Saturday, December 5, 2009

A BETTER INDIA A BETTER WORLD

A Better India A Better World by N.R.Narayana Murthy ; Published by Penguin ;Pages 290; Price Rs499/-

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N.R. Narayana Murthy is the man behind one of the biggest I T ventures in India. He is the Founder-Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, a global software consulting company . To gauge the strength of Infosys, we recall his words, “We are a company with fifty thousand people, we operate in thirty eight countries; and we have people of forty-five nationalities”.
He serves on the boards of Unilever, HSBC, NDTV, Ford Foundation and the UN Foundation. He also serves on the boards of Cornell University, Wharton School, Singapore Management University, Indian Institute of Information Technology, INSEAD. He is a living legend and an exemplary leader. His life has proved that honesty, transparency and moral integrity can co-exist with business acumen. The London Economist ranked Narayana Murthy among the most-admired global leaders in 2005. He topped the Economic Times list of India’s most powerful CEOs for three consecutive years: 2004 to 2006. He has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India, the Legion d’Honneur by the Government of France, and the CBE by the British government.

Narayana Murthy has proved that it is possible to benchmark with the global best from India. Our earlier Prime Minister, Shri.Vajpayee is reported to have stated that earlier foreigners would visit India, see the Taj Mahal and a few temples. Today they have begun asking for software engineers from India. Infosys has a paramount role in making


this happen. There has been a sea-change in attitude to business after Infosys. Businessmen are being invited to join the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council.

The author says it it is extremely important not only to have a great idea, but also ensure that all the effort is invested to ensure the idea is executed in the right manner. Business must be pursued legally and ethically. Entrepreneurs must ensure that the value system is adhered to by them and they must live by the principle that the softest pillow is a clear conscience. Narayana Murthy believes in creating an environment of openness, discussion, debate, pluralism and meritocracy.

While India is the world’s largest democracy, about 300 million Indians are still prey to hunger, illiteracy and disease, and 53 per cent of India’s children are still undernourished. So the author asks some pertinent questions. What will it take for India to overcome poverty? When will the fruits of development reach the poorest of the poor, and wipe the tears from the eyes of every man, woman and child, as Mahatma Gandhi had dreamt? And how should this, our greatest challenge ever, be negotiated?. All these questions and more are answered by Narayana Murthy in this testament. In this extraordinarily inspiring and visionary book, N.R. Narayana Murthy, who pioneered, designed and executed the Global Delivery Model that has become the cornerstone of India’s success in information technology services outsourcing, shows us that a society working for the greatest welfare of the greatest number must focus on two simple things: values and good leadership. Drawing on the remarkable Infosys



story and the lessons learnt from the two decades of post-reform India, Narayana Murthy lays down the ground rules that must be followed if future generations are to inherit a truly progressive nation.
The book has 38 speeches, culled out of over 150 speeches he has made in the last few years, dealing with a variety of subjects, to audiences both in India and abroad. Subjects covered are Students, Values, National Issues, Education, Leadership, Corporate and Public Governance, Corporate Responsibility, Philanthropy, Entrepreneurship, Globalisation and of course Infosys. It is a manifesto for the youth, the architects of the future, and a compelling argument for why a better India holds the key to a better world. He reveals his vision of a better life through innovative entrepreneurship. He is an avid believer of economic reforms and globalization. According to him the market should act as an arbiter and the government a facilitator.

As one reads the book under review one is convinced of how the author achieved excellence through his basic decency, transparent honesty. Narayana Murthy’s panacea for our poverty lies in entrepreneurship that results in job creation on a huge scale. His experience with Infosys is the sheet anchor of his credo.

He argues convincingly of the paramount role of Corporates to contribute to eradication of poverty by ploughing a portion of the wealth they create. He gives a succinct analysis of the growth of Infosys with his firm conviction not to compromise on principles. The course of his life was changed by a meeting with a famous American computer engineer in 1968 when he was a graduate student in IIT Kanpur.



He discussed exciting developments in the field of computer science, explaining how they would alter our future. The student was hooked and hitched his bandwagon to the stars. It is a matter of surprise that in 1991 serious discussions were held to sell Infosys for a million dollars. He recalls the travails he bore patiently including delays by R B I (of which he later became a Central Board Director ), “the long waits of four to six hours to obtain part of our own hard-earned dollars to support my other six other founders”. He ruefully recalls how he had to pledge the jewellery of Sudha Murthy to raise money for the maintenance of his six colleagues who were engaged in project sites in foreign countries.

Narayana Murthy warmly supports transfer of farm labour on a large scale to manufacturing units to reduce our poverty level and quotes the success of China. He argues for role models in public life and believes in visionary leadership to solve our country’s gargantuan problems. No better advice could be given than the last lines of the book—“Be original, daring different and unreasonable. Work hard, have good values, put the interest of the country in every deed of yours and make this country the best place in the world”.


P.P.Ramachandran.

Monday, November 30, 2009

THE AL-QAEDA CONNECTION BY IMTIAZ GUL

The Al Qaeda Connection by Imtiaz Gul; Published by Penguin ; Pages 308 ; Price Rs499/-
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An adviser to Commander Petreus wrote presciently,“Pakistan has 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the US Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country the government doesn’t control…if Pakistan went out of control, it would ‘dwarf’ all the crises in the world today.”.This is precisely the backdrop to this frightening account of Al Qaeda by Imtiaz Gul, a highly respected Pakistani journalist who has covered Islamist groups in Afghanistan for a long time and written authoritatively for several papers.He is a star participant on Al Jazeera and frequently takes part in discussions in Indian and Pakistan T.V channels on Afghanistan, Pakistan’s tribal areas and military isues. Author of two books, Gul heads the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad.
In the book under review Gul recounts his personal reporting experience and meticulously records the developments in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) from the time Pakistan became a party to the US-led “war on terror”, to the present time. The FATA regions are governed by the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), which the British introduced in 1901. They wanted a buffer zone between Afghanistan and United India because they failed to conquer Afghanistan. After Partition in 1947, Pakistan did not pay any attention to the area. With no centralised law enforcement, the FATA regions increasingly cater to drug running and offer shelter to people who have committed crimes in federally
administered Pakistan as well as Afghanistan. According to the author ,“This allows the militants to find a foothold. It began in the early 1980s when the Soviets were in Afghanistan. The CIA in partnership with Inter Services Intelligence launched a jihad against the Russians. These FATA areas were used as the launching pad.” Things deteriorated when more and more criminals and militants entered the area, particularly after 9/11. Most of the Taliban came and took shelter, posing a threat to the Americans. The al-Qaeda militants moved to North and South Waziristan and took shelter there. More and more militant groups started converging particularly on Waziristan because this province shares a long border with Afghanistan. It looked at that time as if this area would turn into a major focus because al-Qaeda started regrouping there. Imtiaz Gul feels such groups crop up because of the absence of governance. The indifference of the ruling elite and the tribal chiefs numbering around 35,000 who work as a bridge between the government and the tribal people is one main reason for the mushrooming of these groups. These people have a vested interest in ensuring that these areas remain away from mainstream Pakistan. The fact that Pakistani laws do not extend to these tribes make things worse.
Since 2006, 3,500 soldiers and policemen have died at the hands of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has links with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba. “Many Kashmiri militants are trained in the area. So Pakistani territory is being used for all these purposes which have become a real threat to Pakistan.”

