Chennai—The spiritual spinal cord, vitalizing the traditional Dravidian arts, home of the December-January Music and Dance Festival. It was a dream for me to perform on Chennai soil last year, a result of having attended numerous programs over the years during the Season (as art aficionados affectionately refer to it). Chennai is beautiful. It holds a special place in my heart. I lived two months in Chennai in 2014 and immersed myself in the ambience. It’s a special mix of Classical Carnatic Music, Traditional Bharatanatyam, Spirituality of all forms and the rampant growth of capitalism.
It was a mix of spending weekends going from Sabhas (Art Organizations) to temples to Pheonix Mall – because all Chennaiites want to boast about their 1 million square foot retail space. To share an example of the juxtaposition of life there, I woke up one day did my prayers and spent an hour practicing the new krithi I had just learned from my Guru, only to hop in a car with her and wade through Chennai traffic in the evening to enjoy some Pinkberry frozen yogurt at Pheonix Mall. I haven’t even tried Pinkberry in California yet! Considering the 38 degrees Celsius temperature in Chennai, it was worth it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/qbC_UJnLqC/
And now, the first week of December is upon us which normally means that the Sabhas will be hosting the very best music concerts. Instead, people were struggling to stay afloat in the deluge of unforgiving rains. Music and Dance are nowhere to be seen on the news, rightfully so. That is because the youth of Chennai, including musicians and celebrities have been toiling hard to provide emergency services and reliable communication tools. Contemporaries such as Anil Srinivasan and Rithvik Raja in the music fraternity and Actors Sidharth and R J Balaji have organized volunteers to parcel food and distribute it to sunken areas. Chennai Rain Relief 2015- CRR created a facebook page to provide relevant and reliable information and create volunteer sign up sheets. They’ve used social media in the very best way imaginable, even to debunk hoaxes and rumours that develop in such situations.
https://twitter.com/Actor_Siddharth/status/671684853281132545
Hundreds of anonymous able-bodied youngsters have stepped up to the plate to rescue people stuck behind grilled windows, to help the elderly escape and even to evacuate trapped dead bodies. There has been talk of not enough national attention or global attention, but really how does it matter? Instead of merely changing their facebook profile pictures to reflect Indian colours, people in Chennai rose to the occasion and helped each other. Earlier I defined an artist as someone who creates work to inspire. What can be more inspiring than people demonstrating what humanity really is? The age-old question of whether life inspires art or vice versa can be seen here: Life IS art and this week the spirit of Chennai has proven this. Chennai, I am so proud.
Welcome to the Artistic Journey 