Kick start your Sunday with soulful sounds at GS Melkote Park
Hyderabad: If you had stepped inside GS Melkote Park in Narayanguda on Sunday around 7 am, you’d have been welcomed by the sound of soulful Carnatic notes being strummed on a Veena, accompanied by rhythmic beats of the Mridangam and the Ghatam.
Curious? Yes, that is exactly what morning-walkers at the park experienced on Sunday morning – a live music concert, titled Shubhodayam – Music Unlock, by Sudhakar Rayaprolu, a city based Veena artist, accompanied by N Gunaranjan on the Mridangam and V Venkatesh on the Ghatam.
The artistes started off with a rendition of Vaatapi Ganapathim, beginning the recital with a song dedicated to the Lord Ganesha. This was followed by several Thyagaraja and Ramadasu keerthanas like Saamajavaragamana, Paluke Bangaramaye, Ramachandraya, all of which had put the hundreds of walkers in the perfect mood to kickstart a new week.
Photo: Tharun Adurugatla
Walkers, joggers, Yoga practitioners, men, women, boys, girls, young and old alike relished the Veena notes, as evidenced by the serene smiles on their lips and the taalam on their fingers.
Akhilesh Washikar, one of the two minds behind this event, said, “People listen to music on earphones while walking or working out and we thought of offering something better. That is why we, at Tatva Arts, decided to start the initiative and it was the third such event this year, as we have been conducting one every month since January at this park.”
Another major reason behind the initiative, according to Gajendar Shewalkar, the other person behind Shubhodayam, is the stress that humanity has collectively been in since the pandemic began. “The concept of a morning concert is nothing new but we decided to take it up as our way of making people feel better collectively. That is why we chose a park and offered this concert to people for free,” says Gajendar, who is a Tabla player himself.
The Melkote Park Walkers Association collaborated with Tatva Arts and enabled it for them, as P Nagabhushan Rao says, “Every day about 2,000 people come to this park and on Sundays, the number hits 5,000. When Tatva approached us, we decided to enable it for them as this ticketless concert was solely to make people feel good.”
Contrary to the popular perception that youngsters don’t relish classical music, many were seen enjoying this. “I don’t know any of these songs and I don’t even know Telugu but this made my day,” said Muralikrishna, a young jogger seen enjoying the concert.
Photo: Tharun Adurugatla
Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.
Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .