Sruti has been receiving emails from artists, rasikas and Sruti readers on their inspirations, experiences this lockdown and what they are listening to during this period.
Sruti has compiled this series as lockdown diaries and sharing some of them with you.
#subscriberdiaries
The following article is by Dr. Vijay Sriram, Chennai’s leading pediatric orthopaedic surgeon, a budding flautist, photographer and a Sruti subscriber.
This lockdown has had very few positives so far, at least personally. An out of work orthopaedic surgeon is not the best prescription for mental health. The fact that I am an amateur flautist is a blessing in disguise. This period of enforced house arrest has had me playing daily and doing three classes
every week with my guru on Skype.
In the last four weeks I have learnt kritis such as Mooladhara (Sri), Sarasamukhi (Gaudamalhar), Saravanabhava
(Kannada) and Sriman Narayana (Bowli). Apart from learning new songs I have had ample time to practice the varnams and kritis that I have already learnt. All this practice I think has definitely improved my skill, as my family no longer shut the door on me when I start playing!
Aside from playing, there has been enough time to listen to music too (when I am not watching Netflix). I have been listening a lot to T.M. Krishna, Abhishek Raghuram, and Jayanthi Kumaresh (always a favourite). As always I continue to listen to the old masters like Semmangudi, KVN, GNB, and MLV.
Music has been the great healer in this period of house arrest. Without it I am sure I would have lost my mind by now and would be in dire need of my psychiatric colleagues.
Photo: A photograph of Dr Vijay Sriram's flute.
PC : Dr Vijay Sriram