Sivamani

I was listening to the songs of Swades today for the nth time and noticed another thing. One of the percussionists is Sivamani. I have seen sivamani perform live in the insti culturals.

Once he was invited along with Louis Banks and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya and it was to be a fusion concert. Everything about that show was too good for words. A solo by Pt. HC was followed by the jugalbandi between these three. Sivamani's percussions made their own place in the concert inspite of Pt. HC's genius. He was a complete showman in the sense that it was a pleasure to watch him too. He would throw his sticks in the air, the sticks would perform their own acrobatics and still would manage to land on the drums to create music :-D That was my first insti culturals and it was quite an experience.This was in 2K1.

The next year Shankar Mahadevan was invited for light music show. Anybody who has attended the last few culturals would agree unanimously that this one was the best. Other artists have to compete really hard to outdo that performance. The show was charged with untappable energy - be it SM on stage, or the students on their feet in the gallery dancing to the vibrant tunes. And there was a surprise for us too. Sivamani was in town, he had heard that SM is performing here and so he just dropped in to join the show !! SM + Sivamani was a deadly combination.

In the following years, we have heard artists like shaan ( he had bad throat that day, and still obliged to our encores! a sweety :-) ), udit narayan ( this was the worst, with him singing all the tere naam numbers!! and a very annoying compere ), KK ( again a good show ) in the light music section. But none came close to that show :-D

The things I like about this place include the culturals, the campus, and...........
well let me think about them and get back to you :-).