ONE-DAY-SUMMER-TREAT

It is all over. About three months of preparation,bit by bit, little by little, advancing to the final day – all just for one day, or maybe two, of glorious celebration.

I call it the one-day-kalyanam (wedding) tree. Its real name is unknown to me. If any of you can identify it, do please enlighten me. When it is in bloom, it looks like a pale golden haze from afar – the effect of leafless branches bearing the blossoms.



I noticed it first in 2006. A few years ago in one of its environment conscious moods, the city corporation had planted a seedling on the pavement outside our compound wall, (as well as other places on the street) which grew little by little, and became large enough to block the view from our first floor balcony, with its green leaves.

I was happy to see it grow, but was amazed one March to find that I could see right across the street. Where had the leaves gone? I worried that the tree might have started dying. But no, there appeared little dangling vines, bearing tight yellow buds, and waving in the breeze like streamers. I waited and watched, and watched, till one fine day in May it burst out in all its golden glory. I had almost missed the great blossoming. For about a couple of days the blossoms hung on the delicate vines, before falling on the ground and covering it with a fine gold dust. And then back to square one. The new leaves grew in a week, and I had to wait another year to see this glorious tree flowering.

This year I decided to record its blossoming, but I found that other trees inside our compound had decided to grow higher – the coconut palm had after 10 years suddenly decided to grow (that is another story), and so had the Asoka trees. Still I looked for the suitable gap between these and managed a few pictures.

March 12

April 1

April 17

May 5

May 13

May 16

May 25

After 5 years, I managed to catch the tree in full bloom today, (April 24, 2014).

Do click on the other pictures for an enlarged view.

VOTED

One of the hottest days of summer today. I am glad we opted to go early to cast our votes for the Lok Sabha (General Parliamentary) election - before the sun got too strong, and the booths too crowded. My husband and I along with Maiji went to the Corporation School, our designated booth.

The whole procedure, smooth and quick, took less than twenty minutes, out of which it took me ten minutes just to look at all the candidates’ names to find my chosen one from the three Electronic Voting Machines - we had 44 candidates to choose from.

But the way the campaigns reached us, we did not know of any of the less prominent or independent candidates. Such parties which have their own TV channels could use their air time to telecast the road and public campaigns of their candidates. But others who used their own money, and did not have their own TV channels, had to perforce maintain a less aggressive profile comparatively.

It is a given that it will be one of the Dravida parties that will win in Tamilnadu, along with their ‘allies’, a kind of cooperative which lasts only as long as the elections last. We will know in a few days if the candidate we voted for (all three of us voted for different people) wins.

It was a good time to remember the late writer Sujatha, who was instrumental in the design and Development of the Electronic Voting Machine(EVM) during his days in BHEL.*

*That should be BEL for BHARAT ELECTRONICS LTD, as pointed out by Swarna. Thanks, Swarna.

A DATE WITH DEVAN

Charukesi, Gopulu, Mathi and Keshav

Every year on May 5, without fail the Devan Endowments celebrates Devan’s anniversary, with Charukesi the Managing Trustee at the helm. More about this here.

Devan was a leading humorist of the 1940s and 50s, and is still warmly remembered by readers and writers of Thamizh. His homespun humour and ready wit endeared him to generations of readers.

In the cool ambience of the air-conditioned Smt. Sivagami Pethachi auditorium, once again Charukesi honoured two members in the world of humour – cartoonists Keshav of The Hindu and Mathi of Dinamani. Legend Gopulu, illustrator and cartoonist par excellence, presented the awards.

Charukesi, told the audience after his welcome speech that the programme was to be a short one, to be followed by a short half hour play ‘Thozha’ by Eknath, presented by Kala Nilayam, and that everyone could go home in time for the current favourite serial on TV – Cho's 'Engey Brahamanan!'

That ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ was proved that evening in the speeches that Gopulu, Keshav and Mathi made. It made me think that they are artists not only of the brush, but of the word, too.

Mathi spoke about the timelessness of Gopulu’s cartoons, which his nine year old son could enjoy even today.

Gopulu complimented Charukesi on his ability to don several avatars – writing humorous short stories, music reviews, and organising occasions like this. “He is a ‘theneey’”, said Gopulu. A most suitable epithet, for Charukesi is indeed as busy as a bee with his various activities.

Though we had to leave before the end of the play, I am sure those who did also got home before their favourite serial started.