These groups were partners till recently because of their interest in Afghanistan, with which Pakistan shares a 2,560-km border. The turning point was when the army woke up to the realisation that FATA would slip out of its hands during March 2004, when it came under attack from these groups for the first time.
The attempt earlier this year by the Taliban to conquer the Swat region came as a blessing in disguise. “It was then that everyone realised that their only objective was to occupy the state and implement their political agenda, not because they want to establish an Islamic justice system,” However, the extremist ideology is spreading. “People are increasingly getting influenced by this strain day by day and the main reason is poor governance. When the state fails, non-state actors cash in. The government is not doing enough because of internal political turmoil.” If we turn our attention to the western border we find 27,220 square kilometres of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas – Bajaur, Khyber, Kurram, Mohmand, North and South Waziristan, and Orakzai – are beyond Pakistan’s control. Some 5,337 sq km of Swat and the areas around it are, by virtue of the presidential approval of the Nizam-e Adl Regulation 2009, beyond the Constitution of Pakistan de jure. At the same time, Pakistan’s writ in most of Balochistan, a total of 452,243 sq km, or 58 percent of Pakistan’s landmass, is increasingly challenged and getting weaker by the day. Forces mow down police and paramilitary forces at will, and sow terror in the hearts and minds of security forces and people at large.
Colossal is the list of failures to account for, the gravest being the failure to integrate FATA, and the Federally Administered Northern Areas , since 1970 into mainstream Pakistan. The surrender of Swat is the latest addition to the areas characterised as “ungovernable” by the state of Pakistan itself.
A number of studies conducted in Washington- and London maintain that Pakistan itself is unable to handle the spiral of violence unleashed by Al Qaeda and its local associates. If the West does not help the country might splinter into Taliban fiefdoms. “It is their incompetence, absence of commitment and vision, as well as sheer indifference, backed up by a pliant and conniving bureaucracy, that has brought this country to the brink; conjectures about Pakistan’s survival or disintegration have become an inevitable element of discussions even at home.”
The situation in vast parts of the NWFP (Swat and Buner in particular) and FATA shows clearly what preceded and followed the Taliban emergence in Afghanistan: governance broke down, central authority melted away, and the country degenerated into medieval fiefdoms controlled by individual warlords, who at times also operated in a well-knit network under one umbrella.
“Will this combination of little governance, increasing insecurity and incapacity and a continuous state of denial take the country down into disintegration or still keep it teetering in instable conditions?. The answer lies with the ruling elite: both military and civilian rulers have to demonstrate unflinching resolve regarding these real and perceived threats. The crisis today warrants extraordinary unity of command to prevent Pakistan from falling apart.”
Gul documents, with painstaking detail, how many of these areas fell victim to the Al Qaeda and the Taliban after the latter were forced out of Afghanistan. A combination of big money, the seductive power of radical Islam and the de facto patronage of elements of Pakistan’s establishment created the conditions for Al Quaedism to find roots in FATA.
As is well known, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the ISI used American and Saudi money to train and motivate many of these groups. But even after 9/11, the relationship is far from over. The ISI is convinced that the West will abandon Afghanistan in a few years, and then these “strategic assets” will need to be reactivated. For instance, as Gul states: “after their retreat from Afghanistan, the majority of foreigners had settled down in the North and South Waziristan and Bajaur region, where networks operated by Afghan war veterans Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbudin Hekmetyar became instrumental in securing shelter for bin Laden’s surviving fighters. Haqqani and Hekmetyar also acted as the umbrella group for the reorganisation of the Al Qaeda.” Both Hekmatayar and Haqqani are still considered to be ISI’s important assets with the latter blamed for the bombing of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan.
What is the solution? King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan said in 1931: “In my opinion, the best and most fruitful policy that one can imagine for Afghanistan is a policy
of neutrality. Afghanistan must always entertain good relations with its neighbours as well as all the friendly powers that are not opposed to the national interest of the country. Afghanistan must give its neighbours assurances of its friendly attitudes while safeguarding the right of reciprocity. Such a line of conduct is the best one for the interests of Afghanistan.” In other words, the only way out is for Afghanistan’s neighbours and the great powers to guarantee its neutrality.
Imtiaz Gul’s account is a penetrating analysis of the face of terror that recounts graphically the transformation of the militant groups and the death and destruction that they have caused. He provides a rare list of the leaders who are based in FATA-the breeding ground of Al Qaeda.
P.P.Ramachandran

GANDHI'S CONSCIENCE KEEPER

Gandhi’s Conscience Keeper by Vasanthi Srinivasan; Published by Permanent Black ; Pages; Price Rs. 695/-

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The author of this book on Rajagopalachari, Dr. Vasanthi Srinivasan is a Ph.D. from Carleton University, Ottawa. She belonged to the faculty of the College of Humanities in Ottawa. She has specialised in comparative political thought and the link between technology and politics. She is presently a Reader in Political History at the University of Hyderabad, She is a recipient of a New India Foundation fellowship.
It is a matter for regret that Rajagopalachari or Rajaji has not obtained the recognition he deserved for his role in India’s freedom movement. There are very few books on this elder statesman.Gandhi had described him as his “Conscience Keeper” from which the author has adopted the title of her book. Undoubtedly he was the most powerful politician of Madras who was Chief Minister of Madras twice.He was also the first Governor of Bengal and the first Indian Governor-General.

