Residents of the campus had the opportunity to see English movies screened at the OAT every Saturday at 8 p.m. If it was an exceptionally good one, my father used to take us for the movies once in a while. Once a month, movies in regional languages would be screened in turns-so maybe once in 4 or 5 months we would have a Tamil movie. Again, we would be taken there only if it was an exceptionally good movie ! 8 p.m would be an ideal time for us to go, after finishing dinner. My brother and I would have two shawls with us and invariably half way through the movie,we would have dozed away:-). OAT is nice in terms of the seating arrangement-it is a gallery kind of arrangement, in a semi-circular shape, no chairs anywhere. So we could just sit on the concrete steps, stretch our legs,relax and watch the movies !
Incidentally, OAT was the venue for our Annual School Day Functions till the SAC (Students Activity Center) got constructed.
Concerts at the Music Club,IIT Madras:
Concerts at the IIT Music Club would be conducted at CLT (Central Lecture Theater). Again, this was an excellent opportunity very early in my life to listen to some great concerts. CLT has been one of my favourite halls to listen to music (and to perform too !)
My father was one of the office-bearers of the Music Club for a short period - so we have also had the fortune of hosting many great musicians like Sri.Lalgudi Jayaraman, Sri.Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Sri N.Ramani(Flute),Dr.S.Ramanathan and so on, over, for a cup of hot filter coffee at our residence (yes, C6/13 :-)) before they proceeded for the concert at the Music Club.
Very often,my evening "outings" after school would be to the Jalakanteshwarar temple and Durga Peeliamman temples within the campus:-)
(All set to go to the temple with my parents)
Whenever I talk of IIT, I can never forget the very first car that we had- a bluish-green ambassador (MSR 876) :-). This was the car for the entire family - my cousins, grandparents, aunts,uncles etc ! We were so much accustomed to travelling as a group of 11-12 people inside the car at a time:-)
(A whole gang of us sitting on the "famous" car !)
(This is a view of the IIT park from our house. Unfortunately, only a B&W photo is available with me.)
My formal training in music began when I was 6.I started having my music lessons from my mother.
I then continued my rigorous training and learning under Sri.Vaigal.S.Gnanaskandan.
The next important thing that happened during my school days were the inter-school music competitions that I used to go to, representing my school. This gave me an excellent opportunity to learn songs of various composers and also gave me a lot of confidence right from the beginning, to go up on stage and perform.
(Receiving a prize from Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna)
(Receiving a prize from Actor, Mr.Sivaji Ganesan)
I then started learning the violin, and began classes with the maestro,Lalgudi Sri.G.Jayaraman. I would travel from IIT to T.Nagar (by 5B bus)twice a week, for my violin classes :-)
This is the place where the school Assembly would take place:
All prizes that students would win in various competitions would be announced in the Assembly and I would happily go and receive them (representing Asoka House :-))
(When I visited this place a few days back, I could feel the same old gentle breeze from all the surrounding neem trees in the Assembly area. The fragrance of the white flowers was very familiar, even after all these years :-))
(This is the famous corridor inside the school as soon as one enters the school).
On the right (where the little girl is facing towards) is the Biology lab and it was on this corridor that we used to sit and hurriedly finish our Biology Record Books and submit them:-)
On the left is the Arts Room and the Staff room.
(Will write more about the school in my next post.)
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