Dear kutcheri diary...

CHENNAI : Chennai wears a vibrant look during the Margazhi masam – the city lights up, excitement fills the air, and sabhas are packed with rasikas. With a month-long schedule, sabha-hopping is an unwrit skill in this otherwise unhurried city. For many untrained music enthusiasts, armed with the ready reckoner of Margazhi concerts, planning can be an exercise in anxiety. Here are some rasikas, who have figured out the best way to cruise through the season. 

For 37-year-old Kunniyur Rajagopalan Sundaresan, planning the kutcheri is a mix of old-school and new-school practices. He sometimes refers to the listings in the paper, but usually prefers to get his information from the artistes’ Facebook pages directly. He makes notes in his kutcheri diary, a habit passed down from rasikas in the past. He meticulously writes down the ragams, kriti and composer of every song performed at the kutcheri he attends, and always makes sure he gets an autograph from the artist.

“I love vocal artists like Gayathri Venkataraman, Ranjini-Gayatri and Gurucharan. I make it a point to sit through the entire kutcheri, and I can usually sit for three to four kutcheris a day, from morning to night. I love music, and I love to meet the artists after the show and speak to them,” says the resident of Valsaravakkam and fan of Sanjay Subrahmanyan.

Conversely, Lavanya Narayanan keeps track of all the kutcheris happening in the city on her phone by writing up daily calendars and setting reminders. As an arts journalist who covers Carnatic music in the city as well as a performer, Lavanya ensures she can go for as many old and new concerts as she can so that she has a clear grasp of the talent in the city.

“On some days, I can cover three to four kutcheris. I have to balance work and going to kutcheris, so I usually write my entire day’s schedule on my whiteboard at home so that I know exactly where I’m going for that day. I don’t usually stay for the entire concert, but I like to go for specific parts by specific artists,” she shares, adding that her favourite artists include Ranjini-Gayatri, Bombay Jayashree and Abhishek Raguram.

But it’s not just Chennaites who love Margazhi masam. Bengaluru-based Vijay Iyer loves to come down to town during December and listen to his favourite artistes, which include Gayathri Venkataraghavan and his all-time favourite, Ranjini-Gayatri. As an avid fan, he ensures he sees all their concerts, and makes sure he has time to scout out old and new talent while visiting the city. Prompt and punctual, he always makes sure he is present at the sabhas one hour in advance so that he does not miss any part of the concert.

“Music has its own form. Some artists and rasikas like a standard that sticks to every rule in the book. Some artists experiment and present pieces in their own way. I love performance-oriented works, and the baseline of music for me is a melody that is a beautiful experience,” said the 40-year-old technical marketing engineer at Cisco, who has been coming down to Chennai during Margazhi for the last 27 years.