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The other day, as I sat sipping my coffee in the Woodlands canteen outside Narada Gana Sabha, I could not help overhearing snatches of conversation between two men who were at an adjoining table. One was obviously a sabha sec, for he had all the hallmarks, complete with a little tote bag under the arm.
In between mouthfuls of bonda he was explaining to the other, who was feasting on rava dosa that he had saved at least a lakh of rupees for his sabha. This made my ears stick up, for I thought he must have decided not to hold concerts during the season, for that was the only way I could think of his having saved money.
Apparently that was not the case. He had saved the money by prevailing upon his committee members that an advertisement in the daily newspapers complete with programme DV (what does this DV mean, I have always wondered. Is it date and venue?) on the day they release a musical supplement was most unnecessary. He was of the view that it made no difference one way or the other and that those who were interested in coming to his sabha would do so whether he advertised in the dailies or not. There are plenty of other methods, he said.
That set me thinking and what he said was largely true. For, today, Carnatic music has more publications wholly devoted to it than at any time before. There is of course ‘Sruti’, followed by Mudhra’s ‘Samudhra’ and Karaikkudi Mani’s ‘Layam’. There are others such as ‘Nadabrahmam’ and ‘Kutcheri Buzz’.
 Each of these caters to the core group of Carnatic music lovers and that is just about the reach that any sabha would want. This year there has been an increasing trend towards sabhas advertising their schedules in some of these publications. In addition, there are websites which also carry schedules of many sabhas gratis.
Two publications that appear only during the season, namely ‘The Kutcheri Buzz Season Guide’ and ‘Kannan’s Comprehensive Programme Dairy’ are now well-established in the field. They are both distributed free and available at many locations. With all this, the need for full-page newspaper ads has diminished.
This year, many sabhas, such as Mylapore Fine Arts, Tamizh Isai Sangam and Kapali Fine Arts, apart from the sabha where my bonda-eating friend is a sec, have all stayed away from placing ads in the dailies. Of course, many of them do issue inserts in the city entertainment columns of the dailies, but these are a lot cheaper than the larger ads.
This, in turn, could be a reason why papers such as ‘The Hindu’ have cut coverage of music
programmes.
Sriram.V
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