Deepavali - The festival of masses

There are many stories attached to Deepavali. But here in India, why Indians all over the globe, whatever be the significance, celebrate Deepavali joyously. People in all walks of life eagerly await Deepavali every year. This year the festival was on 26.10.2011.

Here I am presenting Deepavali in 3 parts. First one is the crazy shopping which people start well before a month. Second, the Deepavali eve which will be all the more colourful and finally the Deepavali day when people visit temples, friends and relatives.

If Deepavali and the new moon day fall on the same day certain communities perform Kedara Gowri vratha at home and offer their special preparations along with haldi & kumkum to the Goddess.
Nowadays, many apart from business people perform Lakshmi Puja in the evening and light diyas and decorate their parapet walls.
These are some pictures of Deepavali sales.





































Deepavali eve pictures.


































Deepavali day round up.

































It invariably rains on Deepavali day. In the picture above(left) you can see the cloudy sky.

Video clipping of fireworks at night has been uploaded in YouTube the URL is
http://youtu.be/CbAhML28Oro

Navarathri - The nine day creativity

The festival of Navarathri has just concluded and we are heading towards the grand festival of India, The Deepavali 2011.

The actual festive mood is set in the city of Chennai a month before the start of Navarathri. However, it is strange that while South Chennai makes elaborate arrangements, the North celebrates only Ayudha Puja.

The nine day kolu gives prominence to the women and children of the household, but the men behind the show play a significant role in the success of the celebration. Even today the senior lady of the house takes immense pleasure/satisfaction in shopping for kolu, be it the new dolls or the umpteen number of gift articles that flock the market.

People involve the children for what? This is the time when elders can teach the kids, our tradition, culture, history, heritage, religion and the pride we have to carry as Indians.
Children enthusiastically participate in arranging the dolls and show their creativity in putting up parks with a theme.

Here I am presenting some scenes in some popular dolls sales outlets, the new arrivals of this year, some thematic displays of parks, a couple of kolu displays and finally Goddess Karpagambal of Mylapore in Kamakshi alankaram.

Some new arrivals of dolls are Vasthu Lakshmi, Andal Ranganathar, Narasimha, Panduranga etc.


















Few popular shops selling dolls, gift articles and other accessories.
























We have some thematic kolu presentations.
Birthday theme represents newborn, first birthday, sixtieth birthday and eightieth birthday.

Wedding theme consists of wedding, reception, kutchery, procession and grahapravesam.

Chennai the Super Metro theme depicts the culture, tradition, heritage, secularism, medical facilities, global recognition, intellectual superiority, tech savvy, nature, promotion of sports etc., of the Metro, i.e. Chennai.
Here there is some extra treat. The story of crow drinking water from the pot by dropping pebbles. The set was on display in a store at Mada street of Mylapore.

People do create high-tech parks like Kathipara Junction, Hills of Ahobhilam, festivals of all 12 Tamil months, Five divisions in the land scape of Tamilnadu, etc.

We finally have the kolu arranged inside the temple at SSM Old Age Home,Perunkalathur and the grand Mylai Karpagambal in Kamakshi Alankaram.











Pictures of Deepavali eve and Deepavali day follow in the next article.

Please pass your valuable comments.

Tree Walk - Panagal Park. T.Nagar, Chennai

Chennai had rains even during December last year ie., year 2010. Also the winter was unusually chill. 'Nizhal', a NGO, which conducts tree walks as one of its activities, in different places in the city periodically, had announced that 5th December, Panagal Park at T.Nagar, will be the spot for Tree Walk. As I had earlier missed Nageswara Rao Park, I thought I will join this, though I could spot only a few backyard trees like Mango, Banana, Coconut etc.

On 5th December, when myself and my husband started at 6.30 in the morning, it started drizzling. I thought the programme is going to be cancelled. But by God's grace the drizzle did not become heavy rain and we, a 20 odd people, could make it with umbrellas and caps. Here is a report of what I could gather from the walk.

Peepul Oldest, found in the world , flowers and fruits 3 to 4 times in a year. Popular with birds, squirrels. King Asoka’s daughter Sangamitra planted this tree in Anuradapura, Srilanka 2300 years back. Villagers conduct their meetings under this tree. Considered very religious. Grows so well.

