Mardigras 2003 organized by Gajendra Circle, the New England chapter of the IIT-Madras Alumni association was held at the Walker Hall at MIT. Over two hundred alum attended the event. Some had even come from as far off as Atlanta for the event.

After an initial “meet and greet session” Dr. Vijay Kumar, Associate Provost for education technology at MIT welcomed the alum. He gave an overview of the IIT 50 celebrations. Some multimedia presentations drawn from the IIT50 celebrations were shown.

The event was billed as a “fun event for the entire family”. They even had a clown to entertain some of the younger members of the audience. A comedy skit bringing memories of the old IIT hostel days was part of the entertainment program for the evening. TV Krishna (‘73) relived in caricature the mundane and the magical moments of "those days at IIT" with rich stories to be remembered.

The highlight of the evening’s celebration was a Indian Classical, Fusion and World Music concert by - Prasanna and his wife, versatile singer Shalini (both IITians) who were joined by top Boston area mridangam player Mahalingham and a dynamic rhythm section including bassist Tony Grey from England, Drummer Akira Nakamura from Japan and multi percussionist Pedro Ito from Brazil.

Prasanna began with a brilliant rendition of “Vinayaka Ninu Vina” in Ragam Hamsadhwani. The swarams and sangathis were extremely impressive and reached out to even those unfamiliar with Carnatic music.A dignified rendition of Muthuswamy Diskshitar’s Kamalambha Bhajeham in Anandbharavi followed. Mridangam accompaniment by Mahalingam appropriately enhanced the presentation. Prasanna then switched gears and presented Jazz and World music. While I am not knowledgeable about this form of music to comment on it, I must say that it really reached out to me. Shalini has a beautiful voice and the presentation was new, creative and had a lot of substance to it. One could see that the audience was really enjoying the music. It takes a genius to switch so seamlessly from one form of music to another and perhaps Prasanna is the one of the few maestros who can do that without compromising on music quality.

While it was an IIT–Madras event, a few alum of other IITs were also present. Meeting and greeting old friends, reliving some of the days back at IIT, good food, great music, fun skits makes for a pleasant evening and Mardigras 2003 certainly fit that bill.

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