Rajaji refused to write an autobiography on the grounds that “one cannot help trying to show oneself in good light”.Comparing himself to a matchstick, he described his smallness as his strength and argued that one must realise the insignificance of one’s own life in the vastness of space.
Minoo Masani and Rajaji founded the Swatantra party which was perhaps the only ideological opponent to Nehru.It was in Bombay that Rajaji became the first politician to espouse the case for Pakistan and this led to his becoming Public Enemy Number One for several leaders including Gandhi. Actually his prescience was laudable as in the event India was dismembered and Pakistan was born in 1947. He is remembered for his vociferous opposition to linguistic provinces, religious outlook and above all his eternal bluntness. What Samuel Johnson said about Edmund Burke’s parliamentary conduct could be applied to Rajaji, “it was commonly observed that he spoke too often in Parliament; but nobody could say he did not speak well, though too frequently and familiarly”.
The book under review is the first extended study that portrays Rajaji as an intellectual and political thinker. It a thorough study of Rajaji’s ideas as expounded inhis books and in Khasa Subba Rao’s weekly “Swarajya”. Dr Srinivasan has succeeded in assessing the political milieu of Rajaji’s political era. The reader will be impressed by the depth of understanding,the great scholarship of Rajaji, his complete command over Tamil and English. Rajaji was noted for his precise,brief and highly effective language. Rajaji’s role in the revival of Hinduism is highly laudable. His versions of Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Upanishads, brought out by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan continue to command our attention and capture our imagination. These books are the highest selling books of Bhavan.
The author calls Rajaji’s policies ”theocentric liberalism”. However, this combined with his native shrewdness led him to be described as the “Chanakya” or “Machiavelli” of Indian polity. She writes eloquently of Rajaji, “He was always arguing, persuading, cajoling,praising, criticising and acting on behalf of what he thought was the public good and the national interest, even though some of his views elicited only hostility and derision among his colleagues and intellectuals of that time.” He had a theoretical bent of mind but believed in no single theory, quoting Plato, Socrates,Burke,Cicero and other thinkers selectively and for the purposes at hand. Rajaji did not hesitate to change his views and sometimes incurred obloquy.She quotes Rajaji, “I venture to confess that I have an accomodating mind, but one that does not forget truth or the public weal at any point.”

Rajaji’s Swatantra Party was packed with fat and overfed Maharajas and capitalists and this led to a certain amount of ridicule. In spite of Rajaji’s scrupulous honesty and undoubted integrity he and his party were open to suspicion and he proved to be his own enemy.Nehru stated that Rajaji’s party belongs “ to the middle ages of Lords, castles and Zamindars.”
Conscience keepers, as a class, are kept at a safe distance since they give utterance to unacceptable ideas and make one repentant.They oppose what is politically wrong but acceped by the majority. They meet the fate of Socrates.In India we have had several conscience keepers like J.P for the Janata Party, quite recently Chandrababu Naidu for the N D A. It was Gandhi who called Rajaji his conscience-keeper, though Rajaji treated Gandhi as his Guru. The author states that Gandhi thought of a nationwide satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act after he visited Rajaji in 1919.
Vasanthi Srinivasan says that taking India’s border conflict with China in 1962 as an example, Rajaji asserted that non-violence was not an absolute value. Rajaji argued that Gandhi did not advocate a pacifism that rejected national borders and that he actually preferred armed resistance for good causes when there was no reasonable chance for non-violent resistance. According to her, Rajaji did not share Gandhi’s holistic approach that looked to religion for both the form and content of politics. Rajaji was more tuned to the fact that political contingencies may call for choosing the lesser evil and waiting for opportune moments to push for the greater good.
As the author mentions in her preface, Rajaji articulated how the Mahatma’s ideas and practices could be reconciled with the needs and aspirations of a modern nation-state in a manner and ideological orientation strikingly different from that of Nehru. Drawing upon his voluminous political writing, Vasanthi Srinivasan analyses Rajaji’s views on democracy, free enterprise, the market economy, foreign policy and social diversity. Courage and moderation were the hallmarks of his approach to politics.
In an interesting preface Ramachandra Guha and Sunil Khilnani write, “Srinivasan places Rajaji in a variety of different contexts—the economic argument of his time, religious debates, and the deep question of justice for India’s women and dalits…He was by turns subversive, conservative, and radical. Through a series of fascinating studies of his writings as well as his practice, Srinivasan elicits, for us, the fundamental coherence of Rajaji’s intellect and action…He sought to be a practitioner of that classically most prized and elusive of all political virtues—prudence, practical wisdom. This is a book that anyone interested in our intellectual and political history will be eagerly grateful for. It is also a book full of insights, oblique and explicit about our current political predicament”. It is impossible to disagree with Dr Srinivasan’s summing up—“Rajaji was vilified as a wily South Indian Brahmin, but he was in essence a theocentric liberal. There is much to be learnt from his political vision and practice:for there is more within his theocentric liberalism than is dreamt of in Indian political life today”
P.P.Ramachandran

Sunday, April 19, 2009

EMPIRE OF THE STARS--S.CHANDRASEKHAR

Empire Of The Stars by Arthur Miller;Published by Houghton Miflin; Pages 364; Price U.S $26/-
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The author of the book under review is a Professor of the history and philosophy of science at University College, London. He has lectured and written extensively on nineteenth- and twentieth century science and technology, cognitive science, scientific creativity and the relationship between arts and science. His books include “Insights of Genius” and “Einstein, Picasso”, which is hailed as an intellectual thriller.
In “Empire of the Stars”, Arthur I. Miller, recreates a distasteful phase in the fledgling days of astrophysics, and the dominating actors in the sordid drama. The quest for black holes was put behind by thirty years because of a personality clash which caused havoc to the career of a brilliant Indian scientist—Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
“Chandra” as Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was called was, born in Lahore in 1910. He enrolled himself, at 19, with a scholarship, as a graduate student at Trinity College, Cambridge. Nephew of the Nobel Prize winner C.V.Raman , Chandra belonged to an intellectual aristocracy. He received a fine education at Presidency College, Madras, and graduated with acclaim, publishing papers in leading journals, and impressing eminent visiting scientists from Europe. Chandra could properly have aspired to a spectacular career — physics was in an exhilarating and revolutionary phase in the early 1930s, and Cambridge was at the Mecca of scientists.
Before touching Cambridge , Chandra had mastered the seminal work of Arthur Eddington , “The Internal Constitution of the Stars’. Eddington was a kind of Father-figure in theoretical astronomy and when Chandra enrolled at Trinity, he was a Fellow. The two established seemingly cordial relations. Chandra’s exceptional talent was plain to all. Chandra had his “Big Idea” — that, if Einstein were correct, stars would end their lives in such bizarre, mysterious ways but this idea remained dormant for three years. Eddington was possibly the only one to have realised the greatness of his Idea and worth but his reaction was inexplicably obtuse.
Chandra summoned the courage to present his radical thoughts at the January 1935 meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society. These monthly occasions, attended by all the academic dignitaries, were the prime arena for discussing new astronomical discoveries. Eddington arranged to speak immediately afterwards. On January 30, 1935 Chandra gave a 30-minute lecture, ostensibly on white dwarf stars. His talk included the suggestion that stars of a certain mass, when they burned out, might collapse forever—their gravitation so great that not even light could escape it. When Chandra finished his talk, Eddington rose and demolished the notion. “I think there should be a law of Nature to prevent a star from behaving in this absurd way!” Sir Arthur Eddington the founder of modern astrophysics, and the man best situated to grasp Chandra’s theory, declared that if physics could posit such an incredible notion, then physics was wrong. His counter arguments may have seemed thin, but his authority carried weight with many there. Eddington himself posed the notion of something akin to a black hole in 1926, in his book “The Internal Constitution of Stars”.

