I have a confession to make: this afternoon, while watching a performance at the Music Academy, I fell asleep. What I did was not a sign of disrespect; in fact, oddly enough, it was almost expected of me. There are many customs within Indian culture that would be deemed rude back in the West; such as dozing during a musical performance and eating with your hands.
Several years ago, I read the autobiography of the sitar legend Ravi Shankar. In one passage, he recounts a special performance he gave for Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. In the middle of the show, Raviji noticed that Mr. Nehru was sound asleep: in the autobiography, Raviji affirms that when a patron falls asleep during a performance, the musician has done his job.
I must admit that I have seen countless “snoozers” at the performances at the Music Academy. I’d even estimate that at any given time at least 15% of the audience is in the Land of Nod. The combination of the hot weather and the droning sound of the tanpura can make a siesta simply irresistible.
…When I awoke from my catnap, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance, which was billed as “Hyderabad Brothers, D. Raghavachari and D. Seshachari” (I am unsure why the they have different last names; maybe they are not blood brothers). The mridangam and ghatam players were outstanding: I actually think they were the best rhythm section I have seen here in India. Unfortunately, the ghatam (clay drum) player always is squirreled in the back of the stage, so I am never able to watch his hand movements. The closing twenty minutes of the performance was a duet between the mridangam player and ghatam player: it was really neat to see the two players battle back and forth with the beat.
On an unrelated noted, I do have a mobile phone here: my number is +91 988 485 3905. I can receive SMS.
PP, myself and Anthony having "Christmas" lunch.
1 comment:
In the south indian naming convention, people use initials like lastname. In Hyderabad Brothers (they are indeed blood brothers), their initial D is the common thing. It could stand for the name of some ancestor or ancestral town. The last names are derived from paternal and maternal grandparents. For example, the first son, will have the paternal grandfather's lastname. The second son, will have the maternal grandfather's lastname. My husband is P. K. Swaminathan and his brother is P. K. Subramanian, where P stands for an ancestral town Pazhayannur and K stand for Krishnan - their father's last name. Similarly for daughters. This is opposite of North India, where they are Khanna's or Kapur's, etc.
Both our daughters having been born in USA, we have named them Rajna Swaminathan and Anjna Swaminathan, following the western convention.
Just like people with the same last name don't have to be related, people with different last names could be closely related !!
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