Lambodharaa sisters

Dear All

Carnatic music has been my passion for the past 6 or 7 years ever since I started realizing the essence of it, the divinity, and I view it now as a stress buster, a way to pray God, a way to keep my mind and soul relaxing. I realized it late and now feel for it how playful we have been when we got an excellent opportunity during our childhood to learn this classic music!

Ever since my mom had twin daughters (my sister and myself) there was a strange wish for my mom in making us renowned singers like her iconic relatives “Bombay sisters”. May be she thought of naming us “Pudukkottai sisters” the place where we hail from. This wish was greatly nourished by my paternal grandmother who has a wild passion for music and of course the lady singer’s attire and jewels particularly of honorable singer M.S. Subbulakshmi. On one fine day of vijayadasami, when we were 6, she bought us (my sister and self) two 45 page notebooks and two “ganaamrutha bodhini” (beginner carnatic book) books and tooks us in a rickshaw to paattu class teacher’s house. We were blinking each other and wished our first paattu miss who is supposed to have known my paatti and our family as well. So we thought we could slightly “OB” whenever we wanted. That class ended with “Saa Paa Saa Paa Saa” and we came home with my sister leaving her Hawaii slippers on the paattu miss house. This was found out by my thatha who used to count the number of footwears in the house every night which should coincide with the number of persons. In case of any missing pairs the owner of the footwear lost will be heavily scolded as “barbaric civilian” by my thatha and that day was my twin sister’s turn!

My mom requested paattu miss to come to our home as she wanted to eye as to what we learn each day. On one such evening my mom was busy preparing dinner while we sang ‘lambodara lakumikara ambaaa..” (of the first Geetham Sri Gananatha) and our miss enjoying her cup of horlicks served by my mom. Suddenly “Ambaaa sutha” .. “Damaar … issssshhhh” came a loud noise from the kitchen. All of us rushed only to see my mom in shock, boiled rice flown all over with steam and bottom of the cooker over the stove while the lid snugged on the loft. When we narrated this to my dad he said “unga lambodarava kettu cookerae vedichurthu”. You should have seen my mom’s face then!

Even after these “abasagunam” my mother still nurtured on us becoming atleast kalyana oonjal singers. This got focused when my dad was transferred to Thanjavur. My mom thought for Thanjavur has been the place of great singers especially Thiruvaiyaru and with my dad’s influence she used to take us to expert’s kutcheris. She does not know that we actually were keen on those yummy ‘Asoka Halwa’ and “Keerai vadai” sold in the stalls prepared in most traditional way which our dad never forgets to buy for us.

Again in Thanjavur my mom fixed an elderly vaadhyar to teach music for us. He used to come home guess at least he had a good cup of coffee. Days passed by and somehow we managed to cross Geetham. My brother also learned mridangam and his teacher also used to visit our home. One day it happened both the teachers came home. We were singing “jayathi jayathi bharatha matha” loudly in one room while my brother slapped his mridangam with full josh in the hall. That day my dad came early from the office for he had terrible headache. No sooner did he enter the house he heard “jayathi jayathi” so willingly and loudly sung by us whilst my brother deeply engrossed slapping “thath theeng ginna thom” and he left the place immediately for he thought office was much better!

As days went, our elderly vadhyaar was not able to teach and my parents were in the look out for another teacher. My dad somehow managed to bring a person who plays nadhaswaram to teach us music. After formal talks my dad requested that person to sing “nithi saala sugamaa” since Kalayani raga was my dad’s favorite. That person surprised my dad by saying “ I don’t know the lyrics sir.. In nadhaswaram we only learn the tunes and we don’t willingly learn lyrics”. My dad was like oh my God.

Then we went to another music teacher and my dad’s strict condition was to teach us only keerthanais. So the teacher started off with “Raminchuvaa revarura” and no sooner our matric standard came. Then my mom took a firm decision of making us join hindi classes and she sang “Mangalam” to her daughters becoming music legends. Even today my brother used to refer us as “Lambodharaa sisters”.

My brother-in-law (sister’s husband) is a genius who learnt carnatic music and playing violin all by himself without direct Guru however he has Manasika guru. During my sister’s girl seeing (pen parkkardhu) my BIL asked whether my sister learned music and all of our family members had such a big answer as narrated above and just smiled hee hee..


