|
It was a concert held in connection with the memorial day of S Ramanathan. Among the people in the audience was N M Narayanan, well-known music critic.
I was very scared of Narayanan because he was a stickler for discipline and accepted only pure classical pieces from singers. Those were the days when I was still trying to establish my name in the music circuit. After the concert ended, he walked up to me and asked me my name. I replied fearfully, and he shot back - `From today, you should say Rani Nithyasree!' I was taken aback with surprise.
A few days later, his review appeared in news daily and he had said the same thing in it too. He had heaped much praise on my voice and it seemed like he was blessing me through the review. I later learnt that he was not alive on the day it was published - he had passed away a few days after my concert. That was his last review, and the fact that it was a positive one on my performance made me really happy. Even today, that concert and his kind words ring in my head."
|