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For the next nine years Eddington poured ridicule on Chandra and the concept of singularities (where all the matter in a giant collapsed star concentrates at an infinitely shrinking point).Half a century had to elapse before Chandra won the Nobel his work deserved. However, the two men remained professionally cordial: Chandra wrote to his older colleague regularly, and Eddington supported the Indian astrophysicist’s nomination to the Royal Society in 1944.
The Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge since 1913, and the director the Cambridge Observatory, Eddington had explained Einstein’s relativity to the English scientific community and to the public in general texts still read today. In 1920 he guessed correctly that stars give off light energy because they burn hydrogen, and he first proposed the balance theory of stellar size: that stars stabilize at their given size for most of their lifetimes at the point where the inward pressure of gravity balances the outward pressure of gases and radiation. He also headed the team that observed light bending around the Sun during an eclipse—the first experimental proof of Einstein’s theory.
Chandra was intellectually active till he turned 84 but his scientific genius bloomed on his journey by ship to England. While his ship steamed through the Arabian Sea he pondered an arcane problem: what happens to stars when they use up all their nuclear fuel? It was thought that a “dead” star turned into a so-called “white dwarf” — a dense cinder that could no longer shine. Chandra mastered the theory underlying these concepts, and discovered an enigma. White dwarf stars much heavier than the sun couldn’t exist. So what happened to them? According to Einstein’s relativity, their gravity would pull them ever inwards, making a “hole” in space. This fate should have overtaken millions of stars in our galaxy — space should be “punctured” by huge numbers of black holes.
It must be noted that Eddington’s ridicule did not utterly destroy Chandra’s career: not a few of Chandra’s peers, especially in other countries, acknowledged and even accepted his theories within a few years of the debacle at the Royal Astronomical Society, although almost none of them in England was willing to stand up to Eddington on the matter.
Miller notes the ironies of the background of the two adversaries —the “humble Indian” scientist came from a family of highly-educated men and women of science and letters (his mother translated Ibsen into Tamil; an uncle won the Nobel in 1930), while the haughty Cambridge don was born a Quaker and raised by a single mother following his father’s death when the boy was only two.
Miller’s book is the biography of an idea rather than of a man ; for the layman who wishes to know the elements of the basics of stellar evolution this is a valuable introduction. Miller takes the reader on a remarkable journey exploring the breakthroughs of various scientists such as Ralph Fowler, Henry Norris Russell, Edward Milne, Niels Bohr, Sir James Jeans, George Gamow, Lev Landau, Fermi, Oppenheimer, and Teller. A very valuable part of this volume is the glossary of scientists and of terms of physics and astronomy .
Perhaps the saddest aspect of the story is not Chandra’s humiliation but of Eddington becoming isolated from his colleagues , and dying in 1944 of a large stomach tumor that went too long undetected because of his preoccupations and a delay in medical examination .
Chandra left England in 1936 for the University of Chicago, which remained his base until his death at 84. He worked incessantly; he was famous for his stamina in immensely detailed algebraic calculations. He also produced a series of impressive treatises. For decades he avoided the subject that had led him into such traumatic controversy. But when he was in his sixties, he deployed his formidable talents again on the study of black holes. The resultant book, “The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes”, published when he was 72, was the one he found most taxing and challenging to write. It is by any standards a monumental achievement: 650 pages of dense mathematics. Indeed, in one chapter he adds a daunting footnote, saying that to understand how one statement leads to the next, the reader may need to carry out calculations taking “10, or even 50 pages”. Such was the aura surrounding Chandra and his subject that this recondite text notched up sales of several thousand. Such sales are not, of course, in the same league as Stephen Hawking’s, but Chandra’s formidable text probably surpassed “A Brief History of Time’ in its ratio of buyers to actual readers.
The greatness of Chandra lay in the fact that he bore no grudge against Eddingtion, who had blocked his Nobel by fifty years. When Eddington died in 1944 Chandra delivered a memorial speech at the University of Chicago. In it he said: “I believe that anyone who has known Eddington will agree that he was a man of the highest integrity and character”. In 1982, Cambridge University invited Chandra to deliver a series of lectures on the occasion of Eddington’s centenary. He titled it: “Eddington: The Most Distinguished Astrophysicist of His Time”. For Chandra his disappointment of the past was over a long, long time ago.
This is a well-researched chronicle of how powerful intellects confronted some of the most fascinating challenges in the world of science — and how they confronted each other as well. This is a brilliant book about a brilliant Indian scientist which no intelligent person can miss. A tale of trauma and tragedy tautly told. Absolutely a riveting piece of work—of stellar quality.

P.P.Ramachandran,
B-2-64, Snehadhara,
Dadabhai Cross Road 3,
Irla, Vile Parle,(West),
Mumbai, 400056.
6-03-2009

Thursday, February 19, 2009

CARNATIC SUMMER BY V.SRIRAM

Carnatic Summer by Sriram. V ; Published by East West Books (Madras ) Pvt Ltd ; Pages 311 ;Price Rs. 295/
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Close on the heels of “Great Masters of Carnatic Music “ by Indira Menon, I have with me another book of the same genre. It is again about Carnatic musicians. The author has impeccable credentials. Sriram is currently contributing Editor of Sruti,the classical music journal. He is co-author of a Quiz book on Carnatic music and writes regularly on music in Indian Express and Madras musings. Along with Sanjay Subrahmanyan he is running a website on music.
He has culled out twenty Carnatic musicians of the 20th Century who were top performers marking a high noon in this art form entitling the book to be appropriately christened “Carnatic Summer ”. The introduction is a consummate summary of the history of this art from Sarangadeva to Purandaradasa. Kshetragna, Venkatamakhin, the benign Tanjore kings, the reign of the Classical trinity and the giants of twentieth century, some of whom we were lucky to hear.
We have a veritable galaxy including a dozen vocalists, four violinists, one Nagaswaram vidwan, one flautist and two percussionists. Their lives and lifestyles which had an impact on their art are succinctly covered. Since copious material is available on the major artists—like M.S , Semmangudi, Chembai, etc I shall concentrate on those about whom not much is known or written. Rightly has the author written, ‘If Carnatic music is still heard all over the world and makes an emphatic and grand statement of survival each year during the annual December session in Chennai it is because of these great men and women, powerful personalities who bore the art form aloft amidst crisis and threats.”

