Margazhi masam in Tamil is December, the month of music festival. During the quarter since issue of VV Sept, an important date is the 96th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna, the late M.S. Subbulakshmi
Hence this piece is about the immortal, Bharat Ratna, the late M.S. Subbulakshmi. September 16th was the 96th birth anniversary of M.S. and was celebrated by a few Organizations.
She was honored as the court-singer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) has installed a bronze statue of M.S. Subbulakshmi at the Poornakumbham circle in the temple town. Considering the contribution she has made to the Tirupathi Devasthanam one would have expected that TTD (Tirumala-Thirupathi Devasthanam) would have come out with much greater enthusiasm and celebration and in a manner befitting her stature.
The first time I saw M.S. was in the black & white movie “Meera” when I was a student. My desire to see her and hear her in person materialized in 1959 at Bhilai Steel Plant. I think it was the Kannada sanga which organized her live music concert. Since I was employed I could afford to buy a ticket and find a seat as close as possible to the dais. Then suddenly the heavens opened up, started raining heavily and most people left the scene to keep themselves dry and warm. That was sheer luck for people like me who decided to stay put.M.S. Amma also decided to stay back and continue as soon as the rain stopped. Most of us could find a seat right in the front row! She regaled us for full hour and a half after that with scintillating carnatic music.
I had occasion to hear her in person yet again at Durgapur Steel Plant sometime in the sixties. The introduction by Mr.Sivaramakrishnan IAS, was an added bonus because he was well known for his oratory in English, Tamil and Bengali!.
A lot could be said of M.S. Amma but I will stop by quoting a couple of famous words. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said “who am I a mere prime minster before a queen, queen of songs?”.He had also said that hers is voice for many causes. How true! M.S. had given away almost all her earnings in charity.
Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, had asked M.S. to sing his favorite bhajan Hari Tumu Haro.When he was told that M.S. did not know the lyrics and requested Mahatmaji to have someone else to sing, Gandhiji had famously said “I would prefer to hear it spoken by Subbulakshmi than sung by others”.
"Whosoever comes under the enchantment of this singer's great gifts, will agree with me that she is not an interpreter of Meera, but Meera herself. Take her into your hearts and cherish her. You will be proud that India in this generation has produced such a supreme artist." -Poet Sarojini Naidu.
The modulating vibrations of M.S.s' vocal cord which reverberated at the United Nations won the appreciation of connoisseurs of music from all parts of the world.
“There are relatively few creative people about whom it can be said, that their achievement is likely to have a following a hundred years from now. In India, we can say it about a major poet like Rabindranath Tagore or Subramania Bharati, a beloved short story writer such as Premchand, a great novelist like R.K. Narayan. We can say it about artists like Ravi Varma, Amrita Sher-Gill, and M.F. Husain. We can say it about Satyajit Ray, filmmaker and polymath. We can certainly say it about India's genius of song, M.S. Subbulakshmi.”-The Hindu.
Every conceivable recognition and honor was showered on her and the Government bestowed on her the Bharat Ratna in 1998. It was said that by this it was the award of Bharat Ratna that got embellished more than M.S. being honored.She was the first musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna. She is the first Indian Musician to receive the Ramon Magsasay Award.
Any reference to M.S. will not be complete without a mention of the M.S. Blue.It was a special kind of blue and no Indian lady’s wardrobe would be complete without an M.S. Blue sari! In that sari M.S. as in any other ward robe, with her diamond ear rings and diamond nose ring was grace, charm and dignity personified.
Every morning, in whichever part of India we are, we wake up listening to her Venkateswara Suprabhatam and Vishnu Sahasranama. Her Suprabhatam has become synonymous with India; when any film is shot abroad, and the early morning time is to be depicted, invariably we see an Indian lady clad in sari with her wet hair tied with a towel and the Suprabhatam by M.S. played in the background. She is IMMORTAL.
Published in Vishrantha Vani Dec 2012
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