Cleveland SS Program -- Parents feedback

[krishnan_subramaniam]

Dear friends/rasikas,

Sorry, if I am opening a can of worms again. We saw lots of negative, below the belt, personal attacks from few parents/family friends disguised as independent observers of the Sustaining Sampradhaya program. The moderator, rightfully stopped the flood of unfair negative sentiments by locking that discussion forum.

However, it deprived other parents a chance to express their positive experience from the SS program. I am taking the liberty of summarizing all of the emails, I have seen on this topic. I have not seen one negative comment.

It is unfortunate, few disgruntled parents or friends of SS kids choose to express their true self using fake ids. I am sure their kids know who wrote what. Our kids learn from observing us. Those disgruntled parents should think real hard if this is how they should bring up their children!

I myself a parent of two kids who have been attending SS programs for the last 4 years. We are truly happy our kids joined the program. The program and the gurus we got introduced through the program, the friends our kids have made in this program has truly expanded our world and the friendship will be everlasting.

During the 2nd year SS program, the gurus made the decision that kids playing flute will play flute one at a time -- because the kids were not able to align the sruthi. The flute sruthi was changing randomly due to environmental conditions and kids were not knowledgeable enough to recognize that and adjust the sruthi. As a parent of 2 kids playing flute, I was bit upset then. However, I feel that is the most valuable lesson they have learned. They are very conscious of sruthi alignment t now. You have to leave the gurus do their job and have little faith in them.

I would suggest the Cleveland organizers set the expectation of the parents and the kids ahead of time:
-- $ 1,500 doesn't buy you entitlement for your kids to do manodharmam on the stage (just because the kids are in a soccer team doesn't guarantee equal amount of field time)
-- The guru appointed by the Cleveland Aradhana has the right to pick the starting line-up (for manodharmam). If the parents are not comfortable with that, please take the kids off the program
-- The guru appointed by the Cleveland Aradhana has the right drop the krithis, as per his/her best judgment

As Sanjay Subramaniam once said, you send your kids to school/college for 16 to 18 years before they become proficient in the field of their choice. Similarly allow time for your kids to grow up slowly in the field of carnatic music. Don't expect miracle in 6 or 8 years.

Regards

Krishnan Subramaniam

--------------------------------
All:

I am a bit late here to add my Thank you note. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks to everyone for everything, particularly to Jaya mami whose hard work and dedication is something all of us have come to respect.

This was our first time. Great learning experience. Meltdowns and hard work apart, my daughter learned a lot and more than anything got inspired by others, which was the primary goal of this participation.

Thank you and thank you to all in the team.

- Rema (Shakthi's mother)

-------------------------
Hello everyone,

My family also had an exciting time at Cleveland Aradhana this year. Watching the children perform with confidence and display their passion was inspiring. My family enjoyed both of the Sampradaya programs thoroughly.

On another note, I feel disturbed to read the disgruntled statements about Jaya mami. So much of negative thoughts have been dumped on the Rasikas.org blog. The concerns appear to stem from some people who observed the GNB program rehearsals, which I did not follow. Since the Rasikas forum topic has been locked by the site admin, I share my comments here. Feel free to interject with your thoughts.

My son,Sudarshan, is a student of Sri. Suryaprakash. Sudarshan has been participating in the Sampradaya program for the past three years. The group practice and rehearsal help Sudarshan to learn from others and also to help others with his feedback. Developing such synergy and symbiosis is the essential part of the learning experience that Sudarshan values in Sampradaya.

The manodharma performance in the concert is not the focus of the Sampradaya experience, at least in our understanding. I have seen able kids doing substantial parts of manodharmam during their first year itself. However, Sudharshan did no manodharmam on his first year, did very little on his second (only one swaram bit), and a bit more this year. His experience demonstrates how a student can advance her/his skills and perform better over time. Thus, it is possible to take the best out of the Sampradayam program, if one aligns her/his expectations to the program's goals. Sampradaya is a course of education, where children of different learning levels get equal opportunity to learn from great musicians. The children also learn about manodharmam, which is not the very focus of this program.