Nettilingam Tall, not much branches, small branches tend to hang down. English name Mast, branches coming down, so called Pendula. This tree is pollinated by bats.

Custard Apple Seetha pazham . Flower will be greenish, cannot be noticed, comes between leaves. Pollination is done by beetles. Bats love the fruit.

Elephant Earpod Tree. Found in India and South East Asia. The compound leaves resemble Gulmohar a bit. Flowers look like that of Vagai.

Silk Cotton Elavanpanju Not flowering, huge tall tree. The trunk will be green, it is thorny. It has come from South America, through West Asia to India.

Casuarina Brought from Australia to prevent Tsunami. Found in sea coasts. Good fire wood. Pulp used to make paper. Silent. No insects, no birds.

Banyan The biggest is found in a village in Andhra Pradesh with 3000 hanging roots.

Puthranjeeva or Child life tree There are male and female variety in this tree and they are separate trees. Both the trees flower. The leaves give out an oil. Hence will not be eaten by goats and cattle.

Pungam Fungal growth, but young leaves will not have this. During Feb/March flowers appear and will be pale pink in colour.

Custard Cousin of Mast tree. Pulps latex.

Copper Pods Pods are of copper colour. The copper shield lies below the flower. This is cousin of Gulmohar and will fall early.

Rain Tree or Thoongumoonji Maram Brought from South America. Related to Vaagai of Tamilnad. Dirty flowers, homes for insects which will give off a liquid that falls down

Palmyra Palm Green leaves, exotic. This is the tree of our Tamilnad State. Every part of the tree is useful. We get padanir, Nungu etc. Skin, trunk everything made use of. Even ropes are made from this tree.

(National tree is Banyan)

Tamarind Not an Indian tree. Brought from South Africa 600-700 years ago.

Brazilian Iron wood The tree will peel like paper. The wood is hard as iron. The leaves look pretty.

Mahogany Wood The wood is inferior. Brought from South America.

Bullet wood The flowers are extremely fragrant (Mahizham Poo – Tamil). Wood is strong. It is very good as avenue tree. The fruit is edible. It is the cousin of Sapota.

Cannon Ball Tree. The tree is known as Nagalingam in Tamil as the beautiful flower resembles a linga with snake head. The fruits are heavy and may fall anytime and crack. Hence not planted in crowded places. The fruits come out from trunk and will look shabby. The fruits will have 200 – 300 seeds inside.

Bougan Villa Brought from South America. Will have beautiful flowers in red, pink, purple and yellow. It needs to be pruned periodically.

Wood Apple Vilampazham in Tamil. This is an Indian tree. The rind if the fruit is very hard and the inner pulp is sticky. This is related to another Indian tree Vilvam or Bilva. Both are rich in iron, calcium and other nutrients. Bilva is used in medicines.

Jamun Tree Naval pazham in Tamil. Very much an Indian tree, Planted as avenue tree on roads. They flower in March/April and fruit will come in May/June. Birds flock this tree to eat the fruit.

Trumpet Tree The leaves look like fingers. The flowers are in beautiful pink or sometimes white (seen inside Fort St.George). Brought from South America.

Sausage Tree Planted as ornamental trees which will have purple flowers. The tree is bat pollinated one. The fruits will resemble cucumber. They are from Africa.

Yanai Kundumani Red seeds. People in olden days used these seeds to weigh gold. The leaves of the tree are alternative.

I wonder how many of these I will be in a position to recognise, but still when I go out I do look at trees and try to identify. Few more Tree Walks, I may gain some knowledge. So thanks to the organizers, 'Nizhal'

Any wrong identity of trees in the above picture, designed by me, can be informed as a comment for the benefit of all. ( Pictures taken by my husband)
The Walk was conducted by Ms. Chitra, member Nizhal Organisation. The Nizhal Trust can be contacted at 044-42045137, website : www.nizhaltn.org.

Important Winter Festivals of Hindus

Our forefathers had a way of living in tune with the nature. We, of course, carry with us a few aspects of these as tradition, unknowingly with us still, when we celebrate our festivals.

Here I talk about three important festivals, namely Navarathri, Deepavali and Karthigai which generally fall in the last quarter of the year.

