Euphoria '06
Mahabalipuram is about 40Kms from Chennai. Famous for its temples and stone art, the place has a serene aura about it. While going there, we passed numerous villages, which had been neatly tagged. The highway was well-maintained, and the road signs were proper. By proper I mean some villages had signs to indicate that a cow might be taking a leisure stroll, so drivers should take note of that :).
Anyways, there was an array of things to amuse us when we reached the Sterling Mahabalipuram Resort. We were welcomed with sea-shell garlands. There were acrobats and dancers (both folk and western) - folk being the one in which the person wears a horse costume, and pretends riding by wobbling his/her belly. Then there were some wearing lion costumes, and roaring. I guess only one peacock costume was available. We moved in further to find stalls of tea and tamil version of mirchi-bhajjiya, and coffee. I didn't find tea special, except for the fact that it was prepared like the way we do it at home - where milk is mixed later-on (not boiled with tea). Or maybe, now I like pecial cutting that I get in Mumbai better. Bhajjiya was bland, and was being served with a white chutney.
The western dancers were taking turns and dancing non-stop. Tiring job that would be.
We proceeded to find the stage and a dance floor being assembled so we decided to walk up to the sea. Bay of Bengal was blue, and it's purity seemed to be overpowering man's efforts to snatch it away. At some distance, there was an temple. A few amongst us told that it is that temple that the place was famous for. After a few see-I-was-there snaps, we decided to return to the resort and wait for the concert to begin. Had to wait long.
The concert began with a performance by a one of our colleagues, based in Hyderabad, he serenaded three numbers, one of which was an Indian Ocean number, which I liked.
This was followed by comedy session by an ex-tv anchor Vikram Sathe. His cracks were mostly about cricket, and he had the audience into splits. Yes, nobody knows there's a mime artist by that name. He was introduced to us as being the one who was with Mandira Bedi in Extraa Innings. That's how people could relate ;).
Next came Hariharan who serenaded songs in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu - owing to the variety of audience he had to cater. Anyways, he's as good in all the languages - but maybe, a bit more comfortable with Tamil. He started off with a song, which I presume is a current Tamil hit - Iyengaaru Veetu Azhage. I like that song. There was one female along with Hariharan, I think her name was Harini.
By the time Hariharan finished, the food (and drinks) was served, and the dance floor was rocking. We left the Hariharan performance well before it was over because we thought he's pleasing the Tamil audiences way too much...and we were hungry. Food was okay. Apparently, drinks were a hit. I tried a mocktail, but didn't like it much. It was called something sunset...and was supposedly a mix of something with orange juice. In my drink, the sun seemed to have set way too much - tasted like pure orange juice. Later on, someone suggested that I should've had Screw Driver. Anyways.
Euphoria'06 was over leaving some pleasant memories. :)