Pammal School Students present Group Kutcheri

UKG Student part of the Kutcheri

For 20 students from Sri Sankara Vidyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Pammal, Sunday morning (6th July 2008) was a big occasion.

These students started as early as 5am on their 20 km trip from Pammal, on the outskirts South of Madras, to the Nageswara Rao Park in Mylapore for their first Kutcheri in Chennai. One could see the enthusiasm and excitement in the eyes of these little children as they performed on the big stage for the first time.

The rendition of songs such as Sagala Ganaathipa(Aarabi raagam, Athi Thaalam- Dr. Bala Murali Krishnaa), Sri Valli Deva Senapathipathey (Papanasa Sivan), Sriman Narayana(Bowli Ragam, Athi Thaalam), Venkataasa Nilayam(Sindhu Bairavi Ragam-Athi Thaalam- Purandaradaasa), Kurai Onrum Illai and Maithreem Bajatha had the hundreds of people who had gathered around the Kutcheri chess square at Nageswara Rao Park tapping in synch with the music.

Mrs. Malathy Balakrishnan, Principal, Sankara Vidyalaya Matriculation Higher Sec School Pammal, said “The Sunday Kutcheri is a unique concept providing opportunities for young children to present kutcheris in an open air environment, amidst a nice park setting.”

“This is the first time these children have presented a public carnatic music performance. Singing without mikes and speakers was a new experience for them and the performance at the Sunday Kutcheri would have given them the confidence to present more such public performances in the future.”

T. T. Srinivasaraghavan, Managing Director, Sundaram Finance said, “It is heartening to hear that these children put in long hours of hard work practicing as a team, ahead of the Sunday Kutcheri. Our objective is to provide opportunities to young children and the presence of an enthusiastic 5year old UKG student, as part of this music troupe, was particularly pleasing.”

Sri Sankara Vidyalaya Matriculation Higher Sec School, Pammal was started in 1983 with an initial strength of 135 students. The school now is a full-fledged Higher Secondary School with 2700 students on its rolls in this Silver Jubilee Year.