja
- RTP – ShankarabharaNam
- GOpala bhaktim – Bageshri – Swati Thirunal
- Nanda Tanaya Govinda – Bageshri – Purandaradasa
- JanAdi Rama – Sindhu Bhairavi
- Bharata sarajya sakhi – Desh – Mayuram Vishwanatha Shastri
- Paniyin VintulipOlavE – Harikambhoji
- MangaLam – SaurAshtram – Thyagaraja