(from an article by Dr.Gowri Ramnarayan)
"We walked 30 miles to hear you today but arrived only at the very end. We waited in the hope of offering our respects to you before returning to our village."
The speakers were a dust-streaked couple in crumpled sari and dhoti in remote Ayalur in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district - where Carnatic vocalist M.S. Subbulakshmi had given a concert as the finale of a week-long temple festival. Her name had drawn from villages miles around, thousands who were at that time returning with no thought or word beyond the exhilaration her vocal music had wrought.
Drained by the two-and-a-half hour performance and passage through the adulation of the packed crowds, the (then) 70-year- old musician had no thought but of rest for the early journey of the next day. But she would not, could not, send the couple away disappointed. "Let us sing at least one song for them." The younger accompanist to whom she said this asked, "Do you know it is midnight now?" With a smile MS began to sing with the same earnestness and attention she had shown earlier on the stage.
1 comment:
Such personalities are indeed rare. I would like to make a reference to K Balachandar's couple of works, Sindhu Bhairavi & Rudraveena/unnam mudiyum thambi, wherein he emphasises the role of art & artists in the Society. The character Sooryam in Rudraveena sings "The art which is not for people is luxury, the one that is useless & waste"
MS has shown, in her own great ways, that she is not only loved by millions of people but she too cared.
Thanks to Shencottah, that we are able to know MS more personally.
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