If its December in Chennai, its April in Cleveland - the kutcheri-season, that is. The famous Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana is now on. From 9 to 18 April. The fest got off to a bright start with various music competitions - both vocal and instrumental. Believe me, this is a service done by the aradhana committee - to hold the competitions and thus create awareness among the younger generation as well as to raise a young band of talented carnatic musicians for the future.

I was one of the judges for the alapana, neraval and kalpana swaras category among juniors. I was very happy to notice the high standards the youngsters displayed and their highly competitive spirit, painstakingly nurtured by their parents and music teachers in an alien cultural climate. A ten-year old boy - Madhav - son of Lakshmi and Purushotham of Pittsburgh took me by surprise by his beautiful rendering of 'Anupama gunambudhi (Atana). The gamakas were right - so was the pronounciation - without the drawl - a very pleasant experience indeed. His teacher is Seethalakshmi Madhav of Pittsburgh.

There were many talented kids like Mathura, Anirudh and others who also did very well. Kudos to the aradhana team of Toronto Venkatraman, V.V. Sundaram and Balu - the triumvirate of the Cleveland odyssey which started 27 years ago.

Actually, I was told that it was Ramnad Raghavan (brother of Ramnad Krishnan) who started the aradhana. I must say he has a lot of 'kairaasi'!

After the pancharatnam rendering by local groups and the visiting artistes, there was a grand breakfast of idlis, pongal and chutney (distributed free).

Next was the individual singing by young artistes from across the country. Following this was the aradhana lunch - served by numerous young volunteers (gloved and capped) from Cleveland and across the country. Roger Natarajan and Jaya and their son Vikram flew in from Minneapolis to participate and serve in the aradhana. They have done this for many years now. And the couple does does not hesitate when artistes request car-rides, food or other exigencies. Venkatadri of Buffalo is a regular volunteer - with his ready smile and dedicated service.

There was Dayton Rangarajan - who holds the 'kutcheri-fort' in Dayton, Mahadevan and Vijaya from San Jose, Sriram from Atlanta, Bargavi Sundararajan from New Jersey and many other organisers, thronging the colourful festival.

I saw a number of older people, even with walking-sticks, eagerly listening to the non-stop concerts, and reminiscing about Madras, Palghat and other places back home where they had grown up listening to stalwarts of old. Ariyakudi, Semmangudi, GNB, MLV - these were some of the names I heard in passing conversations.

In the foyer there were tables laid out with the latest CDs, which people were examining and buying. Charsur Charubala and Suresh, Dr. Satish of Rajalakshmi Fine Arts and Radhakrishnan of Toronto (he has sold music there for 8 years) were all there.

Saralaya Sisters, Shubasree Ramachandran and Mala Chandrasekar had also displayed their CDs. Parthasarathi of Oriental Records was there. He contributed generously to the festival fund and was wishing the new players in the cassette market good luck.

Chandrasekar, CEO of Exodus inaugurated the festival and gave a generous donation as well. However, there were signs placed in strategic places which said 'donate generously'.,Obviously the festival has become very big and needs a lot of support. The Cleveland state university does its bit by giving the auditoria for the aradhana.

The band of youngsters led by Karthik and Lavanya Venkatraman, Gopi Sundaram and Radhika Balu were enthusiastically serving food, manning the sound system, picking up artistes from the airport and streamlining events very efficiently. Gomathi Balu oversaw the catering arrangements and other details for the event with great commitment.

The concerts were all well recieved and everyone sang and played with enthusiasm and there was an air of excitement, as the crowds were swelling and rasikas were very keen to get the best from the artistes. The women wore exquisite kanjivarams and the men were mostly sporting dhotis and colourful kurtas. Digital cameras and video cameras worked over-time to capture the mood of music and dance and the good food too. The only missing links were Arusuvai and Mountbatten canteens, traffic snarls and real 'mallipoo' and 'kadambam' for the ladies' hairdos!

Charumathi Ramachandran is now in the U.S and you can write to her at e-mail: shubashree@vsnl.com