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Space for self and society too
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The intellectual space and wide catholicity that Chennai displays give the city a unique identity. VISA RAVINDRAN captures the vibrant spirit of the metropolis.
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"INDIA HAS only four cities that truly represent its mixed culture in spite of their being metros — Benares, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai," says Pandit Jasraj. "Ensemble Resonanz" from Germany, that toured India with its Western classical music concerts, found in Chennai its most sensitive audience.
When Eckhart Tolle, German philosopher (`The Power of Now'), gave an introduction to his teachings at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, the hall overflowed with interested listeners of all ages. Later, as the audience listened in pin-drop silence with many youngsterseventaking down notes, latecomers could be seen trying to squeeze in and find a place wherever they could. An article in the papers a few days later tore Tolle's ideas to shreds but the sheer interest that brought such a huge crowd to listen to so abstract a theme aptly illustrates Chennai's `mindspace'. This includes the mental stimulation that Chennai affords as also its lively cultural ethos, which has an important cerebral component indelibly woven into sensual appreciation.
While Chennai has been termed culturally conservative — one only has to think of the tales of well-known Odissi artistes complaining of Chennai-ites refusing to appreciate equally their skills in Bharatanatyam or traditional exponents missing `audience energy' when presenting modern dance — intellectually it displays a wide catholicity which together give the city a unique identity. Chennaiites exiled to other parts miss this sparkle in other climes.
Religious discourses, Information Technology conferences, a lively seminar circuit, Carnatic, Hindustani and Western classical music and modern dance, Spic-Macay, Saarang and other quality college festivals to promote culture among the youth, not to mention Kalakshetra quietly teaching and performing through the years, centres of Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy like the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and various centres of study and active research are other manifestations of this eclectic intellectual-cultural energy. About a year ago, a conference on `Facets of Consciousness', which had presentations from Indian and American experts in neurology, yoga, religion, quantum dynamics, art, psychiatry and other branches of knowledge, could perhaps be considered one the best in recent times. Its predominantly Chennai audience made the discussions sparkle. That the Association of Neurosurgeons and the Computer Society of India had organised it together is itself another instance of the catholicity earlier referred to.
Mind and matter explored intelligently from various angles with an exchange of intelligence and verve between expert and receiving audience makes for a vibrant intellectual experience. Full crowds at the Madras Book Club for monthly meetings, the flourishing of private Shakespeare clubs and Sherlock Holmes museums (started by a Chennai doctor), knowledgeable audiences with interest and experience in everything, from the latest manuscript preservation methods to sustainable development to alternative medical therapy, keep this intellectual space productive.
Paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography and video draw their subjects from the crowds, the sights and sounds and the spectacle of teeming urban life. But if someone had to document Chennai through its sights alone, much would be left uncaptured because the visual cannot grasp fully the mindscape that is so much part of its being.
A lot more of our urban encounters are seen in the lec-dems of the December music season, in the flourishing of a Sampradaya (storehouse of rare music) and its regular visitors, the Prakruthi Foundation and its invitees meeting on the magic site if an old mansion to discuss the Andal-Vaishnavite tradition and special garland-making or listen to a visiting writer speak on Pallava Art, the quiet groves of the Theosophical Society and those who flock to its annual lectures, or those who gather regularly on the stone benches of the Marina and discuss the intricacies of a raga or lament their inability to find a seat at the Academy when Noam Chomsky spoke there.
It is also reflected in this incident that Renuka Narayanan writes of in a leading national daily: having described the much-publicised spats in the recently-concluded literary festival `At Home in the World', she speaks of what she calls `cultural confidence' which relates, according to her, to faith in oneself and a solid grounding in one's own heritage.
When Tamil writer Asokamitran found himself in the august company of distinguished panelists, she say, some in the audience `trembled with protective fear' for the bhasha writers in comparison with the smart Delhi set and the `firangis from cash-rich milieus' but he spoke "in his typical Tamil accent, without a trace of the naïf, with such self-deprecatory wit and ironic worldly wisdom, that everyone clapped in genuine appreciation."
This cultural confidence in our own Chennai writer is part of the spirit that cannot be captured in the visual flowering of Century City if Chennai were to be similarly depicted; it absorbs into itself the very debate about loss of identity in the wake of globalisation, and keeps gloriously alive the intellectual space of a thriving metropolis.
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