MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THESE

Tsunami, a word that has now got into the dictionary of all languages affected people on the beach at 8.45 AM on 26th December 2004 and those living in slums on the seashore. Sadly boys playing cricket on the sands, morning walkers on the marina and vendors on the beach have all died. The death toll in Nagappattinam , Velankanni and other coastal towns like Cuddalore, Pondichery etc were mind-boggling. We felt the tremors at 6.40 AM and came to know of the devastation only in the evening from TV news.
Santhanam has been very busy since that day. He said that he felt like crying whenever he thought about the people killed. He is co-ordinating the relief works and has appeared on the local and the national media a number of times. He is so identified with Tsunami that in Shobha's Grahapravesam function, when the vadyar (panditji) referred to him as Santhanam Iyengar, Kannan (Adyar) said,'Tsunami Iyengar and not Santhanam Iyengar'.

The big news in the family was the shifting of Rukku and Varadachary to Bangalore. All the sisters, brothers and their families gave a dinner to them at Sangeetha in Mylapore on 29th Jan. Rukku's family came with me in the carriage to Bangalore on 3rd Feb. All the Perungalathur sisters (and their husbands) gathered at Hema's place on 15th Jan. for, as Raghu wrote, hold (pidi). Shobha is here and we all attended her Grahapravesam on 14th February. Radhika had a nice all-expenses-paid trip to Singapore for 10 days in December after winning a contest. Mohan has joined Polaris Software in Chennai after returning from Indonesia. This has helped my sister-in-law, Vijaya, to return to Chennai. Mohan's wife Geetha has also returned from Indonesia and is joining IBM at Bangalore next week.

Harish is fine in USA. He has visited Mukund and Shoba and will visit Prasad this month. He talks to us regularly. Aarthi had a good rest of 10 days here from 24th December. She is again quite busy. I could see her for just a few minutes as she had some presentations. The short films made by her and her classmates were screened at Alliance Francoise here by her faculty-in-charge. Amritha and I, Pushpa and her husband and Kannan (T.Nagar) attended the screening which was followed by Q and A session. The films were all good and the audience which included some faculty from Film Institute (I think) also felt they were all good.

Our life continued to be busy in Chennai. We attended over 45 music and dance programmes from 2nd December to 1st January. You can read about the best ones in my article. We were also very scientific this time and are keeping meticulous details of all concerts. After a day's gap, it was time for Chennai Open Tennis. It was a repeat of last year's final in which Moya defeated Srichaphan though the latter should have won.

After tennis, we are back to our routine which means about 3 or 4 concerts every month and a few temple visits. Hema came with us to Tiruttani, Tiruvallur and two other temples on 21st Jan. which was a holiday for Bakrid. We also went to Tiruvidandai temple on way to Mahabalipuram on 29th Jan. for which Chooda came with us.

28th Jan. was a big day for me. IRAS was formed in 1929 and we are celebrating our Platinum Jubilee during 2004-05. The celebrations started in Delhi on 16th & 17th Dec. 2004. The second seminar was organised by us in Chennai on 28th Jan. We had organised it at Taj Connemara. In the morning and AN we had the Seminar for which we had got eminent speakers and the Chief guest was Dr. Raja Chelliah, an eminent economist. The highlight of the whole seminar was the unique way in which the speakers were introduced. We had got 10 photos of each speaker and made a 1 and 1/2 minute documentary on them with voice-over by our officers. This was recorded in Rajiv Menon's studio whose brother is in IRAS. Everything had been meticulously planned and every delegate appreciated our efforts. In the evening we had a Bharatanatyam dance featuring 8 girls of Abhinaya Natyalaya, Chennai for which each item was introduced very beautifully like the morning session. It was followed by an evening of old English songs, cocktails and lucky dips and other surprise gifts along with dinner on the English lawns. We also gave mementoes to everyone who attended the seminar and another memento for the dinner. The press coverage was also very good. Those interested can see my write-up, photos and press-coverage at www.geocities.com/iraschennai

My book is doing reasonably well in the market and I am planning for the second edition for which I am working. I now have about 250 copies out of 1000 with me. When I am down to about 75, I'll order the second edition, which will be a Revised Edition and not a Reprint. I have started collecting data for my second book which is on 'Carnatic music and Tamil films' for which the target date is September 2005.

We saw only one film in these two months- Kaadhal which was good. Apart from Bangalore, I had also gone on work to Palghat, Erode and Jolarpettai.

Sania Mirza and Narain Karthikeyan are the two big stars of India now, eclipsing the cricketers briefly. Hope they both do well.

Best Wishes and bye till 16th April,


16th February 2005