Life’s about following the drum

Sivamani seems to be tireless. The drummer and his band performed at a Shiva temple located around 185 km from Chennai till 4 am on Sunday, reports Nikhilesh Bhattacharya.

Sivamani seems to be tireless. The drummer and his band performed at a Shiva temple located around 185 km from here till 4 am on Sunday.

HT Image

He returned to the city, caught some sleep and was at Chepauk by 2 pm to test the sound equipment at the stadium before Chennai Super Kings’ first match in IPL-III.

“It’s great, awesome, to play in stadiums,” the team’s principal cheerleader told HT as he got ready for the evening’s performance. “I really missed India last time (IPL-II). Of course, we were rocking in South Africa, but there will be more energy here,” Sivamani said.

Sivamani says he started going to cricket matches as a fan of the Indian team. “But my hands wouldn’t be quiet.”

So he started bringing in small drums and the crowd loved his music. Later, India Cements, the company that owns Super Kings, recognised his connect with fans and made him the cheerleader of the team.

“Last night I was in a holy place, Thiruvannamalai. It was Shivaratri and my band, Shanti, performed inside the temple the whole night, till 4 am. It was a magical experience. The temple was packed with devotees and not one of them moved. I was drawing energy from Lord Shiva,” the drummer said.

Ask him about his favourite Super Kings cricketers and Sivamani mentions Matthew Hayden and “of course, Dhoni”.

“But you know so many factors determine performance — the weather, the mood. It is like the ocean — always changing. Just like it is different when I perform with Shankar Mahadevan, or with Zakir Hussain or AR Rahman,” Sivamani signed off. But you can be sure of one thing. Sivamani will rock.