Shyamapriya
I will try to be as brief as possible. Which is not guaranteeing much.
I come from a place called Harihar in Karnataka which lies on the borders of what were once three different states .
It even had a flourishing Machine tool Company where knowledge of Marathi was essential to move up the ranks
In Kannada land.
So it is a city where Hindi , Marathi , Kannada ,Telugu co-exist. Tamil was predominantly brought in by Higher level executives in those companies as well the steel plant at Bhadravathi , not far off.
I was brought up under a heavy dose of Bhajans in Vittal Mandirs and the periodic rituals associated with the temple there . Even to this day , one can hear the distintive sounds of bhajans being sung in some household or the other , in the evenings.
I owe my initial concerts to the magnificent work done by RK Srikantan in popularising CM in those Hindusthani bastions.
He is the ultimate Bheeshma Pitamaha for me , in a way.
When I Came to Chennai for a job ,My Dad , who was an Industrial Engineer with Telco , pushed to me to collect Concert Music from the big time Collectors of Chennai. Recordings were difficult to come by . A quality with collectors that has always baffled me.
I spent years and years of painful recording at Umapathy street with a kind gentleman called Vijayraghavan and slowly managed to build a library of over 3000 tapes.
I am yet to own a house anywhere on planet earth but have a few hard discs to show for my effort
We - Dad and myself - both were voracious listeners - He having grown up on the staple diet offered by Bangalore in the 40s and 50s . I was groomed to listen , first by my Grandma Who had learnt from a Veena vidwan at Maddur and then the AIR stations of Dharwar and Bhadravathi.
Dad also had a passion for indexing and tabulating and so he had all these tapes indexed artistwise , concert wise , ragawise , Krithiwise. That was an age when we did not foresee a database application doing these in a jiffy.And so it was a labor of love.Some day I will scan a page and show you.
Each index was wonderfully written , using the same pen and brand of ink for over two decades.
Each tape had a special cover made for it with rarest of rare photographs pasted on them . Those tapes still lie in their specially made cabinets.
http://www.esnips.com/doc/f50fd517-5227 ... 18a/letter
Dad passed away just as the computers started invading our lives .In 1998 I started converting them to Mp3.
Tharak Raman was the first to train me in these matters.Then came along others .After Raju Asokan I did not have to see any other expert. With each artist that I got interested in , I came to know a new person intensely.
Srkris with Alathoor/Chembai , Delhi Muthukumar with TRS/TMT/SK , GB Rajasekhar with GNB , Bhavadharini/Navneeth For MSS and so on .Today I must be having atleast a hundred friends all over the globe , related to this interest.
It took me another ten years to convert all of them . Sharing now became easy and one got more than what was taken away.
This resulted in the so called Golden age exploding on my face .
So many masters !!!!.All operating at the same time .Each one differentiating him(herself) with that daintiest of touches.
Back in the 80s I had the privilege of staying next door to Thanjavur Sankara Iyer And I had watched the proceedings from a Master Craftsmans angle. He made it look easy
Now I was Looking at it from the students / junior artists angle.These guys showed me how difficult it was.
I started to be of use to some artists too and with time I had a fine bunch of student-artists visiting me and me visiting them.
It was then that my interests took its most significant turn.
One fine day I ended up at Narada Gana Sabha debating the future of CM . I had the privilege of debating with the likes of
Radha Bhaskar , PSN , Sriram Parasuram and Mrs Sulochana Pattabhiraman- Courtesy Sasikiran - Ramnathan of Carnatica.
Again very original innovators in popularising CM
All that I have tried to do since that day is, what I had laid out as solutions, as part of my arguments.
Digitising Recordings , Talking to Elder statesmen-like-Musicians who were on the fringe of our Conscience
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( Manakkal ,TRS , Sankara Iyer , GS Mani , Kalpagam Mami )
Holding chamber Music sessions , Holding Jam sessions ( free for all - sing , dance , play what you like )
I have lived a charmed life in Chennai , splashing in these waters.On days when I would be very irritable , my wife would drive me around on a route that passed the residences of Musri , MM Iyer , Balchander , just to soothe me . That is the kind of reverberations I get in this city.
Even to this day I just enjoy watching MM Iyer's home at dusk and it glows with such a magical charm !!!
Music has also helped me tide over the pain of losing my parents , both with short notice .To Cancer .
And has emboldened me to face the rigours of bringing up a child with disability.
Music has been the ultimate balm . As my Dad remarked with a twinkle in his eye , hours before passing away :
I only wish that this music exists in the place where I am headed for.
Everyday I pinch myself to make sure that such a Music system exists . I must admit that for many years my love for CM stayed balanced with HM , in terms of priority.
But in the last decade or so , I am convinced that Nothing ,
I repeat Nothing , is comparable to Carnatic music.
God bless all these practitioners.
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