Three senior artistes were decorated with awards at the launch of Narada Gana Sabha’s annual December Season festival at the sabha’s auditorium in Alwarpet.

They were vocalist Seetha Narayanan, mridangist Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam and nagaswaram artiste SRGS Mohandass.

Vidwan Prof. T. V. Gopalakrishnan was the chief guest.

TVG, as friends call him fondly, is one artiste who loves to coax the audience to put their hands together to cheer an awardee or acknowledge their milestones. He did so even at this event.

Bhakatavatsalam made a long acceptance speech, tracing his early days in Madras, his first set of concerts and his meetings with the vidwans of that time.

Later, there was a concert by violinists A. Kanyakumari and her sishyas, Embar Kannan and Sayee Rakshith, with mridangist K V Prasad, morsing artiste B. Rajasekar and ghatam artiste Guru Prasanna