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On Friday evening, the stars shined brighter over the sky just to make up for the rain that poured few weeks back. Two weeks back on a Friday, it poured like hell and the music show named Light up a life, organized by the IIT Madras Atma charity wing was postponed. This week it happened at the Open Air Theatre of IIT. And it happened with full josh.

Gangai Amaran‘s musical evening started exactly on the shceduled time. That’s something which happens only for some of the carnatic kutcheris in Chennai. And we know how Gangai Amaran can get the pulse of the crowd so fast. He did. From 7 in the evening till 10:30 it was sheer music. Music of all kinds Bhaghavathar, Kannadasan, A R Rahman, Vidyasagar, Ghazal, Hindi and Telugu film music. What reverberated even after the show were Illayaraja’s numbers that occupied the main theme of the show.

SPB Charan has the yesteryear SPB’s voice. Remember the number Then Sindhuthey Vaanam, Slightly feminine, very SPB. SPB Charan has that exact voice. And fortunately, like his dad he could dwell in any octave so profoundly. Some evergreen numbers that amazed me were Sankarabharanam and Sorgam Madhuviley. Added to it was his rendering to Manmadha Rasa. Seemed like SPBs version of the song, fantastic variation to Shankar Mahadevan’s original rendering.

The final medley lasted for more than 15 minutes where SPB Charan, Venkat Prabhu and the whole singing group were catching up on each other like a competition. The song that started all was Cheena Thaana and finally ended with Chinna Pasanga Nanga [Aruvadai Naal]. And as expected at the end, Gangai Amaran finished it with the Malar Polla Manam Vendum song that’s broadcasted everyday morning in Vijay TV.

IBM who was the sponsor of the show gave away goodies to the audience. Software as goodies? The last thing you would expect from a musical show. Yeah, they gave away a whole bunch of CDs that consisted of a enterprise edition of DB2 ver 8.1 [one that was looking to download from the net], Lotus domino and Web Sphere studio’s evaluation edition. Of course, the brochures that they gave away were finally flying high, as rockets. We know our guys, right.

[pic: kapaleeswarar.com]

Yesterday, I spent a warm evening at the Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple. This is the first time I had been to the temple since the consecration happened on August 30th 2004. To visit a temple within the first forty days of its consecration is tantamount to performing a Ashwamedha Yaga. I missed it anyway. Mylapore still remains/will remain to be the center of spiritual chennai. Not much has changed around the temple except for the new bhavans and hotels that have mushroomed. However, the roadside shop near the theradi still gives away tasty bajjis of all types.

After the kumbhabishekam, the gopurams glitter in the twilight with the backdrop of a bluish sky. Couldn’t take a shot as I didn’t have my digital camera. Usually I love the gopurams that have lost their paints which give them a antique look and re-itrating that truth stands tall over time. However, this mylapore temple has one of the finest gopurams in the city and I did bask that same pleasure even with the finest of paints.

That new red neon board fixed in the middle of the gopuram said, Anbe Sivam. Wow !! It meant a world to me. For Hinduism, isn’t to be seen as a religion. It’s a way of life. Anbe Sivam is a much profound explanation to that definition. The ideology of Shiva, the theology of Hinduism all encompassed in just two words.

Inside the temple, near the sanctum sanctorum, the white cardboard read, Non-Hindus Not Allowed. Ah!! Red alert. With all that Anbe Sivam philosophy up the gopurams, this board with just a few feet away contradicts. It hurts. This is the second time I’m boring this over in the blog. The last time I vented this out was while I had been to the Madurai Temple. Why wouldn’t this be taken out may be a question to the believers who have understood the Hindu school of thought.