Classic(al) Gimmick!!!

One of the few things I look forward to doing when I go back to India is to continue my classical music...I have been missing attending kacheri(s) , practising vocal, ever since I came here...I got to know that Sudha Raghunathan and a lot others come every year to Cleveland for a set of kacheris and thyagaraja aradhanas...Unfortunately there's no such thing happening in OC...I guess I need to go to Bay Area if I wanna continue with my music atleast where there are some carnatic music teachers around...

I saw an ad few months back about carnatic classes taught by Mr X. The ad went on like this "A student of D K Pattamaal, I have learnt this, that...". I was taken back and called him up. To my surprise I found that he and his family had just moved from India few days back and he has around 5-6 years of training in music...That was pretty much the same experience which I had with vocal music...When I asked him about this learning with DKP, then came the dud! He did not learn from her it seems...its just that he follows her style of rendering music...When I asked him about the ad, he said he advertised like that so that people come to him to learn...Oh my goodness! I politely said that I would get back to him after few weeks and hung up...

Hmm...I was talking about this with some friends who are carnatic buffs too and we all had a laugh about it...cos I learnt the MLV style of rendition, one friend learnt the MRS style...I just pondered how it would be if I advertised in OC papers that "I learnt under MLV...so come and learn from me..."! I am sure it would be a classic(al) gimmick!!!