Monday, February 26, 2007

Shakthi foundation Part - II


The Turn Of The Ustad........ Unka Tho Sach Mein Jawaab Nahin


Every artist, in any form of art, is special in his/her own field and none can be compared to any other. The magic that each one produces with their skill is just unimaginable until one experiences that. Given a set of such breathtaking performances trying to rate them would be futile and senseless effort. But given a chance to choose the performance that left one most dumbfounded, most of the audience in that hall would have chosen THE USTAD for the day. He came in last after all the other three people had showcased their talents and produced MAGIC out of the two tabalas and his two bare hands that the hall resonated with just two sounds, one from his tabla that only he could produce and the other from the audience which was in raptures in response to his electrifying perfromance. At some point of time his fingers were moving so fast that they were barely visible. He produced all the sounds one could hear from similar instruments like the Mridangam etc in his inimitable style. Even the audience, who had started clapping in between the performances, unable to hold their ecstasy had turned totally numb on listening to the awesome magic woven by the Ustad. One could not even accept it as something that was possible by mortals and left us completely “BREATHLESS”. For a change it was someone else other than Shankar Mahadevan who had left us in that state.

Srinivas suddenly picked up a note when the ustad was just on the verge of finishing his performance and effortlessly slid into the flow of the beats contributing with his instrument and together, hoping to catch Shankar Mahadevan off guard, they stopped at a particular spot when the singer was not at the peak of his concentration. They were able to delay him only by a split second and he along with Sivamani slid back into the jugalbandhi even more smoothly. Beleive me it was just bliss.

They signed off in style after a few rounds of jugalbandhi and I was left with only one comment to Sowmya “Please shove me off some tlal building, I don’t want to continue to just exist”, to which I got the reply “I feel so small. Cha, Jumping down from the first floor one cannot even die (we were seated in the first floor of the hall).”

We couldn’t count reasons that evening to thank Shakthi Foundation. First for conducting such a wonderful event and next for the social cause they are fighting for. The performances were followed by presentation of mementos to the musicians by John Mclaughlin (the commander in Chief when it comes to guitar I was told) who had performed the year before with these musicians for Shakthi Foundation. He then went on to explain to the audience the motto behind the organization to help the physically challenged people of the society who are not exactly as fortunate as many others. They presented some prizes to some handicapped children. The first was a blind girl posing for photos of herself with the musicians, photos which she herself is not privileged to see, followed by a kid with his right hand missing. It was so encouraging to see such an organization which has dedicated and devoted itself to the cause of such people. The next one was the most moving incident. The next child was one with both his arms missing, he could even receive his certificate only by clutching it beneath his neck.

It gives a wonderful feeling even to know and see such incidents where human race tried to help itself. We returned home a happy lot that though we had not actively participated in any of the organizations activities we were at least able to contribute something to a good cause though the way of our tickets.

It baffles me as to how people who kill others for various reasons such as money, power, so called ideology etc miss this wonderful feeling of helping others, though that’s a totally different discussion altogether.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I have really missed something great...u coming out so strongly, must have been really great...Enjoy!!

madhu said...

Good work Shyam, reminds me of the bliss and the humiliation we faced at the show :)( Appa looking the entry pass asked me "Was it worth watching for 500 bucks?" i could only reply "May be u shd have asked if i were worthy of watching it" :-)

Unknown said...

cheese mate.. good that some1 actually took time to pen what most of us felt: *watching* sheer magic..

Anonymous said...

You better dont miss me (like I missed this) when you go next time to one such goodie...

SNMS98 said...

Arthi : I can only say u were unlucky that this happened just after u left.

Madhu : That was the apt answer :))

Smita : Cant do anything much, so i thought let me at least write abt it :)).

Karthikeyan : U keep me informed as well.

Venky said...

i could not but repeat Karthikeyan!

Venky said...

“BREATHLESS” - For a change it was someone else other than Shankar Mahadevan who had left us in that state. - good one that!

And the Ustad has baffled me ever. Like the numerous numero unos - Amjad Ali Khan saheb, Hariprasad Chaurasia, MSS, Ustad Bismillah Khan (this man is God!), Pt. Ravi Shankar... the list will end the day man counts the number of stars in the sky. My India is beautiful!

SNMS98 said...

India is definitely beautiful all right, u said it ravi...., rmbr that day we were talking about some kind of music in the west which is just a bt a few handful of notes, u said "Namba oorula irukkara raagathukku ellam oru oru style of music sonna enga porathu"..... How true......