Tribute to T. R. Balamani, a gracious, meticulous guru
Even as I write this, I know an event is happening far away in my homeland, Chennai. If India was a few hours away, I would have not missed partaking of the felicitation function of T. R. Balamani, my guru.
I first came into contact with Balamani years back, in Matunga when as a child I would accompany my mother to the music classes in the SIWS school classrooms. Then for several years, I visited Balamani’s home for lessons. The Bhimdiwala building in the heart of the vibrant market in Matunga was a special place where I would wind my way in through rows of vegetable vendors. The strong smells and sounds of the marketplace subsided once inside her little home, which was a sanctuary apart. Here, Carnatic music came alive day in and day out. All day long over several decades, Balamani held her music classes attended by scores of students of different ages, different professions, different life styles; some moved on to becoming celebrities, some amateurs, but all of them music lovers. We would feverishly prepare for music competitions, avidly lap up new songs and await the next class impatiently.
Music class was also where we met musicians regularly in this little home. I found these rendezvous with musicians interesting as one got to see a glimpse of the artiste away from the stage lights and many a curious element came to life.
Balamani’s career unfolded before me as I grew up from childhood to adulthood. She was a hardworking teacher who reflected upon her profession. She painstakingly collected handwritten notations of songs that were graciously contributed by her many students, including my mother. Those were the prephotocopy days. We would diligently copy out the songs into our notebooks. This meticulous exercise equipped me with a quick eye for notations and their beauty. She took on the challenge of studying new nota- tions and enlarging her teaching repertoire, which in her later years formed the very fulcrum of her teaching. This came to her with great ease as she transformed plain notes into exciting compositions. As time passed, she moved to photocopies and the era of hand written notations, much to my chagrin, came to an end. Then with facility she adapted to notations in English for the comfort of a large number of students. Piles of notations remain stacked in her home in Mumbai, neatly filed and perfectly arranged so as to find them in a trice.
Balamani enjoys a special propensity for mathematics. I was always baffled by her knack for musical calculations, which she achieved effortlessly. Her strongest skills though were in neraval singing. Groomed by her gurus Musiri Subramania Iyer and T. K. Govinda Rao, she remained faithful to their memory. Her neravals were always hailed as being vintage Musiri. The juxtaposi- tion of the lyrics, the separation of the words, the assortment of phrases, were and remain unique. Balamani was equally clever with raga patterns as she was with pallavis and improvisation. On the whole, her music was sound, dignified, authentic and original.
From the modest classrooms of Bharatiya music school at the SIWS school, to the home classes in Matunga and then in Chembur to her recent migration to Chennai, Balamani’s career has come a full circle. As I listen to some traditional music from Brittany in the quiet of the little French town of Plabennec, something in that music reminds me of one of my cherished pieces I learnt from Balamani — Sharana Kamalalayathai, a haunting Tiruppugazh in Chenchurutti, a direct inheritance from her gurus. Fascinating Chenchurutti, draped in its elusive simplicity.
As T. R. Balamani migrates to Chennai and is welcomed with a warm felicitation, Chennai will have added one more stalwart to its musical firmament. But Mumbai will undoubtedly have parted with one of its greatest contributors to the cause of Carnatic music. I will miss ‘ teacher’ as all her students fondly call her, her regular phone calls, her strong Pallakkad accent and her anecdotes. But I cheer myself— Chennai is not so far away after all.
Dr Vasumathi Badrinathan is an eminent Carnatic vocalist based in Mumbai. She can be
contacted on vasu@ vasumathi. net