Indian Archives - A perfect oxymoron

In my early teens (1978 to 1981) I used to play tennis at the Corporation Stadium (now called the Radhakrishnan Stadium) in Egmore. Mr. Robin Mansfred was our coach then. From Triplicane I’ll go by the PTC (now called MTC) bus. I’ll get down opp. the Egmore Railway Station at the doorstep of Buhari & Vega Vasantha bhavan restaurants. Walk my way to the stadium. While walking, on my left, I used to see a red colour building built similar to the Madras University Senate house in the Indo-Saracenic style with a enameled board saying the Archives Department. I used to pronounce it as Archi as in Archies + ves.

What does Archives mean!!???

I never bothered to check, in the dictionary nor with my parents or teachers, the meaning of the word Archives. And to my dismay I find till date most of we Indians never bothered to understand the word Archives and its importance.

For those who believe in sentiments like being born in a blessed land (punniya bhoomi), born in a place or staying amongst the illuminati, you may then consider me blessed. Yes I was born and raised in thiruvallikeni (triplicane).

• One of the oldest settlements of Madras
• the illustrious Hindu High School was started
• where Bharathiar stayed during his last years
• where U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer lived
• where the great GNB lived
• where Satyamurthi lived
• where Vai. Mu.Kodainayaki lived
• where Srinivasa Ramanujam lived
• the list is endless

You will be thinking why I have mentioned a list above. The reason is very simple you’ll find no traces of the above expect the ruined building of The Hindu High School (reminds me of the short story ‘leave no traces’ in the book Quiver full of arrows by Jeffrey Archer).

By now you should have started thinking about the meaning and importance of Archiving. Yes Archiving is the quintessence of life in the West. More importantly the Westerners market their archived materials well and make money to maintain the value. We lack the social responsibility. Let’s stop blaming the government machinery. What have we done as responsible citizens of the country? We have been thoroughly ruthless in defacing the monuments, destroying the materials, demeaning the contents, what not.

I can hear you all say – so you are one of those folks who emerge to advise the en masse. Sorry am not here to advise or lead you by example. I’m no Buddha, Jesus or Vivekananda. Am just an ordinary mortal but with an eye & ear for detail, if I could say so!!

Ok, let me tell you my listening experiences

My father despite his economic constrains started recording Carnatic music concerts (both vocal & instrumental) since 1965 and passed on the baton to me in 1978. With the limited financial and equipment resources, we recorded some of the finest concerts of the likes of Madurai Somu, Dr. S. Ramanathan, MDR, Mali, Balachandar, DKJ, Kalyanaraman, TRS, Balamuralikrishna etc.

And my regular attendance to these concerts connected me to a few like-minded teens (then) like Tharak, Sanjay, Madhu and some names I have forgotten now. Myself and Tharak used to pool in money to buy a cassette tape to record the concert. We never had the wherewithal then to buy tapes in bulk.

Those recordings were done using some mono recorders, I had a Panasonic 1857, Tharak had a Grundig etc. We used to buy prerecorded cassettes of any genre in the discount sale and copy the concerts we recorded in these prerecorded tapes. Sanjay inherited some recordings done by parents and grandparents.

We used to listen to one Madurai Mani Iyer concert with Lalgudi & Palani often. MMI’s rendition of kaana kan koodi vendum in khamboji in this concert and Palani accompaniment used to entrance us every time we listen to it. Sanjay also gave me couple of Ramnad Krishnan concerts which I treasure even today.

My first blush with a serious collector

Sri. C V Narasimhan, father of Bombay Balaji, mrudangist was an avid collector of Carnatic music. Sri.CVN was the secretary of a sabha in Bombay and also in Cochin. Sri.CVN had an enviable collection of spool recorders/tapes, cassette tapes. Infact he was the one who introduced me to Sri. T. K. Rangachari’s music. Sr. CVN gave me a concert of Sri. TKR with Sri. Chalakudy & Palghat Sri. Raghu organized by him in Cochin. It’s one of the finest concerts I have heard. I met Sri. Raghu at their home in Krishnapuri, Chennai 28. I vividly remember Sri. Raghu instructing (!!) me to listen to lot of Sri.TKR to enhance my knowledge of Carnatic music.

Unfortunately, before I could take his entire collection Sri. CVN passed away and I also lost touch with Balaji. Tharak told me that Balaji is somewhere in the Middle East. I'm keen in re-connecting and share my collection to him.

I can hear you all ask – What have you done?

As mentioned earlier, the recordings I did and some got from Sanjay, Tharak was passed on to likeminded people. And slowly we got connected with some other collectors as well. But to our dismay, they declined to share their collection with us. What they had were all priceless music by the stalwarts of pre1960s. We were desperate to have them. This urge rather humiliation made us think.

