Saddled with a loan of ₹10 crore incurred from constructing a new building, the 93-year-old Rasika Ranjani Sabha in Mylapore plans to crowdfund its loan repayment.
The sabha was established in 1929 and then too the founders A.K. Ramachandra Iyer and Loganatha Mudaliar had taken a loan of ₹83,000.
“M.S. Subbulakshmi performed a concert for us and gave us ₹25,000. The balance was met through funds from membership drives. The building was reconstructed in 1958 too,” said sabha president and industrialist A.R. Santhanakrishnan.
Speaking at the inauguration of the sabha’s December 2021 festival titled “Music in Perpetuity”, he said they had tied up with GoCrowdEra, which has given a blueprint as to how the proposal should be taken forward.
“The idea is to make the public participate so that along with repaying loan, we can also create a corpus. We urge the members of the public to donate liberally for artistes and this organisation that promotes art and culture,” he said. The Centre had graciously granted ₹6 crore to the sabha as a special case, Mr. Santhanakrishnan added.
M. Murali of Sri Krishna Sweets said that just the mention of the name Rasika Ranjani Sabha or RR Sabha in short, brought happy memories. It has a hoary past.
Violin vidhushi and guru A. Kanyakumari said that she came to the city in 1968 and at that time used to come to the sabha to listen to concerts. Then, she has performed as an artist. She urged sabhas and the listeners to encourage instrumentalists.
The inaugural was preceded by Nagaswaram performance by Sembanar Koil S.R.G.S. Mohandass and Mylai K. Selvam. It was followed by a lec-dem on Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar by Harikesanallur Venkatraman and N. Gayathri Ravi.
Office-bearers, including T.R. Rajagopalan, Srinivasan K. Swamy, Aruna Prabha Ranganathan, R. Nagarajan, Chella Vaidhyanathan and N. Anush Shankar were present.
