CHENNAI: In the bustling landscape of Pondy Bazaar, a compassionate mentor, 68-year-old S Kedarnath, residing in his ancestral home, laid an inspiration for the young aspirants of cricket and music to learn from his journey. A former cricketer with the State Bank of India himself, Kedarnath seamlessly transited from the world of athleticism to mellifluous notes by founding Kedaram, a music organisation, in 2016. Every year, he conducts Kedaram Isai Vizha to bring the best Carnatic vocalist, violinists, and percussionists for the next generation, while honouring the veterans.
While music takes forefront now, the sexagenarian has sports and rhythm running in his bloodline. “My dad, R Subramanian, was a renowned tennis player who had enticed me with a love for sports. He ushered us to the ground every day where I was attracted to my first love, cricket. Subsequently, my parents were disciples of Saint Thyagaraja, the legend of Carnatic music,” he shares. Throughout his life, both streams have shared a beautiful analogy for him, where one is for physical vitality, and the other to soothe the soul. A disciple of ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram, he used to carry ghatam to his guru’s concerts for 12 years.
It’s all destiny
While his inclination was towards sports and music, Kedarnath had a childhood dream to become a mathematician. So, he chose the Science stream in his higher secondary education. However, his cricket talent surpassed his love for numbers. “Pursuing MSc at Vivekananda College, I played as an opening batsman for the South zone. Every person has a choice of pursuing what they are good at, and I called for cricket,” he shares. Looking at his performance, one of the selectors, AGM R Chandrasekharan, a former state spinner, invited him to join SBI.
Having played for SBI for 15 years, Kedarnath shared yards with cricketing greats like Gundappa Viswanath, Bishen Singh Bedi and Roger Binny. “Gundappa Viswanath, my mentor; (he) helped me correct my shuffle beside the wicket. He advised me to come across, right foot towards point and all. So, that made me develop my onside skills,” he notes.
Unfortunately, Kedarnath couldn’t make it to the Ranji Trophy but his passion for cricket remained unceased. “After a few years, I was appointed as one of the selectors of the Tamilnadu Cricket Association,” he adds.
After taking voluntary retirement from SBI, Kedarnath then decided to pass on his skills to the young cricketers on the streets of Chennai. “I took VRS on March 31, 2001 to get into one of the cricket academies as a coach. Call it luck or coincidence, my childhood school, Ramakrishna, offered me a ground on the next day to coach independently,” he says.
In the past 21 years, Kedarnath has produced some of the finest players including Murali Karthick, a former slow left-arm orthodox, and Ravichandran Ashwin, a prominent left-hand all-rounder. “I trained Murali in one of my camps. Initially, he was an opening bowler and I turned him into a left-arm spinner. Later, he joined the Railways, and then played Internationals,” he says. About Ashwin, he adds, “Ashwin is a very brainy bowler”.
Change of plan
Moving on to the next chapter of his life, he launched Kedaram Isai Vizha as a two-day concert in July 2016. “I wanted to parallel both. One was for physical fitness and the other for mental. I had aimed to carry the quality of cricket into music. The idea of Kedaram was associated with the name of a raga ‘Kedaram’, which symbolises happiness with the coincidence of my name Kedarnath,” he says.
Every year, a music competition is conducted, inviting 10-15 schools to encourage Carnatic music and the winner gets the opportunity to perform for two hours at the Vizha. As part of the event, awards like Kedaran Ganamurthy (Vocal), Kedaram Nadamurthy (Instruments), and Kedaram Layamurthy (Layam) are conferred. They plan on introducing Kedaram Nataka Murthy shortly. So far, Kedaram has honoured 20 vidwans. This year, at the 8th Isai Vizha, held in December, Mahavidwan Kalaimamani GS Mani was conferred the Kedaram Gana Murthy. Padma Shri recipient Nalli Kuppusamy Chetty presided and composer Ramesh Vinayagam was the chief guest.
With dreams of expanding the foundation’s branches, Kedarnath signs off sharing, “The plan is to move towards the district level to bring out the talents of local musicians.”