A short speech by Sabari Venkatesh, a student of class seven, on the greatness of motherland and how young people should heed the words of Swami Vivekananda in order to overcome failures and be worthy of their nation, marked the beginning of the fourth day of the anniversary celebrations of Tamil Isai Sangam.
The audience appreciated the speech, first in Tamil and then in English, by the articulate child, who is visually challenged. He extolled the gathering to “awake, arise and stop not till the goal is achieved.”
Next, Yasmin Begum presented a short concert, singing the compositions of Muthu Thandavar and Sivan. Yasmin, with her clear voice and enthusiasm, deserves a warm welcome. Bhairavi played the violin and Chidambaram N.R. Manikandan Dikshidar was on the mrudangam.
The main event of the day was the concert by Sowmya.
Paroor Ananthakrishnan accompanied her on the violin, while Swaminathan on the mrudangam and Chandrashekara Sharma on the ghatam provided percussive support.
She began with Sivan’s worshipful verse on Gajaraja in Hamsadwani and surrendered her talents to Goddess Kalaivani through the lyrics of Sudhananda Bharathi. This auspicious beginning was followed by Dhandapani Desikar’s entreaty to Angayarkanni and Sowmya made good use of this song to reveal the intricacies of Saramathi.
Her Kalyani alapana too was elaborately done for “Unnai Allal.”
“Theerada Vilayattu Pillai” and a Kavadi Chindu were rendered in playful tones and had the audience tapping their feet in appreciation. It was definitely women’s day at Raja Muthiah Mandram on Sunday, March 8.
Rajalakshmi Padmanabhan
