Ripples on the brain

I read MS’ biography by TJS George a month ago. I should admit I was shocked when I finished the book. I never knew that MS Subbulakshmi faced so many personal turmoils in her life. Her life story probably had more twists, turns, highs and lows than any character even in films could have had. Yet I think her personality, that reflected in her music, remained the same and that earned her all the adulation she received throughout her life.

I think George has made a very sincere attempt to capture MS’ life without making it a book of flattery, which is a very difficult task considering the universal appeal she has got. He keeps the biography very interesting by lending space even to the minutest of the rumours that existed about her and Sadasivam. The magnitude of MS’ success could never be explained without setting the context in which the success was achieved and George clearly excels is presenting this context to his readers. MS’ life could never have been described in isolation.

At the end of book, I was surprised, awed, shocked, confused, angry all at the sametime. My reactions about MS was mixed. I ended up questioning, in my mind, a lot of actions of MS. Nobody will know the answers to those questions. Infact, it might not be even right to question them at this point - I can never probably comprehend the situation under which she lived…

I present below a couple of passages from the biography that I thoroughly enjoyed reading:

About the Carnatic Music “industry” in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century:

Madras developed into a hub of authority. By the end of the nineteenth century, it was not enough for a musician to be established in Thanjavur or Madurai or Mysore or Tirupati. For true recognition, he or she had to go to Madras and be acknowledged there. After the Madras Music Academy was established in 1928 by leading residents of Mylapore, the Brahmin citadel of Madras, Carnatic music acquired an instant ‘Vatican Council’…Actually the animating spirit was not just Tamil but Tamil Brahmin in character. Mylapore was the civilizational pivot of Tamil Brahminism and the pillars of this area perceived it as entirely natural that they should be the providers to, and accessors of, all Carnatic culture…Mylapore tended to project Tamil and Tamil Brahmins as having a natural superiority over others. A situation rapidly developed where non-Tamil musicians had problems getting the all-important nod of approval from the Mylapore establishment.

About MS’ Suprabhathams:

MS broke all taboos and all conventions with regard to Suprabhathams. Her renderings were in the traditional mode, more recitational than musical…People found that packaged convenience did not detract any of the sanctity from the recitation…She[MS] became a member of every worshipping family every morning.

I had many other favourites from the book, but I failed to bookmark them and cannot recollect now.

I read two books this week. Since I have a very bad memory I thought I’ll register my current impressions about them here.

The Tipping Point
I think this one by Malcolm Gladwell was a suggested reading in some Marketing course (was it “Customer Focussed Product Development”?) during my MBA. I got a chance to read this only now. In my opinion, wikipedia gives a concise and almost comprehensive summary of the book. The book analyses some important events (which the author refers to as “social epidemics”) and arrives at the factors that the author thinks were the immediate causes for the rapid transitions in those examples. The author then advocates applying the lessons learnt from those examples for things such as social campaings and sales promotions.
As an aside, when I read about a class of people categorized as Mavens, I couldn’t but think about the desis, when they go to the US for the first time. Even for buying things such as vegetables, they derive ultimate satisfaction by visiting atleast 4 shops to identify the lowest priced products where the difference between the highest price and the lowest price might be in the order of 2-4 cents. They then call up all their desi acquaintances and provide them with the “market information” that they gleaned out of their shopping experience:).
I think the ideas suggested by the book to combat ills like nicotine addiction and alcohol addiction can be given serious thought by the governments.

One night @ the call centre
After I finished reading this book today, I searched the net to read some of the reviews and was surprised to find that my impressions matched most of the reviews.
1. The book opens up very well with well thought out characters, with the kind of humour that Chetan Bhagat is known for (especially associated with that Bhakshi character), but loses the plot somewhere in the middle.
2. The first half of the book compels the readers to finish the book in one go.
3. The climax is contrived, and not digestible even given the fact that the story is a fiction.
4. The book seems to be specifically written for Bollywood with a well-packaged love story with a happy ending.
5. In the end, invariably, the readers seem to be betrayed by a story that somewhat began well and ended up being so lousy that they cannot believe that such a book was published.
For me, both the books of Chetan Bhagat give similar kind of feeling towards the end. On both these occasions, however, the opening was so good that I couldn’t leave them till I completed them.