Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma

Today was a day of mixed activities. Morning and early afternoon was spent lazily at home. That gave me an opportunity to catch up with some reading. Finished quite a bit of Lance Armstrong's book that I picked after a very long break. That guy is what real champions are made of. The way he sailed through his cancer and tumour is simply amazing. Some lines in the book mention Lance conversing with his cancer "you picked up the wrong guy. when you looked around for a body to live in, you made a big mistake when you chose mine" That pretty much sums up his level of determination to fight against all odds. If I get 1 or 2 such leisure days, I can finish the book up.

Later, afternoon till night was filled with activities. First went to see a landscape photography exhibition. I was surprised to find the hall completely empty. Not even a single soul. The photographs weren't great either - some of them seemed like big prints taken out of low resolution images; I could clearly see the grains in the photo.

Next we planned to go for an Indian classical music concert. I also wanted to watch "Ice Age-3" and so did my friend. Luckily tickets were available and we decided to go for the movie rather than the concert. Movie was good but Ice Age-2 still remains my favourite. After the movie when we called up the concert guys, they said that it is still on and the instrumental section is about to begin in another 30 mins. I was particularly interested in the instrumental part of the concert. And what a performance it was! Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma is the biggest name in Santoor. The version he plays has 100 strings and the sound is produced by stroking the strings with two wooden spoons. I am absolutely in love with the sound of Santoor and it has always been one of my favourite Indian classical instruments. He played a 'raga' called Megh which means clouds. And indeed, when we walked out of the show, it was drizzling outside.