In these days of commercialism overtaking every sector worth the name, it is heartening to come across persons who are true to their roots. That is sustainable development in the actual sense for all those who scream from roof tops.
A random encounter with A. S. Ganesh who runs ‘New Aruna Musicals’ in Bangalore opens up a treasure trove of musical heritage, so rich in tradition and so inspiring to tune in. “We are into restoring musical instruments and we are also Luthier. In musical parlance we don’t use the terms ‘repair’ or ‘manufacture’. My ancestors were vidwans in instrumental music. I have also tried my hand at Carnatic music; I learnt the veena under the tutelage of R.K. Prakash, but I was interested in the making of veena than playing it and learnt its intricacies under Chandrasekhar Aachaar. I learnt the mridangam too,” he gives a brief introduction of himself. That speaks for his knowledge of ‘setting’ the ‘naadam’ (tone) and the ‘melam’ (frets) of this instrument which most Indians consider simply divine. Our interest metamorphoses into curiosity! And that lets us into the threshold of a hoary tradition that has been held with sanctity by the family.
“We belong to the Veerashaiva and our family has made the city its home. But six generations ago, it was a village where our ancestral deity Pralayakaala Veerabhadra (martial form of lord Shiva) is housed in a temple till date. My grandfather Arunachalam was a harmonium and violin vidwan, a contemporary and friend of the illustrious Chowdaiah with whom he shared the stage many a time. A landmark concert in his life, which he was never tired of relating to his children was that of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna. The violin accompanist failed to turn up and my grandfather was asked to accompany him on the harmonium. The maestro — who was by then very popular- eyed him with scepticism. By the end of the concert, Balamuralikrishna was thanking my grandfather for a wonderful evening of music. This was sometime in the early 60s.
Later, he started a small workshop under the name of ‘Calcutta harmonium works’ in Balepete which has now turned into Aruna Musicals. His sons, my elder uncle, A Veerabhadraiah and A. Nagaraj, both turned out to be violin vidwans while my father A. Shankar, though he knew the nuances of music, took to the trade and started a shop with the prefix ‘new’. My uncle Veerabhadraiah, a pupil of Chowdaiah, was a ‘Gana kala bhushana’. His son, my cousin, A.V. Kashinath is a mridanga player whose wife (also a cousin) Pushpa Kasinath is an AIR ‘A’ grade veena player. My younger uncle tutored under Lalgudi Jayaraman. The whole family are active performers today. It so happens that my mother, Kasturi Shankar who hails from Mysore but with no musical lineage, evolved herself into a vocalist, more so in playback singing for movies and later Sugama Sangeetha. Looks like she was born to bag awards for herself; she had four awards coming her way in just one month! She is an ‘A-top’ grade artiste of AIR and Doordarshan and even has the title Karnataka Kalashri. She toured abroad quite extensively in her heyday and I’m proud to say that my two children have taken after her and are into music with passion,” Ganesh recounts with utter modesty.
The family head was the first to have made fibre veena when jackfruit wood for the bowl of the veena was becoming some sort of an endangered species! “This veena is popular among the learners/beginners,” says Ganesh. Today, the store also sources veena from Thanjavur, sitar from Kolkata, violins from China and Germany and tabla from Benaras. The USP is that Ganesh counsels and guides new players into knowing the nuances of the instrument before investing in it!
