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He is a well-known and respected citizen of Chennai. Everybody, almost everybody of consequence has heard of him, either due to his active involvement with the activities of the Music Academy or due to his reputation as a top-notch industrialist. Not in the least, is his popularity due to the fact, that he is the scion of the famous TTK family – the son of the most able Finance Ministers of all times – Mr. T.T.Krishnamachari, Union Minister in the first ministry to be formed in free India.

Chennaionline met Mr. T.T.Vasu, erstwhile President of the Music Academy who has lit up the life of many a budding artist and asked him to share some of his experiences with us. Some excerpts of the talk:

You are the President of the Music Academy. Who founded it and when did it start? What are the activities of the Academy?

It was founded in 1958 – the Congress session was held in Madras and they formed a Committee consisting of C.P. Ramaswamy and Rama Rao for the setting up of the Music Academy. The Academy was provisionally started in George Town and was later shifted to Mylapore. Then the present plot of land was bought, and my father TTK and K. Srinivasan from ‘The Hindu’, started the work on it. The foundation stone for the Academy was laid by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. I am the sixth President of the Academy.

The music season will be starting soon. What activities have you lined up for the occasion? Have you appointed anyone to take care of the organisation of the programmes or are you directly overseeing them?

Besides, conducting the Annual Festival in December, the most important activity of the Academy is, that we have lecture demonstrations on the various aspects of music in the morning from 8 o’clock till 12.15 noon and music and dance concerts in the evening. Besides, we have the Teacher’s College of Music, started sixty-five years back, wherein we hold classes for advanced music – besides vocal we have the veena. Lately, we have added both the violin and the mridangam.

You seem to be concentrating on Carnatic music and programmes. Any particular reason for it?

Our institution was promoted mainly for Carnatic music. One of the exceptions is, that during the December season we have North Indian artists –one for instrumental and one for vocal music. That has been the tradition of the Academy.

Any special plans for the music season?

At present, we have planned from December 17^th to January 1^st2000. In the morning session, there will be eighty concerts - folk dance performances will be held and youngsters will be encouraged.

How do you select the troops, concerts and artists for the music season? Who is organising all this?

We have a Program Committee of which the President and the Secretary are ex-officio members. We start work on it sometime in July. We maintain records of all the artists who have performed in the past. Also, we have a lot of endowments with which we give prizes, so we know how different artists perform. In the Junior slot, out of the fourteen concerts that we hold for juniors, we select the previous year’s best eight as well as some up and coming musicians. What we do is, that during October we host the Spirit of Youth Festival, containing about ten days of music and Bharata Natyam programs. We find a lot of talent during this time and the dancer who gets the award automatically performs on the inaugural day of the December festival. Solves a lot of problem for us also.

There is a Consulate in the premises? How are you associated with it and what are the activities of the Consulate?

It’s the Swedish Consulate – Nothing to do with me.

How many group companies does the TTK Group possess? What are they dealing in and who controls them? Are any of your other family members also part of the TTK Group?

My eldest brother is the Chairman and now I have worked for more than 40 – 50 years. Especially during the earlier days, we had to do a lot of running around to get permissions for starting our industry – we deal in prestige pressure-cookers from Bangalore and a pharmaceuticals division. Then we also have a cultural unit in Tanjore as well as factories dealing in Kiwi boot polish and boot cream. In fact, all these factories were improved upon by my brother’s second son, who is from IIT and has done a management course as well. I am not very active now but I do attend the Board meetings.

Your father Mr. TT Krishnamachari was one of the most famous Union Finance Ministers. How come you chose to be an industrialist and not a politician?

In 1928-29, my father tied up with a British Company, Levers, for distributorship to our company, which we should be proud of. In 1942, he became a member of the Assembly and then the Levers fellow asked him ‘business or politics’? So he gave up that agency and asked my brother to look after whatever little he had, but people have forgotten his contribution. However, all pensioners are very grateful to him for starting the Pension Scheme. In fact, in the 1964-65 war, he was the one who extended the Pension Scheme to the military. He was responsible for getting the Neyveli Lignite Project in India as well as opening up the small-scale industries, the Rourkela and Bhilai Plants and then starting institutions like ICICI and UTI. People still remember him for his pension schemes. After him none of the Finance Ministers have done anything much.

Mr. TTK was such an enterprising person, with so much vision and creativity. Then didn’t you want to follow in his footsteps…..

You see my father was a politician by accident, due to his personal association with Rajaji and then later the Constituent Assembly, the Drafting Committee of the Constitution as well as Kamaraj. Besides, he was very  close to Nehru. In the present circumstances, it is very difficult for us to understand.

What quality did you admire the most in your father? Did you imbibe any of his qualities or were influenced by any of his actions or way of thinking in your life?

One of his qualities that I imbibed was his interest in music. That made me very active in the Music Academy. In those days, marketing was a novel concept and when they started the wages solution system and introduced it for the first time, it was a novelty. My father did a lot for business and commerce.

Besides the TTK Group are you also involved with any other organisation or activity?

Well, I started Park Sheraton and am still its Chairman, though I don’t take a very active part in it now. I am also involved in running Bala Mandir, an orphanage and a 100 bed Public Health Centre in West Mambalam. Besides, I am the Chairman of the Madras Voluntary Blood Bank and the Indo-Japan Centre.

Does Mrs.Vasu also contribute in your business activities? Are your sons also following in your footsteps? Do they share your love for music?

Stina is very active in my son’s business venture, T.T. Travels. My eldest son is employed in ABB, headquartered at Kuala Lumpur and my second son is in-charge of T.T. Travels – it’s a money changing organisation with nineteen offices all over India. Well, my sons enjoy different kinds of music.

Mrs. Vasu is Swedish. Coming from a traditional Tamil family background how did you choose a foreign wife? Do you think a foreigner makes a better wife than an Indian lady would?

I didn’t face any problem from my family. It’s just the circumstances that brought Stina and myself together. Actually, I met her in Delhi through a common friend. She wanted to visit South India and I took her around. Later, we decided to get married. She was working in the Swedish Embassy at that time. I really can’t compare whether a foreigner or an Indian lady would have made a better wife.

You must have travelled extensively abroad. How many countries have you visited and what did you imbibe from them?

Actually you’ll be surprised, I started my life as a salesman in TTK. Then at one stage there was some misunderstanding between the General Manager and me, so I worked in Indian Express for 2 ½ years in Delhi. Then when we started the industries, I was sent on training. Afterwards, I started a unit in Bangalore and then in 1956, I was manufacturing Pond’s products. Later, I went in for collaborations with Dunn & Bradley and I have been very active in the Indo-American Chamber. We took the first delegation to U.S.A. just after the elections were declared after emergency. I have met a lot of people and travelled a lot in Europe and Japan.

Your other interests?

I play tennis and not a day passes when you don’t see my name in cultural festivals. No, I don’t play any instrument but I sing, mostly devotional songs. That’s what we have imbibed from my grandmother who was very religious.

You have such a busy schedule. Then how do you find so much of time to attend inaugurations and other functions?

If you want to do something properly you must gear yourself up for it. During the music season, you’ll find me up at 7.30 a.m and at eight, we start devotional music. Then I have to go the Academy because admissions are going on. You have to allot time for each task.

What is the secret of your success and popularity?

Popularity is not my. It is my father’s. As far as success is concerned, I am able to mix with everyone – whether it is an ordinary fellow or an industrialist. It’s some kind of training that we have got. Our public relations is something that I am proud of.

So that’s T.T.Vasu for you. The very epitome of success, popularity and fame.

Shobha Mathur Pandian

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