You have probably heard the saying, "She came, she saw, she conquered." Dr. Uma Roy, a former President of CMANA, the Carnatic Music Association of North America, certainly conquered many hearts - of music lovers and artists - but even more, she served. She served in such eminent ways that hers is a legacy that will far survive her in the form of CMANA that grew enormously strong during her Presidency and due to her tireless efforts.
Our introduction to Dr. Roy was through a critical letter she had written complaining about the poor public relations of CMANA that made even she, an ardent lover of Carnatic music, not even know of our existence. Dr. Rajagopalan, our President, had brought her letter to our Board meeting, and I suggested to him that she should be invited to become a member and also join our Board, which we did, and she agreed. We were expecting to see a Bengali woman appear at our next meeting, but were surprised to see that Dr. Roy was indeed a saree clad South Indian lady though she - as she herself averred in a later article - had no parochial identity, being born as she was in a Kannadiga family, raised in Chennai speaking Tamil, having moved to the US and married a Bengali, and being more comfortable in English than in any other language!
Uma started earnestly right from the start contributing some articles to the sporadic issues of CMANA's magazine Sangeetham that Dr. Rajagopalan and I edited and doing various chores of the Association including transporting and hosting artists as needed. In her usual self effacing way, she claims she is surprised her articles were published by us, although I recall they became instantly popular for their humor and human interest in addition to interesting observations related to music.
Saddled with many tasks to do, Dr. Rajagopalan and I asked Uma to take over Sangeetham as Editor, and she did after much coaxing and promises to support her, the latter being shown superfluous soon, as she had a natural flair for it. I still remember her first editorial in which she said she is starting with an ending problem - raga or ragam, tala or talam, laya or layam, etc.? Sangeetham became a regular quarterly periodical with each issue containing many interesting articles and tidbits and puzzles which included at least one humorous article by Uma and a highly erudite one by her father Mr. Visweswariah. The countless hours put in by Uma, her parents, and Madhuri (her daughter) manually typing the pages, cutting and pasting, etc. in the era before desktop computers and word processing software were uncountable. She was such a stickler for deadlines to publish that sometimes we were called in to help late into several nights doing those chores; but they were attenuated by great conversations of hers and her parents, and also good food from her mother Mrs. Chayamma. (For their regular, continuous and notable contributions, Mrs. Chayamma was inducted later as an Honorary Patron of CMANA, and Mr. Visweswariah was honored through the institution of a Junior Membership award in the name The Visweswariah Prize for service.)
Dr. Rajagopalan, the founder, had assumed the Presidency of CMANA for the second time in the face of a letter from many members claiming that CMANA was financially non-viable and should be closed. With hard work by him and colleagues, he had put the association in sound financial footing although much more remained to be done. Yet, he would not continue for fear that he would create the perception of hungering for power, and that forced us to look for a successor. Noting her commitment and contributions, I chose to nominate Dr. Uma Roy. Faced with skepticism from several Board members on how a woman, that too a widow with a young daughter, could take on such a daunting task - regardless of the fact that this lady had driven cross country with her parents and had already contributed much - I had to appeal to a large number of members and get a set of proxy votes to get her elected. In many ways, that election changed the course of CMANA. Of all my contributions to CMANA, I consider getting her elected as President to be one of the best deeds I have done.
Uma served as President for several terms during which the association tripled its financial net worth, increased its membership five fold, and gained much greater national recognition - all this without compromising even by an iota its ideal to serve the cause of music as a non-profit organization run by volunteers. Each year two tours were held without fail, of which one was always dedicated to a young and upcoming musician. Uma herself identified several upcoming artists and pleaded on their behalf and brought them on tours - K.S. Gopalakrishnan, Kadri Gopalnath, The Rudrapatnam Brothers are some examples that come to my mind. She instituted a new event called 'Teachers Day' to give opportunities for teachers and students to perform. The Great Composers Day was made much bigger with attendance increasing many fold. Junior Membership was introduced into CMANA and JMs were encouraged by Uma through many means, of which one was to be seated in the first row in concerts to compete on identifying the ragas sung. The number of programs increased many fold and included many artists not even brought by CMANA to the US.
Uma showed equal respect and kindness towards all, famous or just starting out. That made people open up to her spontaneously. Recently, she recounted Kadri Gopalnath recalling his young days when without food and only on water he would walk behind nadaswaram vidwans to learn more about how they play music. Such tales of the bruises endured along the climb up the ladder of Carnatic music were as much behind her determination to help the young and upcoming as her own love for music and for its continued sustenance.
Uma showed equal respect and kindness towards all, famous or just starting out. That made people open up to her spontaneously. Recently, she recounted Kadri Gopalnath recalling his young days when without food and only on water he would walk behind nadaswaram vidwans to learn more about how they play music. Such tales of the bruises endured along the climb up the ladder of Carnatic music were as much behind her determination to help the young and upcoming as her own love for music and for its continued sustenance.
Uma is a self-appointed empirical anthropologist in many ways and can laugh at many human follies. She would hide from many in Narada Gana Sabha to avoid being dragged to the front row. She would rather be in the balcony watching people's reactions and later writing about them in Sangeetham in her commentary on the season. Yet, one thing that irked her was how many parents would come to a CMANA program just to have their child sing and leave immediately without providing any support to others - an organizer's angst that continues to this day.
Uma continues to enjoy Carnatic music and is an avid connoisseur of the art. She names 'the "young girls" Ranjani-Gayathri as one of her favorites, the adjective being a result of how we freeze some in our minds from our first contact. Ramakrishna Murthy she views as her manaseeka adopted son as everytime she hears him sing, she feels how nice it would have been if she had a son like him. The music she likes is more lakshya (aesthetics) oriented and not lakshana (grammar) oriented. She doesn't like too much acrobatics with 'kanakku' (mathematical permutations) etc, and for this reason Sikkil Gurucharan is another favorite of hers. One can listen to her for hours on music without getting bored.
Despite being a major support on which art and talent thrive and get publicized, the organizer is often the least applauded in the context of any art, and Uma is no exception. I am forced to be brief here about her contributions and to stick mainly to the core. Let me, however, state categorically that when someday the history of Carnatic music in the USA is written, it would be a travesty if this great lady is not given her due place at the top of the list. May God grant that her days be filled with music and the best of memories. Today, she is known to most around her as "Madhuri's mother" only, but that Madhuri's mother's greatness is something that must be told, and I am privileged to be the one to recount them for you.
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Postscript added on June 8: Since writing the above on May 24, Uma left us on June 6 after a protracted, successful (?) battle with cancer waged with a determination not to pre-decease her mother. I am so glad I could write this while she was still around and could read it. It is not often that one gets such an opportunity.
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Postscript added on June 8: Since writing the above on May 24, Uma left us on June 6 after a protracted, successful (?) battle with cancer waged with a determination not to pre-decease her mother. I am so glad I could write this while she was still around and could read it. It is not often that one gets such an opportunity.
