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Divine music journey
 Come December, the entire Chennai city will be reverberating with music. The sabhas will be flooded with musicians and rasikas. A heavy downpour of music in the month of Marghazhi, is a feast to the music lovers of
Chennai.
When the rasikas who are eager to listen to their favourite musicians throng the particular
sabhas, a young vocalist, Dr Ganesh, comes home to give concerts, through a movement called 'Irai Iasi Payanam'. Though a
veterinary doctor by profession, the love of music impelled him to involve himself
in Carnatic music. Koteeswara Iyer, who created
keerthanas in 72 Melakartha ragas and Kavi Kunjarabharathi are his ancestors. Hailing from such a lineage, it is no wonder that Ganesh
plunged into music.
"I started learning music when I was 14. My first guru was P Mahalinga Iyer from Tanjore. Then I continued my music lessons with
Vidhwan Thirukagavur G Srinivasaraghavan. After that, it was the gurukul-type of learning
I had under the popular and eminent Padmasree Sangeetha Kalanidhi Maharajapuram
Santhanam, from whom I learnt for six years," says Ganesh.
At present he is learning from O S Thyagaraajan and apart from vocal music, Ganesh is also an expert in playing
the veena. His guru in veena is Ranganayaki
Rajagopalan.
The turning point in his life came when he arrived in Chennai to study in
Veterinary College. He was blessed with the chance of learning under
Maharajapuram Santhanam. His first concert was with his guru in August 9, 1987, at Krishna Gana sabha. He continued singing with his guru till his last days and was acclaimed as his chief disciple.
He finished his veterinary medical course in 1992 and offers came from many quarters. But
Maharajapuram wanted his disciple to stay with him. During this time, the
president of 'Vishwapriya Group' Viswanathan offered the board of director post to
Maharajapuram Santhanam. He agreed to the proposal on one condition that Ganesh be given a suitable job in the same
organisation.
"The most sorrowful day in my life is the day when my guru passed
away," says Ganesh, brimming with emotion. "I have always accompanied him to concerts and after the concert, used to return with him in the same car. On June 23, 1992, we were returning after giving
a concert in Manjakudi, near Kumbakonam. Fate played a cruel role that day as my guru told me to board a bus for my return journey. I too complied and came back to Chennai. The very next day the car in which he was travelling met with an accident and he passed away instantly........."
Ganesh's solo concert took place in Mylapore Fine Arts
December 8, 1992, and followed by many other performances. His most memorable concert was when he sang in Prashanthi
Nilayam at Puttaparthi for Sai Baba's 70th birthday in 1995, in his divine presence. The concert was telecast on that day throughout the country.
He has given performances where he has been accompanied on instruments by Dr T K Murthy, Umayalpuram
Sivaraman, Thiruvarur Bhakthavatsalam, V Thyagarajan, Nagai Muralidharan, Rukmani, Sikkil Bhaskaran......the list goes on. He has performed in Australia, Singapore and
Malaysia many times.
He has also released many cassettes like 'Guru
Kanikkai,' 'Guruve Saranam,' 'Ragamalika,' 'Bhakti Paravasam Part 1&2' (songs written by Lakshmi Natarajan for which he has composed music) and also cassettes through
Viswapriya.
Each year companies or organisations distribute
calendars to their customers. But Viswapriya's approach is unique. They ask singers to sing on various concepts like Purandhara Gaanaamridham, Navagraha
Keerthanais, Ganapathy Gaanamala, etc., and distribute among their investors and customers for free. Ganesh has rendered many such songs, which
have drawn appreciation from one and all.
In the memory of his guru, he conducts music programme on June 23 and in his desire to take it to a big level, he has formed a trust called 'Sri
Maharajapuram Santhanam Rasigargal Arakattalai'. His father Radhakrishnan, Renukadevi, Alarmelu Saraswathi and Govindharajan are the trust members.
Through this trust they have been doing many services, and spreading Santhanam's style of music is the main aim. They arrange concerts from June 17 to 23 not only in Chennai but also in six places in
Tamil Nadu. The expenses of taking the artistes, the accompaniment artistes to the
places and making arrangements are borne by the trust.
The credit for changing
Griffith Road in T Nagar to Maharajapuram Santhanam Road belongs to this trust. They brought out a pamphlet which contained
information about musicians and continued the work for three years but at present this work is being done by
Mudra.
Ganesh feels proud about the charity programme which they conducted to collect funds for Gujarat earthquake victims. After seeing the sufferings of the victims, they wanted to reach out to them in some way. They organised a grand musical programme in Naradha Gana sabha in which Lalgudi Jayaraman participated and gave a violin concert.
"Even Kanchi Sankaracharya offered to come for this function. We never accepted money but instead cheques in the name of 'Prime Minister's
Relief Fund' . We collected Rs 5.32 lakh and this effort of ours was much appreciated by the then Union Minister and
present BJP president Venkaiah Naidu.
They are also helping musicians in need and distress through this trust. Arunexcel
Foundation, Sriram Groups, Pepsi and New India Insurance help them in this
endeavour.
Ganesh has presented many unique
musical progarmmes. He has participated in a programme by Sivasabha where they chant 'Om Namsivaya' one crore times for world peace. He has been performing 'Sivaharam' by chanting 'Om Namasivaya' in 108
ragas with two violins and two mridangams as accompaniments for the past two years.
Ganesh, with his 'Irai Isai
Payanam', has been collecting funds for repairing many temples, now he is the process of renovating the Singiswarar
Temple at Mepedu, near Poonamalle. He has so far performed 11 concerts and collected
Rs 2 lakh for this holy endeavour. This has drawn appreciation from other eminent musicians and he hopes to continue with this service to God.
He is working as an honoarary veterinary
doctor for Kanchi Mutt, not neglecting his profession also. He dedicates all the credit for his service to Viswapriya. He feels grateful to them for encouraging him to travel further in his musical journey. He feels sorry that sports, which was invented by man, is being given more importance and benefits by the
government than music, which was given by God to man.
Contact:
Dr Ganesh, G 7A,3rd floor,
36, VGP Road, West Saidapet, Chennai-15.
Phone: 24853340 (residence), 24417711/ 24414702 (office)
Mobile: 98412 65560
Email:: doctorganesh@hotmail.com
KT Sri
Translated by Radha N.
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