At first glance, Traditions seemed an interesting book. The jacket was simple, the square format appealing, the strip of paintings depicting stalwarts of the carnatic music world attractive.

Author Srikrishna M. Subrahmanyam soon revealed himself in the preface to be a ‘youngster’; who but a kid would have a poster of Sachin Tendulkar in his bedroom? Clearly interested in music, and having learned for 10 years, he says that he was inspired to do this book by his father, who introduced him to A.P. Sreedhar, an artist. Sreedhar went on a limb and painted portraits of 10 artists for Srikrishna — a bonanza in itself. In the preface, the young author also urges the reader to listen to his TEDx talk given at Hindustan University on his journey. Now, that aroused my curiosity. So I went online.

Srikrishna is self-assured and convincing in his talk and I am willing to bet that he whetted the appetites of at least a few members of his audience that day, to at least check out carnatic music — those not already into it.

And so, to the book. It’s disappointing. It’s basically 15 sheets of thick paper, each double-spread featuring a painting on the left and a text about the featured musician on the right, written by Srikrishna.

There was really nothing new that I discovered in Srikrishna’s brief texts on T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai, Palghat T.S. Mani Iyer, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Bangalore Nagarathnamma, the Alathur brothers, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Madurai Mani Iyer, M.L. Vasanthakumari, G.N. Balasubramaniam, and M.S. Subbulakshmi. There is already material available on these stalwarts, by way of books and articles, apart from the delicious fare available in back issues of Sruti magazine.

But for the uninitiated, there are some nuggets. Still, with some more research, and definitely lots of rewriting and editing, the text could have come alive.

While I commend the young man who, when the book went to press, was still in Std XII, for his effort and interest in reaching out to other young people like himself, I really wish he had not got hooked into creating such an expensive product.

For one, it costs Rs 800. For another, the design isn’t exactly aesthetic. Printing each text sheet in a different colour seems unnecessarily fussy. Using card, not paper, makes the book heavy.

A simpler approach could have made the book more attractive and less expensive and, in the bargain, served the purpose better of reaching out with the stories of the extraordinary lives of the extraordinary musicians Srikrishna admires. It would have made the book far more accessible.

But the project promises many goodies, and that can’t be a bad thing — you can buy Sreedhar’s pictures by writing to him at CarnaticTraditions@gmail.com . There are also T-shirts and mugs for sale.

You can visit http://kaywa.me/611x5 for a cool musical experience that best describes Srikrishna’s efforts to bring young people closer to their past.

The musical interlude he offers makes you sit up alright. (Hint: there’s fusion, of course.) It’s the latest, or at least it was, until a couple of months ago. It’s intriguing, for sure. Log on and listen.

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