A V Prasanna Gopal

We are all aware of the glorious uncertain ways of life. We have also experienced its twists and turns many times in our lives. And yet, we keep forgetting it. That is human nature. 

He was a dear friend for 50 years. Much more than a dear friend. One who shared life in all its sweet times as well as difficult ones. 

Having come to know that we were in Bangalore for a brief visit, he travelled with his wife last month from his usual place of living at Mysore, to meet us. We had a good time, with other friends in attendance too, exchanging views and catching up with times. He would be usually shuttling between USA, Singapore and India. He was in Mysore at that time. That was enough.

He got a copy of the play "Madhavi" released a few days ago. He remembered that he had not given me a copy of his own collection of poems. He promised it would be sent by courier on the next day. It arrived in Bangalore in three days.

By then it was time for us to proceed to USA. The usual routine after returning to our place and pressing engagements consumed a few days. It was now time to read his collection of poems and give him a feedback.

Today was the time for the biggest twist. He left us today. 

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Early years of 1970s, was a period marked by large expansion in the banking network in India. First round of nationalisation of banks in India in 1969 was followed by opening of large number of branches by these banks allover India. Bank jobs were attractive in the job market and offered a good opportunity for the young men and women looking for employment avenues. All eligible youngsters tried to get into banks and many succeeded. Those were the days of "One Life, One Job and One Spouse". Most of them continued till retirement. Many of them made great advancements in career progression as well. There were graduates from all streams and with all backgrounds.

A V Prasanna Gopal was one of them. He entered the banking industry in the mid-70s and continued till superannuation. He did great as a banker, and trainer. His energy and drive were recognised by the authorities in the bank. Always hardworking and exuding the traits of a good banker, he was liked by one and all. A man with a big heart and willingness to respond to social requirements and human necessities, he was much sought after as a trusted colleague. 

PNB is not a bank with many overseas branches. It is extremely difficult to get opportunities to work in overseas branches. There is severe competition and openings are very few. Prasanna was a automatic choice even in such circumstances and bank used his services at its Hong Kong branch. No need to mention that he did very well there as well. 

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With his friendly approach, great communication skills and varied experience in various banking areas, he was also a natural choice for the role of a trainer in the bank. Bank used his these skills for a trainers role in the bank's training system. First at Nagpur and then at Navi Mumbai, he was a highly successful trainer and very popular among the trainees as well as colleagues in the training system. We had great days working as trainers in parallel channels during those times. 

Two of us from Bangalore (Sri Krishna Kumar, popularly known as KK, was the other) were required to spend a week in Nagpur for job orientation before taking up assignments as Senior Inspectors. Prasanna and his family were in Nagpur at that time. He came to receive us at the airport and took us home instead of the lodging provided to us by the bank. We thought it was a courtesy visit and we would be moving out after sometime. That sometime never came. Prasanna and Smt Soumya kept us for the entire time with them and our movement again was only to the airport to catch the return flight. Such was the affection and love showered on us by the entire family.

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Kalidasa's "Meghadoota" is believed to have originated in the Ramagiri Hills, which is present Ramtek in Maharashtra. Ramtek is about 50 kilo meters from Nagpur. We made a trip to Ramtek during these days and had a wonderful time remembering the great poet, his works and all. The delightful trip had yet another highlight. The transit lunch of "Puliogare" and other items prepared by Smt Soumya consumed below a big banyan tree is remembered even now. The two lovely daughters in the family, Deepti and Divya, have since made big strides in their professional and personal lives. 

Prasanna was a very successful banker, but was much more as a person. The love for music, literature and painting, runs in their family. He had a great collection of music recordings and used to share every day in his WhatsApp groups. 

His collection of poems, "ಮನಃಪಟಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂಡಿದ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು" (Photo given above) in Kannada language mirrors his and his family's outlook to life, and its pleasures and challenges. It also traces the various stages of life and is like a autobiography. Starting from a tribute to the mother, and moving through early years of married life, bringing up dear daughters and following through with subtle turns in life. There are poems about music, literature, family values and social responsibilities. 

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Thank you, dear Prasanna. For everything. You will be deeply missed.

This year, he will sing

After "Coach, Teacher and Mentor", I recalled an instance of a mentee remembering the eminent role played by his mentor, in the post titled "Do you have a coat, Ramappa?". Another instance of a well-known personality paying his tribute to an equally well-known mentor comes to my mind.  The first one was as old as 25 years ago.  The present one was more recent; it happened in 2011.

