A person who carries music in her blood

A person who carries music in her blood...!
Sounds weird right ? Yes. But I should agree that Chakki carries music in her blood.

In my previous post, I have told you about the very special talent of Chakki- the ability to play the musical instrument 'Veena'. Many of you were curious about knowing more about it. Let me unpack some more info about her.

Chakki started to play Veena about four years ago. She was lucky to get a good teacher for practising Veena. Her teacher was Nisha, who has got immense experience in Veena and is a reputed Veena artist. Nisha had her music background nurtured from RLV Institute, Tripunitura and Kalabhavan.

So was it Chakki's ambition to learn Veena ? Nops. Believe me, actually she wanted to learn Tabla. Unfortunately, she couldn't get a good teacher for learning Tabla. At the same time, she wanted to do something different. Don't get surprised- it is her nature that she always wanted to become unique and to do new things, which are less experimented by others. And about Veena ? Yes, the instrument Veena is also unique in its sense. Nobel Prize-winning physicist C.V. Raman has described the veena as having a unique construction. The string terminations at both ends are curved and not sharp. Also, the frets have much more curvature than any other instrument. Unlike in guitar, the string does not have to be pushed down to the very base of the neck, so no rattling sound is generated. This design enables a continuous control over the string tension, and produces more harmonics than any other instruments.

Playing Veena is not that much easy. It requires lot of patience and determination to learn to play it.
The veena is a complete instrument and provides the basic components: Sruthi, Laya and Sahitya. Its main attraction is the mellow tonal quality which is capable of evoking a meditative atmosphere. Rhythum, also known was Sruthi, is very improtant factor in Veena. If you don't have a proper knowledge about Sruthi, it is very difficult to learn Veena. You need to understand the basics and you need to play it in Mind.

After a few classes, Chakki became the favorite student of Nisha. Along with Chakki, there was another student named Jayanthi. Hmmm.. let me tell you something about Jayanthi, otherwise this post or Chakki's life cannot be depicted perfectly. Jayanthi is one of the best friends of Chakki- she is a good friend, batchmate and a caring person.

Chakki and Jayanthi were active participants in musical activites conducted by Kalabhavan. Jayanthi is still pursuing her Veena classes. Unfortunately, our Chakki had to take a break from Veena classes due to her hectic job and schedules. 

And Chakki wishes for attend the classes once more.. She is really missing those sweet days. May God give her a chance to meet her old friends there.