For Kaushik, the 12-year-old mridangam player who started playing the instrument from the age of six, it is "an experience of a lifetime." "What I love most is the fresh air in the park. I can also look at the trees, listen to the birds and play the mridangam. This is for the first time that I am doing something like this. I feel very energetic even after the kacheri."
14-year-old Sreechitra sang at the park last year, and even after almost a year, she remembers it. "It was my first kacheri, and it was different. It was also difficult practising to sing without a mike. I struggled in the first three songs and after that, it was a great experience. It was only after the kacheri, I understood how our ancestors practised in the mornings and why their voice was so good, strong and clear. They sang in front of nature and not within four walls. When you sing in the auditorium, your voice is projected very well but it is here that you get to hear your own real voice."
And the one kacheri at the park provided Sreechitra with many more opportunities which include singing at a sabha and in a film! The teenager has even cut a private album now, "all because of this one kacheri at the park on a Sunday."
For 10th standard student Dikshitha also, her kacheri at the park on a Sunday was her first. Before that, she had sung only in temples. "It was a confidence-booster because it gave me a chance to sing in my full-throated voice. It was a great experience because the audience stand there and listen to you only if you are good. Many joggers and walkers stood and listened to me and appreciated my way of singing. The secretary of the park presented me with a book of the compositions of Saint Thiagaraja which was extremely useful."
Text: Shobha Warrier | Photographs: Sreeram Selvaraj
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