Trippunithura Narayanan Krishnan (TN Krishnan)
Dear Friends,I am happy to share
this article which depicts two interesting incidents involving my father with
the great Carnatic music violinist Sri TN Krishnan. The below narration shows
the humble nature of TN Krishnan. Let me allow my father to narrate the
incident in his own words as below.
I wish to tell how simple Sri TN
Krishnan is with whom I happened to spend some wonderful times at Mangalore and
Chennai [Madras]. He came to Mangalore 30 year’s back where I was working to
perform with his daughter for Sangeetham Sammelan conducted by All India Radio.
The AIR conducted this concert every December month at various places by inviting
prominent Hindustani and Carnatic artists. The concert was broadcasted every
Saturday night on all the AIR stations. On one of the memorable December
evenings before the concert, Sri TN Krishnan asked me to suggest songs I wished
him to play. I was excited, surprised and never expected that such a great
artist would ask me to suggest songs for the concert. Seeing my shocked
expression with silence, he said, ok we would commence the concert with the
song of your name (my name is vathabi varanan) Again I was speechless
and as he urged me to wish for other songs, slowly I suggested "Saamaja
Vara Gamana" based on the raga ‘Hindolam’ and told him that the
famous film ‘Sangaraparanam’ helped this song to reach all parts of the
country. Immediately he appreciated my selection and told that the song's raga
in Hindustani version is called 'malkauns' famous in North India.
After some years, I had an
opportunity again to enjoy his unforgettable Violin concert in Chennai in a
temple with my family. There were around 5000 people in the concert as
audience. Sri TN Krishnan played the last song for the evening say around 9:30
pm. After the song and the claps of hands, from nowhere a young boy with his
high pitched tone requested TN Krishnan to play the Mohanam varnam.
Immediately Sri TN Krishnan obliged to the kid’s request and played the
Mohanam varnam for the next 15 min. everybody applauded TN Krishnan for his
simplicity. We came back home with heart full of happiness and fulfillment. The
young boy is none other than my elder son Nataraj Sriguru.
