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Its all set for the Aradhana @Cleveland, albeit a 11th hour scare The 31st Aradhana Festival is all set to be inaugurated tomorrow – Friday 21st @ Cleveland, Ohio.
The organizing committee, headed by VV Sundaram had a scare when the US Consulate in Chennai refused visas to the artistes bound for Cleveland, apparently a fall out of the ‘cine artistes visa problem’. However, thanks to VVS’ diligence and commitment, all’s well that ends well.
Following is a brief account of what happened at the Consulate initially & how they helped immediately thereafter.(thanks to VKV for the account) 2001 20.
- Tuesday 11th: There was a raid in U.S.Consulate in Chennai which ended up with 3 persons landing in jail (arrested by local police) in connection with the published 200 cine related artists with falsifying their visa related applications.
- Wednesday 12th: The visa appointments for 13 artists bound for Cleveland and San Diego Festival was at 7:30 A.M. all were denied visas & V.V.S. was called by G.J.R.Krishnan around 10:30 A.M. with this information.
- V.V.S. rightaway called the U.S.Consul General - & he pointed out that for over 35 years the record was IMPECCABLE & none of the artists had violated any rules or overstayed etc.. Within half an hour the chief of the Visa section called VVS & asked him to mail the request for visas. He subsequently called VVS at least 3 times & gave appointments to all the applicants on Friday again. They were all granted visas immediately and left for San Deiego on Friday night itself.
The U.S.Officials were courteous, helpful, professional, supportive and went out of the way in how they could help in the process.
- The artistes got their Visas at around 5:30 P.M. on Friday. At 9:30 P.M., it was found that the flight reservations for the artistes were not there. Between 9:30 and 10:30 P.M, 9 seats were found in Air India Flight and 2 in Singapore Airlines flights of the same evening.
Gayathri Venkataraghavan acted as the coordinator of the group. At one point, when there was only 90 minutes to the take off time and no reservations were in evidence, she decided to have faith in the system and drove straight to the airport without tickets for any of them. All the artistes were waiting on the curb side, and Air India Manager at the Airport came outside the security area, greeted them, handed over the tickets that were printed in their airport office and took them inside.... VVS performed another of his miracles by somehow getting them ALL seats on flights USBOUND THAT NIGHT ITSELF;
In this process he missed his own flight & could not be in Sandiego to accept the award that he was scheduled to receive in the San Diego Thyagaraja Festival.
Back to the Festival @ Cleveland
The comfort Inn, where all the artistes, organizers, a majority of the rasikas, participants are staying is abuzz with activity. The dining hall has been opened and food is in free flow. Its like a South Indian wedding in a Kalyana Mantap in Chennai. The pullovers, jackets, scarves and the shoes are a dead give away, otherwise one would think its Chennai!People are streaming in to the lobby, those who have arrived early are catching up with friends, volunteers are running here n there, attending to artistes, VVS is wanted by six people or more at the same time, someone is asking for Lalgudi GJR Krishnan………
Everyone is smiling, everyone is enthu
The festival opens, as always with the Music Competition for children. There are 342 entries in 13 categories. Children from all across the US, Canada, Australia & Europe have submitted entries. A panel of 26 judges will decide the prize winners.
Some of the categories are Vocal, Junior, Sub-Junior, Senior, Instrumental including traditional instruments like Violin, Veena plus Saxophone, Percussion including Mridangam, Ghatam, Kanjira, Harikatha & a concert category. The prize winners from the concert category will get a chance to perform a 1 hr concert with seasoned Indian artistes accompanying them.
Talking to a cross section of the competitors, one finds all the children take this very seriously; they travel large distances just for this – with a few traveling thousands of miles just for the competition.
The children, it appears, look forward to this annual event not only because it gives them a chance to bench mark against peers, but also because they get to showcase their talents in front of some of the legends of Carnatic Music.
Its pretty late here @Cleveland, now.
Watch this space for more abt the festival, interviews, results, photos……
Anyone attending this festival is most welcome to send articles,
pics etc. to
ellaar@gmail.com
L.Ravichandran
March 20, 2008
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