ML Vasanthankumari's 90th Birthday Celebrations @ Music Academy

[shankarabharanam]

The Legendary musician's 90th Birthday is being celebrated by her disciples at the Music Academy on July 3, 2018. As mentioned by her prime disciple Smt Sudha Ragunathan in FB, her senior disciples are coming together and would be performing together. They are going to release a souvenir the same evening. Smt Sudha Ragunathan also mentioned there would be stamp release by the Defence Minister and post this there would be a dance prog by Smt Rama Vaidyanathan and Smt Sudha Ragunathan would accompany her on the vocals. Here is the invite

[arasi]

Great news! Thanks to Sudha Raghunathan and to all of MLV's students. Wishing them and her rasikas a great day!

Forever spring, her music brings
As her sweet name proclaims

The voice, verve, spirited venturing
Into imaginative heights to delight!

The depth of her musical prowess!
Her love for the art, caring ways
For her students and many more
Her grace, even under duress!

As her sweet name proclaims
Forever spring, her music brings

[thanjavooran]

Wishing the function a great success .
Arasi,
A befitting tribute.
With wishes,
Thanjavooran
16 06 2018

[shankarabharanam]

Here is the formal invite of the event that provides the details of the entire event.

[rajeshnat]

Shankarabharanam
Who is Rahul Vellal? Any pointers donot know him. Best wishes for grand success to one of the greatest female musician of all times (maha vidushi MLV).

On a side note as per your invite, Master Rahul vellal gets 25 mins from 04:30 to 04:55 , but padma bhushan sangeetha kalanidhi Mastered Trichur Ramachandran gets 20 minutes from 04:55 to 05:15.Moral of the story even if you get SK and Padma award in your career you may still have quite a lot of 20 minutes concerts in the second half of performing career . The great vidwan Trichur Ramachandran can sing sonnadai seidhida sagasamA from 04:55 to 05:15 and then from 05:15 to 05:35 Vidushi Charumathi Ramachandran can sing KannanE en kanavan . Atleast there is enough classical juice even for 20 minutes - only GNB and MLV school with those intensely classical haunting numbers can give that dash .

[harimau]

Shankarabharanam
Who is Rahul Vellal? Any pointers donot know him. Best wishes for grand success to one of the greatest female musician of all times (maha vidushi MLV).

What planet are you living on for you not to know Rahul Vellal?

He, along with Sooryagayathri, is a chela of Kuldeep M Pai. Famous because he is featured in the Vande Guru Paramparam series of videos produced by Kuldeep Pai, which get tens of millions of hits on YouTube.

Here is a sample: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vJxVWF8KjFI

If you consider the number of his fans on YouTube, he should have been given the entire evening and all others banned from singing anywhere in the world!

[kvchellappa]

Thanks Harimau. That was a tiger 'pidi' or 'idi'. I also came to know him now.
What uccharippu and what singing!

[shankarabharanam]

Shankarabharanam
Who is Rahul Vellal? Any pointers donot know him. Best wishes for grand success to one of the greatest female musician of all times (maha vidushi MLV).

On a side note as per your invite, Master Rahul vellal gets 25 mins from 04:30 to 04:55 , but padma bhushan sangeetha kalanidhi Mastered Trichur Ramachandran gets 20 minutes from 04:55 to 05:15.Moral of the story even if you get SK and Padma award in your career you may still have quite a lot of 20 minutes concerts in the second half of performing career . The great vidwan Trichur Ramachandran can sing sonnadai seidhida sagasamA from 04:55 to 05:15 and then from 05:15 to 05:35 Vidushi Charumathi Ramachandran can sing KannanE en kanavan . Atleast there is enough classical juice even for 20 minutes - only GNB and MLV school with those intensely classical haunting numbers can give that dash .

Let me clarify couple of things. this invite was posted in rasikas so that music lovers can join in large numbers and celebrate the music of a legend.From what I heard, Smt Sudha Ragunathan is spearheading the event and is the brainchild behind the entire thing. She is the one who initiated this and has taken care to bring in the disciples and is also donating for a noble cause which she has been doing for so many years through her Samudhaaya Foundation.

