For its own sake

Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira has seen 60 glorious years of music. Behind the institution’s success are the selfless efforts of an entire family

February 27, 2015 10:36 am | Updated 10:36 am IST

It’s our mission to work for music, says Krishna Prasad

It’s our mission to work for music, says Krishna Prasad

For those of you who have attended Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira concerts would have, at some point or the other, bumped into G.V. Krishna Prasad. The moving force behind the highly successful, meticulously planned and hugely attended concerts is the quiet Krishna Prasad, who believes in work more than talk. He neither seeks attention nor does he come anywhere near the arch lights, Krishna Prasad works relentlessly behind the scenes. His equally unassuming sister G.V. Neela, who plans the institution’s activities with her brother, sits among the audience; SRLKM is an institution known for its commitment to music in ways that are transparent and honest. They manage to put together all the finances on their own, with some help from patrons. Top musicians hold the institution in great esteem, connoisseurs are not far behind.

Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira founded in 1955, has turned 60, and if its founder G. Vedanta Iyengar was alive, he would have probably said that this is what he dreamt as the future of the institution that started in a modest way. Dedicated to the cause of the promotion of Carnatic classical music, SRLKM is among the leading music sabhas which has earned a fine reputation among musicians and connoisseurs alike.

“We used to live in Mysore. My father was a middle school headmaster,” recalls G.V. Krishna Prasad, speaking of his father Vedantha Iyengar. He believed that music and education must go hand in hand and made sure that all his five daughters and two sons had music training. “They were hard times, it was not easy to run the family. My sisters were also pitching in on the home front,” says Krishna Prasad, speaking of his sister G.V. Ranganayakamma who worked as a music teacher in a girl’s high school. “She was transferred to Davanagere and between 1951-54, the years that she worked in Davanagere she introduced the veena which was till then, unheard of in that place. Alongside teaching, she even took classes at home apart from giving small concerts.” In 1954, an education conference took place in Davanagere and A.G. Ramachandra Rao, then education minister, was among the dignitaries who came for it. Ranganayakamma and her team performed at the inauguration and impressed by the performance, the minister felt that teachers like Raganayakamma should be located in Bangalore. “I remember everything distinctly. My father had lost his eyesight and he took me along everywhere. We went to the railway station the following day, handed over the application to the DPI N.S. Hirannaiah in the train, on which he immediately signed, ‘Transferred to Bangalore’.”

SRLKM came into existence on January 15, 1955 on Sannidhi Road, in Bangalore. Veena, violin and vocal classes began and gradually a lot of students began to come. “My father passed away in 1962, and on his deathbed, my sister vowed to stand by his dream and take care of all of us,” says a teary eyed G.V. Neela, remembering the huge role her sister played in steering the organisation to great heights. “It was something that my father instilled in us, he believed in doing things for people. In 1949, he won a Public Service medal from His Highness Maharaja of Mysore.” Vedanta Iyengar was not only a respected teacher and scholar, but played a significant role in building orphanages, hostels, maternity homes, child welfare centres. “In the old Mysore region of Saligrama, Holalkere… my father had such a good name,” says G.V. Neela. In fact, Vedanta Iyengar was so honest and service minded that Mirza Ismail had great respect for him. For the tenth anniversary celebrations of the Institution, V.V. Giri graced the occasion.

“After I finished my engineering, I worked with a private contractor for a while. At some point I felt that I needed to take up a government job so that it would give me the security to support the institution. My father was a close friend of chief minister Nijalingappa even before he rose to great heights. I wrote a letter to him requesting him to give me a job. He asked his secretary S. Varadan to look into my case, and within a week, I was given a job in the Town Planning department. In the meanwhile, Ranganayakamma, Neela and team had earned a good reputation; they were invited to sing at every civic reception. Based on their contribution to the cultural scene of Karnataka, in 1972 they allotted this site to us.”

For the 25th anniversary Maharajapuram Santhanam was invited, and when hall was built in 1986, K.J. Yesudas inaugurated it. “In 1989, we built the open air auditorium with whatever little money we had and Semmangudi Srinivas Iyengar sang for the inauguration.” Over the years, the quality of their programmes began to attract a large number of people and both the hall and open air auditorium was insufficient. “In 2005, Sanjay Subramaniam advised us to move our festival to a bigger hall and ever since we have been doing so,” says Krishna Prasad.

Whether it is a leading artiste or an upcoming one, SRLKM keeps all its concerts free. Ranganayakamma-Neela, and Krishnaprasad have put all their earnings to run the institute. They bring leading artistes for music workshops but don’t charge the participants. They bring out a magazine dedicated to music. “It is difficult, but this is the way our father wanted it to be, and it is our motto as well. Money should never be the criteria. Many people come on their own and make contributions, we are thankful for their participation. Indians living abroad plan their vacation to coincide with our Spring Festival, which is a big thing for us. My sister Ranganayakamma had been allotted a Housing Board house, we sold that house recently to keep a corpus fund for our festivals and awards. The activities of this Institution should always go on…,” says Krishna Prasad.

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