Weekend Communion with God

Normally our weekends end up rushing to shops that offer Flat 50% or Upto 70% discount, and returning home disappointed, having been taken for a ride.

“Weekend for a retiree for whom everyday is a Sunday, hmm?” You might murmur. Unfortunately it is. We still haven’t gotten over it.

Luckily it was different this weekend. The Odakkathur Mutt in Ulsoor was hosting Bhajan Utsav with renowned artists from all over. Sengottai Hari had the Saturday afternoon slot. We missed him earlier when he performed in Aunty’s native village during Ratha Utsav, because we would not get a taxi to hotel past midnight.

So no mistakes this time. Hari combined the qualities of both Carnatic music and Bhajan songs with equal felicity to churn a jugalbandi that brought rapturous delight to the audience. A stage came when the organizers had to reorganize to make space for 20 or 30 ladies, from ages 20 to 65, to dance in merriment to his tunes.

The surprising element, however, was the presence on dais of our SFV’s own Asthana Bhajana Vidwan, Ravichandran (8022), rendering second-line support to Sengottai Hari. Ravi did it creditably; not just that, he sung a few solos drawing equal applause.

As though to give a fitting finale to the previous evening’s programme, Ravi had organized (though planned earlier) a Bhajan in his apartment yesterday evening. The artists here?  Well, not just one or two. Five of them, from different cities: Ramakrishna Bhagavatar of Delhi, Srirama Bhagavathar (OS Sunder’s nephew), Alappey Suresh, Sri Krishnan, son of famous O V Ramani Bhagavathar of Delhi, and Thyagarajan of Chennai. Two mridangam artists and one Dholki player took position to support. They took turns systematically and played in unison when the occasion demanded. And the harmonium player was of a stand-alone quality. The Delhi singer wore two caps – singer as well as flute player. And mind you, all this over and above our own homegrown brands, Ravi and Thyagarajan ji. What a conglomerate.

The team began with invoking the blessings of Gnanananda Giri Swamiji, Pudukottai Gopalakrishna Bhagavatar, and other pioneers of Divya Nama Sankeertanam (or, Sampradaya Bhajan?). Then they went on to sing Jayadeva ji’s Ashtapathi.

The unleash of songs in quick succession in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and Malayalam witnessed an equally responsive audience who lost no time to go into a trance, what with a mixture of meaningful lyrics, soulful renderings, or mood-elevating Marathi Abhangs.

To rate the songs is a tall order, nor is it fair. However, I might say the “Radha Ramana, Radha Ramana” song rendered at expressway speed by Sri Krishnan attracted fullest participation from the audience. Even my hitherto unperturbed Krishnan (8091) was seen clapping his hands and swinging his body in supreme joy. The enchanting Purandara Dasa kirtana, Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma, was rendered with aplomb. And the song, Mahesha Parvathy…Kailasa Vasa Isha… soon after Mahashivaratri, was especially welcome.

The highlight of the session was that though each singer specialized in one format or the other, one never failed to appreciate or applaud the other person’s performance. It reminded me of the good old Bollywood days when the then top musicians, Naushad, SD Burman, Madan Mohan, Shankar-Jaikishan, C Ramchandra and others met regularly at a park in Mumbai to take stock of each other’s songs in their recent releases.

The ladies know best that nothing works on an empty stomach, even if the session was enchanting. So they made sure that coffee, tea, juice, or hot badam milk was served at regular intervals, with assorted dry fruits to nibble.

As the ceremony drew to a close, the aroma of prasadam items began wafting from the kitchen. A simple but delicious dinner.

As I stepped out I wondered if I was witnessing a revival of Bhakti Movement, or just that I was getting re-connected to it after a span? Either way the net result was: it was a pleasant weekend. The impact is sure to last longer before fading into oblivion, and we are back to our old self.

Activities Unabated, that is SFV

Decades ago it used to be said, “The sun never sets on the British Empire’, to convey that if it is dark on one side of the Empire, it is bright sun at the other end of its domain. Though not exactly, somewhat similarly it can be said that activities are an unending feature of SFV.

You walk to Food World in the morning to grab fresh vegetables, you see half a dozen ladies climbing the stairs with yoga mats rolled up under their arms. Yes there are two or three yoga sessions in a day by different teachers. You walk along the Club House area in the evening. Chances are you will hear the sound of some rehearsals going on. In the evenings you will also see ten or twelve chairs lined up at the glass-door entrance to the Club House where senior citizens in age, but young in spirit (if the decibel of their discussions is anything to go by), are busy debating for and against anything under the sun. They sum it with a walk up to SLV for coffee. This is so regular that one day when I asked the Manager lady at SLV if she was not closing down since it was nearing 7.30 pm, she said, “No, we are just waiting for the SFV seniors for their coffee.” 

So much so, the ladies with their own simultaneous sessions in the shelter-area of the park, wanted to be one up. “Why not we go on a day-long trip. After all, we can do that ourselves.” Probably, in the end it was decided that it could be a joint effort of both the groups so that for most part it will be a senior-couples group. We shall keep our fingers crossed.

Activities on spirituality are no less. The seniors’ Rudram-Chamakam session is getting to be a year old.  They have graduated from the primary to the secondary level with their chorus chant now upgrading to more than just passable. In fact, they are even ready to ‘perform’ in others’ houses by invitation. It may not match the professional level of purohits, but it will definitely not be a wasted effort either, more so for just a cup of coffee at the end.

If the seniors have graduated to secondary level, a strong and committed group of gen-next is gunning to overtake them, with more sound basics. They are getting trained twice a week under a learned purohit. Whereas the seniors host their sessions in their houses in alphabetic order, Mr Vaidya (8063) hosts the gen-next’s sessions in his house.

That reminds me. Vaidya’s wife, Shanthy, is an orator par excellence. Every Tuesday she holds a one-hour session on Lalitha Sahasranamam in her house. Come 10.45 am, ladies leave aside their kitchen work to rush to her lecture. Not just that, a little earlier, to get a chair to sit. Keep up the good job, Shanthy ji.

As though these are not enough, Sudharshan Acharya performed Satyanarayana puja this morning in Club House. Don’t ask me who is Sudharshan Acharya. Yes, the same ‘omnipresent’ guy whom you can see at all places in the complex giving directions to the markers on where to mark the Exit, Entrance, or Gate numbers, or what all things one should expect as one enters, say, Oak, such as Cricket pitch, Joggers’ Park, Library, Visitors Park, etc. Given the large attendance at the puja one wondered if it was for the successful completion of ‘phase 1’ of his activity. No, it was one of those activities culminating with a prayer, “Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu”. Well done Sudharshanji, except that there were too many items on the plate.

On the business front, the Association completed yet another arduous task of issuing Share Certificates. Yes, we could see two long rows of volunteers who had burnt their midnight oil to verify and prepare the certificates, all eager to attend to you. Good job. Kudos.

I told you we are a busy lot.