Chennai Meetups

I had some Referito & something blah blah sandwich. It was basically just a lot of bread. And some cheese. But my appetite for conversation was sated :-)
Say hello to Colin and Les for me if you see them, Scott. I heard there was supposed to be some kind of festival soon or something--in the center of Chennai (which is actually not very central at all, unfortunately). I'll find out more details. I wonder if it's already passed, actually. I hear that Hamsadwani is having a lot of shows coming up, too. I need to get the Hindu! I think it's online, too. Ah yes.. http://www.hinduonline.com/

Mine was a plain egg sandwich. It was pretty plain, too, except the bread had been very lightly toasted, giving the impression of being stale on the outside [may be it actually was!]. S-S's sandwich was about three inches thick. If I passed any comment on the size of mouth needed to eat it she might come by and hit me for being rude but I'm sure it was her singing lesons that gave her the strength of jaw to get through it .

Beware 'trendy' cafes in this part of the world... Pity about the tea also. There are two kinds of proper tea: Indian style, made with hot milk; and English style, made with boiling water and a dash of cold milk. Serving English-style tea with hot milk is the worst compromise.

Anyway, I managed to get cold milk with my second cup ...and, of course, the company more than made up for any defieciency in the menu

V-V... Just a nudge to upload that photo

Sorry...have been traveling..will do it over weekend..before I travel again to Mumbai..

Looking forward to that photo, I uploaded a bunch of mine to my photo gallery today. Would love a copy of the photo Vinay but can it be downloaded from where you will post it?

Nick, Archan, anyone else still in Chennai - re a further meetup I am still not entirely sure of free nights, but we are going to some sort of Tsunami benefit concert on Sunday 12th . Not exactly sure of the venue or artists, but I am told there is a world-renowned tabla player and we have chosen 1000 Rs seats just to get the best of it.

Went to another Bharatanatyam arrangetram at the Music Academy last night, absolutely awe-inspiring. Also went to the Anjaneya Temple yesterday and was "buzzed" by a thief trying to get into my backpack. Now slightly more cautious than before.

Life is good

Cheers,

Scott

Scott:
Thats nice bunch of pics .Liked the lonley Nandi .


Radz

Thanks Radz.


Nick/Archan, we've now got tickets to that Shakti Foundation benefit concert at the Music Academy on Saturday (12th), not sure that we could get tickets together but we could meet up before/after if you fancied.

Cheers,

Scott

Man! I wanted to go to that so badly.. but i'm being dragged off (as usual) to...

DUn DUn DUN!

A WEDDING!!!

Wheeee.... marriage is so much fun, isn't it? That's why there should be one every damned weekend. I might actually be singing for this one, though, so maybe it won't be just a sit-and-look-pretty type of thing. I wonder if I'll ever get to see Vikku & Co.

What the hell? I can't seem to load arjunaweeping.buzznet.com? it keeps taking me to the homepage where i have to log in? Ur?

Where did you guys get the tickets from? Are they still available? Am actually not in town at the moment, so was trying to find out online, but couldn't find any info on it. Would really like to come, but am worried they won't be available!

Solo

You know, if you ever need company at a wedding then let me know, I'd love to experience the Indian Wedding Experience (though not every night!). Mind you, we see bits of one almost every night at New Woodlands, and the band has been known to practice before 6am some days. Yeah, I wonder whatever did happen to that horn player that used to wake me up <whistles and looks around inconspicuously>

Not sure where we got the tickets, one of the guys on our course got them for us. There were still some available a few days ago as our friends got them. Not sure if they're all gone now.

Looking forward to it, will let you know how it went (though it'll have to be something special to replace Bharatanatyam in my heart).

Cheers,

Scott

I actually got one of the last few tickets available
So I'll see you guys there tomorrow, (I've met Nick so I"ll be able to spot him)

>>I've met Nick so I"ll be able to spot him<<

Nick is going? Haven't seen a post that says so, unless it's in another thread. You should be able to spot us too OF, I think we're in row G, you can find our photo's on my blog.

See ya later,

Scott

Sorry everyone for the delay...last few weeks I've been livng out of a suitcase and didn't had the USB cable to upload the photos from my camera.

Well, no, doesn't look like he is... But I would say that you guys will enjoy; it will be a fun night.

With aplogies for badly spelt names....

Vikku Vinayakram... plays Ghatam, the clay pot. I reckon that he is THE worlds's greatest percussionist.

Zakir Hussein, yes, one the top tabla players, son of Alla Rakh, one of the greatest ever

Selva Ganesh, son of Viku, terrific Kanjira player.

Ganesh and Kumaresh; brothers who play Carnatic violin (Ganesh since he was 2). They are classical performers, but often have a contempory edge, and love the rhyhmic calculations, so often get involved with these percussion dos.

But R1000 for a concert? Most of the ones I go to are free! And I've go a year membership of Hamsadwani, that puts on open air concerts near where Solo lives, for R500. I guess there are going to be some rich people there!

(An aside: I had a carpenter and his mate do about an hours work for me the other day ...for R100. Just over a pound.)

It will be a fun program:enjoy!

The photo's great, but who's who?????