The excellent concert of Aishwarya Vidhya Raghunath at The Music Academy on Dec. 26 was briefly interrupted when the overhead light bulb came crashing down from the ceiling and fell right next to the dais where the kurcheri was going on.
A similar thing happened a few years ago when Sanjay Subramanyan was performing, at that time the decorative backdrops snapped and fell on the dais.
Aishwarya had finished the alapana in Ananda Bhairavi and violinist Sivakumar Anantharaman had just begun his response, the bulb fell down - but the three artists continued the concert after a brief halt and finished the concert on a high note.
How safe are our sabha halls?
My observation is that minimum safety procedures are not followed at most venues. There are no emergency exit sign boards ( some exits are locked ), no exhibits of venue drawings marking the emergency exits prominently, no adequate fire extinguishers and no announcements of what to do when there is an emergency.
These are musts in any public places hosting big concerts. Time for sabha managers to pay attention to safety guidelines and measures.
- Report by N Srikumar
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