The overwhelming response to the recent KHMC concerts held in Raos’ residence right after the major snow storm of the decade was evident even before we stepped in. Fresh snow from the previous day's storm covered the ground challenging even some of the most experienced drivers to test out their parallel parking skills! The festive look inside the house made up for the lousy outside. Women with brightly colored sarees and salwars and children in kurtas and skirts brought cheer to all. Once we entered the main hall the whole ambience changed with the reverberating music downing the bustling noise of children.

Carnatic Segment - Mali Santhanakrishnan

“Sangeetha gnanamu bhakthi vina, sanmaargamu galade manasa” says Saint Tyagaraja. It means “O Mind, mere knowledge of music without devotion can never lead to the right path”. What we had from Smt. Geetha Murali, and her daughter, Kum. Rasika Murali on Feb 10th evening was the right blend of music – a scintillating carnatic classical vocal duet filled with devotion. It was enough to make the ardent fans of music to forget the three feet of fresh snow outside and get melted with soulful music.

Smt. Geetha Murali is a renowned, award winning musician from the New England area. Her daughter Rasika Murali is a rising star equally proficient in vocal and violin. They were
supported by Sri. Suhas Rao on violin and Sri. Ullas Rao on the mridangam. The duo started their concert with the beautiful varnam, “Annalin aanai endhi”, set to raga Kalyanavasantham. The varnam aptly saluted Lord Hanuman, who is the epitome of devotion. This was followed by the invocation of Lord Ganesha with Papanasam Sivan’s kriti “Thatvam ariya tharamaa” in Reetigowla.

Following Saint Tyagaraja’s Vasanthabhairavi krithi “Nee daya raadha”, Rasika took upon the first elaborate alapana of the evening with beautiful Valachi ragam. Rasika brilliantly demonstrated her range and versatility by sprinkling exquisite phrases. Suhas was innovative on violin matching and highlighting the scales used by Rasika. Geetha and Rasika presented “Kartikeya Kamalekshana Sivasudha” on Lord Muruga with beautiful swara sancharams. Next came Saint Tyagaraja’s “Nagumomu” in raga Abheri, a lighting bolt krithi for which young Ullas Rao used exciting rhythmic patterns to add color.

Geetha rendered the evening’s center piece raga - Kalyani. When doing alapana, Geetha so completely immersed herself in the moment and experience, it felt as if she was seeing and worshipping the raga devatha in front of her closed eyes. No wonder she was able to relay the same feel to the audience. After Suhas’ beautiful presentation on violin, Geetha and Rasika sang a rare krithi “Kamakshi Kalyani” set to misra chapu tala, composed by Smt. Kamala Krishnamurthi. This was a special tribute to Geetha’s guru Smt. Kamala Krishnamurthi. The Niraval ‘Kasiyil Visalakshi’ and the swara prastharam were electric with Suhas nicely

complementing on violin. Ullas followed with a very poised thani avarthanam in the tricky seven beat scale. As a fan watching Ullas’ progress through the years I am very impressed with his mature stroke selection and execution.

After an invigorating “Ennai Nee Maravathe”, the duo presented the evening’s Ragam-Thanam-Pallavi in ragam Nattaikurinji. The talam was set to the complicated Tisra Triputai Khanda nadai – a seven beat cycle with five count subdivisions. It must be noted Geetha and young Rasika skillfully handled the unforgiving Nattaikurinji. Suhas rendered able support and Ullas once again showed his maturity by supporting very well.

Cuddalore Subramaniam’s ragamalika bonanza “Ragathil sirandha ragam edhu” with over two and half dozen ragams (!) was followed by the moving Bhajan “Sai Bhajana bina sukh shanti nahin”. Geetha and Rasika concluded their concert with a beautiful Revathi thillana.

Prior to this scintillating concert the packed audience was treated to a group rendering by the senior students of Geetha’s Saikripa School of Music, Vignesh Mahalingam, Lasya Sreepada, Shwetha Sundar, Nithya Sridhar and Dheekshita Kumar. Geetha’s unique style of teaching was fully reflected in the alapana & swarams embedded powerful presentation of the Krithis, “Omkara Roopane”, “Shanmukha Guhane” and “Sri Rama Raghu Rama”. Our own Asthana Vidwan Mali encouraged the students by providing supportive Mridangam accompaniment.

Hindustani Segment - Shridhar Kulkarni

The Hindustani segment started after a stupendous dinner, courtesy of all the wonderful volunteers that brought tasty and warm food on a snowy, cold wintery day. For a Sunday evening event, with huge challenge with parking/skidding in the snow, the packed room brought the much needed and deserved positive energy to the segment. As Sudhakar Rao pointed out, this was the most people he had seen for the Hindustani segment.

This time’s Hindustani segment was presented by Smt. Shuchita Rao, the founder of RASA (Raaga Aesthetics Sharing and Appreciation) school of music and a faculty member at Learnquest Academy of Music, and some of her students.

The evening started off with a “Saraswati Naamavali” (a prayer that described twelve names attributed to the Goddess of arts, Saraswati) by the youngest but arguably the most charismatic performer, Saachi Badola. The nine year old stole people’s heart with a confident, from the heart performance and set the stage for the senior disciples of Shuchita to take it to the next level.

