Much as I, with all other students, like to pay homage to our late music teacher, I cannot but remember that he had helped himself to our peg table cloth.
Though a man with potential, he had started his career in music in the shadow of his more famous brother, as a second fiddle. But, much later, in his short lived life, he found his niche when an eminent classical dancer – impressed with his rich voice – chose him to sing with her orchestra permanently and took him abroad several times. But, when he was teaching us, he was still a simple man with modest means.
We had a pair of octagonal, rosewood peg tables for which my aunt had made long cloth covers with a brown scallop and delicate embroidery in the middle with the then popular Clark’s Anchor thread. These peg tables used to be kept in the hall where we used to have our music classes.
When he came to give us our lessons three times a week, it was our habit to take a break when he would write down the day’s new lesson in our notebook. The maestro had the habit of using snuff just like many other south Indian musicians. Typically, applying the pinch of snuff held between the thumb and the middle finger to the nose with a deep intake of breath, there would be a huge sneeze and it would immediately require a big handkerchief to catch the exploding stuff. Only a square handloom checked cloth (almost a mini towel) would suffice to mop up the brown stuff that would follow.
One day, during a music lesson, I happened to be sitting in front of him when the snuff taking ritual was being performed. Just imagine my shock when, after the intake of the snuff, he pulled out from his pocket not the usual stained handloom napkin but my aunt's painstakingly hand embroidered peg table cloth to wipe his nose!
But, following the vedic injunction Aacharya Devo Bhava, I did not make an issue of it nor did I report it to the rest of the family. Poor aunt Rangamma! Little would she have imagined that her artistic creation would end up as a recipient for the effluents of my teacher’s musical nose!!
