Anil Srinivasan, Pianist and the Madras String Quartet

Attended a tribute to the lives lost in the 2004 Tsunami with great poetry recital and instrumental music. It was kicked off by the celebrity pianist Anil Srinivasan.  He interspersed his concert with short stories and poetry. The next session was by this lady Sivagami, a serial poet and the last one was by the Madras String Quartet.  The acoustics in this open-on-the-side, submerged setting was great.  You could hear the upper tunes, without any squeaking.  Also, the seating was in a combination of mats on the floor and steps all around.  The cool Elliots beach air added to the ambiance.  This was a free concert thanks to the Prakrithi Foundation.  Also, they had free tea and some time to walk around the wooded Spaces complex.

Pianist Anil Srinivasan

Anil played a series of piano pieces around the stories that he had.  His command of English was comparable to his command over the Piano.  Most of the pieces sounded like children's songs but really a had profound story.  Kaveri was associating the pieces with nursery rhymes than she knew.  The piano and the pianist just blended together and production was so laid back.  It was possible for a casual audience to get full immersed. Anil's songs was about the greatness of the soil and the economics of India. He concluded the recital with a encore on-demand from the audience.

Sivagami mami seems to be a well known poet in the Besant Nagar area.  She focused her poetry on recent events in her life- like the marriage of her niece, visit with her daughter to Pudukottai and the death if a sister-in-law.  The peotry had a sequence of prose with a lot of current events. Of course, she covered the Kundakulam Nuclear Reactor safety.

Madras String Quartet.

The last part was the Madras String Quartet.  The group is a little controversial as they perform Carnatic songs with Western harmonics.  We listened to the first two songs- one was a varnam in Ragamalika set to Adi thalam by Patnam Subramanya Iyer. The second was a song Esane in Chakravakam set to Rupakam thalam by Papanasam Sivan.  Their fast pace and the interaction between the four musicians was very bright and brought life to the audience. 

Back to Anil.  One of his stories was about a conversation between Narada and Valmiki.  Narada goes to Valmiki and tells him there is an alternate Ramayana that is better than his, sweeter than his, with more eloquent prose.  Valmiki laughs and says that it is not possible.  He goes in search of Hanuman who has authored this other version.  At Hanuman's house, he sees a lot of leaves.  When he reads the prose on the leaves, he gets very sad and starts crying.  Hanuman asks him why he issad .  He says that this is so good that no one will read his version.  Hanuman crumpled all the leaves into a ball and ate it up.  When Valmiki inquired, Hanuman said the goal was to spread Ramayana, not who is the author.

Rede Drop Zone- Introducing Parotta-side dish as Mexican

If you want to get heartburn, this is the place to go.  The food is complete garbage.  The Chef and owner have never eaten Mexican food in their life.  First and foremost, there was no beans or cheese in any dish. 

I can list about 20 things that are wrong at this place.  But will restrict it to just a few.  Even the roadside dog will refuse consume this garbage.

I have lived for 20 years in California and visited Mexico multiple times. I also have Mexican friends and eaten at their homes.  So, I can consider myself as an expert.

The only thing right about this place is that they home-deliver and the driver carries a credit card machine.


What is wrong:
1. All dishes (be it Enchilada/burrito/etc) have the same filling- a mixture of long thin onions slices, crushed beans, carrots, bell peppers and lots of fire spices.  It was more like a side dish for Parotta! In authentic Mexican or even Oxacan food, first onions are cut into small pieces and not strips; jalapeno's are used for garnishing and not chili powder; and carrots are never used.  You need to beans for any and all filings.
2. The burrito showed up as a fried wonton with stuffing.  The only saving grace was that it was a corn chapatti.  My impression was they were trying a hard shell taco and failed miserably.
3. The food was so spicy that it was just not eatable.
4. The guacamole had no tomatoes and no onions.  Moreover it was not clear whether the dish even contained any avocados. The sour cream was really a hardened yogurt.
6. There was no cheese in any of the dishes.  So it cannot even be branded American Mexican.


All-in-all, my impression of Cascade restaurant chain is down the toilet.  They highlight the link to Cascade very prominently in all their literature.  I would definitely not go there ever again, even after my heartburn is over.


I talked to the Manager.  He said he that the Chef is from Taj and the manager has no clue what Mexican food is.  he was not even sure whether Burrito was Mexican or Italian!!

