When I came to know that T.M.Krishna’s concert at Music Academy was on the same day as Aruna Sairam’s, the first thought that came to my mind was, ‘Will I even get a ticket for TMK’s concert?’ Having heard many say that people queue up outside Music Academy as early as 5:30 in the morning (!!), I knew it was going to be difficult to get a ticket. When I asked the person at the ticket counter a few days before the concert, he too confirmed the same. So, on the day of the concert, at 5 am sharp, my dad and sister went to Music Academy to find there were already 3 of them waiting. Seems a lady came as early as 4:30 itself! By the time I went there at 6:30 or so, the place was already full. How popular Aruna Sairam is!
Music Academy has to really be commended for making excellent arrangements for those who had come to buy the tickets. Neatly-arranged chairs for those coming in and ensuring that people are seated in the order in which they came, serving coffees at around 6 o’ clock for those waiting, issuing tokens at around 7 am with the number of tickets (the no. of tickets were restricted to 3 per head on that day initially) and the price of the tickets written on it, opening the ticket counter at 8:20 and calling out the token nos. in order and issuing the tickets – the whole thing was very well-organized.
I guess my sister and I must have been the only ones who didn’t go for Aruna Sairam’s concert despite having tickets. We did go for the last 35 minutes of her concert to find that the auditorium was packed to the full-capacity and the only place where we could sit was the steps in between two bays!
hmm… iniku MFAC la paadara? are you going?
well i was there too – though i only got lcd tickets (these are tickets for an lcd viewing of the concert live in the mini hall. somebody else was kind enough to give us the balcony tickets and having sat in the last row for aruna sairam’s concert, we graduated to seats a few rows ahead. how i wish i had got stage tickets for tmk’s concert – we ended up getting them for sanjay’s cutchery on monday 12/29.
btw, went to saketaraman’s cutchery yesterday at brahma gana sabha and it was really good – you should check it out.
oh well, our brief taste of the chennai music season ends today with krishna’s cutchery at partha swami sabha. enjoy the rest of the season..
regards,
sthan
we don’t understand the craze either btw. i also caught margazhi raagam in the middle of this melee and enjoyed it as well…
Blogeswari,
Why would I have gone for Aruna Sairam’s concert?
sthan,
Oh. Sanjay’s Academy concert was one of the best!
I too went for a concert of Saketaraman and that concert was good too.
Heard TMK’s Parthasarathy Swami Sabha concert was excellent. Anyway, you sure seem to have enjoyed the season having gone for so many concerts 🙂
Yes – I certainly did. I couldn’t possibly miss TMK’s last concert of the year (for us anyway) and it was great. He was certainly in form once the camerapeople stopped bugging him.
I happened to be sitting on the music academy stage for Sanjay’s concert – and I must say it was a mixed bag. It was great in one way, but it did interfere with my enjoyment somehow. I would have liked to compare it to TMK’s at music academy where I only got balcony tickets – in the nosebleed section.
Oh well, it was a good year – from carnatic music perspective anyway for us. Have a great new year.
I am not going to look forward to next year for I will be too sad if I don’t make it – so I am going to take it one day at a time…
regards,
sthan
sthan,
Thanks. Hope you have a great year too!