sabha crawling

December music festival in chennai is well known and extremely well documented.NRI tamilians flock to chennai during this time and have their fill of ragas, swaras, sahityams and sabhas to last one year. Like camels this drink of pure carnatic music will last them long.It is true for chennaites also. The feverish pitch with which chennai skyline is dotted with performances at every available space makes ardent music lovers like me wish for december season to last for the next eleven months. The Hindu has sponsored a theatre fest in november and a dance festival in Music academy in january about explains the slow spread of the fine arts virus to the other months.
There is something very endearing about getting into the mood and sabha hopping during the peak december season. You open the newspaper and they are full of reviews, photos and comments about the performances of the previous day with vivid marketing for the programmes scheduled for the day and week ahead. Huge pull outs from newspapers were missing this time and we were told that the economic melt down is having a music festival angle to it. But then the competititon among newspapers saw to it that reams of newsprint was utilised in postmortems! TV channels were also hard pressed for creative programmes, simply latched on to relaying these programmes and they had very good viewership among the senior citizens and others on the go! They had their taste of a kutcheri for an hour in the evening/early morning(repeat telecast) and felt a sense of being there and doing what the culture vultures in chennai were doing.
The sabha halls were a different experience altogether. I did spot very senior citizens nodding their heads vigorously. But i also saw the veterans; they had a dictionary of karnatic music songs.The minute an artiste sang the first line of a keertana, they would flip open the book and note the composer. Of course identifying a raga would have already happened. I saw a techie with a net enabled handset googling for information on the artist. I saw an entire family land in a concert and had vigorous consultations on ragam tanam pallavi and the ragamalika ragams at the end of it. One of them had a small note book like what waiters used to have in udipi restaurants (they were called 'servers') and was noting down the songs sung by the musician. A compendium of sorts. It made me want to chronicle in a similar way and remembered to carry a huge diary for tm krishna's concert (the 4 hour version). But lost the pen on the way and hence innovated by storing them in my mobile. Vallavanuku handphone um aayudham!
Nithyasree's concert was very good. I am hearing her concert for the first time; no not this season but first time ever. I enjoyed every minute of it. She lives through her concert. Her rich timbre and sruthi sutham shines through. Her songs are not performances but showcasing herself. Her choice of songs was perfect and the three hours went away without looking at the watch even for a minute. I just closed my eyes and lived through the concert. It was a yogic experience.
Mandolin concert was to accompany my aunt. She is an ardent fan of mandolin and had specifically requested that she be escorted for the same. I am again listening to mandolin srinivas after many years and I had warned athai that we would stage a walkout if he gets into speed playing and gimmicry.But as it turned out it had its 'speed' moments but it was a soulful melliflous rendering. How he is able to effortlessly coax that tiny instrument to bring out so many wonderful kaarvais is amazing.
Sowmya was very good and very pleasing and melodious but she is not able to lift the concert to an extraordinary experience.
Mahabalipuram dance festival was an unique experience. Coincidentally the day we were there we had a kalakshetra presentation and we got ringside seats as guests of kalakshetra. It was a surreal experience with the moon shining as a backdrop; goats grazing on the rocks above the arjuna penace and small kids frisking about on the rockface. The entire experience was something to be cherished.
Curtain down on december festivals. But margazhi madam is still going strong!

wedding receptions chennai isshtyle

I dont get it.
You get invited for a wedding;with a heavy dose of pressure that we should close the kitchen and attend for all the functions(four different meal times by the way).The family has recently moved into our neighbourhood, so the excessive invite was a bit too much, but still. We decided to go for the reception as it was conveniently on a sunday evening. I double checked that they did not have a light music programme. It was clearly mentioned that there was a carnatic music concert by master mandolin rajesh and company. I was looking forward to some soothing music and a quiet slip away.
SGS kalyana mandapam greeted us with a watchman who said, 'parking full sir'; so the first shot was fired. I had to then expect a 'HOUSE FULL" reception area. Yes it was overflowing with guests standing dutifully in a long serpentine queue upto the entrance. I had difficulty stepping into the place. Two old men were sitting disinterestedly in the reception area, guarding the 'chandan', rose flowers and kalkandu! I usually like to smear a bit of chandan on my palms, so i did that and invited myself in!. I then waded through the crowd and went to the hall where the kutchery was arranged. I gave a premature kudos to the organisers for separating the reception and kutchery. There were lots of empty chairs about and i headed for a vantage position and sat down to listen to mandolin music.
But i was rudely shaken by the din that was emanating from the dias. There was rajesh with the mandolin and was playing it with such a speed as though he was in a formula one race. What is it supposed to prove? As if this assault was not enough, the percussion duo of mridangist and ghadamist(?) banged their instrument hard and all the while keeping the mike very near to them. In all this melee, the three of them were smiling broadly as if they are enjoying themselves thoroughly.
Are they competing with light music troops for the noise level? Are they letting off steam for playing in a wedding reception where the audience attention is perhaps two seconds? Are they doing some sadhana where they want to test for themselves how fast their hands can dance over their instruments, melody be damned?
I remembered my 7th standard science teacher who introduced the subject of noise and music and asked us to differentiate the two. I never had much difficulty then and was surprised why she needs to pose such a question.
But here noise was being passed off as music. Somebody has to go meet 7th std science teacher for an orientation.

It is sheer Magic

Summer holidays in Chennai has become quite enjoyable for kids. No, the famous chennai heat has not done the vanishing act. It is just that it has been accepted as given and then carry on from there.When parents are through with scanning the pages of dailies for summer courses for kiddos and putting them through a few, they are left with time and money on their hands. Enter the movie moghuls.There seems to be a plethora of children movies doing the rounds. Nowadays the movies for children are actively marketed as fun filled for the entire family.Children's movies are scheduled to be released in May and they are doing much better than the regular movies.
This year we noticed the magic shows are being actively promoted. Wide publicity and screaming billboards made us want to try them out.

Jadugar Anand was holding his shows in Kalaivanar arangam.The entire family landed up there, as every one said, that it is ages since they went to a magic show and amma particularly said she is always an ardent fan of magic shows.J all of 8 years said she has never seen a magic show and always wanted to go for one!
This show was a spectacle in the true sense. It was a SHOW. The stage was jazzy with dancing light beams of all colours adding a mystic feeling.It was golden and purple colour curtains in satin smoothly taking off to give us a peep into what is in store for us this evening. The band picked up a racy beat and the crescendo was reached in a few minutes.Petite girls and young boys particularly small made came on stage and made a nice dance parade of sorts.
The actual magic show began and unrolled one wonder after another. Anand used to finish a piece and then stand there with his hands stretched wide with a demure expression; that was the cue that the piece is over and he is not unwelcome to a grand applause!My hands went red with applauding after every show.
A huge elephant suddenly appeared on the stage practically from nowhere and then made a leisurely exit.Liberty statue was shown and bit by bit it was shown to disappear into thin air.
There were boxes and boxes all the way. The boys and girls used to be put into one box or the other and knives and daggers used to be inserted right into them and they will come back unscathed.Hypnotism and levitation were very captivating. A girl from the audience was made to lie down on a bench and slowly the bench was removed and she was hanging in mid air.I have been trying to find out the magic, science and hypnosis of this levitation from the net. But while it explains some, it leaves much unsaid.
Of course, flower vases from thin air, rabbits and white pigeons from a hat are a must in any magic show and this one was no exception.
This show was unique in that other magicians who routinely perform on the Tv were also present in the audience and they were duly brought on stage and honoured.
Comedian vivek had come with his family and J had good fun going up and shaking hands with him and his kids at the end of the show. She also went to the green room and greeted Jadugar Anand and said he does appear quite old!
I have not been to a magic show since my school days in Tambaram and I enjoyed the magic, spectacle and drama that Jadugar Anand displayed on stage that day.

Besant nagar humour club

Adyar times, the neighbourhood newspaper has been regularly carrying this programme in their engagements of the week column for several years now. They schedule it on the first sunday of everymonth.I have always read it with interest and would file it away in my mind that i would like to go and participate in one such meeting.An uncle of mine is a member of a humour club and he has been going strong about it for several years now.But then the timing is the issue; 4 pm on a sunday evening is quite difficult to keep an appointment, however tempting the programme.But then I got around it and landed in the premises well before the meeting began this weekend.

I studied the members present; quite a few greys, as can be expected. A good number of ladies mostly middle aged; I was pleasantly surprised to see some children. It was only later i realised that they had a competition for children and that is the reason some children and their mothers were with them. It made me think that the mothers seem to be keen to enter their kids in any programme as long as you label it 'competiton'; not otherwise. Never mind that there could hardly be a few entrants and the prizes at best could be a pencil box which the child would have in plenty already.

