The Hindu & me   

'It belongs to all of us'

By Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer

I am 96 years old. My memory is not what it was. But I do know that The Hindu is what I call a 'classical' paper, dignified, restrained, sober. Nothing quirky or cheap can touch it. Whether you know English or not, just to be seen with The Hindu in your hands confers prestige upon you.

I have been closely acquainted with the paper from the old days. For me The Hindu is inseparable from the family that owned and published it, because it is the family which is responsible for the values it represents.

This is particularly true of the paper's long association with Carnatic music. Kasturi Srinivasan used to play the violin himself, and was a discriminating connoisseur of Carnatic music. He was a great fan of my uncle violinist Tirukkodikaval Krishna Iyer and had a lot of affection for me.

Once I had to turn down a concert for the Madras Music Academy during the December music season as I had to go out of town on some urgent personal work. Kasturi Srinivasan made a trunk call and reprimanded me, "To whom does The Hindu belong? To all of us! Boycotting the Music Academy is boycotting The Hindu."

It is true that The Hindu has had inseparable ties with the Music Academy from the time the institution was founded. If the Academy has served the cause of Carnatic music, so has The Hindu.

The Hindu has given ample coverage to music in its columns. I will not say all of it has been good, or even useful to musicians in developing their art. But I will admit that newspapers have been generally useful in spreading awareness about the arts among the people. In the past I would rate SVV as a reasonable music critic.

To have any value, music criticism has to be done by experts, which is not always the case. Even when Kirtanacharya C.R. Srinivasa Iyengar wrote for The Hindu, and mind you, he was a man who knew his music, he offended the musicians whom he criticised. I have heard of this exchange between him and Konerirajapuram Vaidyanatha Iyer whom he had trounced in his column. When chance brought them together on a train, Vaidyanatha Iyer asked him, "You write about music with such authority. Can you sing a single kriti with equal command?" And Kirtanacharya replied, "You can complain about getting nicked during a hair cut. But can you do the barber's job yourself?" Personally I have benefited by the exposure The Hindu gave me in my formative years. On the whole I would say the paper has avoided controversies and concentrated on the subject.

(As told to Gowri Ramnarayan)

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The Hindu & me

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Stories in this Section

• An early lesson at a concert
• 'It belongs to all of us'
• Growing up with it
• Those shattering editorials
• The wealth in the archives
• Striking the right note on reform process
• Presentation always fair and full
• Correcting Churchill
• A 'born fighter' and his close ties
• A case of love at forty
• 'I have one grievance'

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