Sarva Bhuvana Janahithaaya Sarva Mangalam
BORN into a family of exceptional singers, I have always found myself in the lap of morning ragas, sandhyavandanams and lullabys that kept flowing out of each room in my ancestral home. The wooden walls between rooms never stood in the way of celestial Carnatic raagas and keerthanas as they breezed past in gay abandon every morning and night. I then regretted the fact that I happened to be the only soul around who couldn’t sing or understand music. Apart from the hushed bathroom croons that never came close to what a song would be like, I never had my bit of stardom whenever there used to be a family get together. Every year, when granny celebrated her birthday, all uncles would drive in, families in tow, to celebrate the aging soul. After lunch, everyone would sit together in one of those large rooms and sing. From the broche va revaruaas , the harivaraasanams , the praanasakhi njan and sangamams to the old time Mukesh and Salil Chaudhury numbers that made their appearance