This is what my teacher said when I proposed to her that I want to start my lessons in the pancharatnas. Even though it made sense, I could not quite control myself to ask her yet again, shortly after her first dialogue about my 'fancy'. She simply nodded, the quintessential 'Indian' nod, which neither meant a 'yes' or a 'no'. I could not help racing up my imaginations of being able to make my guitar sing those mesmerising compositions.
Usually, the practise was that my teacher would ask what I wanted to learn next when the current class was bordering completion. I would then ask something that interests me.
And finally, it did happen after four months. And in the most interesting way.
This particular class, she just finished teaching me 'anudinamu' (in begada) and asked me to play the whole krithi. I did, although with a lot of mistakes. (Afterall, I just finished learning this piece). She seemed to understand too. She turned up the shruthi volume and asked me to play another composition. And then, another one. And then, another one. I was sitting there thinking, 'why is she doing this???'. Though this was not uncommon in our classes, it was usually an indication of what was coming next. 'A MORE SERIOUS PIECE'. And such pieces are always interesting to me because they are all about new techniques, which I might not have known earlier.
Anyways, after her serial requests, she glances over my shruthi box (I always carry one, just in case there was a power cut. Battery power!!...heehee). She turns off her shrutih box and asks to plug in mine. My shruthi box is more like the real tambura shruthi. Hers was the electric drone of the yesteryears. It was a gift to her, years back. And I could tell for a fact that she liked the tone of my shruthi box. So far, so good....
Then start the starting verses of my new class..... "sa ri ri......ga ri sa......"
Could it be endaro mahanubhavulu?
Carnatic music........how could I not love you?
