Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Good start to the year

My maternal cousin Usha was a world-class Bharatanatyam dancer. I never got to know her from brother-sister estrangement of the parent generation. She died in 2006 and I spoke to her husband introducing myself upon seeing the obituary notice in the pages of “Hindu”. Mr. Srinivasan is a friendly person and we connected in our first meet way back in 2007. Since then I call him every three months or so just to say “Hello” and chat what comes to the mind and the issues of the day.
            He is quite a big fish in town; he runs a SME and something like past President of Ambattur Industrial Estate kinds. His house in Karpagam Gardens defines luxury that film actors would dream of.
            Usha’s brother Dr. Kumar - which makes him my maternal cousin - died in the first week of December and Srinivasan called to inform me of the demise. As 2017 was drawing to a close, he invited me to New Woodlands for a meal and fill me on the cremation news at Mangalore. Dr. Kumar was a genius in the true sense of the word, unlikely there are ten such brains in the entire country.
            We met at Woodlands on 27th December and the lunch was out of this world for a mouth- watering and finger licking experience. Srinivasan, who is springly at 75, observed, “This is the first time I am coming to Woodlands after Usha’s death and it was over 15 years ago.” I said, “Food never tasted better, this is verily the best place for FULL MEALS in Chennai. This only confirms what I always suspected; Kannadigas make for the best cooks in South India.”
            Srinivasan said, “Sathya, I am going to Malaysia for an annual alumni meet tomorrow. This is the 53rd meeting of IIM Calcutta of my batch. I have a DONOR PASS for Music Academy Dance festival which you can use in my absence.”
            I went to his house the next day for the DONOR PASS and he also gave a breakfast coupon saying, “This is the meal coupon on 1st January for a customary meeting of members with the President. If you go there, you will get a good breakfast at the Academy.”
            So I went on the New Year day, taking bus number 29 C to Music Academy. It was the best breakfast I had in my life: idly, vadai, set dosa, puri, pongal alongwith payasam and a sweet. We had three chutneys which has become the norm, parupudi and this is a royal feast which would have graced Ivanka Trump’s table had she come visiting Chennai and in the market for South Indian. I kept hogging, your taste buds knew that the meal was extra special and savour the occasion. The filter coffee at the end rounded an epicurean delight. I wouldn’t be forgetting my first meal of 2018 in a while. I saw the Music Academy President N Murali greeting members; I kept a safe distance. It would be daft to introduce myself for a hand shake; it would have meant nothing to him and to me. It is such moments you know you are a NOBODY in town. 
            I attended the first concert on 3rd January where Lakshmi Viswanathan was honoured with this year’s title. Mark Morris made an informal speech at a very formal gathering which made for spontaneous laughs in the audience. He is one of the best known contemporary dancers in the world; there was Mikhail Baryshinkov one of the greatest ballet dancers of our times. Said Morris, “I keep coming to Madras around this time of the year.  It was my good fortune in life to hear MS Subbulakshmi twenty years back and something clicked in my head. Tamil Classical music is one of the best things to happen in my life.”
            The first dance performance with Shijith Nambiar and his wife Parvathy Menon and they rocked. I found it a bit tiresome as they went through what looked like classical dance routines. Parvathy looked sensuous, so did the male artist. One could sense the sexual tension in the air.
            Music Academy is for the unbelievably rich crowd. I saw so many pretty faces. Classical Dance is very much like Golf and Snooker; you need to be super rich to pursue those interests. I was seated next to a dancer from New York and my heart instantly melted. We conversed a bit and she sounded mighty intelligent. If I had a bit more money in the bank and if I was a bit younger and if I was a bit more enterprising, I would have asked that woman out for coffee. Instead I came home and relived the “what could have been’s” feverish infatuations. She had long tresses that felt hands friendly for a male (J) and beautiful hands.
            The second show of the day was Leela Samson’s troupe and God, this was Hollywood kind production. The theme was “rivers” and Leela and her young team were again sensuous. These dancers show a lot of emotions on the face; sparkling eyes and flashing smiles as the hands goes into different postures. Abhinaya is the technical term for facial expressions and Bharatanatyam is so full of it. The stage was awash with colour – one moment it turned all blue and another crimson and then yellow halogen colours. Music Academy is the best place in town for lights and sounds in Chennai. I had seen two more dance shows earlier at Ratnagirsiwarar temple this season and this thought kept impinging as I walked out to the auditorium as the clock was nearing 9:30 pm: Water and fire happen within space which is infinite and expanding. One light year is the distance light travels in a year and we have galaxies that are thousands of light years away. Water at its benevolent side is life giving for every human civilization happened near river banks and in floods, water drowns everything. The destructive power of FIRE is even more complete and scary; water at least snuffs your life in drowning but fire breaks everything into ashes and leaves not a trace of your existence. This is what Leela Samson's troop performed on the stage. 
            I had the donor pass for the next four days but destiny played foul. A transport strike ensured that buses were OFF the roads and that meant Music Academy was out of bounds. A simple bus ticket costs Rs. 9 while an auto ride one way would be over Rs. 200 and my position in life is not such as to spend it. But just one day of Music Academy left me with the image of a dancer seated next to me; she was a Tambrahm from New York and I thought: someone with a similar profile is just the doctor's prescription for getting my life back on track. Some harmless vivid imaginations before the pressures of COMMUNICATION WORKSHOPS take over. But yes, the first week of 2018 sat easy and light on the eyes and the shoulders. 

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