27 February Chennai
In the morning I caught an auto to Susindar’s spacious
home in a block of condominiums where I met him, his wife, and daughter Sanju.
Susindar had ordered a take-out South Indian breakfast for us. Afterward I asked
to see his wedding photos, which he brought out and explained the ceremony and
reception. He told me that he once played the mridangam, the double-ended drum
essential as the primary rhythmic accompaniment in Carnatic music, then brought
out his instrument and played a few short sequences.
We went for a short
drive, stopping first at the Krishnamurti Foundation campus, a pretty landscaped
area with a large white building once the India home of philosopher, speaker,
and writer Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986). Today the building serves as a study
center with an auditorium downstairs and a library with his books upstairs, a
peaceful place to read and ponder his teachings. We stayed just a short time,
then continued our journey, turning south across the wide Adyar River to the
Theosophical Society, another forest-garden refuge from city life and with a
famous banyan tree, but it was closed to entry. We turned east to the sea at a
long beach with a beautiful soaring white Catholic church, the Annai Velankanni
Shrine. Susindar often takes a morning walk to this area from his home. We
stepped inside the pretty interior, illuminated with colorful stained glass
windows that depict the Stations of the Cross. Next we visited and chatted with
Susindar’s parents, now in their 80s yet living independently in their own
apartment.
I returned to my hotel room for a rest, then headed in the
late afternoon to Mylapore for two Bharatanatyam dance recitals at R.K. Swamy
Auditorium. Susindar joined me here and we enjoyed the two solo performances,
first by Anagha Tadepalli and the second by R. Harini. I brought my camera to
capture some of the drama and color. After the performances we had a light South
Indian dinner at Mylai Shri Karpagambal Mess. I got an idly and a plain uttapam,
but when I got a taste of Susindar’s idiyappam (noodle dish) I ordered one too.
Lastly Susindar dropped me off at my hotel.
28 February Chennai
Today’s weather had partly cloudy skies, a departure from the solid sunshine of
previous days. After the hotel’s breakfast, I caught an Uber auto taxi north to
Egmore for the Government Museum
https://www.govtmuseumchennai.org/ to see its varied collections. I had last
visited six years ago, but hadn’t seen everything, and looked forward to a day
wandering through the colorful late-19th and early 20th-century buildings. Entry
cost Rs. 250 plus another Rs. 200 for a camera permit. There’s much to
photograph and I was glad to be able to use my camera; oddly signs prohibited
use of cell phone photography. I started in the Contemporary Art Building,
though little of the time-worn collection can be called ‘contemporary.’
Portraits of Indian leaders and freedom fighters spread across much of the
ground floor and there’s a small gallery of late 20th-century paintings.
Upstairs one corner has towering portraits of British governors, but more
interesting are the colorful traditional paintings in many styles, including
works by the painter Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), famed for his fusion of
European academic art with Indian sensibility and iconography. Next I walked
past the extravagant 1906 Indo-Saracenic-style National Art Gallery, though the
interior has been closed since 2002. I skipped the nearby Children’s Museum.
I continued to perhaps the highlight of the museum, the Bronze Galleries
Building, where artworks shine under (mostly) dramatic lighting. Shiva, his
consort Parvati, and family inhabit the ground floor, overseen by a giant statue
of Shiva as the divine cosmic dancer Nataraja performing the tandava dance.
Upstairs there’s a line-up of more Nataraja along with many statues of Vishnu,
his consorts, and family. The top floor has smaller images, including more of
Vishnu and a small collection of Buddhist works.
Next I entered the huge
Main Building where the first hall displays ancient stone sculptures, most in
damaged condition, on two floors. There’s also a collection of inscribed copper
plates strung on massive rings with seals from Chola kingdoms of a thousand
years ago. An upstairs passageway leads to an impressively large collection of
limestone medallions and reliefs from the Amaravati Stupa, a massive Buddhist
monument built in Andhra Pradesh from the 3rd century B.C. to about A.D. 250.
Next I entered vast halls of the Zoology Collection with a huge whale skeleton
hanging from the ceiling. The cobra skeletons are neat to see as well, but most
exhibits here are in poor condition. By chance I entered the geology gallery
during the show of a growling and animated Tyrannosaurus rex followed by a
Pterodactylus who flapped its wings high above, all this amazing to a group of
school kids who sat on the floor. Oddly the geology gallery had few rocks or
minerals on display, but did have a poor painting of the Grand Canyon!
Lastly I explored the Anthropology Building, though I found the venerable
structure to be of far greater interest than the poor and neglected exhibits
inside. The downstairs has displays of armaments and rows of poorly labeled
prehistoric pots. A pair of grand staircases leads to the upper floor and
galleries with sparse Indus Valley relics, a bit of folk art, and dusty musical
instruments. But the real highlights are the grand staircases, the immense
central hall upstairs, the painted parquet ceiling of the Indus Valley room, and
the elaborate stained-glass windows. Cannons of many lands captured by
victorious British stand guard outside the building.
I had spent about
5½ hours at the sprawling museum compound, a very full day of museuming. An auto
took me southeast to Mylapore, where got a mini tiffen—a post-lunch South Indian
thali with pongal, small masala dosa, idly sambar, and kesari (sweet)—at the
Saravan Bhavan.
A short walk led to R.K. Swamy Auditorium, where I
enjoyed a solo Bharatanatyam dance by Santhya Subramaniam, who greatly pleased
the crowd with dramatic poses and movements. The second program—a group
Bharatanatyam dance by disciples of Guru Sunitha Hari of the Kalanritya Arts
Academy—didn’t have live musicians and the distorted and overly loud recorded
music greatly detracted from the experience. I left after a trio and two solo
dances. The neighboring Rasika Ranjani Sabha offered a vocal concert today, and
it was still going when I entered the third-floor auditorium. Here five women
singers would sing solo or duet or together along with a mridangam and violin. A
white-haired woman, the guru, did a bit of reciting and singing as well, then
led a prayer at the end. I got an auto back to my hotel area, then swung by
Eatalica for a brownie topped with vanilla ice cream.
1 March Chennai
I intended to write a bunch of postcards while in India, and realized this was
the day to do it, so I spent the morning writing 18. In the afternoon I walked
to Nandanam Post Office, stopping on the way at the nearby Nandanam Metro
station to check on the first train to the airport tomorrow morning. I confirmed
that service would begin at 5 a.m., which would get me to the airport in plenty
of time for the 8:05 a.m. departure. Getting stamps at the post office turned
out to be a major production. The fellow at the window had no clue what the
postage would be, so consulted with a woman who searched on her computer for a
long while before reporting that each postcard would be Rs. 32 ($0.39), far
cheaper than I would pay in Thailand or the U.S.A. A fellow at the post office
insisted on pasting the stamps for each postcard, then dropped them in the
mailbox outside. On the way back to my hotel I stopped at a supermarket for
snacks and other supplies to take with me tomorrow.
In the evening I caught
an auto over to Susindar’s house and said goodbye to his wife and daughter.
Susindar then took me to a Sangeetha restaurant, part of an international
vegetarian chain. From the long menu he went with a light meal and I got the
huge and varied North Indian thali, finishing with a butterscotch ice cream—all
very tasty. Susindar dropped me off at my hotel and we said goodbyes until we
meet again. I hope to return to Chennai during the December-January festival
season when countless Indian classical music and dance performances take place!