From & To Sathish #6 - Page 82

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Carnatic Music Is Rooted In Sanatana Dharma

The TM Krishna episode has done irreparable damage to the Music Academy and the music season

THERE ARE THREE corners to the triangle of the cur­rent musical meltdown in Chennai. The first is the Madras Music Academy, “a landmark institution in the history of the fine arts. It emerged as an offshoot of the All India Congress Session held in Madras in De­cember 1927. A music conference was held along with the deliberations, when the idea of a Music Academy emerged. Inaugurated on August 18, 1928, at the YMCA Auditorium, Es­planade by Sir CP Ramaswami Aiyar, it was conceived to be the institution that would set the standard for Carnatic music. In the process, it began the practice of hosting annual conferences on music in 1929, which in turn spawned the December music festival of Madras, one of the largest cultural events of the world [musicacademymadras.in].” Today there are over 25 sabhas that or­ganise music concerts and dance performances throughout the year, especially during the music season (December-January). Sabhas are run by corporate sponsors, besides having members who buy tickets. They are controlled by a small coterie that wields extraordinary power over Carnatic music. Of the sab­has, the Music Academy, presided over by N Murali, director of The Hindu group of newspapers, is the most prestigious. To sing in the Music Academy means one has “arrived”.

The second corner is TM Krishna, a brilliant musician and enfant terrible of Carnatic music. He is the grand nephew of TT Krishnamachari, former finance minister and industrial­ist, who was also one of the founding members of the Music Academy. In 2015, Krishna announced that he would not sing during the December music season. He experimented with sing­ing free at concerts during Chennai’s music season, but gave that up too. Krishna has attacked the sabha system, its nexus with NRI money, and the danger it posed to Carnatic music. He has criticised Carnatic music and the establishment for be­ing Brahmin-controlled and exclusionary, and has criticised MS Subbulakshmi, an icon, who, he said, “distanced herself from her Devadasi origins to gain wider acceptance” and sang to please others. He has vilified Saint Tyagaraja, who composed beautiful poetry and music in praise of Lord Rama, an anathema for a leftist. He refused to sing at the Music Academy for nearly 10 years, claiming “Brahmin hegemony”. He has leftist political views, which are his private business but make for good me­dia attention and the Ramon Magsaysay award. But his attack on the icons of Carnatic music does not sit well. He has been selected for this year’s Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy, which is at the centre of this storm.

The third corner of the triangle comprises the musicians. The ball was set rolling by sisters Ranjani and Gayatri, who wrote to the president of the Music Academy that they had decided “to withdraw from participating in the Music Academy’s confer­ence 2024 and from presenting (their) concert on 25 December… as the conference would be presided over by TM Krishna, who has been vilifying the classical music fraternity and glorifying E.V. Ramaswami Naicker (Periyar) who called for the genocide of Brahmins and used profanity against Brahmin women.” This set off an avalanche of withdrawals from the Academy by Hari­katha artists Dushyanth Sridhar and Vishakha Hari, musicians Trichur Brothers, Chitravina N Ravikiran (who returned his Sangita Kalanidhi), and others, including the late mridangam maestro Palghat Mani Iyer’s family, who have chosen to return his Sangita Kalanidhi award.

Carnatic music is rooted in Sanatana Dharma. Great com­posers chose to sing songs to their favourite deity or ishta de­vata. Carnatic music is spiritual in content and context. The three important aspects are ragam, taalam and sahitya, rooted in bhakti and spirituality. Contrary to Krishna’s assertion, all composers were not Brahmins. Before the famous trinity of musician-composers—Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri—the great composers were Muthu Thandavar, Marimutha Pillai and Arunachala Kavi, none of whom was a Brahmin. Purandara Dasa, one of the founders of Carnatic mu­sic and its pitamah (grandsire), was a merchant, born Srinivasa Nayak, who gave away his material wealth to become a Hari dasa. He formulated the basic lessons of teaching Carnatic mu­sic and tried to reform social practices like caste, untouchability, and gender inequality through devotional songs. Several Shaiva Nayanars and Vaishnava Alvars of Tami Nadu, Arunagirinathar, Ramalinga Swami, Maharaja Swati Tirunal of Kerala, the Wodeyar kings of Mysore, the Maratha kings of Thanjavur, and many other great musician-composers of Carnatic music were not Brahmins. Rao Sahib Abraham Pandithar was a Nadar Chris­tian, celebrated for his patronage of musicians and his studies on the origins and evolution of Carnatic music. All this just proves that Carnatic music was not a Brahmin monopoly.

