It began its activities with kutcheris hosted in a small hall, attended by 200 members. Today, Narada Gana Sabha, based in Alwarpet is preparing to celebrate its golden jubilee and the many milestones this arts institution is proud of.

1300 members, dozens of programmes held through the year, a range of festivals and talent promotion projects and awards the sabha has received are the achievements and milestones of a sabha that has come a long way from its beginnings when it hosted kutcheris in a small hall in the YMIA campus off Royapettah High Road and then under a pandal in a plot of land on V. M. Street. The celebrations begin on February 1 evening with the chief guest, Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. That evening, nadaswaram maestro Sembanarkoil S.R.D.Vaidyanathan will be honoured.

A series of concerts by well known artistes will follow that week and go on till February 15. There will also be discourses, dramas and Naama Sankirtanam as part of the jubilee events.

Narada Gana Sabha Rewind . . .

Guess the price of one ground of land off TTK Road in the early 70s.
Everybody knows it costs over Rs.2 crores today.
Then, it sold at about Rs.15,000.
And there were few people who had that kind of money to purchase plots.
But a few wise men pooled their savings and pledged the documents to purchase over an acre of land and went on to build a place for an institution which had been started 50 years ago - Narada Gana Sabha.
On February 1, Sathguru Gnanananda Hall will be the venue for the golden jubilee celebrations of a milestone.
The sabha was started in 1958 to cater to the entertainment needs of a expanding community thise side of Brodies Road ( now R. K. Math Road).
At that time, the Mylai Sangeeth Sabha, Rasika Ranjani Sabha and Mylapore Fine Arts Club were the only places to enjoy Carnatic kutcheris in this part of Madras (The arts had taken root and flourished in George Town where the merchants and educated lived and where business flourished but as Mylapore grew and communities moved here, there was a shift in the venues for the arts and the patronage).
Residents of the Mada veedhi neighbourhood patronised these places.

Need for new sabha . . .

Justice M. Ananthanarayanan, retired Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, was sabha chairman and NGS had about 200 members.

As the migration and settlements grew, the scrub jungle and fields on the western side made way for houses and bungalows. The city's first planned colony also came up - as part of the City Improvement Trust phase of organised planning and housing gave rise ot CIT Colony and Raja Annamalaipuram sprouted.
A few men saw the need to start a new sabha. NGS was born and its hosted its programmes at the Sanjeev Kamath Hall in the YMIA campus off Jammi Buildings. "It could seat about 200 people and Madurai Mani Iyer presented the first concert," recalls R. Krishnaswami, Secretary.

As rasikas increased, the grounds of Vivekananda College were the venue but not for long as the college management was not in favour of holding such events.
Plays were becoming popular then. Y. G. Parthasarathy, 'Pattu', TKS Brothers and S. V. Sahasaraman were the big names and drew large crowds.
NGS was keen to host their plays and so a pandal put up on a three-ground plot of land on V. M. Street, behind YMIA, became the venue.
"Even Vyjayanthimala danced for us here," recalls Krishnaswami.
When The Music Academy had its hall built ( it wasn't air-conditioned then and the gallery section was yet to be built) and hosted concerts, the NGS team felt confident of thinking bigger.
They were boosted by the huge attendance for the plays of 'Cho' and K. Balachander.

Buying land in Alwarpet . . .

The Urban Land Ceiling Act got people with large landholdings to retain only part of it. The family of Mudaliandan Chetty who owned a large area off TTK Road was selling most of the property. NGS was keen to own land and build a hall but didn't have the money. Recalls R. Suryanarayanan, Treasurer, Narada Gana Sabha. "The family was gracious to sell it to us and receive money in installments.". The land was acquired in 1972.
Adds Suryanarayanan, "The Alwarpet of yesteryears was so different. Srinivasan of The Hindu has his farm house in the area behind Chola Sheraton and the next house, that of Venkatesa Iyengar stood in farms in an area near today's flyover. The only road here was Moubray's Road and nobody moved on it after dusk. The other main road was Brodies."
NGS had to look for funds to build a place of its own.
Then came two benefactors. Actors Hema Malini and Sivaji Ganesan.
For close to 10 years, Hema Malini, then at the zenith of her popularity and her career, kept her date on January 2 to present a dance recital for NGS and let the sabha take the collections for its new project.
"Those were days when people from down south sent us money orders to reserve tickets for Hema's recital. We are ever grateful to her and her family."says Suryanarayanan.
Sivaji Ganesan and his plays also raised funds for NGS.
But problems followed.
The project ran aground. The delay across ten years raised costs. Finally, on February 14, 1988, the Sadguru Gnanananda Hall was opened, dedicated to swami Gnanananda.
There has been a huge leap in the number of programmes that NGS has had in the last 25 years and today, is one of the leading cultural organizations of Chennai.