Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetti, legendary business person and arts promoter has loads of anecdotes and stories to share on stage and off it. And they seem to roll off his tongue when he is a guest at the launch of the December Season festivals of sabhas.

The other evening, at the launch of the music, dance and drama fest, jointly promoted by Brahma Gana Sabha and R R Sabha Foundation at the R R Sabha auditorium in Mylapore, Nalli Kuppuswamy punctuated his speech with anecdotes related to Carnatic music vidwans which trailed off to stories about zamindars as patrons and how Anna Nagar came to be and all that.

They make for good listening but when the speech gets long and then, R R Sabha president A R Santhanakrishnan, also threaded his anecdotes at the podium, the inauguration trailed off.

By then, this large hall was packed. Many had come to listen to the concert of Sivasri Skandaprasad.

That evening four artistes were honoured with awards – they were mridangist Mannargudi A. Easwaran, dancer Meenakshi Chitharanjan, vocalist Neyveli Santhanagopalan and theatre artiste ‘Mappilai’ Ganesh.

The chief guest was T. S. Krishnamurthy, former chief election commissioner of India.

Members of the two sabhas said they had come together because the present circumstances of dropping audiences and rising expenses had led them to a rethink. “This is the start of a kootani ( alliance) and may also make other sabhas think,” one of the sabha’s senior executives said that evening.