SIMPLICITY

The Good and the Bad at the moment!

GOOD: No 11, Kotturpuram

MS’s monumental career and accolades were belied by the simplicity of her surroundings

BY VATSALA VEDANTAM



The address was not imposing. Nor was the person residing in it. She owned no material possessions, laid claim to no property. She did all the household chores and was known to cook her own food. Her education ended with the third form and she had very little to say for herself. Yet, prime ministers bowed before her, film magnates travelled across oceans to see her, popes gave her audience. Young and old, rich or poor, her admirers craved her proximity.

However, none of this adulation touched her. Till the end she remained simple, self-effacing and unspoilt.

Her unpretentious dwelling place said it all. It could have belonged to any middle class householder in Tamil Nadu. A small well-scrubbed courtyard, decorated with kolam. An even smaller verandah with sundry footwear piled in a corner. A hall with some cane chairs and, more recently, a sparsely furnished bedroom where she spent her final days on a plain wooden cot.

That is where I last met her one year ago. Her frail body told the truth. But her radiant smile spoke of goodwill. I gave her a tiny icon of the Mallur Krishna which is said to have inspired Purandhara Dasa to sing ‘Aadisidalu Yashodha’. She cradled it against her cheek and closed her eyes in prayer. I will always treasure that moment of pure bliss on her face.

The adjoining puja room was in tune with her character. No ornate carved doors with silver and gilt decorations here. This was another unostentatious corner of the house with her favourite deities, her thampoora and a tiny oil lamp glowing in the dark.

Governments may have awarded her the highest honours. Universities may have conferred on her their prestigious degrees. But these did not make a difference to the person who found a more enduring niche in the hearts of her rasikas. Her voice travelled across continents and charmed listeners in a way that no awards can rival. In her own unlettered, unsophisticated way, this small woman from a south Indian temple town conquered the country and the world through her music. The greatest of them all, from Alladiya Khan to Yehudi Menuhin, were her unabashed admirers. Even that patriarch of Carnatic music, Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer, once declared with unconcealed humility, “She has conferred the greatest honour on me by calling me her guru!”

For one artist, and that too a woman, to reach this position of eminence, was no ordinary achievement. To take it in her stride with no fuss and fanfare is perhaps her greater achievement. And, to live a life of quiet simplicity amidst surrounding ostentation was perhaps her greatest achievement.

She earned in crores of rupees. But, she chose to give it all away. And chose to live the ordinary life of an ordinary citizen in an unpretentious dwelling place called Number 11 Kotturpuram. Scientists and celebrities, the rich and the famous, came to this address to pay her homage. Newspapers and news channels worldwide have recorded her death.

Millions have brushed away a tear on hearing the news. Although the centre of all this attention had sought no attention and craved no publicity in her lifetime. Even her name had been simplified into two letters — MS — which husband Sadasivam would jokingly say was the only degree Subbulakshmi ever earned

Thanks: Deccan Herald.