Padma Swaminathan

Shanmukhananda' Seshadri dead

S. Seshadri, a long-time secretary of Sri Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha of Mumbai passed away on June 3, 2007.

Padma Swaminathan, a rasika pays her tribute:

Arts promoter Seshadri or popularly known as 'Shanmukhananda Seshadri' passed away recently. Also known as 'Sheshadri mama' by students and music lovers of Mumbai, he hailed from Kumbakonam and was living in Mumbai since 1942.

He was one of the founding fathers of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in Mumbai in 1943. Later in 1952 he was given, what he considered a blessing in disguise of being a founding father of Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeeta Sabha under the leadership of Prof. T. V. Ramanujam, and in the company of stalwarts like T. V. Doraisamy, R. S. Mani, V. Narayanswami, T. N. P. Easwar, K. S. Mahadevan among a few others.

He was associated with Shanmukhananda right from its inception in 1952 till he breathed his last. In other words, continuously for almost six decades, he served the committee in various capacities.

As Mrs. Viji Iyengar, one of the committee members in Shanmukhananda says "Seshadri is synonymous with Shanmukhananda. A highly encouraging person by nature, at every step he guided us. It is a great loss not only to Shanmukhananda but also to the music fraternity."

It will not be an exaggeration to say that he was wedded to Shanmukhananda than to his wife, as often stated by him.

He was instrumental in giving a launching platform to various upcoming artistes Carnatic / Hindusthani music seminars by eminent dignitaries in the field were also arranged by him for benefit of music lovers.

He was conferred the title of Sangeetha Seva Ratnam by Bhandup Fine Arts, apart from various other citations received.

He was deeply interested in current affairs and his day was never complete without reading The Hindu besides other newspapers.