Remembering MS, a human nonpareil

Dear Cheeniya sir,
That was a moving tribute to the the personification of divinity. Yes MS is a legend and has immortalised music. And everyday when I chant the Suprabhatham and Vishnu Sahasranamam, I thank that great Lady for having made them so popular that we are all able to reproduce her rendition though not with the same melody and divinity.
A real tribute to the melody queen. As you rightly said "In the passing away of MS, we see how great people live respected and die regretted that is the hallmark of a high quality life. MS, indeed, lived respected, revered and worshipped and died regretted and lamented."

 

Hello Cheeniya Sir,

Thanx. In fact , its an honour for me to be able to share my little little experiences with people like u all who know much more than what I do.
Yes, thatha was closely associated with Rajaji. My mother used to say about her visits to Rajaji's home with him.

bye...

 

A heart wrenching piece... though I have never interacted with her personally my grand mother always recounted stories as MS was once our backdoor neighbor. Good old times... but her soul stirring music will live on for generations to savor.

 

Dear Cheeniya sir ,
That was a great tribute to the legend of music ! Thanks for sharing with us ur great moments with MS – U r lucky indeed ! I ‘m thrilled to know the other nice side of her - that she spent almost all she earned through her divine music to charity ! How humane she had been ! She must have earned lots of ‘ punyam ‘ - for several jenmaas to come - through her services(music & charity) to mankind !

“When my father died in 1974 and my sister in law breathed her last in 1978, we played Bhaja Govindam of MS just as their breathing subsided. We considered it as much an act of purification of the soul as the pouring of the waters of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace>Ganga</st1lace> into a mouth that would soon become lifeless. “ –Very true - Their aathmaa would have rested in peace for sure as u say “ The look of serene contentment that their lifeless faces bore when they were consigned to the flames is still talked about in my family. I strongly attribute the phenomenon to the music of MS that enraptured them in their dying moments.” .
My dad is a great fan of MS, THE GREAT ! Has got almost all the collections of MS ( in cassettes & cd s ) . During my childhood he used to wake me up in the early hours of the mornings by playing “ venkatesa suprabaadham” of MS in the highest volume – which I ‘ll eagerly be waiting for ! ! I considered it as a nice begining of the day !
Many musicians of today have sung ‘ kurai ondrum illai marai moorthy kanna ‘ in their own style – but nothing like the one sung by our MS ! Her majestic & divine voice …… chanceless ! ! !
My daughter's favourite song is her ‘ kaatrinile varum geetham ‘ .Whenever we have a family get- together , everybody asks her to sing that song ! She would sing it devotedly considering it as a tribute to our great MS !
“ KANGAL PANITHIDA PONGUM GEETHAM
KALLUM KANIYUM GEETHAM “ - such a geetham can be rendered only by our honourable Dr . M. Subbulakshmi Avl.! :hatsoff
With regards ,
Indhu

 

Dear Cheeniya,

What a wonderful tribute to a wonderful LADY! I think everyone has said ALL and i just join everyone here to pay my respects also to this GREAT SOUL , at this time. Glad you wrote this piece as a tribute to her. I too have never missed her shows when we were young and many a times her soul wrenching voice and the way she rendered the songs touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. and her Humility, and her simple smile are the other things which come to my mind when we say MS! Truly a blessed soul!

(I know what Indu says abt her father....he has all the collections of MS and i have made copies from him. He also bought the vcds released by doordarshan. Never a day goes by when he has not listened to MS! He is such a great fan! I can imagine maybe that is what inspired Indu to do BA in Music!;-))

 

Cheeniya Sir,

Sorry for stepping in late...
I don't I have enough knowledge to discuss about the literary association of my grandpa and Rajaji, but I know that they shared a stong bond and had high respect for each other.
Grandpa's home had framed photographs of his with Nehru, Rajaji and other literary figures....and yes the one taken at BBC studio, london, while he addressed the Tamil community there.It was the compilation of the travelogue after his UK visit, "Akkarai Cheemiyil" that fetched him his Sahitya Akademi award.
I was told that he was the one who was in charge of giving the live commentary, by AIR, when Queen Elizabeth visited Chennai, during her tour to India(I think the yr was 1952).
Personally, as "thai-mama", he was very affectionate to my mom, obviously. But during the later stages, my appa and he were very close. I remember both of them chatting endlessly,specially after we moved to Chennai in 1997. Earlier,grandpa was too happy to gift my parents, the copy of Siddhar Illakiyam,( which was published by Annamalai University in1989) with his signature on it. We childlishly joked that thatha is giving autograph to parents.

Besides MS and Rajaji, Grandpa was also very very close to Sirgazhi S Govindarajan. He too came for the wedding that I mentioned. He alongwith his son, SivaChidambaram had rendered a few songs on that day.

Thanx once again, for giving me opportunity to share whatever I can with u.

Bye