The Genius of U.Srinivas-Rajesh and the Stupidity of the Indian Elite

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a Mandolin concert by maestros U. Srinivas and U. Rajesh. It was three and a half hours of sheer bliss with the brothers belting one soulful rendition after another of various classical Carnatic compositions.

Of course, even bliss has its moments of despair and this was no exception. The concert was marred by periodic interruptions by enthusiastic listeners who wanted the brothers to play their favorite song.

I have been to a few concerts in USA and this is a recurring event. The concert begins and the organizers provide some ground rules only to be flouted within 30-45 minutes into the show. Given the nature of the concert and where it is being played, it is reasonable to assume that most, if not all, attendees were well educated, poised, and professional - at least till they get into the concert hall. Then all hell breaks loose.

The concert started with a beautiful rendition of a song in Kamas, followed by "Mahaganapathim" set to Gowla (something I haven't heard before). Then the maestros kicked it into high gear by rendering a song in a raga I had never heard of (hope to remember soon). It was a mesmerizing experience. Then came trouble.

As soon as the song got over, an 8-year old kid came with a small chit - probably a printout of the concert ticket. His parent (or grandparent) wanted the musicians to play "Nagumomu" - a popular Carnatic composition by Saint Thyagaraja. The U brothers - probably too nice for their own good, and mos likely not realizing the gravity of what was to come - accepted the requested and duly played the composition beautifully and got claps all around.

From then on, the break between every other song gave way to a 6-year old, a 10-year old, the 8-year old again - this time with a bigger piece of paper - and finally off with a 1-year old who had just learned to walk - all asking for one song or the other.

It was like watching Katrina Kaif suddenly popping up in the middle of a suspense thriller when the hero is about to unmask the villain and singing 'Sheela ki jawani' - it has no relevance to the theme, undermines the intelligence of the story writer, and all for satisfying the 'popular sentiment'.

The height of the farce was the decent looking gentleman with an equally decent looking lady two rows in front of me jumping the row before him, running to the stage, and deftly vaulting up the stage to get to the now-stunned musician to give his request. I don't know if he was just being passionate or was trying to impress his lady - the result was an act of extreme stupidity.

Unfortunately, the event organizers were too tame to control this jarring interruption to the event they had painfully put together. Having had the experience as an attendee of such events, I would like to propose to the organizers to announce the following before the start of the event AND after the second song (for the stragglers):

1. Please do not 'request' musicians to play a song - by chit, by shouts, or by screams. 
2. The musicians are intelligent and are quite capable of creating an agenda that will suit their audience.
3. The audience want to listen to the performer's playlist and not the 'personal playlist' of any attendee. If they are so inclined, they can buy and listen to a CD
4. Anyone who tries to get to the stage before the end of the show will be summarily removed from the venue - the person or the family if the offender is a child.
5. A camera flash is functional only up to 3 meters (10 yards) from the camera. If you don't know how to turn the flash off and are intent on blinding the eyes of the performers, RTFM before coming to the concert.
6. Limit your photography/videography to no more than 5 minutes an hour. Sure you want to keep some memories of the concert, but don't turn it into a bootlegging event. You know that you are not going to see this video you are going to take EVER again. Don't kid yourself.

To the organizers, please keep a 'bouncer' even if it is an old grandfather on both sides of the stage to prevent people from simply walking up to the musicians.

Ideally, request the musicians and set aside 15 minutes at the end of the program to play 'thukkadas' of various popular songs to satisfy the passionate elite who resort to these tactics.