As one lamp lights another

“As one lamp lights another, nor grows less, so nobleness enkindleth nobleness”. This ever-luminous quotation of the famed American poet James Russel Lowell never fails to glow in my mind – more so whenever I come across noble acts.

One such unforgettable person was our flute master, who was running his classes in a rented room. Despite being an excellent flautist in Carnatic classical style equaling in calibre to any of the contemporary august performers, he was not fortunate enough to make a big name. Among the five of us who were his pupils in the early 1950s, there was a polio-stricken young man from a modest background who had to be carried by an escort to the class. This pupil was the most devoted among us since, he was determined to acquire enough proficiency to join a professional orchestra. Notwithstanding his own acute financial problems, our master took only one rupee from him as a token monthly fee!

Despite his remarkable progress in learning the nuances of playing the flute in the course of about three years, this mate of ours was extremely conscious of his physical disability, which manifested itself into stage fright. Our master, however, had already worked out a remedy.

During one Ramanavami celebrations, our master managed to get a good slot for this pupil. That memorable evening the kind guru accompanied him to the stage and after seating him before the mike, himself sat in the side wing poised with his own flute. As the curtain parted, the fingers of the pupil began playing nervously, producing a rather shaky off-tune note of the popular raag ‘Hamsananda’. But lo! Before it could be perceived by the vast audience, the correcting note rang out instantly with a resonating melody from the master’s flute, which seemed to have a magic effect of dissipating the diffidence that had engulfed the nervous artist! From there onwards it was a flawless and soulful rendition of three popular keerthanas, laced with subtle touches that could only be produced by a naturally gifted player. Profuse tears of joy and gratitude flowed from the eyes of the excited youngster as he ended his maiden performance with a flourish.

As if the blessings of his benevolent guru (none other than Sreenivas Rao, elder brother of the legendary ‘Human computer’ Shakuntala Devi) had taken effect from that very moment, this newly born professional player was soon absorbed as a regular flautist in a well-known orchestra group of the city, which later facilitated his joining a famous film production unit in Madras.