A musical sojourn with Nageswaran Sir at Bangalore

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Last week I had been to Bangalore for a wedding in my relative's family. The Bonanza was some quality time that I could spend with Sri Nageswaran – a pioneer and senior most among rasikas.org forumites.

As my relatives insisted that I must attend the marriage celebrations on both days ( the ‘vratham’,‘Nischayathartham’ & Reception on 22nd and ‘Muhurtham’ on 23rd at the Brigade Millennium Centre (in JP Nagar 7th Phase) I reached Bangalore at my brother’s place in far-away Whitefield well in advance to proceed to the wedding. Meeting Sri Nageswaran was already in my agenda but I did not know where he was staying in Bangalore. A telephonic talk with him revealed that his residence was very much in JP Nagar 6th phase – just a k.m. from the Kalyana mandapam. And a hearty invitation to stay with him during the 'wedding days' was literally Pazham Nazhuvi paalila vizhundhaarpol to me!

Thus I found myself at Nageswaran Sir’s beautiful apartment in the 17th floor of the towering Sobha Tulip by 5 p.m. on 21st March to a warm welcome by the Maama and Maami. Even before I started asking him about our forumites in Bangalore, Sri Nageswaran revealed his surprise plan of already having invited RSachi and kv chellappa to his residence for the evening and they arrived by 5.15 p.m. It was a brief session of rather introducing ourselves and talking about contemporary trends in carnatic music. I was amazed at the deep knowledge of Sri Sachi and Sri chellappa in almost all spheres.

Sri Nageswaran’s son Karthick, his wife Preethi and daughters Sruthi and Harsha joined in a little later. Harsha, though visibly tired of her ongoing annual exams entertained with a rare Nava(ghana)ragamalika varnam, Karunanidhiye (bhouli) and the popular Kurai ondrumillai. Sachi’s constructive appraisal must have been really encouraging to the teenager. Sachi and chellappa had to Ieave early by 7 p.m. due to what is commonly reasoned as 'Bangalore traffic'!

I couldn’t refuse when Sri Nageswaran asked me to sing for a while; but it turned to be an interesting Raga Identification exercise with his granddaughters naming every raga almost instantly with their loving parents throwing interesting clues here and there! Maama of course didn’t leave me without extracting a couple of MDR ‘snatches’ and I selected Kedaram and Reetigoula for the purpose. I also rendered Ambujam Krishna’s Ganamazhai pozhigindraan (ragamaalika) in my 'original' voice.

After a nice dinner prepared by Maami, it was a guided session by Sir that took me back to the early days of rasikas.org. Video recordings of a Rasikas Meet participated by Vidwan T R Subramaniam, footages of another Meet showing M K Ramasubramanian paying tribute to grand masters like Ariyakudi and GNB in ‘their own voices’ etc were quite educative and entertaining.

Another notable recording was that of a detailed presentation by Sangita Kalanidhi Trichy Sankaran on his artistic journey supplemented by many video clippings. His accompaniment for the much popular concert of Semmangudi singing Pattividuvaraada (Manjari) at the Music Academy many years back came in fresh. Another clipping was a face to face with Sankaran by Mannargudi Eswaran with the former demonstrating many subtle korvais and narrating his experiences with Guru Pazhani Subramania Pillai.

A concert of Madurai G S Mani exclusively of his own compositions was another video. The singer’s penchant for the Hindustani idiom was evident in this. This led to Nageswaran Sir selecting Rashid Khan’s Maulkauns which was a real treat. Pt Briju Maharaj demonstrating abhinaya and sharing the vocals with Ajoy Chakraborty for a Kathak number was another rare video clipping.

The next morning, before I left for the wedding venue, we listened to some old audio recordings of Sethalapathi Balu Mama singing a great Sriranjani (Kaanavendaamo) preceded by a touching viruttham. The recording was superb too. Another interesting audio was a very old rendering by Neyveli Santhanagopalan delineating Shanmukhapriya for Marivere dikkevarayyaraama in a true Madurai Mani Iyer style!

The evening provided a different fare wherein Sri Nageswaran played a documentary on the French Violin virtuoso Gill Apap, who travels to India enamoured by the Gamaka aspect which eventually takes him to Varanasi where he comes under the tutelage of Balaji - the prime disciple of Smt N Rajam. It was exhilarating to watch the young western violinist playing the instrument in the Hindustani mode, not to say of his super talents in the western style. Exerpts from Vidushi N Rajam’s recital (Mishra Khamaj and Ghorak kalyan) is another highlight of the film. It was a very good production brimming with Apap’s bubbling enthusiasm.

Sri Nageswaran didn’t fail to make an instant, impromptu call over the mobile to N Rajam to exchange pleasantries. It was nice to hear the Vidushi responding warmly with “Maamaa! Eppadi irukkel?’’ (By way of information, her daughter Sangeetha is married to my nephew Shankar).

Sri Nageswaran also heartily invited my niece Jaya Thiagarajan (an old student of Nedunuri) now settled in Koramangala, Bangalore to visit his house for a music session. During the course of the telephonic talk itself she chose to render two songs including an Annamacharya kriti – a ragamalika covering Sumanesaranjani, Kalyanavasantham, Hamsanadam and Durga, the last one being a favourite of Nageswaran.

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My relatives at the wedding were of the opinion that nobody could have taken care of a guest better than Nageswaran! For the wedding reception there was a music concert by Sri Thirumale Srinivasa - a leading vocalist of Bangalore. Gangeyavasanadhara (hamirkalyani-Swati) and Bhajare re manasa (Abheri-Vasudevachar) were notable in the recital.