Bharathanatyam performances like none other

I am not a Bharatanatyam expert.  My review here is from a pure entertainment view only.  Experts can leave your comments below. After attending about 7 performs during the last 2 months, this event really stood out.  I would recommend this for the entertainment and educational value.

Gopikas and Shree Krishna in a elated and playful mood

I recently attend a unique dance performance called Prapathi Marg by a team of senior dancers- Roja Kannan, Priya Murle, Srikanth and Ashwathy Srikanth.  The show was at the Bharat Kalachar, which is in the PSBB School campus in Thirumalai Pillai Road.  This was not the traditional dance sequence of Jathiswaram, Thillana and Mangalam.  The entertainers told a story through the dance.  The performance was more focused on education and entertainment, as opposed to the technicalities of Bharatanatyam. Without letting out too much of the storyline, the storyline was based on the Vaishnava theme of total submission to the God.  The lectures by Srikanth were entertaining and were distributed throughout the performance.  His language combined "suddha" tamil and colloquial "bashai". The audience were truly spell-bound, including my four year-old daughter. There was no plastic oohs and aahs.     

Shree Krishna

What made this presentation unique was the combination of music, song selection, dance sequences, costumes, and the thematic rendering. The performers used the complete stage by introducing mood lighting, temple bells, playful action and an ongoing narration of the main theme.  The lighting, temple bells and the diction based on the onstage action were very well-done.  This reminded me of the RS Manohar dramas of a past era. 

Musical Accompaniments

The two singer- Srikanth (different from the dancer) and Saranya were captivating.  Saranya's facial expression captured the moods of the theme on stage was a nice draw!  The combination of Tamil, Sanskrit and Hindi songs made it universally applicable.  The flutist really brought out Shree Krishna, though he was hidden from public view until the end of the show.

Each dancer in the group focused on a different phase of Krishna's life.  There was love, emotion, devotion and color as the different themes.  The story was simple for my four year-old to ask questions and wanting the understand the details of each story.  She said the best part was Draupadi (Roja Kannan) going round-and-round, depicting the de-robing by Dushasana. 

Roja Kannan as Draupadi

The role of Meera (played by Priya Murle) seemed to bring MS into the eyes of the senior generation. 

Priya Murle as Meera

Srikanth as Krishna did a awesome job and his small role a Rajput prince made it quite realistic. 

A similar theme is being played out by the PARASAH group at other locations during the Margazhi Season.

Vilasini Dance and Chandra Mandala

Chandra Mandala, 1, Elliots Beach Road, Besant Nagar, Chennai, 600 090.

Chandra Mandala is this beautiful set of performance stages in the former house of the late Chandralekha.  I had never heard of this lady.  Since that time, I google'd her and found a lot of interesting information.  Here is a nice link about her.

Chandra Mandala is an eclectic location.  It is across the from the beach at the quieter edge. The place has a nice forest atmosphere.  The buildings are in Kerala style with sloping tiled construction.  There are three stages.  One is a atrium with an open space all around.  The second is a fort-like enclosure with huge stage.  The third is a sunken hall.  All three have been built with openness to allow the cool (Ok, it is December in Chennai) beach air to flow through.

I had never heard of Vilasini Natyam dance form either.  So, this was a great introduction.  Vilasini is a temple, court and theatrical dance traditions of the Telugu Devadasis.  In olden days, this performing tradition was referred to as Bharatam, Karnatakam or Tsaduru.  The emphasis is on abhinaya (facial expression), the hand gestures simply allow the flow of the story through.  Unlike Bharathanatyam, there is not a lot of movement around the stage.  This form has recently been resurrected by a dancer called Swapnasundari. She is also credited with renaming it Vilasini Natyam.  It is still a very niche form and there is no Wiki page on it.  The dancer wears wooden hand crafted jewellery called ‘Ganiyam’.  A main feature is a seated performance, where the dancer sits on a pedestal or thinnai.  The hand guestures and facial expressions are all that are needed to tell the story.  There are minimal instrument accompaniments.

Chandra Mandala is a dance school and conducts regular shows.  It is worth visiting, just to take in the art energy.  It has a lot of resembles to Cholamandal Artist Village in the layout.  it will great to hear from others that know more about this dance form.  Leave your comments.