sareespeak #womenofsareespeak #125

SS 55/2021 #silk #kanjivaram #kanjivaramsilk #handloom #themeofthemonth #gratitude

Happy Indian Independence Day.
Draped a double tone grey blue kanjivaram handloom silk with darker stripes, maroon and gold leaf borders and pallu, edged with green. Yesterday.
(Managed to slash 50 shots of eyes closed, one eye, neck, legs, slo mo videos, to 2 shots..taken by culprit Daughter #2).
For a memorial service of a loved one in a temple. Got home rested, set out to visit 3 other temples, a mini Yatra of 4 temples in the south, centre, west, a Thanksgiving.

Continuing with my NZ tales.
When we landed so long ago, we’d decided we’d be a normal family. No classes. No performances.
Fate had other plans.
In Malaysia, we’d both been performing, teaching music even before marriage, voluntarily.
Set foot in NZ, learnt the resident Mridhangam guru was migrating elsewhere.
Coincidentally, but then again, as we know, there are no such things as coincidences,
He’d been under the same Guru as Husband.
And the then Veena guru was also returning to India. And so I took her students on at their requests, after ensuring they had their Guru’s blessings to do so.
So many of them are now all grown, married, having successful careers, completed music diplomas, and still either learning from me online across different time zones or face to face or continuing this precious art form with other Gurus.
New babies have come along, and my heart wells up with pride and hope that they too will be future torchbearers.

Another genre of students.
My adult veena students.
A quick thank you to them is in order.
These lovely sakhis have learnt veena, vocal, dance growing up, but as with many of us, have sacrificed their passions for the myriad duties of womanhood.
Now they are back with gusto, doing something for their soul.
They are loving it.
I am loving it.
The music.
The passion.
The practices.
The determination.
The dedication.
Stoked, watching their growth,
They are rejuvenated and so am I.
On a Sunday morning, they pack their beloved veenas into cars, sometimes 2 veenas, 3 ladies in a car, and drive from the west or central Auckland to the East. These are large instruments, merely covered with handmade covers and a wood frame over the wax and frets, not smaller instruments in hardy cases.
We revise old lessons, learn fresh ones, and they strum, glide fingers and
Drape sarees.

And so, a requirement, sorry I shall rephrase yet again, a kind request, is that they post their saree and a writeup.
And they have..
They have jumped in, not necessarily enthusiastically initially, but have now warmed to the idea that they must, sorry, did I say that? No, I meant, could, would be nice if they posted regularly, apologies, I meant, occasionally.
On the Saree Speak platform.
Which has become
As therapeutic as the Music that inspires their writings and drapes.
Thank you dear Veena Purushotham Rama Rajesh Prasuna Yashwanth Jayanthi Sundaresan.
4 down one more to go..
Ranjileen Ram? (No pressure..)