Rediscovering my passion!

A word of caution before you start: this might be a little boring! I am writing this one, out of sheer boredom, not knowing what to do at the office!

Music is a passion of mine. And this passion is esp more so for Carnatic music. Ofcourse, I do listen to a lot of other music...from soft to hard rock, a little pop, Ilayaraja, Rahman etc. But the joy in listening to a varnam/krithi/RTP sitting in a cutchery, getting carried along with the musician be it during the alapanas or the swaras or the neravals, all the while keeping thalam: the experience is intoxicating and cannot be expressed in words!

I grew up listening to Yesudas' recorded concerts and light music and Dr. L. Subramaniam's fusions and Shakti majorly. I started learning the violin at the age of 7, though I was very much adamnt on learning either the Mrudangam or the Tabla after having heard Zakir Hussain from one of my dad's collections!

My first guru was Nellai E.Shanmuganathan under who I learnt for more than two years, till my 5th when my father was transferred to Pondicherry (We were in Karaikal till then). I never got a good teacher while at Pondicherry for quite sometime, and till then, I used to go to my guru's place in Karaikal during those Quarterly and Half-yearly hols, and stay at his place.Learning music during those times was major fun; being one of the favourites, Sir and Akka would fuss over me, akka esp more so!

This went for two years after which finally I did get a teacher in Pondicherry, my second guru, Kolachal Srinivisan, under who i learnt for more than three years. The 5 years in BITS,Pilani after that was very much a learning experience, in terms of music. I had two big inspirations while at campus. One was a senior, a vocalist-violinist-composer, who has a band making hiw own music now. The other was a batchmate,a vocalist and a traditional one at that. One was brilliant and known for his amazing improvisations. The other was a stickler for sampradayam and stuff; well, he did change towards the end! Though their styles were different, the knowledge in music which they had was really worth killing for, not that I would!!! I certainly learnt a lot by just listening to them!

Well, the best way to learn music is to listen a lot of it people say! And as I said before, the joy and the things one learns while at a live concert is something invaluable! My interest in Carnatic which had been dormant till recently, was aroused thanks to pal Jaggu, with whom I had performed God-only-knows how many concerts! I started listening to Chembai, Lalgudi , GNB, MMI, Palghat Mani Iyer etc. He had suddenly developed a huge interest and it affected me too. We started jamming together after a very long time, wherein i discovered that I had forgotten much more than what I had imagined and I started going for more concerts than I had in the last five years of my life!

The latchas after that 'bout raga and tala fundas, 'bout RTPs and their the different themes under which they were sung, the Katri swarams of Chembai, the 7-stringed violin of Mali!!! I had rediscovered the joy in listening to the music which I adored, the discussions enlightening and all the googling 'bout fundas, all the more so! I had rediscovered my passion!!!