I shall begin with a story on Madurai Mani Iyer. He had a house on Luz Church Road just behind a bus stop which was called “Mani Iyer Stop”. During the time he resided there, the Paramacharya of Kanchi happened to pass that way with his entourage.
He stopped outside Mani Iyer’s house. The Paramacharya was well received and he asked for Mani Iyer and was informed that he had not yet bathed that day and was hence indoors as regulations demanded that nobody could appear before the seer before taking bath first. The Acharya called out Mani Iyer and blessed him saying that his music was his mode of worship and he need not worry about worldly rituals and observances. What great piety !.

Papanasam Sivan treated D.K.Pattammal as his daughter and he suggested that she should sing the song ‘Desa Seva Seyya Varir’. The song was enormously popular with Pattammal’s emotional rendering, Kalki’s lyrics, and Papanasam Sivan’s tune. In 1949,Vazhkai of AVM saw the debut of Vyjayanthi Mala plus Pattammal singing Bharata Samudayam Vazhgave. This rendition was accorded a national song status. Attending a Pattammal concert was akin to a slow boat ride, taking in the beauties of the roadside with the mind in a state of complete relaxation. Her music was deceptively simple and appealed directly to the heart.

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan visited Chennai in 1952 and took the city by storm. He developed great respect for M.L.Vasanthakumari whose performances he attended. Once on his way back to Bombay, the Khan discovering that M LV was also in the same train, moved over to her compartment and the two performed an impromptu jugalbandi to the delight of fellow passengers, taking turns in singing svaras between the tunnels in the Poona –Bombat ghat section!.

Dwaram Venkataswami Naidu was one of the greatest violinists of Carnatic music. He was extremely near-sighted almost to the point of blindness. Among many of his admirers were Sarojini Naidu, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, S,Radhakrishnan and Rabindranath Tagore. So impressed was Tagore that he sang Rabindra Sangeeth to Dwaram’s accompaniment. Dwaram was the first violinist to be conferred Sangitha Kalanidhi in1941. To relocate him from Andhra to Madras a Sammana Mahotsav was arranged and a princely sum of Rs.35,000 was collected. Dwaram accepted this award provided Rs 2,000 was given to his guru, Venkatakrishnayya and another Rs 2,000 to a violinist who had written damagingly about him in the 1920s but was now sick and requiring help. Compassion was his hallmark.

During the 1954 visit of Yehudi Menuhin to India Dwaram attended his performance with Dr.P.V.Rajamannar. At the end of the programme Rajamannar took him backstage to introduce him to Menuhin. Dwaram wanted to touch Menuhin’s instrument and possibly play on it as well. But the latter did not agree. The upset Rajamannar arranged a concert of Dwaram’s the very next day and invited Menuhin to attend the same. At the end of the performance Menuhin was so amazed at Dwaram’s virtuosity that he walked up to him, took him by his hand and apologized for his brusqueness the previous day. The two spent the entire evening together and Dwaram was not only allowed to touch Menuhin’s violin but also play on it to his heart’s content.
T.Chowdiah believed that the violin was of Indian origin and cited the unusual sculpture in Agastyeshwara temple depicting a lady playing an instrument with a bow like the violin of today. Chowdiah abandoned the four stringed violin substituting it with one of seven strings and christened it sapta tanthi. On one memorable occasion, at the end of a spectacular performance by Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chowdiah was so delighted that he hoisted the vocalist on his shoulders and danced a jig all around the concert hall.
The Chowdiah Memorial Hall in Bangalore is shaped in the form of a violin—a fitting tribute to one of the greatest violinists of India.

Another great violinist was Kumbhakonam Rajamanikkam Pillai. “Mummanigalum Manikkamum” was how the handbills would describe the concerts of G N B as vocalist, Rajamanikkam Pillai on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam and Palani Subramania Pillai on the kanjira. The ruby in the above was the violinist. A very painstaking artist, it was a measure of his ambition to succeed that Rajamanikkam ascended the platform on a day when his wife was in the throes of labour back home. At the end of the programme a visibly pleased Muthiah Bhagavathar presented Rajamanikkam with a set of violin strings along with customary gifts. Nestling among the strings was a telegram which announced the birth of his child. In Tamizh, violin strings and telegrams are both referred to as Thanthi. This reflected Muthiah Bhagavathar’s sense of humour and penchant for punning. Among Pillai’s earliest students was the vocalist and film star M M Dandapani Desigar. Flute Mali had great affection for him and once Mali had come to perform but could not enter the hall due to milling crowds. Pillai gathered the 12-year old Mali, placed him on his shoulders and began striding towards the entrance. Using his enormous paunch as a rudder he shoved his way to the stage with admirable ease and deposited Mali on the stage. He was Mali’s violinist that day.

T N Rajarathnam Pillai was a bohemian character who dominated the Carnatic music world for half a century. He was unique in his rendering of ragas on the nagaswaram and he was one of the unsurpassed geniuses of his time. A man who lived king-size, he also had five wives and drank himself to early death. He got rid of his tuft and adopted the modern hairstyle and refused to follow the accepted practice of nagaswarm vidwans performing bare-chested and came in silk kurtas and shawls.

When Semmangudi was asked to list the great geniuses of Carnatic music, he thought of three names—Flute Mali, T N Rajarathnam Pillai and Palghat Mani Iyer. Mali was a child prodigy.
Mani Iyer’s teaming with Mali was historic and the two made great music for many years. The combination of the two geniuses and the music they produced together has been described as unparalleled
extra-ordinary and incredible. They were made for each other. Mali redesigned his flute, making its reed thicker and its bore smaller to produce a strong and rich tone. He used flutes with eight holes.

