When G. Harishankar’s fingers tended to linger around for a while in deceptive retreat, one knew there was another barrage of taps and roles set to come anytime from his ganjira. Now, that was much like the way Carlos Valderrama would foray on the football ground: a watchful slowdown, then suddenly a dramatic surge forward with unexpected pace.
If “imaginative” is a word that is often attributed to the Carnatic percussionist who won the admiration of art lovers beyond the Deccan or even India, “creative” goes the general refrain about the Columbian midfielder known for his deft passes that often proved the defining move behind a goal in the rival team’s post. In the late 1980s and the ’90s when both of them were in peak form, their craft often appeared to draw parallels before the average buffs of south Indian classical music and Latin American soccer.