I guess grieving folks chose to isolate Jaya mami and offend her in public. If there is any substance in those remarks, let the Aradhana Committee make necessary steps in the future. However, any other teacher in place of Jaya mami would have faced similar condemnation. When a trainer has two dozen kids and just three days to coordinate a concert, she would need undiverted attention. Asking too many teachers to collaborate on the spot to coordinate a concert seems impractical to me.

To the best of our family's observation for the past three years, Jaya mami has been so sincere in preparing the Sampradaya children to bring out their best potential. She works tirelessly to help the children to practice hard and deliver a good concert. The Sampradaya children love mami's positive and non-judgmental attitude toward them, and her honest feedback about how they perform and how they can improve. I am sad to find this great vidushi and teacher being degraded by the so called music lovers.

Let us, the parents, provide constructive feedback to make things better. However, confusing our children with politics will only hurt their enthusiasm to work as a team and learn together.

Thanks,
Mohan
------------------------------------

Hello, My daughter has been in the SS program for the last two years. The SS program kids and all the teachers like Jaya work relentlessly with the kids for nearly 4 months. Jaya was my daughter's trainer this year. It has been a very enriching experience for my daughter. All the teachers and kids who participated in this program have contributed in making a difference in her musical experience. This experience that my daughter gained out this whole SS program will be cherished by her for her life time.

Vidya


------------------------------

Hi Everyone,
First off, I want to say I enjoyed meeting all of the kids and their parents. I spoke to some of you but did not get the chance to speak to all of you. This was our first sustaining sampradaya experience and all of you were really nice and your encouragement and kind words for Ahi have made a big difference. Mostly, the kids have been instrumental in kindling an interest in Ahi for music which I would not have been able to do. I think Ahi has made some friends for life. For us, it was truly an enriching experience on so many levels.

Thanks for the pics.

Regards,
Poornima

-----------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone,

It was my daughter Shubha's first time to participate in the Sustaining
Sampradaya program. She enjoyed learning the songs from the lessons
and also performing along with other kids and in front of the vidwans.
My other two kids also enjoyed being there and got inspired seeing
all the kids singing.

It was a pleasure being in the Aradhana having had the opportunity
to see lots of kids perform, to meet the vidwans, parents and the
organizers.

Uma Ganapathy
-----------------------------------------------------

Dear Mohan Sir and others,

Good Afternoon!

This was our first our experience of the Cleveland Aradhana and god willing, you have a family that would be honored to a be part of this tradition for several years to come.

I think Mohan correctly pointed out what I wanted to say, SS is about the overall experience not about who does Manodharmam or Swarams etc...Anjana had a real exciting time, made new friends and has a new perspective on learning, enjoying and improving in music.

Sincere thanks and respects to Jaya Mami, Smt. Vasudha, and Sundaram Mama and other organizers for making it happen. My 2 cents worth is, they are teachers for a reason and let us all give them their due respect and be a good role model for our children to follow.

Thank you all,

Best Regards
Narasimhan, Suja, Anjana and Swathi
SS-Swathi Group.

--------------------------
To everyone in this wonderful group,
My humble request to everyone is to not let a few incorrect opinions cloud the awesome effort that has been put in by Sundaram Mama, Jaya Mami, other gurus and the children over the last 4 years to make SS the most sought after learning program in this esoteric space of Carnatic Music.

It was our first year as parents of a participating child and we can only see the enormous prgressive leap our child has achieved through this participation.

We wish this program to succeed many times over in the coming years with the unstinted support of like minded parents and our best of wishes to everyone involved in planning, training and delivering this program.

Regards
Mohan Murali

------------------------------

Hari Om

Our sincere thanks to Sundaram mama and Jaya mami for sheperding this large flock and making the performance a grand success. We are sure that there were many others behind the scene - our thanks go to them as well.
It was a pleasure for us, as Vibha's parents, to be a part of the SS Swathi Tirunal Concert. Vibha really enjoyed it a lot - which is what we really wanted. We also
know how much she learned from the great vidwans and we are sure that she will appreciate this much more later in her life.

Below are two Picasa web albums and video of Radha Viswanathan's blessing the kids

Pictures of kids with Jaya mami taken during practice session at Comfort Inn before the concert, including some with Smt. Radha Vishwanathan are at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/promo14521/ ... iswanathan#

The pictures at the concert hall with some pictures of parents are at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/promo14521/ ... rtPictures#

The video showing her blessing the children can be downloaded and viewed at:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/e02o4d

We have other videos as well that we plan to upload to a website and send you the link later.

Sastri and Satya

------------------------
Hello Fellow Parents,

Our daughter, Sharada, participated in SS for the first time this year. She thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience, the friends she made and was thrilled with the enthusiasm from all the other kids. Since we live in a fairly remote place where she does not get to meet kids who are enthusiastic about karnatic music in her day-to-day life, being in SS is really important to her.

I thank Sundaram Mama for making such opportunities possible. It truely goes to develop interest in our children for the music we all love. I hope God blesses him to be successful in all his endeavors.

Being a musician I know how difficult it is to put such a concert together. I was there at all (GNB) practices and observed all aspects of the preparation. Smt. Jaya and Smt.Charumathi put the program together by drawing the best from each child. They made sure that the concert was put together in such a way that was interesting to the listeners as well. The way it turned out was the best anyone could have done. I take my hat off for both the teachers and thank them with all my heart for the tireless efforts they took.

Best regards,

Jaya and Shashi

-----------------------------------------

Hi everyone,
our sincere appreciation & thanks to Jaya mami, Sundaram Mama for the wonderful opportunity ankita was given . This is the 2nd year that Ankita had the opportunity to participate - thanks to Shashikiran for introducing her .
I feel that this was not just an opportunity for the children to further enhance their music knowledge, but also build new friendships.
The disturbing comments about Jaya Mami bothered us a lot. She truely enjoys teaching , being with the children . It is very hard coordinating , managing a huge crowd for so many hours. We have seen a tremendous improvement in our daughter 's knowledge, interest ,commitment towards music in these two years. let us all give her due respect and be a good role model for our children to follow.

Thank you all,

Best Regards,
srinivas & surya nallani

------------------------------------------

[krishnan_subramaniam]

Adding additional emails I have seen on this subject:

---------------------
Our daughter, Srinidhi, participated in Sustaining Sampradayam for the first time this year. She was in the Swathi Tirunal program. This was a beautiful and enriching experience for her. In addition to learning the rich paadantharams, the children learnt a great deal about hard work, punctuality and commitment during their interactions with Sundaram mama, Jayalakshmi Sekhar, and all the musicians - on Skype and in person.

Most sincere thanks to the Cleveland Aradhana, Sundaram mama, the music teachers, the musicians, and the tireless volunteers who make SS and the aradhana possible. A special thank you to Jayalakshmi Sekhar for her guidance and coaching in helping our children learn the songs as they were taught, and in coordinating the entire group to put forth a wonderful performance.

And finally, this was a great opportunity, for the kids and families, to make new friends! Thanks for the beautiful pictures that everyone has been sending. Attached are some pictures of the group pactice in RM #422 on Apr 01. There are some good pictures of the SWA concert on the Aradhana website. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=59 ... 59be587cce

Thanks and best regards,
Raji and Krishnan

----------------

Hello All

We are fortunate to be in the Sampradaya group for the past two years, and the kids (as well as us) have amassed a wealth of otherwise hard to obtain knowledge and experience - which would stay and continue to guide them through out their entire life. We also went to Detroit and India for encore performances - all of which we enjoyed very much. No doubt for North American carnatic students, Sampradaya program has no parallel.

This year's performance also was excellently planned and executed, our humble homage to the doyens of carnatic music and learning a lot in the process. No doubt human planning and actions are not infallible, however I see that everyone is working towards the best of their intentions, the Gurus, organizers and the parents.

