Reflections

After the exquisite lunch on Friday, I had no two thoughts about where to go when I decided to have lunch outside on Sunday 23/12. When I walked into Vidhya Bharathi Kalyana Mahal, I thought I heard a very familiar voice on the speakers. I was in for a shock when I peeped in because I thought for a moment that I saw the late Maharajapuram Santhanam singing. Then I told myself it must be one of his sons at sat down. After listening to an elaborate "Bhayami Raghuramam" by Maharajapuram Ramachandran, which took me back in time, I walked straight to the canteen.  After a few minutes I realized that I had got caught between two extremes. The guy on the left was repeating every thing and took a long time to move out of Sambar rice. The elderly gentleman on the right however was more a sanyasi who was shooing away everything. This had a real frustrating effect on the waiters and I had to put my foot down to prevent getting impacted and I did just that. MM did not disappoint. It...

Thanks to our cook at home who didn't turn up due to some personal reasons, I had to eat out today. Having managed Breakfast with an Oats bar, I was feeling really hungry after the morning concert. Lunch was at Gnanmibga at NGS. Gnanambiga is supposed to be the best Sabha place for tiffin but somehow I ended up at the wrong time. Most of the different items were not available at the time I went. Having decided to take tiffin, I ended up eating Onion Rava dosa and Idiyappam. They were tasty but nothing to really write about. Dinner was at Parthasarathy Sabha. I decided to go for new items out and out. Chocolate dosa was first. It was a ghee roast laced with chocolate sauce. To be frank I had expected more innovation and more chocolate sauce but it was still tasty, made even tastier by "Kaadhal enum theevinile" sounding at a distance. The other item chosen was Double decker idly. This was a colourful set of idlies stuffed with Chutneys on one side. The taste was good an...

We got a preview of the music academy canteen menu, thanks to one of our colleagues who was attending the morning free concert there. A very ordinary menu and continued divergence from Iyengar traditional food, which is the core competency of the caterer,  prompted us to go to PS (Parthasarathy Sabha). This was my first lunch at PS. Having walked in directly without looking at the menu board, there was an element of surprise as the  items were lined up one by one on the plaintain leaf. All the accompaniments took their positions on the leaf - Boondhi thayir Pachadi, Cabbage thengaai curry, senai kaara varuval, kathrikkai rasavaangi and Appalam. After the customary ghee and dhaal, the murungakkai and capsicum sambar was a good opening and the expectation set was high. Next up was the surprise package. Erivalli "More" Kozhambu was a real highlight and it was very tasty which only meant   more and more Kozhambu and rice. The stomach was getting fuller but the tongue was r...

I moved in to the Parthsarathy Sabha canteen for dinner right after Sudha's concert. I had decided upfront to experiment. So I immediately ordered "Ilaneer" (Tender Coconut) Idly. A few minutes later the Idly arrived. I smacked my lips, rubbed my hands and moved forward and the phone rang. Boss on the line and some new dish like Ilaneer Idly on the table, is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone. It turned out that boss was in a good mood but he went on and on and I was answering in mono syllables hoping he would hang up soon which he didn't. I decided to start on the Idly. The taste was really good. There were tender coconut pieces in between and I believe they add Coconut water while grinding for the idli as well. The Chutneys were very tasty and the 2 pieces melted in the mouth and vanished in no time. With boss still on call, I signalled to the waiter and pointed to the next item on the menu card, this time no experiment - Raagi Dosai. By the time th...

I was at Parthasarathy Sabha yesterday for Malladi Brothers concert. The hall was packed but when I took a break , I realized that the canteen was also packed. The caterers also for their share are exhibiting a lot of innovation now. Mountbatten Mani's canteen has the interior decorated with portraits of eminent artists both current and old, from Semmangudi to T.M.Krishna, from M.S to Sowmya, you can see everyone. It doesn't stop there. The snacks menu is loaded with unheard stuff be it Raagi Vada, Ilaneer idli, Chocolate Dosa.. There is no dearth for imagination. Need to utilize the rest of the season to try few of these. Yesterday I was not very experimental and was content with Kuzhi Paniyaram and Kancheepuram Idli. I had 2 Maamas, who had conveniently left their wives at home, for company at my table yesterday. It was fun listening to them as they moved from Kanceepuram Idly to Idiyappam, in parallel catching up to start off on the personal front and then chewing on so...

Today 16/12 happens to be the first day of Margazhi. While some Sabhas started their programmes in the first week of December, the more traditional ones like Music Academy and Parthasarathy Sabha had their inauguration only on 15/12. The first morning Kutcheri started today, it was a Nadaswaram recital by someone. More importantly it is the first day the Academy canteen opens for lunch. I don't remember seeing it last year but this year there was an ad in The Hindu giving the lunch menu at the canteen, image above. The menu was tempting and we skipped breakfast and headed to the academy around 11:30 am. the otherwise elusive parking slot was available considering it was too early an hour for Sunday or for lunch. We headed straight for the canteen. The price had gone up to Rs170 from Rs 120 (or was it 130?) last year. Anyway who cares as long as the food is good. The items were laid out one by one on a plantain leaf starting with Badusha more or less in the order in the image...

In my attempt to explore the music season and cover all Sabhas, I found myself at Vani mahal on Saturday 15/12 morning. The first concert was by Saralaya sisters. Google told me that they were students of Balamuralikrishna who had been around for quite a while and were invited by MS some 20 years back to sing a song.  When I walked in there were only 2 other people in the auditorium which seemed to have a capacity of 200 to 250.  Wonder how artists feel when the curtain goes up and there are less than 10 people in the auditorium including the 5 on stage. I guess 10 am on Saturday is too early a start, the count did go up considerably by 11 am. However I did feel bad for the artists as the curtain went up but they didn't show much reaction, maybe they are used to this! The concert started off with a Padha Varnam by Dr.Balamurali and was engaging. I recognized Pantuvaraali (Sarasaaksha) as they started the aalapana, thanks to my repeated hearing in the 80's of a K.J.Yesudoss...

‎2 concerts at the academy today .. had a good lunch and then briefly heard the violin maestro TN Krishnan wind up before settling down for Sandeep narayan's concert.. The guy next to me at lunch was still at vatha kozhambu when I finished, that too after 3 or 4 appalams and 2 rounds sambar and he muttered to me "130 roobaikku onnum perisa illaye". I walked away with a smile. after all it is such characters also who make the sabha experience interesting Sandeep narayan who has let go of the NRI tag to become a full fledged carnatic musician was impressive .. took a strong coffee in the break and followed it with Amrita murali which made it back to back concerts yet again ..Amrita dealt with Akshaya linga vibho in detail which was heart warming .. however made the mistake of staying till the end, the whole area goes mad before the 4:30 pm concert and I could not take my car out .. So took a short walk to Parthasarathy sabha and had some snacks .. badam halwa and kuzhi pa...