Photograph: Courtesy R. Saravanan

A SUMMER PLAY

Two plays in a week! That was a real treat. When Augusto, friend, playwright and oculist, invited us to his latest, it was within a week of our seeing KB’s ‘Pournami’.

You would think that the enervating heat would bring to a halt all non-essential activites especially on the entertainment front. But, happily, it is not so. Chennai residents know what is in store for them weather-wise, and take it in their stride. For a few years now, Karthik Fine Arts has been doing a great service to theatre by promoting the staging of new plays and holding a contest for them, calling it the Summer Play Festival. Dramatists find it a good launching pad to present their latest, and also win a few prizes in the bargain.

Augusto is a regular here, and has almost always won prizes. And so we went to see ‘Mukham, Mukavarigal’, written and directed by him, on the last day of the festival. It had an unusual storyline (the opening scene immediately caught the interest of the audience) about a rich misogynist who grew up in a ‘home’ (euphemism for orphanage). His philanthropic nature does not extend to women, and the denouement tells us the reason for this. The suspense is well-maintained, and the viewer’s attitude to the misogynist turns from aversion to sympathy – good work by the director. The acting was uniformly good – all Augusto’s regular cast, except the sole female actor, Sujatha. The dialogue was crisp, and happily, there were no enforced humorous interpolations. The ten minute soliloquy by K. Raja, (the protagonist) was well presented and acted. I did not hold with the ending of letting the rich man be killed, and later told the playwright my view, who explained just why it had to end so. Could the last scene have been trimmed a bit? The negative side of reality television shows caused by comments from harsh and insensitive judges has been woven neatly into the main story.

I was impressed with the music by Guha Prasad also. Unobtrusive and melodious, it added greatly to the play’s charms. It is Augusto’s 29th play. “I used to write more in my early days,” he said. “But nowadays I write only one a year, having to attend to my other work as well.” Augusto’s Opticals is well-known in Mylapore.

All told it was a good play. The only glitch was the air-conditioning in the hall of Narada Gana Sabha. Either it was not set to the right temperature, or it was malfunctioning.
By the time we got up we felt acutely the lack of fresh air, and were drenched. ‘Summer festival living up to its name, I suppose.

BLOGGER FRIENDS

What do bloggers talk about when they meet?
Well, this and that, and the old pussy cat…

When Maiji (my mother) first started blogging, one of the persons who appreciated her writing was fellow blogger Abraham Tharakan.



Maiji continued blogging, and it seemed serendipitous that Abraham also lived in Chennai. Emails went to and fro and it was decided that we should meet one another at some point. And the fact that all our blogs were featured in the group blog Mysore Park Blog, only made the prospect more appealing.

On Easter Sunday, Abraham visited us and we spent a nice one hour talking to one another. The surprising thing was, none of us felt we were talking to strangers whom we were meeting for the first time. Over some coffee (which Abraham remembered from a previous blog!) news and views were exchanged.

When Maiji turned 80 in 2007, I had posted an article mentioning it as the day of one thousand moons. Abraham had pointed out that by one’s 80th birthday one could not have seen a thousand moons – and he is right, of course. I found this a good opportunity to tell him so, belatedly.

In older days, there used to be pen friends – people who lived in different places and had never met, yet because of correspondence through regular letters, came to know one another very well. And sometimes they would meet too. Today the internet has taken over that job. We email and ‘chat’ with people we have never seen, (but will only be too happy to!)

Blogs are a great point of communication, and obviously they tell the reader a lot about the writer. And the comments section helps us to interact. Blogging is a great way to make friends, as we have found out. A close circle that is ever widening.

KB AFTER 40 YEARS

It was the talk of the town – a new play by K. Balachandar, after a gap of more than 40 years. And I was quite excited at the prospect of attending it. After all, I have been a faithful follower of his movies from the late 1960s.

In the intervening gap of those 40 years, Balachandar had given up his job in the Accountant General’s office and graduated from being a part time dramatist, penning his delightful plays, to cinema direction, and later when television appeared to making serials. Balachandar’s earliest pictures were productions of his plays like ‘Server Sundaram’ (though this was directed by Krishnan Panju), ‘Navagraham’ and ‘Major Chandrakant’.

