Kunjamma's earliest interest in music was focussed on the raag. She would try to reproduce the pipers as well as she could. Her mother played and rehearsed constantly. The little child absorbed a wealth of learning by listening to and humming along with the notes of the veena.

The family was rich only in music. That was all the wealth they had. Even so, Kunjamma's mother did begin to train her formally in vocal music. Offerings were made to god and her guru, Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar. But her lessons couldn't go much beyond the basics because her guru passed away. Her formal schooling was stopped in the fifth grade when a teacher's beating brought on an attack of whooping cough. But she practised music for long hours, lost in the vibrations of the tambura.

Intrigued by the gramophone record, Kunjamma would roll a piece of paper for the speaker (as in the HMV logo) and sing into it for hours. This game became real when she accompanied her mother to Chennai and cut her first disc at the age of 10.

They always called her MS, for Madurai Shanmugavadivu Subbulakshmi was too long a name for such a young singer. By 1932, MS had already become a sort of cult figure to a whole generation of young listeners.

Subbulakshmi learnt music not only from her mother and her first guru, Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar, but also by listening to almost all the great musicians of her time who visited her mother's house. However, although gathering fame in Madurai was fine, it was still not the same as being famous in Chennai. So her mother decided to move to that city in 1932.

In those days, the music scene was entirely male-dominated. Women musicians were not taken seriously. They did not perform frequently and were not allowed to attend concerts. Reputed male accompanists considered it below their dignity to accompany female musicians.

So a conservative Chennai didn't quite know what to make of this young woman from Madurai who sang as if her life depended on it. There were no flippant stage mannerisms. MS essayed into serious elaborations of raags without apparently being aware that she was breaking fresh ground as a female vocalist. Now the audiences began to sit up and take notice of MS Subbulakshmi. After Chennai, she conquered Thanjavur.

When she met her future husband, T Sadasivam, he was a fairly well-known figure in the Chennai Congress circle and also a protege of C Rajagopalachari. He was a tall man with an attitude. Also, he was married and the father of two children. With his wide connections in the journalistic and political world, Sadasivam became instrumental in furthering MS' flourishing career. Their courtship lasted four years and had its up and downs. But she was happy when they finally married in Thiruneermalai in 1940.

In the 1930s, most concert vocalists acted in films. It was not surprising that MS with her lovely voice and charming personality joined films, although it was said that she resented the idea. The only expression that came naturally to her was music.

Sevasadanam (1938) was her first movie where she played a poor young girl who marries a rich old man. Next came Sakunthalai where she played the most glamorous of all her roles. The film had a few of the most haunting of her film songs Savithri became a hit in 1942. The income from this movie was used to start Kalki magazine, which later played an important role in promoting MS by featuring her on every other cover. This was the time when MS' persona as a star was established. She dressed more flamboyantly, sported make-up and was imitated widely. This image remained intact until the release of Meera in 1945. When Bhakta Meera was released in Tamil and Hindi, it brought on a wave of appreciation that gave MS an all-India status as a musician. It also marked the end of her film career. It is said that Rajaji himself advised the couple against any more involvement in films. Around that time, Sadasivam took his wife to meet Mahatma Gandhi. She sang a few bhajans for him, which left him enthralled. Again in1947, Gandhi sent word to MS to sing bhajans to him. She was unable to visit him personally this time, so she sent a recorded version of Hari tum haro to him. All India Radio played this recording upon the announcement of the Mahatma's assassination.

A series of the topmost musicians, among them Semmangudi, Musiri, Brinda, Papanasam Sivan and Sidheswari Devi were persuaded to teach MS fresh compositions and styles of singing. This widened her repertoire. By now she was giving concerts all over the country and was part of the Chennai elite. Her style of dress, from her rich sarees to the flowers in her hair and the vermilion mark on her forehead, was widely copied by the ladies of the time. It is said that most women owned a blue sari of the kind MS wore those days!It is to MS' credit that she spread the concept of Carnatic music to the West. In the Western world, hardly anyone knew of the complex Carnatic music system, which was deemed `inexportable'. But MS' concert at the Edinburgh Festival and at the UN changed this concept. She was invited to tour the US again from coast to coast giving 22 concerts.

MS has since travelled the world, her high points being the fund-raising concerts held across America, a concert at the prestigious Carnegie Hall and the inaugural concert at the Festival of India held in London in 1982. Her rousing trip to Manila to receive the Magsaysay Award and a concert she held for Russian musicians and musicologists in 1988 also count among her achievements.

In 1944, on Rajaji's suggestion, MS conducted a series of benefit concerts to collect funds for the Kasturba Memorial Fund. This was perhaps the first of many benefit concerts she conducted for social causes. The Magsaysay Award was given to her, not for music, but for public service. She promptly donated the award amount of US$ 10,000 to three different charities. Perhaps the most touching aspect of MS and Sadasivam's involvement with charity was when they announced that she would no longer sing for money, at a time when the couple themselves were in serious financial difficulty.

Asked what she considered her greatest achievement in life, Subbulakshmi once said, "Each of us has a gift. We use it to the best of our ability. That is nothing. But I have never wished anyone any harm. Perhaps that is my only real achievement."

Courtesy Radha and Venkat Hari at www.science.wayne.edu/ vhari/ms/