Our Everyday Routine

Every morning when we wake up, we go to the kollai and brush our teeth. We had a big thotti (kind of a big wash basin) and thats where we should leave the echil. But Srivatsa and Badri used to have fun inside it. Then we take shower and make ourselves ready to go to the Ramar Koil with Raju Thatha. The temple was just accross the house and generally in the mornings there wouldn't be much crowd. So its a kind of  a luxury for us and we used to sing all kinds of songs near the Sannidhi.

Then after having breakfast, our everyday entertainment was playing cricket in the hallway upstairs. Almost three generations played cricket there and broken bulbs.

Its now time for me to a tell few words about my thatha. He was a disciple of Mysore Sri T.Chowdaiah. He taught us (Badri and Myself) the basics in carnatic music. He always wanted us to be successful musicians. He was little bit conservative and only wants us sing carnatic music.

During afternoons, our thatha leaves the store and takes rest for about 3 hours. Before he gets back to the store, we had to do our music practice sessions in front of him. Badri, naturally hardworking generally used to be very good during those sessions. I was the one who would get stuck halfway between the Vanajakshi varnam and give lip movements till the end. Thatha gives me a bad comment about it and excuses me for the next time. But my practice sessions had ever been an excuse (that carries till date).

And Once he leaves for the store, I would start singing "Oranga Sriranga Koppara Thengai" for Booma Paati. She has always enjoyed all kinds of songs.

Sometimes if time permits, we would mock a concert near the Ramayana Beero by Jayashree and Me singing, Badri Playing Violin and Srikanth Playing mridangam. Then Sarayu and Swetha would sing Sundara Vadane and other kinds of Bhajans. But our Mangalam for these concerts is 'Raghu vamsa Sudha with ti di dit ti di dit' in the end. This was started by Joo Chittappa. Thats a kind of a national anthem for our family. All gatherings end with this song.

Our thatha and Paati have been a good role model, and a source of encouragement for us , that in the future we gave real concerts with cousins accompanying us. We were even fortunate to have our Booma Paati and Raju Thatha listened to the concerts. I have to certainly narrate the vijay TV recording experience at the Chidambaram Nataraja Temple, which I leave it for the next post.