It all began when I came to know about the series of Classical Music concerts and Dance performances, called 'Festival of Bala Murali', at Chowmahalla palace, a beautiful place!

Third day(yeah, I missed first two) there were two cultural events, a concert by Devan-Drone and a Kuchipudi dance performance by Mrs.Shallu Zindal. The concert went well except for few minor mistakes. I liked 'nothing but peace', 'english note', 'jagadodharana' and the conclusion concept of 'colors' where they played various pieces of classical bits, one after the other with smooth transition. The dance performance was good.

Fourth day rocked!! There was a natyalaya run by Dr.Bala Murali in chennai, called Vipanchi. Four from that group performed four forms of dance, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odyssey and Kathak. And the final piece was Jugalbandi!! It's a mix of the four forms performed by all four on stage! About the performances, 'awesome' and 'astounding' can at best be modest in talking of those enthralling performances. Following are few details about the performers...

• Yamini - Bharatanatyam
• Chetana - Kathak
• Priya - Kuchipudi
• Sharmila Mukerjee(Guru of above three students) - Odyssey

Then started the Dr. Bala Murali's show! It was a Jugalbandi with Dr. Ajay Chakrabarthy(West Bengal). Whenever I attended his concert, I always tend to put Dr. Bala Murali's performace as 'A hyper-active, playful kid playing and getting thrilled in his own world'. He says, even though I was performing for over 50 years now, don't think I'm old, I'm still the same "Bala" Murali! They recited 'Vatapi Ganapatim bhaje', 'Samajavaragamana', a thillana and a Bhajan. All the accompanying people are at their best in Tanyavarthanam.

To my surprise, I found Smitha Madhav there. I looked for an oppurtunity to meet her and there it was! Ya know.. God's great :) I hesitantly walked upto her and introduced myself, asked some two unplanned-regular-blah-blah questions. She said she's not acting in any movies, so, I think either that was a rumour or may be it's not a movie, may be something else.

The events on last day(2nd November 2008) include Jugalbandi-Instrumental by Dr. Bala Murali and Dr. Vikku Vinayakram. Followed by, Ghazals by Dr. Hari Haran! FYI rasikas, there is a show consisting of 60 percussionists on Dec 27th-29th 2008 in Chowmahalla palace. Interested guys should know a way to get the passes :)

So folks, thats the best evening I have ever spent in Hyderbad!! Thanks to the Organizers, Mr. Kishan Kumar for the show!