AVUT concert is memorable show

Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, an accomplished singer himself, lost both his children in the tragedy last year. He was shattered, even gave up singing. But Krishamoorthy returned to singing in public today. For the first time in the past thirteen months he sang: “Tanha tanha se gam, ek pal main mein de gaya zindgadi bhar ka ye gam.”

It was his tribute to his teenaged children who died in the tragedy, it was also his fight as an artiste to sing a song written for just the occasion and set to music by Shubha Mudgal.

Mudgal took over from Krishnamoorthy a little later, and rendered two of Kabir’s most difficult bhajans in her own classical style for those who died “that day, thirteen months ago”.

In one of his bhajans, the medieval poet had written: “Amarpuri le chalo Sajna…(take me to the land of the immortals, oh beloved! (Kabir described death as his beloved)). Mudgal’s tenor did the rest. In between, were inspiring talks from eminent persons like journalists Chandan Mitra and Raj Chengappa, writer and poet Ashok Chakradhar and senior advocate K.T.S. Tulsi.

Each speaker, in his own away, recalled the tragedy. “Lessons have not been learnt yet,” they said. “But what the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) have done is unprecedented. Never before have families turned their grief into a fight for justice with such unanimity. We support them.”

What Shekhar Krishnamoorthy did today was also unprecedented. Never before has a father sung as he did for his children.