KOCHI: It was a double delight for flautist Kalpathi Surya Narayanan, whose students won the first two prizes in the flautist competition in the Higher Secondary level. Both the disciples and their guru are on cloud nine!!
“I am extremely happy they got the prizes. They deserve it since they are very dedicated. These kids used to travel long distances to come for the classes and are very serious about the art. Their dedication paid off,” he said.
Varsha B, who bagged the first prize rendered ‘jnanamoswagaratha’ keerthana and as her fingers glided over the flute effortlessly, the venue got wrapped in soul stirring music. Spectators and judges kept beat mesmerised as Varsha rendered the notes effortlessly. She has been learning the art under Kalpathi Surya Narayanan since class 6.
“There is no designated timings for the classes. It all depends on sir’s schedule and sometimes the classes are at odd hours but that never matters. I am extremely happy to train under sir, says Varsha. Varsha came in first in the segment when she was in tenth standard and second while she was in ninth. A eleventh standard student of GHSS Koduvayur, Palakkad, Varsha aspires to make a career in this field.
A twelfth standard student K Sreehari, whose performance onstage was compelling and soul rendering with keerthanam ‘devadeva kalayamithe’, stepped into the world of music when he was just four-years-old.
His father is also a flautist. Sreehari aspires to continue learning flute along with his studies which he says never stood in his way. Sreehari recently got second prize in National Youth Festival for flute competition, held at Chhattisgarh.Another student, Yadu P M, bagged first prize in High School segment in last day’s competition.