After Saachi, her older sister and inspiration, Kriti Badola, sang a Dhrupad "Dhana Dhari Dhana aaja soodinuh" (meaning today is an auspicious day) set to 12 beat rhythm cycle Chautaal in raag Tilak Kamod. Kriti followed it with a traditional composition set to 16 beat cycle teentaal "Neer Bharan Kaise Jaaoon" in the same raag Tilak Kamod. Kriti’s mature and stable voice perfectly rendered this meditative composition.

Followng Kriti, Minerva Teli, a multi-talented young lady, sang a Yaman lakshangeet (a song that describes features of a raag) set to 12 beat cycle ektaal and followed it with a chota khyaal in Yaman Kalyan (Devo darshan shankar mahaadev) meaning "Lord Shiva, please grace us with your presence".

Shuchita’s daughter, Radha Rao, was the next one to go on the stage. One could see and feel Radha’s total immersion into the performance. No wonder she inherited those amazing qualities along with a sweet voice from her guru/mother. Radha first sang “Ritu Basant munuh bhaave sakhi” in Raag Basant set to teentaal. People listening applauded loudly not only for the performance but for heralding the arrival of spring. Spring in New England was still covered in 3 feet of snow, but the appeal by the artist seemed promising! She then sang a song in praise of the divine pair Shankar and Parvati set to ektaal. Radha ended with a teentaal composition in Raag Bahaar "Chum chum naachat aayi bahaar". Pranav Ghatraju made his presence felt with an impressive opening for the song!

After Radha, it was Anusha Kulkarni’s turn to conclude the shishya (Student) segment. Anusha started off with a Bada Khayal, a slow composition, in raag Bihag, set to ektaal. Anusha did a great job with her alaaps and established a good tempo. The slow and long alaaps definitely caught people’s attention and the long intricate taans showed Anusha’s command over shruti and laya. Anusha then did a Chota Khayal in the same raag and concluded with a Tarana that was very well received by the audience with a thundrous applause.

The essence of Hindustani music is in one’s ability to improvise and alternate with the accompanying artists. It was very heartening to see these children, who are born and raised here, exercise superior judgment and make it look so effortless!! Kudos to Sashank Navaladi on Sarod, Pranav Ghatraju on Tabla, and Rohit Rao on Harmonium, for perfect coordination with so many singers at a very short notice.

After the student performance, the audience were in treat to witness a rare jugalbandi between the two awesome Tabla players. Rajesh Pai and Pranav Ghatraju enthralled the audience with so many varieties of beats and were ably supported by Ravi Torvi, a very popular local artist, on Harmonium.

The final performance of the evening was by the teacher, Smt. Shuchita Rao. Despite being Sunday night, the room continued to be full with people who were looking for more bliss and were not disappointed. Shuchita started off with a traditional composition set to 10 beat cycle jhaptaal "Prathama sur saadhey" meaning "whoever recites the first musical note Sa breathes praan into the soul." Second piece was "Thaadi mai daras ko" meaning "I have been waiting endlessly for your darshan oh Lord Krishna...". It was followed by a drut teentaal taraana "Taana Dere Na Deem Thom..."

Shuchita’s second piece was "Ud jaa Re kaaga", meaning "Fly away my messenger bird and let my beloved know that I long for him" and was set to addhaa teentaal. It was followed by

drut teentaal khayaal " Ja re ja re ja re kagvaa jaa" and a kathak taraana set to ati-drut or fast teentaal. This taraana had sargams that Shuchita took turns with the Tabla player, Rajesh Pai, to show creativity.

Shuchita’s last piece was in Raag Jansanmohini set to teentaal "Ghur aangana kuchoo nahi bhaave" meaning "Nothing appeals to me...not my house (ghur), not my yard (aangan)....I cry all day waiting for you, my beloved") This song was dedicated to Shri Madhav Kacker in the audience who recently lost his wife - he was married to her for more than 50 years and was a very devoted husband. She concluded her performance with the evergreen Kannada bhajan “Raama Mantrava Japiso” by Sri Purandara Dasa in mishra Jansanmohini.

Shuchita’s amazing finale had a perfect ending with not only more than 60 people appreciating it but also by the mutual respect and admiration expressed by Smt. Geetha Murali, who had performed in the Karnatic segment but stayed on till the end to listen to Shuchita, when she said that she found Shuchita’s singing "divine".

Conclusion

Thanks to the Karnatic Hindustani Music Circle (KHMC) and the hosts, Usha and Sudhakara Rao, rasikas were treated with a memorable evening of top quality Carnatic as well as Hindustani music. A record crowd of more than 200 had attended these concerts and it is hearterning to see that many in the audience were present for both Carnatic and Hindustani segments. It is even more satisfying to see many of our youngsters pursuing this divine art of classical music at a very advanced level even in the midst of their busy academic pursuits. The Raos of Westwood were fabulous hosts lending their hearts, hands, and house for the community to enjoy. It was one large family gathering where each competed with the other by bringing tasty food and sharing with all.

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