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Music connoisseurs of the like of Nageswaran sir are rare to find. He has a large collection of music meticulously classified and indexed. He maintains the gadgets in perfect working condition and enviably tech-savvy for his age! And a person who is too happy to share it with anyone interested. He plans to continue organizing chamber concerts in Chennai - his native place and Bangalore where he resides for a few months every year. He considers it a happy duty to patronise upcoming artists in particular.
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I am back at Chennai after a celebration of sorts!!

[thanjavooran]

Shri Sivaramakrishnan,
Excellent narration. Enjoyed every line. No doubt Shri Nageswaran a Poshakar of C M and His close association with Vidwans and Vidushis, the meeting would have been very interesting. Regards to him. I had the pleasure of meeting him once on one occasion in his Mambalam residence with few of our forumites. Thanks for the write up.
With wishes,
Thanjavooran
28 03 2018

[kvchellappa]

What a miss not having been able to hear you sing, Mr. Sivaramakrishnan!

[arasi]

Sivaramakrishnan,
Age does not wither his enthusiasm nor his hospitality. A pity, our Bengaluru stays don't coincide.
An inventor too, you might add to the list of his virtues! Good health, Nageswarans! A special couple...

[Sachi_R]

Dear Sri Sivaramakrishnan,
It is a pity we denied ourselves the treat of your music and the raga identification exercise.
By any chance did someone record it?
Please share here. I can help you do that, if not Sri Nageswaran.

Sri Nageswaran is like Lord Nataraja. Wherever he is, is Kanakasabha. And so wherever he is, many stars like you, C Rama, Rajesh Nat and others converge. What a treat it is for the Sivaganas like me!

[kvchellappa]

Sri Nageswaran only can bring Sachidanandam where he is!

[CRama]

Sivaramakrishnan, That was an excellent account of a raconteur. Most of the videos you have mentioned I also had the privilege of enjoying in Chennai. And Nageswaran Mama and Mami prove each time that they are perfect hosts. Their invitation is pending for my visit to their Bangalore house. I will make it soon. Thanks for the efforts you have taken to share your enriching experience.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Excellent writeup by Sri Sivaramakrishnan.All important informations were given by HIM.
A few drop box links of the music will be given SHORTLY.
An interesting thing was a raga identification game.
SRI SIVARAMAKRISHNAN would sing a few phrases of a raga and the children are to identify the raga. My Grand daughters Chinchin(Harsha) and Sruthi participated.
They will immediately inform a wrong raga and after a few prompting, they Will tell the correct raga.

S.NAGESWARAN.
30.03.2018.

[rajeshnat]

Excellent writeup SRK, i wish i could give you 2 likes but i gave 1 to you and another just now 1 to nageswaran sir. Our very very first rasikas rasayana concert ofTV ramprasadh held in the house of nageswaran friend whose name is Late Shri Subramanian . Subramanian lived in a street next to nageswaran house in west mambalam. At that time nageswaran was not into forum but he came to that concert.It was coolkarni and few team members with cool being the captain. Then nageswaran sir had the third or fourth concert and he joined our forum. People like Coolkarni and nageswaran are way too special.

I cannnot forget two things that happened in Nageswaran sir old house - what i call as Time well spent with two greatest jambhavans . There was this PB Srirangachari concert in his house and the supernova TRS mama said some thing like "What is this forum i would like to have more oceanic experience and join the forum and learn more about carnatic music" . Anyone will have a oceanic experience for sure, I am having it today as I am browsing only once a day in a week these days.

and few more years later .......

The same nageswaran sir house was the venue with young violin vidushi Aishu venkataraman playing but before that nageswaran sir invited few popular dignataries like MS Gopalakrishnan sir , Cleveland VVS and we had our yearly meet. I was silently seated next to supernova MSG Sir. I think i was seated in the side with tight lipped MSG sir in the sofa and most tight lipped VS Narasimhan violinist was just seated next to me .

I am half or full generation next gen rasika , there is no way that I can ever get an opportunity to be with MSG and TRS mama watching intently them too(this is not possible even if i throw 1 crore ). While TRS mama did not know nageswaran sir then till he came to his house but he wanted to hear concerts that are held by us . I recollect particularly in vidwan srirangachari concert with TRS mama,one chicago utsav person i think his name is raghavan and CMLover were there too. Srirangachari sang some rare arabi krithi and raghavan asked why cannot we have more arabi krithi, TRS mama politely waited and then tells that the musician only sang a rare arabi krithi(now i forget the krithi)

Both MSG and TRS in two different concerts were so silent and just watching - ZERO talk and just encouraging opening their heart . You can see absolutely zero showmanship in them. These two jambhavans MSG and TRS I only met and saw in private only in nageswaran house . Many years later both MSG and TRS mama moved on in the sameyear 2013, that was a coincidence and then another coincidence when one of my favourite singer suryaprakash sang a pallavi with TRS and MSG mudras in two different ragas in cleveland . Of course the death of the jambhavans and subsequent pallavi was very incidental , all these incidents just goes deep into your carnatic psyche. It is just a spread that happens over years

Sachi and Chellapa sir
Any photos of 4 super senior rasikas SRK, Sachi, chellapa with Captain nageswaran.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Rajesh,
Thank you for sharing your colorful journey down the memory lane of rasikas.org.
We must organise a get together during Nageswaran Sir's next visit to Chennai.

[Sachi_R]

Rajesh,
I was too much immersed in the magic to take any pics.
I really really missed the singing session of Sivaramakrishnan.
I heard a bit of what he sang after we left through the courtesy of Sri Nageswaran and man, what a voice and what a raga manodharma he has.