28/05/2026
An Evening Beyond the Divine:
SICA's 67th Foundation Day Celebration
Kacheri by Anahita & Apoorva
Wednesday, 27th May 2026 | 6.30 PM | Ravindra Bharathi, Saifabad, Hyderabad.
Even Today @67 — your very own SICA — stands tall, still glowing, still gathering, still giving. And on this magnificent Wednesday evening, it gave perhaps its most heartfelt gift yet.
Outside, Hyderabad had been merciless all these days — one of the cruelest summer heatwaves in recent memory scorching the city with a ferocity that felt almost personal. Relentless, unforgiving, and exhausting. The streets shimmered. The air itself seemed to protest.
But this morning surprisingly (pleasantly) dawned differently — and with it came a surprising, merciful cool, as though the skies themselves had conspired to set the right mood for the evening's offering.
Ravindra Bharathi Auditorium — Hyderabad's most beloved auditorium — is no ordinary venue. For SICA and its vast family of Rasikas, it is what a mother's lap is to a child: a place of comfort, belonging, and boundless affection.
SICA, in its characteristic generosity, extended this evening as a gift — pure, unconditional, and open-hearted — to every Carnatic music Rasika of the city. No tickets. No barriers. No conditions. Only an open stage, an open heart, and a warm welcome awaiting every guest who walked through those doors. This is, and has always been, SICA's way — the abiding belief that great music must reach every deserving soul, freely and joyfully.
For its 67th Foundation Day, SICA chose its performers with inspired wisdom. The sibling singing duo Apoorva and Anahitha took to the stage and, from the very first note, made it abundantly clear that this was no ordinary performance. There are qualities in music that transcend technique — that no amount of rehearsal alone can produce — and what these two sisters brought was precisely that: the ineffable, irreplaceable chemistry that only siblings share. Their voices — distinct in timbre, yet instinctively harmonious — wove together with a naturalness that felt like breathing.
The Renditions — A Garland of Pearls
The evening's repertoire was as thoughtfully curated as it was magnificently rendered — a garland strung with compositions spanning centuries, traditions, and luminous composers, each pearl placed with care, each one glowing in its own right.
Swagatam Krishna — Mohana | Oothukadu Venkata Kavi
Ennaganu Rama Bhajana — Kamavardhani | Bhadrachala Ramadasu
Ranga Pura Vihara — Brindavana Saranga | Muthuswami Diksh*tar
Kalyana Rama, Raghu Rama — Hamsanadam | Oothukadu Venkata Kavi
Amba Taye Tripura Sundari Uma Maheswari — Suddha Saveri | Periyasaami Tooran
Kaddanu Variki — Thodi | Thyagaraja
(Followed by a scintillating Thaniyavardhanam)
Radha Sametha Krishna — Misra Yaman | GNB
Kurai Ondrum Illai — Ragamalika | Rajaji
Thoo Dayalu Dheen Ho — Bhajan | Tulsidas
Nagavulu Nijamani Nammedha — Mukhari | Annamacharya
Thillana — Sindhu Bhairavi | Lalgudi Jayaraman
Concluding with Mangalam — Rama Rama Rama Rama Ram
Each rendition, a pearl. The whole, a necklace fit for the Divine.
Every kirtana was carried forward as one living, breathing offering. Their passion was not performed for the audience. It was simply, unmistakably, palpable.
The raga alapanas were meditative and profoundly moving — each one an unhurried journey into the soul of the raga, explored with sensitivity and depth. The rhythmic exchanges sparkled with scholarship — but scholarship worn lightly, joyfully, never as a display but always as a celebration. Carnatic music, as every Rasika knows, is both ancient scripture and living organism — its roots sunk deep in the compositions of noble saint-scholars and legendary laureates, while remaining always alive, always breathing, always capable of new and soaring expression. This evening, the sisters gave it fresh, glorious wings.
The hall breathed together. In those transcendent moments, silence itself became as musical as sound.
Lending magnificent accompaniment to this stellar vocal performance was an ensemble of consummate artists. Dinakar on the Violin — whose lyrical strokes lent a silken, luminous depth to every phrase — followed and supported the vocalists with extraordinary sensitivity. Jaya Bhaskar on the Mridangam anchored the ensemble with rhythmic precision and unwavering vitality, his playing both scholarly and spirited. And Chandrakanth on the Ghatam brought a vibrant, pulsating energy that elevated the concert into something truly transcendent. Together, this ensemble created a breathtaking confluence of melody, rhythm, and devotion — a rare and cherished gift on this momentous occasion.
And then there was the voice that framed it all — the eloquent, warm, and wonderfully gifted compère, Mahidhara Seetarama Sharma.
If Apoorva and Anahitha were the soul of this evening, Mahidhara Seetarama Sharma was its gracious, golden thread — weaving together every rendition with a felicity of language and depth of musical understanding that was itself a performance to behold. Sharma laced that applause with insight — gently, warmly, and with a scholar's precision.
What was most remarkable was the way he honoured each artist by name — He gave weight to their names, finding in each one a significance that made every artist feel not merely acknowledged, but celebrated. He is Saraswati Putra and we were privileged to hear him.
Adorable in his warmth, inspired in his eloquence, and utterly at home in the world of art and expression — Sharma made this already magnificent evening feel, somehow, even more complete.
There are evenings that pass pleasantly and are forgotten by morning. And then there are evenings that linger — that settle deep into the soul like the final, fading resonance of a perfectly struck tambura string, long after the hall has emptied and the night has grown quiet.
This evening was emphatically, unmistakably, one such evening.
Cradled in the mother's lap of Ravindra Bharathi, surrounded by sublime music and the warm company of fellow Rasikas, we had been replenished in a way that no ordinary evening could achieve.
They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away. On this evening, we discovered a prescription far more joyful, far more nourishing, and infinitely more soul-satisfying: a magnificent Carnatic music concert at Ravindra Bharathi, in the company of gifted artists and kindred spirits. No clinic required.
This evening was, in every sense, a prism of celebration. Just as a prism transforms a single ray of light into a breathtaking spectrum of colours, SICA's 67th Foundation Day radiated its brilliance through three luminous facets — the golden legacy of 67 years of unwavering cultural excellence; the soul-stirring Kacheri of the gifted sibling duo Apoorva and Anahitha; and the hallowed Ravindra Bharathi auditorium, where art and memory breathe as one. Each facet inseparable from the other. Each one magnificent in its own right. Together, simply spectacular.
The choice of Apoorva and Anahitha for this milestone crossing foundation day celebration was inspired — and they honoured this occasion as beautifully as it honoured them. Through their vibrant, devoted voices, every colour of discipline, devotion, and sheer delight filled that sacred air. The right artists. The right atmosphere. The right occasion.
A momentum that carried every Rasika in that hall joyfully, gratefully, beyond the divine.
Congratulations, SICA. And thank you — for sixty-seven years of keeping the flame alive, and for an evening none of us shall soon forget.
Signing off.
This is Srinivasan from
Barkatpura, Hyderabad
— A grateful Rasika, in heartfelt tribute to an unforgettable evening
