Sa Ri Ga Ma..Pa… Zzzzz

It was a Wednesday. I had just got back from school,in a hurry ate my meal and was finishing up the assignments for the next day. I got ready and stepped out, waiting for Pinky was the testing time of my patience !!!.. Otherwise always punctual, on Mondays and Wednesdays I had to literally drag her out . She disliked going to the music class which was scheduled on these two days .

Pinky’s mom, Indra aunty came running out behind her. She thrust Pinky’s music book in her hand and said ” ದೇವರು ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಗಂಟಲು ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾನೆ. ರಬ್ಬಚ್ಚಿ ನೀನು, ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಅತ್ತು ಅತ್ತು ಇನ್ನು ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಒಗ್ಗಿಸ್ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ಯ. ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಸಂಗೀತ ಕಲಿತ್ಕೊ….ಆ ಗಂಟಲಿದು ಉಪಯೋಗ ಆಗುತ್ತೆ !!!” ( God has given good vocal chords. You rabbacchi have seasoned it by screaming and crying loudly. Learn to sing good music and make use of those vocal chords !!). Pinky glared at me ( maybe because she could not at aunty !) .

We started walking to our class with Pinky muttering “ who wants music…waste of time. We could have played instead .” Ignoring her complaints I walked fast and she ran to catch up with me. We came to Sharadambe teachers class. There were three others in the same batch as us . I found a place and sat down with my open book . Pinky asked the girl next to me to move aside and settled down next to me.

Sharadambe Teacher

The class started with us revising the previous chapters. Pinky was bored singing the ‘ sarala varase – sa..ri…ga ..ma ‘ . She looked at me from the corner of her eyes. Sensing the teachers eyes on us, I straightened my back and continued singing looking straight ahead. The class moved on to dhaatu varase… ( This chapter of Carnatic music has repetitive notes and skipped notes ). Sharadambe Teacher sometimes looked at our hands that were going up and down slapping our thighs. She was making sure our taala was in sync with our notes.

s r s g | r g | r m ||
s m g r | s r | g m ||
r g r m | g m | g p 
r p m g | r g | m p ||
g m g p | m p | m d || 
g d p m | g m | p d ||
m p m d | p d | p n ||
m n d p | m p | d n ||
p d p n | d n | d S ||

Pinky got restless leaned towards me to whisper in my ear. The nervous me looked at the teacher. With her eyes closed the teacher was immersed in her teaching. Pinky whispered …” When she has her eyes closed let’s slip out of the class “ … I said NO !!

The session progressed but Sharadambe teacher was not convinced that we had practiced enough. She did not start with a new chapter…!!! So, we again started singing sarale varase and dhaatu varase( a symphony of notes jumping over a few). Pinky being extremely bored of the repetition, yawned softly. Teacher glared at her.

Suddenly I felt weight on my left thigh. The right was busy being a board to my taalas. Slowly I lowered my gaze to my left thigh and Pinky !!!!!!—- Pinky had fallen asleep 🙄😂😂😂. Inadvertently a smile escaped my lips. We continued with the last fifteen minutes of the class. When we were leaving Sharadambe teacher looked at us and said ” ಪಿಂಕಿ ಇವತ್ತು ದಾಟು ವರಸೆ ಆಯಿತು. ನೀನು ಸ…ರಿ…ಗ..ಮ …ಇಂದ ಡಾಟಿ ಗೊರಕೆ ಸ್ವರಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋದಿ”( Pinky today we finsihed dhaatu varase…you jumped from Sa…Ri…Ga..Ma to the notes of snoring)

We just gave a sheepish grin and ran out from the class. On the way back Pinky told me …” I still have learnt the dhaatu varase — jumping notes right ?. I jumped from Sa…Ri…Ga..Ma to ZZzzzzzzz!!!”

Pinky went on to finish her music exams acing them with ninety percentile marks !!! . Today, Aparna ( Pinky) runs a succesful dance school with students emerging out of it with the excellence of art. Still our Rabbacchi, the girl whose notes went from Sa…Ri…Ga..Ma to ZZzzzzzzz has mastered the form of Bharatnatyam- a classical dance form.

Aparna with her students

Aparna

Excellence is not a skill it’s an attitude. – The attitude to harness the skill.

-SRao