India, Dec. 15 -- I always wondered why the Bhoomija Jackfruit Festival was named so. That's until I spotted an earlier festival director, veena exponent and Carnatic musician, Jayanthi Kumaresh explaining that it alludes to the difficulty in harvesting a jackfruit pod from the green, spiky mass that the whole fruit is. And yet, how tasty is the end result!

The Bhoomija Jackfruit Festival is a festival of music by children. Every year, I see children with diverse abilities having quite a jolly time making music. This is heartening because the balance of rigour with playfulness is often missing from musical training and performance, especially in our social media and TV show infested times. Though traditionalism in training is held on to,...