Shiva as the Cosmic Dancer presides at the corner of the stage of Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium.
All the venues for the Dance Festival had this image, some much larger.
5 January Chennai
I set to work to sort out the best photos from the many
hundreds I had taken at the six performances. In early afternoon I caught an Uber
three-wheeler taxi to the Music Academy for a Bharatanatyam performance by Divya
Shivsundar, then took in a very filling South Indian thali at Amaravathi Restaurant
across the road. In the evening I returned to the Music Academy for a pair of programs,
covered with an Rs. 600 ticket up in the balcony. Rama Vaidyanathan gave a solo
Bharatanatyam dance, then the Indian group Apasaras Arts Dance Company from Singapore
presented an elaborate performance “ALAPADMA, The Lotus Unfolds.” The seven women
and one man had a live orchestra and portrayed aspects of the lotus flower in five
acts: creation, mythology, iconography, romance, and human wisdom. The very entertaining
show played to a packed house.
6 January Chennai
I finished sorting
the photos, selected my favorites, then created a new journal with them on my personal
website. In late afternoon I headed to the Dance Festival offered by Brahma Gana
Sabha at nearby Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium for a trio of fine solo Bharatanatyam
dances by the women Niveditha Shankar, Sivaranjini, and Shobana Balachandra. Brahma
Gana Sabha offers one of the longest series of performances with its Music Festival
beginning in early December, followed by the Dance Festival that runs daily from
1-23 January, and concludes with a Nadaswaram Festival from 24 January to 2 February.
On the walk back to my room I stopped at the upscale IshaLife Mahamudra restaurant
for a very tasty wheat-based South Indian thali.
7 January Chennai
This turned out to be a get-things-done day. My airbnb host came by for a visit
and volunteered to try to obtain a train ticket to Mysore for me. He recommended
the 12007 Shatabdi Express, a fast day train that departs Chennai at 6 a.m. and
arrives at a convenient 1 p.m. However these don’t run on Wednesday when I planned
to check out, so my host suggested that I stay another night and try for the Thursday
16 January train. He was successful and got me the ticket using his online account
for Rs. 1,272, which includes meals.
To get the all-important SIM card
for India, the caretaker of my Airbnb place took me on foot to the aircel office
located one block north of Kapaleeswarar Temple. The process took hours with clueless
staff confused about the process and making multiple copies of my passport, visa,
and me. Next I had to wait for the slow wheels of the verification process, normal
in India. I took that time to enjoy a wonderful thali at Nithya Amirtham. Back at
the airtel office, the internet finally become available after more waiting and
multiple restarts of the phone. I paid Rs. 350 for a 28-day package that
includes 1.5 GB/day internet, unlimited domestic calls, and 100 domestic sms
daily. In the evening I headed again to Smt. Sivagami Pethachi
Auditorium for two fine solo Bharatanatyam dances by Aishwarya Iyer and Manasa Sriram
followed by the dance drama ‘Panchanubhavam, An Exploration of Emotions’ performed
by six women.
8 January Chennai
For years I had intended to update
and simplify my website www.arizonahandbook.com
and today I finally got started! In the evening I caught two Bharatanatyam solo
dances at Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium by Advaitha Rajamanohar and Bargavi
Gopalan. The musicians with each dancer included a flutist—very appropriate for
stories about Krishna—and the second performance somewhat unusually had a veena
player instead of a violinist. Before and after the dances I had early and late
dinners at Thaligai Restaurant, which offered South Indian snacks new to me, and
very flavorful as one would expect!
9 January Chennai
For breakfast,
the caretaker at my Airbnb brought me a filling pair of idli (steamed cake made
of rice and blackgram batter) and a masala dosa (rice and lentil crepe stuffed with
potato masala), all topped with coconut curry and other sauces. Today is the final
day of the dance festival at the Music Academy, and I went to the three solo dance
performances in the late morning and early afternoon. In the first the woman T.
Reddi Lakshmi beautifully danced in the Kuchipudi form, named after a town in Andhra
Pradesh—the state just north of Tamil Nadu—with a slightly different style and dress
than in Bharatanatyam. Although both women and men commonly do the singing and chanting,
men usually handle the instruments, but this time a woman played the violin along
with men on flute and mridangam. Next the male dancer Parshwanath Upadhye provided
a Bharatanatyam with considerable gracefulness and attracted a large audience. Lastly
a woman dancer, Pavithra Srinivasan also gave a fine Bharatanatyam performance.
In the evening at Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium, I attended three solo Bharatanatyam
dances, two by women—Archana and Janani Ramachandran—and one by a man, S.K Suresh.
Curiously it isn’t just women who wear make-up, as the male dancer sported black
eye-liner and lipstick! I’m often amazed at the endurance of dancers to go for more
than an hour with just a few short breaks, and this fellow performed extremely fast
and energetic pieces with the sweat flying off. On the walk back to my room I stopped
at Thaligai Restaurant and had their special of the day, an uttapam (savory rice
pancake) topped with green peas in a flavorful sauce. At a supermarket I picked
up a chunk of papaya as restaurants here rarely serve fruit.
