bangalore they turned personal tragedy into a hymn of acceptance they offered their love of the arts specially music to an everwidening audience now 15 years later bangalores respected artistic couple hindustani vocalist lalita and writerintellectual shivaram ubhayaker are set to showcase the 15th devnandan ubhayaker yuva sangeet utsav at the guru nanak bhavan on august 18 and 19 ages debilitating march has weakened the couple in body but not in spirit in their beautiful home off palace road in a garden bursting forth with the variegated hues of dracaena crotons lilies orchids ferns and bamboo lalita and shivaram are busy putting finishing touches to their annual gift to bangaloreans it has always been difficult finding corporate sponsors specially since we select the most promising young musicians and singers who have yet to hit the big time this year weve been lucky the concerts are free invitations are available at the kc das on firstcomefirstserve basis says lalita novelist rohini nilekani one of the main sponsors declares to me it is important to keep such concerts alive they bring to the forefront some excellent young singers and musicians otherwise theyll continue being appendages to senior artistes we had everything going for us then god took away our only son we were devastated from the darkness that blanketed our lives we realised that sunshine could be ours again only if we let go thats when we decided on an annual festival says shivaram if you have only two pennies left with one buy a loaf of bread for it will give you life with the other buy a flower for it will give you a reason to live says lalita quoting an old saying and so year after year this couple has gone into great trouble organising the festival this years offering bubbles with promise the virtuosity of the twins rahul and rohit in whose hands the violin soars into heavenly alchemy ustad faiyaz wasifuddin dagar of the dagar brothers clan whose voice has both depth and range sitarist sandeep apte disciple of ustad vilayat khan whose fingers race across the frets like ravi shankar in his youth and many more lalita has had chemotherapy what photograph can you take she says and switches on a 10minute video film that tells the story of the festival i feel so fulfilled that some of the youngsters we have featured down the years have gone on to bigger things winning fame and glory she says and why not for when lalita and shivaram conceived the festival the goal was clear encourage the propagation of our great classical music tradition in this instance hindustani their generosity is truly proving sweet music