Navarathri comes during September/October when it is rainy season for South India. Navarathri, it is believed that Goddess Durga emerges triumphant after destroying the demon Mahishasura. We pray the other two Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswathi too during these 9 days.

There is one custom in south India that people follow even today.They arrange dolls of Gods/Godesses, Gurus, other fellow human beings and also those of birds and animals on a special stand erected with number of steps counting to odd number. This is referred as Bommai Kolu and people display all their creativity.

Also, we still follow the custom of preparing sundals from pulses and distributing them to invitees as well as visitors after offering them to kolu gods. Our ancestors had this practice because during the rainy season, the yield of fresh vegetables would either be less or be washed out. To maintain the balance of nutrition in food the sundals must have substituted them.

Deepavali comes on a new moon day and it is the beginning of the month Aswin (Iyppasi) for those who follow Moon Calender. So the second half of the year starts with Deepavali, which means there is drastic change in climatic condition. To strengthen the physical body to adopt to new condition our forefathers introduced the custom of taking oil bath. The custom of taking oil bath cannot be brushed away as old fashion. It cools the entire system, the skin gets enough nourishment, strengthens inner organs. The early morning oil bath prepares us to meet the adverse changes in nature around us. Further, in this season all new viruses emerge in the atmosphere. To kill/drive away the insects we fire crackers which produce smoke.
In olden days even wild animals may come out of their dwelling place. To frighten them the bombs are fired, the loud sound filling the entire surrounding may drive away the animals.

Karthigai The rains will stop and the real winter will start setting in. We have a custom to keep lamps made out of mud ( agal vilakku) in front of the house throughout the month. Those days we had only pockets of villages and not big towns/ cities like today. The lit lamps served the purpose of revealing the travelers and/or the pilgrims the existence of a village nearby. The lamps are lit in the evening itself as the Sun sets early during winter months.

Here a model kolu designed with photoshop is displayed

Few photos taken on Deepavali day at/around Sri Kapali temple are given below.

Deepavali is one festival when, irrespective of age and economic status, people from infants to late 80s visit temples in brand new dress. Hence, I took pictures inside temple and nearby

You will have one more picture where Karthigai is being celebrated at home.

Here is a bonus. Kandasashti falls on the 6th day from Deepavali. Lord Muruga defeats the demon Tarakasura and marries Devasena, daughter of Indra. Lord Muruga splits Soora into two parts and Soora surrenders. Then the two parts become Cock and Peacock. Coak becomes Lord Muruga's flag and Peacock his vahana. The video link given displays the dance of cock and peacock before joining the lord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CotmHibabvo

L.V. Prasad Film & T.V Academy- Walk with Director K. Hariharan

Hi everybody
Feels nice to write in my blog after a year.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend an event "Talk and Walk Inside Studio" organised by Namma Arcot Road a recent set up of the Arcot Road neighbourhood. A public talk by the Director of the L.V. Prasad & T.V. Academy, Sri K. Hariharan, on the studio's heritage and walk through the Studio were the agenda. It was open to all.


As I have a passion for videography/docu films I rushed to the venue, a little late due to the distance from my place, rainy weather/festival Saturday.

It was a wonderful experience. Sri Hariharan took us to the hall with high ceiling and different lights fitted to it. From there to the settings like the bar, office room, kitchen, bed room etc and finally to the camera room with projector equipment and the erstwhile 70mm camera. In the meantime we were provided with snacks. Sri Hariharan gave us information about film projector and the 70mm camera of yesteryear.

We then assembled in his class room. We were around 50 in number. Sri Hariharan introduced Sri Sivaraman, the General Manager of Prasad studio for 40 years now. Sri Sivaraman, very passionate about the neighbourhood and also the studio, gave some interesting anecdotes. He could recall the visits of VIPs/Celebrities.

The area beyond Vadapalani Bus Stand was like a village with paddy fields when the studio was
started. There were few more studios, like Vasu Studio, Sharada Studio etc. Beyond Vadapalani the only mode of transport was Jatka vandi. There was only one mess (Subbiah mess) nearby serving as outdoor catering, which provided full lunch for 90 paise.

