I forgot the number of times, I attended his concert whether
in Bangalore ,
Trichy and Chennai. As instruments were rare
those days , mandolin was accepted by rasikas, wholeheartedly. Most of the rasikas wanted to see how this
small “guitar” like instrument produces, so much gamakAs and pristine music !!!
I was told by one Senior Vidwan 2 days back, when he gave
performance at an early stage, Indian Fine Arts, Veena S Balachander got so moved and e
removed his chain and gave it to him and told the audience- “mark my words,
here is a genius who will rule the world with his strings”.
Yes, he did. As
Abhishek has in his throat, mandolin had in his fingers.
Some people I always wanted to meet, but could not, like Shri MMI,
Madurai Somu, MGR (though I have seen, but could not meet) , Mali ,
Rajarathnam Pillai. I feel all of these people
all “avatAra purushAs” in their own way.
Long back when I was introduced to him by Shri. Umayalpuram Sivaraman, I told him that I
was one of the drops in the ocean of rasikas and I wanted to just stand near
him to have the feeling of “maestro”. He
with his “usual” smile raised his hands upwards implying that it was “sadguru
katAksham”
Another time, when I met him
somewhere in Trichy, I told him that you
are not “Srinivasan” but Lord Krishna.
As He stole the hearts of “GopikAs” with his flute, you stole the hearts
of million rasikas (gopikAs) with you Mandolin. He smiled and refused to be compared with
Lord. He, then, enquired, about my
family and there ended our meet.
After 3 years, when I met him after vani mahal concert, he called my name “Ramji how are you and your
family”. I stunned to see his
memory. He asked me a question which I
still remember- “Did I steal any rasika’s heart today”. I was bowled over and could not control the
emotions.
On another day at a lounge at Chennai Airport- Krishna
wanted to perform “rAsa kreedai”, He wanted
to call Kopikas to His place and so, he started playing his flute. GopikAs, on hearing the flute, left their work, whatever they were doing. Those who were cooking, milking the cow, providing food to their husbands, boiling
milk, and who were feeding- left the job(s) at once, and proceeding towards
Lord. But, the Gopikas who were wearing
jewels, did not leave it as it is. They
were proceeding to Lord by wearing the jewels.
They had not left the jewels - pointing their craze for jewels.
Sukhabrahma rishi, the creator of Srimadh Bhagavatham, who had no
difference to the gender- How he captured the mind of ladies is a wonder-
Mandolin concluded amidst laugh.
Slowly we developed a good relationship and exchanged few
words, whenever we meet. May be he liked Gopika-Krishna comparison.
Iam m yet to come to terms that he is no more. He is an epitome of “vidhya dadhati vinayam”. How could a person of such caliber hava such
humility ?. Even Sri.Kadri and Sri.
Gurucharan in their tribute wondered the same point.
Prodigies like Tirivadudurai, or Mali , to my knowledge, did not have
that humility. I don’t see anything
wrong with them too as I always see their vidwat (through their recordings) and
plunge myself forgetting who they are, as a person..
But seeing a person with folded hands and say “Namaskaram”
to a person like me, who is below average of a rasiga, is something incredible
I know his family problems which tore him apart. Once I told him to go for a good counseling.
He politely said- on my right side is Sri Satya sai baba and other side, Kanchi
maha swamigal, why should I go for some thing else ?
Year before last, I told him, before the concert at MA, 4.30
PM slot, - “long time I did not hear “ranganayagam” from your mandolin. He agreed and played that beautiful kriti. (nayaki)
The crematorium, in Besant Nagar, was full of people. People who are supposed to remain calm and
see the final rites, gossiping how he
died and what went wrong in his family
? Most irritating part was Sivamani
playing drums as a tribute and people were surrounding sivamani.as if it is IPL opening
ceremony. Even in death also, Srinivas
was not allowed to be cremated in peace.
In the corner of the crematorium, I was standing controlling
my tears remembering the maestro who lived for mandolin, conquered the world
with that small instrument.
On the next day, while talking to karpagambal temple (Mylapore)
senior shivachAryar who is the die hard fan of Mandolin (He likes MMI and
Mandolin). He always says- my father
listens “karpagamE kadai kaN ”
kriti from MMI and after that no body touched my soul with this kriti except
mandolin. H said, “Saint Thyagaraja and
Saint Narayana teertha were born in Andhra and became famous in Tamil Nadu and
attained mukthi in TN. Srinivas was
another saint”
Very true.
He always says- “after a concert, I need two days rest to my
mind as it is most stressful and on a
particular day’s of concert, I need full rest to my mind till evening,
but unfortunately I don’t get” – The beauty was, he said with smile. How sad it is ?
There was a concert with Flautist Shri Ramani. It was the only concert, I think, where he
teamed up with Shri.Ramani. Both Flute
and Mandolin never synchronises. But
both of them managed it perfectly.
Hamsadwani, Ranjani, karaarapriya- each and every raga rendered by both
of them, as usual, gems. He rated this as one of the best concerts and
cherished.
