VETERAN CLASSICAL MUSIC ENTHUSIAST AND FORMER POLITICAL ACTIVIST RECORDS A CD OF TAMIL AND TELEGU KARNATIC SONGS

(Denis Naidoo with famous Tamil singer M S Subbulakshmi and her husband Sadasivan in their home in Chennai) JUNE 17 2020 By Subry Govender A veteran classical music enthusiast, who has been captivated by Tamil and Telegu music since his early years, has just recorded a CD of 12 karnatic and classical songs at the ripe-old-age of 88. Mr Muthusamy Ranganatha Naidoo, who is also known as Denis Naidoo, of Somerset Park in Durban, has accomplished this unique achievement after being encouraged to do so by his musical guru, Beama Naidoo, who passed away recently. Mr Naidoo was assisted in the production of the CD by the nephew of Mr Beama Naidoo, Ashley Kisten. The CD was to have been launched on Sunday, March 22 but the event was postponed indefinitely because of the current Corona Virus pandemic.

(DENIS NAIDOO WITH THE CD OF CLASSICAL TAMIL AND TELEGU MUSIC THAT HE HAD RECORDED) “I became passionate about Tamil and Telegu classical music and songs ever since I started to listen to this type of music and songs on the old 78 RPM and 48 RPM and later on LPs. At this time I was growing up as a young boy of five or six-years-old in the Overport area of Durban,” Mr Naidoo told me in an interview at his home in Somerset Park in Durban. “I am essentially a vocalist. Sadly, I do not play any instruments, but as I mentioned when I was growing up in Overport, I used to listen to karnatic music on the radiogram. My father used to get records from India and our family home used to resound with this music all the time. This is how I picked it up. “And remember my roots are in India, both my parents are from there and I was told that my elder brother than me, Govindaraj, apparently he had a beautiful voice. But, sadly, he died at a very young age in India. So, it seems music is in the blood.”

(Denis Naidoo with Eminent Flutist N Ramani in Chennai in 2002) BEEN INVOLVED IN MUSIC FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS He said he had been involved in promoting this type of music for more than 70 years. “I did not undergo any training whatsoever but yet I used to perform at temples, Tamil and Telegu school functions, family gatherings and other social functions. “Over the past decade or so after I moved to Somerset Park from my home in Verulam, I joined the Umhlanga Hindu Society Monday Service Group. At these services, Mr Beama Naidoo, heard me singing and encouraged me to record a CD. He was a musical giant and inspired me to continue with my singings despite my age. Sadly, he passed on just before I could record the CD with the production assistance of his nephew, Ashley Kisten.” “Ashley patiently guided me through this project, fully aware that I am a dialysis patient.” FIRST GENERATION INDIAN-ORIGIN SOUTH AFRICAN Mr Naidoo, who is a first generation South African of Indian-origin, said he was very pleased that he had recorded his CD when the people of Indian-origin were preparing to observe the 160th anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers to the former Natal Colony. Both his parents had arrived from India in the 1890s. His father arrived from the village of Kalakad in Tamil Nadu when he was 19-years-old, while his mother arrived with her parents from Andhra Pradesh when she was five-years-old. After his father and mother married, they settled in Maidstone on the Natal North Coast. They had seven children – one daughter and six sons. Mr Naidoo, who was the last born, was conceived in India when his parents moved to Tamil Nadu to find a groom for his sister.

