Mumbai trip - Jan 2012

I visited home soon after I came to the US. Why so soon? One might ask. If you know me weel, you would guess that I was missing music lessons with my Guru Smt. Kalyani Sharma. Never have I missed someone or someone's art form so much in the past. Mami and I developed a keen sense of respect and a strong relationship soon after I started learning padams and javalis from her. Learning a padam is a not a tough task, it is a herculean one. Only after 2 years of constant practice, am I comfortable singing padams like koNTE gADu (suruTTi), ninnu jUci (punnAgavarALi), payyada (nAdanAmakriya), etc. When learning is such a difficult task, imagine how difficult would teaching these mammoth compositions be! Mami taught me each one of these with painstaking care and effort. She ensured that I got each sangati, voice modulation and intonation required for rendering these compositions correctly. I can only hope that I am doing some justice to these!

To add to this list, I learnt a beautiful composition during this trip - kuvalayAkshirO - a padam in gowlipantu. Like some other students who were present while Mami taught this to me said, this padam is so haunting! Padams are in general like that. When you sing/listen to yAla padarE (bEgada) or koNTe gADu you can feel some kind of exhilaration. When you sing/listen to payyada or ninnu jUci, you can experience the pain of separation. Such amazing compositions! I consider myself blessed to be able to learn these compositions and that too from a vidushi like Kalyani Mami. I am eagerly waiting for my next trip to Mumbai when I hope to learn mora tOpu which is THE padam! And  inta mOha - the big shankarabharanam padam (I know a couple of smaller ones)

I also learnt other beautiful compositions - mahAsuram kEtumaham (shanmukhapriya), smarAmyaham (rAmapriya), Emi jEsitE, buddhi rAdu, maharAju karammanE (a beautiful javali in behag), muccata brahmAdulaku, nIvu brovavalEnammA (saveri). Learning music and especially new compositions in a good pAThAntaram from a good Guru is such a delightful experience.

Apart from learning, I also performed at a few places - All memorable experiences! My session with Rajesh Sreenivasan at his place was uplifting and refreshing! I also gave my first AIR recording! Overall this trip has been very useful and memorable! Will miss all my music friends and of course, Kalyani Mami! Like Mami herself said, "What to do, to study, one has to go to US!"

--Gokul--