The art of silence!

Have you come across silence for a whole day in your life?
But, if you feel the 'deafening silence' throughout your life, how would you feel? I mean, if you can't speak or hear anything...
May be we will be fortunate enough to follow Mahatma Gandhi's rules - Hear no evil and speak no evil. But the basic communication we need to do with others will definitely be a little difficult.
Not for Suvedha Ganesh. A class 10 student, Suvedha has turned the time of gossips to productive one.Here is a sample painting she has done.
The colony where she lives (in Perungudi, Chennai), helped her put up a small exhibition of her paintings recently. It's no aristocratic colony, but a lower middle class residential colony. The community hall of the colony was the venue.
A few students caught up with Suvedha after the exhibition and have made a presentation here.

Double bill at the temple!

Following Shivaratri, I happened to visit a dance programme at the Kapaleeswarar temple, Mylapore.
Actually it is not just one dance programme, but a series of dances on the day (night) of Shivaratri and the following two days.
Dancers from many places participated in the homage at this temple, on their way to Chidambaram and Thanjavur or on the way back. Dance festivals are held in many Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu during Shivaratri. A day to celebrate the Cosmic Dancer!
When the dance programme was going on at the Navaratri Mandapam, the Goddess also set out for a procession in the Gold 'ther' (Ratham - chariot). As I was watching the dance, I turned to my right and just captured this wonderful sight. My photography skills are just enough to use a camera in its auto mode. Here is the picture!

Inspired by another photographer, I was aiming to capture a very good view of the dance programme too.
The Madapam has a nice front yard with glacier tiles. The dancers enjoy performing at this floor. The reflection of the dancers on the floor creates a wonderful sight.
In all the evening was a beautiful one. What I am giving you here is just a sample.

Dream drive, cool sight!

Can you believe that the photo on your right is taken in Chennai city? Not at the outskirt, but at the heart of the city.
I had to reach the Taramani Gate of IIT-Madras from Adyar.
Usually I take the route through L. B Road and at Tiruvanmiyur signal, turn to the right and travel straight and take a left turn and then right. I always felt sad about the condition of the road, where the prestigious Ascendas - the new IT park stands tall. But that is the only route you can reach the other gate of IIT Madras.
This time, my son said he would show me a better road. We set off on the bike.
At the Madhya Kailash signal, my son signalled me to turn to the left and lo! what a beautiful ride it was. The lights on the median were artistic. Some arts on the walls of big compounds. Some green patches and a few small installations!
I decided to stop by on the way back as we were to reach IIT early. And I did. In fact I stopped at three places and started clicking my camera. This is one picture of the few I took.
If you travel through this road look out of the window of your car to your left near Indira Nagar station. You will find this beautiful sight!

Veena concert in Pondy Jam

Jamming up in music need not necessarily mean fusion music.
It can be any form of music And still can be jammed up with the moods of the audience!
Freedom Jam is one such concept of taking music to the audience by the artistes - for free. It is the voluntary act of musicians to come together to perform one after the other on the same stage. Thats is, the audience get to listen to different types of music on the same platform, same day.
Born in Bangalore, Freedom Jam has a monthly 'avtar' by name Sec-sat Pondy at the erstwhile French colony Pondicherry, now Puducherry.
For the Pondy music festival, which took place during late January this year, the steps to Gandhi statue on the beach was a venue! Musicians sat on the steps and performed to the 'sruti' set by the waves in the sea!
Another venue was the park!
But my post is about the veena concert held at the Alliance Francaise auditorium. Following a vocal music concert, which set the mood for a lighter concert - the vocalist sang Sri Satyanayaranam, in the raga Shubha pantuvarali - the three young artistes from Chennai took their traditional instrument to the stage.
Unusual accompaniment of Tabla for the veena concert. That's a kind of jamming up!
Some brisk, some slow, one popular song, one not-so, though short, the concert was complete. Nithyashree, Ajitha, Lakshmi played the veena and Vageasan played the Tabla.
All the college kids thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Pondy, the concert, the eating out and the night travel on the East Coast Road, back to Chennai.
And I accompanied the kids, as they are all students of my Guru - Kalyani Ganesan!