Letters to the Editor — September 30, 2020

September 30, 2020 12:02 am | Updated 01:03 am IST

Pandemic has ‘peaked’

The observation that India reached the ‘Corona Peak’ in mid-September suffers from the fallacy of inference (Editorial page, “Imperatives after India’s September virus peak”, September 29). The conclusion is based on limited testing over four weeks. The numbers could rise again, what with all our shambolic systems and amusing statistics. Most of our shifting strategies are based on mathematical models of a limited theoretical frame.

Dr. T. Rama Prasad,

Perundurai, Tamil Nadu

 

S.P. Balasubrahmanyam

It was very thoughtful of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister to suggest the conferment of the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honour, on S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. SPB himself would have felt that the award to him would be incomplete without similarly conferring it on Mohammed Rafi whose influence on him SPB has acknowledged. It would be apt to cite SPB himself: “To my knowledge, the maximum influence I had on me was Mohammad Rafi. I used to go to my Engineering College in a cycle. Every day I was up at 7.30 in the morning when I used to listen to a particular song, I used to just stop there, listen to the song and just shed tears. I was not crying, it was not a pathos song but I cannot express what it was. It is something which was nearer to Godliness.” Nothing could be more telling than that. Therefore, the Government of India should confer the awards on both of them.

N.G.R. Prasad,

Chennai

Suggestions have emanated to confer the Bharat Ratna on SPB. There could not be two opinions that SPB was a singer par excellence and deserved the award, and it should have been his when he was alive. Awarding the highest civilian award posthumously is pointless as it would deny the recipient the exhilaration of receiving the award in person in recognition of his/her outstanding contributions to society in the particular field. It may be relevant to point out that since 1974, statues of the Nobel Foundation stipulate that the Nobel Prize cannot be awarded posthumously unless death has occurred after the announcement of the Nobel Prize. A similar decision can be taken by the Government on the Bharat Ratna.

V.N. Gopal,

Chennai

A few readers have mentioned SPB’s songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi, and his ability to sing in multiple languages. Kannadigas were treated to soundtrack gems in the film, ‘Nammura Mandaara Hoove’, ‘ Neera Bittu Nelada Mele ’ from the film, ‘Hombisilu’, the enthralling ‘ Neenu Neene Illi Naanu Naane ’ from the film, ‘Gadibidi Ganda’, where SPB sang for two characters with different voice modulations, and the soulful rendition of ‘ Pavadisu Paramatma Sri Venkatesha ’ from ‘Shri Srinivasa Kalyana’. His Telugu programme, ‘Swarabhishekam’, with anecdotes about the songs, was enthralling.

Roopakala Anand,

Bengaluru

A reader (‘Letters to the Editor’, September 28), has incorrectly referred to the song, ‘ Nallavarkellam Satchigal Rendu ’, from the film “Thyagam”, as an SPB rendition. The singer was T.M. Soundararajan.

Ilengai Arasan V.,

Madurai

 

Racing for the results

I write this as Vice-President (retired), Advertisement, The Hindu . ‘KN’, The Hindu ’s first Readers’ Editor, who wallowed in verbiage day and night by virtue of his profession, was himself a man of few words. He was associated with The Hindu for nearly five decades and I worked with him for over three decades and never once during our entire relationship did he give me the feeling that I was in a different department. No silos, no air of superiority and suave but demanding of work as if I was reporting to him on an official basis. I enjoyed the treatment thoroughly and thus learnt to gradually despatch stories to The Hindu Group publications on various subjects over the years.

KN would call at any time of the day or night — no apology, no dilly-dallying. He would straightaway come down to what he wanted and did not wait for an answer. On a midnight during a period when Calcutta was in its wonted throes of violence, he called me and wanted me to procure the day’s ‘Racing Results’ from my contacts with The Statesman and rush them to the Sports Desk — all the sports correspondents in Calcutta were on a strike.

I rushed out despite protests from my mother and drove down to Chowringhee in great speed and I went gingerly through the dimly lit corridors of The Statesman and met the Sports Sub-editor on Duty to help me out. Fortunately, he knew me and was in a pliant mood. He swore me to secrecy and asked me to quit immediately after handing over a copy of the ‘Results’. I rushed to The Hindu office about five minutes away but the watchman would not let me in as I was dressed in a casual pair of jeans and a dark tee-shirt. I pleaded with him as I was running out of time. I rushed upstairs, opened the Teleprinter and “creeded” (then in usage) the copy. The next morning I was expecting a bouquet from KN. What was it? A cryptic note as usual in KN-speak: “Kali, can always count on you.”

I began to work even closer with KN when he helmed the pages of Frontline and would constantly ask me for market feedback apart from coordinating special articles from outside sources and contacting special photographers like Pablo Bartholomew and Raghu Rai.

Before he left the city and decided to move into a Senior Citizens Home in Coimbatore, he gave me a call and perhaps, for the first time, spoke quite a few words. I shall miss him and his unassuming personality.

V. Kalidas,

Chennai

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