Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Thyagaraja Aaradhana - The Chennai Chapter


"Let's meet one last time......only until the next time"

I never really was serious about the 'next' time - I have begun to believe that these are fancy things one talks about during their last times.
But someone actually turned that fancy thing around.

Casual threads on Google Groups - I can't even remember who ignited the idea (pardon me for that!) I have to go back a hundred mails to know that.
But Sankar has managed to give shape to that idea - amply supported by Srikanth!

"So lets have TAP in Chennai!"
"Sure! Why not!?!?"
“yeah! Let us! Its been so long since we all met…”

Bam!!
I thought mails would stop there ...until Sankar come up with

"So guys - I have spoken to the authorities in the temple near my place - they are okay with the idea!"

Ok so we are serious here or what!!

And to just bang that nail hard on my head, Sankar comes up with more stuff

1. Head count of people who are willing
2. Arrangements for the temple premises - include Shamiana , flowers,chairs, prasadam , a huge poster of thyagaraja, a flautist for the show
3. Srikanth pitches in with a huge part - Smt Padmavathy Anantagopalan ( a BIG veena artiste!) and her disciples land up for theshow
Our very own former Diro - Sri Venkateswaran and his wife kick us with their presence!
4. VSP promptly prepares invites - and there is a good chunk of alumni who warm us with their presence
(while we still were contemplating relaying the whole video live for apu nimmy and loki! - we just didn't have the logistics!)
5. Srividya makes copies of the songs and they are ready for distribution to the audience

On the day of the event ......
The place is beautifully decorated. Was like a mini marriage - all of us waving enthusiastically to the known ones whom we havent met for long!

The rendition starts with vibrancy as we speed our way through the Pancha ratna krithis.Audience is pouring in every moment.
There is so much energy that fills in the entire street.We glide through the songs with brigas (practised and spontaneous!) Krithis are followed with renditions by Orginal thadar to the Junior Thadar! It was a wonderful moment of pride.Those 2 hours were bliss - all of us were transported back to Pilani and the beautiful memories associated with it.

As the concert drew to an end, we were privileged to hear a few words from Smt Padmavathy who was highly appreciative of our efforts , who edso genuine with it , that’s probably when the
sense of success touched us gentle.

Thus ended Thyagarajan Aaradhana in Mambalam - high in energy and vibrance.
We missed all of you who weren't there. We spoke about you. We laughed about you. We wished we could see you. We missed you. And we only hope you are there the next time around.


"So...Let's meet one last time......only until the next time"



12 comments:

N said...

No live relay for me?

"while we still were contemplating relaying the whole video live for apu nimmy and loki! - we just didn't have the logistics!)"

am upset! x(

Manojh said...

crisp narration! :)

AJB said...

hey, how come you left nivy out? x( am upset too! x(
:)
congrats to all you guys... soumi, thanks for the post!i just relived all the TAPs in pilani...
am gonna try and make it to the next TAP in mambalam...! :)

i envy viswa, thadari and juggu! :|

Karthik Rangarajan said...

Great job guys! Was proud being associated with it. Good job - Sankar and team. It was wonderful meeting everyone from Viswa, Jaggu and Arvind as well.

To provide the missing link, the thread was initiated by Ramya and Nandy, 2004 batch. So kudos to them for their enthusiasm and ideation prowess. Sankar just took it onto another level with his impeccable organization.

All of us were immensely touched by the respect and affection showered on us by his entire family. We owe them a lot.

I would like to take this opportunity to also thank Shri Shrikanth, without whom a lot of the festival would just not have retained the same air and pomp.

To all the people who weren't there, we'll have a next time.

Lets meet one last time....only until the next time :-)

Kari - 02 batch.

N said...

I Agree! Ramya Nandy - total the enthu! Thadar - kalakita po! Viswa, Juggu, Aala & everyone else - so nice to see all of you!!!

awesome stuff.
missed it! :(

ramya037 said...

The idea was originally Rajiv's he wanted to be a part of it as much as any of us. But brilliant it was meeting people and singing together. Hope the off campus Sangamam plan kicks of well as well. :-)

Soumithra said...

yaaaaay nivys and the appus - saaary i say! oldage - so memory low!

Paviths said...

lovely ! :)
Hoping to be there for the forthcoming ones atleast ! :(

Paviths said...

and btw, arvind and soumithra ? nee naan sivam?whose posts are those ? happened to stumble into it today - just curious ! :D

Anonymous said...

dai that is some nonsense post of me and arvind da! oh this arvind is office chap

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