|
The earliest two kritis that I can remember to have sung are Muthuswami Dikshitar’s Sri Nathadi Guru guho jayati in Mayamalavagaula and Mysore Sadasiva Rao’s Sri kamakoti peethastithe in Saveri. I must have been about 5 years old then. I just picked up these two kritis when my mother sang them in the AIR in Delhi and used to render them impromptu at various occasions.
Naturally, shaping my musical destiny was done by my parents. My mother Smt. Saraswathi Santhanam during her student-days of the then Central College of Carnatic Music, Chennai had trained under none other than stalwarts like Smt. T.Brinda, Tirupambaram Swaminatha Pillai, Mayavaram Krishna Iyer and M.A.Kalyana Krishna Bhagavathar. She later had intensive training under the maestro Mudicondan Venkatarama Iyer under the Senior Scholarship scheme, Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Govt. of India. My mother of course, still continues to be my principal guru, friend, philosopher and guide.
Moreover my maternal aunt Smt Ananthalakshmi Nagarajan and Shri R.M.Sundaram were veteran composer Kotiswara Iyer’s main direct disciples. I have had the great fortune of learning many of Kotiswara Iyer’s melakarta raga kritis from them.
Thus, a good foundation was laid. And music always was part of our house in Delhi either by way of my mother teaching her students or by way of attending concerts. Vidwans like Nedunuri Krishnamurthy often used to stay with us especially in the 1970s and in the early 1980s.
My parents then decided that it was time I was put under the guidance of a male guru. Shri T.R.Subramanyam (affectionately known as TRS) was a family friend of my mother’s family when they were in Tirunelveli. Since he was there as the faculty of Carnatic Music in the University of Delhi, he was the natural choice.
Shri TRS apart from imparting his own knowledge, also was instrumental in exposing us to the teaching methods of maestro’s like Lalgudi Jayaraman, D.K.Jayaraman, Balamuralikrishna and Madurai T.N.Sheshagopalan, all of whom came to Delhi at various points of time and conducted workshops on various topics.
In 1998, I decided to shift to Chennai and pursue music seriously and there has been a steady rise in the Carnatic music career graph.
|