TM Krishna has criticised MS Subbulakshmi, an icon, who, he said, ‘distanced herself from her devadasi origins to gain wider acceptance’ and sang to please others. He has vilified saint Tyagaraja, who composed poetry and music in praise of Lord Rama

The Music Academy has a right to choose whoever they want as Sangita Kalanidhi, and they chose TM Krishna, undoubtedly a great musician. Krishna also has a right to his political and social beliefs. But the musicians also have a right to withdraw in protest. What is surprising was the impassioned reply of N Murali, president of the Music Academy, claiming that the choice of Sangita Kalanidhi was the Academy’s prerogative [no­body disputed that] and “raising doubts about the intentions behind and the purpose of [the] letter” of Ranjani-Gayatri. Three-time Grammy award winner Ricky Kej has condemned Murali’s letter attacking the sisters, saying that it “reeks of arrogance, hatred and superiority.”

Politics could not stay far behind. DMK MP Kanimozhi posted in X (formerly Twitter), supporting Krishna, while the Dravidar Kazhagam leader K Veeramani and Chief Minister MK Stalin came out in Krishna’s support. All this made the music aficionados of Chennai wonder whether the selection of Krishna was as innocent as the Music Academy claimed, that Krishna “was chosen by the executive committee for his exceptional musical career, devoid of external influence,” according to Murali. Meanwhile, state BJP pres­ident K Annamalai said his party stands with Ranjani and Gayatri. In reply to the Academy’s president, the sisters answered brilliantly, saying that they did not question his prerogative to award anyone, but that they did exercise their prerogative to withdraw and that they refused “to be implicit apologists for genocide mongers and filthy discourse”. They finally attacked “the entrenched Executive Committee for consisting of only Brahmins and royalty.” Tough retaliatory words.

It is surprising that Krishna accepted the award, after his ranting against the Music Academy. The Sangita Kalanidhi also receives the MS Subbulakshmi Award with a major cash compo­nent. After his abuse of the late maestro, he will accept an award and cash in her name.

The most curious aspect of the entire Music Academy award is the timing. Normally, the Sangita Kalanidhi award is announced in June-July or later. Announcing it in March is a first, but it fits a political pattern, for it precedes the elections. DMK came out im­mediately in support of TM Krishna. Naturally, many musicians objected, followed by BJP’s support for the objecting singers. This has enabled the Left and DMK to project BJP, which is gaining strength in Tamil Nadu, as a “Brahmanical” party because it sup­ported the anti-Krishna forces, although Brahmins are less than 1 per cent of the population.

But the outcome is not so simple. There is now a growing coterie of music lovers who have decided to boycott the Music Academy’s December festival. Irreparable damage has been done, firstly to the Music Academy, which is no longer regarded as an institution dedicated solely to the furtherance of music. Secondly, to the music season itself. With so many top musi­cians boycotting, the music season at the academy will not be the same. It is also highly unlikely that Ranjani-Gayatri and the others, the top musicians today, will ever be invited again to sing at the Academy.

The only winner is TM Krishna who, after a lifetime of abus­ing Carnatic icons, will carry home the awards and the cash.

By Nanditha Krishna, Open, 29 March 2024

Nanditha Krishna is a historian and an environmentalist, and director of the CPR Institute of Indological Research in Chennai. She has co-written Madras Then Chennai Now (2014)

Avan Aval Adhu 592

Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;

And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;

And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome;

But when it comes to living there is no place like home.”

― Henry Van Dyke

Homesickness came first, from the German heimweh, "home woe" or "home pain." When you're away from home and you miss it terribly, you're homesick. Homesickness is a feeling of stress or anxiety caused by separation from people and places that you know and love.

I think the journey that brought me to Madras all those years ago was the first train journey that I took in all of the five years of my life on Earth. I remember the strawberry milk and I remember the grill windows and I remember the smoke that settled as soot on my face. Added character I must say. I remember very well the train wailing away periodically as it gushed black pollution from its smokestacks and the same were gusted on all those children and a few adults that had their faces plastered against the window straining to see the engine as it took slight bends and handled curves with ease. Needless to say, my own life had taken a U-turn with sudden and continuous visits of The Grim Reaper.

A few years passed by and I was about ten or eleven years of age and once again I found myself returning to Madras after having spent the summer Holidays with aunts, uncles and cousins and this time my heart was beating and wailing like the train's engine. I did not know it then but I realised what it was a few years later when my world along with words and vocabulary expanded and I my soul began to flutter its fledgeling wings and expounded its thoughts. Homesickness.

