Chembai the bronze-voiced bhagavathar with M.S. Gopalakrishnan and Krishnankutty Nair .Vaidyanathan got a lucky break into the Carnatic music arena of Tamil Nadu because two mridangam ‘greats’, namely Pudukkotta Dakshinamoorthy Pillai and Kumbhakonam Azhagunambia Pillai played for the youth from Kerala. They did so to neutralise a titan, namely, Kanchipuram Naina Pillai who always slighted the two other Pillais openly on the stage with complicated pallavis, without showing the finger sign or Eduppu. It is said that he hid the Thalam with a part of his second- cloth. Unfortunately Naina passed away early and the then music lovers thus were denied of an opportunity to compare his might with Vaithy.