“Everyone at home is into music. Though my parents were teachers, both of them could sing and my father used to play the violin a little. So, he is the one who introduced me to the instrument. After school, I joined the Chembai Memorial Government Music College at Palakkad where I pursed violin as my main instrument and vocal as my subject and acquired my Ganabhooshanam. Since then I have been teaching students and it is almost 18 years now.
Violin is among the toughest instruments to learn and teach. What attracted me to the violin is the feel it evokes. It is incomparable and the music born from it is the most soulful. Only a student who is committed and patient will be able to master the violin. The first thing I find out when I get a new student is whether he or she is genuinely interested in learning this instrument. I tell them if they are looking for easy routes, there are none here. The usual rush for learning an instrument so that children can play it for youth festivals is considerably less for the violin simply because one cannot learn it easily. For a teacher, every action of a student is a clue to whether they are genuinely interested or not and it begins with the way they hold the instrument.
Students often ask me how long are they likely to take to learn the violin. I say, ‘I don’t know’ for mastering it depends on the practice they are willing to put in. Since it is a difficult instrument, the number of children who give up are also more when compared to other instruments. When I was a student, my practice would begin at 2.30 a.m. and go on till about 8.30 a.m. when college begins. Now, my teaching classes are my practice sessions. In fact, the more you teach, the more one learns.
A lot of my students are older people. For them, it is about finally finding time for an instrument they always wanted to learn. Now I teach at quite a few institutions including the S.K. Pottekkatt Cultural Centre and also part-time at Navodaya Vidyalaya. A lot of students come home, which is the Kalashala Sangeetha Nilayam. Week-ends are particularly packed. I begin classes by 6.30 a.m. and would wind up by 8.30 p.m. Often I skip meals in between for I cannot have my food in peace when I know my students are waiting.
One can learn violin or any other instrument, if one has an inherent sense of music. For beginners, classes start with sapta swarangal and goes through the varishakal and then to alankaram and geetam . A student who gets through to geetam can be expected to handle the violin relatively well.
I am personally not keen to have a performing career. I love to teach and want to see my students perform. The satisfaction of a teacher is what matters to me the most. So too the love I get from my students. The way even the older students call me “teacher”, seek me out from a gathering to talk to me keeps me going.”
(A column on the men and women who make Kozhikode what it is.)
