Requiscat in pace - Shri Shanmugham

Udal mannirkku, uyir thamizhikku
Ithai urakkacholvom ulagirkku

Vairamuthu’s from the movie Iruvar would have remained just lines if not for Sweet Uncle’s influence in my life. Any attempt to translate the lines into English would be a vain effort in conveying what it means. I was homeschooled to read and write Tamil, my Father was my Guru. He taught me the alphabets and how they were strung together to form words and how words lined up together to make sentences. However I owe it to Sweet Uncle for sowing the seed of love for Tamil in me, literature, poetry, movies and culture.

Shri Shanmugham, an employee of the erstwhile Cheran Transport Corporation, anointed Sweet Uncle by some cousins and workers of a press my Father used to own in the late 70’s. He never used to come without a box of Nellai Lala sweets when he came visiting and hence the name. I’ve known him all my life. He was a noble person who sometimes came across as a trite impatient at the world and it’s machinations.

His knowledge was vast & varied, he could regale anyone with stories about the Dravidian movement, hollywood movies, trade unions, Clint Eastwood, Bud Spencer, MGR, Shivaji, Gregory Peck, Omar Sharief, Kannadasan or Kalki. My childhood is replete with movies he’s taken me along, the best being Thevar Magan, which was a bit too violent when I saw it, but later was a movie that moved me by the sheer power of the actors on screen.

He wasn’t my classmate or playmate. More than 40 years separated us but that didn’t stop us from being friends.  My brother was ever his darling, affectionately called Renadi and pampered to no end. The distance kid bro took a walk with him in the Nilgiris when they went to attend Aunt’s wedding is a story he could narrate any day not to mention another detail around bro wanting to take a piss.

Sweet Uncle was a rare human being who was moved by human sorrow. He was a firm believer in the God and some saints, he was truly pluralistic in his religious outlook. His cycle was his prized possession and I vividly remember it took me many years to be able to get access to ride it. He was a collector, of books, magazines, paper cuttings and things like that. Sweet Uncle and Athai liked to serve food, to be kind and hospitable and no visit to their house was complete without more than a full stomach and heart.

As someone who urged me to read Kalki, more specifically Ponniyin Selvan, I owe it to him for having earned now the ability to appreciate Tamil and the vast literature that fills it. He could narrate a kural for any situation you ask. He could talk about the classic movies from the black and white era. I could never get him to say anything nice about the modern Tamil film music that I was exposed to, yet he had a liking for Kaviarasu but Kannadasan was his all time favourite.

The past few years have been harsh after been confined to the house all day and the loss of the grandson he doted so much on, life took a bitter turn. He recently was shifted back from the hospital to house after breaking a bone in the leg. This afternoon was a rude shock with the news coming in about his sad demise and a wave of images play in my head. Every single incident between us from the past. I on my part wasn’t able to make time for him as much as I would want and an impending change in the days ahead was going to help in that front but destiny had other plans.

RIP Sweet Uncle.

Inru un rojapoo mugathil muthamida ninaikiren,mudiyavillai
Mutti varum kanneerai moodivida ninaikiren, mudiyavillai
Poivaa nanba, poivaa
Un pakkathil enakkum oru padukkai virithu vei
Yendraenum orunaal unarugil naan varuvaen

*The lines above are Kaviarasu Vairamuthu’s from the movie Iruvar

Requiescat in pace - Herbert Roy Boother

Herbert Roy Boother or Uncle Roy as he was known among friends breathed his last today in Asokan Hospital, Coimbatore. An accomplished bass guitarist with a keen ear for music, Uncle Roy was one of the rare people who'd make you instantly comfortable. He was our worst critic when we used to play in the Church. I vividly remember seeing him stand in the last rows closely following the music that we used to play, I used to loathe the thought of getting feedback because we sucked big time with our music and he was not a person to mince words. 

The honest and genuine feedback he always shared was a motivation to do better. I was even fortunate to jam with him, I remember practising carols for Christmas when he offered to play the bass. It was an opportunity too good but at the same time scary because here was a person you looked up to musically who was offering to play with you. We did jam together and Uncle wasn't exactly pleased with the music we did then but he never gave up on us.

I can't seem to nail the correct date but it was during Easter of 2002 that Uncle Roy suggested that we play a full drum set in the Church. We went to a friend of his and brought back a bass, snare, cymbals, hi-hat and a high, mid & low tom. Sam was supposed to play it but couldn't due to some last minute compulsions. The cover we did of 'More love, more power' sung by Stanley was appreciated by Uncle who used to be amazed at times at how a computer can make many things easier. 

Uncle Roy was also a known face in the Coimbatore orchestra circuit. He used to play bass guitar and he enjoyed it so much that you could see him completely immersed in his music when he was on stage. He sounded like a bass guitar too, the baritone voice he had still rings in my ears. I used to be a regular for tea in his house till a couple of years ago and I can't say how much thankful I've been for the hospitality of the Boother family. After getting a job I've never been able to visit them as regularly as I could when I was a student. 

Stanley's been a close friend from school and we recently met when he visited India for Christmas. The last couple of years have been demanding on Uncle with his usual movements restricted by illness causing him to visit a hospital more than often. Uncle Roy is survived by Aunty Felis, Stanley and his sister Geena. The void he leaves can never be filled and we all join the family is spirit to share the pain. May God grant peace to his soul.

Requiescat in pace - H Sridhar

The demise of H Sridhar has come as a rude shock to all fans of Indian music, South Indian in particular. Winner of 4 national awards for Mahanadhi, Dil Se, Lagaan & Kannathil Muththamittal, H Sridhar was one of those rare breed of sound engineers who were trained in music too. Born on 31st Mar 1960, HS was just 48 yrs old when his end came. I read on the internet that he returned back home at 2 AM after working on the soundtrack of 'Ghajini' and didn't wake up from his sleep. The doctors declared him dead around 1000 AM and the reason was attributed as a cardiac arrest.

South Indians in particular are known to look out for names of technicians and the name of H Sridhar as Sound Designer / Sound Engineer / DTS mix was a sure fire indication of top notch sound mix on multichannel soundtracks. Media Artists, an organisation which pioneered the use of DTS as movie soundtrack formats, was H Sridhar's main umbrella. H Sridhar has also mixed / engineered almost all of AR Rahman's soundtracks. It's simply no surprise that out of the 4 national awards he has won, the music for 3 were scored by AR Rahman.

We have all the technology one would need to create a near perfect sound for CD / DVD, HS belonged to an era that had to work hard at achieving that. It's probably from there that the sense of achieving higher things would have imbibed into his system, every movie mixed by him had his stamp on it. His presence will surely be missed by the industry, DTS technologies owes it's success in India majorly to Real Image and H Sridhar who worked to create some of the best software in DTS in our times.

# All pics used in this post are from KJ Singh's collection and permission is awaited for using this here. Content will be removed if objection is raised by the owner.