Just for the benefit of the rasikas, let me point out that the philately society usually releases stamps for only centenary events of individuals. I have been told that this is the first time the Govt has accepted to release it for 90th anniversary of a musician. So kudos to the Smt Ragunathan for making this happen. I say this because we all know how Govt works in such matters. And it is indeed a matter of pride for all music followers that such a thing is happening for a carnatic musician who was a pathbreaking woman musician.

Coming to Rahul Vellal. He is a prodigious talent from Bangalore and learns from Smt Kalavathy Avadhoot. I believe the organizing committee would have deemed it apt to encourage a young talent during this occasion because lets not forget that MLV amma had encouraged so many young talents who are now front ranking singers, accompanists etc. As for the time allocated to Rahul, I think they would have given extra five mins for Sri Trichur Ramachandran sir to settle down in stage after Rahul's 20 min performance. I think the time allocated for every disciple is the same. And when such a large scale event is planned with such high profile guests like the Defence Minister accepting to be part of it, we really can't get into too much details just from the invite.

And prior to the speeches, I am sure we as rasikas will get to hear some classical fare from her disciples for nearly two hours. And of course a dance cum musical performance at the end. So personally when I saw the invitation, I appreciated the fact that she has tried to bring in every disciple (available on that particular day) and give them an opportunity to pay tributes to their gurus. I think none of them, as senior disciples and highly ranked musicians would have really thought about the time spent on stage but would have seen it as an Anjali to this doyen and amazing guru that she was.

I personally won't be able to make it being in US, but have always loved to be part of such events because it gives us an opportunity to celebrate the legends music and also may be get to know the various facets of MLV as a person which we might not have known otherwise. And of course I worship MLV

[kvchellappa]

Maybe someone may request the organisers to webcast it if all concerned agree.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Just for the benefit of the rasikas, let me point out that the philately society usually releases stamps for only centenary events of individuals. I have been told that this is the first time the Govt has accepted to release it for 90th anniversary of a musician. So kudos to the Smt Ragunathan for making this happen. I say this because we all know how Govt works in such matters. And it is indeed a matter of pride for all music followers that such a thing is happening for a carnatic musician who was a pathbreaking woman musician.

Nothing to gloat about ! There are a good number of examples, a few of which are :-

75th Birth Anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
67th Birth Anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose.
85th Birth Anniversary of Sarojini Naidu.
90th Birth Anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
95th Birth Anniversary of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.
61st Birth Anniversary of Bhagat Singh.
90th Birth Anniversary of Sadhu Vaswani.
75th Birth Anniversary of Kamala Nehru.
...
...

[shankarabharanam]

Just for the benefit of the rasikas, let me point out that the philately society usually releases stamps for only centenary events of individuals. I have been told that this is the first time the Govt has accepted to release it for 90th anniversary of a musician. So kudos to the Smt Ragunathan for making this happen. I say this because we all know how Govt works in such matters. And it is indeed a matter of pride for all music followers that such a thing is happening for a carnatic musician who was a pathbreaking woman musician.

Nothing to gloat about ! There are a good number of examples, a few of which are :-

75th Birth Anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
67th Birth Anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose.
85th Birth Anniversary of Sarojini Naidu.
90th Birth Anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
95th Birth Anniversary of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.
61st Birth Anniversary of Bhagat Singh.
90th Birth Anniversary of Sadhu Vaswani.
75th Birth Anniversary of Kamala Nehru.
...
...

Oh common pls note I mentioned USUALLY RELEASES AND THAT TOO FOR A MUSICIAN. I might have gone wrong. May be but that wasn't my intention to mention it here. My whole point was when it comes to carnatic music, recognition and support from the Govt hasn't always been forthcoming. So when some efforts are being taken whoever it might be one needs to appreciate it.

[shankarabharanam]

Maybe someone may request the organisers to webcast it if all concerned agree.

I hope too sir. I wished to see DKPs but missed it because of being pretty late here. However DKPs family have organized couple of RTP events this weekend and that is being telecasted live. For the benefit of rasikas residing outside Chennai it would be a great to watch it live online

[ark07]

Maybe someone may request the organisers to webcast it if all concerned agree.

