Thread: Music can be Medicine - see How?

Reading Praveen’s post today “Sirkazhi Sivachidambaram - Master of music, medicine” provoked me to write something that came to my mind instantly. A rare talent a mixture of music and medicine or is music as medicine?

To me Carnatic Tamil music can be a kind of healing medicine. I have heard plenty of Sirkazhi Govindarajan’s songs in my youth days and loved them. Yes! Music is divine and it can be healing.

That his son is a Doctor and he can sing is a thing I only came to know this morning after reading about him on Chennaiforums. What is it that’s strange or even little bit funny about this news?

As a doctor he writes prescriptions for his patients who come to him with their ailments.
Then turning in to a musician his audience write chits (prescribing) what he should sing. Isn’t it funny this exchange of roles of a Doctor Patient and a Musician Audience relationship?

What ever it means to anyone, to me it means that all the patients who go to him
are healed more by his music than by the medicine he prescribes.
I am certain I would make it a point to be one of his the audience next Margazhi.

So for all those who want to bump into me or bump me off there is great opportunity
next Margazhi in the presence of Dr. Sirkazhi Govindarajan.

Personally, i use music as a inspiration to write. I write poetry and sometimes i listen to various songs to get a "feel" for what i write. but i make it a point only to listen to Alternative English Songs. Tamil songs or carnatic songs dont give me the type of inspiration that i look for but it is good listening to them.

I like Kadri Gopalnath saxophone. It is soothing and nice. Recently i have been listening to Anoushka Shankar and her dad Ravi Shankar.

Originally Posted by praveen

Personally, i use music as a inspiration to write. I write poetry and sometimes i listen to various songs to get a "feel" for what i write. but i make it a point only to listen to Alternative English Songs. Tamil songs or carnatic songs dont give me the type of inspiration that i look for but it is good listening to them.

I like Kadri Gopalnath saxophone. It is soothing and nice. Recently i have been listening to Anoushka Shankar and her dad Ravi Shankar.

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To start with we belong to two entirely different generations. When I was young I was brought up in a country where Tamil was only the third Language. My Parents were staunch Hindus and I travelled with them to Thanjavur my birthplace very often.

I have visited the temples the palace and everything that associated with the Chola Empire. So naturally I listened more of Carnatic Tamil music and learned to like Bharatha Natyam. Inspired by all the many facets of Tamil culture of my birthplace naturally I dreamed that the Chola kings would return to rule my homeland and build more temples of course.

I have two sons born abroad who know nothing about Carnatic music but that does not bother me. But strangely Bhratha Natyam danced to Carnatic music fascinates my grand daughter born in Germany. She is now five years old. She does not speak one word of Tamil. I have shown her videos and she tends imitate all the time and wants to see them over and over again.

Unfortunately my dreams may never come true in a place where we see a record number of pubs being opened for people who one day will change from rich class to middle class then to poor class and finally become homeless like in the United States of America.

Different generations true. my parents extended family are very orthodox. god was everywhere and in everything. But my parents were not strict in enforcing them. They let us explore and if we wanted we could anything as long as the circle was not breached.

But once i went to england the circle disappeared. i was on my own and i enjoyed my freedom to the fullest extent possible. When i came back to Chennai in 2006, my mother especially was ok with my beliefs and i ensured what i did remained within me and not in a way which might hurt her. I have been careful and i must say i have seen the best and worst of both worlds. And right now, i stay in the middle. Taking a bit from each side and balancing my life (if i may call it).

Originally Posted by praveen

Different generations true. my parents extended family are very orthodox. god was everywhere and in everything. But my parents were not strict in enforcing them. They let us explore and if we wanted we could anything as long as the circle was not breached.

But once i went to england the circle disappeared. i was on my own and i enjoyed my freedom to the fullest extent possible. When i came back to Chennai in 2006, my mother especially was ok with my beliefs and i ensured what i did remained within me and not in a way which might hurt her. I have been careful and i must say i have seen the best and worst of both worlds. And right now, i stay in the middle. Taking a bit from each side and balancing my life (if i may call it).

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Yes! I had my professional education in England and Rochester New York and settled down in Germany permanently nearly four decades ago. However, up to now I had my freedom too. There was no one watching me over there or anywhere. I could have done anything I wanted to but, there was some built in anti virus something that kept me from adopting any western culture to break in to my own cultural beliefs I was brought up in.

I do not believe in 24-hour religion. Since I have not found anything wrong in my own culture and religion I keep following them irrespective of what my children or grandchildren might follow and believe. However, so far they keep in touch with those that I believe. That’s enough to make me happy.

Often I find books about South Indian culture in the German language and pass them onto my sons and they too are fascinated by what they are missing. Thank God born, educated and living in a western country they are not that westernized. They don’t sit in pubs even though there are plenty of them to choose from.

How much western influence has infiltrated into our culture is very evident from the amount of pubs available in Chennai according to your last Sticky thread. Does sitting in pubs bring any good to the families of those who drink?
We shout so much about rising petrol prices, gas prices, other basic needs everyday but some how find the money to drink and some even get drunk.

17 Pubs Very Expensive – 2 open for 24 hours
13 Pubs Expensive – 4 open for 24 hours
13 Pubs Moderate – None open for 24 hours

Do we have more pubs than temples in Chennai? We certainly have a choice here too, don’t we?

You are free to do what you like and I just do what is necessary for good living.