The golden rays start brightening the Chennai eastern skyline by 5.30 am. Although it is a leisurely Sunday morning, there are activities galore at the Nageswara Rao Park in Mylapore, in South Chennai. Other than the regular and committed morning walkers and joggers, people from Sundaram Finance, the non-banking finance company, are there in the middle of the park to decorate the floor with flowers bought specially from a local vendor. Some curious walkers stop by to see the yellow and orange flowers spread brilliance all over.

Past 6 and Deeptha and Swetha Vasudevan, 13-year-old twins, sit on the floor in front of the flowers, arrange their sruthi box and start humming. Next to them, on the mridangam, is 12-year-old Kaushik. The violin is handled by CN Srinivasa Murthy, the only adult accompanying the kids.

Exactly at 6.30 am, while the early morning birds chirp, the twins start singing Nyanananda Mayamdevam, a Hayagriva Slokam.

A few more walkers stop by to listen to them.

Text: Shobha Warrier | Photographs: Sreeram Selvaraj

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