On Sangamam's shore . . .

If you have a ear to the ground in Chennai, then you could not but have been 'touched' by 'Chennai Sangamam', the arts festival for this city. The first edition rolled out on February 20.

Folk arts, classical music concerts, literary debates, essay contests - held in the public places of the city. In parks, public squares, mada veedhis and school campuses, this was a fest the city hasn't seen.

And as the sparklers from Sivakasi burned in the skies off Elliots Beach ( Bessie Beach to some!) on Monday, February 26, to sign off the fest, two people were in the spot.

Father Jegath Gasper, a Catholic priest and Kanimozhi, poet and writer and daughter of the DMK chief M. Karunanidhi.

The duo, with a few others are part of 'Tamil Maiyam', the organisation which promoted the 'Sangamam'.

While the Catholic priest who has been a radio broadcaster and is an impressive speaker and works out of the San Thome Communications Centre on Luz Church Road enjoyed his role, Kanimozhi still looked shy and kept a low profile.

Perhaps, the less stated part of the Sangamam is the fact that it was inspired by the people who run the 'Bangalore Habba'. Blessed by S M Krishna when he was the chief minister of Karnataka, the Habba is now a corporatised event with a huge budget behind it.

(Click on the pictures to view them in actual size)

Last year, the Habba team visiting Chennai tried to share its idea with a few people who are involved in fests. The trail led up to Kanimozhi, then the buzz on the idea went cold before the 'Chennai Sangamam' idea surfaced, suddenly.

I was pleasantly surprised when Fr. Gasper invited me to 'replicate' our annual Mylapore Festival for the Sangamam 'theru-vizha'. Over the years, our fest has gained immense popularity. There are well known people who still recount the joy of enjoying pesa-rattu on Sundareswarar Street after enjoying a Kali-attam by a Puduchery troupe at the Sannidhi Street quadrangle. ( Fr. Gasper had keenly observed the fest too!)

'Neidhal Sangamam' created on the campus of Lady Wellingdon College of Education off Marina Beach didn't have the hum of namma Mylapore and the location was actually a blind spot on a dark beach road!

However, we were amazed at the streams of people we had on the weekend. They cheered the tapp-attam troupe on stage, got their children to sit for sculpture workshop, browsed through the 'thamizh' books at the exhibition and gobbled up the 'mozhaga bajji' at the snacks counters.

I felt really happy. Given the opportunity to soak in such events, people embrace it lovingly.

Our co-ordinator Krishna, a SAP trained young man still looking out for his big job, didn't bite when I told him - run the 'Neidhal Sangmam' every weekend and you will make a great business!