Mali was greatly respected by the seniors of the music world. Chembai who was fond of him played the violin while Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer accompanied them on the mridangam at a Tyagaraja Vidwat Samajam performance. When during a performance at the R R Sabha , Mali was disturbed by T L Venkatarama Iyer and Mudicondan Venkatarama Iyer chatting loudly in the front row, he publicly admonished them over the mike. And when they did not stop, Mali ended his own performance by playing the mangalam at once !. Mali was one of the victims of the ‘bottle’.

Palghat Mani Iyer was pure genius and he alone had the ability to weave a magic spell on his audience with his mridangam. Respect for him bordered on fear. Continuously researching on ways and means of improving the mridangam, he perfected the instrument as know it today. The long list of artists he accompanied includes every name worth its salt. He formed close relationship with GNB and Alathur Subbier. In 1966, the Madras Music Academy honoured him with the Sangitha Kalanidhi, departing from the tradition for the first time honouring a mridangist. Mani Iyer’s last words were that he had to leave for a concert of Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar with Dakshinamurthy Pillai accompanying him on the kanjira. Could be a concert for the Gods in their Heavens!.

An added feature is a comprehensive glossary noted for brevity and clarity.

The volume under review is indeed a goldmine, rich in anecdotes and presenting in one volume the growth of Carnatic music and capturing heights of glory with artists of a rare calibre and stature. All students and lovers of Carnatic music will profit greatly by carefully reading this valuable book.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

M.S.SUBBULAKSHMI

M S – A Life in Music by T. J. S. George; Published by Harper & Collins Publishers ; Pages 303 ;Price Rs 495/-
************

TJ S George is an Eminence Grise in the world of Indian Journalism, who began his career in “Free Press Journal “, rose on to become “Founder—Editor” of “Asiaweek” and is presently with the New Indian Express. George blazed a new trail with his highly lauded biography of V. K. Krishna Menon. Later on he wrote two more books –the first on the father of Modern Singapore—Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore. He covered the Hindi Film Industry with a captivating volume on “The Life and Times of Nargis.”

The book under review is George’s foray into the world of Carnatic Music and what better subject than the Magnificent and Serene M.S.Subbulakshmi ?. M S represents the highest achievement in Carnatic music by one who transmuted melody into bhakti.

Madurai, the temple town, connected with Agastya Muni, the seat and fount of “Sangams” was the place from where were born the “Mother” “M.Shanmukhavadivu” and the daughter “ M.S Subbulakshmi”. The “M” in the initials of both the names was more than a geographical formality. It was an umbilical chord that bound them with Culture.

Subbulakshmi attracted attention transcending music itself. She grew into an unique phenomenon in Tamil culture, combing the vitality of Dravida heritage with the rich resonance of Sanskritic traditions. M S honoured the ancientness of tradition, anchored her art on a spiritual basis and absorbed the best in others while developing her own distinctiveness.

M S was one of three children of Shanmukhavadivu, the other two being an elder brother M.S.Shaktivel and a younger sister M.S.Vadivambal. M S only had a pet name—Kunjamma or Kunju. Shaktivel became adept in playing Mridangam. Vadivambal, took after her mother and became a Veena player of promise. M S, however, excelled in Veena and Mridangam and got special attention of her mother. The first Guru to teach M S was Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar. Two others succeeded—Seithur Sundaresa Bhattar and Mayavaram Krishna Iyer. Subbulakshmi was a little over nine when her mother asked her to sing at gathering organized by a cycle shop—which eventually became the huge T V S ( T V Sundaram ) conglomerate. A talent-spotter in the audience approached the family with an offer of cutting a gramophone record—which was promptly accepted. The song H M V recorded under its Twin Brand was “Marakata Vadivu” in Chenchuruti raga, praising Madurai Meenakshi. The label on the record read :“ Song by Madurai Subbulakshmi, age 10 years.”. The singer says at the end of the song. “I am Madurai Subbulakshmi”.

Shanmukhavadivu used to take her two daughters for programmes in the courts of the wealthy and influential. One of them sought the hand of Vadivambal-- a millionaire Bhashyam Iyengar. Soon after the marriage Vadivambal died of pneumonia at the young age of 22. Meanwhile M S had moved over to Madras. A quick succession of events catapulted her to eminence. She won recognition in citadels of music and started making it big in the movies.

M S achieved laurels at 16 at the Kumbakonam Mahamahom in 1932. Here she was lauded by veterans like Tiger Varadachari, Muthiah Bhagavathar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer told M S, “ Child, you carry the Veena in your throat”. She followed this up by storming the male bastion—The Madras Music Academy during 1932-33. At the young age of 17 M S had become a Musical Star.

Enter Thiagaraja Sadasivam. In the year 1936 when she was 20 Sadasivam who was 34—senior to her by 14 years entered her life. He was already married and had two children, whom M S brought up as her own. Sadasivam and M S got married in 1940 and lived happily for 57 years till Sadasivam passed away at his 95th year. George has eloquently summed up the connection between the duo. “Never did a couple fill each other’s life as completely as Sadasivam and M S did. Never did another husband visualize, orchestrate and control his wife’s career as decisively as Sadasivam did. Never did a man transform a woman’s life as totally as Sadasivam transformed M S’s. Without Sadasivam M S might just have been a face in the crowd, a great voice among several voices. With him she became “Queen of Music”, a title bestowed by Jawaharlal Nehru. If M S made melody, Sadasivam made M S. If music was M S’s career, M S became Sadasivam’s career. Never did a husband and wife owe more to each other than Sadasivam and M S did.”

The author leads us step by step to M S’s ascent to glory under the watchful direction of Sadasivam. He has devoted an entire chapter to M S’s foray into Filmdom and it makes wonderful reading. The husband carefully introduces his wife to the tinsel world with K.Subramanyam’s “Seva Sadanam”. This and the next venture “Shakuntalai” found M S an essentially classical singer. It was after the completion of “Shakuntalai” that M S would get married to Sadasivam. She acted in only two more films—“ Savithri” and “Meera” ( in Tamil and Hindi ). Sadasivam rung down the curtain on M S as an actor after “Meera”. She devoted the rest of her life to becoming a singer-saint as laid down by Sadasivam.

Some of the songs sung by M S in ‘Savithri” proved all–time hits. The greatest was “ Broohi Mukundeti” of Sadasiva Brahmendra in Kurunji raga. Sadasivam used to recount how artists and technicians in ‘New Theatres’ at Calcutta flocked to hear M S whenever there was a recording and they included K.L.Saigal. Kanan Bala, Pahari Sanyal and Pankaj Mulick.

They would request her to sing favourite songs . About “Meera” it was rightly said, “M S did not act. She became Meera herself in the film “. Sarojini Naidu appearing at the end of the Hindi version declared, “She is not an interpreter but Meera herself.”

