MK Ramasubramanian

[rshankar]

Mahesh- check with Cienu - he has posted some amazing pictures. He's probably your best resource.

[rajeshnat]

Q for Admin or others: I have some amazing photos of my father with MS Mami, Radha Mami, Semmangudi, Nehru (!), etc. that I'm sure you would like to see.

What's the best way to share these in posts please? I recall being able to post them inline in the past but not sure that works anymore

I went in the last 15 years putting with imagebb and other free image upload sites . Unfortunately after few years links dont work. Also tried many many years back few photosharing sites which got accquired by google/yahoo even those links have expired .

I suggest Mahesh if you have any paid acct with you or your family where they can create a seperate folder with public rights that is the place to upload . May be you can figure that out in parallel, make doubly sure that it says permenant for for ever and then upload . THe site admins may not be able to directly answer any features that this site supports as there is none . You have to take external help there.May be @srkris can do something here but i still feel you approach with your friends/relatives create a shared folder for public usage where links stay even longer than nagaswaram of TNR.

[SrinathK]

Make a page for your father and mother on FB. Add people through invite only and share the pics there and give us the link. You can also write about anything special for any particular one. That's the easiest way.

[RSR]

@52
@maheshram
Dear Sir,

I have some amazing photos of my father with MS Mami, Radha Mami, Semmangudi, Nehru (!), etc. that I'm sure you would like to see

How wonderful!
The Best method is to use googlesite( classic) or blogger.
Google classic site is my preferred website for displaying images.
It is ultra simple.
May I invite you to have a look at my site exclusively for Smt.MS and Sri.Sadasivam? and all those glorious events in Kalki Gardens?
https://sites.google.com/site/mssubbula ... /ms-photos

All that we need is a gmail account. ( we can create an extra account for website).
Facebook is not a good choice.
You can place pictures, and other articles and links in the website.
It is not a blog So we get quick and direct access through side bar.
This is what I use for all my sites ( about 12)
including the one that I cherish most
https://sites.google.com/site/homage2mssubbulakshmi

Best Regards

[srkris]

Namaste Mahesh ji - I think it may be unwise (given our recent experience with loss of photos uploaded to tinypic) to upload valuable photos to public sites.

This website has size limits so I cannot enable photo/video uploads as it would make backups and restores very large and time consuming. I will see if I can enable this feature later on if I can get access to a better server or backup option.

My suggestion therefore is to load the photos to a private photo archiving service like Google Photos, and share the link to the Album.

[maheshram]

THanks all! I will do my best.

[SrinathK]

@maheshram After hearing this frankly unbelievable have to hear to believe it mimicry of your father (and what a voice at that age, to imitate ARI, MMI and GNB amongst others), I only feel even more sad I could only meet him twice in person that too very briefly. What a karpoora buddhi he must have had to grasp phrases in that detail from those days where your ears were often the only available tape recorder around!

We could have spent days on nothing but music. Alas, I was too late. Still, that which is scarce is valuable and I shall count it my very great fortune I was able to fulfil my wish of getting to know him while he was around.

[maheshram]

@srinathk Thank you so much for these wonderful words and yes it feels like he still had much more to give us. Appa had great innate talent yet was not given scope for learning due to studies and other commitments. Nevertheless, it was a genuine inherent passion for him so he developed it as an amateur anyway via osmotic methods and certainly not gurukulavasam. Personally, I am more amazed at his own original takes on ragas than the mimicry as you can see from the impromput Thodi alapana I have posted. As kids in NY, we used to cringe as Appa would launch into humming say Lathangi in the aisles of a KeyFood Supermarket while my sister and I crept away surreptitiously after nudging him to please stop!. But only later did we understand that it flowed through him constantly and his brain was always exploring the contours of ragas and compositions. I will recount some more memories in future posts as promised.

[Ramnaths85]

Dear Rasikas,
I was working with Ramesh Mama to try and collate his Rasika "threads" into "pdfs". I have uploaded them to google drive. You should be able to access them through the following link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wCtLM ... YIPItlYKdP

Please excuse any inadvertent omissions or errors.

Enjoy.

Ramnath

[cienu]

@Ramnaths85
What an effort you have put in to meticulously document the enormous material which Sri MKR had written for Rasikas. This is an everlasting tribute to the memory of Ramesh Mama.
I sincerely congratulate you on the herculean task which you have accomplished.

[rajeshnat]

@Ramnaths85 Stunning and great contribution from you. I did not have time to read all the 4 pdfs. But make sure you can also include these three link contents

1.TNR fascination writeup from MKR
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4216&p=131746#p131746

AND

2.Perhaps add the below link in the last pdf nirmala and mkr
where MKR sir's his own breezy introduction is also there
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=15382&p=213002#p213002

AND

3. Try adding the below link where he sings as great superstars in youtube
In the below youtube link just hear 3 mins where you can hear MKR singing Ariyakudi(pantuvarali) + MMI(kamas) + GNB(kalyani).The texture of ariyakudi , mmi and gnb was fully there in MKR singing. I have just forwarded the link to that timeline.

https://youtu.be/Xf_gINa5QeY?t=284

THe effort of some one aggregating and collating content without any distractions. Thank you ramnath85.

