Musical Memories

Music gives us immense pleasure.It soothes us in pain,motivates us while in a state of confusion, inspires us and drives us towards perfection .Music is like a mentor helping us develop a sense of creativity and innovation. It is a secret treasure which carries with it, the power of  concentration and shares it with those who aspire to yearn  it .

       And here is a part of  the  story of  my musical journey from " TA RI TA PA " to the present :)

TA RI TA PA was my childhood Manodharmam way of referring to SA RI GA MA . There is definitely no exaggeration in claiming  that my life started with Music.Our home itself was a  great institution of Music.

Literally, our house was a hub of  pure carnatic classical music run under the guidance of my Grand dad and Guru Sri. Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao garu..During my childhood , the day started with listening to  music....be it Prasad uncle's violin classes in the Sangeetham hall, Rama aunty and Sudha aunty's vocal classes ,Grandad's practice sessions with percussionists, vocalists and other instrumentalists  in the celebrated "Sangeetham Gadi", Udayalakshmi aunty's veena classes in the front hall  or group of students practicing under the asbestos shed . My home was ever full with musicians, music lovers, teachers, students, performers.

          The most exciting ones of my musical memories were those of the First Sunday Kacheris. Concerts, lecture demonstrations and chamber music sessions were organised on the  first sunday of  every month at my home.

Though I understood nothing ,I used to listen to the Keertanas taught by the teachers and  repeat them out of sheer love for the tune. I still remember singing "NINNA JEYU PANULU " line of Thyagaraja's Kanna Tandri Naapai .  I was not initiated into music in any formal way. I just used to imitate what others sang. Myself and Ravali used to Sit on Tatagarus  "Bojja" and sing saralis, keertana lines etc vaguely. We were only interested in learning Keertanas but not the basic saraliswaras , Jhantaswaras etc... ;)

             Noticing  my interest for music, Tatagaru started teaching  me vocal and i also began to learn violin when i was in UKG. Usually, Charan anna made me practice violin during the initial years of my learning.

        Attending concerts is one other sweet memory of my musical journey. We ( Me and Ravali ) usually  attended concerts together . For us, listening to concerts was only a part of Fun . Ravali and I would sit together with chocolates, chips, samosas and cool drinks purchased at the canteen of Kalabharati . concert listening was for fun and  infotainment ... We used to keep guessing the Ragas and Talams etc. We put talam for only one composition in the concerts and that would be the Artists Mangalam :P :P

       We used to go round the chairs and bother each and every person who was immersed in listening to the concerts.

 It was in my first standard  we shifted to our newly constructed apartments. One day me and my dad were walking around the apartments where i got to meet a cute and chubby cheeked girl with her mom and dad inquiring the watchman Eshwar rao about their newly purchased flat .I was happy  to meet this acquaintance and was doubly excited when i came to know that both of us have the same name.

   Gradually,  friendship grew between us and made us  good classmates in music, best enemies in games ( esp... while playing crocodile in the water ;)  ) :P ,  and now we are more than best sisters and are very good co-performers in concerts . We do things like learning, practicing and listening to concerts together.Many people call us Janta Kavis :P  We are not only Janta kavis but also share the title of  "Janta Kapis " in doing mischievous things sometimes .

                     Competitions played a very crucial role in molding my career in music. My first competition was at my school where I sang "Ma Telugu Talliki " and bagged 1st prize. Later, I participated in many competitions  and those made me taste both the sweet fruits of success and the seeds of failure :P  Competitions taught me many things. They gave me the pleasure of enjoying the success, strength to accept the pain of failure , motivation to work more and more. I still feel, had i not participated in so many competitions, i would not have got the spirit of Competitiveness  which I possess now and feel it my treasure. This treasure helped me to admire and learn new things from other competitors and weed out things which I felt negative in their performances.

                 Performing Concerts at different places and with different people gave me bags full of  experience to preserve.

             I continue this loving journey of mine in music and come back to you with lot more memories ;)