In the 60s and 70s, we used to look forward to every K. Balachandar (KB) movie – and were never let down. All that we expected from him would be there - a good story, excellent characterisation, suspense and liberal doses of humour. With Nagesh in the cast, there was no dearth of that.

They made a sound team, Nagesh and Balachandar.

And so at the first show of the play ‘Pournami’, (a first for us, too!) which KB had penned and directed after 40 years, it was most touching to see, after the lights dimmed, a picture of Nagesh highlighted before the curtain went up, and the signature dialogue “Maadhu Vandhirukken” from ‘Edhirneechal’. It was followed by KB’s voice in the background chiding Nagesh for going away, leaving him behind. A poignant moment, and it seemed fitting when KB dedicated the play to him.

KB also mentioned the partners of Kalakendra, who had produced all his earlier pictures.
It was good to hear him talk about his early days, and his decision to come back to his first love the stage. “I am reborn again.”, he said.

‘Pournami’ is a topical story. It narrates the upheaval created in a family when a member is arrested by Pakistan authorities as a spy, when he goes there on work, and is held in exchange for the release of a terrorist. Naturally, there is a lot of scope for political pontifications – which I found boring - and some punch lines which raised some laughs. Pournami is the wife of the abducted Navneet, (who a la the Irumal thatha of ‘Ethirneechal’, never appears on stage). How, with the help of a relative who is a retired major in the army and is called - guess what? Major Chandrakant - she works to bring about his release forms the story. Shades of the movie 'Roja' here.

The performances were good - they would be, with KB at the helm. When his old production office had borrowed our ground floor premises for the shooting of one of his movies in the early 70s, we were able to see how he extracted perfect performances from his actors (including Rajnikant, then a newcomer).

Renuka as Pournami was good and looked pretty, but somehow she was not able to cast off the mantle of Renuka totally. Fathima Babu of news reading fame, on the other hand, gave a terrific laughter-generating performance as the ‘almost got Padmasri’ lady, who is a bit of a nosy parker too. As her to-be-daughter-in-law, Kavya sends her parents (and some of us, too) up the wall with her ear constantly glued to the cell phone, when her fingers are not texting/smsing. This is a nice dig at today’s youngsters and their dependence on the mobile phone for survival. Kavya’s constant prostrating in front of Fathima to get into her good books also raised a few laughs.

The characters and situations create the humour, and the strong story keeps the play from being a mere hook on which to suspend jokes.

The actor playing Navneet’s brother*, and Poovilangu Mohan as Chandrakant also impressed, though the latter’s ‘Maon hoon na’ got on my nerves after a while.

The story moved on a single set, very pleasing to the eye, and the lighting effects were well handled, especially in the scene where Navneet is allowed to speak to his wife from jail. I wondered why Renuka did not change her costume more often, while the others did, to show the movement of time.

The play was staged under the aegis of Kartik Fine Arts, one of the leading Sabhas in Chennai, at Narada Gana Sabha Hall. And the 1500 capacity hall was full. I looked around and found no one under 30! The sabha regulars were the usual middle-aged and retired group, and ticket holders seemed to belong to that group, too. Not surprising, since KB is himself over 70, and his fans, would be in the same age group.

I was not in Chennai when his earlier plays were staged under the banner of Ragini Recreations, but seen the movies that developed from them like ‘Major Chandrakant’ and ‘Edirneechal’ - so it was good to see KB ‘live’

I went with a lot of expectations, and enjoyed myself.

But I learnt something too - you can never turn the clock back.

*I have since learnt that the actor Karthik is part of Evam, a group that has made a name for itself in producing and staging plays in English in the city.

P. S. The photos did not turn out very well, and I am disappointed a bit.

SUMMER BEAUTY

Can you guess what flower this is?
I used to call it the powder puff flower, for that is what it looks like, soft and pink, and spreading out its fine filament like petals.

This is the flower of the rain tree. Millions of these small pink and white flowers lighten up the sprawling branches of the tree.


This large tree (large enough to accommodate a tree house! See picture below) is right across the road from our home, and no sooner does summer set in, than it begins to throw forward these little beauties. Soon the road is covered with fine petal dust from the fallen blossoms of the previous day.




This is a view of the tree from our terrace - sadly, the tree is blocked by trees in our garden, and a better view is not possible.

I always imagined it to be a tropical tree, and I was pleasantly surprised to see one in Seattle, flowering in June!

Do click on the pictures for an enlarged view.