Evening delight

These 'Music in the Park' evenings are just that - a treat to the ears. Set in the lush green expanse of the Nehru Park in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi (a stone's throw from the Moti Bagh flyover on the Ring Road near Dhaula Kuan), this series of concerts brings thousands of music lovers up close with the stalwarts that carry Indian music and art forms forward.

Thanks to the office-hour traffic, Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, were stranded on the road for more than two hours beyond schedule. It was very understanding of Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, an acclaimed vocalist from Bellary, to keep the audience engaged with his Kirana and Gwalior style of singing. A short wait later, Sunit Tandon announced that the two aformentioned maestros had arrived, and within a minute they were there, Panditji finetuning his santoor - apparently for the first time on stage!

What followed was pure magic, a rendition of the raga Jog followed by a dhun based on raga Darbaari. The jugalbandi between the two was breathtaking and the ease with which Ustadji read his senior colleague's mind was something to watch.

My first experience of hearing these two wonderful musicians perform has been wonderful. Looking forward to March 1 and Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar.