Sasikiran's tales of woes

[gnb]

Saw this posting from Sasikiran
"Shashikiran Kn
Dear frds, in the music season there is so much talk abt the slots and so much fights on promotion or some seeking promotion......I am both an artiste and an organiser and can tell u first be happy that out of so many aspiring musicians u r even considered to perform....after that, pls stop assuming how good u r as the rasikas and organisers r there to follow on that.....if someone is a bit more luckier than u r be happy for that frd and wish him good genuinely.....it is good if u r not promoted early as when u r ....u wanna really stay on top .....so it gives u time to upgrade further.....if u r that good no can stop ur progress.....not even the politics....so keep working on improving ur quality.....and more importantly it is not the time that u sing ....it is how u sing that counts, so jus worry abt the things that r in ur control....n this season might b far more spl to u than...."
It is obvious that SK is in charge of suggesting artists for various organizers. To begin with it is amusing that he is a "musician and organizer". This is a dichotomy and clear case where conflict of interests exist. he should chose to be either one and not both. In fact I have heard quite a few artists genuinely complaining about his "event mismanagement (sic)" in reference to dealing with choice of artists and canceled concerts. I agree it is a lot of work filling slots during the season. But then leave it others and do what you do best, which is singing. Artists taking on the roles of organizers while also performing is a bad trend and leaves room for speculation on ulterior motives!

[harimau]

It is obvious that SK is in charge of suggesting artists for various organizers. To begin with it is amusing that he is a "musician and organizer". This is a dichotomy and clear case where conflict of interests exist. he should chose to be either one and not both. In fact I have heard quite a few artists genuinely complaining about his "event mismanagement (sic)" in reference to dealing with choice of artists and canceled concerts. I agree it is a lot of work filling slots during the season. But then leave it others and do what you do best, which is singing. Artists taking on the roles of organizers while also performing is a bad trend and leaves room for speculation on ulterior motives!

The only conflict of interest you can genuinely complain about would be if Sasikiran fills every single slot in the various Carnatica festivals with himself.

If you look at the schedule of the Carnatica Bhakthi Sangeet Utsav and Bharat Sangeet Utsav, you would find that a wide variety of musicians were featured in each one of them. Thus, Sasikiran has demonstrated a commendable commitment to support artists of reasonable-to-good caliber.

If your buddy who plays the digiridoo didn't make it, just too bad. Maybe he should move to a more mainstream instrument such as the keyboard!

[uday_shankar]

If your buddy who plays the digiridoo didn't make it, just too bad. Maybe he should move to a more mainstream instrument such as the keyboard!

ROTFL ! This is multidimensional irony as only possible by harimau .

[gnb]

It is not a question of who plays what. The question is should one undertake responsibilities that look obviously to conflict with one's interests. Moreover, event management is a full time profession that needs professional training and experience. The way the sabhas are run in terms of concerts, sound systems etc clearly show the lack of such expertise. The situation is even worse when one is part of the very event which one is trying to manage. If Sasikiran feels his talents are best suited to manage events rather than being the event itself, let him to it in such a way that he sets an example to the voluntary running of the sabhas. A crude example is what is happening with the Indian cricket team. It is my feeling that like so many before him, he is biting much more than he can chew. Doing what he does now the way he does it, both event management and his music will suffer.

[Nick H]

Doing what he does now the way he does it, both event management and his music will suffer.

It looks to me like the only thing that has suffered is his written English! If that can be improved by giving up either music or event management, then maybe he should consider it. However, the loss of Carnatica's contribution to the Chennai music scene would no be justified by a little less SMS-talk. Let it not happen.

event management is a full time profession that needs professional training and experience.

Really? How many of the sabha secretaries have professional training? And the only way to get experience is ...to get experience.

As for being a musician, are you going to tell the musicians that they have to give up being bankers, accountants, etc: doing the day job without which they probably would not be able to eat?

Unless or until someone is able to sincerely say, about a performance, that the artist was clearly tired, unpractised and had other things on his mind then this is non subject.

[harimau]

It is not a question of who plays what. The question is should one undertake responsibilities that look obviously to conflict with one's interests. Moreover, event management is a full time profession that needs professional training and experience. The way the sabhas are run in terms of concerts, sound systems etc clearly show the lack of such expertise. The situation is even worse when one is part of the very event which one is trying to manage. If Sasikiran feels his talents are best suited to manage events rather than being the event itself, let him to it in such a way that he sets an example to the voluntary running of the sabhas. A crude example is what is happening with the Indian cricket team. It is my feeling that like so many before him, he is biting much more than he can chew. Doing what he does now the way he does it, both event management and his music will suffer.

Folks like you used to pop up only around January, a couple of months before the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, to raise questions as to why North American child prodigies are not featured there.

And we know that these people have an ax to grind because until such a post, the total number of posts they would have made on this board could be counted on the fingers of one hand of a leper who has lost three fingers.

So, join the legion of folks such as sbcricketfan, jeevanraju and others who are here to promote one NRI mridangam artist but who throw in a few more names as a smokescreen. Unfortunately for you, we have radar sense so smoke doesn't get into our eyes.

An organizer primarily scouts around for funds, an auditorium and artists... pretty much in that order. As to "managing" the evnt, the most he/she may do is introduce the artists at the beginning and thank them at the end of the concert.

The audio equipment is in the hands of the audio technician of the sabha in question and most of them are surly enough not to take any duff from someone who has merely rented the hall. Don't believe me? Just go to Sastri Hall and watch the guy in action.

As to selection of artists, it is mostly based on recommendations from gurus, reviews of past performances, word of mouth from responsible persons, and in some cases, even audition of their music.

In a 10-day festival featuring 40 programs, Sasikiran slots himself one concert. And you are telling us that he is spreading himself too thin and his music will suffer irrepairably.

Yeah!

[uday_shankar]

So, join the legion of folks such as sbcricketfan, jeevanraju and others

Good catch...I suspect vandemataram is also part of the same one-man tag team .

[karthikbala]

I'm not sure why artistes and their support groups think organisers are accountable to them. Surely they have the right, in undertaking private enterprise, to promote whomsoever they fancy. I would imagine the only person with a genuine gripe would be the ticket buying rasika, if they have to put up with a voiceless wonder in the name of art music. In the case of free events, even that issue does not arise.

[srikrishna]

I am happy that a performing musician like Sasikiran is in charge of advising the sabhas about the slots. He seems to have been misunderstood. Since a person is to be judged by the actions, I found him to be eminently fair from this point of view. Let me also tell the forum that I have had very limited personal interactions with him and a lot of other musicians as well.

[mridhangam]

Dear friends,

I know sashikiran for the past 20 years and he has never been mean or cheap in his attitude towards artistes as well as art. He has always been very sincere and very creative both on and off stage. After he built up carnatica ihave had many occasions to perform and i must frankly admit that his organisation is one of the very few organisations which pay the accompanists also well and they are also taken care of very nicely. I must be very frank enough to tell that as an accompanying artiste i have never stayed in a decent hotel in coimbatore so far except when sashikiran organised BSU this year. This goes to show his organising skill. I dont see anything wrong in taking dual roles as long as it doesnt create any duels.

Mannarkoil J Balaji

[shashikiran]

Dear Forum members,
I feel bad that what I chose to put in my fb on some context is mis-represented and discussed here. Anyways, would first like to tell my friend GNB , that I have no woes so far and am quite content with what I have. I have had the best of gurus and am happy performing where I am invited. In terms of organising events, I do what I can through Carnatica and will do as long as I have the support of artistes, sponsors and rasikas. I don't do it for a profession yet. So when I decide to take it up as a full time event management practise,will do a professional MBA or so and take to it. With regs to other sabhas or any others consulting me, pls give them ur suggestions and may be they can find others to help them. I only do when help is solicited and don't offer it myself. As far as I am concerned, music is my passion and I do what I can as long as I enjoy it and I am thankful to all my well-wishers and all the fellow artistes for their support. The context of my post in my fb wall, was completely different and has nothing to do with my woes in this field. I even mentioned I am happy or content with what I have. I am not sure about any problems MR.GnB or his friends faced. But I would have been happy if the specific incident had been sited and then may be the circumstance would be more clear for all. Anyways, I am sorry this is brought up here and also sorry for having had to post this to clarify.

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Sasikiran: You keep on chugging!!! I have been to your carnatica concerts years ago and I can vouchsafe you have done an outstanding job not only to give a chance to promising youngsters but also give them top notch accompaniments. I remember one of the concerts arranged by Carnatica when Malladi Bros were just making waves in Chennai Palghat Raghu was in the audience and in the midst of the concert he rose up and requested if we could play the Mridangam and the Mridangist was gracious enough to accommodate Palghat Raghu. That was the kind of milieu that the Carnatica concerts provided just on the eve of the regular season!!
Just a tickle to your memory--our car ride to manhattan after the Sruthi laya concert in NY sometime back--the journeys into the "past" and the musical jamboree we had impromptu @ the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

[GVR2004]

Dear All,
Though I may be digressing here let me give an instance which I went through last season. I wanted to get Sashi's notation workbook (Sangitalipi) for my son , when I was on my way to Kumbakonam via Chennai - I rang up Sashi's office and his manager asked me to meet him at his house late night and get the same from him .

I met him around 9:30 pm - He gave me the workbook and since he did not know the price - he offered to give it - if its for vidya daanam - Also since it was end of marghazi , he asked me how I had come and when I told him that my family was waiting in the car on the main road - some 2 streets away (I had to do this to locate his house in view of one way restrictions), he asked me why did I keep them waiting instead of getting them along - Then he immediately changed and offered to drop me - he would not let me take the impact of "pani" in the night by having to walk down - Despite telling him that I will walk down - locked his house took out his car and dropped me - The distance was hardly a few meters and I did not know him till that day personally.

After that the few interactions I had with him including when he was in Mumbai for carnatic idol preliminaries, he comes across as a very unassuming person for whom music is of highest passion and importance, above all. He is very forthcoming when it comes to giving out advice or getting children to learn some krithis / nuances (incl my son) and does not bother about time - My son neither learns from him nor do we interact regularly with him .

Sorry for the digression .

[uday_shankar]

I don't know why shashikiran has to post a "clarification" here or anywhere else, especially to people with anonymous handles on a public forum. In any case, purely on the well-observed facts and merits of it, gnb's posts don't have any validity. Harimau's (and Nick's) incisive take downs and subsequent posts by others have nailed it pretty much. I doubt if we'll hear from the gnb handle again. BUT...as we know, he/she/it/they will continue to reappear under different handles.

[Nick H]

Indeed. No need for clarification at all. At least Harimau had the sense to recognise a troll: somehow, I always seem to fall for them.

Shashikiran, I'm sure that all is not sweetness and light in the business of organising musical events. I am sure that your considerable experience must have included the disappointed and the aggrieved. What you and those like you do, you do for the love of music and art, but it must necessarily involve dealing with people --- many, perhaps most, of whom are very fine people, also doing what they do for the love it, but there will always be an exception. Sometimes the exception will be a relative or friend of a would-be artist who might, themselves, be quite humble and reasonable, but not so the crusading relative; those people, somehow, cannot realise how much harm they do to those they try to support.

(Probably unwanted advice: forget the MBA. Experience is worth a thousand of them )

[karaikurichi]

It seems to me that the subject of this thread should read "GNB's tales of woes" and not "Shashikiran's tales of woes". Not GNB the artist of course, but the person who started this thread to malign Shashikiran under the guise of the great yesteryear vidwan. There seem to be no woes in Shashikiran's FB post or his dignified response here. OTOH, what comes across to me is that even though he has come from a well-known musical family, he doesn't seem to take his heritage or status for granted. His advice was possibly a well-meant one for many artists of the younger generation, who rightly or wrongly have a sense of entitlement about everything including toys, clothes, computers and whatnot.