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Section Synopsis
NEWS & NOTES
Natya Adhyayana Gurukulam celebrates 20th anniversary
- ARTHI DEVARAJAN
On the banks of a long, glittering river, nestled between rolling green hills, there is a beautiful ashram, where individuals
gather to meditate and pray together peacefully. And every summer, the ashram is home to dozens of young girls who arrive, clad
in colorful sarees and salwar kameez, to practice the art of Bharatanatyam.
Each year, dancers travel to a small town in rural Virginia to attend the Natya Adhyayana Gurukulam, a residential summer camp
for young Indo-American students of Bharatanatyam. They are primarily America-born Indian children from across the U.S.A., but
over the years students have hailed from beyond the US, travelling from Singapore, Australia, Germany, Italy, England, France,
Japan and other countries to attend and benefit from the expert guidance at the camp.
The Natya Adhyayana Gurukulam celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, with great enthusiasm and joy from all participants.
The Fine Arts Society camp is held in the town of Yogaville, Virginia, on the grounds of the Sri Swami Satchidananda Ashram and
Light of Truth Universal Shrine, a community founded in the 1980’s by Sri Swami Satchidananda, a spiritual leader originally
from Tamil Nadu. The late swami had great love for classical Indian arts such as dance and music. His interest in the arts was
the inspiration for the Fine Arts Society dance camp. The dedicated service of his devotee Rukmini Rasiah, founder and
presiding member of the Fine Arts Society, has in large part made the camp what it is today. Now in her nineties, she continues
to administer the camp with love and deep dedication.
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COVER STORY
Trailblazing traditionalist
- V. Ramnarayan
When Dr. N. Pattabhi Raman started Sruti, a "south Indian classical music and dance magazine" in October 1983, it was by and
large a family affair. His two elder brothers Sundaresan and Venkatraman (my father) were publisher and financial adviser,
my maternal uncle S. Ramaswamy was senior editor, my fellow assistant editors Anandhi Ramachandran and Gowri Ramnarayan were
closely related to me, ‘research staff’ was Kamakshi, Gowri’s cousin, business manager Ravi Rajagopal was a nephew of
Pattabhi, T.A. Narayanan, the printer, was his cousin’s son-in-law, and photographer Pat Raman was, well, Pattabhi.
Pattabhi was by no means the first journalist or writer in his family. His great-uncle A. Madhaviah had been one of the
early Tamil novelists. An uncle, P.N. Appuswami, had been a well known science writer. Madhaviah's son M. Krishnan, an
eminent wild life expert, photographer, columnist, author and aesthete, became an early contributor to Sruti. Pattabhi's
father V. Narayanan had been an MABL by qualification, but also an unhonoured genius of a writer in three languages —
English, Tamil and Sanskrit. His contributions to the Tamil lexicon and sloka books of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham were as
considerable as his role as editor of the Indian Express. Sundaresan retired as The Hindu’s sports editor. Pattabhi himself
had dabbled in journalism in his student days, bringing out a magazine he had grandly called The Societarians.
A polio victim, Pattabhi did not allow his physical disability to hamper any of his activities, playing cricket and table
tennis as enthusiastically as any normal young man, much to the consternation of my father who constantly ran after him
trying in vain to protect him from injury. Losing his mother as an infant, and his father when barely a teenager, Pattabhi
graduated with an economics honours degree from Vivekananda College, Mylapore, going on to acquire an M. Litt. from Madras
University and set sail for the US. There he obtained a doctorate, researching the trade union movement in India, and served
the UNDP with distinction for many years. While in the US, he also cut his teeth in journalism, eventually writing for the
Indian Express, Financial Express, Commerce, Deccan Herald and the Illustrated Weekly of India.
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Profound, Professional
Twenty five years ago, GOWRI RAMNARAYAN interviewed D.K. Pattammal for an extensive, two-part
profile of the great vocalist, which launched Sruti off to an auspicious start. At the inaugural function in which
Pattammal received the first copy of the magazine from Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, she was accompanied by her tiny granddaughter in pigtails, excited by all the attention grandma was receiving.
Revisiting the Pattammal story for our silver jubilee, we decided to catch up with the girl in pigtails now grown into a leading vocalist in the Carnatic music scene — NITHYASHREE MAHADEVAN — on her relationship with her grandmother.
Sruti: You grew up with grandmother D.K. Pattammal's music around you. When exactly did you realize that she was
not just a grandmother but a renowned musician, an eminent performer?
Nithyashree: This may sound like hyperbole, but just as you can't see Saraswati without the veena on her lap,
I can't think of Pattammal without her music. To me Pattammal is inseparable from her music — on the stage, with disciples, or singing
for herself alone, with a tambura or srutipetti.
I was at her kutcheri-s from the time I was one. Mother Lalitamma used to sing with her, sometimes my father Sivakumar would play the
mridanga. My earliest memories are of being seated in the front row, on grandfather Iswaran's lap, mostly attentive, sometimes half
asleep. But I never left the concert hall.
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SANGEETA STHALAM-S
Alapana, JJ Road
"Last night I dreamt I was in Alapana again". If I had been the nameless central character of Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca", I would
have probably begun thus. Whenever I think of Sruti's old home, "Alapana" on J.J. Road, I feel nostalgic.
For a long time it was only the address of a magazine that I read as I grew up. Years later, when I settled down in Madras, I would
frequently pass by the private road that led to the house. I knew that "Sruti" came from there, but I never had the occasion to visit
there. Then in 1999, www.sangeetham.com happened and my life became filled with music, in more ways than one. That was when I made
friends with people like S. Rajam and Randor Guy, both of whom contributed to the site and with regular browsers of the site such as
K.V. Ramanathan. V. Ramnarayan did a story for The Hindu about the site and became a close friend and V.A.K. Ranga Rao, into whose ken
websites have still not swum in, but who kept himself abreast of that world, became an advisor and critic. Sanjay Subrahmanyan and I
interviewed Gowri Ramnarayan for the site. Lakshmi Devnath was contributing content to an American site and we got to collaborate as
well. All these people had had something to do with Sruti in one way or other and so it was but natural that I too would get pulled in.
in any case, Sruti was a major source of content for our site too!
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BOOKSHELF
THE MUSIC ROOM.
By Namita Devidayal. [Random House India. Pp. 310. Rs. 195.]
It is not often that one agrees with the blurb on the cover of a book. This book is an exception. "Beautifully written, full of
anecdotes, gossip and legend, The Music Room is a stunning book" says the blurb and one says Amen when one finishes the book. It
is basically the story of the author's apprenticeship in Hindustani music under Dhondutai Kulkarni (b. 1926) but it reads like a
novel, a very well written one at that.
The story starts with the author's mother deciding that she should learn Hindustani classical music under a teacher in Bombay
living under Kennedy Bridge, ten minutes from her residence in Cumballa Hill, even if it meant going through a neighbourhood of
prostitutes, chaperoned by an ayah. The initial reluctance soon gives way to interest and ultimately passion. Her teacher sees
in her very promising material and soon comes to believe that she is fitted to be the receptacle of the heritage of her guru-s,
particularly Kesarbai Kerkar.
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