Author: CMR.sg

Today is Pongal festival. It marks the start  and the giving of thanks for a bountiful harvest.

When I was growing up, the highlight of the festival was eating sweet pongal cooked by my grandmother and my mother. They would cook it in huge pots and somehow we would finish it up over a couple of days. Back then it was primarily a family event.

Nowadays pongal is celebrated in a huge way in India and in particular Tamil Nadu. Government schools are closed for 4 days for the celebrations with lots of special programming on tv and radio there.

And with the growing importance of pongal celebrations in India and with the arrival of new Indians here, Pongal is becoming a big festival here amongst Indians here especially the Tamils. Light ups in Serangoon Road and celebrations all over the island this week are now common.

Am looking forward to celebrating Pongal with my mother with a wonderful vegetarian meal and sweet pongal later today!!

Had a wonderful lunch, hosted by Prasoon Mukherjee, with the Ambassador of Brazil Luciano Mazza de Andrade at the Shangri la.

He’s just arrived here and was good hearing from him about the country. Didn’t know we import so much from Brazil such that we are the 6th largest export market for them.

Never been to South America. Perhaps time to start planning a trip to Brazil and Mexico?

Finally the dinner postponed from Nov took place at MBS.

Good venue, good food. The jackfruit payasam was exceptionally yummy! However the most enjoyable part of the event was the wonderful company. It was nice meeting old friends and getting to meet new people.

Not sure if and when such an event by the Indian community will ever occur…

It would have been nice if the significance of giving SM Lee an elephant was explained to him and the audience. Also a commemorative program of the event showcasing the highlights of his career and his key interactions with the Indian community would have been meaningful for the guests as a keepsake souvenir.

The songs were beautiful although I always thought that his creativity ended starting with Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard.

First time I was introduced to any music by Andrew Lloyd Webber was when I played Jesus Christ Superstar in the school band between 1976 to 1978. I loved the music.. but I did not know who the composer was. I remember going to Sungei Road in 1976 to buy a pirated cassette of JCS (the movie soundtrack) for a princely sum of $2. I didn’t appreciate all the songs then. Now I think the entire album is a classic.

First musical of his I saw was Cats in London. That was in 1988. I managed to get the standby tickets for the matinee on a Saturday. Later I saw Phantom when I was a student in the UK. This was on a weekday matinee and again they were standby tickets.

Over the years, I have also watched his various musicals such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (with Jason Donovan), Cats, Evita, Phantom, Aspects of Love (the original cast with Michael Ball) and Sunset Boulevard. And I have seen the movie versions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Jason and Phantom.

At tonight’s concert, the female singer was good but the male singer could have been better.

Overall an enjoyable evening.

Hmmm… On reflection I didn’t enjoy the performance of the song he composed for the coronation of King Charles. They could have skipped that one.

If they had performed “Unexpected Song” from Song and Dance, that would have been nice..

This is my first ever post here.

Let’s see what comes up…

Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or the first step in your blogging journey.

Hi.. this is my very first post here on 10 Jan 2025.

Hope you like what follows..