On a Wednesday morning in September 2008 I went to Saratoga in California where Dr. C Aswath was staying with his niece. I was there to take him to Stanford University for my itsdiff radio program for which I was to interview him. I was meeting him for the first time. It was 6.15 in the morning. He was ready and waiting in front of the house wearing warm clothes and a shawl around his shoulder. Seeing me in regular clothes he asked 'nimage chali agolva?" ("aren't you cold?") I said I am used to the weather here and that SSeptember was still summer for us. He sat next to me in my car and as we drove to Stanford University we talked about Kannada films and music. The conversation we had in the car, helped me overcome any anxiety I had about interviewing him.
After we reached the studio we got the microphones tested and got ready to start the interview. After putting on the headset he just got completely involved. He was very kind and forthcoming in talking with me. It was a great opportunity for me to talk with him about his early life, his various interests and his thoughts about the present and future state of Kannada Sugama Sangeetha. When we played his song 'jali barinalli', it was so thrilling to see him join in and sing along joyfully with the pre-recorded song. The interview lasted a little more than an hour and was very well received by the listeners. Many listeners telephoned during the interview and enthusiastically talked with him over the air. (There is a link to audio/video recording of the interview at the end of this article.)
After the interview, as we headed back home we chatted more about music and films. I thanked him for kindly agreeing to the interview. He too expressed pleasantries and I dropped him at his place and went back to my regular work. Many of my friends and listeners had emailed me saying they enjoyed listening to Dr. C Aswath.
But something that left a deep impact on me happened just three days later when I met him at the Kannada Koota function in Palo Alto, California. That day a crowd of more than one thousand were treated to a wonderful experience of listening to his musical performance . The crowd cheered when he sang his then recent hit 'tappu maadadoru yaaroure" from the movie Mata. But when he danced to its rhythm the crowd went wild. After the program I went to meet him. He greeted me with such warmth and affection, I felt he had known me for a long time. He put his arm around my neck and told me "Madhu my sister called me and told me that the interview came out very well because you knew a lot about me".
Today is a good day to for me to recollect those memories of Dr. C Aswath.
Here is the web page which contains the audio recording of the full interview . Please click here and scroll to the bottom
Below are two short video snippets of the interview.
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