Chennai sangamam got inaugurated 3 days back. After some deliberations on the best day to visit, we decided to go to Venkat Narayana road for the 'White' night celebrations today. So went to Natesan park around 6.45PM and Vanathy wanted to have the Mehandi done and Sibi wanted a tatoo. There was crowd everywhere and the programs were running in parallel.
After getting that done, we decided to have the dinner in the park and chose the Burmabai Stall for parathas. The parathas with chicken were fantastic and with Mrs. Gayathri Venkatraghavan singing some good Bharathy songs in the background, there was a show by the the Mallar school from Villupuram. 'Pulendran koothu' started right after that on the stage.
After dinner, we noticed that the road was now closed for traffic and all the action was happening in the road. So walked down the road watching the koothu, thappattam, paraiattam, oyilattam, poikal kuthirai, karagam and so many other activities were going on and after walking around having fun, we also saw Kanimozhi MP coming for a visit. It was a night well spent.
More than the koothu and aatams, what I think the annual 'Chennai Sangamam' has helped is to show that our folk culture is worth looking after and for me it is a way to connect with my childhood when I used to watch all these in our thiruvizhas in Sivakasi and Madurai. For my kids, its a learning experience to know the different facets of our folk culture.
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