Tharak, myself and few others decided to go on a goose hunt. And saw some light. Incidentally Tharak’s father knew Sri. Tanjore S. Kalyanaraman too well. Tharak used to go to Sri.SKR’s home and nag him to copy his concerts. And Sri.SKR was very magnanimous. He gave few concerts of his. And our collection started bloating.

We then got connected to some people who had spool tapes. We then bought a spool player and transferred them to cassette tapes. Slowly our financial condition improved to buy more tapes and collection also increased. Tharak then bought a Marantz double tape recorder for making copies of the concerts we get from other collectors. Tharak then spent a fortune in 1980s to set up a good listening environ. We went to test Onkyo and the impulsive buyer in Tharak brought it home. We used to have long listening sessions at his home.

OMG, am crippled!! Yes this Tharak fellow suddenly disappeared from my vicinity. No clue about his whereabouts. So I used to go to the concerts with my father and my neighbor Raja, who is about 4 years younger to me. Raja was learning guitar under Ravikiran (yes chitravina ravikiran). Raja was recommended to Ravikiran by Sri. M.O. Srinivasan a great connoisseur of music particularly bhajans. MOS had an organization called Dasanjali and was teaching bhajans, abhangs etc to children. MOS passed away and Raja shifted from Ravikiran to Dr. S. Ramanathan who was staying in our area, Triplicane.

I have to mention the great experience I used to have. I have had the privilege of travelling in the local bus sitting beside Dr. S. Ramanathan. We used to go to Sastri Hall together for concerts. Dr.SR was one of the finest human being I have come across till date. Absolutely down to earth. I realized his value only during the 1990s when people started talking about his vidwath. He never showed his persona to anyone around. He used to interact freely with us as if he is our classmate. A perfect practice of ‘sowseelyam’.

My cassette collection started growing leaps & bounds. My small apartment couldn’t take on more. Just then I got the first blush at a PC. And the 1^st Creative SoundBlaster card burnt my pocket by Rs.22,000/- in 1998. I started digitizing the tapes to wav format. The cost of a blank CD was (hold your breath) Rs.35. Brands like TDK and HP were only available.

Next to music, technology always entices me till date. When I got connected to the internet,

I was totally flabbergasted. Here again I have to mention my first experience - the power of the internet.And oh again it’s with Sanjay and another friend. In the later 1997 the internet was used only for Emails and ICNET was the company offering the inevitable link. Sanjay called my office one day morning and said that he is coming in the next 30 minutes. He rushed into our office asked me and my colleague to leave immediately. We never knew for what. Sanjay just said, we are going to have a whole new experience. We went to Rosy Towers on Nungambakkam High Road. Sanjay dint have the patience to wait for the elevator, literally jumped over the stairs and reached the 4^th floor. The name board read Microsense. They were the distributors for VSNL’s internet connection and a demo was happening there.

Sanjay had fixed an appointment with them for the demo. We went into a small room, the executive asked us to close the room. We had only 2 chairs, Sanjay and that executive were on the chair, my friend and I stood behind them. They were obviously in front of a PC. That executive then started explaining about the power of Internet. I still remember the 1^st word I searched over the internet – its tyre manufacturers. You know why I searched for rubber manufacturers, I wanted to see MRF’s name in the search results!! So mean of me right!!!

Back to my music collection. With the help of the Soundblaster card, I started digitizing the tapes I had. And the bait I had for other collectors was the CD with the digitized music. Today my digitized collection is confined to a box of size 2” x 4” x 6”. Yes this is the physical size of my 1TB external hard drive.

Fortunately last Sunday the New Indian Express carried an article.

The benefit of the above article about archiving has literally opened the eyes of many. Calls keep pouring to my mobile, I don’t know how they managed to get my number. Those who call me after congratulating me for the effort without fail offer their collection for digitization.

My objective of recording and digitizing is to transfer this finest art form for the future generations. I am afraid if we fail to do it now, Carnatic music will face the same problem what neem, turmeric, basmati are facing now in the international patent arena.

But what hurts me most is the attitude of most of the Carnatic music performers of today. They have all imposed an embargo. Literal policing is happening in concerts of some performers. The sleuths of the performers check the audience for possession of recording gadgets and take them away. If only the recordings of yesteryears artistes are not available how could have the present day performers learnt some of the kritis, ragams.

I request those of you who have good music, pl. digitize and share with as many people possible.

