We are grateful to the world wide web and to all fellow bloggers for the scope of the material that they have put out there in terms of Chowdiah, his music and the music of many other eminent personalities.
We have borrowed freely where necessary in the spirit of sharing and have done our best to acknowledge those borrowings. Where we are still remiss, please feel free to point it to us and we shall put in the necessary corrections.
The story of Mysore and of 'Parvathi' proved somewhat of a unique story, never before told and which needed to be expressed from the perspective of Chowdiah and his memorial. In the spontaneous exclamation of a great and living legend of our Bollywood cinematic world, Parvathi was a home that had "such a great character to it".
We may never have made it to this story but for Mr. K. Srikantiah's sharing the same at a public platform on being invited by the College of Fine Arts, Mysore University to speak about Chowdiah at the 'Nada Namana' program on 1-12-2005. Subsequent to this speech he was requested (as mentioned in an earlier posting) by the Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University, Dr. Sashidhar Prasad to put his experiences into writing. What followed was a delightful little book in 2007 replete with photographs of eminent musicians and dignitaries and full of original anecdotes on Chowdiah. We were also made to realize that there was not a single name of any reputable mention in the Carnatic world that had not performed in 'Parvathi'.
Readers are urged to obtain a copy of this very elegant book by writing to the Director, Prasaranga, University of Mysore, Manasgangothri, Mysore 570006.
Needless to say, this blog is a growing one. We are still scouring through voluminous albums and reams of recordings made available to us by the KK Murthy and K Srikantiah families and by the other spheres of influence in Chowdiah's memorable life. We take this opportunity to invite readers to send us original stories, anecdotes on Chowdiah and on 'Parvathi' not captured on the web. Of course, your comments are always appreciated.
Finally, we are most appreciative of the creative powers of Mr. Prakash Venkatakrishna in Bangalore, Mr. Jim Gaines in New Jersey and Mr. Sachi R.Sachidananda in Australia for making this blog come alive. Thanks a whole lot, Gentlemen!