Sadasivam had a close circle of great friends—Kalki Krishnamurthy, C.Rajagopalachari, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. Rajaji had approved of and blessed Sadasivam’s marriage to M S. The couple came under the spell and protection of the Paramacharya of Kanchi who accepted the couple as his life-time bhaktas. He gave the highest tribute to M S—“Whatever she is, she is like Brindavan Tulasi “. The Sadasivams , in turn, venerated him as God. This equation underscored Society’s acceptance of M S’s transformation into an Iyer wife.

The remarkable attribute of M S is that her repertoire included compositions of Tulsidas, Surdas, Kabir and Guru Nanak. She spent a lot of time in learning thumris and khayals from stalwarts like Siddheshwari Devi of Benaras and Dwijendarlal Roy of Calcutta.

“Bhakti “ became the hallmark of M S. The art of singing which she perfected acquired a new direction by getting soaked in Bhakti which welled up in her heart every time she sang a composition or sloka expressing intense Bhakti for God. Her rendering of Suprabathams, Vishnu Sahasranamam, Bhaja Govindam and Hanuman Chalisa are actually representative of her oeuvre. MS single-handedly transformed the culture of morning prayers across South India.

Sadasivam made M S a world phenomenon arranging concerts at Edinburgh, Paris, Moscow culminating in the ultimate recital at United Nations. In the last venue she sang a Rajaji composition—“Kurai Ondrum Illai”—I have no regrets.

Mahatma Gandhi was so much fascinated by her voice that once he conveyed a request that she should sing for him the Meera Bhajan
“ Hari Tum Haro”. Unfortunately, she had not learnt this song and conveyed her regrets. Later the same evening another message came from Gandhiji that he would prefer to hear the song spoken by M.S than sung by anyone. Sadasivam arranged immediately for a composer and overnight she learnt the song, recorded it and sent the same to Bapuji. It was played for him on his birthday on 2nd October 1947. A few months later, the radio announced the shocking news of Gandhiji’s assassination. This was followed by the rendering by M.S of the Meera Bhajan. M.S swooned on hearing it and for over a year she would not attempt to sing “Hari Tum Haro”.

M S lived a full life with awards heaped on her from all over the globe. All these she placed at the feet of her Lord and Mentor Sadasivam. To everyone’s lasting regret the Bharat Ratna was awarded to her a little after Sadasivam’s passing away. It was an appropriate reward for his life-time struggle to keep M S always at a Pinnacle. Dr Radhakrishnan declared, “Her music is a gift of the Gods which she placed at the service of the Nation.”

One of the most poignant scenes in the book is the passing away of Sadasivam which will bring tears to the eyes of the readers. It is worth recalling in full. “On 19, November 1997 Sadasivam felt something he had never felt before—fluctuating fever and some breathlessness. Reluctantly, he agreed to go to a nursing home for a check-up. He would be back home in three days, he assured his family. The hospital diagnosed his condition to be pneumonia. On the morning of 21November, he asked for the three rows of Vibhuti to be applied on his forehead with customary punctiliousness. Coffee arrived from home as per his specifications—dark, hot and sweet, but sipping the brew was not easy, what with the tubes emerging from an oxygen cylinder claiming closer attachment. As the hours of discomfort passed desultorily, an aide noticed his eyes turning glassy. M S was sent for. As she entered the room, Sadasivam looked at her, smiled and held her hand. Looking, smiling and holding hands, his eyes glazed over and the breathing stopped. It was so quiet a passing that it took a few moments for those around him to realize that Sadasivam was no more.”

One word that frequently cropped up in the language of those who met M S in her later years was “Glow “. Everyone talked about how she glowed from within. She was one who had found “Serenity”. An aura of “Grace” surrounded her.

T J S George has enabled us to share that Glow to a great extent and his work deserves to be read by all rasikas, lovers of music and lay persons.

M.S.SUBBULAKSHMI


M S – A Life in Music by T. J. S. George; Published by Harper & Collins Publishers ; Pages 303 ;Price Rs 495/-
************

TJ S George is an Eminence Grise in the world of Indian Journalism, who began his career in “Free Press Journal “, rose on to become “Founder—Editor” of “Asiaweek” and is presently with the New Indian Express. George blazed a new trail with his highly lauded biography of V. K. Krishna Menon. Later on he wrote two more books –the first on the father of Modern Singapore—Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore. He covered the Hindi Film Industry with a captivating volume on “The Life and Times of Nargis.”

The book under review is George’s foray into the world of Carnatic Music and what better subject than the Magnificent and Serene M.S.Subbulakshmi ?. M S represents the highest achievement in Carnatic music by one who transmuted melody into bhakti.

Madurai, the temple town, connected with Agastya Muni, the seat and fount of “Sangams” was the place from where were born the “Mother” “M.Shanmukhavadivu” and the daughter “ M.S Subbulakshmi”. The “M” in the initials of both the names was more than a geographical formality. It was an umbilical chord that bound them with Culture.

Subbulakshmi attracted attention transcending music itself. She grew into an unique phenomenon in Tamil culture, combing the vitality of Dravida heritage with the rich resonance of Sanskritic traditions. M S honoured the ancientness of tradition, anchored her art on a spiritual basis and absorbed the best in others while developing her own distinctiveness.

M S was one of three children of Shanmukhavadivu, the other two being an elder brother M.S.Shaktivel and a younger sister M.S.Vadivambal. M S only had a pet name—Kunjamma or Kunju. Shaktivel became adept in playing Mridangam. Vadivambal, took after her mother and became a Veena player of promise. M S, however, excelled in Veena and Mridangam and got special attention of her mother. The first Guru to teach M S was Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar. Two others succeeded—Seithur Sundaresa Bhattar and Mayavaram Krishna Iyer. Subbulakshmi was a little over nine when her mother asked her to sing at gathering organized by a cycle shop—which eventually became the huge T V S ( T V Sundaram ) conglomerate. A talent-spotter in the audience approached the family with an offer of cutting a gramophone record—which was promptly accepted. The song H M V recorded under its Twin Brand was “Marakata Vadivu” in Chenchuruti raga, praising Madurai Meenakshi. The label on the record read :“ Song by Madurai Subbulakshmi, age 10 years.”. The singer says at the end of the song. “I am Madurai Subbulakshmi”.

