JOIN USA note from every corner
She has over 300 musical instruments from different parts of the world in her collection.
Anasuya, who is a Carnatic musician, has travelled far and wide to pursue her hobby.
“I started this hobby with no particular intention. All kinds of musical instruments have a soothing effect on the mind and that was what attracted me to instruments,” she says.
Soon after her marriage, she got an opportunity to travel across the world with her husband and that’s how she developed an interest in the music forms of different countries and their instruments.
“My husband was posted in Kabul. That was when I met Ustad Mohammed Hussain Sarahang who taught me Hindustani classical music. It was indeed a privilege to learn from the maestro,” she says.
He also presented her suramandal, a string instrument, that triggered her passion to collect instruments.
Anasuya has performed in UK, USA, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Kabul, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Mongolia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Bhutan and Indonesia.
It was when she was in Indonesia that she came across the instrument Angklung, which is a series of bamboo frames.
She adapted this instrument to the Indian music tradition in terms of sound, tone and melody and called it Ankrang.
Ask her what attracted her most to Angklung and she says, “This instrument has
a very rhythmic tone that attracted me and it gives me immense peace of mind. It
absorbs me completely.
Moreover, it can be used in all music genres like folk, Hindustani, classical and Western,” she says.
The other musical instruments she has are mandolin from Russia, chinku and zither from Indonesia, endungo from Uganda, drumyan from Bhutan and shanz from Mongolia.
She is the recipient of the gold medal awarded by the Music Academy of Chennai and has also taken part in international music competitions.
She won an entry into the Limca Book of Records — 2008 edition for Indianising ‘Angklung’.
In 1961, film director Subbiah Naidu was so impressed by her voice that he made her sing for the film Bhakta Prahlada.
She has also received the ‘Karnataka Kalashree Award’ for being the only exponent of Angklung.
Her collections are not just confined to musical instruments. She also collects different kinds of miniature shoes from all over the world, sharpeners, and idols of Lord Ganesha.