They are a family of lawyers, explains Rama Raghavan, a veena artiste of repute. “I wanted both my daughters Goda and Radha to be associated with music, and that they made it big even before they completed their studies God's grace. They are first in everything,” she says with pride.
Taking to the veena was perhaps an expected happening for Goda, the eldest of the siblings, as mother Rama was also a student of Suma Sudhindra. “As I took to the veena when I was four, my father preferred that Radha takes up a wind instrument, ” explains Goda, even as Radha quickly pitches in, “The choice proved so good for me!”
Goda has just completed her Masters in Law from the London School of Economics and Radha is a second year Law student at the University Law College in Bangalore. But how do they find time for academics, music classes, practice sessions, music competitions and exams? “When it comes to push, we get it in full measure from my mother. Even during our excruciating exams, we have her constantly moaning, ‘get back soon to music practice.' We've had a good beginning, and hopefully things will be steadily bright what with wonderful gurus to guide us,” says Goda, who has always been under the guidance of Suma Sudhindra. Radha, after initial lessons from P. Sarvotham, is having advanced flute training and guidance from B.K. Anantha Ram.
Goda has given several solo performances at Ravindra Kalakshetra, Odakattur Mutt, Karnataka Sangeetha Nrithya Academy, ISKCON and has had group recitals on local TV and radio networks. She has also been part of Suma Sudhindra's “Sapta Veena” performance; they even got an opportunity toperform in the presence of Dr. Abdul Kalam. And for Radha, her flute performances at the junior slots at annual festivals in most local sabhas in Bangalore gave a fillip to make an entry into the solo-performance space at Chowdiah Memorial in June last year. The sisters love to talk about their styles of learning that has kept them rooted to a particular baani, “and this could prove to be our USPs” they say.
Young and raring to go, the sisters, more often sound like school-going-students with their giggles, even as they share glances at each other before answering the volley of questions. “It's a challenge to be on stage, we love it and it's a different feel to have your melodic improvisations when there are people around waiting to listen to you,” says Goda. “I will follow my guru to the T as her style is magnetic,” says Goda. She explains the simple points that Suma's sense of musicality cannot do without. “The right hand stroke has to be intermittent with two fingers to generate the right note, and would insist on gamakas that are signature to the veena. Sing your sahitya to know your exact strokes, otherwise, it could land up being swarajathis, and not krithis,” Goda recalls classes from her strict guru.
And Radha is happy Anantha Ram brought her into the ‘tutkaara' style of playing as each note gets clarity. “He never allows us to look into our books, so practice is the only way out,” she says. “If I have the sarvalaghu patterns in my swara prototypes, it is due to my guru's insistence, as he feels “the endless avarthas give way to a sense of seamless assortment.”
Goda and Radha have initiated their ‘veena and venu' jugalbandi concerts that have received good responses. The Hamsadwani Dikshitar kriti “Vathaapi” that they played together offered a glimpse. While Radha attempts her soulful interpretations for “Pranava Swaroopa” in the mandara stayi, Goda takes on the tara stayi with equal ease. “We do have to work out quite a bit on our pitch synchronisation,” says Goda. And what the sisters are actually into are blending each others baani too to evolve a style of their own.
