preparations are on for the yearlong birth centenary celebrations of damal krishnasamy pattammal beginning on march 17 and the time couldnt have been more apt to remember the contributions of the doyen of carnatic music and know her up close and personal pattammal was a silent rebel when it came to music she was the first brahmin woman to have given a public carnatic music recital and the first woman to have performed ragam thanam pallavi which was in the mens domain until then in concerts she didnt have a musical lineage but became one among the female trinity of carnatic music with m s subbulakshmi and and m l vasanthakumari due to her passion for music originally named alamelu pattammal was born on march 19 1919 in damal near kancheepuram a child prodigy she gave her first ever stage performance at the age of 10 she had a musical career spanning 65 years and gave performances till she was 84 pattammals performances always stood out due to her majestic voice and gambeera bhaavam she performed complex kirthnas besides popularising many compositions of muthuswami dikshitar and papanasam sivan he tryst with films was however limited to only devotional and patriotic songsi always looked at d k pattammal as a vidhushi as she was very innovative in her music she was not only a great carnatic musician but also a great human being she never had the air of superiority the current generation has a lot to learn from her says renowned playback singer vani jayaram pattammals granddaughter gayathri sundararaman remembers her more as a grandmother than a celebrity while young we never knew our grandmother was a celebrity we thought all grandmothers would be like her singing our home never had the ambience of a celebrity home it was like any other household but with more visitors she says gayathris most cherished memories of the grandmother are her storytelling sessions which came with moral lessons gayathri says the most remarkable thing about pattammal was the way she used to make people feel special we realised how many lives she had touched only after her death in 2009 at least 10000 people attended her funeral and many of them approached us sharing stories of grandmothers personal interactions with them she says not many know that pattammal was an animal lover too during her forties she used to rear cattle over a dozen cows besides having 10 pomeranians as pets even though she turned a recluse after 86 the music in her never fell silent her students say when approached she would never turn down questions or clarifications on music even though she would talk less as earlier when i think of my childhood pattamma comes first i still dont know the reason behind it she was a happy woman with less expectation says nithyasree mahadevan carnatic singer and pattammals granddaughter despite being a considerate human being pattammal never compromised on her principles she was never delayed