Actor and playwright Girish Karnad on Wednesday launched the second edition of Carnatic musician T.M. Krishna’s book ‘A Southern Music – The Karnatik Story’ published by Harper Collins . He was joined in the release function by Capt. Gopinath for a felicitatory address, while Gopalkrishna Gandhi read a few portions from the book.

After the official release, Mr. Karnad opened his talk by saying, “When I saw T.M. Krishna teach students on YouTube and heard him say, ‘Just as an engineer or doctor, it doesn’t take anything more to be a musician too. But how you take your role across is what it matters,’ I thought the meaningful musician in him came across,” said Mr. Karnad, observing that Mr. Krishna was not “just a great musician, but a thinker who had soaked existing musical traditions while authoritatively questioning irrelevant ones.” The book steered beyond the music sphere and enveloped life itself, said Mr. Karnad. Capt. Gopinath said that the book wasn’t just for music connoisseurs but any lay person who wanted to know this “inclusive world”.

“It took me three months to figure out what I wanted to write, but once I had the form within me, I had to say the things that were within me, ” said Mr. Krishna.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bangalore / by Ranjani Govind / Bangalore – March 26th, 2014