By Ranjani Rao and Savithri Nambeesan / West Lafayette, Indiana
Friday, March 25 (2005): Cricket and Carnatic mania ruled the roost in West Lafayette as this small
midwestern US town, home of Purdue University, played host to a vocal concert and a cricket match
featuring T.M. Krishna.
Performing with Krishna were R.K. Shriramkumar on the violin, K. Arun Prakash on the mridangam and
B.S. Purushotham on the kanjira. The concert was organized by the Indian Classical Music Association
of Purdue (ICMAP).
Cricketers Krishna and Purushotham, took on each other in opposing teams on a tennis court with
drums for stumps, Purdue students for team mates using tennis balls and cricket bats.
The kanjira artiste led his team to a comfortable victory helping himself, in the process, to 28 runs off a single over bowled by Krishna!
The high voltage concert two evenings later started with Thiruvottiyur Thyagaiya's Kedaragaula Adi ThalaVarnam 'Sami dayajuda' followed by Dikshitar's Panchabhuta Sthala krithi 'Ananda Natana Prakasham'
in Kedaram set to Mishra Chapu thalam treating the audience to neraval and swarams.
A lightning fast 'Anupama Gunambudhi', Thyagaraja's composition in Ataana set to Khanda Chapu was
followed by a leisurely rendered piece by the same composer - 'Nagumomu' in Abheri with alaapana,
neraval and swaram.
The pièce de résistance of the evening was Shyama Shastri's 'Amba Kamakshi' in Varali set to Mishra
Chapu, with an elaborate alaapana, swarams and a scintillating thani by Arun Prakash and Purushotham.
All the performed items were culled from a list of requests handed over to the artiste minutes before the concert.
'Jagadodharana' in Kapi, 'Aduvome' in Maand and a Swathi Thirunal Javali in Behag formed the
uttarangam of the concert which ended with a Thiruppugazh.
Ranjani Rao, who has written this article can be contacted at RANJRAO@rocketmail.com
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