10 January
Chennai
Although the Dance Festival at the Music Academy ended yesterday, the
dancing continued this evening with a Bharatanatyam recital. The male dancer Yogesh
Kumar offered an energetic performance, then a pretty young woman Shreema Upadhyaya
gave a very graceful series of dances. No ticket needed for these, and I could choose
a good seat close to the front. Afterward I enjoyed a late dinner of a South Indian
thali at Amaravathi Restaurant followed by a tea and brownie at the adjacent cake
shop.
11 January Chennai
On weekends the Thaligai Restaurant offers
‘unlimited’ meals served on a banana leaf in the upstairs fine-dining room. Like
the other patrons, I went native and used my right hand instead of utensils to eat.
The South Indian meal had more items than usual and servers kept plopping down the
food items until I protested that I could eat no more.
Performances
at Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium began with two solo Bharatanatyam programs,
first with Shreya Sriram followed by Aparajitha Sriram. The third performance by
the Kalaimamani Dr. Radhika Shurajit Troupe honored three legendary female singers
and used recorded songs, some vintage. The short numbers gave opportunities for
the more than 20 dancers to offer a very charming duet with a mischievous Krishna
and adoring Radha, two solo dances, and performances by three different groups.
12 January Chennai
I worked on various computer projects, then in late afternoon
walked over to Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium to experience the three solo Bharatanatyam
dances by Riha Giri, Radica Giri, and Kavitha Ramu.
13 January Chennai
Three young women—Rajalakshmi Bhaskaran, Reshma, and Kalluri Srilekha—danced in
the first Bharatanatyam program at Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium. Next Maya
Shyamsunder and her four young disciples offered dances about and in honor of Krishna.
I’m amazed that dancers can remember the complex series of moves and positions of
an hour-plus performance, and even more so when a group does so in sync with each
other! The final performance, by Nirthiya Pillai, was unusual in that she sang short
verses before beginning several of her dances. At the conclusion, she read the preamble
to the Indian Constitution in English with the audience recited after her. I don’t
know why she did this, but the gulf between the current leadership of India and
the aspirations of the Constitution are stark.
14 January Chennai
In the afternoon I walked to Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium for the day’s three
performances, and brought along my camera to try to catch some of the drama. (The
camera has a handy silent mode that makes no sound at all.) Elakiya Shanmugam and
Madhumitha Sridharan offered solo Bharatanatyam dances followed by a group show
entitled “Sri Vishnu Margam” led by Sri Lasya Priya.
Shiva as the Cosmic
Dancer presides at the corner of the stage of Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium.
All the venues for the Dance Festival had this image, some much larger.
Elakiya Shanmugam offers
her Bharatanatyam .
Madhumitha Sridharan strikes a pose.
Madhumitha Sridharan evoked many emotions.
Dancer of the group show “Sri Vishnu Margam”
I think this dancer of the group show “Sri Vishnu Margam” depicts Narasimha,
a half-human, half-lion
incarnation of Vishnu, ripping apart a troublesome man
who could be killed neither by man nor beast.
One of many dramatic poses by a dancer of the group show “Sri Vishnu Margam”
Matching poses in “Sri Vishnu Margam”
Dancers of “Sri Vishnu Margam”
Dancers of “Sri Vishnu Margam”
The grand finale of “Sri Vishnu Margam”
15 January Chennai
Pongal Festival, a harvest celebration of South India,
began today with women boiling freshly harvested rice in milk and jaggery (raw
cane sugar) in clay pots. Rangoli
(drawings
on the ground) mark the entrances to many residences and businesses. Quite a few
shops and restaurants, including the Thaligai, closed today.
Rangoli is an art form, originating in the Indian subcontinent, in which
patterns are created on the floor or the ground using materials such as colored
rice, dry flour, colored sand, or flower petals. Designs are passed from one
generation to the next. (Wikipedia)
I returned one last time to Smt. Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium for the day’s three programs, and again I brought my camera along. Chandana gave the first solo Bharatanatyam, followed with one by Subhashree Sashidharan. Unusually here, the announcer for the second program asked that no photos be taken. Lastly Sridevi Nrithyalaya and her large group offered “Vande Mataram, An Ode to Mother India” that encouraged both patriotism and good moral conduct.
Orchestra for
the Bharatanatyam dance by Chandana
Chandana
Chandana
Chandana
“Vande Mataram, An Ode to Mother India”
“Vande
Mataram, An Ode to Mother India”
“Vande Mataram, An
Ode to Mother India”
The final chorus of
“Vande Mataram, An Ode to Mother India”
Posing at the end
of “Vande Mataram, An Ode to Mother India”
On to Mysuru (Mysore) in Karnataka State—Part 1
Back to beginning of “Backpacking 2020: India, Singapore, and Philippines”