Chennai Times

In the middle of the music season and the new year holiday spirit reaching a crescendo, it was a surprise to see a gathering of people on a social issue in the city.  The meeting at SPACES, 1 Elliots Beach Road attracted several literary, media, theatre, music and film personalities apart from social and political activists numbering more than 100, on 29th evening. The meeting seemed to have been convened by Sadananda Menon and Sashikumar of Asian College of Journalism. Sadananda Menon, welcomed the gathering expressing concern about the ruling of the Court against the human rights activits,  Dr Binayak Sen. He also mentioned that the famous dancer Chandralekha would have been proud that this meeting was held in this venue and she would have gladly signed the petition seeking the release of Dr. Sen. Suresh, President of PUCL , Tamilnadu and one of the National Secretary of PUCL outlined the case against Dr. Sen and the obvious gaps in the ruling awarded by the judge. He emp...

As the music season starts, the one music sabha secretary that I know passed away this evening. K S Venkatraman, was for over 35 years the Secretary for one of the oldest musical sabhas in the city, Mylapore Fine Arts Club (MFAC). He died this evening after a brief illness of over a month in a private clinic. As connoisseurs of Carnatic music he belonged to the elite breed of  Kumbokonam - Tiruvayaru brand. The tradition of ritualistic betel leaf consumption, hot degree coffee (which he gave up in the later part of life), pride of having swam in Cauvery river and growing up in the river bank that has generated musical geniuses in Carnatic for more than a century. He came from that cultural background and had a taste on all of these.  He devoted much of his time in hunting for and promoting talent in Carnatic music through the Kutchery opportunities in the Sabha. He has seen several generations of young talent grow up and some of them today are brand ambassador...