Meetthe Millennial Subramaniams

“We got conned into way too many degrees… I have a BA, MA and Mphil in Cultural Studies” —Bindu Subramaniam, 36, Singer and music educator

“The idea today is to groom musicians who are the best versions of themselves… not 100 musicians exactly like you!”

—Ambi Subramaniam, 29, Violinist

The duo on first meetings and marriage

The first time Kavita met LS for work was at a recording at a point when she was a confirmed bachelorette. “I was nervous,” she recalls. “I was working on a project and wanted a certain voice. Since I don’t watch Hindi movies, I didn’t actually know about Kavita. I remember liking her tape as her voice had an extra dimension,” LS says. When he asked Kavita to sing for the Global Fusion album, she flew to Bangalore and met the kids for the first time at a recording.

“After that trip, I felt something pulling me towards the family and when he proposed, I knew I was the right person to be there,” Kavita blushes.

What’s the best musical outcome of their marriage? “He’s started writing for me. I started exploring the orchestra because of him. It was a great learning experience,” Kavita says.

LS’S first wife, Viji, and Kavita had met when they were both singing in the city. Kavita had even attended their wedding, a picture of which she chanced upon after she married LS.

“We didn’t meet for about 20 years after LS and Viji’s wedding till four years after she passed away. I tell LS that had I seen them together in those years, I would have always thought of him as someone else’s husband and wouldn’t have been able to marry him,” says Kavita

“It’s all destiny,” nods LS.

“WE DIDN’T KNOW HOW FAMOUS MAA [KAVITA KRISHNAMURTI] WAS WHEN WE FIRST MET HER. A BOOK TITLED ‘HOW TO DEAL WITH TROUBLESOME ADOLESCENTS’ FELL OUT OF HER BAG ONE DAY...” —BINDU SUBRAMANIAM

Adds Kavita: “Plus, if they hadn’t been into music, I don’t know how we would have stayed together!”

MUSIC AND MEDICINE

There were no movie nights when Bindu, Narayana and Ambi were children. There was no homework either. Instead, there were practice sessions and a ‘travelling music circus’. They all learnt the piano, vocals, violin and Carnatic music. Bindu learnt from LS but realised the violin wasn’t her instrument, unlike Ambi.

They didn’t have a TV till Bindu was 14 years old. Even then, they watched one episode of something once a week, Bindu says, adding that the ‘restrictions’ eased as they graduated to college. But she has vivid memories of Narayana watching Grey’s Anatomy while practising his sutures on bananas.

“Of course, he was watching it for the drama. But his dedication remains admirable. He’s the head of

But Bindu’s first teacher will always be her amma (biological mother), Viji Shankar Subramaniam, who passed away in 1995. “My sense of structure and work ethic come from amma. She also had the ‘degree disease’,” says Bindu, who still has vocal exercises her mother had handwritten for her when she first started singing.

THE RIGHT FIT

Did Kavita fit right in? “There was never an issue of her being a step mom. Maa occupied the role

CLASSICAL CULTURE

A few of the past classicalmusic related covers of HT Brunch