I was born in Bangalore but fate even back then whispered to me through the Tamil songs that filled our courtyard that I was destined for Madras and the land and world of Tamil.

Home is not just the house we live in and more. Mela, adhukkum mela. Home is not just people and friends but a whole lot more than that. It is an emotion and a state of the soul that thrives in harmony even when in chaos and vice versa. Please do not mistake me and think that I am alluding our homes to a madhouse. WTF. But of course, it is a madhouse.

Anything concerning people and anytime when two or more humans gather in one place, I am sorry chaos reigns supreme. Yet, in all that chaos, we thrive, grow and go.

Home to me is not just about souls but my tree friends, cats and dogs and those pesky crows that tap your window begging you for food. Home is the weather and no matter how hot and humid Chennai is, it defines me and my soul.

Gayatri sat on the large window alcove cupping the hot mug of chocolate that she had deliberately ordered and taking a sip of it, sighed with pleasure and looked out at the moon that hung like a large yellow diamond on a woman's dark neck region.

Taking another sip of the steaming chocolate, she wondered, ' Gaya, when was the last time you had a chocolate drink? ' and unable to remember it, she looked out at the nightlife on the streets of Paris and suddenly felt homesick.

Far away in the land of India, Madhu lay in her huge bed, staring at the night sky that was filled with stars and thought aloud, ' The sky is full of stars and my soul is full of Ravi ' and tried again and failed grasping sleep that had abandoned her bed for the night.

She whispered into the night, ' Ravi, I feel you and I am sure that you too are staring at the sky and thinking of me. I love you and miss you. Only my body is here in Mumbai while my soul is with you in Kumarapalayam.'

Unable to control her tears, she cried and confessed to her pillow, ' He was right in not wanting to come and live here in this house for it would have been overwhelming for him.'

She sat up and whispered a command, ' Lights ' and the whole room was illuminated as the voice-activated sensors went about their duty.

' I am coming to you, Ravi. But, before I come to you and bring you back to Mumbai, I will have made a new home for us. Just for you and me.'

A huge weight seemed to fall off her head and shoulders and feeling light and unburdened she yelled, ' That's it. That's all it takes to be happy ' and then hearing her mobile ring, wondered, ' Who could be calling at this early hour ' and saw the screen flash, " Gaya calling " and her heart racing fast, she hurriedly reached for it and answered her stepdaughters call.

' Gaya, baby. How are you? Are you okay? Why are you calling at this late hour when you should be fast asleep?'

' Madhu, I am in Paris which means we are nearly five and a half hours behind Indian Time. So it is just 9.00 pm here.'

' Correct. My bad. Yet, you have called knowing fully well that is is 2.30 am here in Mumbai. '

' Mumbai? You are in Mumbai? Why? Why aren't you in Kumarapalayam?'

“Every face, every shop, bedroom window, public-house, and dark square is a picture feverishly turned--in search of what? It is the same with books. What do we seek through millions of pages?” ― Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room

https://youtu.be/mNxwbgLY6GE?si=QVFJUYiNpPjI-lHw

Making sense of the gulf between young men and women

It’s complicated. But better schooling for boys might help

Men and women have different experiences, so you would expect them to have different worldviews. Nonetheless, the growing gulf between young men and women in developed countries is striking. Polling data from 20 such countries shows that, whereas two decades ago there was little difference between the share of men and women aged 18-29 who described themselves as liberal rather than conservative, the gap has grown to 25 percentage points.

Young men also seem more anti-feminist than older men, bucking the trend for each generation to be more liberal than its predecessor. Polls from 27 European countries found that men under 30 were more likely than those over 65 to agree that “advancing women’s and girls’ rights has gone too far because it threatens men’s and boys’ opportunities”. Similar results can be found in Britain, South Korea and China. Young women were likely to believe the opposite.

Unpicking what is going on is not simple. A good place to start is to note that young women are soaring ahead of their male peers academically. In the European Union fully 46% of them earn degrees, versus 35% of young men, a gap that has doubled since 2002. One consequence is that young women are more likely than men to spend their early adulthood in a cocoon of campus liberalism. Meanwhile, boys outnumber girls at the bottom end of the scholastic scale. Across rich countries, 28% of them fail to learn to read to a basic level. That is true of only 18% of girls.

Another big change is that, to varying degrees across the developed world, immense progress has been made in reducing the barriers to women having successful careers. College-educated men are still thriving, too—often as one half of a double-high-income heterosexual couple. Many men welcome these advances and argue for more. However, those among their less-educated brothers who are struggling in the workplace and the dating market are more likely to be resentful, and to blame women for their loss of relative status.