Lakshmi

hi lakshmi,

that was a hilarious post...yes ,me too realising the importance only now ...wish i had practised more at the right age..now my voice doesnt behave itself at all...anyway could imagine u and your sis in one room and your bro in the other with his mridangam...funfilled days,no?...we 4 or 5 friends used to go together to paatu class and it was more to be together than anything else..sad to say none of us became great singers...But heres wishing the lambodara sisters the very best...

cheers
MINDI

Dear Laknar,

You are reminding me of my mother. She wanted we siste learn music. Father wouldn't allow. It was last month she said how she wanted me to learn carnatic music. Even today I can't think of Kalyani Raagam without tears in my eyes. My favourite song"Etah unara- - - - - .
Like you mothe changed teachers and my father found many excuses to stop that. Ultimately he succeded.
These days she was trying to teach my nephew. Last month she was pleading with my nephew to learn and practice.
Let me not go further. iam trying come out of the Friday's shock. kanaka

Dear Lakshmi,

the title did pull me in. Your description did put splits. Just out of curiosity, did you complete learning, and do you sing.

Music is something i am passionate. I wanted to learn, but it was not allowed in our household when i was a kid. Today my FIL, is all the time behind my kids. My in-laws love music so much. Let me try to coin some name for my DD and DS, it should be some duo.

Originally Posted by kanaka

Dear Laknar,

You are reminding me of my mother. She wanted we siste learn music. Father wouldn't allow. It was last month she said how she wanted me to learn carnatic music. Even today I can't think of Kalyani Raagam without tears in my eyes. My favourite song"Etah unara- - - - - .
Like you mothe changed teachers and my father found many excuses to stop that. Ultimately he succeded.
These days she was trying to teach my nephew. Last month she was pleading with my nephew to learn and practice.
Let me not go further. iam trying come out of the Friday's shock. kanaka

Kanaka,

Nice to know about how your mom taught and how she was passionate about music. (I already am aware about it through your posts..) she sure was a great lady.

butted in just to say, talk about her, your love towards her and her love towards you people. the more you talk about her happy moments, you are going to come out of the shock and think of all the pleasant memories about such a brave lady.

We are all here to support you emotionally.

Originally Posted by Mindian

hi lakshmi,

that was a hilarious post...yes ,me too realising the importance only now ...wish i had practised more at the right age..now my voice doesnt behave itself at all...anyway could imagine u and your sis in one room and your bro in the other with his mridangam...funfilled days,no?...we 4 or 5 friends used to go together to paatu class and it was more to be together than anything else..sad to say none of us became great singers...But heres wishing the lambodara sisters the very best...

cheers
MINDI

Dear Mindi

Thanx for that fb yeah those fun filled days which we spent without minding my parent's botheration. Just wanted to share the fun and spread the message through my experiences funny indeed.. that learning music is always good..

hope you enjoyed reading..

cheers
Lakshmi

Originally Posted by shanvy

Dear Lakshmi,

the title did pull me in. Your description did put splits. Just out of curiosity, did you complete learning, and do you sing.

Music is something i am passionate. I wanted to learn, but it was not allowed in our household when i was a kid. Today my FIL, is all the time behind my kids. My in-laws love music so much. Let me try to coin some name for my DD and DS, it should be some duo.

Dear Shanvy

Now I hesistate to learn and whatever krithis I like I just use to sing when I am alone.. I love certain raagas. I can identify few. My fav ragam is Hindolam and thodi..

You too are passionate about music and learn if possible. at least we can sing for "varalakshmi nombu" "bhaagyaatha lakshmi baaramma"..

thanx a lot

luv
Lakshmi

Originally Posted by kanaka

Dear Laknar,

You are reminding me of my mother. She wanted we siste learn music. Father wouldn't allow. It was last month she said how she wanted me to learn carnatic music. Even today I can't think of Kalyani Raagam without tears in my eyes. My favourite song"Etah unara- - - - - .
Like you mothe changed teachers and my father found many excuses to stop that. Ultimately he succeded.
These days she was trying to teach my nephew. Last month she was pleading with my nephew to learn and practice.
Let me not go further. iam trying come out of the Friday's shock. kanaka

Dear Kanaka

Please come out of that unfortunate dear. I thought it would be hilarious to share with and sorry if it would have reminded of your beloved mom.. We are here for sure to shoulder your grief and have laps to cuddle your head on.. Please be courage enough and if possible read some of our friend's hilarious post.. Dear..

take care
fondly
Lakshmi

Dear Lakshmi( aka Lambodharaa sister ),

That was a real hillarious piece...! Still rolling with laughter on the cooker and nadaswaram vidhwan episode.

Yes, it is irritating when parents keep insisting. But once we get interested, there is no stopping. My maternal grandfather like your BIL self taught himself to play flute. He learnt carnatic music listening to his sisters learn music at home and is extremely passionate about it.

Keep writing more...!

-Gayathri.

That was hilarious LakNar!There are so many such 'lambhodara' sisters or singer who went on to learn later and gave even concerts!...my niece being one of them.It is only late realization.BTW I have lived long enough in Thanjavur to say that it is the 'fine arts' ocean, at least as reg. to music.This is 6 a.m. here, and I just had my cup of coffee ...and you have made my day, Thanks for sharing in a humorous way, dear!