By Alphonse Mendonsa, Team Mangalorean

Abu Dhabi, November 16, 2009: The music lovers of UAE assembled at India Social & Cultural Centre on Sunday for one of the most memorable event AALAP a Karnatic Classical Vocal Concert.  Indian classical music has its origins as a meditation tool for attaining self realization while Carnatic raga elaborations are generally much faster in tempo and shorter than their equivalents in Hindustani music. Carnatic pieces also have notated, lyrical poems that are reproduced as such, possibly with embellishments and treatments as per the performer's ideology; these basic pieces are called compositions. Compositions usually have flexibility in them so as to foster creativity: it is commonplace to have same composition sung in different ways by different performers ion music has one of the most complex and complete musical systems ever developed

The heart of Indian classical music - of both the Hindustani and the Carnatic system - is the raga: the melodic form upon which the musician improvises and which may take hours to develop. The raga framework is established by tradition and nurtured by the leading musicians of the past and present, composer and sitar player Ravi Shankar being one of them.  Smt. Namitha Ananth is one of the best singers in singing these very complex Raagas.  The fruit of her continuous training and hard work finally did wonders and today Smt. Namitha Ananth proved herself as one of the best in this field and enchanted the audience with her melodious and harmonius singing and left the audience stunned. 

Prior to singing, Entertainment Secretary Mr.Vinod, Hon. Entertainment Secretary welcomed the gathering and Smt. Namitha Ananth (Wife of Mr. Ananth Rao, a prominent Kannadiga in Abu Dhabi and also a member of ISC and Committee member of Karnataka Sanga) and her two accompaniments Sri Skandakumar (Mridangam)  & Sri Balu who played Violin during the concert.  He then handed over the mike to Mr.Jose Mathew, Asst. Entertainment Secretary to conduct the proceedings of the concert. Jose Mathew Introduced Smt. Namitha Ananth and the two musicians and gave detailed explanation of ragas that are being sung.

Well, When Smt. Namitha started to sing, it was a pure magic.  A beautiful voice and the ragas she sang were beyond anyone’s imagination.  What seems to be a simple singing turned into a magical world, enchanting singing that filled the air brought vivid memories of our home, our fields, temples and created a devotional atmosphere.  She stared with Varnam in Raag Thodi and then continued one after the other raagas namely  "Gajananayutham" in Raag Chakravaka, Himadrisuthe" in Raag Kalyani, Thillana in Raag Dhanashri, Purandaradasara Padams.  All the above Raagas (compositions) were lengthy and extremely complicated but for Smt. Anant it was just a pure flow of water and made so easy made one to wonder how she could sing in such a easy manner. After each performance she received a huge round of applause in appreciation.
 
A few popular kannada film and devotional songs including some famous poetry compositions were identified similar to the chosen raagas and sung by the Smt. Ananth in Kannada and Hindi and by Mr. Jose Mathew in Malayalam, who was anchoring the show.

The audience wanted more to listen unfortunately the time was limited and organizers had to excuse themselves and the singing was concluded at about 9:30pm. 

The Guest of Honour Mr.Sarvotham Shetty, Ex president of ISC  & current President of Karnataka Sangha spoke highly of Smt. Anant and suggested that she should sing to the much larger audience to benefit from her talents.  He also said she is one of the best Classical dancers and performs at various programs and trains dancers and classical singers as well.  A photo session was conducted at the end of the program.

About Nrithya Vidushi Smt.Namitha Ananth

Born in Udupi of South Kanara District of Karnataka state Nritya Vidushi Smt.Namitha Ananth who showed immense interest and love for both music and dance from a very young age was moulded into a brilliant dancer by her dance Gurus  - Natyacharya Ullal Mohan Kumar, one of the most popular dance Gurus of Karnataka and his daughter Nrithya Vidushi Smt. Rajashree Shenoy. With systematic and disciplined training under the able guidance of these gurus she has completed her Vidwath Exam of Karnataka State in Bharathnatyam.  Smt.Namitha Ananth has given several dance programs in India and UAE. And She has been recognized as a Doordarshan artist.

Her music Gurus are Vidhwan M. Narayan of Surathkal  and Vidhwan Madhur Balasubramanya of Udupi. Currently she is pursuing her Masters in Karnatic Classical Music.

She is a very active member of Abdu Dhabi Karnataka Sangha and India Social Center since several years where she has given many dance and music performances along with her students.

She has been teaching music and dance to students of different ages since several years in UAE. Her students have performed in various dance programs in UAE all of which have been choreographed by Smt. Namitha Ananth and have been well received by art lovers of the UAE.