Nirmala Rajasekar remembers Kalpakam Teacher in her piece in the Friday Review of The Hindu, Aug 11, 2022. Chennai edition.
It was a sunny Sunday in July 1982, in Chennai, when my parents took me to meet my guru, vidushi Kalpakam Swaminathan, at her Raja Annamalaipuram residence.
We were asked to wait in the living room, where two beautiful veenas were placed on a paai (traditional mat). Kalpakam teacher came in, greeted us, looked at my mother (assuming she was the student) and asked her to play a bit of ragam, tanam, and a kriti. My mother, pointing at me said, “We are here for Nirmala. She will be blessed if you can accept her as your disciple”. Teacher gently smiled and looked at me: I played ragam, tanam and the kriti ‘Marivere dikkevaraiyya rama’, taught by my Bangalore-based gurus vidushis G. Chennamma and E.P. Alamelu. She next asked me to join on an auspicious day. Thus began my 29-year long journey with the veena doyenne, who was and continues to be my guiding spirit.
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