Late Remembrance.....

It was 1987. Life was in full throttle in amateur theatre.... I was heavily into the theatre festivals, acting, singing, working in backstage. It was so much fun.....

Raju, walks into my life during this time. He was studying in National College, Jayanagar. He walked into the festival to work in the festival. I was happy with that addition, as I was aware of the fact that he was the son of legendary singer Mysore Ananthaswamy. I had heard him singing in some of the occassions. I was happy that I got one more friend who was a singer.

The intensity of freindship between me and Raju got quite intense. We used to meet up every evening and used to discuss so much about music. He was a singer, he had completed senior in Tabla through Pt. Seshadri Gawai, he could play quite other instruments. He was an excellent composer... more than anything, he was an excellent human being, fun loving character. We used to loaf around a lot and used eye lot of good looking girls !!!

Some of the days, we all used to sit on the stage at HN Kalakshetra with Raju during some of the afternoons, and Raju used to sing for us with hormonium... what a singing it was !! Mindblowing...

Slowly, life took a different mode for both of us... he got quite busy with his singing, recordings, music composing, studios, mastering, etc... We lost in touch with each other..... After many years, on couple of occassions, we met, but it was not the same Raju whom I had interacted earlier. Raju was totally drunk, he was not himself and he seemed to have been searching for something which he himself could not express. This was some time in 2001. After that he started getting disconnected from his old friends. Later I came to know that he got married and husband and wife did not stay together long.... It was quite sad to him... there were people in the music industry, who according to some sources, prompted him to drink more and get spoilt so that he will not be a competitor for them. I made all efforts to get in touch with him, but I could not... I also heard that he went to US and was trying get de-addict himself from alcohol. By that time, alcohol had damaged his health to a great extent.

18 January 09, my mother was going through severe health conditions and I was taking her to the doctor. I got a call from one of my friend that Raju died suffering kidney failure. I was so shocked that I suddenly applied break in the middle of the road. Even though, I was aware of his health condition, I was optimistic that someday, he will bounce back... but it never happened.. I could not even go to see his face for the last time as the situation at my home was quite tensed.

Raju, a composer, singer, music director, tabla player, a good friend, a good human being, was no longer in this world giving way to all sorts of jokers who were making mockery of light music.

All these I remembered as yesterday evening, my niece, Anupama was singing on stage for a musical evening and there was a display and sale of audio CDs. I picked up a CD containing 32 songs of Raju which had his own compositions, his father Ananthaswamy's compositions. Today morning I was listening to it and I just could not control my tears. I just cried silently to myself.