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In tune with legacy

Rajkumar Bharati and Mira Sundara Rajan, great grandchildren of Subrahmanya Bharati talk about music and what it means to be heirs of the patriot-poet

"AS A child I was terrified of your moustache," the young woman recalls. "You must have got over it when I carried you around as part of my babysitting duties whenever you visited Madras," laughs the man.

The two cousins were born and brought up on opposite sides of the globe in India and Canada, with sporadic family reunions. Both became musicians — Rajkumar Bharati, a Carnatic vocalist, and Mira Sundara Rajan, a western classical pianist. Why not? As the great grandchildren of Subrahmanya Bharati, they are inheritors of the poet's fine frenzy.

Why music, and not literature? Says Rajkumar, "In our family everyone sings, or plays the flute and violin." He does not have to remind us that Bharati's lyrics, including his `prose-poems', have their own reverberant melodies. Mothers Lalita Bharati and Vijaya Bharati sang with feeling, inculcating a spontaneous love for music in their children. Mira writes poetry (in English) but is better known as a pianist.

"Attending Raj's Madras `season' concerts made me realise he is not just a great singer but a great performer too. He is my role model," says Mira. It is natural for Rajkumar to have become a Carnatic singer, but has he asked his cousin why she opted for the western genre? "No need," he says dismissively. "There are schools and teachers of Indian music abroad. But where is the nurturing ambience? Mira chose to learn the best that was available in her home ground." Mira agrees that transplanted music cannot equal the quality of its presence in native haunts. "Can a newly built American temple evoke the centuries-old feel of history, architecture, art and tradition as Chidambaram can?" she asks.

How does it feel to be that rara avis, a coloured woman artiste in the mainly white, male dominant western music circuits? "I haven't encountered racism..." she ruminates, "But it is a sexist milieu. I can think of only two frontline women pianists."

While Carnatic musicians, including Rajkumar, have worked with pop-rock-jazz artistes in fusion efforts, there has been little exchange with western classical music. Has Raj thought of working with his cousin perhaps? "Yes," he says. "But we have to work hard, until we find the ability and freedom to move readily into each other's music." Is this easier for the Carnatic musician, familiar with techniques of improvisation? Mira explains, "No, western music does offer scope for ornamentation, as in Bach's time."

"I never did anything just to earn money," says Mira, while Rajkumar's career choice dilemmas made him work first as an engineer before taking the plunge into fulltime music. He was nudged in by mridangist Kandaswami Pillai's conviction that "the aradhana of the seven swaras guaranteed a good life," and guru T.V.Gopalakrishnan's prediction, "Give up your job, and you will do well." When he did quit the office, Rajkumar found his entire attitude to music transformed.

Mira cannot dream of taking such a drastic step, as she is equally committed to Intellectual Property Law in which she holds a D.Phil from the Oxford University, the first to do so. Her interest in this relatively new area began with her law school research paper on the copyright issues of Subrahmanya Bharati's works. Flexi-hours teaching and research allow her enough time for music. Smiling benignly, Rajkumar tells her, "You won't know it now, but you will see a world of difference in your music when you make it your sole avocation."

Meanwhile Mira's passion for music is unmistakeable as she makes Schumann, Rachmaninoff and Beethoven come alive in anecdotes, summaries, in the way she plays their works. Her eyes light up when she talks of recording Brahms' solo pieces, or putting the composer into a novel. Did she not pursue music in schools across continents and nations — in Canada, France and Britain? And though her present visit to India is for legal research in her field, she also performed music in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

Unforgettable moments? Rajkumar has a ready memory. "I was told that Pandit Ravi Shankar had liked my score for a dance drama staged in Los Angeles. Years later, when I met Panditji for the first time, he immediately identified me by that score and said "you're not just a musician, you're an artiste." What generosity!''

Mira shares a tantalising experience. "I once played for a renowned pianist who said `You are an unusual musician, because you have a great mind.' Haven't yet figured out what she meant!"

So where does Subrahmanya Bharati come into his great grandchildren's plans? "In everything," says Rajkumar. Mira chuckles, "He's in charge of the inspiration department. No creativity without that."

GOWRI RAMNARAYAN

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