Cultural Activities in KGF

Here's a brief note on the cultural activities in KGF in the 60s and 70s.

In my earlier blogs, I have mentioned the Christmas festivities at the various Clubs.

There would be sideshows like lucky arrow, coconut shies, chocolate wheel etc followed by the distribution of Christmas presents to the children by Santa Claus and then a Dance at around 10 PM.

We had the May Queen Ball in May.

The month of Aadi ( Ashada) had a lot of songs on Mariamma played on loudspeakers in temples as well as film songs on Muruga.

Every July, the Amateur Dramatic Society would present "Monsoon Mixture"--- a play in English sometimes followed by a play in Kannada.

The English plays were usually directed by Bill Richards.Mrs Richards was a usual fixture in the plays and the other players were Richard D'Costa and B.T.Hoskin.Can't remember the names of the others.I remember the ease with which the male and female characters who played a married couple ( who may not have been husband and wife in real life) would touch each other and give a light peck on the cheek as any normal couple would usually do.These gestures were totally absent in the Kannada plays and even stage couples who were husband and wife in real life would not touch each other on stage.That was the difference in cultures for you.

The English plays were usually comedies or murder mysteries.

The Kannada plays were usually based on dramas written by T.P.Kailasam or G.P.Rajarathnam. I remember "Undadi Gunda" and "Ammavara Ganda" that were staged.
My dad and mom both took part in "Undadi Gunda".The rehearsals usually took place in Skating Rink and by the time the play was staged I knew all the dialogues by heart.

The usual persons who took part in Kannada plays were , apart from my dad and mom, D.N.Gangadhar, K.N.Srinath,M.S.Ramachandra, S.N.Jagadish and B.N.Sreenivas.B.N.Raja Rao was usually the prompter. I remember that my aunt Sowbhagya also had taken part in one play when she was on an extended stay with us.

The other major cultural event that used to take place once a month was a Carnatic Music Concert or a Bharathanatyam performance or a drama that was organized by the KGF Fine Arts Society.All the programs were staged at Skating Rink so it was just across the road for us.I still remember the inaugural performance which was a Carnatic Music concert by Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar.Other notable performers were M S Subbalakshmi, MLV, D K Pattammal, Kamala Laxman and her two sisters, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Veena Doreswamy Iyengar, T Chowdiah etc.The livewire for all these programs was a gentleman called Mr.Rangaswamy.He used to walk around briskly attending to the smaller details and constantly hitching up his trousers with his hands. I remember making up my mind as a kid that I would get him a belt for his trousers!!!

That's it for today!