A jam packed crowd. A good wicket to play the game. A quality off spinner (Ra) & a quality lege spinner Ga) bowling good line & length but not doing enough to penetrate. Suddenly the leg spinner (Ga) bowls a googly landing perfectly to dislodge the off bail. A dream delivery. Shifting delectably from Vagadeswari to Kurinji. Graha Bedham.The crowd erupts with thunderous applause. That was RaGa concert at Music Academy. The next innings starts. For some reason half the crowd vanishes. A beautiful start playing straight giving due respect to the crowd which stayed back. But the scoring rate slows down(Nasigabooshani alapana). Some more crowd walks out. Suddenly eggs on the audience to cheer up & choose between Madhyamavati & Saveri for the main. 50:50. Settles down to play some beautiful cover drive & square drives with authority choosing Saveri. Plays the magnum opus of Muthuswamy Dikshitar Sri Rajagopala. Rarely heard kriti these days. Kindled memories of KVN singing the same kriti at the same venue 30 years back. A short RTP in Behag. Makes flute dance to the rhytham of Sabesan in Pallavi. A sweet Eppo varuvaro in Jonpuri & then a Yaman Kalyani. This concert stood out for bringing the aesthetics in Classical Carnatic Music. That was Sashank at Music Academy. 5 hrs of listening.
