Mylapore Fine Arts Club Secretary passes away: K S Venkatraman

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 ambassadors of Carnatic Music to the world. With a career in telephones, he spent the best of the non-working hours listening to, organizing and promoting the music that he so much loved.

There could be no time bar for either the betel leaf ritual or listening to good music. He could be listening to AIR late night classical music at 11 till he dozed off at 2 in the night or he would be up and early listening to music during the season before he left home in the morning (during his days in service, this was a compulsory month long leave from office) for the day long Kutcherys (musical concerts) that could start as early as 8 in the morning and the last of which would end in the night at 10. The un-recognized and un-noticed job of the the Sabha Secretary was to be available to be blamed for everything during the season. From the malfunctioning microphone that would be noticed by the toughest and most uncharitable critic and promptly reported in the next morning kutchery note to the unsatisfied customer in the musical seasons canteens, everyone blames the Sabha secretary for just about everything. 

I have seen KSV smile at all of them, pat someone on the shoulder here, share a joke there, give people their due, but, never over state things and carry on. This in one evening, he does this for almost a month in a year and then several smaller seasons including the dance and drama season. He had an eye for talent and always picked and promoted youngsters and gave a lot of attention to their performance.

In recent years the pressure on the Secretaries have increased multi-fold with the Secretary receiving 'promotional' calls and sample music disks from March onwards for a chance to sing in December. Though he chose the talent with much care, he was equally critical with the senior performers who at times would come up with shoddy performance. "If she sang only such songs, next year she may not even get this much crowd", he mentioned about a very popular artiste once. "He was fine, but, the trouble with him is that he has become very talkative during the concert", he said about another. Last year when a very senior artiste restricted her dates and said she would not sing for MFAC, he utilized the opportunity to promote another youngster in her place.

His brand of kumbakonam betel leaf with the scented tobacco came to be associated with the aroma of the sabha, several artists came to his room for a small paan before and after the performance, that was an incentive.  

A gentle and simple person, in his post-retirement life, he almost only lived for the Sabha and promoting good music through it. I often asked him about the vast collection of music he had, whether he would like to share them with anyone at some point in time, if he would want to set up a centre where people could access these rare music. He always shrugged aside such suggestions. He looked down upon commercialization of music and the music season (MFAC is perhaps the only Sabha where still you sit in a non air-conditioned ambience). 


Mylapore has just lost a prominent face and Carnatic Music, a true connoisseur and patron. I personally will miss his jokes, gossip and certainly the paan, which I had started appreciating only recently despite being related to him for over a decade. (Read earlier online interviews with him here and here).