A wedding reception was on; the venue had been well
decorated with flowers and all the embellishments that are used these days –
from paper, cloth and to everything that glitters. The bride and the groom had
not yet come in. The guests had arrived in their finery. The children were
delightfully flitting about here and there adding charm to the place and the
mood. The elders of all ages were engaged in multiple conversations. The senior citizens, the middle aged and the
gaily dressed youth - most of them.
The orchestra started tuning their various instruments and
crowd calmed down. The well dressed and
obviously successful musicians started with a few sober songs and went on to
play the popular songs of the day. The lyrics of several of them were such that,
these would not have been sung in mixed company a few decades ago. The crowd
cheered them although many of those songs would certainly not stand the test of
time; it is doubtful if anyone would ever hear them a decade from now.
Soon, there was a buzz of excitement as the Bride and the
Groom arrived from the temple. They were accompanied by musicians playing the
Nagaswaram whose crumpled, worn out clothes suggested their modest means. The
Nagaswaram was played till the couple was seated on the dais. But every nerve
had to be strained to listen to the sweet notes of the Nagaswaram; because the
orchestra did not stop the din they were creating with all their electrical gadgets.
It would have been a common courtesy shown, as one set of
musicians to another, had the orchestra suspended their music for some time.
The first realization that courteous behavior is getting outdated is sad
enough. But even more worrying is the attitude of the people who organized the
wedding. At least one of them could have
instructed the troupe to pause for some time.
If the general public continue to show such disregard for a
priceless heritage, in a couple of decades from now, we would have no one to
play the instrument and what a shame it would be, if we have no choice but to
conduct our celebrations with the imported dissonance that is performed in the
name of music!