Shanmukhavadivu used to take her two daughters for programmes in the courts of the wealthy and influential. One of them sought the hand of Vadivambal-- a millionaire Bhashyam Iyengar. Soon after the marriage Vadivambal died of pneumonia at the young age of 22. Meanwhile M S had moved over to Madras. A quick succession of events catapulted her to eminence. She won recognition in citadels of music and started making it big in the movies.

M S achieved laurels at 16 at the Kumbakonam Mahamahom in 1932. Here she was lauded by veterans like Tiger Varadachari, Muthiah Bhagavathar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer told M S, “ Child, you carry the Veena in your throat”. She followed this up by storming the male bastion—The Madras Music Academy during 1932-33. At the young age of 17 M S had become a Musical Star.

Enter Thiagaraja Sadasivam. In the year 1936 when she was 20 Sadasivam who was 34—senior to her by 14 years entered her life. He was already married and had two children, whom M S brought up as her own. Sadasivam and M S got married in 1940 and lived happily for 57 years till Sadasivam passed away at his 95th year. George has eloquently summed up the connection between the duo. “Never did a couple fill each other’s life as completely as Sadasivam and M S did. Never did another husband visualize, orchestrate and control his wife’s career as decisively as Sadasivam did. Never did a man transform a woman’s life as totally as Sadasivam transformed M S’s. Without Sadasivam M S might just have been a face in the crowd, a great voice among several voices. With him she became “Queen of Music”, a title bestowed by Jawaharlal Nehru. If M S made melody, Sadasivam made M S. If music was M S’s career, M S became Sadasivam’s career. Never did a husband and wife owe more to each other than Sadasivam and M S did.”

The author leads us step by step to M S’s ascent to glory under the watchful direction of Sadasivam. He has devoted an entire chapter to M S’s foray into Filmdom and it makes wonderful reading. The husband carefully introduces his wife to the tinsel world with K.Subramanyam’s “Seva Sadanam”. This and the next venture “Shakuntalai” found M S an essentially classical singer. It was after the completion of “Shakuntalai” that M S would get married to Sadasivam. She acted in only two more films—“ Savithri” and “Meera” ( in Tamil and Hindi ). Sadasivam rung down the curtain on M S as an actor after “Meera”. She devoted the rest of her life to becoming a singer-saint as laid down by Sadasivam.

Some of the songs sung by M S in ‘Savithri” proved all–time hits. The greatest was “ Broohi Mukundeti” of Sadasiva Brahmendra in Kurunji raga. Sadasivam used to recount how artists and technicians in ‘New Theatres’ at Calcutta flocked to hear M S whenever there was a recording and they included K.L.Saigal. Kanan Bala, Pahari Sanyal and Pankaj Mulick.

They would request her to sing favourite songs . About “Meera” it was rightly said, “M S did not act. She became Meera herself in the film “. Sarojini Naidu appearing at the end of the Hindi version declared, “She is not an interpreter but Meera herself.”

Sadasivam had a close circle of great friends—Kalki Krishnamurthy, C.Rajagopalachari, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. Rajaji had approved of and blessed Sadasivam’s marriage to M S. The couple came under the spell and protection of the Paramacharya of Kanchi who accepted the couple as his life-time bhaktas. He gave the highest tribute to M S—“Whatever she is, she is like Brindavan Tulasi “. The Sadasivams , in turn, venerated him as God. This equation underscored Society’s acceptance of M S’s transformation into an Iyer wife.

The remarkable attribute of M S is that her repertoire included compositions of Tulsidas, Surdas, Kabir and Guru Nanak. She spent a lot of time in learning thumris and khayals from stalwarts like Siddheshwari Devi of Benaras and Dwijendarlal Roy of Calcutta.

“Bhakti “ became the hallmark of M S. The art of singing which she perfected acquired a new direction by getting soaked in Bhakti which welled up in her heart every time she sang a composition or sloka expressing intense Bhakti for God. Her rendering of Suprabathams, Vishnu Sahasranamam, Bhaja Govindam and Hanuman Chalisa are actually representative of her oeuvre. MS single-handedly transformed the culture of morning prayers across South India.

Sadasivam made M S a world phenomenon arranging concerts at Edinburgh, Paris, Moscow culminating in the ultimate recital at United Nations. In the last venue she sang a Rajaji composition—“Kurai Ondrum Illai”—I have no regrets.

Mahatma Gandhi was so much fascinated by her voice that once he conveyed a request that she should sing for him the Meera Bhajan
“ Hari Tum Haro”. Unfortunately, she had not learnt this song and conveyed her regrets. Later the same evening another message came from Gandhiji that he would prefer to hear the song spoken by M.S than sung by anyone. Sadasivam arranged immediately for a composer and overnight she learnt the song, recorded it and sent the same to Bapuji. It was played for him on his birthday on 2nd October 1947. A few months later, the radio announced the shocking news of Gandhiji’s assassination. This was followed by the rendering by M.S of the Meera Bhajan. M.S swooned on hearing it and for over a year she would not attempt to sing “Hari Tum Haro”.

M S lived a full life with awards heaped on her from all over the globe. All these she placed at the feet of her Lord and Mentor Sadasivam. To everyone’s lasting regret the Bharat Ratna was awarded to her a little after Sadasivam’s passing away. It was an appropriate reward for his life-time struggle to keep M S always at a Pinnacle. Dr Radhakrishnan declared, “Her music is a gift of the Gods which she placed at the service of the Nation.”

One of the most poignant scenes in the book is the passing away of Sadasivam which will bring tears to the eyes of the readers. It is worth recalling in full. “On 19, November 1997 Sadasivam felt something he had never felt before—fluctuating fever and some breathlessness. Reluctantly, he agreed to go to a nursing home for a check-up. He would be back home in three days, he assured his family. The hospital diagnosed his condition to be pneumonia. On the morning of 21November, he asked for the three rows of Vibhuti to be applied on his forehead with customary punctiliousness. Coffee arrived from home as per his specifications—dark, hot and sweet, but sipping the brew was not easy, what with the tubes emerging from an oxygen cylinder claiming closer attachment. As the hours of discomfort passed desultorily, an aide noticed his eyes turning glassy. M S was sent for. As she entered the room, Sadasivam looked at her, smiled and held her hand. Looking, smiling and holding hands, his eyes glazed over and the breathing stopped. It was so quiet a passing that it took a few moments for those around him to realize that Sadasivam was no more.”

One word that frequently cropped up in the language of those who met M S in her later years was “Glow “. Everyone talked about how she glowed from within. She was one who had found “Serenity”. An aura of “Grace” surrounded her.

T J S George has enabled us to share that Glow to a great extent and his work deserves to be read by all rasikas, lovers of music and lay persons.