VIPs like Raj Kapoor, Mrinal Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra etc., have visited the Studio.
Mrinal sen once insisted to go to a local South Indian Hotel instead of Star hotel near Mount Road and enjoyed food in a dingy small eatery in that area.

The Vijaya Vauhini Studio was one of the biggest in Asia with 14 floors. But later some floors were closed and Vijaya Hospital was established. The multi speciality concept was first introduced in Vijaya Hospital. The other studios gave way to godowns and multistory complexes.
Once a muddy village Arunachalam Road now has become vibrant where the L.V. Prasad studio is housed.
Sri Sivaraman ended with a proud note about the neighbourhood.

Be it Sri L.V. Prasad, Sri Nagi Reddy or Sri A.V. Meyyappan, they produced national cinema rather than mere Tamil cinemas, exclaimed Sri Hariharan. RajKapoor, Mehboob Khan and other North Indians produced regional cinemas only, whereas we could give in all languages like Tamil,Telugu and Hindi at a time. Great actors like NTR, Ranga Rao, Prem Nazeer and MGR have all lived in Madras as contemporaries.

About L.V. Prasad, he said, the great human being wanted to plough back his entire wealth into cinema, as he earned everything through cinema. He could provide facilities at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Trivandrum when it was requested. His life's mission was to provide a school for film studies in his studios for those who have interest in film making, as he never had formal education in this line. The result, we see today the L.V. Prasad Film & T.V. Academy, established by his son Sri. Ramesh Prasad, for which aptly Sri. Hariharan is the Director who, as all of us know, is an award winning film maker.

Photo 1: Sri. Hariharan with audience in one of the setting rooms inside the studio.

Photo 2: Sri.Hariharan with 70mm film role.

As I had some problem in uploading 2 video clippings in this page itself, am giving the YouTube URL for the same.

The first one is the demonstration by Sri. Hariharan on Film Projector and the second on the 70mm Camera of yesteryear ( the last film probably was 'Ek duje Keliye')

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Iib7xdgTo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiFKgv9rBdw

Madras Day Celebrations – Kilpauk Walk – 16.08.2009, 7 am.

Madras Day celebrations in Chennai has become Madras Week, and slowly expanding to Madras Fortnight & Madras Month.

The organizers are keen on conducting Heritage Walks in different places during this week with a view to highlight the rich heritage of our city which is to be preserved by all of us.

I took interest in Kilpauk walk, organized by Ms.Deepa Sekar on 16-08-09 as I basically belong to South Madras.

The tour programme was like this: 1. The Votive Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 2. Madras 350 Building, 3. St. George School and Orphanage, 4.Pachaiyappa’s College of Arts and Science, 5. Kushaldass Gardens, 6. Kingston House, 7. Kalki gardens, 8. Citadel Studios, 9.Bhsashyam Naidu park, 10. Tapovan and the last Newton Studios. About 30 people took part and enjoyed the morning walk. A brief account of

the event follows.

1. The Votive Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: Father Amalraj narrated the story. One Mr.Mathias in 1942 prayed mother Mary to Protect Madras from getting bombed during the 2^nd world war. Mary with her mercy saved the entire India. Hence he wanted to build a Church and an orphanage in Madras. One French gentleman Mr. Edgar Raphael Prudehomme donated this land. This place hosts a Church, a Primary School and an orphanage. There are around 820 students, 90% from very poor families with single parent. The orphanage is the asylum for nearly 250 inmates.

Madras 350 is a building commemorating the existence of the City of Madras

built with a dome in the style of small gopuram. We reached this through Umayal Road where there is Shiva Temple which also has Sannidhis for Rama and Narasimha. The Aadhi Pillaiyar statue was found near the pond, on which the temple is constructed in 1950. The place belonged to Mr. Alagappa Chettiar.

St. George School & Orphanage: Ancient old school started in 1715, which also had a hospital with an isolation ward to house students who were suffering from chickenpox. Behind, there is the 500 year old Nawab Palace which is not in good condition now. Adds Mr. Vincent Cunningham, the chief, that there was a school band which has the history of playing before The Queen inside the Fort St.George, when she visited Madras in 1961. During that time the School had classes only upto 9^th standard. Children used to be sent to Dovton School, at Vepery from 10^th standard by cycle.

