How not to organize a classical music concert

Times of India, the most popular daily in Bengaluru, is doing all sorts of things to stay in touch with the general public, who they feel are behind their success. Few weeks back, they had organized Ganesha festival and last week they celebrated Time Bangalore Festival. The grand finale was a hindustani classical music concert by the Santoor maestro Pt. Shivkumar Sharma.

I never miss Panditji's concert, for this man is as divine as it can get. His concerts, for me, are more a spriritual experience than a musical one. So I grabbed the opportunity to attend Panditji's concert again.

Trouble started at the first step itself. The passes were available, it was announced, at the Forum Mall. After asking several people over there I found a gentleman who had these passes. I needed passes for 3 of us, self and two of my sons aged 11 and 7. However, he'd give only one pass per person. No amount of begging and cajoling would help. I asked him would be give me another one if I came back little later - he said "NO" and said I'll have to wait till the new person takes over after his shifts get over in 45mins. He had tons of passes with him and that gave him a sense of power over me (these are free passes, you can't pay and buy any number of tickets and therefore I felt helpless). I had two options - first to go back home and get my wife or someone or the second one was to beg any stranger that is in the mall to get a pass for me. I took the second approach and a kind soul helped me out to get another pass.

Armed with the passes, we went 30mins before the specified start, only to see that the doors were closed and more than that, we were told that the general pass holders like me, would have to be seated in the balcony and the entire ground floor is only for VIP pass-holders. The balcony at Ambedkar Bhavan is simply not suitable atleast for classical music concerts where artists sit and perform, as you can only see the heads of the artists at best. The balcony was quickly full (about 400+), whereas hardly any VIPs turned up. The ground floor was looking pathetic with a max 100 of VIPs present in a hall that could accomodate about 500 people. I'm sure Panditji would not have liked it. Better sense prevailed on the rude people that were managing the show and they allowed people from balcony to come down.

OK, everyone settled, but the concert started full 30mins behind schedule, with the compere talking like a DJ, which is very alien to how the classical music concerts are held. Other gaffe was incorrect pronunciation of Pt. Yogesh Samsiji's father, the renowned vocalist and composer Pt. Dinakar Kaikini (she said Samsiji is the son of Dinakar Kai-niki). All these irritants quickly took a back-seat as soon as Panditji started fine-tuning the Santoor. At the end of the first piece (Raag Kalavati), Pandiji complanied that he was sweating and no one from ToI took notice. After the second piece (Raag Pahadi), all of us wanted Panditji to play one last song and he politely refused as the stage was not conducive and he was sweating.

What a waste!! There are a good number of sabhas in Bangalore that have dedicated themselves to Indian Classical Music and have been organizing such concerts for decades. ToI can easily rope in one of them.