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 The
ethereal venu ganam wafted in the air as I entered his house to
spend a few hours with him. As I saw a treasure trove of Mali
memorabilia, I geared up to pose a thousand questions but
settled down with none. Flute Ramani is the veteran musician I
am referring to.
Flute Ramani, as he is fondly called, is the
stellar disciple of maverick Mali. How did Ramani take to this
instrument? Tiruvarur, a vibrant holy town, reverberated with
the celestial nadam of Mali's flute. Listening to the
soul-stirring performance of Mali, who is also his uncle, child
prodigy Ramani was enchanted by the magical music which made him
perform in front of Mali the very next day. His prodigious
talent surfaced and Mali at once took him under his wings. Thus
his tryst with flute began and from then on there was no looking
back.
 Descendant
of a great musical lineage, Ramani's grandfather Azhiyur
Narayanaswamy Iyer was a renowned flautist and a famous musician
who taught the bala padam. Sikkil Singaravelan, in whose shrine
he had his arangetram, showered his abundant blessings on him.
"I used to keenly observe Mali tutor the students," declares
Ramani.
Shifting to Madras with Mali was a turning
point in his career. He built a musical edifice based on sadhana.
Ramani accompanied Mali at R R Sabha with T N Krishnan on the
violin and Murugabhoopathy on the mridangam. This created waves
in the musical world. By now Ramani started touring with Mali
throughout India and established a permanent place in the
musical fraternity. Taking cognisance of his divine outpourings
and spontaneity, many sabhas welcomed him.
 Since
his music acquired a meditative quality, he caught the attention
of living legend Pt RaviShankar. He broadened his musical vistas
by performing jugalbandhis with Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia.
Ramani's foray into western classical music proves that music is
the meeting place of the human and divine.
Almost all stalwarts have accompanied him. A
regular globe-trotter, is there any country he has not visited?
He is held as the acme of perfection in sruti and laya.
The insatiable thirst to explore the infinite
nuances in music has made him employ a variety of flutes to
extend the range of sound. An artiste of rare genre, he was the
first to introduce the long bass flute.
 A
composer, he has released many CDs and albums.
His son Thyagaraja and grandson Atul Kumar
have assimilated his bani and are creating ripples in the
musical field. Ramani's Academy of Flute, founded in 1985, aims
at inculcating the spirit of music and make flute accessible
even to a common man.
Ramani has been heaped with a slew of awards
but the awards sit lightly on him.
Mira
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