Machamada Cup 2011 - concert May 15, 2011 in Coorg

Tipped as Hockey’s largest gathering in the world this Hockey tournament was held between April 22 and May 15, 2011 at Ponnampet Junior College ground( FMC Kariappa Ground & Gen Thimmaiah Ground). Our team was invited to present a Fusion concert in the evening after the Finals and it was indeed a great Experience for our team of Sri. SP Ananthapadmanabha on Silent Violin, Adyar sri. D. Balasubramani on Nadaswaram, Sri. Kumbakonam Swaminathan on Mrudhangam, Drums Balasubramani, Bass Guitar Sri. Yuvaraj, Sri. Pradeep on Tabla and my father triedplaying Jempai & co-ordinated as MC for our programme. 

Thanks to the show on the 6th May, 2011 in Chennai Mr. Suresh of Lasershow India, Bangalore who had seen that concert had suggested our group for this big event and on reaching Coorg around 12 noon on 15th May we were quiet shocked seeing a huge crowd for the finals being held and we were not sure of the audience response for our type of Fusion Music! To state few facts about this Hockey Tournament here are few lines:

The Kodavas have genes that express hockey. This is the 15th year of this Hockey festival and was hosted by the Machamada family. This month long event  witness spectators in thousands. The Machamada family hails from the southern part of Coorg. The game of hockey has always been supported enthusiastically by the family. In family hockey festivals conducted over the past few years, the Machamada family hockey team has won the second place twice and the third place thrice. The family now looks forward to promoting the game.

The Kodava Family Hockey Festival was organized under the aegis of Kodava Hockey Academy with support from Coorg Hockey Association and under the title Machamada Cup 2011. This event— considered a festival and tournament for the people of Coorg— ran for 25 days starting in April. About 250 teams  participated and this fact is in the Limca Book of Indian Records.

As planned we reached the venue, a big open stadium, around 645pm only and as we started to set up our instruments int started raining. The locals and the large audience who had turned up knew the climate conditions very well and informed us that it will rain only for 20 mts and it actually rained only for 20 mts!! We just took 15 odd mts to do sound check as the crowd was large and getting little impatient.It was a nice experience - even though not good - to do sound check while cracker sow was on! Kudos to the experienced team members of our group and an excellent organiser in Mr Suresh & the technicians involved, we started the show at 735pm and went on for an hour. 

Starting with Mallari and then on to Mahaganapathim i performed my own composition in Chakravagam and Mohanam and it all looked great with audience appreciating our efforts in total. However as t was a huge crowd and also as it was more of mood to start dancing for the youth present, few of them started coming nearer to the stage and asked for some numbers with fast rhythm. Sathya turned on to folk tune and 6/8 tempo and this was welcomed by this huge gathering! We decided to get on to some very popular film peppy numbers and presented them in a medley format and ended our show after around 75 mts! The crowd applauded our efforts and it was totally a different show presented with great experience gained!!