Shyama Sastri

Today is shyAmA sastrigaL jayanthi. citthirai krithigai. He was staunch of the Goddess and had composed almost all his kritis only talking to her. Born on a Saturday and in kritigai nakshatram, he was called vEnkaTasubramanian, true to the traditional values followed in a brahmin household. vEnkaTa for being born on saturday and subramanian for being born in kritigai nakshtram. He belonged to the temple priest family and was initiated to worshipping the Goddess right from tender age. The Shrine of Goddess bangAru kAmAkshI was the place, he sat for long periods of time and poured out his devotion to her. The vethalai pAku poTTi and tamburA were his constant companions.



Well one can write journals on his music and devotion, but what do i know to write about him. I just am a normal human being who can just listen to the music and some criticism. I worship him on his jayanthi day and seek his blessings.

Mohan Santhanam, Sravanam

Mohan Santhanam - Sherthalai Sivakumar - Sherthalai Ananthakrishnan - Madipakkam Murali

Sravanam, TTD Centre, Chennai

6th May 2005.

slOkam (tvamEva mAta cha pitAh tvamEva) followed by vallabha nAyakasya - bEgaDA (S)
endarO mahAnubAvulu - srI rAgam (R)
hiranmayIm lakshmIm - lalitA (R)
nA cheyi vidavakurA - nATTakuranji - Rupaka - Mysore Vasudevachar (R)
vallari samAne - mALavi - Adi - OVK (R, S with corappu)
jesinadella marachitivo - tODi (R,N,S,T)
sonnadai seithida - Ragamalika - adi
pavamAna - saurAshtram

The concert was well planned and presented well. The slOkam displayed a good bEgaDa with the kriti ending in normal svarams. The srI raga sketch started on rather tentative note but was well developed and the pancaratnam was refreshing.

The lalitA AlApanai was well presented and the artist's rendition of the kriti was making many a rasika expect some neraval and svarams which were disappointingly not present. The rare nATTakuranji kriti taken up for sub-main was well presented with a rather restricted AlApanai. There could have been more elaborations done, but then one has to keep track of the time also.

The mALAvi kriti on rAdhE by OVK was well rendered with a nice AlApanai and nice corappu svarams. The main tODi kriti had a good AlApanai. The nerval and svarams at 'rAma tyAgarAja prEma avatAra sItA rAma...' was just nicely planned and presented without any hitches.

The violinst was good in parts, and his instrument decided to not behave well with him as evident with the problems with the strings in the middle of his nATTakuranji essay. The percussionist did a good job in accompanying and during the tani.

People and Music

Knowledge is something which varies from person to person. It is understandable that one cannot know everything that needs to be known. What is more important is the will to accept that after all you dont know much. This quality is the one which is very essential for one to learn more and get to the bottom of all that is there to know.

Music being not far from this ultimate truth, the number of people who pose to know everything in this field, is alarmingly more than the number in many other fields. Probably i claim this coz i know enough people who are of this kind and am unaware of so many in other fields.

When one has to exchange dialogue with such people and/or read their writings it is atrociously painful and what not, they dont accept the fact that they are not all that knowledgable as they claim to be. This is more painful coz even if you try to explain something which is mis-interpreted, you are going to be the d$#%^@*k coz they are not gonna listen. Rather, they are not matured enough to understand and come to terms with the fact.

With number of such people rising with time, and the web and the sources of information being plenty, what bothers one is the danger that, future may believe all that these people have to say and never get to the actual truth at all...