Affectionate, approachable, affable
His real greatness lay in this generosity and willingness to share his musical wealth.
PHOTO: S.R. RAGHUNATHAN
PERSONAL COLLECTION: A researcher browsing through T.S.Parthasarathy's books.
TSP was a veritable encyclopaedia on matters related to classical music and dance. He was a one-stop source for musicians, dancers and scholars looking for authentic reference material but to me he was always dear old TSP mama - an affectionate, approachable, affable father figure whose love of peach-melba ice cream was matched only by his passion for Tyagaraja! If you met him during his last years, it would be hard to believe that the impeccably dressed, alert and sprightly figure was past 90.
Tiruvallikeni Srinivasan Parthasarathy, popularly known as TSP, was born on Sept. 8th 1913 in Chennai. The young man earned multiple degrees and honours in a distinguished academic career and later served for a long time with the Indian Railways. But what defined the man was music — music that started as a hobby but soon turned into an all-consuming passion. He developed a taste for the theoretical aspects of Carnatic music, Bharatanatyam and allied dance forms, aided by a stupendous appetite for languages.
My introduction to TSP mama was through none other than my revered guru, the late Dr. S. Ramanathan. I was all of eleven or twelve years old at the time TSP attended a Tiruppavai lec-dem by Dr. Ramanathan, in which I was a supporting vocalist. He wrote about the lec-dem in a major newspaper for which he was the art critic and specifically commended my renditions of Karavaigal (Khambodi) and Vanga Kadal (Surutti). Looking back, I feel so proud and honoured that he was my first critic.
Dr. Ramanathan's musicological, scholarly and personal inputs were vital components in the development of my music and personality. His demise in 1988 left an enormous vacuum in my life — musical as well as personal. TSP filled that vacuum in many ways. An essentially simple and generous man, one could always turn to him when in need of reference material, rare manuscripts or even anecdotes. Able to recall specific details from a prodigious memory he could effortlessly reel out facts and figures, keeping information-seekers on their toes, lest they miss some minute detail! TSP had an impressive collection of books and manuscripts, which he zealously guarded with a child-like passion.
Pillar of strength
During the development of our CD-ROM on Carnatic music and subsequently the web portal Carnatica, he was a pillar of strength, supplying us with countless references, manuscripts and titbits. Even during his last days, he used to share several of his articles and monographs for publication on our website. His real greatness lay in this generosity and willingness to share his musical wealth.
He was a matchless raconteur, keeping me entertained with stories about musicians of the past — especially Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, who was his personal favourite — and about his experiences with my own guru Dr. Ramanathan.
TSP was also a good musician himself. I have had the privilege of listening to a full-fledged two-hour concert of his.
During the annual conference of the Music Academy, one used to look forward eagerly to the morning sessions, where TSP's crisp summaries of the lectures used to be an integral part of the aura of that vidwat-sabhai! He used to take personal care of the proof-reading and publication of the Academy journal.
He was a father figure to me and scores of other musicians and dancers. To say that we will miss him would be an understatement. It is hard to find men like him anymore and even harder to emulate him.
S. SOWMYA
(Carnatic vocalist)
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