To all those who have been sending me emails and asking what happened between October 15th and now, I express my sincere thanks. I got snowed under with work, over work and over over work and one fine morning discovered that I could not see much with my left eye. Panicked and went to everyone from Allopathy to Homoeopathy to Venkatachalapathy. Now I have been told that it is the bursting of a blood vessel behind the eye and that “it will take its time to heal” whatever that means. Apparently these things happen to highly strung, stressed out individuals who think that the world is imperfect and ought to be strightened out. Now who thought I belonged to this category (heheheheh!)?
In the meanwhile, I co-authored a book on the history of the Music Academy, Madras. The co-author was Dr Malathi Rangaswami, a secretary of the Music Academy, who did her PhD on the history of the institution. The book, published by the Academy, is a glossy with 300 pages of text and pics. Had a blast doing it but it was hard work and not made any easier by having only one and a half eyes. The book is slated for release tomorrow at 6.00 pm at the Academy. I am enclosing an invite. For all those whom I have not invited in person, this is a request to please attend the event.
This morning the Times of India carried a write up on it. A good one though I look a 100 years old in the photo and the years have been added to by the fact that my mouth is hanging open. I can also see how much weight I have put on ever since I stopped running owing to a bad back. The travails of middle age. Earlier people would ask me “you know so much and you are so young” and now I have had some asking me “you mean you are only 43?”
And so it goes on. In the meanwhile, the Season is around the corner. And the Academy, my regular haunt is all spruced up. I took a dekho at the inside of the auditorium and am impressed with the new stage floor and the seating in the balcony. More on all that in a day or two.
Comments
23 responses to “Four Score & More, History of the Music Academy, Madras”
I listened tp your interview in World space radio today as also in the past. I also follow many of your writings. I eagerly look forward to your current release.
Hello Sriram,
Congrats on the book release!
Yes, the bursting of the blood vessel is not fun! I’ve had the same problem too. But, hey atleast it doesn’t pain – the lighter side of it 🙂
Bhavana (V.S mama’s student – remember??) 🙂
happy to see you back, sriram!
waiting to read some ‘vision’ary statements, bull’s eye remarks and farsighted articles! Get well soon!
Sure you must be planning some ‘walks’ during the season. if you are, please let me know.
Sriram – I read a review of this book in Mint and since then desperately wanted to read this book and I finally got it. Truly enjoyable and the photographs are superb.
All you carnatic music fans, there’s a great deal online on this book at http://www.indiaplaza.in/Four-Score-More-The-History-Of-The-Music-Academy-Chennai-V-Sriram/books/9789380283890.htm
[…] Hindu reported on March 18 that the Music Academy, which hosted the first ever public performance of Sadir (later renamed Bharata Natyam) on March 15 […]
[…] origins of the Society had happened in a meeting at the Music Academy, held on April 25 that year, when concern had been expressed over the poor sales of gramophone […]
[…] origins of the Society had happened in a meeting at the Music Academy, held on April 25 that year, when concern had been expressed over the poor sales of gramophone […]
[…] origins of the Society had happened in a meeting at the Music Academy, held on April 25 that year, when concern had been expressed over the poor sales of gramophone […]
[…] I say. “Why dont you just cull the whole thing from my blog and or better still buy a copy of Four Score and More from the Music Academy?” (I dont mention that the hoary institution is sitting on tonnes of […]
[…] not-so-well-known fact is that the Music Academy owes its present campus to Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed. In 1945, when the Academy was penurious […]
[…] placed on a sound footing for future growth. At least one of the institutions he nurtured – the Music Academy, Madras – has lived to tell the tale and is going […]
[…] its annual conference at the Sabha’s Sundareswarar Hall. Permission was granted and a grateful Music Academy, in its souvenir of 1943 recorded that the programmes for the previous season were held at the […]
[…] has held the RR Sabha in great veneration and when he received his Sangita Kalanidhi at the Music Academy in 1980, he thanked the RR Sabha in his speech for having given him his first major concert […]
[…] cultural capital and home to several dance and music schools like Kalakshetra for dance and the Music Academy for Carnatic South Indian music, which both regularly hold performances around town. There are also […]
[…] – it marked the beginning of a brief halcyon period of three years, when the two rivals – the Music Academy and the Indian Fine Arts Society (IFAS), conducted a common music festival. It also marked the […]
[…] and during Christmas Week, when numerous events would take place in its commodious grounds. The Music Academy held its annual conferences here between 1930 and […]
[…] It was in 2009 that Mr L Lakshman of the Rane Group asked me to come over to his office. When I called on him he had a surprise for me – he wanted me to write the history of the Rane Group. I was at that time known chiefly for my writing on music and musicians. But it was so exciting a prospect that I said yes immediately. It took me two years to write it chiefly because I was already committed to finishing Four Score and More, the History of the Music Academy, Madras. […]
[…] a few days from now, T.V. Gopalakrishnan will be formally elected as the Music Academy’s Sangita Kalanidhi designate for the year 2014, in a quaint ritual that requires a Sangita […]
[…] about artistes, their foibles and mannerisms. In me he found a ready listener. When I wrote the history of the Music Academy along with Dr Malathi Rangaswami, he was of great use. We became close friends […]
[…] about artistes, their foibles and mannerisms. In me he found a ready listener. When I wrote the history of the Music Academy along with Dr Malathi Rangaswami, he was of great use. We became close friends […]
[…] interestingly, this was to have an impact in Madras. It was in 1927 that the All India Congress Session was held here with a music conference being held in parallel. That saw the birth of the Music […]
[…] even the smallest of happenings at the Music Academy. When Dr Malathi Rangaswami and I wrote Four Score and More, the History of the Music Academy, Madras, he was one of our resource […]
[…] praise indeed and I looked forward to the meeting as and when it would happen. In the meanwhile Four Score & More, the History of the Music Academy Madras, written by Malathi Rangaswami and me was released and Keshav wrote a review of it for a paper in […]
You must log in to post a comment.