Awards time on the opening evening of a sabha’s December Season festival can turn emotional. It did at the event of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in T. Nagar on December 12.

The attendance was good. It has always been so at the sabha’s awards evening when gurus, sishyas, well-wishers and family of the artistes to be recognised make it a point to be present. And freely applaud the awardees.

The two awards – the Sangeeta Choodamani and the Nritya Choodamani – are prized ones. And for 2025, the first was given to senior mridangam and percussion artiste K. V. Prasad and the second award to dancer-choreographer G. Narendra.

K. V. Prasad, in his acceptance speech, took time to share the milestones in his career and remember all his gurus, one of whom, mridangam vidwan Dr. T. K. Murthy, now 101 years old, was at the event. And everytime he mentioned the gurus, Prasad bowed down to symbolically offer his sashtangams.

Narendra also recalled the early days of his career, starting with dance classes in his native Mysore and then at the famed Kalakshetra in Chennai. He said he wished his dad was around to see him receive the award that evening. And when he acknowledged the late Saroja, a well-known dance teacher, he became emotional and paused. “I always get emotional when I talk about her and recall her memory,” Narendra said later, outside the hall, as people wished him.

That evening, besides arts patron Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti ( president of this sabha) and the chief guest Dr. N. Kamakodi, CEO of City Union Bank, Bharatanatyam guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy and vidwan Chitravina N. Ravikiran were on stage and they felicitated the awardees.

Also present on stage were Y. Prabhu, sabha’s secretary and Saashwathi Prabhu, the CEO.

Later, senior dancer and teacher, A. Lakshmanaswamy performed.