ragamaalika

I'm sitting in Cafe Coffee Day, sipping Tropical iceberg. Chitti babu's Ranjanamala -Ragamaalika, swishes out of nowhere, cutting across the monotonous fizzing of the place. People crane their necks to ‘communicate’ their wonder. I smirk, looking into the mirror. I'm the proud owner of that ringtone.

I must admit, I'm not a fervid connoisseur of ‘instrumental’ music. I've always believed that we, vocalists, are superior to instrumentalists [we have greater freedom of movement with the swaras] and that people who aint got good ‘swarasthanam’, learn instruments.

We have the choicest collection of Carnatic music at home.

GNB, Santhanam, Chembai, Semmangudi, M.S, D.K.J, K.V.NarayanaSwamy, T.N.Seshagopalan,
M.D.R, T.V.Suryanarayana, Malladi-brothers, Yesudas, Hyderabad-brothers, Jayashree, Sudha Raghunathan, Unnikrishnan.. I’ve heard them all. Again and again.

And when I had to choose a ringtone, I picked Ranjanamala??!! I picked Chitti Babu.

When ‘riyaz’ becomes ‘ibaadat’..

Chitti babu’s veena is as Elysian as Santhanam’s vocal rendition. The virtuosity, fluency and excellence of his ‘play’ is mesmerizing. He coaxes out of the veena, ‘the esoteric secrets of sound that it treasures in the depths of its soul'. Every note..is rich with intricate and subtle turns, graces and embodiments. His raga alapana, neraval, kalpana swara in ‘Nata’ is electrifying. If GNB is the king of Riti Gowla, Nata is Chitti Babu’s homeground.