[Ramnaths85]

Thanks Cienu and Rajeshnat for your kind words, You may have noticed the pdf about the musicians is 108 pages long, not a coincidence! It seemed an auspicious number to stop volume 1 and goes back to 2013. I will start the next volume and include Rajesh's suggestions as well as any other recommendations. Meanwhile, I have posted Mama's writings from the 1970s, during his Columbia Univ days. There are two in particular that may be of interest to the rasikas:

1. Rise and fall in carnatic music
2. Higgins interview notes

Enjoy.

Link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JPn1H ... tsRfZN4z6p

[maheshram]

Thank you @Ramnaths85 this is wonderful!

[maheshram]

Hello Everyone, in our old family photo archives, we found a rare photograph from 1950 that includes my grandfather late Sri KS Mahadevan who had arranged a concert for GNB with Kumbakonam Rajamanickam Pillai and for the first time in Bombay the combo of Palghat Mani Iyer on mridangam and Palani Subramania Pillai on kanjira. What makes this photo also very special is the relatively rare photo of Sri TR Balasubramanian the senior sishya of GNB whose genius and brilliance was widely acknowledged but who died tragically young a few years later.



My GF is directly behind PMI and TR Balu is to his left directly behind GNB. Of course you will readily recognize PMI, PSP, and KRP in the photo. My grand uncle Seetharaman (an ardent and close friend of GNB) is to TR Balu's left.

If anyone can recognize others in the photo, please do add here. Especially the gentleman to the left of PSP looks very familiar but can't place him.

My father had recollected about this concert in a prior thread which I reproduce here:

"KSM first arranged the PMI-PSP combo for GNB(Rajamanikkam) for the Shanmukhananda Sabha in 1950(when the Sabha's membership rolls were thin and such a concert would have been a risky financial proposition and yet the Committee authorised my father to go ahead and arrange). I remember the concert was held in Podar College Hall and was a roaring success. PSP on the Kanjira matched PMI sollu for sollu and gave full vent to his forte--the Tisra nadais with Korvais after Korvai coming like waves after waves-- neither of them tried any silly gamesmanship either-- PMI realised the limitations of the kanjira(predominantly one hand) and played only sollukattus that could be reproduced in the Kanjira. At the end of the concert, no "affected" complimenting each other but a genuine wordless smile and gratitude that spoke of a high degree of respect and understanding."

[rajeshnat]

@maheshram
When you posted this photo i was sure this photo was discussed by your appa MKR sir. It was difficult for me to recollect , but i knew it had to be in either his MS amma saga thread , KSM centenary thread or PMI thread or SSI thread or GNB thread . I just found out now , he has written about lot of vintage photos with names .

YOu can check PMI thread when i initially shared the link of Coolkarni who gave a bunch of photos from his blog thread . Your appa has checked many photos and indeed posted the names . Check my link from post #109 to MKR Sir's comments upto #117 in PMI thread as below

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=216923#p216923

This photo is indeed a treasure . It is nice to see artist seated then the organizers just behind the seated rows.

[maheshram]

Today would be my father (late Sri MKR's) 87th birthday. Not a day goes by where I do not miss him and our many conversations on every topic under the sun including sangeetham!

I'm sharing here a house recording of my father doing an alapana in Thodi. Bear in mind my father never had any formal training in music yet every vidwan would acknowledge his command of the domain despite the rough edges. Hope you enjoy and you can certainly hear the mix of many influences here!

https://youtu.be/VAMHfd7CQpM?si=6KGXcC08Ln3s9FHF

You will also see Roopa Mahadevan (performing artist) and her Navaatman group members (incl my sister), and others in the photo including my athai Rajalakshmi Shankar (who learned from DKJ and KVN and is now 89) and my late mother.

[rajeshnat]

Great to see the video of your appa(MKR Sir) singing Todi. He is one of a kind who started adoring TNR in teenage and then only stepped towards carnatic vocal trinity of MMI-SSI-GNB.

Your appa is a bit like TRS mama to me , TRS mama typically thinks and always says how great is GNB . Your appa also typically tells about his appa KS Mahadevan , his brother ,one of your nephews who writes in THe Hindu , his sister and of course his amma (bosom friend of MS Amma) , i have told only TRS mama and only your MKR few times Sir you are also more great than your GNB/Appa etal .

It is only with rasikas like MKR that intense and deep classicism will thrive and survive. BTW do you have the constantinoble pallavi of his ???.

My obituary note along with many in this thread.
https://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopi ... 97#p358997
As i Said then "MKR Sir was too independent and a very astute thinking rasika ,.He did not fall in some trap of let me just listen to what my parents heard and get into some sampradaya ring."

[maheshram]

Rajesh thanks again for your touching and poignant remembrance of my Appa. It was too good. TRS Mama and my dad would have been proud

One small anecdote: Musiri Mama once said to my father that my Appa's ability to appreciate the best of every musician he encountered while understanding their weaknesses distinguished him from those who 'picked a side' and never bothered to deviate from it.

I think this was the result of having so many family members who were determined to convince him to pick thier favorite (SSI, GNB, MMI, etc.) as "the best"

Sadly i have no recording of the Constantinople pallavi nor his other fun one (changing "Seshudu Sivuniki' in Enthara Nee to "What to do, what not to do" ! Only in my memory bank.