Bangalore's Fort High School, located behind the famous Tippu Sultan's Palace, is a landmark well known to music lovers.  Chamarajpet's Sree Rama Seva Mandali conducts annual "Ramanavami" music concerts here.  The music festival held during the months of April-May attracts thousands of classical music lovers. This place has been a launching pad for the careers of many distinguished artistes. Almost every top artiste of both Carnatic and Hindustani streams have performed here at one time or the other.  Some senior artistes are regular performers every year and their concerts are eagerly looked forward to by connoisseurs of music in Bangalore.

S V Narayanaswamy Rao was taking keen interest in organising religious and cultural functions since his younger days and this led to his starting Sree Rama Seva Mandali in the year 1939.  He joined HAL and worked there for sometime, but organizing the music festival posed problems for him as he had to take off for long periods every year.  He left HAL and did some other jobs too for sometime.  He finally decided to devote his entire life for music and the annual music festival became his life's mission. Unmindful of the personal difficulties and hardships, he worked hard for making this annual music festival to be an event to remember and celebrate every year.  His friendship with veteran violinist T Chowdiah helped him to meet and persuade senior artistes to perform here, in the early years.  Later on, performing at this festival became an honour to all senior artistes.  He was successful in holding the event for 60 years, till his death in the year 2000.  The festival is continued in his memory even now by Sree Rama Seva Mandali.  To honor his commitment to music, Sree Rama Seva Mandali has instituted an annual "S V Narayanaswamy Rao memorial national award", conferred on identified artistes with distinguished service to music.  The award is given away every year during the Ramanavami music festival. 

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S V Narayanaswamy Rao used to visit Madras (Chennai) every year during the months of December-January, to attend Marghazi Maha Utsavam concerts there. His visits served dual purposes; attending the concerts and enjoying the music was one and meeting the artistes and book their calendar for the forthcoming Ramanavami festival was the other.  In the year 1973, he went there as usual and met the master of yesteryears, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, at his place of stay. He requested Bhagavatar to come to Bangalore and perform during the next Ramanavami festival.  Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar did not answer the request, but took Narayanaswamy Rao to another lodging place and knocked on the door of  a room. The door was opened by a bright young man and he reverentially invited the duo inside the room.  After being seated inside the room, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar turned to Narayanaswamy Rao and told him, "This year, he will sing at the Ramanavami Festival in Bangalore instead of me.  Give him your advance and book him right now".  Narayanaswamy Rao knew the master very well to discuss or argue further. He took out money from his pocket and handed over to the young man standing before them and requested for a date for the concert.  The advance amount was Twenty Rupees!  The young man accepted his Guru's order reverentially and agreed to perform on the suggested date.  The concert was a resounding success.  Thirty eight years later, on the same stage, he was awarded the prestigious S V Narayanaswamy memorial National Award for Music.

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Shri Kattassery Joseph Jesudas had his initial training from his father Augustine Joseph.  After learning music from other sources, he joined the Sree Swati Thirunal Music College, Thiruvananthapuram, and was trained under its Principal Shemmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.  He turned to Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar for advanced learning and derived deeper insights into music from him.  Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar is said to be an expert in spotting talent and encouraging them to grow and flower into great musicians.  Some of the most renowned names in Carnatic music today were mentored by him.  The list includes T V Gopalakrishnan, P Leela, M S Gopalakrishnan, T N Krishnan, Palghat Mani Iyer and L Subramanian, besides K J Jesudas.

K J Jesudas was presented with the S V Narayanaswamy Rao Memorial national Award for music on sunday, 10th April 2011, at Bangalore.  The then Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri B S Yeddiyurappa presented the award. While accepting the award, Jesudas narrated the above incident and described how his mentor transferred a date for his own concert to his young disciple and supported his journey in music.

Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar had organised a special concert on 10th January 1973, on the occasion of 33rd birthday of Jesudas.  He presented a "Tambura", sponsored by T V Gopalakrishnan, to his protege and advised him to devote more time to classical music.  The Mentor and Mentee jointly sang at the concert that followed the birthday celebrations.  At the beginning of the concert, he advised the audience not to ask for film music.  "I will ask him to sing some film songs at the end as per your wish", he declared.  The mentor passed away the very next year, but his legacy is carried by his disciples even today.

A statue of Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, known as "Chembai Swamy" and sponsored by Jesudas, has been unveiled next to the Bhagavatar's house in Chembai gramam, near Palakkad in Kerala.

