Source - http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/12/12/stories/2008121251260300.htm
A doyenne remembered
SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI
| The 13th annual music festival of Shanthi Arts Foundation and Endowments is a tribute to the genius of Vai.Mu.Kothainayaki Ammal. |
Dedicated to music: (from left) Ramabhadran, O.S. Tyagarajan, Seetha Narayanan, Padmavathi Ananthagopalan, Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan, R.Seshasayee and Tirupur Krishnan.
The 13th annual music event of Shanthi Arts Foundation and Endowments (SAFE) was held at Srinivasa Sastri Hall on December 9. Mr. Seshasayee, managing director, Ashok Leyland, was the chief guest. The programme began with an invocation by Deepika, di sciple of Sudha Ragunathan.
This year, SAFE’s music festival is dedicated to the memory of Vai.Mu.Kothainayaki Ammal to mark her 108th birth anniversary.
A book of Vai.Mu’s compositions, set to tune and notated by her, was released on the occasion.
Vainika Padmavathi Ananthagopalan, and vocalists Seetha Narayanan and O.S.Tyagarajan were honoured on the occasion.
Presiding over the function, T. N. Seshagopalan commended Ramabhadran of SAFE for bringing out the book.
He said, “I knew Vai.Mu had been an author, but I learnt of her musical acumen only now.”
He added, “It isn’t difficult to find music students in Mylapore. But Padmavathi Ananthagopalan has established a music school in Villivakkam, which has 300 students on the rolls. This is proof of her dedication to the cause of music, and her teaching abilities. Seetha Narayanan deserves praise for still considering herself a student. She is learning some pallavis from Sri Chengalpet Ranganathan now! Seshagoplan said, “ OST was a close friend. He does not need a tambura for sruti.”
Commendable feat
Seshasayee said, “Vai.Mu, Guhapriya and my mother were great friends. Their conversation would be about politics, music and literature. Those days, it was difficult being a woman author. The fact that Vai.Mu wrote more than 100 novels those days, is proof of her grit.”
Tirupur Krishnan, editor of Amudhasurabhi, and the first one to write a book on Vai.Mu, said, “Vai.Mu falsified the observation that if one is Jack of all trades, then one is master of none. She was a master of everything she touched. Suddhananda Bharati used to break his vow of silence only after he heard Vai.Mu sing. It was she who gave Rajaji’s grandson the name Rajmohan. She sang so beautifully that all one had to do was to mention that before a programme, the invocation would be by Vai.Mu, and people would come.”
Padmavathi recalled that Jaganmohini, the magazine that Vai.Mu edited, was the only magazine her father bought. “Vai.Mu’s stories were collected and bound by my father,” she said.
Talking about SAFE, vocalist Varalakshmi Anandakumar said it not only organised cultural events, but had a social commitment too. The trust provided aid to the needy in times of calamities such as the tsunami. Besides, it offered scholarships to music students, and organised contests to encourage youngsters.
The evening concluded with a veena recital by Padmavathi Ananthagopalan.
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