MS A Life in Music

“Simplicity, devotion to God and to her husband, respect for elders, and an eagerness to learn new things are the main characteristics that makes MS great.” – T.J.S. George

My Tryst with MS

The first time, I had heard about MS was after she died in 2004 in Velachery girls PG, by my roomie Abhi, a chubby maami. I read about MS in the Hindu weekend article and that was it. The second time, I heard about her was from another maami in 2005, Bhu. She sang kurai ondrum illai for me after I listened to her pour out on Saturday morning. I was struck to MS ever since then. I was surprised to see the mp3 in my system that dad had got from her and practiced so many times, that my folks gave a bemused look and left me alone with my system. I googled about MS and was glad to find that she was a virgo, a September 16. I have an innate admiration for virgo gals and the way they carry themselves. One Sep 16 was a school topper, karate blackbelt who made me promise that I should never grow nails on my right hand, a promise that I have conveniently broken for years now. Another Sep 16 was our school’s mesmerizing damsel who married our English teacher’s son after 8 years of his courting. She was so sublime. Even an erotic and embarrassing “aap jaisa koi” rendered by her, sounded pristine and chaste.

How the book landed

It is summers for us now and all our folks are in different parts of the world and I along with couple of others are struck to our hostel rooms. My familiar friend’s rooms are now occupied by interns from other institutes, I was craving for company. After seeing BK’s friend’s profile in orkut that had a translation of “Vaishnav jan to”, I kept on playing the same song in loop for days that KS remarked that MS had rendered “Vaishav Jan to” much more divinely than Lata. I searched for MS’s “Vaishnav Jan to” and I was not able to find it. I was lamenting about not finding this mp3 during a luncheon in my room to my neighbor MB and DG, that MB offered me her book “MS – A Life in Music” by T.J.S. George. Wow, I was ecstatic, on cloud nine. My gtalk status message that day was “MS in my hands”.

My Reflections on MS

But then, I was in the middle of VSN’s India Million mutinies and started Namesake as well. And work was piling up and I didn’t want to sacrifice my sleep and friends kept me engaged with all their stories. I would find myself listening to them till 10 pm, and then it was just time to sleep. At last, I read this book yes’day in office itself, unable to contain it any longer. My initial reaction was, oh my god, what is he doing. Just like Dom Moraes bio on IG. He started with the history of Kashmir and women rulers. So many details, without getting into the main topic of interest. Giving all the world’s details except what I wanted to read. I would have preferred more details, he just jumps years. Giving the outlines and historical trivia and mentions MS in the background initially. Later it was a page turner. Suddenly I was also wondering, would MS have liked details about her personal life spilled for the entire world to scrutinize. I would have preferred if VSNaipaul had not bared it all to French. Seek good and see only good.

Every chapter had a translation of Thyagaraja's kritis. Suddenly I was enamored to learn Telugu so that I could read all his kritis peacefully without googling every time. I kind of found this striking and sent it to my mentor who considers me his muse.

P:
cakkani rAja mArgamul(u)NDaga
1sandula dUran(E)la O manasA

A:
cikkani 2pAlu mIgaDa(y)uNDaga
3chI(y)anu 4gangA sAgaram(E)lE (cakkani)

I had read about MS in Ananda Vikatan about the way she keeps her kumkum without pissuru, about the way she does shringar with a careless abandon. About her daughter Radha admiring her, in spite of MS being her stepmom. At home, everyone scolds me since am the only person to talk to my dad’s lady. I can not and will not call her amma, but treat her as a human being, yes, I should and would. I devoured all articles on MS, when ever I got a chance. When Bhu told me that MS had created a scandal in those years by marrying an Iyer, I hardly knew what she meant, till I came to read about MS’s roots. So much hoopla over origins. Wonder, when all this would come to an end. Fawning, if some one is a king and disdaining otherwise. BLaw prof has taught us that treating unequals unequally is also equality. Okie whatever. I could see the 2-7 relationship between her and Gandhi, obvious submission by Nehru and could not help being amused.

I badly want to see her Shakuntalai and Meera. I was struck by GNB, no wonder MS was. Kind of amused by the words people used in those days in their love letters. As it always happens, what is serious this day, will be farcical tomorrow. I wish I could know the time of her birth as well, so that could analyze her more. She should be Bharani or Krithiga. I was surprised by the way Kaanchi Shankarcharya made her change from Madisaar to normal sari before blessing her. If a satguru of his stature made her supplicate so, am wondering about the whole of state of affaris in general.
When I listened to her singing in English in UN, I stopped it half way through, the second time, I didn’t know it was a fiasco.

Yesterday evening, I was there in OAT, reading it, lying on the grass, till Socks came up to me and drooled saliva on my kurta. There were ants and so I went near the stage and Socks went away. Prof JH’s parents came. Ma ji was telling me that her knee cap had broken and it was difficult for her to walk. She said Indian knee caps were waste and the ones she had bought in Australia were good. And she saw the book in my hand and told me that she had seen the Bhaktha Meera on TV. Uncle was asking did I know BalaSubramanian? I knew he was referring to Balasaraswathi and told him yes, and that she had revolutionized Bharatnatyam. He was saying, that she came for an Edinburg performance, when he was a student. But it was very costly for him it seems. So he didn’t go for her performance.

Looking back, once a person has achieved it all, everything is good, everything glorious. Whatever, it is all gods krupa, that such a bundle of maidenly delight treaded on this earth.