In celebration of musicians
ANJANA RAJAN
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`Voices Within,' to be released in January, is about seven of the great masters of Carnatic music.
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"I would like every human being to read this book." — Bombay Jayashri Ramnath "We have not seen any of them, but they are live. It is almost as if we have met them. They are our guides." — T.M. Krishna
PHOTO: R. Ragu
LITERARY OBEISANCE: T.M. Krishna and Bombay Jayashri Ramnath.
People with good singing voices are always pleasant to listen to. The pleasure is doubled when their words are articulately phrased as well. So a conversation with the two renowned singers Bombay Jayashri Ramnath and T.M. Krishna comes as a fourfold bonus. Of late, they have been putting their word power to use by writing a book on seven of the great masters of Carnatic music. They are, however, tantalisingly cryptic on the names.
Planning a January release in Chennai, followed by launch events in other cities including New Delhi, they are excited at the amount of support and encouragement they received from the art community and feel the project grew much bigger than they expected due to this human angle.
"We have received a lot of support from families that have been nurturing this art when it did not have people to nurture it," says Jayashri, adding it's not just monetary support, but like a "parent-child relationship."
Krishna says people who were out of the country even gave him permission to break the locks on their houses to get rare pictures displayed on the walls. The book, which Mythili Chandrasekar has helped them write, "is like a celebration of all of us." Says Krishna, "It just happens to be us two."
Agrees Jayashri, "We are just the tools."
The idea behind the book, titled "Voices Within," is not merely to document the biographies of seven musicians but to present the entire ethos, the socio-political issues of the years 1920 to 1950, because these factors in combination shape an artiste's career.
Prism of experience
Their approach to the work has been not as historians but as young practitioners looking at the lives of the masters through the prism of their own experience. Their excitement is contagious as they describe Carnatic music's huge treasure trove of anecdotes and folklore.
Students of music will vouch for stories of the old days being as important a part of their lessons as the actual practice. Jayashri recalls hearing her guru Lalgudi Jayaraman speak of GNB's briga technique. "He would say the definition of briga begins and ends with GNB, and when he sang he could feel the earth shake." And, says Jayashri, "I could almost feel the ground vibrating as he told me. We carry this euphoria with us." On the musicians in the book, Krishna says, "We have not seen any of them, but they are live. It is almost as if we have met them. They are our guides."
Adds Jayashri, "Each of them has taught us. (Through the book) we are seeking the teacher in each of them."
Besides, Krishna clarifies, "More than just Carnatic musicians, these are artistes. For South Indians they are like gods." The duo feels that despite being high calibre practitioners of "one of the most incredible forms of art," they are not given the status that international artistes receive.
Designed as a coffee table book and being published by Matrka, society founded by the duo for this purpose, the work is intended as an upmarket publication. Deepa Kamath is the designer and the book is to be printed at Pragati, Hyderabad. "Pragati is one of the best. We didn't want to compromise on anything," says Krishna.
The book, on musicians by musicians, is not necessarily only for musicians. There are two extremes in writing style, comments Krishna. One is dry and academic, and the other is the "airy fairy" approach. "But there is a lot in between," and that is what he hopes will come across in the book. Jayashri provides the clincher. "I would like every human being to read this book."
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