Selective Amnesia

The fifteenth Chennai Photowalk + Chennai Sangamam

Hello all,

Sorry for the silence all these days. What with work, and other commitments, I’ve just not had the bandwidth to keep you all updated on the photowalk plans this month. Before we get into that, permit me a little digression and a little rambling.

I just got back from the Chennai Sangamam Opening Night performance. It was fantastic!

For those who came in late to the show…Chennai Sangamam is an annual event (now in the 3rd year) that celebrates Tamil traditional art forms. It is held on the second week of January (to coincide with Pongal) and bring to Madras/Chennai some of the oldest rural and traditional music, dance and other performances.

This year is easily the biggest show, purely in terms of scale and ambition.

This January is loaded for those looking to get some fun. There’s Chennai Open tennis, there’s the annual Book Fair, there’s Chennai Sangamam, the final few kutcheris from December season, and then there’s the Tourism fair in Island grounds.

But, what with Madras Week in August and Chennai Sangamam in January, Madras has come in to its own in terms of events, but it is definitely not enough. We need more, and I for one am planning a few things that I hope comes through well. I was associated with both Madras Week 2008 and Chennai Sangamam 2009 in a minor way and, like a cat that’s tasted milk/blood, I cannot wait to get more.

Now, back to schedule. I know this is very short notice for all of you, but I hope you (at least all of you in Madras currently) can make it to the Sangamam opening show tomorrow at the Centenary Auditorium, Madras University tomorrow at 6:30 PM

Okay. As I mentioned in the earlier mail I plan to do one walk every day of the Sangamam, at each of the venues. What is more, there’s a photo contest as part of Sangamam

The full list is available here – if you click on the links (each venue is a link), you’ll be taken to a page with the schedule for that particular venue.

But, if you folks all bear with me, I’ll decide which venue to go to daily and send a mail via the FB group. Each night, if you guys check your mail, you’ll get the agenda for the next evening. That’ll let us cover most of the big events and I am the only one sweating over the logistics.

It will be short notice, but I hope you folks can make it. We all meet at 6:30 inside the Madras University Campus tomorrow?

P.S: Remember, there are 7 days and 17 venues this year. So that’s a lot of walking and taking photos.