Thankyou to Sundaram Sir, all his background volunteers, Jaya Mami, Vasudha, great teachers such as Charu mami, Ramachandran Sir and Jayalakshmi Santhanam mami plus countless other teachers (Entharo Mahanubavulu - anthariki vandanamu)

regards

Madhusudhan

----------------------------------------
Dear all,

It was my son Shyam's first experience taking part in the Sustaining Sampradayam GNB Group. He had a very good time in singing the keertanais along with the group and also some manodharma. He enjoyed every class that was taught by various teachers and really got inspired doing manodharma like the children who learned the lessons in Chennai. I would like to point out that even during various sessions, Jaya mami was present and would clarify sangatis and also provide notation in a timely manner. Jaya mami co-ordinated the programme very well and worked with the kids tirelessly.
The Sustaining Sampradayam is a journey to get deeper into the ocean of Carnatic music.

Thanks to all the teachers,volunteers and VVSundaram for making this possible.

Radhika, Murali, Shruthi, Shyam.

-----------------------------------------------------

[cmlover]

Nice to see the very positive responses from the parents of the participants in Sampradya.
It will be equally educational to hear from the participating kids about their personal experience. Let them express their views frankly and constructively as a feedback for the enhancement of this program and for the benefit of future participants.

Thanks for clearing any misunderstandings that may have been created by some anonymous posters. We encourage posters to identify themselves to express any genuine concerns which will be useful for the organizers of these programs. We cannot permit exploitation of the anonymity of this Forum to bandy reckless comments.

[VK RAMAN]

Publish some more of the emails which contained some constructive suggestions for improvement too

[mohan_ramaswamy]

Thank you, Krishnan, for creating this thread and posting the parents' emails.

[mathe-kamas]

I am going to directly post some feedback on how the Sampradaya program could be improved. I am a parent of a first-timer who really felt that our child benefited a lot by being part of this program. So much learning in such a short period! I owe a big one to whoever conceived the SS program. So, all we are trying to answer here is how to make it even better.

1. The trainers (it was Jaya mami and Vasudha Keshav this year) could come to the US a bit earlier than they did this year. They were supposed to come the first week of March, but all the visa issues + lost passports delayed it, it would be most useful if the organizers worked on this aspect.

2. There were supposed to be multiple vidwans that worked with the kids while in Cleveland, but the entire load came on Jaya mami. Again, I am sure there are explanations (I don't buy the fact that Jaya mami blocked the others as posted on the other thread - that is ridiculous!), but putting all load on one person certainly overloads her. Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank her relentless efforts and responsibility.

3. Most of the vocalists that signed up were not "Manodharma" ready. Either this needs to be a requirement (why not make it a requirement during the audition stage?), or selections made well ahead of time. Seeing parents lobbying for their kids and kids getting upset at the last minute is neither a productive use of their time, nor does it do any good to the program. For example, I really felt that Jaya mami could have diverted her efforts to get more synchronization as opposed to the Manodharma. There was at least one parent who made the comment "cut the crap of the manodharma and we will be so much better off". While it is true that keeping the selection to the last minute does let the children compete and practice while in Cleveland, it brings in too many uncertainties. Moreover, I really felt that pretty much all the Manodharma presented sounded like pre-prepared recitation. One kid seemed to have even prepared her stutter during the alapana to make it sound realistic, but that did not help improve the quality much Bottom line: the process needs some change, just blaming Jaya mami for everything is pointless and counter-productive. After all, she was the only one who worked 18 hr days and put up with all the mess from our kids. Also, she is only a vidwan, not a magician who could make the concert sound like it was a bunch of professionals singing. Once again, Thank you Jaya mami!

4. Last, but not the least - the shruti was all over the place during the performance. No, the kids were not that bad, but once again this is a process issue. I really thought that they could have used 3 shruti boxes/tamburas. Also, getting all of them to do "S P S" before they started the varnam would have helped.

I hope the feedback above is helpful, I am hoping to re-enroll my child next year as well, provided academics does not saturate the hours available Also, I hope I didn't upset anyone in the above write-up. If so, my most sincere apologies for that, that was not the intent.

- Rema (from Austin)