In 1971, a young American accompanied his Carnatic music teacher on a trip to Madurai during the first week of December.
He was doing his Master’s in western composition at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, and also travelling 30 miles to Wesleyan University to study the veena and vocal.
Geetha Ramanathan Bennett
The guru took him around to play a few veena concerts in Madurai and nearby towns such as Sengottai, Kuttalam, and Palghat.
With the advent of Margazhi, the guru had to return to his Wesleyan teaching assignment, and the American went to Chennai to get a taste of the live concerts during the music Season. He took up lodging in Mylapore, Chennai, close to the Kapaleeswarar temple tank.
The very first day, around five in the morning, he woke up, startled by some beautiful, soothing music with tambura and percussion coming from the bedroom window.
The Amercian was fascinated by the choir which faded in a few minutes. He did not understand what was happening and went back to sleep. He had the same experience the following two days and the curious student went out to investigate. He found a group of people, walking barefoot, men in dhotis and women in saris, wrapped up in sweaters and mufflers.
An older man was leading the ensemble. He would sing one line and the rest would repeat. The American noted that they were Tamil compositions, extraordinarily beautiful and unique.
Voila! The fourth day the young man was part of that choir and stood close to the leader of the group in his short sleeve cotton shirt. Where he came from it was very usual for the temperature to climb down to minus ten degrees in December. He started repeating those kritis with the group. From repetition he memorised a few of them and came to know that those songs were composed by the leader.
After returning to the U.S., the young man enthusiastically told his Indian teacher of his experience and the kritis he had learnt.
When the guru revealed who the composer was, the American was stunned and knew that he would never forget that Margazhi. He cherishes every moment of that experience until today .
The American is Dr. Frank Bennett, now my husband. The teacher was Dr. S. Ramanathan, my guru and father. And the leader of the bhajanai goshti and the composer was Sri Papanasam Sivan.
(geethabennett@gmail.com)
