Ramani and Raman

This morning I was driving to work when I noticed a cassette case sitting on the dashboard that had Appa's handwriting on it. I removed the tape of old Hindi songs that was in the player and replaced it with this tape--a live recording of flutist Ramani in concert, most likely somewhere in the US. I rarely listen to Carnatic music when I drive because it doesn't exactly keep me focused on the road. But I decided to let Ramani accompany me to work this time.

It was like having Appa in the car with me. He didn't like sitting in the front passenger seat--when someone else drove, he usually preferred to sit in the back because fastening the seat belt was such a pain! The first song that played was the popular "Varalakshmi Baramma", something I had never really heard played on an instrument. I could see Appa picking up his flute in the morning and playing a little...often he did this to our protests, because the sound was so amateurish, so plaintive, but he usually persisted, because not only did he enjoy the sensation of playing the instrument, but he also enjoyed being playfully irksome.

It was this playful irksomeness that taught me the little Carnatic music I know. He would play the radio loud--and during the music season, this meant he played it loud at 2 a.m.!--and insist on telling us about the melakartas and their derivatives, about the heritage that had come to us from Appaya Dikshitar and others, about what each raga meant. Most of it fell on uninterested ears but over the years it had the effect of cultivating in both my brother and me a deep appreciation for--if not knowledge of--our musical tradition. Appa had his own ways of inculcating this appreciation in us. For instance, when, as a 12 or 13 year old, I asked for permission to go watch a Hindi or Hollywood movie with my school friends, he would ask me to submit the application in writing, and undertake to attend an hour of a classical concert or a discourse on the epics, as 'subsitutive' cultural education! In this way I accumulated several hours worth of cultural education, and learned things I probably never would have, in a way that didn't really seem like "learning"!

Well, by the time I reached work this morning, Ramani had played for me several more tunes, including "Krishna Nee Begane Baro", "Aadu Paambe"--the latter being one of Appa's favourites. And, more importantly, he had allowed me to recapture some of these memories.