It’s a unique community festival organized by Mylapore Times, a neighbourhood newspaper. Each day starts off with a concert by the budding young talents in the lush Nageshwara Rao Park.
On Saturday evening, there was a choir by young girls and boys who had performed earlier in the week and were invited again to give a guest performance. Each one had a huge smile and was so enthusiastic. One of them was on the dholak and his beat sense was very excellent. Must be a Marathi, my friend said and I believe he turned out to be correct (The kid's name is Himanshu...).
On the evening of the final day, there was a concert by young children from a government school and there was this young boy. He must be just 7 or 8 years old. He was on the drums. It requires lot of concentration to bring in the coordination between the hands and the feet. This guy was amazing. He gave a non-stop solo performance on the drums and tango for about 10 minutes. The crowd was mesmerized.
Then came a performance by specially abled children who can not hear. But how did they know when to start the performance and how to proceed? They never missed a beat and the choreography was so fine. I was surprised!
In addition to encouraging not so popular folk and other art forms, this festival has been a platform for these young kids to expose their talents. Wish many more communities come forward and do something of this kind.
