Music helps to balance one's life - Chennai Music Festival 2009 ~ PodUniversal

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Music helps to balance one's life - Chennai Music Festival 2009

PodUniversal Edition 93

Every year, during December, Chennai City in India will be showered with music vibrations. The largest Music Festival of the world is being held here, without great fanfare. Thousands of Music lovers across the globe land in Chennai to enjoy the best of the music performances. Starting from a cub to the senior, most will get the opportunity to showcase their music talents. Besides, there are lots of seminars and workshops, discussing the nuances of Carnatic Music.

One will be surprised to know that the first Music Festival was started in Chennai, way back in 1927, by Indian National Congress. Can you believe that a political party, which was fighting for freedom then, was also serious about promoting music? From then on, every year Music Festival has been an integral part of Chennai life.

Many National leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajaji and C Subramaniam were great music lovers and they encouraged the music and dance culture. Even today, many well known achievers like Dr Abdul Kalam, T S Krishnamoorthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India), N Murali (The Managing Director of The Hindu and President of Music Academy) and many leading professionals take time off during December and hop between one Sabha and another in Chennai to listen to Music.

Is there a relation between Music and achievement? I asked this question to Mr K T Jagannathan, a well knwon Senior Business Journalist in Chennai and also a passionate music student. He says, "Music helps you to balance your life". Probably that was the secret behind Indian National Congress starting the Music Festival in 1927, to rejuvenate their freedom struggle.

Mr K T Jagannathan is learning 'flute' in his forties under his guru S. Ravi. Along with his journalist friend, he and wife Sudha maintain a websitewww.carnaticdarbar.com to give updates on Music. In a freewheeling conversation with me over phone, Mr Jagannathan shared his views on the Music Festival and how Music could help a person to balance in the life, etc. He is also inviting articles for his site. He can be reached at ktjagannathan@yahoo.co.in

Please listen to his conversation by clicking 'play' button in the flash player below. (14 minutes). The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If you find any difficulty, right click this link and save the target/link to your desktop in mp3 format .

The podcast interview may also be listened from the following links:

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