Margaritas & miaows

Culture – and not in my yoghurt

Okay, so I’m quite done with expanding middle and working on broadening of the mental horizons.

Zakir Hussain is in town and giving performances all over the place…
So, off we went for the 21st memorial concert at Prithvi Theatre to watch him work his magic. I’ve seen him perform about six times yet and have to ‘fess that if all culture was as smooth & fun as him, I would be waaay smarter. Also, if I kept getting motivated by GJ, my intelligent and well-connected star friend who can usually get me free tickets for stuff like this (I mean if I’m going to get an education, I’d rather not pay for it…save up for the bar, I mean diving!!)

So, Monday evening saw us at Prithvi Theatre, jostling about in the khadi kurta crowd for prime position close to the entrance. Free seating arrangements are the worst, since it means you get pushed around like it’s the local to Borivali.

The evening started with a special (not!!!) performance by some artists from the south who sure woke up the dead with their drums and cymbals. Sorry guys, I like my music quieter.

Finally when the show started at 9.30, it was wonderful to hear the peaceful santoor played by Rahul Sharma (eye-candy disguised as serious musician). The santoor is a string instrument in a polygonal shape and was quite a treat to hear the music – like the rivers of Kashmir, sometimes bubbly and slender, sometimes calm and broad, and once Zakir joined in with his vibrant tabla like the river in full flow. A wonderful jugalbandi followed – this is what I love about Zakir Hussain’s concerts and the feet were tapping, the head was nodding and I was totally having a great time.

Sitaradevi, the kathak exponent broke into an impromptu kathak explanation peppered with stories of music maestros and dance – sounds like she had fun. The evening was ended with a performance by dhol-players from Manipur.

But the best part of the evening was dinner – kaali-mirch roll from Kareems…. Though service was really slow, the roll was yummatos. Oh well, there’s only so much improvement my mind can take.

posted by Nish @ 12:21 PM