The life of the Carnatic vocalist, the Malaysia-born Chinese Chong Chiu Sen, is all about transcending barriers; culture, nation and language, he’s surpassed it all. He was in the city recently to perform at Gallery Café.
A disciple of D.K. Pattammmal, he was drawn to the symphonic Sanskrit verses in the bhajans in grade six and began singing a few in due course. It took a lot of convincing from his guru in Malaysia for Sen to arrive in Chennai during Margazhi season to acquaint himself with Carnatic music.
“I was introduced to a Bharatanatyam dancer, Usha who trained me for a while. She was impressed by the pace at which I was adapting to the form. Over time though, when music was playing in the background, I used to be so involved with the sound that I couldn’t make my next dance move. Later, Usha maami introduced me to other gurus — Savitri Satyamurthy and T. Krishnamurthy,” reminiscences Sen, who had by then realised what he had learnt in Malaysia was very little. Then he learnt to play the veena briefly from the late Kalpakam Swaminathan, where he’d break into a song in the midst of playing the veena, he proved his heart lay in singing. Meanwhile, he had to deal with reality, like regular visa checks and running out of cash. Also, he realised he was being exploited by people because he didn’t know the local language. So much that, he was left only with Rs 150, which he’d saved to get to the airport to return to home. What followed was a near-spiritual encounter that altered his life.
“It was pouring heavily and I was tearing down all the posters of Gods I’d kept in my room. There was wind blowing, the windows were open and I saw many kids outside celebrating,” he states. Then a book fell down and he saw a page that flashed the names of M.S. Subbulakshmi, D.K. Pattammal and R. Vedavalli— he knew nothing about them then. “I only needed someone to talk to and give me strength. I immediately chanced upon MSS Amma ’s number only to receive a response that she was sick. I then picked up Pattammal’s contact.”
There was some communication gap initially when she picked up the phone and was confused over the caller’s nationality. “I just told her that I was interested in music and wanted to talk to her,” he adds. She replied saying, “Just come day after at 3 pm”. That day, a profusely sweating Chong cycled for about 105 minutes to reach her sprawling bungalow, where he spotted a man in his 80s — R. Iswaran-D.K. Pattammal’s husband — playing tennis.
The man led him to Pattammal on the first floor where a generally shy Chong broke down and started weeping as he held her feet. She remarked, “ Ayyo pavam , why?” He responded by singing Mahaganapathim and a moved Pattammal agreed to teach him for three months. Dikshitar’s Sanskrit verses were where it all began. “My background in bhajans proved handy. I’d written down compositions in English, and she was thrilled to see this. ‘ Bhale, bhale’ she said. All my struggles acquired a new meaning, now I have absolutely no complaints,” Chong states.
Since then, Chong has been increasing his musical knowledge and began giving concerts worldwide.
This is his second visit to Hyderabad. He had come here earlier to collect an award and remembers meeting dancer Haleem Khan who requested him to perform too. Chong battled high fever to accept his request for a good reason. “Most rasikas in other cities walk out prior to mangalam or any alaapana in concerts. Here, though, I don’t notice that; they have so much respect for musicians.”
Chong has a grouse though. He believes Indian restaurants have a long way to go when it comes to the Chinese cuisine. “Cardamom in Cantonese noodles? I freaked out,” he signs off.
