He used to talk to me about his Guntur Kutcheri or some other, when Chowdiah and Mani Iyer played for him as accompanists. I asked him whether he was not nervous when those big names played for him. He replied saying you may be afraid but why should I be afraid? In early fifties, 52 or 53, when I was with my Guru Mali (TR Mahalingam) along with Ramani (Flute - N. Ramani), he used to come and visit Mali regularly. Mali would address him as "Vinjamuri Iyengar Val".

About Kutcheries: He would sing Rama Bhakthi Samrajyam and he would sing All India Radio Signature tune, "GRGa, RSDa, RSDPa, DSDPa, he would sing that as Swaram in Rama Bhakthi Samrajyam. I remember that. I don't remember much; I am younger to Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar al-right, but now I am old too.

He (Vinjamuri) was like a Lion, he never turns back to see who is doing this or who is doing that. He keeps going majestically and these people do this kind of work behind his back. That's what used to happen. I used to feel very sorry for him. He was such a great knowledgeable man and he was such a great musician and these people treat him like this. Because, for our generation, he belonged to the elder generation and he knew about all the people who belonged to the eldest generation. Tiger Varada Chariar, Sabesha Iyer and all those people.

So, Varadaraja Iyengar, by himself was a very charming character, as far as I am concerned. That's what she (Sharada) would also say. When he was there we used to listen to good classical music in All India Radio. Ultimately, they succeeded in seeing (getting rid of the Producer post). It was (appointing people like Iyengar) all because of Keskar. What he said was, if we have somebody with musical knowledge we can do a lot with the artists. In Andhra at least, he was the last of that generation. After that there was no body. Parvataneni Veerayya Chowdary, Edari Nagaraju, they all had big groups, they were there!?

Sharada continues:

Even if he had recovered completely then (by the time he quit the job), he would not have taken it to heart saying that he lost the post or he lost the position and prestige. That is his nature. He is a person who would leave as majestically as he came in. We never used to feel that he was the Producer and we need to respect him. He used to give us that kind of freedom and used to look after us like his children. If we say that we cannot sing now, he would say okay, you cannot sing now, you want to go and drink coffee and come? Go! That's how freely he used to keep us all.

I cannot tell you how many Kritis we did together! How many Bhakthi Ranjani tapes we did? I am unable to recollect all the songs but, Barayya Ranga, Barayya Krishna; it is only one example. We did hundred of tapes. It used to be 20 minutes or half hour tapes. Every day, we used to do one or one and half tapes. Some times, as we said before, he used to forget to connect the tail (to the recorder). After completing the recording for half-hour, we would realize that we forgot to connect the tail and we all laugh together. Some people will get serious and get upset that the work of the day is not finished, but he was never like that. He was always cheerful, all the time. There was a Ramayana (Sangeetha Roopakam) which he had done, where Viswanatham sang Vali song (Enthapani chesavu Rama..). That was the time when the Chari's Nama Ramayanam was also recorded.

Longtime ago, once, Vinjamuri sang here. The next day his brother Srinivasa Chari played the flute. He said I should definitely attend that too and I attended both at Sarojini Devi Hall. They had 3 days of Hindusthani music and 4 or 5 days of our music. Balamurali and all also came. It was near Sultan Bazaar, which was the only theater in those days. But for Sangeetha Sammelanam, when all the big people like Alathur brother and others come, to equally talk and take care of them; that was the reason that they appointed a Producer (Vinjamuri); so that they are able to do it.

I had a bad experience with Amir Khan.  All these things happen because the man who actually managed the show did not have the stature. That's why Keskar worked very hard and got Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar, Devulapalli Krishna Sastry, Tripuraneni Gopi Chand, Nayani Subba Rao, Sthanam Narasimha Rao and in the younger generation, Dasarathy, Buchi Babu. So, Keskar made All India Radio to be like a temple in those days (Vinjamuri's time). They removed all that we don't even have a producer, all were only clerks. To say it in other words, it was like Sri Krishna Devarayala Asthanam, how famous it was, that's how All India Radio used to be. We grew to be big in the leadership of such people. We were very lucky and happy. We pity the people of today. Who is there to guide them? We used to be inspired by looking at the singers, writers and speakers and by reading their works we used to develop ourselves.

Your father (Vinjamuri) was there in those days. We are happy that we have association with him.

So, my association with your father was when we did Bhakthi Ranjani programs that he used to tune and we sang. We used to be very happy with him, after the recording, he would take us all to Mysore Café. He would call it Karadi (Bear) Hotel. There was a Zoo there and there was a black bear there. So, he used to call it Karadi hotel. It was in the Assembly Hall. Now it has security and all and we cannot go inside. It was not like that then, we all used to go to Mysore café and eat tiffin and drink coffee; he (Vinjamuri) would buy for all of us. Stinginess was not even anywhere near him. That word is not at all in his dictionary. He would be so liberal. He would take all of us and we wpuld have good conversations and we always would have a lot of jokes. We all have to be happy all the time with him. Some people will have both (happiness and seriousness). But with him, only one (happiness). We remember only happy days with him and not any days when he said a (harsh) word or when we were upset with him. There were no days like that. We used be so happy with him. It is a very great quality. That was in his character. He had no quality to care for any frivolous thing. Even with children, he never used say even a single word. He used to bring his son Babu with him. He would hold him so affectionately and handle him so happily. He was a little innocent boy, who used to play Mridangam. He would run here and there but your father would never say a word or show faces or criticize why he went here or did this. It used to be so good in those days with him. I am very happy that you reminded us about all those days and made us re-live those days; we are so thankful to you.