Report by Santanu Ganguly, New Delhi: “Not Just a Book Launch”—Carnatic music and readings from Rhythms in Stone: The Temples of South India—is a book by Indira Menon. The book launch will take place at The Attic, 36, Regal Building, Connaught Place, New Delhi on Saturday, January 19 at 6.30 pm.
Reena Nanda, who accompanied Indira Menon on her journeys across South India, will introduce the book. The travels were recorded in diaries and photographs. Indira’s interests in music, history and architecture come together in this book about South Indian temples.
When she visited these sites in the 1970s, they had not been awarded World Heritage status, and the initial sense of wonder is not obscured by details of architectural technicalities and details of political history It is the exhilaration that Indira felt and was able to convey that makes this a book out of the ordinary.
Reena Nanda says “Indira Menon was for me the epitome of the European ‘Renaissance’ person. An academic who taught Economics, an authority on Carnatic music, trained by T.Brinda, the granddaughter of the legendary Vina Dhanammal. Indira Menon wrote two books on the subject - The Madras Quartet and The Great Masters. A connoisseur of European art and a self-taught painter whose copies of Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh could have fetched a good price in the art market, she also excelled in photography producing evocative pictures of her beloved Himalayas with an ordinary camera in the sixties.
Indira was a great traveler, in the Renaissance tradition of travel for education and enlightenment. She prepared for her tours of Europe by intensive study, taking detailed notes about the museums housing her favorite paintings, and the architectural history of historic sites and buildings. It was a treat to listen to her descriptions.
When you read this book , bear in mind Indira the musician. To me her pictures evoke the music she loved, which was her life. The recordings of old concerts, both Carnatic and Hindustani vocalists, and a large collection of slides of South Indian temple architecture and sculpture, which she has left behind reveal her many interests. And she made time to teach children of dhobis, drivers and ayahs, despite her full timetable at Jesus & Mary College where she established a great rapport with students. This was due to her great sense of humor, of which you will find many examples in her text."
Reena Nanda has an interest in conservation, and in music and travel. She has written a biography of Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay published by OUP in 2002.
Ambi publishes unusual, well-produced and well-written books about South Asia, especially related to the physical environment and built heritage, that appeal equally to specialists, occasional readers, and design aficionados. With a founding team who have great interest and experience in writing, editing, designing and printing, Ambi sees itself as a ‘niche player’ promoting the concept of writing and reading. For information on other books published by Ambi, see http://ambiknowledgeresources.wordpress.com/
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