Smt. A Champakavalli

Smt. A Champakavalli, known fondly as “teacher” was a formidable violinist in her own right. With a teaching style and repertoire to match her brother’s, she was known for going one step further. After asking students to play a kṛti in class, the poor student would never know whether they had performed up to expectations, until the end of the rendition. At the end, Teacher would calmly state that the student had made 13 mistakes, and would be asked to come back to the next class after identifying and correcting the mistakes.

I myself had the fortune of starting my Veena journey under Teacher on Vijayadasami of 2003, and keenly remember the terror that would occupy my mind at the beginning of each class, even at the age of 9. However, you knew you had performed well if the lesson progressed for the day without you being sent back home for repeat practices. Even then, there was no praise.