Saturday, December 17, 2005

Rao Balasaraswati Devi

I will start with some of my posts from other sites which I still like and agree with. This an old post from oldtelugu songs titled "The voice that I liked most":
During my Andhra days that essentially ended in1956, the voice that I liked most was that of Rao Balasaraswati Devi. It had the sweetness of a mother's voice, the allure of a lover's voice and the majesty of Samskrit. Then, I left Andhra but kept wondering: Is she still alive? Can she still sing? Is she pretty? What kind of person is she? She has been a mother, a lover and a companion for the rest of my life. After several years, I started enquiring and some news filteredthrough. She is alive and her career essentially ended since her husband discouraged a career in films. Now, my thoughts are different. Why is that such talented women put up with this type of injustice and still sing songs which perpetuate the stereotypes that cause these imjustices? By some accounts, she is an independent person, can still sing, and spoke (last year)freely about the injustices done by some of the icons in Telugu and Hindi film music.
There have been other Andhra influences from those days: Chalam,Srisri, Gopichand and Narla. But music is different. Even now. through wornout 78 RPMs where I cannot even decipher the words, Balasaraswati still touches me. Perhaps by seeing the injustices done to those who touch us, we can develop some empathy for the silent sufferers in this men-oriented world. After exploiting my wife for thirty years, I started cooking for her for the last oneyear. If at some stage, she finds fulfilment elsewhere, I hope that I will happily share my resources with her and wish her all the best.
Swarup

5 comments:

Saahitya Abhimaani said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Dear Swaroop Garu,

Would you tell me where I can get the lyrics for two of her songs.
1. Sangitamelane
2. Padave Koyila

Please send me the info to me.
skorabathina@hotmail.com

Thanks.

Unknown said...

Hi,
Glad to see people with such classic tastes still exists... there is a private song by name" Bangaroo paapayii" being sung by Rao Balasaraswati devi its an amazing number.If u get that pls share it me too.

gaddeswarup said...

My apologies. I did not see the above comments. Most of her songs are available at oldtelugusongs and surasa.net. I posted the links today (March 31, 2010):
http://gaddeswarup.blogspot.com/2010/03/rao-balasaraswati-devi-interview.html
There is a discussion site
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/oldtelugusongs/
where one can enquire about her and other telugu singers.

prof prem raj pushpakaran said...

prof premraj pushpakaran writes --- 2018 marks the 100th birth year of Tanjore Balasaraswati!