I have been living in Pune for the last 3 years, and since, had always wanted to attend the Sawai Gandharva. I had heard a lot about this, the preeminent gathering of the most gifted exponent of the Indian classical arts. This year it happened. It was by sheer chance though, over a rather mundane talk over coffee in the office. A colleague, upon my mention of Sawai Gandharva mentioned that it was happening the next weekend and volunteered to arrange a pass upon seeing my rather unexpected enthusiasm. I got the pass, paid Rs. 350 for it, in hindsight, worth every rupee. So now I had no excuse to postpone my desire to attend the festival.

I attended all the evening session. Sadly though I missed the performance by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi on Sunday, as it was not a scheduled performance. But, I can hardly complain, I got to see some of the most well know artist performing live. Over the course of the festival I have listened to Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj, Aarti Tikekar, Murad Ali, Rahul Sharma, L Subramaniam, Sardeshmukh, Vijay Ghate. I was also mesmerized watching the fleet-footed Alarmel Valli performing Bharatanatyam. Honestly, I have no understanding of the classical music. I was just curious; I had a desire to attend such an event, just for the experience. I am glad I did.

I will say this though; these performances are not for everyone. The raagas can last for hours. And only if you are genuinely interested to explore this field will you be able to make it through.

All the performances that I attended, I enjoyed. The event is unlike any live performances that I have attended. The audience sits very quietly and just absorbs the music. Most of the time they are in a meditative state, I guess they converge all the energies/attention to their sense of hearing, taking in all of the sound of music. Of course, it helped that the pandals had Bose speakers all around, recreating the crisp sound. I must mention the exceptional sound setup (courtesy Swaranjali), complementing the artist perfectly. Another good thing about the event is that it held in December, when the pleasant winter is about to set it. Every day there is at least one well known artist performing, so it helps novices like me interested. The one performance that stood out for me was by Pandit Hariprasad playing the flute and his Jugalbandhi with a very talented tabla player Vijay Ghate. The crowd consisted predominantly of the seniors, but the younger generation made it’s presence felt.

The high point of this year’s was reached on Sunday afternoon, when I was told the rather feeble looking Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, also is loving called Panditji, to the delight of the lucky audience, took to the stage and sang at his festival. My colleague who is a regular told me people had tears in their eyes at the end of the performance. Panditji had made it a point to show up in the evenings at the festival, though he watched the performance from his car. So I was really amazed that he actually performed.

So if you are a patron of the classical arts, or just someone curious like me, if you are in Pune in early December, please take out time an attend the Sawai. Who knows, you might just enjoy this genre, I did!