Pachaiyappa’s college of Arts and Science: 16 Acres land was donated by Pachaiyappa Chettiyar to build a college. This college alumni list has some noted personalities of Tamilnadu like, Mu.Varadarajanar, Nanjil Manoharan, C.N.Annadurai, Anbazhagan etc.,

Kushaldass Garden: It is in Poonamalle High Road. Those days Maharaja of Trivancore used to visit, stay and celebrate Moolam Thirunal here.

Kingston House: This was donated by Kannan Chetty and a Girls High school in the name of Seethammagaru now exists here. Nearby is the Nowroji Road where Rajaji lived.

Kalki Garden: Once the residence of Bharat Ratna Smt.M.S.Subbulakshmi. The Tulasi Madam and the Krishna statue are still preserved. In the piano room, we learn that, all the songs of the film Meera were choreographed and tuned. Later when Kalki Krishnamurthy joined Mr.Sadasivam, the magazine Kalki got published from this house. Now Maharishi Vidya Mandir has taken possession of this house. Ladies hostel is being run here and the school building has been erected by the side. The heritage house has at present escaped demolition due to stay order of the court.

Citadel Studios: This huge property was owned by one brother and sister who remained single and had no heirs to take over. The property was then divided. The movie 100/100 of Jaishnkar was shot here which was a grand success.

Bashyam Naidu Park: Bashyam Naidu was the fourth gen member of Beri Thimmaiah, the Dubhashi who had a significant part in the formation of Madras City. It was a vast 100 grounds garden, later given to children in parts. Still the descendants live there and the lady shared few of her memories. The song ‘Brindavanathil’ of Meera was shot in the garden and the cow which was shown in the song belonged to them. Sakunthala & Dushyanth scenes on charioit were also shot there . The house was a palatial one with a separate cottage as the kitchen.

The Tapovan: Chinmaya Heritage School is run in this place now. Once it was the place of Chinmayananda.

Newton Studio: Once a very costly studio run by technicians, where the shootings of superstars of yesteryear like MKT and NSK used to take place. Bhimsing took over this later. Now Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is running its School here.

The tour ended by 10.00 am. Heritage walks during Madras Week are mostly arranged by Mylapore Times, a neighbourhood News Paper. Please visit their site http://www.themadrasday.in/ for details.

Surabhi, a family of 63 theatre artistes

Hi everybody. It feels very good to blog after a long gap.

Evam is a theatre group with few enthusiastic youngsters as members and they give real good plays in the city of Chennai. Evam, in April 2009 introduced Surabhi, a theatre group from Hyderabad with a total members of 63 artistes from the age group of 1-1/2 to 60+ to Chennai theatre fans. It is strange to believe that they live together as one family at Hyderabad doing their routine as students, employees, home makers etc according to their age, but all in one common profession, ie acting in stage dramas.

Surabhi has completed 120 years of existence as of now.

We were given to understand the artistes get a complete exposure to the stage, in the form of doing their own make up, preparing the back drops, painting the screens, singing in their own voice, monitoring the trick shots and managing the back-stage during the play. Above all any one can play any role if need be.

This troupe gave a visual treat on 25th and 26th April to the Chennai audience by enacting two legendary plays, namely, Pathala Bhairavi and Maya Bazaar, both in Telugu. The Music Academy hall was overflowing both the days. The audience were fully receptive though the language was the local Tamil.

The two plays had mythology, storyline, comedy, music, trick-shots and the presentation was spectacular.

It was news that Maya Bazaar movie came later as an adoption of this play of Surabhi.

Many VIPs viewed the plays both days.

The head Sri. R. Nageswara Rao said that they prefer Mythology as the subject, because there is scope for heavy costume, colour, meaningful songs and trick-shots which will enthrall the audience.

One of the VIP visitors Smt. Padma Subrahmaniam had all appreciation for the artistes and invited them all to her Bharathamuni Foundation for Asian Culture at ECR Chennai.

I have given a glimpse of the above two splendid stage performances as video clippings.
Video 1. Kalavaramaye Madilo (Pathala Bhairavi)
Video 2. Gadodgaj and Abhimanyu Fight. (Mya Bazaar)
Video 3. Gadodgaj as Maya Vatsala dancing. (Maya Bazaar)
Please enjoy.