1.Pls tell me about you and your family background?(father,mother,brothers and sisters)
My father is late K.G.Karunakaramenon and mother Nalapat Amminiamma.Both of them were very loving and kind people ,not only to their children and relatives but to all people who come across them in their lifetime and helped a lot of people to solve their problems in life.
I have two sisters and two brothers.Vasanthi,Sudha,Narayanamenon and Asokan.
2.what about your family?(husband and children)
I married my classmate and friend Dr Udayabhanu .It was a love marriage and we have only one son,Abilash U.Nalapat,who is a journalist .
3.vil u pls share your good old school days?
I had very very happy days in my school.Both in the Ramaraja memorial school and Vannery High school.I was a very quiet child ,but had lot of friends to play with and had a very satisfied life there.I loved my friends,teachers and my schools .I participated in all the extracurricular activities(except sports and speeches) but the best hobby was always music and enjoying nature.
4.how did you spend your holidays in your school days?
I don’t think that I had any difference between working days and holidays.All days were very enjoyable.With lot of playing,music,dance,kaikottikali,and reading .And all evenings we went to the nearby fields and enjoyed the fresh air and I always carried a Philips transistor with me,so that I will not miss the Tamil music of P.Suseela coming from the commercial services of radio Ceylon.
The only difference on holidays was that we were able to spend more time for swimming .When there is school we have to finish our bath early and there wont be time for swimming.On holidays it continued sometimes upto lunchtime till Amma called us.
5.In which college you completed your degree/professional?
Bsc (zoology/Botany) from Little flower college for women.
M.B.B.S and MD(Pathology)from Calicut medical college.
6.who were your intimate friends in school and college days?pls tell us about your colourful experiences with your friends at that days
In school days my best friends were Indira,vasanthy and vasantha.
We were always together and spent most of the time playing ,singing and acting drama etc.
We shared our study materials,toys,books and our little little thoughts and stories with each other.
There never was any quarrel between us on any matter.
7.whether you have got any teachers whom you admire most and which good quality attracts you in them?
I don’t think that I had any attraction for anyone in particular ,except a biology teacher in Vannery High school.She was very soft,elegant in her behaviour and very beautiful also.There was something very charming and aesthetic about her which attracted all students.Looked like a Ravivarma painting had come alive .It was not beauty,but a innocence exuding elegance and charm. she was very intelligent and good in her teaching too. And I was just a girl of 12,then.
I had several good teachers in my school and college days Each one I remember very distinctly and with nostalgia.Each had an individuality,their positive and negative points too,but all were good to me .I have to tell something about my first teacher,Ms Mary.She had a very difficult time with me.Because I was too small at the time when she got me and I made her life difficult with my naughty ways.But she loved me and I too in my little way,loved her and when she left us(I was in the first std then)I could not control my tears and both of us were crying.I have never felt that type of feeling when the other teachers left.
8.after your studies how you became a scholar in various fields like literature, jyothisham, adwaytha,etc..? and who inspired you to study those things?
I was interested in literature and music from my infancy itself.I didn’t know that I was interested in Jyothisha also ,but I had been,I feel ,when looking back.Because I used to look at the stars and think about them even in my infancy.And one of my poems at the age of 8 years was on stars(pleides star cluster-the karthika star). And ,the interest in these disciplines were a natural phenomena of my quest for knowledge.Even my entry into medical field was a quest to know what death is!! I think there is a law in human life and that what I was to become was already there in God’s plan and that plan was simply worked out by God and I was just there for God to prove His Truth.Life itself had been my inspirer to learn those disciplines .Ofcourse with guidance coming in right time from right people .
9.when did you start writing poetry and which was your first book?
My first poem was written when I was 6 year old ,and it was for a handwritten magazine in Ramarajaschool,punnayurkulam .And my first published poem (in Mathrubhoomi weekly)was on death (written at the age of 8,)when my great granduncle Nalapat Narayanamenon died.The funny part of it is,V.M.Nair ,the managing editor of Mathrubhoomi (and my valiyamma’s husband)had changed my name in it and made it Kumari Vanneri and when it was published with such a name,my father said hereafter you should not write with that name,you had been given a good name and you have a family name too and don’t change those.
Twelve of my poems written at the age of 8 to 10 years were selected and compiled by my father and it was published in 1957 (I was 11 years then).It was named Thaamarapookkal(lotus flowers).The name given was Suvarna Nalapat and I never ever changed that name.
10.how did you manage your family simultaneously with your proffession?
