My Passion For Music

My first memory of music was my father playing the bulbul tarang which is a traditional version of the current day keyboard. He used to play 70s Bollywood songs like “ Suhana safar aur a mousam hassen” which was very soothing to hear as a child. This was a curious instrument which I tried to play at the beginning of my musical journey as a connoisseur.

My grandmother (mother’s mother) too would sing short arathi songs and shlokas for festivals like Krishna Jamastami , Dasara and other festivals where I used to help her out as a child. This made me enjoy the festivals along with eating tasty sweets and savories. 

In school, we had prayers and national anthem which made me start and end the day with songs as a routine. Here I understood that music can be used to invoke the blessings of Gods and show your respect to the nation.

Being born and brought up in Bangalore, there was music all around me. A few examples like below:

1)     When you switched on the All India Radio to listen to classical music and latest Bollywood songs,

2)     The Doordarshan which used to have very lovely classical jingles during the start of programs or the Desh Bhakti songs we got to hear on Independence and Republic Days and not to miss the Chitrahaar songs,  

3)     The loud music played during community festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi where the idol of Lord Ganesha was kept in almost all the streets of my locality and classical and film songs on the Lord were played with a lot of fervor from morning to evening.

 

All these experiences made me explore music myself where I tried to learn Carnatic Vocals along with a few neighbor kids. This did not carry on for long as I used to have a bad throat with constant cold and cough. Then I heard that my father’s mother (my other granny who I had not seen) used to play the violin and that it was a tough instrument to play. This intrigued me to look for a violin teacher and I found one at my school as a part of the Lalitha Kala Academy. I learned it for a few years but the constant pressure to get good marks and excel in academics made me give up my training in music. 

This was unfortunate as proper guidance at that time would have helped me to continue music along with my studies. It is very heartening to know that music is given importance as part of today’s curriculum in many of the major school boards like CBSE and ICSE.

I should say that music has given me hope during very difficult times in my life and has helped me get over it.

I am currently pursuing my passion for the Carnatic violin by doing a BA (Honors) course in music.