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Enchanting eight-year-old
 ''Every child has within him a life-force. Give him an oppurtunity to express himself. Do not repress the life-force", said Swami Sivananda. Krishna Babu, father of the Key Board prodigy, eight-year-old Sathyanarayana identified his son's, when he was three and a half years old. He happened to hear the 'Happy Birthday' song being played and mistook it to be coming from a car. But he quickly realised that the music was coming from one of the rooms in his house, and much to his surprise, he saw his three and a half year old son playing the song on his Key Board.
Sathyanarayana is the only son of Krishna Babu, who is a tours and travels consultant, and Lalitha, who hails from a musical family and has been a playback singer in Tamil films for the past 15 years. A student of Padma Seshadri school (K.K.Nagar Branch), Sathya has divided his routine between studies in the mornings and music in the evenings.
The eight-year-old genius hails from a musical family. His maternal uncle is the renowned Carnatic musician Embar Kannan and grandfather is Sangeetha Bhushan Embar Sadagopan. Undoubtedly, Sathya's attraction towards Swaras and Ragas is due to the musical blood that runs in the family, which his parents noticed just by chance.
His father, recognising the inborn talent in his son, took him to Ms Masilamani for Piano lessons. That was Sathya's first class. His quick grasp and retentive capacities saw him through the Initial Grade on Solo Piano Grade exam with 77 %, and that too when he was just four and a half years old.
Thanks to his father's friend Naushad, Sathya got an oppurtunity to play on his piano in Hotel Ambassador
Pallava.
Routines expend your energy while hobbies charge your energy. Playing on the Key Board was a hobby for young Sathya. In order to further his talent, his father sought the help of Alphonse, who conducts Key Board classes in Ranganathan Street,
T.Nagar.
When he was just six years old, Sathya passed his Fourth Grade from London Trinity College by scoring 85 %. This achievement earned him an entry in the Limca Book of World Records.
 Thus started his musical journey with various awards and prizes following him. His mother proudly says that her son's talent in composing tunes and background music for songs has evoked appreciation from many people. Sathya can play nearly 80 film songs on his Key Board and has the talent to identify many Ragas.
Last year, he travelled to South Africa and Mauritius as a Key Board player with Rajesh Vaidya, Thabla Madhu, Veeramani Kannan and Usha Rajagopalan. Krishna Babu recalls an interesting incident which took place in Durban. He says with pride and elation, "When we were out shopping on the streets, especially where there were many musical shops, Sathya saw a shop which was selling different types of Key Boards. He asked us to buy one for him but since they were costly, I told him that I will get the shop-owner's permission for him to play for some time, which I did. As soon as he started playing, they became emotional and applauded him."
His first rendition of a song in movies was for music director S A Rajkumar, in a Telugu film, 'Akka Bava Ekkada'. He has sung a portion of the song 'Koduva Meesai' for Vidyasagar and for other music directors Deva and Deviprasad too.
In Malayalam, he has sung for music director Hausabatchan in a film called 'Enda Veedu Appunden', which starrs Jayaram and his son. Sathya has
sung for Jayaram's son in that film.
Though he has been bestowed with awards and titles, the computer that his grandfather bought for him is the most precious and dear to his heart, he says.
He has composed music for eight songs, which collection goes by the title 'Avar Parvai; Avar Punnagai' on Aurobindo and Mother. The project has stopped midway due to lack of sponsors. All the 8 songs are melodious. They cast a magic spell.
 He is also producing an audio album called 'Carnatic on Key Board' for which Dinesh Naidu (South Africa) has taken all the responsibilities. This album will be released on August 16.
For the Adyar Cancer Institute's Radio advertisement '20 Varai 20', Sathya has composed music in an examplary manner. The special feature is that he has made his parents sing to his tunes.
He is also learning Western music from Sadanandam twice a month, and Western classical from Jayaseelan once a week.
Sathya started a light music troupe two years back, and this group consists of six stage artistes and four singers who have been performing in a successful manner. He has conducted light music programmes for television channels, FM1 and AIR Madras too.
He has played Carnatic music on his Key Board in Nadhopasana, Bharat Kalachar, Sri Parthasarathy Sabha, and Mumbai Bharathi Kala Manram and surprised many.
Hari, Balaji, Srinivas and Rajagopal have been pillars of support, and he is grateful to them, says
Sathya.
He wants to be known as 'Key Board Sathya' like 'Mandolin Srinivas' and that is his main ambition.
-KTSRI
Translated by Radha N.
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