The fame factor

When I was a kid, I used to think I should be as famous as Chiranjeevi, Chandra Babu Naidu and many others I knew about. As I grew up, My idols changed but my ambition only intensified. When I started discovering my interest for music, especially when I started discovering that much of the music I admired was by none other Ilayaraja (Believe me! I discovered him myself, I heard his name only a few times earlier but never heard anybody talking about him or his greatness. It is possibly because I was in that sort of environment all my boyhood). When I learnt that all the movies Sagara sangamam, Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari, Geethanjali, Abhilasha and many other diverse movies had music by a single person, I was stunned. I kept on discovering more, more and many more unbelievable facts about that single person till date. Unfortunately, many of these unbelievable facts include things like no Padma award for him, existence of people who criticise him and compare him with others(most such people don't even know 10% of his music). I used to feel very bad for his work not being recognised as much as it should be.

I started wondering, if the man who revolutionized the Indian film music, who took it to another level, who inspired innumerable music directors, who completely dominated the Telugu, Tamil film music for decades, who could compose great music for more than 50 movies in a single year had not become all that popular, how would I be famous.

As an old quote says, I believed that an artist's full satisfaction comes with recognition for his work. I in fact believed more, I believed that an individual's full satisfaction comes with his recognition in the society. But it was when I learnt about Raja, his personality, his music, how immaterial fame is to him, I started to rethink about my beliefs.

Though I started feeling that fame is not all that important, I am not as saintly as Raja to think it is almost immaterial. When I become more mature and dedicate myself to something I love and live in my love, probably then I will start feeling like how he does. I would like to end this article by thanking Guru Ilayaraja for not only giving music sufficient for an entire lifetime but also for having in him many things to learn from.

PS: Even if you are a person who care for fame, don't worry. He is very famous among intellectual community. Also read what NAUSHAD ALI (Doyen of Hindi film music, India) said: Ilayaraja has achieved 100 times more than what any of us have achieved; only time can tell the quantum of his achievements.