A Very Special Lec-Dem At A Very Special Event

A very special event- ‘Pranaam’ - was held at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal on December 22 and 23, 2007. The event was organised jointly by Madhukali, Bhopal, Srutimudra, Sagar and Omenad, Indore. The event comprised an evening of annual awards to young musicians followed by evening concerts, and a symposium on Innovations and methods of teaching music. Mr Raj Narayan, MD of Radel, and Radhika Raj Narayan were invited to present a paper and presentations on the history of electronic and digital instruments invented at Radel.
The presentation on the swarmandal was itself an innovation, where Mr Raj Narayan played the Swaroopini swarmandal like a Santoor, with Radhika accompanying him on the Taalmala digi-100. The brief alap, jod and jhala were followed by a short ‘cheez’ where the tabla accompaniment provided fill-ins at every other chakkar, ending with a grand tihai. The lec-dem drew thunderous applause from the erudite audience present. The audience appreciated not only the lec-dem (‘by the inventor himself’, as one lecturer put it), but also the extraordinary products from Radel and the decades of research in producing them.
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