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In the concert that followed the award presentation ceremony at Bangalore, Jesudas recalled many learning experiences he had with his mentor.  Towards the end of the concert, someone shouted "Harivarasanam".  Harivarasanam or Hariharasutashtakam in the praise of Lord Ayyappan, is sung by Jesudas in all his concerts as the penultimate item, before Mangalam.  His devotion to Lord Ayyappan and Lord Guruvayoorappan is legendary.  "That will be the last item.  I want to sing some more today. Do you want or not?" asked Jesudas.  Naturally the audience wanted more.  He continued for another half an hour before presenting "Harivarasanam" and concluding the concert.  His tribute to his mentor that day and the concert itself will linger in the minds of the audience present there, for a long time to come.        

Painter meets Musician

In the post titled "Ovation for over 15 minutes" (click HERE to read it) I had mentioned about the encouragement given by the audience to the performers in a ballet show at Opera De Bastille in Paris, France on 13th July, 2008.  The ballet was titled "Signes" in French, meaning "Signs" in English.  It was a delightful show and the Director and artistes won the hearts of the audience.  The show itself  was wonderful in concept, design and on-stage execution.  The director and artistes who performed on the stage received standing ovation for over 15 minutes by an appreciative full house audience.

In a music concert, each performer uses a different instrument that has its own characteristics and special features.  A number of instruments, say five violins or trumpets, may also be used to provide enhanced sound effects.  There may be moments in the duration of the concert when the individual  brilliance of an artiste may be savoured by the viewers or listeners, but the emphasis is on the overall impact of the blend of the output of various instruments as planned and executed.  Likewise, when there is a confluence of two or more forms of fine arts, their collective impact gives out an exhilarating experience.  A layman would certainly derive some pleasure out of such concerts, but a trained mind would be able to appreciate the finer aspects even better.

Literature and forms of Performing and Fine Arts like Music, Dance, Painting and Sculpture have their own intertwined relationship, though each one of them have their own domains and individuality.  There are innumerable instances where a piece of literature has inspired a host of artistes like dancers and painters to convert words into visual form of expression.  This enables the content of the literary piece to reach a far wider audience who may not know the original language of the literature or may even be illiterate.  A combination of two performing artistes in different disciplines has often enthralled the audience by their expertise in the fields chosen by them.  One such attempt called "Geeta-Chitra" is very popular in our part of the world.  In such an exercise, as a poet recites his poem, an artiste starts painting the theme of the poem on a canvas in full view of the audience.  Just as the poet completes a poem in five to six minutes, the painting bringing out the essence of the poem is also ready!  Similar attempts are also made in other parts of the world.  The versatility of such artistes often leave us dumbfound.  A standing ovation is probably the only possible way in which we can appreciate their talents.

As we entered the Opera de Bastille auditorium for the ballet titled "Signes" and collected the tickets booked earlier through internet, we were given a booklet with each ticket.  The booklet contained all the information about the show and included details about the artistes and the director.  We were led into the auditorium five minutes before the show to allow us sufficient time to find our seats and settle down.  The  2,703 seat acoustically consistent hall is a magnificent sight.  When we go to concerts and shows, we often pray that a short man or woman should occupy the seat in front of us to save us from the prospect of moving our heads in the alternate directions every time the person in front of us moves his head for his convenience!  There is no such problem in Opera de Bastille.  Even if all the seats are occupied by Amitabh Bachans, there is no need to squirm in our seats since all spectators have a clear view of the entire stage.  The entrance doors were closed one minute before the show began and there was no disturbance from late entrants.  There were no announcements and the show started on schedule, continued and ended as planned.  Not a soul stirred and coughed during the entire period of 90 minutes   

The ballet "Signes" is the result of the efforts of three artistes, musician Rene Aubrey who designed the music, choreographer Carolyn Carlson and painter Oliver Debre who designed the sets and costumes. The effect of the paintings was transformed into visual and audio treat to the viewers.  The ballet is divided into seven paintings on the theme of smile, as under:

1. The sign of smile
2. Loire am
3. Guilin Mountains
4. Monks of the Baltic
5. The Spirit of the blue
6. Colors of Madurai
7. Victory Signs

The unique stage facilities of Opera de Bastille were fully exploited to provide a product of exceptional quality.  The 45 meter high and 30 meter wide stage with its 25 meter depth and the scenery turntable were used to provide continuity without break as well as breathtaking viewing of change in scenes with least disturbance.  The 9 elevators used in creation of several levels in the show and the three main elevators fetched the required scenery up from below stage to provide the sequence. The effortless movement of the hundreds of artistes was like movement of hundreds of parts of a complex machine; each doing only its part by own rotation and yet providing the ultimate effect for which the machine is designed.  The orchestra pit that accommodated as many as 130 musicians gave a wonderful audio support to the great show on the stage.  The circling and floating artistes and their many complex movements was a visual treat.  The sixth painting titled "Colors of Madurai" was a bonus for us and India's contribution to the ballet made us proud.