Preamble

Carnatica's Bharat Sangeeth Utsav is a perfect preamble to the yearly tamasha that will happen in Chennai during December and spill over till the 1st week of January. As a shrewd businessman Sashikiran started the concert series even before The Hindu's Music Festival. Though Hindu's Festival, born out of the identity crisis the media moghul (if I can call them one) is running under now, doesn't serve a wee-bit to the art form, manages to fill the wallets of the performers. More a fad for the Page3 community flaunting around the arena.

Coming back to Sashikiran & Co., the intention of the music festival and the way the programs are woven seem to drive across a strong message of commitment. But over ambitious thoughts digresses the value of the performers. Take a look at the inaugural day (October 31, 08) schedule - 2 concerts of eminent artistes: Sanjay and TNS. Both of them are as ambitious or even more than Sashikiran in performing on the stage. Innovation is the way they drive their performances. Having this in mind Sashi's team should have planned the schedule of concerts.

On October 31st Sanjay's was the first program and he kick started the BSU in style with the time tested Viriboni varnam. But Sanjay made everyone sit up in the 30th second. He sang Viriboni in a totally different style. Rasikas could have appreciated it more if he had explained what he did differently. I for one feel that in programs like these, the artistes can give a brief of what they are performing for the rasikas to understand and appreciate better. Sanjay ofcourse told the audience the name of the raga he elaborated, its gAngEya bhUshaNi. Don't get paranoid, am not reviewing the concert as in the newspapers. Am only going to share my thoughts on the concert, the ambiance, what i liked and disliked.

I expected Sanjay to briefly say about Viriboni only because he announced gangEya bhUshaNi after singing the alapana.

I personally liked the choice of kritis Sanjay sang in this concert. My only concern is the time he took for the raga alapana. And the sanchAras he made in gAngEyabhUshaNi. Some sancharas would have been technically correct meaning confirmed to the raga's arOhaNam & avarOhaNam but they weren't aesthetically appealing. Atleast those sanchAras lacked finesse in Sanjay's voice. Sanjay is a very brilliant, smart individual. Knows his strengths and weakness. For me he comes across as a head-above-shoulders guy. Based on these qualities of Sanjay I wish to suggest that he also listens to his own concerts and as a rasika evaluate it and avoid the burs in the future performances. It'll not only enhance the rasikas turnaround, will also enable him to be in the arena for long. The artistes in the pre-1975 era didn't sing certain ragas elaborately only because those ragas lacked the scope and finesse. Just in the name of innovation and the capability to mathematically arrange the arOhaNa & avarOhaNa swaras one can't produce pleasant music. The produced sound may be technically correct but definitely not tolerable to my ears at least. I enjoy raga alapana more than the kriti but not all ragas are enjoyable in long alapanais. The Thamizh adage 'even nectar is poisonous if taken more than the prescribed portion' is also applicable for raga singing too. And my opinion why yesteryear artistes didn't sing elaborate raga alapana for certain ragas is that

1. There is no scope for singing without any repititions
2. After a some time the alapana will start boring you.
3. The performer may not know where to stop ending up confusing himself

Sanjay, I felt, did that in Sahana alapana.

But the indisputable fact is that Sanjay works very hard with utmost commitment towards his chosen profession. This one attitude I find missing in most of the front runners today. And am puzzled at it too!!

I also want to mention about the accompanists of the day.
Varadarajan on the violin has emerged as the best violinist in that age & experience group. His virtuosity is amazing as much as his skills in reproducing the swara patterns, neravals, raga sanchAras. Keep the good work going.
Harikumar on the mrudangam. Though he showed signs of knowing about the different patterns Sanjay had planned to sing in Viriboni, didn't pick them up in the 1st instance. He managed slowly and played well. But to me he dint fit the bill perfectly. At places he was more a hindrance to the listener, I don't know what Sanjay felt, than a support system. I would have preferred to listen to Sanjay without the mrudangam at some sancharas. I have heard many say that silence is music. I wish the accompanists of this and future generation learn music and practice silence where required. It actually embellishes the concert. In one of his speeches on Layam, late Palghat Mani Iyer has said that its not important to know too many sollus and ragas. Its very important to sing / play atleast 2-3 of them excellently.
Guruprasad on the Ghatam. I have heard his father and father's elder brother play. His father used to accompany MLV a lot. I can hear you all say why am talking about his father. Am coming to that point now! Guruprasad is showing promise in developing himself as the new age upa-pakkavadhya artiste. He has a good fingering technique, as a listener am able to hear the sollus distinctly which I consider as good fingering in mrudangam and other instruments. He also showed his dexterity and played some mathematical combinations which drew the attention of Sanjay and made Sanjay nod his head more than couple of times. As a lay listener am not worried about the mathematics or grammar. My only expectation is that the playing should be pleasant to hear. And Guruprasad just did that.

My thoughts on TNS concert will be up soon.