Sangeetha Rathnakara for Smt. Sudha Ragunathan @ Cleveland

[amirtha]

The music competitions were conducted at a feverish pace on the afternoon of Friday, the 2nd April. Sudha Ragunathan was one among the judges. The audience turnout was so huge, as in for a concert, a very heart-warming scene that only reflected that the tradition of music and that Indian culture is hailed and continues to thrive in all parts of the world, despite the denizens being away from their own country. India must indeed be proud of these ambassadors. The music was of great calibre, leaving the judges stunned and wide-eyed.

The morning of 3rd April saw the group pancharatna singing and in the evening at 6pm, His Holiness Swami Ganapathi Satchidhanandha came on to the dais to inaugurate the grand award ceremony. Awards were given to various vidwans and vidhushis in their chosen fields and some of them spoke and thanked the organisers profusely . The recipients were Radha Viswanathan - Kala Chandrika, K. Kalyanasundaram - Nritya Ratnakara, D. Pasupati - Acharya Ratnakara, Charumathi Ramachandran - Sangeeta Kala Sagaram, Vaidyanatha Krishnan (Coimbatore) - Seva Ratna, Prema Kumar (Jacksonville, FL) - Kala Seva Mani, Sudha D. Chandrasekhar (Oak Park, MI) - Nritya Seva Mani, Roopa Mahadevan (San Jose, CA) - Kala Ratna, Anuradha Sridhar's Trinity Center for Music, Saratoga, CA - Best Music School, Toronto B. Gowrishankar - Best Teacher. The crowning glory of the awards – the Sangeetha Rathnakara for 2010 was conferred upon Sudha Ragunathan, who walked in to receive the same from Swamiji, stylish, yet in traditional attire, with her trade mark braid and jasmine flowers singling her out uniquely!

She took a bow amidst thunderous applause. His Holiness is not unfamiliar with Sudha Ragunathan as she has launched cds of swami’s bhajans. The shawl/ponnaadai, the sparkling plaque and a gold bracelet honours were done in the most traditional manner.

Sudha Ragunathan then began her acceptance speech and to everyone’s surprise, began in Kannada, simple vocabulary with the right words, as a gesture to thank Swamiji for gracing the occasion. What followed kept the audience spellbound, as words just flowed, like her music, with grace, punch, meaning and power. She spoke about the number ‘3’ playing a vital role... her birth date was 3. her Guru MLV Amma’s was 3, the day was 3rd April, the33rd Cleveland Aradhana festival, homage to one of the ‘Trinity’, Saint Thyagaraja and conducted by a ‘Trinity’... V.V. Sundaram, Toronto Venkataraman and Cleveland Balu. She called upon all of them to come on stage and the audience gave them a thunderous ovation – they are indeed true cultural ambassadors who have worked tirelessly the last 33 years in a foreign land for the sake of culture! Sudha Ragunathan then thanked her gurus, family, her accompanying artistes and her friends and well wishers for being by her side at all times.

It was a very well accepted speech which was made memorable by the relevant and resounding contexts used. It was to be her concert the following day for which tickets were completely sold out! Sudha Ragunathan sang to a packed auditorium the following day.