I have never believed that it is possible to be moved by rhythm – I am a melody person myself – melody that is soft and lingers inside your head long after you have heard it… wispy feathery tunes, pale ghosts that follow you through the day and night, slipping away just as you reach out to it… as opposed to rhythm that is here and now, a sudden quickening of the pulse, a rush of blood to the head, a momentary sway of the senses.
I was at Horniman circle garden on Tuesday night listening to the thayambaka performance led by Mattannur Srikanth and Sriraj. I watched spellbound as the performers started off with the rhtyhm slow and steady, now mild, now rising for the first hour; performing for themselves, immersed in the rhythm.
And the last hour, performing for the audience, their fingers now caressing the drum slowly, very softly, and then suddenly rising to fever pitch; the audience clapping and cheering and in the last ten minutes, all on their feet, crowding around the stage as the artists took the crowd with them on a rhythm trip, sweating with the effort of two hours and smiling with the response of the crowd.
From this, 
.. to this… 
Wiki says of thayambaka – thayambaka is a solo Chenda (drum) performance that is unique to Kerala state of south India, where the performer uses one stick and the other hand to play the instrument (Chenda) instead of the usual two sticks.
Thayambaka is generally performed by a lead drummer surrounded by about 3-4 assistant drummers(Veekku Chenda) , and 3-4 Elathalam players. It is a concert like performance of percussion instruments alone lasting approximately 90-120 minutes
.
Imagine 120 minutes of non-stop drumming; I found my hands tired after 30 seconds of clapping high in the air…
The performance was organized by Keli, a Mumbai-based organization dedicated to the preservation, development and propagation of the traditional classical art forms. More from the Keli website…
…there were also others for whom traditional values were sacrosanct and compromise was unthinkable. They were an endangered species, so to speak, of absolute aesthetics and creative integrity, intolerant of mediocrity and arrogance. Keli felt the need to trace them and bring them to the world outside their familiar hamlets.