Where there is a will there is a way.I had to find a method of my own for that.I think every one has to do that,at an individual level ,depending upon the priorities.I gave equal priority to my profession as a pathologist/medical teacher/educationist and as a mother/teacher to my son and companion and friend to his friends .And I made it a point that I take part in all his studies,and spent as much time as possible with him.In this matter my husband also was very helpful.Between us we spent a lot of time with our son.And in our profession we kept our standards and priority of giving importance to patients and students (as teachers).At the same time we were not restricting our life just for work.We enjoyed good music,good films,discussed them,and had our differences of opinions discussed.I never had been a keen follower of sports.Yet for the sake of my husband(who was interested in it)I learnt a little bit to enjoy that too,eventhough it was a little bit funny,going to the hot cricket grounds at noon and sitting there without knowing head or tail of anything.But even that I enjoyed .Having a little sense of humour will make everything in life enjoyable.
At night,and in early morning hours when everyone at home is asleep .I read and wrote my books on advaitha,astronomy,my poems,music,and all others.I had a will,and because of that I did it,and I enjoyed every moment of it too.
11.have you find anybody admirable with in your life time?why?
Yes .I have admired Yesudas as a musician from my childhood.But it is also because of his willpower to raise to such great heights from very meager surroundings,for his life of exemplary character ,practice of NarayanaGuru’s advaitha in real life,his love for his father,mother,wife and children and his Gurubhakthy,and unflinching devotion to God also that I admire him.I think these are things which everyone should try to follow in their life.The sense of humour and the soft side of his character also are very admirable. There is a special musical intelligence in him(as Howard gardner has said),which I haven’t found in many other people . Both the right and left hemispheres of this genius works synchronously and that is very rare to find in ordinary human beings.He gives the correct answer to many esoteric questions/doubts which I had on life and I ,as a thinker and philosopher definitely has gained from that friendship and I admire him for that.
The one who stimulates your brain to work in the proper direction is your Guru,and in that sense ,I have a very good Guru in yesudas.
12.can u explain something about your music therapy which you are practicing now?
Music therapy was practiced in India from prevedic and vedic times as a part of nadalayayoga.The modern methods should combine the traditional methods and the research protocols available and the programme should be a well organized and channelised one with a university approved curriculum/syllabus and a hospital oriented teaching of clinical practice.The effects of music on human body,mind and intellect and its potential in treatment of diseases alone is not music therapy.It also embraces the proper development of children right from their conception in mother’s womb and in infancy.The widespread awareness programmes and the curriculum and syllabus I have for this purpose had been made on a basis of patientoriented medicine and at the same time a holistic interdisciplinary approach to get maximum benefit to all concerned.
But essentially it is a spiritual practice .All that we do is spiritual and we give it different names . It is too vast a subject so that what I give here may seem very insufficient.I just say that the music therapy is for the physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual health and wellbeing of all living things(charaachara)including plants,animals and birds and the best is to use melodious soft Indian classical raga(melody )
13. have you got any awards or recognisation for any of your works?
The best award that one can get is from God,a satisfied life and a contented existence,even in the face of difficulties.I have that.
The other recognitions are
Madhavji Award, 2001, for outstanding research work on astronomy.
Editor's Choice Award from Poetry.com and International Poetry Association in August 2002(for Krishna poems.)
Bharath Excellance Award from Friends of India Forum New Delhi,for National Unity. And valuebased education.
Prof C.P.Menon Award, 2004, for a treatise on the Upanishads titled ‘Sudhasindhu’.
The 4th Kalanidhi Award for Music Therapy. From CMD Thiruvananthapuram.
Asia pacific award for the selfless services rendered in field of medicine. 2004
keralasahityaacademy endowment award for vedic literature for my book on upanishads "sudhasindhu" in 2007
14.are you satisfied with your life and do u think you have to achieve more in your life span?
I am satisfied with my life.
As far as I am concerned there may not be anything to achieve but it may be necessary to give what I have aquired to the next generation before I leave this body.For any good teacher or educator that duty is always there.till the last breath.In spreading the universal love and advaitha through the spirituality of music,I am doing that duty.I need the help and cooperation of musiclovers ,educationists and humanists for this endeavour .(to spread this message)
15.have you got any advice to us(college students) about our studies and life after studies?
I think the younger generation of students should have confidence in their ability ,combined with a selfwill to work for a greater life and they should as far as possible try to live a valuebased life .It may seem difficult at first in this world of deteriorating values,but I am sure there would be success in the end.
The two things which will help you to have a happy life is high thinking and simple life.Combine that with a sense of humour and selfwill,you become a selfmade person
The formula for efficiency in life is
Efficiency=(enthusiasmX experienceXexpertise ) –frustration.
Do not get frustrated over anything.Have enthusiasm ,and learn your professional/other skills well(expertise)and then gain experience through years of living .That is what life is all about.And that is what you call efficiency
May God bless you all.
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