Music to my ears!

Music (carnatic music) lessons and me date back to a time when I was just four. My parents always thought I have a 'sweet' voice and hoped that I would some day sing professionally. Little did the know then that I would never do just that. I was the kid who made everyone close their eyes and not look at me before I decided to sing. I would fuss for about 15 mins to sing something for 5min. Once the singing started I was fine and everyone usually complimented me for my 'sweet' voice but I definitely had starting problems. Also the other thing was I have never learnt music under one single person, I have had too many teachers. Every time I moved to a new place I started over from the basics of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (Sarali varisai) ... the explanation being every teacher had his or her own style of imparting gyan (knowledge).. Hence I have never gone past varnams in my life. I had 2 teachers in Bhilai, 2 in Bombay (Mumbai) and then I was in kalakshetra for 3 years and after that started over with another teacher in Chennai...Phew... Quite a lot right?

However I can never forget one among the whole lot. We were in Bombay and as usual I was enrolled in to the music classes. I had hour long classes on a day in the week and one day over the weekend. I used to literally dread both of them as he was very strict. He used to come sharp at the time meant for classes and if there was a delay even by a couple of minutes, I would hope and pray that he will not be able to make it. God was never on my side, he always turned up.grrr... Next attempt to stall the classes would be to try and search for my music book as slowly as possible. Well couldn't do much there as my mom always helped me find it!! Damn! The classes would begin and he would ask me to start singing and hell would break loose. Every time I would make a mistake he would stop me and ask me to repeat that particular sangadhi (notes) and then keep screaming ILA...ILA..(NO...NO..) till I got it right. Believe me it was hard work. This would happen in every 3 minutes. I am the kind of person who gets very nervous if someone starts to scream and to actually find out 'what went wrong' during this process is impossible. I used to start stuttering even more. Imagine this situation when you have guests at home..Eew.. I have had some horrible days. My uncle still remembers my music lessons and the ILA...ILA...and has a good laugh. Thankfully all my other teachers were really cool and I learnt quite a lot from everyone.