There was just one young boy who looked like a college student. He was keenly interested in the jokes that were shared, though he kept very much to himself. I can imagine him remembering and narrating some of the jokes to his friends the next day and score a few brownie points.

Some members come as far away as Madipakkam; they must really be sold on 'humour' to travel so far on a hot chennai summer afternoon.

The format was like this; select members were asked to come on stage and share a few jokes. Most of them used a sheet of paper as a reference; some of them referred their palm and scribblings on it ; some of them were extempore and they actually reeled off more than 20 jokes at one go. I was amazed.The timing and presence of mind were crucial as I could see. We were also introduced to members of laughter club. They assemble everyday at 6 am in besant nagar beach.

I was narrating this to my niece who has just given her 12th exam, and she said she was not amused. She said her colony had a laughter club and when she would be rushing to school on a monday morning more so if there is an unit test and while getting into the bus, the forced laughter of the laughter club with no apparent reason used to be jarring. Different folks, different strokes....

The chief guest spoke on the topic, 'ethanai kodi inbam vaithai iraiva' and generously spiced it with thirukkural, bharatiyar songs and vivekanandar's life. My favourite topic and it was 'paisa vasool'.

Maybe i wont go there regularly; it is difficult to sit through more than two hours of 'humour'.But they do invite very good guest speakers and I might occasionally be tempted.
Yes, I have become a member.

Trade Fair in Island grounds

Trade fairs are a regular feature in chennai and the mega variety in Island grounds starts end December and carries on for a few months thereafter. This event in the city has long since dropped off the radar and stays firmly as a 'not a must see' and there it remained confined till yesterday. The trigger obviously was the feature article in The Hindu metroplus section, a few days back and obviously the reporter had weaved a bit of magic into it.

Stray clouds had suddenly gathered on a lazy saturday afternoon and that gave us an added incentive to venture out .

The crowds were everywhere.We tried the train ride first. Wanted to get somethings correct before we get lost in the wilderness. We were patiently waiting for the toy train to appear, but were told it has derailed enroute and could we wait for another half an hour! A mini riot broke out and the visitors had a thing or two to say to the 'station master' and he was flustered and hard pressed to explain over which he had scant authority and information. Refund of the ticket of five rupees sparked another melee and we quietly slipped out not before asking the booking clerk that we could come back later(after the derailed train is restored back of course)

We went for the big rides now. There were any number of them;two big giant wheels, any number of roundabouts;roller coasters making one hell of a noise; dashing cars;a tiny ropeway;children's inflated play area, where they went in and bobbed up and down and shrieking all the time.Yes, I did feel little queasy about the safety aspects, but the festive mood and jostling crowds swept that aside and we were making quick selections. Settled for an innovative roundabout for kiddos and pops was making a beeline for it with a great deal of familiarity. Then there was the 'duck ride' which was a heady mix of roundabout, roller coaster and a giant wheel, but in small portions. So we plumped for it and the elliptical ride did make one queasy and I kept getting tossed within the teeny two seater.Pops was unfazed of course and grinning ear to ear. That is the end of 'rides' for us.

The giant papads invited us along with 'mulaga bajjis'. I asked for one papad without chilli powder.For the next half hour i was carrying it around for others to take pieces of it, while we were busy looking for that elusive buy in those stalls selling everything that you dont strictly need. Panju mittai, of course had to appear.Pops had seen it perhaps for the first time, so was quite curious about how it is made. We bought two and immediately ticked off one more 'must do, must eat' item.I was looking for the stalls sellling every conceivable vegetable shredder.I remember the cabbages and onions used to be piled high and you cant resist buying one. yes, I spotted one, but the vegetables were not piled high this time.

We went to a few govt stalls all the time lamenting that the trade fair has become more shops and less stalls.Perhaps,the govt has the tv to showcase its achievements and need not wait for the annual trade fair.

It was time to leave, but i was not sure that i wont want to come here again; to hang around shops selling 'genuine cotton sports socks' for ten rupees; foldable laundry bag for twenty rupees;every conceivable 'cooling glass' for ten;eucalyptus oil from kodaikanal and toys of every colour, shape and texture including the soap bubble maker.

Yes, trade fair is our own namma chennai concoction and a heady one at that.Yes, cooum is there with you keeping company; how you wish it did'nt.