BACK IN CHENNAI

We are home after six months.
Madras is hot, humid, noisy, crowded – and I love it!

We landed last week on a warm morning, though the pilot of the British Airways aircraft we flew by – had said ‘it was a not unpleasant morning’.

Yesterday we went courtesy our dear friends Doctor JB and Bhama, to a dance concert at the Music Academy. It was a rare programme, because it was a tribute to a living person, Lalgudi G. Jayaraman. Thamizh Maiyam had organized it and chosen a novel way to do it.
Leading and illustrious Bharatanatyam gurus and their disciples performed to the compositions of this great musician.

Chitra Viswesvaran, Sudharani Raghupathy, the Dhananjayans, Narasimhacharis, Radha and Leela Samson presented glitteringly choreographed events – following the traditional margam from Pushpanjali to the final thillana. Golden voiced S. P. Rahm, and Lalgudi’s daughter Viji led the vocals, and Aniruddha, Sudharani’s son, shone on the mridangam.
I was happy to see Aruna, my young friend from my newspaper days, on stage.
The cream of cultural Chennai was in the audience – there were as many artistes in the audience as on the stage.

It felt good to be back in the swing of cultural Chennai – the music season is only a few weeks away.