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| Sivarathri in Mylapore By Aruna. S / Chennai |   | |||
| If you're in Chennai, Mylapore is the place to be on Mahasivarathri. And if you decided to stay awake all night, there can be no better place to check out than our good ol' Kapaleeswarar temple. Of course, there are the all night poojas, but what you're treated to, at this super neighbourhood in Chennai, is the never ending dosage of music and dance.
The buzzing Mada Streets around the temple, come alive and welcome you to Chennai's 'artsy' neighbourhood. While, devotees que up inside the temple for a special darshan of lord Kapaleeswarar and his consort Karpagambal, it is the sounds of mridangam, salangai and the reverbrating 'Om nama Shivaya...' that is holding hundreds seated at the mandapam on one side. A specially erected stage with an aesthetic decor and lighting, is where a dance fest is showcased. For dancers, it is a time to dedicate their art, make an offering to lord Shiva-Nataraja.
On Shivarathri, Lakshmi Viswanathan presents 'Nandanar Charithram', followed by the sishyas of Ambika Kameshwar. Ambika herself sings, as her well trained students soak in compositions on Shiva. Performances continue all night and feature students of Ranganayaki Jayaraman, duo Lavanya and Mrinalini and students of Padmasree Nrithyalaya. The Natyanjali at Kapaleeswarar temple also featured group performances by students of Revathi Ramachandran, Suryanarayana Murthy, Sudha Vijayakumar, Lakshmi Kannan, Jayanthi Subramaniam, Nandini Ramani and Hemalatha Ganesan. Meanwhile Apparswamy Koil, another temple on South Mada Street, also hosts a dance fest, and performing here among others is Ganga Grace, a dancer from Croatia. And if you took a walk to East Mada Street, you can't miss the ragas on Nadaswaram by Seshampatti Sivalingam and Ramesh, that lure you to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. An all night music fest, hosted by music journal Naadhabrahmam, commences at 9 pm, at an open-air mini venue, adjacent to Bhavan's main hall. And Aruna Sairam rocks rasikas at midnight here.
Meanwhile, Layapriyan Papanasam R. Kumar holds a 'Maha Shivarathri Musical Night' to a packed audience at the mini hall, upstairs. Singing here are Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Gayathri Venkataraghavan, T.V. Ramaprasad and Raji Gopalakrishnan among others. A music quiz at the end of each concert, seems like a dessert for rasikas here. And at Bhavan's main hall, two senior gurus come together on stage. C.V. Chandrashekar dances to the vocal and nattuvangam of Adyar Lakshmanan. (Click here to read more about this performance). At the foyer is a webcast of the Natyanjali festival from the saivite temples in south India - Chidambaram, Kumbakonam and Thiruvarur. The webcast is by the website KutcheriBuzz.com Yes, celebrating Shivarathri in Mylapore can be an experience to cherish, if you love to soak in music and dance... If you have experiences to share, mail us at editor@kutcheribuzz.com | ||||
