In 1958 US congress designated May Day to celebrate the casting away of chains by the workers of the world. In the same year elsewhere Nelson Mandela who unshackled millions from chains of apartheid had divorced Evelyn and married Winnie (Madikizela). Mandela’s personal life was as turbulent as the public struggle he led. David James Smith’s book Young Mandela is an attempt to piece together a portrait of the man behind the myth.

The book, in the author’s words, is to retrieve Mandela “from the dry pages of history, to strip away the myth and create a fresh portrait of a rounded human being, setting his political achievements in the context of his natural character.” For this he interviews his family and members of the ANC close to Mandela and researches a number documents and diaries.

This book, is not a biographical tale on the ‘Mozart’ of Madras, but is a series of conversations between A R Rehman and the author, Nasreen Munni Kabir, recorded over four years.

Born in 1967, Rahman grew up listening to his father’s music, late R.K. Sekhar, composer, arranger and conductor, who worked in films. As a five year-old, he preferred locking himself in a room and playing on the harmonium. Tragedy struck the family when Sekhar died at 43. Rahman was nine. Initially, his mother kept the kitchen fires burning by renting out her husband’s musical instruments, since not many musicians could afford their own gear. Rahman would set up these instruments for them, often at the expense of missing school. By the time he was twelve, he had started working as a keyboard player.

Personal notes from Rahman dot the book, “M.K. Arjunan, my father’s friend and Malayalam composer, gave me my first job and a token salary of fifty rupees.”

Subsequently, he worked with every music director in the south as a session musician. And then he got into doing ad jingles, often working double shifts.

"Writing jingles was satisfying, because I had creative freedom,” he recalls.

The by now famous Leo Coffee commercial jingle happened paving way to composing music for ‘Roja,’ and catapulting him into spotlight.

On the personal side, he opens up about his mother, who did not hesitate to sell jewellery to buy her son his first Fostex 16-track mixer/recorder.

On the eclectic choice of sounds of his compositions, Rahman says, “I need to add texture through instrumentation and a variety of sounds. The rhythm is there for listeners who get restless and don’t necessarily enjoy pure melody.”

Every journalist who has covered Rahman knows how tough it is to pin him down. Nasreen Munni Kabir has written several books on Indian cinema including ‘Lata Mangeshkar in her own voice,’ besides making documentaries on Hindi cinema for Channel 4 TV, UK.

‘The Spirit of Music,’ is priced at Rs. 495 and published by Om Books International, Noida.

by Mythily ramachandran