Sebastian and Sons Quotes

“Interestingly, the drunkard-genius is a valorised trope when the imbiber of spirits is from among the upper castes. T.R. Mahalingam, the flautist, is a classic example of someone who was an alcoholic but whose drunkenness is spoken of with much affection. His genius eclipsed everything else, they would say. But Somu, the undisputed champion among woodcrafters, would never be given that leeway—his drunkenness is a defect born of his caste. This hypocrisy of the upper castes, and those aspiring to be like them, is insufferable.

Arulraj from the Thanjavur family had a different interpretation. ‘If they (his father and uncles) had extra money, they would head straight to the liquor store. Immediately, their mood would change.’ He was speaking in the context of how the older generation unquestioningly accepted their social status and the way they were treated. Alcoholism could also have been an escape from reality.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“Social inequality gets embedded more deeply in the minds of the receiver, only to grant the giver even more power.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“Memory decides that forgetting is its job in the hope that the scars might disappear and explanations become unnecessary.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“only if you put in effort and struggle, will you get results! But you should work with focus on one job, not do this and that. I have no complaints about the profession.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“I have no doubt that this is because Thanjavur culture’s upper-caste and -class associations sit comfortably with what the dominant sections of society have deemed to be ‘culture’—or ‘high culture’ anyway.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“Mani Iyer had said, ‘My heaven is a place where Somu Asari has worked on good sandalwood and made the kattai, Parlandu constructs the muttu and I get to use that mrdangam to play a concert for Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar.’ I hope this happened in a heaven where all of them had shed their respective castes and were basking in each other’s magnificence.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers