Performance space

At the end of Elliot's Beach Road - rather at its start, for the address is 1, Elliot's Beach Road - is a secluded space, born of one woman's vision: the dancer Chandralekha wanted to establish an artistic-human space within the city. She wanted artists and performers on their human scale to be juxtaposed against the eternal "elemental scale of the sea and the sky". The beach at Besant Nagar was another performance space for her, and it was appropriate that her vision took shape right next to it. 

Established in 2000, SPACES is nestled in a corner at the northern end of Besant Nagar beach. From the road, one does not see any buildings; the stone walls and the wooden gates seem to contain just some greenery within them. But there is more. Chandralekha wanted it to be known over the world as "a Performance Space - a Sacred Space - a Sun and Moon Space - a Sky and Sea Space". And so within the walls, there are a few buildings: a stage with a tiled-roof (and minimal arrangements for lights / audio), a kalari (arena) and some office-cum-residential quarters. There is also the Chandralekha archives, but I haven't had a chance to see those yet.

I'm not sure about the last 3 kinds of spaces, but SPACES is certainly a favourite with teachers / learners of kalaripayattu, and with performers who are keen to explore alternate forms and interpretations, which may not find favour with more traditional performance venues. It is also a good place to rehearse for a performance elsewhere. You will be undisturbed, there is enough elbow room to simulate what you might wish to do on an even bigger stage. And that is what the folks here are trying. No, don't worry about them, they're all okay. In fact, they are all quite superb performers. It is just that they're loosening up in a seemingly unsynchronised fashion before beginning rehearsals for their play. SPACES does that to one!

PS: If you would like to see them on stage, that's easily done. The next show of the production they were rehearsing for is on January 27 (2023) at the Narada Gana Sabha. Get your tickets by clicking this BookMyShow link. 

Bonus - you get to watch me, too :)

From here to the stars

What connection does this school quadrangle - that is what it is, obviously - have to the NASA's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF)? The answer is quite short: Chandra. This is where the Nobel Laureate Subramanyan Chandrasekhar went to a formal school for the first time. Until his father was transferred to Madras (from Lahore), and for a little while after as well, Chandra was privately tutored. It was in 1922 that he was enrolled at the Hindu High School, Triplicane.

The school buildings are just the way they were in Chandra's time. And well before that, too. The buildings were inaugurated in 1898, even though the school, in different forms, had been functioning from much earlier. Chandra finished his schooling in 1925 and then went to college a short distance away - the Presidency College. In those days, college meant 5 years; in the final two years, Chandra "formed a friendship" with a Lalitha Doraiswamy, a college-mate one year his junior. She became his wife in 1936 and remained so throughout her life, being the "central facts" of Chandra's life - something he spoke about in his biographical on the Nobel Prize website. 

In 1998, three years after his passing away, NASA named its AXAF the "Chandra X-ray Observatory" in his honour. And that is how this quadrangle - where generations since have played, and then gone on to shine in their chosen fields - connects with something out there amidst the stars!

Reaching for the moon

Fairly historic day, today. India's first moon mission lifted off early in the day, from the launch site at Sriharikota, about 100 km north of Chennai. We had had some plans of driving down to watch the launch - but with the weather being what it is, it did not seem like a good idea, especially considering that we would have to watch the launch from somewhere outside the gates of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. In the early days of the Centre (it was set up in 1971), Madras was the place to go for the scientists working at 'SHAR'; these days, Sullurpet seems to provide enough entertainment for them. In any case, with several missions lined up, entertainment will probably be the last thing on their mind.

Chennai continues to be a major feeder hub for the Sriharikota Range. It will take about 3 hours to get to SHAR by road - of which a third would be spent in getting out of the Chennai traffic. The trains are faster, but they take you only as far as Sullurpet and you've got to get back on to the road after. Sriharikota is actually an island, so there is also the option of taking a boat from Pazhaverkadu (Pulicat) and getting across the Pulicat lake.

Having decided long ago that today's post / picture would be about SHAR, I had not made any alternate plans despite the rains. These clouds may not be of this morning, but they are definitely the clouds over Chennai a few days ago!