Tribute: Narayanan Chettiar

Retired banker and arts connoisseur Narayanan Chettiar of Mylapore passed away on June 18 night due to a heart attack.

He lived in an apartment on Balakrishnan Street, off Royapettah high Road.

Hailing from a well-known Chettiar family of Devakottai, Tamil Nadu Narayanan inherited the tradition and tastes of his family which hosted all the top ranking artistes at their Devakottai residences, and for socials and temple events.

Narayanan kept contact with all senior and present day music and dance artistes, and was seen at concerts every other evening – he recovered from two recent health setbacks to attend kutcheris in the Mylapore and T. Nagar zones.

He also had a huge collection of taped music, much of it donated to archives like the TAG archive at Music Academy.

He had this habit of carrying his mini camera and recording concerts, often offering them to artistes and adding to his collection.

Photo courtesy; Arkay Ramakrishnan