“It was due to my wife Gowri’s persuasion that I took up the editor’s mantle,” said V. Ramnarayan, editor of Sruti magazine.
A three-day event that began on October 19 was organised at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to commemorate the magazine’s 30 year of publication.
“ Sruti and Gowri were synonymous in its early years. If you see the earlier issues of Sruti you will notice that the contributions are dominated by my uncle and the magazine’s founder-editor Dr. N. Pattabhi Raman, Gowri and me,” Mr. Ramnarayan said. Incidentally, the event also marked Dr. Pattabhi Raman’s 80 birth anniversary.
Talking about the magazine’s plans for the year, Mr. Ramnarayan said, talent promotion events, where experts would work with young musicians and help them improve their voice, were in the pipeline.
“Voice is our aim and we will talk about how they should use it. We will impart some important values to young musicians with the help of their gurus,” he said. That apart, like the previous years there would be lec-dems this year too.”
Financially, it was always a struggle for the magazine as the subscribers were limited. But Dr. Pattabhi Raman came up with a novel idea which is now adopted by several others, according to Mr. Ramnarayan.
He approached 12 companies and got Rs. 1 lakh each from them, called it the Sruti alliance and acknowledged them. But later, the magazine moved away from that model.
Asked about how it feels to be in his uncle’s shoes, he said, “I feel humble. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Though I have always been an intelligent listener with a good taste in music, I’m no expert.”
Sruti Foundation presented two awards on Sunday — the Vellore Gopalachariar Memorial Award to musician Suguna Purushothaman and the E. Krishna Iyer medal to Guru Sri K. Kalyanasundaram, who runs the Raja Rajeswari Bharatanatiya Kala Nilayam
Sruti , started in 1983, is dedicated to the promotion of the performing arts.
