Mannargudi Sambasiva Bhagavatar:

Basically, in those days, there was only Aaradhana performed at the Sri Thyagaraja Sangeetha Vidwat Samajam. Monthly concerts were not conducted then. PN Raghava Rao was a vidwan. One Day, Raghava Rao, he (Vinjamuri) and I were sitting at Raghava Rao's house. At that time, I myself said, "there are no monthly concerts (at Samajam), what if we start them?" Then, we decided 8 annas, in those days, to be the subscription and I was the one to collect it. The first subscriber was Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar. May be due to his lucky hand, today Samajam is growing very rapidly and successfully. Thus, he was the first member. The second member was Raghava Rao. The third member was his (Raghava Rao's) sister called Sharada. Fourth was myself. I was the one collecting the money so I was the fourth. Then, we visited and talked to a lot of people and collected membership dues. After getting 50 to 60 people, as it is not wise to keep money in hand, I called for a meeting. PS Secondary high school was in Nattu Subbaraya Mudali Street. We held the meeting there. While deciding the office bearers, Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar was elected as the first secretary. There was one Pattamanai Sundaram, he was another secretary. As I held the money, I was the treasure, then. Later, Vinjamuri was the first secretary and I was the second secretary. Samajam's office was at Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar's house, at #1 Edward Elliott Road. One thing about Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar is that he does not want to sweat much. He stops at giving advice. I have to do all the work (Mannargudi laughs). But, he feels pity though about my doing all the work by saying that I work too hard. Even 2 years before his passing, he wrote recommending me to the (Vidwat Samamjam) committee saying that Sambasiva Bhagavatar should be the president. Now I am the president as well as the chairman of the Samajam.

I did not listen to his Kutcheries as such. But, I listened to his singing. His most favourite song was Pakkala Nilabadi in Karaharapriya. He used to sing frequently. He would sing Neraval and sing very beautifully. He liked it very much. He would not leave it. (He would include it always). He would sing mostly Thyagaraja Keertanas. He was like that and I too am like that. After leaving this place, (Madras) he was a Producer in Hyderabad. From there, he would frequently write me letters. His handwriting was very good. That is, the handwriting is not very small. They say that the size of one's handwriting is the measure of their heart. Only crooks will have small handwriting. Those who have large handwriting will have broad views. I too have large handwriting. His handwriting was big too. In all those qualities, we are similar. He used to dress-up very well and I would not... that is the only difference between us. We both do not talk much about music and he won't talk either. We both believe in singing and not in talking. We did not like to talk about theoretical aspects. My Guru Maharajapuram Viswanath Iyer was like that too. He would stress "do not talk about music but sing". If you say 72 Melakartas can you sing music? If you repeat the word sugar does that give you sweetness? To learn, we need to understand and sing. We both were with the same view.

When he received the doctorate, he mock angrily wrote to me saying "I got doctorate and you did not even write congratulating me". For that I wrote back equally "I will know about your getting a doctorate only if you inform me. So, not informing me is your mistake". Such was our friendship.