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Our own pattammal
Beyond several firsts that marked her musical genius and the boundless affection the legendary gurus had showered on her, Carnatic vocalist Parassala B Ponnammal who passed away at the age of 97, early this week, was an amazingly contented human being and a bottomless repository of blissful classical music.
Perhaps, it was this higher order of classical refinement and her unobtrusive philosophical approach towards life that made a befitting appreciation of her music impossible for generations of musicians and music lovers in Kerala.
“Ponnammal got a new lease of life when she became the first woman to sing at the traditional Navarathri Mandapam of Padmanabha Swamy Temple in 2006. Since then, she started receiving invitations from far and wide. Finally, the country honoured her with Padma Shri in 2017. The purity of her music was unparalleled. I feel that her true potential was not tapped fully,” says Gouri Parvathy Bai of the Travancore royal family.