And young women, by and large, are glad of past progress but are keenly aware that real threats and unfairness remain, from male violence to the difficulty of juggling careers and children. In short, most young women and worryingly large numbers of young men complain that society is biased against their own sex.

Young women tend to vote for parties of the liberal left. Angry young men, sometimes dismissed as toxically masculine by those parties, are being shrewdly wooed by politicians from the right and the far right. In South Korea their support helped an overtly anti-feminist president win power. In America polls are muddy but some pollsters think young men are souring on the Democrats. In Europe, where many countries offer a kaleidoscope of political choices, young male votes have helped fuel the rise of reactionary outfits such as the afd in Germany, Confederation in Poland and Chega, which surged at Portugal’s election on March 10th.

There is no easy solution to any of this. But clearly, more should be done to help boys lagging behind at school to do better. Some policies that might work without harming their female classmates include hiring more male teachers (who are exceptionally scarce at primary schools in rich countries), and allowing boys to start school a year later than girls, to reflect the fact that they mature later. Better vocational training could encourage young men to consider jobs they have traditionally shunned, from nursing to administration. Schooling boys better would not only help boys. Increasing the supply of educated and (one hopes) less angry men would be good for the women who must share the same world.

The Economist, March 14, 2024

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Lost in Translation : to fail to have the same meaning or effectiveness when it is translated into another language.

Somewhere on the journey from our mind to our lips, our thoughts get muddled and lost and when they come out, they are not what you wanted to say. Really intended to say.

There have been many times in my acting career when the lines I am saying are vague and meaningless and that in the end means no conviction. Then, I slowly began talking to the directors and other senior actors and I am proud to say that most of them were of no use and their reply that was delivered after what appeared great thought was, ' boss, just say it and let it go. You are being paid to do a job. So, don't complicate it.'

Okay, Stop and hold your thoughts and reactions while I take you away to a scene in the hit movie " Pretty Woman" and in case you have been living on Mars and have just returned to Earth, then let me refresh your memories about the film.

The hero, a super-rich tycoon picks up a sex worker and takes her to his penthouse suite in one of the most expensive hotels and well....

Just before they have sex, she asks him what he likes or what his preference is and he asks her what she can do and she smiles and says, ' Everything and anything. But no kissing on the mouth. That is off-limits.'

Back to my acting career and memories.

One day, I threw up my hands and yelled a filthy curse after reading a scene that was so bad, cliched and mundane and the director mumbled, ' Sir, just say it sir and let's get it over with. It's work and just acting.'

I lost it. A few of you who really know me very well, know what happens when I lose it and well, I walked out of the scene and stormed into the room given to us actors.

A few minutes later, the director and production executive entered the room tentatively and sat before me.

I glared at both of them and said, ' Even a sex worker has a choice in what she will do and will not do in her line of work. But, we actors have no bloody choice which makes our situation worse than that of a sex worker. They do it for money and they have a choice in who goes to bed with them ( Hopefully) but we actors have no freedom and are forced to say and do things that go against our intelligence. It sucks.

But there is a God and that God said " Work harder. Earn your reputation and let them fear it '.

I did and today, when I am faced with certain scenes that suck, I subtly transform them with words and with my eyes. Sadly that is all I can do and it has been working out for me right now.

Soul-Satisfied People

I was waiting at the bus stand to go to my hometown.

The bus had not yet arrived at the bus stand.

I was sitting there reading a book.

Seeing me, a girl of about 10 years of age came to me and said, "Sir, please buy these pens, I will give you four pens for ₹10.

I am very hungry, I will get to eat something."

There was a little boy with her too, maybe her brother.

I said, "Well I don't need a pen."

Her next question was very sweet, "Then how will we eat something?"

I said, "I don't want a pen, but you will definitely eat something."

I had two packets of biscuits in my bag.

I took out both the packets, and handed one to each of them. But I was surprised beyond limit when she returned one packet and said, *"Sir ji! One is enough, we will share it."*

I was utterly surprised to hear this!

I said again, "It's okay, you keep both. It doesn't matter."

That girl's reply shook me to my core, my soul.

She said, "Then what will you eat?"

In this world, where people earning crores of billions keep humanity aside and rob people wildly in the name of success, a hungry girl taught me the ultimate lesson of humanity.

I said to myself, this is what soul-satisfied people look like... Don't take so much from someone out of greed that we eat their share as well..!!