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Celebrating the guru-sishya tradition
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Musicians from different schools came together for a symposium held as part of the November Fest
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PHOTO: K. PICHUMANI
N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu.
At the music conference organised by The Hindu as part of the third edition of its Friday Review November Festival at Taj Connemara, six musicians from different schools and genres spoke on a subject that was inspiring, illuminatin
g, and dear to their hearts: “My Guru”. They distilled the essence of their experiences, and intimate bonding with their preceptors. They spoke analytically, from their minds, but also emotionally, from their hearts.
The audience was only too ready to soak in the special ambience of this guru-sishya parampara of the Indian classical arts. Particularly as it was an intimate gathering of music students, vidwans such as Vijay Siva, T. M. Krishna, Shashikiran, R. K. Sriramkumar, Arun Prakash and Manoj Siva, and gurus such as V.Subramaniam and Premeela Gurumurti. Dance gurus Nirmala Ramachandran, Narasimhachari, the Dhananjayans and Lakshmi Viswanathan.
In his welcome address, N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu, stressed the importance of the guru in the oral tradition of Indian art. Not every guru was infallible, but the right preceptor remained vital, despite the electronic aids available today. “Multi-source learning can produce uniformity and lack of identity in our musicians,” he warned.
Only two of the speakers Rajshekhar Mansur and Kalapini Komakali, were the children of their gurus (Mallikarjun Mansur and Kumar Gandharva). But it was evident that for all of them, the guru had given parental monitoring, stringent care and boundless love.
A 24-hr pursuit
PHOTO: K. PICHUMANI
THEY SPOKE FROM THEIR HEART At the symposium
S.Sowmya explained how for her guru musician/musicologist S.Ramanathan, music was a 24-hour pursuit, and a total obsession. He taught by day and practised at night. Rita Ganguly noted how every listener felt that Begum Akhtar sang exclusively for each of them, and about their pain and loss. “Other courtesans are forgotten, she is still remembered.” Charumati Ramachandran recalled that M. L.Vasanthakumari prioritised spontaneity. The disciple learnt most, not in the formal class, but while on the stage with the guru.
Rajshekhar Mansur said that Mallikarjun Mansur’s vast repertoire had given him an in-depth understanding of every shade and nuance of the ragas. This was vital to their Jaipur-Atrauli gharana that stressed variety as much as profundity. Kalapini Komakali demonstrated how every life experience inspired her father Kumar Gandharva’s creativity, and his insistence on being not just a musician, but a complete human being. Did he not teach her to appreciate the colours of dawn, the monsoon floods, and the rolling fields? Jayanthi Kumaresh painted the larger-than-life personality of S. Balachander, actualising his amazing technical skills, and mesmerising expression. His eccentricities were dwelt upon with reverence, humour and love.
For such an intimate function, Sriranjani Santhanagopalan aptly chose to render a composition of Muthuswamy Dikshitar as the invocation, which images God as the ultimate guru.
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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