Natesan park, Carnatic music, food on plastic plates

There were all the signs - gensets, lighting, traffic, excitement and din - i suspected a rally or another bridge opening in the neighborhood - i took a stroll to investigate - Turns out to be this:

At Natesan park (Right behind where i stay) theres part of this Chennai Sangamam - going on - starting today, running until pongal is over - like 15th or something.

surprise surprise! near zero political presence -

I spent a nice 45 mins standing amongst nodding maama/maamis, mosquitoes, boys distributing Jowli kadai gift discount coupons, GRT chefs whipping out plastic trayfuls of Tamil food enmasse for patient maama/maamis waiting in queues ( i guess it was free or something)

The violin recital that ran was pretty good to stand and listen to (- the lead violin played, quite skilfully, by a middle aged lady, a couple of guys on mridhangams, another guy with a backup violin and another lady, who was like chumma sitting on stage, nodding and keeping 'aadhi' thaalam count - )

I see that theres all kinds of carnatic vocals, mayilattam, oyilattam etc tomorrow - might go down and have a look.

But seriously, i like the concept a lot - like 5 or 6 places where all kinds of shows run simultaneously - free of charge, not too crowdy and fairly professional performers - i guess keep doing it year on year and upgrade the venues a bit and all - we can have a nice franchise going - like the Rio Carnival or the Spanish (!?) tomato thing - and yes, holidays ;-

Maybe il take pictures tomorrow...