In towns and cities, there are many outlets for musical talent to be recognised and nurtured. There are many schools of music and opportunities for development. This is not the case in villages. Earlier, women and men came to be known for their poetry and singing talent in temple functions. But now, temples blare out the latest records of devotional songs recorded in some studio in a metro from multiple megaphones. There is some opportunity to be heard at school, university and family functions – but very limited as they too follow the fashion of the temples albeit with popular movie hits. This is especially so for girls and women.
So I got the idea of holding a music talent competition in Kameswaram village, but could not find any judges among young professionals willing to come to the village. Obviously, I was looking into the wrong generation! I approached my aunt, Mrs. Jayalakshmi Sarma, a renowned Carnatic music artiste, who now devoted more time to family, hand-made crafts and her garden. She immediately agreed! So, she along with my uncle Dr. Balakrishna Sarma, who still attends to patients in a clinic on a daily basis – came to Kameswaram and pretty much wowed the villagers – who became attached to them immediately. Meena, FIN staff said, “their sincerity is so clear. We are so blessed to have such professionals come and visit us.”
Amutha, our Village Relations Officer, had spread the word of the music competition far and wide. Contestants came to our office and were recorded on whatsapp. We made a preliminary choice together. Finally, there were 13 contestants. We held the contest only for girls and women – though some of the brothers tagged along to sing! There were three age categories, 10-20, 20-50 and 50 and above.
Mrs. Jayalakshmi thought a lot about the indicators for grading the singing: “There is surely going to be a variety of genres being sung. I am not very familiar with folk music and like only some of the contemporary movie songs. But music is music and so I will have to really concentrate during the competition.”
On April 3, 2022, the day of the competition, the contestants came – some quite early! Mrs. Amutha was running making the arrangements. We were all praying that the electricity would remain or at least the inverter would work – as it was very hot and we really needed the fans.
With respect to the contestants – the children were dressed in their best and the dressing become more informal with age! A favourite theme of the youngsters was filial piety, the young adults favoured famous movie songs, the middle-aged women sang about the angst of life challenges – and most interestingly the 50+ sang about joy, freedom and the mystery of life!
The judge was most focussed throughout the competition. When it ended, and while she reflected, the contestants sipped tea and waited tensely for the results.
Mrs. Jayalakshmi started, “First of all, I want to congratulate you all – each of you individually and collectively as a group! You were all very good! Second, I want to confess my very happy surprise. I never imagined that such talent could exist in this small village. I am truly humbled.” Then she went onto analyse the song rendered by each contestant, clearly pointing out what was good and what needed improvement. We were all amazed at such a detailed analysis and the contestants nodded in agreement.
Then she turned to the senior singer: “Madam, that was a very interesting song you sang. Where did you learn it?”
She replied, “I composed it myself madam.” Another one chimed, “I also composed my own song.”
Mrs. Jayalakshmi, “So in addition to being singers, some of you are also poets!”
The lady replied with a smile, “Madam, I am a poet and poets are born first and then only made. Of course, some become very famous. But, many of poets do not write poetry to become famous, it simply comes out of us. A few people do appreciate me, but to be celebrated in a meeting like us and by people like you is something great for me. I will not forget today.”
I was stunned. I have always wondered why Indian movie songs, especially the Tamil ones, are most about love, many exhibiting a violent, don’t-care-about-women intention – the other popular themes being male heroism, sadness, devotion to elderly or the Gods – but rarely about all the other normal challenges and feelings women and girls have to deal with every day. Maybe, if more girl and women poets’ compositions were used in the films and set to music – we would have more variety!
To watch full video click here – https://youtu.be/Ij_wUF3Qs_o
