I am deeply shocked beyond imagination that Professor T.S. Ramakrishnan, one of our ultra- core volunteers of the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam had suddenly succumbed to a heart attack on Friday the 19th May 21, 2023 at the Christ Hospital, Oak Lawn, leaving behind his wife Nithya Rajan and daughters Nandini and Madhavi and son-in-law, Aravinth.
Only two weeks back (May 6th, 2023), he was actively chanting Ramanuja Nootranthathi at HTGC temple. As a strong lover of classical and light music exclusively in Tamil language, apparently, he enjoyed every bit of the concert of Ranjani and Gayatri on the music of Ilayaraja, called Raja by Raga ( May 13, 2023).
He would constantly try to remind me that we should under CTU promote a special day for classical Carnatic composers of even pre-Tyagaraja days, like those of Muthu Thandavar (1525-1600), Marimutha Pillai (1712-1787) and Arunachala Kavi (1711-1779).
Only on Monday, May 15th I saw a youtube video by Vignesh Easwar and Ashwath Narayanan on Tamil compositions, exclusively devoted to Chidambaram. I genuinely wanted to reach him that same night but all my emails and phone numbers to them backfired. I hectically contacted other core volunteers like Dr. K.G. Srinivasan and many others somehow reach him. It looks as though it is God’s will that he has to leave not just his immediate family , but every one of us alone and reach His abode as we read from ThirukkuraL
வையத்துள் வாழ்வாங்கு வாழ்பவன் வான் உறையும்
தெய்வத்துள் வைக்கப்படும்.
Only a year back he was very proud of his daughter, Nandini married to a Tamil family with the full hope that his daughter Nandini, will promote Tamil culture and traditions.
Even from their elementary school days, he demanded his children to work as volunteers for CTU. His daughters as teenagers would take care of all gifts and certificates and will stay till all participants have received the gifts and certificates. When we organized annual music competitions, we had great difficulty in grading the performances that were often left with oral comments by the judges. Professor Ramakrishnan with his experience as the chairman of the accounting department at UIC had the clear vision and scientific knowledge to make the proper ranking with many statistical tools.
He also wanted his wife Nithya Rajan to make sure that she spends her time and effort to look for appealing gift items for all participating youths at the annual Tyagaraja Utsavam. I have myself seen in various houses where the participants have preciously, kept them on their desks. I wanted to thank the whole family when I found a top professional musician in Chennai carrying books in our CTU gift bag proudly.
His love for Tamil literature and especially Kamba Ramayanam was so great that one day he even organized in his house a special series of talks by many local people to share their experience on various aspects of Tamil literature that they gathered at schools and colleges.
In grief,
TES Raghavan