It is being webcast live. Here's the link - http://bhalajephotography.com/samudhaaya/

[kvchellappa]

Thank you.

[rajeshnat]

Tuned for the last 20 minutes , tigress is simply rocking - be it tiruppavai in chenjurutti - some abhang in bhimplas - some film song even that has so much azhuttam. Certainly there is just one and only MLV - now going on with my childhood favourite Konjum puraVE. As usual with any documentary SB Kanthan direction and his team rocks.

[shankarabharanam]

Rajesh the first part with her disciples provided a fitting tribute to her guru

[kvchellappa]

Wonderful extempore speech by Smt. Nirmala Sitaraman in fluent manipravalam.

[Sachi_R]

[Sachi_R]

Watched parts. Great event.
Will listen to the music portions again and again.

Sudha. Nirmala. What powerhouses.

PS: Why was Sri. Sinha constantly picking his teeth? May the samosa he had just eaten?

PPS: (sorry folks, my sense of humour. Please excuse).

[kvchellappa]

I would not have minded his anacharam if he had not launched into a political harangue!

[Sachi_R]

Sir I didn't make the mistake of listening to his speech.

[rajeshnat]

I just heard the 10 + mins speech of Smt Nirmala Sitharaman. I have never heard her eloquence in tamil though do knew thru grapevine that she grew up in trichy and also had a small stint in chennai for few years before her longer domicile in andhra. Her speech is a lovely testimony of Speaking truthfully ones experience than rather preparing some thing for the occasion where you never back up with any personal experience . Apart from her cherished experience of MLV (with devarnamas and thiruppavai), I particularly liked her reference where she said she heard for the first time few months back GNB singing so differently brochevA revarurA instead of whatever version that she was acclimatized and connected the stamp of the legend GNB.

I suggest in future instead of stamps which no one uses , we can have the defense minister have these 3 :
1. AirForce Fighter plane named GNB -brochevA
2. Navy Submarine named SSI-marubalka
3. Army Tanker named MMI-sarasasAma

That way there will be considerably more demand for CM and these new arsenals will really have more stamp value.

[Sachi_R]

Rajesh,
I sound like Rip Van Winkle but I am a big believer in the Post.
Indian Post is even more undervalued by us than Indian Railways.
It works extremely well.
It is incredibly cost-effective.

You won't believe this, but a close NRI family came here, printed their daughter's wedding invitation and posted it FROM BANGALORE to all places in USA and Canada. They said they saved a ton of money and the invites reached quite in time.

My grand plan would be to revive Indian Post and make everyone use it. The centrally located Post Offices should be spruced up and made centres for social interaction. That's how the Post Office works in many countries. Of course manypostal staff need to be retrained big time.


And Oh for the pleasure of writing a letter in long hand, with a fine pen, folding and posting the letter!

And Oh for the greater pleasure of receiving and opening and reading a fine crisp letter from someone who is a real human being with time for such things!

I do agree that these special stamps are rareties and Post Offices don't stock them.
That should change.

GNB, MLV, SSI, LGJ should adorn through their stamps our cherished collections of letters. Not be on the side of war planes that shoot at each other and get shot down at 35000 feet.

[kvchellappa]

Well said Sri RSachi.
Even today P.O. is quietly efficient and the staff more productive and courteous than PSBs.
Kalki's Alai Osai starts with a village P.O. in a very alluring way.
MLV must have used P.O. and read Alai OSai. (That is connection to the thread!)

[Pratyaksham Bala]

.
Postage Stamp, First Day Cover, Special Pictorial Cancellation :-

[Sundara Rajan]

Is the speech of the minister Nirmala Seetharaman available on the web ?

[rajeshnat]

Is the speech of the minister Nirmala Seetharaman available on the web ?

Yes Sir . Check http://bhalajephotography.com/samudhaaya/ for the recorded video.Defense Mahavidushi Nirmala Seetharaman speaks from 4:00:00th hour to 4:20:00

[Sundara Rajan]

Thank you Rajesh for the information. I enjoyed listening to the good talk in Tamil & English . I had earlier tried the info by SRk in post No. 13 , but gave up after a few minutes. It is good that you had also indicated the time frame. Thanks again.