The combined effect on the audience was reflected in "Standing Ovation" for over fifteen minutes and was indeed well deserved.

Visit to historic Bastille site, view of the Bastille building and sitting through the Ballet "Signes" was a memorable experience and is still fresh in our minds, even after five years.   

Man and the Beast

The word "Beast" has different meanings.  Dictionary defines a beast as "any large nonhuman animal, especially a large, four-footed mammal.  It also defines a beast as "a live creature, as distinguished from a plant".  Another accepted meaning of "Beast" is "the crude animal nature common to humans and lower animals".   So, beastly nature is common to humans and animals.  Recent happenings in Delhi and the sad death of a young girl is a startling example of beastly men.  Animals kill other animals mostly for food.  But man does not need any real reason or rationale to kill other animals.  Of course, he has innumerable reasons to kill other human beings.  We often hear someone say - "Do not behave like a beast, behave like a man".  What distinguishes a man from a a beast?  When does a two legged animal called man become a "Human being"?  These questions crop up from time to time.  Are there any clear answers to these questions?  These questions have clear cut answers in ancient Indian wisdom and literature.  It is indeed important to know these answers at present times, especially when one reads in the media regularly about the beastly acts of so called humans.

There are certain qualities that distinguish "Man, the animal" and "Man, the human being".  Bhartruhari, the original triple centurion on account of his three Shatakas, brings out this difference beautifully in a small sloka in his Neetishataka:

साहित्य संगीत कला विहीनः साक्षात् पशुः  प्रुच्हविषाणहीनः |
तृणं न खादन्नपि जीवमानः तद्भागधेयम्  परमं पशूनाम् ||

Saahitya sangeeta kalaa viheenaha saakshaat pashuhu pruchha vishaana heenaha
Trunam na khaadannai jeevamaanaha tad bhaagadeyam param pashoonam!

A man who does not have any interest in Literature, Music and Fine Arts is an animal personified.  But there are two noticeable differences.  First difference is in appearance.  Man does not have a tail or horns that animals usually have.  Second and more important difference is that man does not eat grass like animals do.  "The Creator" has made this vital difference probably keeping the welfare of animals in view.  If man was habituated to eat grass also, he would consume the entire grass available on earth and force grass-eating animals to die of hunger.  Thanks to the Creator's wisdom or discretion,  whatever you may call it, animals are at least left with grass to fill their stomachs.  But man is more intelligent than the Creator, make no mistake about understanding that.  What if the Lord has not given him an instinct to eat grass?  Man can eat grass-eating animals themselves.  There are experiments being made to manufacture fuel (ethanol) from grass and already certain type of grass is consumed by man to fuel his cars.  The day is not far off when the Creator's designs are defeated by this wonderfully intelligent animal called man and the animals may have to live just on air.  Again, air that is abundantly polluted by man!

Let us get back to the main qualities that differentiate a man from a pashu, an animal- the ones of interest in Literature, Music and Fine Arts.  These disciplines are expected to refine a man and dispel the baser instincts in him.  Fill him with compassion and humility instead.  "Aatmavat Sarva bhooteshu", meaning seeing his own reflection in every living being.  Music, literature and fine arts provide him scope to think of other things that make life more interesting and worth living.  Children are taught to learn and participate in these events since a tender age.  Parents take great pains in providing them opportunities to inculcate these values.  Every child that learns music does not become a M S Subbulakshmi or Balamurli Krishna.  Similarly with writers and artistes.  They may not themselves reach the pinnacle;  but they can appreciate a master in their field better.  They may take out some time from the routine life to sit in a concert, read a good book or move around in an exhibition or museum.  These things make appreciation of finer things in life much better and civilise a man.

A question may arise then.  What about the kind of literature or art that achieve the opposite effect; that of provoking man to even more beastly behavior?  Let us not insult arts and literature by including such things in their purview. Literature, Music and Fine Arts are words earmarked for those instruments that refine a man; and transform him from a beast to a real man.