It was a dream come true. I had been wanting to visit Umayalpuram, the place from where my guru and idol – mrudangam maestro Sri Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman (UKS) hails, for quite some time now but never imagined that I will get an opportunity to go there along with UKS sir himself! The occasion was the annual Sita Kalyana Utsavam which brings to the village, families that used to once live there but have now migrated to other places. Some even come from as far as USA to participate.
Taking part in the festival was a great experience in itself. The unchavriti in the morning, the dips and lazing around in the river Kaveri in the evening, playing for the Divyanama bhajans in the night and most importantly eating the tastiest food that I have ever had in my life, all made it a special affair to be remembered for a long long time.
Here are some snaps:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Unchavriti
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Sita Kalyana Utsavam:
Bhagavathars in action:
The ladies get into the act:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Divyanama bhajans in progress:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Program schedule (Courtesy: Ravi Shankar):
Ramkumar R 
Dear Ram,
Nice to hear about your trip.
How are you feeling after your first concert, what was your guru’s reaction???
All the very best for future.
Regards
Feeling better now and recovering quickly. Naan enna hospital lenda velila varen? 😉 Just kidding … don’t take seriously
Ram,
Interesting. My friend’s aunt and uncle are in one of these photos. Sriram knows them too. Small world 🙂
-Sushma
Oh! Which photo is it?
I had been wanting to ask Sriram about this but kept forgetting. Was just speaking with him and he told me he will have a look at the photos and let me know.
Thanks a lot for sharing. It is nice to see the ‘madisar maamikal’ participating in the ‘kalyana utsavam’.
I am one o the UMAYALPURAM Vaasi…
I know very well all those Iyers in the above photos…