Letters to the Editor

Sir, — T.R. Srinivasan, a music teacher, narrated to me the following incident about M.S. The Karnataka Government had organised the 400th Purandara Jayanti at the Purandara Mantap on the banks of the Tungabhadra in Hampi. M.S. was to inaugurate the concert in the evening. On the morning of the concert, a few women near the riverbank were talking among themselves in Tamil, wondering whether they would get a darshan of M.S. At the same time, a group of Tamil women was walking towards the river to have a holy dip. The women walked up to those seated and inquired about their welfare. On learning about their desire, a middle-aged woman instantaneously squatted on the sands and sang Dasana madiko enna swami, Elliruvano Ranga emba samshaya beda and Enduro mahanubhavulu! TRS who was present there was so overwhelmed by the bhakti that he fell prostrate before the great M.S. "Every rasika is a Purandara-Kanaka-Tyagaraja and other saint composers to me. So a rasika's wish is a command to be obeyed at once," she told him. G.T. Narayana Rao, Tiruchi, T.N.

Sir, — Sometime in the 1960s, Radha, M.S.' daughter, delivered a baby in Dr. E.V. Kalyani Nursing Home and M.S. was there for 10 days. We, staff of the nursing home, were eager to listen to her. Dr. Kalyani made the request and a day before her daughter's discharge from the hospital, M.S. delighted us for a couple of hours. Such was her simplicity. Her rasikas' happiness was hers. Hema Srinivasan, Chennai

Sir, — Whenever she was in Delhi, M.S. visited my father, musicologist T.S. Parthasarathy. On one such occasion, my two-year-old daughter was present. M.S. casually asked her what she wanted. Spontaneously my daughter asked her to sing Sambho Mahadeva. A smiling M.S. sang the whole song for her. That must have been perhaps the only occasion when M.S., who performed for thousands, sang for a single-person audience of two years.