Mahadevan: You come from a very well known family, how did you get into mridangam?
Mannargudi Easwaran: Yes, I am from the family of the great Sanskrit scholar, Appayya Dikshitar. My father’s name is also Appayya Dikshitar, and I am proud to be a part of this family. I’m the only one in my family who took up mridangam as my profession. We were nine children in my family, five brothers and four sisters. All of them learnt some music, vocal music, but after they were married and things they left it, they couldn’t continue, I’m the only one who continued. I started learning at the age of four. I was born in 1947, 1st April 1947, just before independence. I learnt my first lesson, tha, dee, thom, dham, at the age of four. And in 1958 I had my first programme, played by me in front of a huge audience. That was my arangethram, the first step as a professional.

Mahadevan: What was your reception from the audience? How did you feel after that?
M.E.: Actually, since I was small I had no stage fright. I could even play unnecessary things, unreal things, boldly on the stage. But after 40 or so, I understood that I have played so many wrong things on the stage!

Mahadevan: I read somewhere that you are the first person to be given the A Top Rank from All India Radio.
M.E.: Yes, that is after a long time. After a gap of so many years, I fought with AIR for it and last year I got the Top rank. I don’t know why they stopped giving the Top rank, the grade, to staff artistes, whereas the outside artiste got the Top rank. But then I fought for it, after which, one by one, all my colleagues got it.

Mahadevan: Over your long career you must have played for a wide variety of artistes.
M.E.: Of course, I even played for Thiruvarur M S Kandhimathi, when I was about eight or nine years old.

Mahadevan: You’ve also played with a lot of artistes. What kind of experiences have you had on stage?
M.E.: I have had lots of experiences with so many musicians. As you know, I have played with a lot of stalwarts, like on veena I have played with Balachandar, Chittibabu, Veena Venkatraman of Trivandrum, so many people. And singers, I have played with Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Balamuralikrishna, Yesudas, Sanjay Subrahmanyan… and ladies, ML Vasantakumari, MS, DK Pattammal. And each experience is different, because I have to play for that particular artiste, not for the song. So it differs from artiste to artiste - the speed, the pronunciation, the feeling, so many things, all these make it different.