(Denis Naidoo with another eminent musician Dr Bala Murali (Centre) in Chennai) FATHER CAME FROM VILLAGE OF KALAKLAD IN TAMIL NADU AND MOTHER FROM ANDHRA PRADESH “My father insisted on taking my sister to India after she reached marriageable age. After she got married the family stayed in the village for a while. “My father stayed in the village of Kalaklad with four of my brothers and my mother. “And while they were living there, my mother became pregnant with me. After my father realised that he will have problems with immigration, they decided to come back to South Africa. “When they came back my mother was heavily pregnant with me. At this time my sister in Tamil Nadu gave birth to a girl child and sadly she died after the birth of her daughter. “This news came via cable at that time. There was no sms or what’s up and telephones like we have today. When they received the news it shattered the family, particularly my mother. It took a heavy toll on her. And being heavily pregnant with me all this added to her misery. “She gave birth to me and within a space of a week or so, my mother died. ADOPTED BY A PROMINENT NAIDOO FAMILY IN TONGAAT “And that’s when my father gave me away for adoption to a prominent Naidoo family in Tongaat. “The person actually responsible for my adoption was the matriarch of the Naidoo family, my dear grand-mother, Tholasamma, for whom I am indebted to for the rest of my life. For as time went by, she really became my surrogate mother. She used to take me to Tamil school and Telegu school. “And I remember clearly when I was ill at McCords Hospital, it was my grand-mother who was at my side taking care of me. I had undergone a minor surgery. My grand-mother was there for me – God bless her soul. “After they adopted me, my adopted mother gave birth to a daughter and thereafter 10 other children. “I went to the St Aidan’s Boys school and also to Tamil school. Our Tamil teacher was Manickam Vaithiar. SASTRI COLLEGE “I just had one year of high school at Sastri College and thereafter I had to go and work.”

(Denis Naidoo with T V Gopala Krishnan a Mridangist musician in Chennai) For Mr Naidoo, music is not only a form of entertainment but a vehicle that transports him to a higher level of “spirituality, serenity and even a sense of sumliminal self”. “Classical music rejuvenates the mind, body and soul with ragam, thalam and bavam. You experience a sense of freedom and celestial joy. When you take part in music it amounts to being in another world. “Artists should always pay homage to the composer of the lyrics and respect their guru. For me I think that is of utmost importance and that is how it should be. Pay obseience to the lyrist and your guru because without them, you are not a vocalist. Unless you are brilliant enough to compose your own music. “But by and large music for me is a vehicle that carries me to a totally, totally different world. And I don’t mind saying that there are times very often when I listen to music on my own, the tears roll down my eyes because I think to myself ‘Oh my God I really have been gifted to appreciate this very, very important segment in our lives and that is music’.”

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL AWARENESS In addition to his passion for classical Indian music, Mr Naidoo also became acutely aware of the injustices against the majority of the people when he started his first job for a trader in Booth Road in Cato Manor. “We were not allowed to go home every day. We were only allowed to go home once a fortnight. When I went home after the first fortnight my clothes were heavily soiled and my mother asked me whether I was working in a coal yard. I said yes so that she should not become over concerned. “I worked for the trader for a few months and then left because I could not take the conditions under which I was forced to work. Thereafter I worked in a factory, Artfolks, in Jacobs, cutting cotton to thread in shoes. Then I worked as counter hand for a white couple. “My political awareness really came to the fore after I worked as a sales representative for an international company, Reckitt and Coleman in the 1950s. “I worked for them for 14 years and when Ian Smith declared UDI in Rhodesia, I noticed that the company was promoting young white guys and ignoring us. “I approached my manager and asked him what was going on but he just told me to bide my time because things will change. But eventually I could not take this because I considered it to be racial discrimination and that we were being short changed. “I resigned and went into business. I never looked back. I ran the business in Verulam for almost 30 years.” His political consciousness must have, in his own words, “also been in my blood”. He related a story about his father when he worked as an indentured labourer at a sugar estate in Port Shepstone. “My father could not put up with the gross ill-treatment of indentured labourers and stood up to the white boss and the supervisor. “When he completed his indenture, he told his white bosses to stick their job and moved up to Tongaat where he worked at the Maidstone Sugar Mill.”

(Denis Naidoo - wife Padmavathie standin atop a Gopuram at the Madurai Meenaksi Temple during their first trip) JOINED THE NATAL INDIAN CONGRESS IN VERULAM While Mr Naidoo was staying and running his business in Verulam, he became an anti-apartheid activist by supporting the Natal Indian Congress and the United Democratic Front in the 1970s and 1980s. “And after the ANC was unbanned and Nelson Mandela was released in 1990, I joined the ANC and became deputy chairperson of the branch. “We worked very hard in the early years, campaigning for the ANC and helping in the elections. We all rejoiced and jumped for joy when the ANC was elected to power and Nelson Mandela was elected president of the new non-racial and democratic South Africa. “My participation in struggles did not start in Verulam. Even as a youngster when I was growing up in Overport, I used to stand at the corner of Brickfield Road and Sparks Road under a banner with the late R D Naidoo and protest and shout out freedom slogans. When the police used to come, we used to run away. But when they left, we used to return and continue with our protest actions. “I can even remember walking from Overport to Nicols Square in Durban and following Baba Luthuli and others who were leaders at that time. They were dedicated leaders. They served the cause and what the ANC stood for. “And I also had the privilege of walking behind leaders such as Dr Monty Naicker, Swaminathan Gounden, Billy Nair, Fatima Meer and Dr Kesaval Goonam in a number of protest marches.” Mr Naidoo as a businessman in Verulam used to provide assistance to local African teachers and pupils with their stationery and school fees. He also assisted one pupils to complete his matriculation and another student to complete her college education. He also used to provide newspapers to the Ndwedwe Magistrates’ Court, near Verulam. One of the lawyers who worked at the court was Mr Pius Langa, who in the new South Africa became a member of the Constitutional Court. CONCERNED ABOUT THE PLIGHT OF THE POOR AND UNDER-PRIVILEGED Now 26 years into the new “non-racial and democratic South Africa”, Mr Naidoo is somewhat disappointed with the non-democratic and corrupt actions of some people who are within the ranks of the ANC. “I feel very sad, Subry, very, very sad. I am just wondering whether the so-called people who are at the helm of the ANC now realise what is happening to our country. “Even today in this day and age, we are talking about the Corona Virus. Some of us living in the urban areas have facilities like running water, what about people in the rural areas? Have they got taps, have they got water? “Our leaders haven’t sufficiently equipped our people out in the rural areas to confront this kind of pandemic that has now overcome us. We should be thinking about that.” NON-RACIALISM TAKING TOO LONG Mr Naidoo was concerned that attaining a truly non-racial and democratic society was taking too long. “Subry, I honestly feel that this is not a Utopian concept. Because if it is going to take years and years, what is going to happen to our people? The youngsters are rising up, people’s power is in the forefront. We should now get together as people from the different walks of the political spectrum and work together and work for the good of the country. Politicians should set aside their own personal ideologies and say: ‘listen we are in a crisis, let’s sit around the table and let’s talk. Let’s put the people first, let’s put our country first, let’s not think about our own personal gains’. “I think the time has come, Subry, for us to look at this from a really truly model aspect, not from an isolated, compartmentalised kind of fostering our ideology. It’s not going to work. “Honestly let the ANC, more than anyone else admit that they have now turned the wrong way. They need to come back and re-assess values. Because Baba Mandela what did he do? I think the man would be turning in his grave. I am telling you Subry, the man must be turning in his grave. “Lip service is not going to help our country. You got to be committed and I think we should stand behind our President, Cyril Ramaphosa, because I think the poor man is under duress. But he too needs to take the bull by the horns, exert himself and say: ‘You know what, enough is enough. Let’s get down to brass tactics and let’s get going’.”

(Denis Naidoo (blue jersey) with officials of Southside Board members) Mr Naidoo, a member of the Southside FM Radio Board of Governors who turned 88 on the 20th of April, still has relatives in India. Some of his two nephews and 11 nieces still live in and around his father’s village of Kalakad in the district of Tiruneveli, near the famous town of Kanyakumari. Mr Naidoo has visited India seven times and last visited his ancestoral village in 2002. Mr Naidoo was married to Patmavathie Reddy of Cato Manor in 1964. They had four children – one daughter and three sons. Sadly, his wife passed away in 2001 while they were staying in Verulam. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com