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 Poor Semmangudi! Little would he have relished the thought of his face being put on a scurrilous little pamphlet that describes the murky goings on in the Music Academy.
Why Semmangudi, one does not know. Probably, those behind the publication felt that his was a face that most would recognise and therefore read on. They could have achieved the same result by simply putting a picture of the
Academy façade instead.
The slim quarto-sized publication (16 pages in all) is poor in quality of paper. It bears the title
'Music iniyadu Academy...?'. It has come as a supplement with the magazine Kudiarasu dated December
16-31, 2003.
Later, no doubt, special copies will be sent to all the members of the Academy by post so that they do not miss out on it.
The write-up lists all the wrongdoings that have happened in terms of running the Academy as a society. All of these are now public knowledge and the document goes into painful details of bye-law such and para 16 A etc., that can be of interest only to the most diehard bureaucrat.
What is, however, very saddening is that it writes scandalously of the way chances and opportunities are given for concert performances to junior artistes. It also brings in names of a few prominent corporate houses that have been associated with the Academy from its inception and casts aspersions on their roles and also questions their credentials.
It clearly lists the points of view of one side in the ongoing battle for supremacy though it tries to give itself a sheen of being balanced.
The fact that the Academy has operated as a mysterious cloak and dagger body where membership is open only to a select few has long irked many. However, nobody has questioned the organisation’s claim to be the leading institution as far as classical
south Indian music is concerned.
Today this itself is being thrown open to debate by such attempts at yellow journalism. It is high time that the Academy woke up to reality, did some soul-searching and set its house in order. Perhaps a more open style of functioning would be in order.
Sriram.V
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