As with many things, this blog was meant to be a celebration in life – to a joy that heralded music, its saints, its composers, its participants, all in an ode of worship to some supreme power above.
Of course, in-between, we were forced to contend with a certain reality; a significant reality as portrayed by of one of the hands of a symbolically multi handed God in Hinduism; the hand that can sometimes strike you with a sheer, intense warning reminding you of the one who will always be in absolute control.
It’s just that we were not ready for the hand to strike this type of a blow.
As the rest of a world braced itself to wish each other the Season’s Greetings and to a New Year of a Western calendar, there was, tragically, a certain corner of our own world where people were caught up in a devastation of the most horrible kind imaginable.
Of course, in-between, we were forced to contend with a certain reality; a significant reality as portrayed by of one of the hands of a symbolically multi handed God in Hinduism; the hand that can sometimes strike you with a sheer, intense warning reminding you of the one who will always be in absolute control.
It’s just that we were not ready for the hand to strike this type of a blow.
As the rest of a world braced itself to wish each other the Season’s Greetings and to a New Year of a Western calendar, there was, tragically, a certain corner of our own world where people were caught up in a devastation of the most horrible kind imaginable.
[ 2013 Puttu Rao Memorial Festival - SRK as seen front row, third from left ]
Sri. S.R. Krishnamurthy ( SRK ) 70, redoubtable Music Critic from Mysore, was on his way as Chief Guest to a school's silver jubilee function in the city of Raichur. He along with scores of others happened to take an ill fated journey in the very bogie of the Bangalore–Nanded Express that caught fire in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh on Dec 28, 2013. He was one of the twenty-six people who were charred in the inferno, and in the aftermath it was an even more of a grueling ordeal for members of families as they waited in anguish for news of their loved one(s) and a formal verification based on DNA testing.
As we pray for a solace for Sri S.R.Krishnamurthy’s grieving family ( his 90-year-old mother Annapoorna, wife Amritamayi, son Wing Commander S.K. Vinay Indian Air Force, son S.K. Sanjay Professor, National Institute of Engineering, daughter Anupama and his daughters-in-law ), we would like to remember him as he exactly lived his life, full to its brim.
As we pray for a solace for Sri S.R.Krishnamurthy’s grieving family ( his 90-year-old mother Annapoorna, wife Amritamayi, son Wing Commander S.K. Vinay Indian Air Force, son S.K. Sanjay Professor, National Institute of Engineering, daughter Anupama and his daughters-in-law ), we would like to remember him as he exactly lived his life, full to its brim.
[ Courtesy: Star of Mysore Jan 3, 2014 ]
[ Paying respects to the departed at Veene Seshanna Bhavana, Mysore ]
[ Paying respects to the departed at Veene Seshanna Bhavana, Mysore ]
He was a very versatile man who along with his equally well known brother S.R. Ramaswamy, shared a passion for journalism between them. He had a great love for music, and was a popular music critic who wrote for many distinguished newspapers including the Star of Mysore, where he reported on the cultural scene.
Felicitated and welcomed to many a function in the state of Karnataka, he would lend his support to many a varied cause; at the Gurudeva Lalithakala Academy he could be seen lending his weight behind the traditional arts of Yakshagana and Bayalata as the prominent folk art of Bhakti sect, and he would bemoan the fact that they were not granted the status of traditional art; at the 125th anniversary celebration of the Bharathi Vidya Bhavan to which he was attached ever since his student days, he could be seen suggesting that the students should be groomed to develop interest in art right from a tender age.
His most defining moments came as the Secretary of “Ganabharathi”, a very well known music academy, where he undertook the formation of a huge digital music archive where a Rasika could choose and listen to favorite ragas from the vast collection of classical music from 1935. He was behind the popularizing of classical music and the much needed help for music lovers, researchers and students. In this he had to collaborate with many well wishers. The facility was donated by Tiruvengadachari and Gopalan Corporation ( TAG) and Madras Music Academy ( MMA). Other notables were the Departments of Music University of Madras and University of Hyderabad, the Gayana Samaja in Bengaluru and the Indian Fine Arts Society, Singapore. The project was the brainchild of industrialist and music lover R T Chari from Chennai.
He was a close friend to “Parvathi” and we mourn his loss deeply. Just a month before his demise he was in consultation with Sri K. Srikantiah on notes to a music book he was writing. Year after year, he would faithfully review the K. Puttu Rao Memorial Music Festival. We shall present his 2013 review in a subsequent post.
Felicitated and welcomed to many a function in the state of Karnataka, he would lend his support to many a varied cause; at the Gurudeva Lalithakala Academy he could be seen lending his weight behind the traditional arts of Yakshagana and Bayalata as the prominent folk art of Bhakti sect, and he would bemoan the fact that they were not granted the status of traditional art; at the 125th anniversary celebration of the Bharathi Vidya Bhavan to which he was attached ever since his student days, he could be seen suggesting that the students should be groomed to develop interest in art right from a tender age.
His most defining moments came as the Secretary of “Ganabharathi”, a very well known music academy, where he undertook the formation of a huge digital music archive where a Rasika could choose and listen to favorite ragas from the vast collection of classical music from 1935. He was behind the popularizing of classical music and the much needed help for music lovers, researchers and students. In this he had to collaborate with many well wishers. The facility was donated by Tiruvengadachari and Gopalan Corporation ( TAG) and Madras Music Academy ( MMA). Other notables were the Departments of Music University of Madras and University of Hyderabad, the Gayana Samaja in Bengaluru and the Indian Fine Arts Society, Singapore. The project was the brainchild of industrialist and music lover R T Chari from Chennai.
He was a close friend to “Parvathi” and we mourn his loss deeply. Just a month before his demise he was in consultation with Sri K. Srikantiah on notes to a music book he was writing. Year after year, he would faithfully review the K. Puttu Rao Memorial Music Festival. We shall present his 2013 review in a subsequent post.
