50th Wedding Anniversary, Grandson’s Poonal – Musical Extravaganza in the bargain

“Sundara Mama and Lalitha Mami…” we heard the vibrant voice as we answered the call in the usual speaker-mode. “This is Lekshmi… and Natarajan.” 

“From Geneva?” I guessed. “No, not this time. We are in Thrissur. Mahesh wants to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary coinciding with his son’s poonal,” Lekshmi corrected. 

“It will be a privilege,” she continued, “if you two could attend.”  Our plea of my mobility restrictions and a four-day stay in Thrissur fell into deaf ears. “We thought it would be a sort of Ram-Bharat Milap, but after 20 years,” argued Lekshmi. No doubt we had the best of time together during our tenure in Switzerland.

Mahesh, their only son, is a man of many parts – a loving husband, an affectionate father, a caring son and a person with an amiable disposition. To me, however, he strikes as Shravan Kumar in Ramayana – so devoted to his parents without simultaneously failing in his other obligations.  It was he who was behind organizing the 50th marriage anniversary of his parents. The mornings were devoted to spiritual activities - 108 learned pundits invoking the blessings of God on one morning, and 108 ladies reciting Lalitha Sahasranamam the next morning, etc. the evenings witnessed a gala musical extravaganza. 

Yes, musical extravaganza of the first order. On day one it was Manjapra Mohan enthralling the audience with Ayyappa songs. Three hours is a tall order, but he kept listeners’ attention unhindered. No wonder he is hailed Namasankeertanam Chakravarthy.  I enjoyed the best his number ‘Entha Malai Sevithalum, Thangamalai Vaibhogam, Engum naan Kandathillaye, Ayyappa…’ 

Day two was marked by Nadaswaram recital by a Haridwaramangalam Padma Shri Dr Palanivel and his team. Given the high decibel that go with Nadaswaram-Tavil performance, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, more so for a longer duration. But not so in this instance. The team kept the audience captive. 

The famous violinist Padma Shri Mysore Manjunath and his team of percussionists, each one with a long list of his own accomplishments  took charge of day three. Thus, together they made the audience listen to them with rapt attention. Aside his professional acumen, Manjunath had the gift of the gab which kept the audience in good humour. Thus, as they say in North, it was sone pe suhaga.

The stay also helped me update myself with Geneva friends. After retirement Lekshmi and Natarajan keep themselves busy with charitable work – both with material supply and serving ready meals. Natarajan continues to teach Sanskrit. Murali and Prema enjoy life to the brim. During their couple of visits to India annually they financially help two or three girls from poor families get married. Siva and Bhuvana, the quiet-couple, returned to their base in Chennai a few years ago. They are happily settled in Mylapore. 

Mahesh is a mridangam artist in his own right. Kritika, his wife, an engineer by qualification, is a Bharata Natyam artist. Their son Shreyas did a solo on mridangam when his elder sister played violin during Dr Manjunath’s concert. It was very well received. Well rooted, in other words. 

As though all this is not enough, one early morning, at the persistence of the lady of the house we made an impromptu visit to Guruvayoor (45 minutes drive) disregarding the fact that it was a second Saturday with unmanageable crowd. Even the Rs 1000 ticket had a serpentine queen. Luckily, we had darshan quickly. Yes, for the first time my walking stick performed a little more duty than it was supposed to. A police officer on duty noticed it; he moved us away from the queue and took us up to the place where all queues converge to have Lord Guruvayoorappan’s darshan - which we had in full measure.  I told you everything is preordained. Man proposes, God disposes.

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