the usual happening weekends in the city see a lot of youngsters gathering at pubs and discs grooving to the music but last saturday proved a little different especially for some city music lovers who got the opportunity to listen to pt shivkumar sharma play the santoor for the first time while others revisited memories from his earlier concerts classical music always had discerning listeners and that continues true its not as popular as some other forms of music but it has its own niche this is because its an acquired taste and requires deeper involvement even as the audience said industrialist harshvardhan neotia the host for the eveningwhen panditji in a vibrant blue kurta against a beautiful green backdrop sat down to perform he had some things to share with the audience thanks for patiently waiting during the sound check with me is my japanese student an accomplished santoor player learning from me for the past 10 years our music is based on melody and we dont plan it happens according to the mood of the player and the ambience the ambience is beautiful here today and this concert is close to my heart the people involved are like family said pt shivkumar who was also accompanied by pt ram kumar mishra on the tablathe neotia family were the ones panditji was referring to on the first saturday of every year they celebrate gulab bari at their residence this year they shifted the venue to a sprawling luxury space in the city and called it vasantiki it is a perfect ambience for spring or vasant and a classical programme is befitting for an evening like this that started 35 years back at our residence said madhu neotia the family was in full attendance with son parthiv and daughter paroma present too along with guests from the world of art and culture