In Carnatic music vocabulary, we do not seem to have any one word that describes the deeply engaged musician, performer, thinker, linguist, philosopher, educator, scholar and collaborator. But, may be there is an expression, the one that impostors like yours truly feel we deserve and at times demand — Vidwan. If there is a person who embodies that term, it is the wonderful musician, Vidwan R.K. Shriramkumar.
Shriram grew up with the best of musical influences, from T. Brinda to D.K. Jayaraman. At home, Carnatic music was the only known mode of celebrating life. His house was the epicentre that attracted the young crop of musicians from the mid and late 1980’s. Inherently, Shriram has the ability to grasp and internalise music with lightning swiftness and to aid this, a photographic memory. This combination has helped him absorb music from many maestros. All that was said, left unsaid, suggested, analysed and de-constructed, has stayed with him. At the same time, this has not been a blind intake of knowledge; he has a most sophisticated sieving system.
When so much is taken in, the mind needs to decide the following — what is needed, what can be discarded, when, where and how much should be released, and most critically what are the constants. For Shriram this process of receiving, retaining and relinquishing is just natural and therefore finally what you hear is the quintessential Carnatic.
Ragas are his companions with whom he converses, not opponents that need to be subdued or defeated allowing them to glide towards us, the listeners. Every swara and phrase of his offers us a glimpse of music beyond the musical; you are shaken and stirred. He is certainly not the most skilled or technically perfect violinist. But those who are unable to receive him beyond these limited and limiting criteria, are the ones losing out on a profound experience.
Unfortunately the Carnatic music world is so obsessed with ‘main artists’ that prominent recognition has eluded him. Shriram is known to many as a tunesmith and composer of Pallavi. But he must be celebrated as an outstanding vaggeyakara . He may not have composed hundreds of songs, compositions, but his few outweigh the many that pass off as kirtanas.
As deep thinker, Shriram does not take anything at face value. He probes, investigates and navigates every thought. He may not immediately accept a contrary view but with some reflection will come back and continue the conversation. And at times he would be honest and courageous enough to tell you that he agrees with your point, yet finds it hard to change the way he is. “ I am working on it,” he would say.
From the surface, do not think that he is an easy person to convince, far from it! He can be bull headed and refuse to budge, but the trickster that he is, you will never realise that he had vetoed your thought or castigated you.
He is a linguist, who grasps the nuances of languages with ease. He reads and understands all the south Indian languages, a master of Sanskrit and dabbles in Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi and a few others.
He is constantly exploring linguistics and semantics and in wonderment whenever he sees a new meaning, interpretation, sound and history to a word.
Heart of hearts, he is an advaitin , for whom atma vichara is at the heart of living, while being, at the same time deeply ritualistic and brahminical. But his search for the real does not reject or discard its inherent contradictions.
There is also the other side to him, the deeply passionate seeker of beauty, love and romance.
When people see Shriram, there are two opposite imageries that arise in their minds. For some he is the ‘ideal.’ the perfect Brahmin man, pious, god-fearing, respectful Carnatic musician. Others see him as conservative, archaic, rigid and un-modern. But what these positions reveal are our own beliefs, judgments and complexities. Shriram is neither ideal nor is he old. He is complex, difficult, challenging, open and flexible yet rigid and tied down, like anyone of us. It is just that in his case, his overt classicism is a shield that makes it difficult for others as much as it does for himself.
I know there is so much more depth to what he says than what is heard and I am disturbed that his thoughts have been straight jacketed within a cultural milieu. And hence I have constantly pushed him to discard diplomacy, correctness, inhibitions and fear, reveal his own doubts and say it the way he sees it.
Shriram has been an integral part of my life for the past twenty-eight years. I am here today because he has been and is still with me as a confidant, mentor, discussant and dissenter. There are many who wonder how we could be such close friends. The answer lies in the question itself. May be there is hidden in each, something of the other.
