Maya Swell Press

Chennai has a well earned reputation for being a difficult city to get around in. In fact this is both true and untrue. Your two main options are auto and bus. There is a train route that cuts down the coast, and links to the airport, so it’s not a great deal of use in getting around town.
Auto rickshaws …. I think I’ve already given you the impression that for the most part they’re pretty dodgy. Even the locals consider them a bit suspect. That being said, one of them today gave me a free ride just to be nice, and because he thought I was an interesting oddball. Good apples in every batch. But generally, they will tell you that the meter is broken, that it costs between 2 and 3 times what the metered journey would have cost depending on what language you speak, and that they will carry you for free if you just visit a mate’s handicraft shop (they get a small commission for delivery, but 2% on the sale so they’ll get gnarly if you don’t buy anything). Generally it costs more in energy keeping the price down than it would to walk to your destination with a 30 kilo pack on your back.

Then there are the buses. Read the rest of this entry »

Actually when I’d heard that Pongal was on its way to Tamil Nadu, my first thought was that it was that someone was having me on. Just go down to Marine (pronounced ‘marriner’) beach … pongal is always here (Marine beach is a favourite place for folks living rough to have a morning crap … when you add that to the fact that has a good sized fishing community and the inevitable left over fishy bits … plus car and diesel fumes from Marine parade …).

Actually, Pongal is the traditional Tamil harvest festival, starting around the 15th January. It is the time the sun starts moving northwards. It is considered both incredibly auspicious, and an even more fantastic excuse to party than New Years Eve. Read the rest of this entry »

Only about 70km from the chaotic new India bustle of Chennai is the Mamallapuram world heritage site. The primary attraction here is a wealth of 10th century temples and stone carvings … and the beach … and the European restaurants …. and the street hustlers selling you as many crappy bead necklaces they think you can afford … oh hell, are all touristy seaside resorts the same or what!.

The iconic sculpture here is the shore temple, but it is inundated with tourists, pilgrims, and hustlers. This is the main world heritage zone, the one that you have to pay for, and for my money, the most beautiful pieces are elsewhere. The temple is still active, but as more of a tourist temple than something that is alive in the hearts and minds of the believers. About 100m off into the ocean you can see the tops of two other shore temples that were still on the beach in the 1950’s. Interesting to ponder the reasons for the disappearing temples… nobody talks about the shore temples plural … whether it’s an early example of the consequences of global warming, or the gods were offended by the tourist circus … it’s anybody’s guess.
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Music season is drawing to a close here, and I’m settling in to a fairly hefty practise schedule on the sax. However, many gems have been cropping up in the musical calendar out of the blue.

Last night saw what I’d regard as one of the two best vocal concerts I’ve seen here so far. This was S.Sowmya and M. Narmada (violin) in Mylapore. I think Suddha Ragunathan’s concert at Nungambakam has been the peak for me … but Suddha is the unquestioned diva of the carnatic vocal scene, a very dynamic performer, an outstanding musician, and a personal favourite for a very long time. Sowmya, I knew only by reputation, and I was hoping to catch her perform. I was not dissappointed. She has a very strong sense of time, and avoid a lot of the hysterical gesticulating that plagues many of the better know and less well regarded performers. When the principal singer has solid tala, the supporting musicians have a lot more space to embellish the work rather than merely accompany. The mridangam (percussion) player took many opportunities to allow Sowmya to sing unaccompanied, providing virtuosic fills to give her melody a much more varied structure. Her voice is strong and earthy, and she is a master of Brugha (the vocal wavering that you hear as a distincive characteristic of Carnatic music) but uses it coloristically rather than as a flashy excess. Her alapana (improvisations without words or rhythm) were interesting, and full of surprising melodic leaps. Dr Narmada was also an outstanding improviser, with strong and intereresting improvisations. Both ladies had an a very serious and almost sombre presence, but when an extroardinary musical moment happened (and there were many), they cracked big childlike grins of pleasure, sharing the magic moments between themselves.

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There has been a deluge of musical happenings events and connections over the past few weeks, but the most important and most challenging one began today. I’m here in India for several reasons, perhaps some of which I’m not even aware of yet. But my focus here in has been twofold. First, to see as much music as possible, in particular Carnatic music. Second, to find a teacher for Carnatic music (particularly for clarinet and sax). The first agenda has been an ongoing joy, and I may never catch up on even reviewing what I’ve seen. The second agenda has been a huge lesson in the magic, madness, and frustration of trying to find anything in particular in India.

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A lot of people come to India to find god, or spiritual illumination, perhaps a guru, or anyway some kind of peaceful meditative place somewhere beyond this planet. But perhaps the most out of this world out of body and out of your mind experience is the traffic: I dont think anything can prepare you it. Lots of places in Asia have slums, squalour, and traffic jams… lots offer gurus and glimpses of god … there is a plethora of places with beautiful and ancient religious artifacts, but as far as I know, only India has a kind of complete and utter traffic mayhem that in some strange way has an intricate and perverse beauty and offers a path that veers between road rage and inner calm and harmony, and offers a deep expression of the spirit of “New India”.

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The music festival here in Chennai has been wonderful, simply divine, and totally inspiring. But in truth, the whole of India is a festival of sound in various stages of organization and disorganization.

Foremost in Chennai is the carnatic music, the Southern Indian Classical tradition. That is not to say that Carnatic music is the dominant style … in many ways, it is a minority music, perhaps at about the level of Jazz or 20th centiry music in Australia, but this is the undoubted hub for this music. A substantial majority of the major classical artists live within 100km, with most of these living in town. So the festival has read like a who’s who.

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I still haven’t found the Tamil word for rubbish bin. In some parts of the town it seems to be the same word as street. But the streets are eventually cleaned up as people go to bed, and clean up their bedroom floor.

A lot of public parks have these bins shaped like rabbits in white PVC. The Tamil word for rabbit is ‘moyel’.

A few gaps, still catching up, no pix yet a I’m running from dodgy cafe to dodgy cafe putting up words, and I don’t think a picture even begins to capture new years eve in Chennai. One day there will be such a thing as mayhem vision that will capture the jangled mash of sensations necessary to feel what it’s like on the beachfront. It would have to work by randomly resplicing your synapses with 10 different web cams and a white noise generator, but in such a way that when you were far enough away, you could watch it happening to yourself, and it would be quite pleasant and peaceful. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve arrived safe and sound in Chennai … bit of a struggle to find cheap hotels … seems to be a bit of a peak season. First arrived Chennai airport christmas night, nearly 11:30 by the time the baggage arrived. Can honestly say that Chennai airport does not look like a shopping mall. More like the foyer of a skyscraper called India that is bigger on the inside than it is on the out. Left is right, up is down, no is yes, yes is yes. I can see how people get their head done in here, but it seems ok.

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