The music hath charms

When I graduated with an Honors degree in English dreaming of a teaching career, I realised that the prospects of getting a job or a husband were depressingly bleak. So I decided to try a new hobby and turned to music. I had always loved the flute, and T R Mahalingam was my musical hero.

Opportunity came looking when I learnt that Vidwan Mysore T Chowdaiah had recently opened the Ayyanar College of Music on Vani Vilas Road; what’s more, it was at walking distance from my house. The tuition fee was attractive, too, at only Rs 10 a month! I bought a four-and-a-half shruti bamboo flute and enrolled in the beginners class with the talented Doreswamy as my guru.

Every morning, I left after coffee with flute in hand. On the way, if I encountered toddlers following their mother’s advice to answer their nature’s calls squatting by the roadside, I would use my flute to hit them on the head and ask them to go do it inside. Since I walked fast, I did not hear if a mother or two came out to yell at me to mind my own business.

Once in the music school, my purpose became serious. Chowdaiah was often seen in the building wandering around, probably savouring his achievement. Sometimes, he paused at the door of my classroom to have a chat with my guru, Doreswamy. If I have given the impression that I am going to come up with some interesting anecdote involving the famous violinist, I must disappoint you, my reader. However, all is not lost for I have an interesting story, as narrated on a reliable music blog by a rasika, about two equally famous musicians of the time, namely Vidwan Mysore Vasudevacharya and M S Subbulakshmi.

Backtracking some decades, the scenario is the Shanmughananda Music Hall in Chennai and the occasion is a concert by M S Subbulakshmi. The people present, besides the enthusiastic audience, are the renowned dancer Rukmini Devi and Mysore Vasudevacharya, who are the evening’s special guests. And quite significantly, M S is going to sing Vasudevacharya’s famous composition, Brochevarevarura in Kamas Raga.

It must have been a fabulous event, no doubt, and at the conclusion of the kacheri it seems this is what Vasudevacharya had to say to the performer of the evening.

“I am reminded of the story of this poor man who had a daughter whom he cherished with care and love. When she came of age, he got her married; she wore a cotton sari, glass bangles and black beads. After some time, she came to visit him from her in-laws. His profound happiness overflowed when he saw her wearing a gorgeous silk sari and decked in gold and diamond jewels from head to toe. Listening to the song I composed sung by M S Subbulakshmi today,” the great composer concluded, “I have seen it transformed into something divine.”