India, Feb. 17 -- The eighth edition of the Mahindra Kabira Festival, which was held in Varanasi from December 13 to 15, opened with a beautiful Ganga aarti on Guleria Ghat. The delegates watched the sublime choreography of lamps moving in unison to the sounds of prayer, and paid their obeisance to the river that is celebrated in songs and scriptures, poems and legends.

The Carnatic Quartet, with Shreya Devnath on the violin, M Karthikeyan on the nagaswaram, Manikandan Subramanyam on the mridangam and G Silambarasan on the thavil, played the first set for the evening. Their instrumental version of Ud Jaayega Hans Akela - known to many from Kumar Gandharva's rendition - was wonderful but even more impressive was their presentation of Mall...