To grandfather, with love

Popular musician Maharajapuram Santhanam was a doting family man

The months of May and June are sweet pain for my parents and me. We rejoice my grandfather’s birthday in May (May 20, 1928), and we mourn his departure in June (June 24, 1992). We swing between remembering with pride the great man that he was and remember with horror the way he left us, snatched away cruelly in the wee hours of the morning on a lonely highway. It remains a ghastly incident in our lives. But life goes on and time heals everything. For music aficionados across the world, the name Maharajapuram Santhanam conjures up the image of a large and handsome man dressed in sparkling white and singing in a voice that made him unique. As a young girl I remember the scramble for tickets for his concerts, people standing in long queues to enter the auditorium where my maternal grandfather was performing, and young fans waiting for his autograph. His popularity used to intrigue his peers.