CHENNAI:
Carnatic music duo Ranjani and Gayatri will be doing their first and only on-stage live kucheri this Margazhi season at an unusual location – an open-to-sky atrium of a city hospital.
While almost all music sabhas in the city are going virtual due to
Covid-19 pandemic, the two-year-old MGM Healthcare, which has been treating critically-ill
Covid patients from across the country, will host
live music sessions on December 25 and 26. On
Christmas day, pianist Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan will give “an interactive, beyond Carnatic performance.”
Although such performances aren’t entirely new — the hospital had a music performance on its inaugural day — this is the hospital’s first
Margazhi celebrations. The sessions will begin at sunset with a backdrop of a tall vertical garden.
“We wanted to tell people that life has to go on with the new normal with adequate social distancing and other pandemic protocols such as face masks. We also wanted to tell people hospitals are one of the safest places because we take utmost care to keep the campus sterile,” said hospital director Dr Prashanth Rajagopalan.
While select guests will be permitted, the performances will be open to in-patients including post-surgery patients, antenatal women, elderly and their attenders. And for others, who can’t be moved out of their rooms, the session will be live streamed. Playing in a hospital environment is not new for Srinivasan. He has played at the lobbies of Sundaram Medical Foundation in Anna Nagar and Cancer Institute Adyar several times as a part of his “piano for peace”. “I have been playing to raise funds for several people. But this performance will offer solace of doctors and patients that will aim at positivity and hope in 2021. We have some surprise items that will go beyond Carnatic music. Gurucharan and I look forward to making it as interactive as possible,” Srinivasan said.
The MGM group that runs Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute and Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute – offers music therapy courses online. “It has worked and many of our patients have given us positive feedback,” he said.
Seasoned singer Ranjani agrees, citing a couplet from Tiruvalluvar: “Hearing is best among all the five senses”. The sisters, who have the experience of singing in cinema halls, metro stations and malls say they are not new to unconventional settings.
“But this is the first time we will be singing in a hospital environment. We have planned some renditions on healthcare and well-being. It is suited for this timethat we are going through,” she said. Forms for entry are available on hospital webpage.