When an artiste wants a formal presentation . . .

When a senior artiste is not treated too well formally on stage he boils no end.

Three tambura artistes and one mridangist were honored at the Founders Day event of Sree Ramaseva Mandali in Chamarajpet on Sunday, April 5 evening.

These are the kind of artistes you may have seen often on stage but remain in the shadows.

Off stage I chatted with Hulikal Prasad, a veteran tambura player who has accompanied some greats and the rest in south India.

Prasad was boiling inside because the emcee had not presented his name the way it has to be, prefixing his name with that of the town he hails from.

"It is important. . .just the way you call Madurai T N Seshagopalan and Madurai Mani Iyer…names must be called out the way we use them," he fumed gently. "What use is it when I gave them all in writing?"

Prasad says that despite the use of electronic tambura ( and he gives full credit to Radel's Raj Narayan for making it) nothing can really replace the original. "But then few people ask for tambura artistes….who wants to now learn playing the tambura…it also needs learning but few are learning it," he said.

Prasad had a point about the manner in which a senior artiste must be presented. But he could not make it known to the hosts nor did he think it fit to do so. "Now its done and over", he said, still smarting at what he thought must have been a slight.