City's 32-year-old veena player N. Karthik has entered the Guinness World Records for holding 50 concerts in 24 hours.

Guinness World Records Ltd. has granted him the world record. The previous record was 41 concerts held by Adam Tas of South Africa.

Mr. Karthik adhered to the rules set by Guinness World Records Ltd. Twenty-four hours, according to the rules, meant one complete cycle of 24 hours, including rest breaks. The clock does not stop. Other rules were each concert must be given at a recognised venue with a registered audience capacity of 300; each concert should last at least 15 minutes and it should be of a professional standard; and the performer must be paid or tickets must be available for sale. What made it possible for Mr. Karthik was the fact that Malleswaram, according to him, is the only place in the world where you can see 55 auditoriums in one area.

Mr. Karthik told The Hindu that he had achieved this feat with the help of a 20-member team with three vehicles and three veenas. "When I am performing at the first venue, tuned veenas will be ready for me at the next two venues," he said. He attempted to enter the Guinness World Records on November 29 and 30. He was accompanied by N. Kumar on mrudanga and Narasimha Prasad on khanjira. The team took a long break of three hours (from 1 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Mr. Karthik felt exhausted after the 39th concert. "Since I was only three concerts away from breaking the record, I could inspire myself," he said. The record is the result of six months of planning.

Though all went as planned, there were problems at a couple of venues with security guards denying them entry. "The managements did not inform the security guards," he said.

Son of veena vidwan C. Nagaraj and veena teacher Manjula Nagaraj, he was trained by C. Krishna Murthy and M.V. Krishna Murthy. Mr. Karthik has performed on many of the city's prestigious forums and in Mysore.

Previous record holders Adam Tas (Francois van der Merwe), Jaco Van Deventer, and Daniel Roos played 41 gigs in 24 hours at venues in and around Pretoria in South Africa on May 5 and 6, 2005. The clippings of their performance on TV inspired Mr. Karthik to their break record.

Source: The Hindu