Narayana Tirtha Aradhana at Tirupoonthuruthi

Poonthuruthi - the place where Lord Siva is worshiped as Pushpavaneswarar, has been on the cultural map of Tamil Nadu since the time of nayanmaars. Tirugnanasambandar, one of the Saiva Naalvar, had visited the temple and written verses on the Lord here.
A little bit about the place - 'thuruthi' in Tamil is referred to a place situated between two rivers. Legend goes like Indra created a garden between the river Cauvery and its tributory Kudamurutti and worshipped Siva at this place.
Apart from the God, a sage who attained 'jeeva samadhi' at this place is also being worshiped by the locals. The Carnatic music fretenity pays homage to this saint Narayana Tirtha, who composed the beatiful verses of Sri Krishna Leela Tarangini. The saint's aradhana and a full day homageon Sri Krishna Janmashtami is held at the brindavanam.

Read my report on this year's aradhana for Kutcheribuzz.

This year the aradhana was celebrated from March 2 to 4. On the last day, my son Prasanna played a few tarangams on chitravina accompanied by Manikudi Chandrasekahar on the mridangam and Hidenori (Japan) on the kanjira. Prasanna is the disciple of 'Chitravina' Narasimhan and 'Chitravina' Ganesh.
Here is a video clip of one song from Prasanna's concert.

Remains of a bus shelter in Besant Nagar

The bus shelter close to the Varasiddhi Vinayakar temple and the Canara Bank, Besant Nagar branch does not exist anymore.

Of course, the Besant Nagar bus terminus is just 50 metres away. The buses need not stop here.

But while removing the shelter, the MTC or Corporation left the remains of iron rods, abruptly cut, at leasr 5 inches above the ground.

The remains three pillars of the bus shelter pose danger to the pedestrians, espcially during night. This particular stretch is not well lit too.

There is a bank branch and a ATM outlet closeby. People walk to the temple in the evenings.

I told a traffic police personnel who passed by and showed this to him.
And posting on this blog. Hope these are removed soon.

Post Office at Rasipuram

When most of the city post offices wear a dull look, it was a pleasant surprise to see a beautifully painted and well maintained post office at Rasipuram, a semi urban place near Salem!

Numerology!

The proprietor of this fruit shop R. R. Kesavan should be a strong believer of Numerology!
But I liked his innovative name for his fruit shop inRasipuram!

Chennai's oldest neighbourhood's own festival

It was in Oct 2004, just back from Mumbai, I went on to be a part of the festival of a neighbourhood in Chennai.
Mumbai's 'local' spirit was still high on my mind. Not just the trains, but the local and neighbourhood sentiments each area in Mumbai has for the people who live there.
Though we were in and out of Chennai due to official postings, we lived in Mylapore whenever we were posted in Chennai.
My family has a close connection with Arisikara Street in Mylapore, Raja Muthiah School in R.A. Puram, Venkatesa Perumal - Vedantha Desikar temple alongside Chitrakulam and the 'Andhra hospital' (Now Durgabai Deshmush Medical centre) too!
But I distinctly remember the Luz Church Road and Norton Road where I spent most of my memorable days.
After living in Mumbai for 6 years we were back to live in Abhiramapuram and that took me to the Mylapore Festival that the meighbourhood newspaper, Mylapore Times has been hosting.
Frankly, I had never done so much of talking in my life and career till then.
I had taken part in conferences, presented papers and spoke banking business at business meetings. My exposure to clients across the counters in the bank was very limited as I had spent most of my career in administrative offices. That too in large credit appraisal departments where speaking more was a bit dangerous and not warranted!
The experience of putting people and things together (the director of the festival calls it 'marrying the two'!) was new and challenging to me. But the end product was nice.

And all that started in 2004 continues for me and I am into co-ordinating the Mylapore Festival for the fifth year.
Every year the experience is different.
The entry of younger Orkut group two years ago, as volunteers added colours to the preparations and hosting.
The young keep up the spirits and I live in my 20s and 30s all over again!
A new set of 25 youngsters volunteer this year too.
The oldest neighbourhood of Chennai is getting younger day by day with the participation of young people in the festival!
Welcome to the 2009 edition on Sundaram Finance Mylapore Festival!