Mahakavi Bharathi Memorial Museum

Sri Aurobindo was not the only nationalist to flee to Pondicherry. The Tamil Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi also found refuge in Pondicherry.

My husband and I visited the Mahakavi Bharathi Memorial Museum and Research Centre in Pondicherry. It's not easy to find: our driver had to ask for directions several times before we found the museum.

The museum is housed in the home where Bharathi lived in Pondicherry. It is very small, consisting of only three rooms. We went about the three rooms, and nothing was intelligible to us, as neither of us read Tamil. We mentioned this to museum staff, and they showed a well-produced video in English about the museum.

In one room, photographs of people who had influential roles in Bharathi’s life are hung on the walls. In the display cases are journals and other publications for which Bharathi wrote and served as editor. In the largest room, there is a large oil painting of Bharathi, surrounded by pictures of his family. In another room are letters he wrote to other notables.

Subramanya Bharathi

We love checking out museum shops, but alas, the only publications for sale were in French and Tamil. A few CDs of Bharatiyar kritis for purchase would have been great.

Dr. L. Subramanian in concert

If The first ever Indian and American Achievement Awards program disappointed, the same cannot be said about the Fairfax (VA) Symphony program honoring India's 60th anniversary of independence that featured Dr. L. Subramanian, his wife Kavita Krishnamurthy, and two of his three children.


Dr. L.Subramanian and son "Ambi" with supporting musicians

The program opened with traditional Carnatic music, featuring Dr. Subramanian and his teenage son "Ambi" on violins. Additional musicians performed on Mridangam (drum), Ghatam (clay pot), Kanjeera (tambourine), and Morsing (jews harp) [the links are to audio clips from Swar Systems that demonstrate the sounds of these instruments - ed.]


Kavita Krishnamurthy and stepdaughter Seetaa Subramaniam performing Freedom Symphony

The rest of the program featured three of Dr. Subramanian's compositions that fuse western and Indian music styles: Global Symphony, Freedom Symphony, and Turbulence Concerto. Freedom Symphony, which was billed as a world premiere, featured poems of Rabindranath Tagore (Jodi Tor, a favorite of Gandhi, in Bengali), Subramanya Bharati (Acham Illai, in Tamil), and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Vande Mataram, in Sanskrit) set to music. We were seated near the stage, where we were thrilled to see and hear Kavita Krishnamurthy at such close range.

The entire program was awe-inspiring. I don't think that I'll hear or see such a program again.

NOTE: I am indebted to Cathy Smith, Director of Marketing, Fairfax Symphony, for the photos and supporting information.