I received the invitation from the World Vocal Music Festival, Tampere ,late last year. I was really excited as this was an international Vocal festival and I would be representing the Indian way of singing. Also, it was being held in Finland, a country not found on many iteneries.

After much planning, we – Murari, my husband Subra and myself--finally left on May 29th, 2003.

May 29th

We arrived at Frankfurt airport at 7:30 am. Our friend Sriram, a much revered Yoga teacher,was at the airport to receive us. We drove to their beautiful home in a village called Beerfelden. Of course, because of the Right hand drive in Europe, we constantly felt we were on the wrong side of the road! It was a pleasure to drive on the autobahn. While we were still gushing over Sriram doing 180 miles/hour in his Passat station wagon, we saw another car overtaking us at 200 something……………..!

Angelika, Sriram’s wife and my friend, a german who has studied dance in Kalakshetra and speaks fairly fluent Tamil welcomed us to their house, along with their dog Inu and cat Choky. After some delicious bread with home made jams and basil pickle, we took a refreshing walk into the woods near their house.

Sriram then drove us to Schonau, a quiet place near Heidelberg for our performance on 31st. We stayed with a wonderful couple—Shanta( a Bengali lady) and her German husband, Theo. They run a hotel and a ballet school. Shanta had prepared a special Indain meal for us.

T.R.Sundaresan joined us here after conducting some mridangam classes in Stuttgart.

May 30th

We spent the day visiting Heidelberg. It is a beautiful town with a lovely castle and the river Neckar flowing gently down its lenghth. It was sunny , quite warm at about 28 degrees C. The cobbled streets gave the city an old world charm. The place was teaming with tourists with their cameras round their necks(like us!). It was nice long walk for us looking at all the sights and shops. There were a couple of Indian shops—one a restaurent called Raja Rani and another a phone call center. They were both pleasant but not particularly excited at seeing fellow Indians!! The pubs are very cute . When the sun is scarce, people really learn to appreciate it. Most people were sitting in the sun sipping their beers and relaxing. Heidelberg is basically a University town and we could see many students earning extra money working in these pubs. It is better to have a juice or something stronger, if you like in most of these places. Coffee is served without milk and sugar—you have ask for it if you want. But the milk is never warmed up. So for

coffee guzzlers from Chennai this can be quite difficult! I discovered this after asking for an Expresso coffee which came in a little cup—just decoction, tasted like some ‘kashaayam’ to me!!

The place is very scenic. The Germans are basically well built but there was many a sight to cheer the tired eye! Jeans and short tops are universally fashionable now, some shorter than the rest, spiked hair, coloured hair—very different and interesting, in all!

We took a train back to Schonau. All the instructions at the vending machine were in German and there was no one around to guide us. After much guessing and buying a ticket to somewhere in North Germany, we finally got our tickets and had a good ride back!

May 31st

The day began with my workshop on music. The participants were seated close together. Love for music and an interest in most things Indian was a common thread. Aided by the power point presentation I had prepared, I explained to them various facets of Carnatic music. I tuned a sloka in Mohanam raga and got them to sing along! This was a real hit. They could now understand better the concept of Sruti, raga and laya. My workshop was a big success.

Sundaresan conducted his tala workshop in the afternoon. It was really cute to see Germans sitting on the floor, putting tala and doing “ taka dimi taka junu”!!

Our concert in the evening had a good turnout. The main piece I sang was Papanasam Sivan’s Janakipathe in Kharaharapriya. The applause was tremendous and most encouraging. We had many questions to answer informally. It was a tiring but rewarding day.

June 1st
It was a relaxed morning. Our friend Egon had baked some fresh rolls and served us with hot tea in never ending pots. He is an interesting man and we learnt some special swear words in German and taught him some Tamil ones, part of a holistic cultural exchange!

Shanta took us for a walk around Shonau. She is so popular, we suggested she run for Mayor of the town! It turned out that this was no joke and a serious suggestion had been made to this effect!!

Summer is good time to visit Germany. All the plants are in bloom and the place is heaven. Roses, geraniums, rhododendrons, poppies, blossoming apple trees , berries……………….an endless collage of colours. Every house and every public place takes pride in display of flowers and their colour schemes.We just couldn’t get enough of it.

Sriram picked us up at 4pm for a drive to Stuttgart for a home concert. It was sad bidding goodbye to Shanta and Theo who have grown to be very close friends.

The concert was in a very beautiful house in Stuttgart. We had a select gathering of music lovers. Some of them had attended Sundaresan’s workshop and I was amazed that they were putting talam with me! This, truly, is creating awareness about Carnatic music in the western world—our contribution towards making people enjoy our music. I explained briefly about the ragas and composers of the songs I presented. Sriram translated these into German for those who were not fluent in English. Again, our programme was wonderfully well received and we left for Munich with a sense of anticipation.

June 2nd
Aah, a day exclusively for sight seeing and shopping! I discovered that shopping is not very exciting in Germany, or Europe for that matter, as things are really expensive to Rupeewallahs! Interestingly, many Indian things and styles are in vogue and we saw many famous boutiques displaying things Indian and took pride in that! There are the ubiquitous ‘made in China’ and ‘made in Taiwan’ tags. However, all this did not really deter me and I did end up with a bag full of gifts for my dear ones! Got home with weary feet, predictably. Murai and Subra decided to take charge of dinner. Anjali was joining us later that night. We had delicious aubergine and zucchini fry from Murari and a dal makhani from Subra. Boring jobs like making the rice was left to me! It was sumptuous.

June3rd
We rehearsed in the morning. I decided to present an RTP as the piece the resistance that evening. Our concert was in the Ethnic Museum-Volkerkundemuseum. It was beautiful with exhibits from all over the world. The entrance had a serene Buddha welcoming everyone.

The hall was packed to capacity and even had a few people standing at the back. The concert was a success from the word go. The Germans are a very cultural people themselves and come with an open mind to listen to other styles. They are very disciplined listeners and their intense attention inspires you to give of your best.

Got back home in really high spirits. Ilango, the charmimg son of Sriram and Anjali, spent some time with us and we had really good fun. Despite a good dinner, we were hungry and polished off the lovely asparagus and cream sauce (a seasonal delicacy)Anjali had made earlier!

June4th
We bid them goodbye in the morning and took the superfast ICE—intercity express—to Frankfurt where we had to board the flight to Helsinki. Sriram and Anjali had been really nice and helpful and made out stay in Germany full of warm memories.

The train was delight –it had a bistro in the next coach and we enjoyed a croissant and coffee there.

After checking in our bags we had almost two hours to kill. Filled our hand baggage with more goodies, had pasta and pizza at an Italian restaurent and then boarded the plane.

We arrived at Helsinki at 1730 hrs. We found Jani Salo, our driver to the van to Tampere waiting for us with a smile and a board that said SUBRAMANIAM. In Finnish, the J is pronounced Y. So he was Yani to us. Of course, they had been trying to figure out how to pronouce VIJI!!

From here onwards the absolute professionalism of organizing left us dumbstruck. Yani gave me a bag with a welcome note from the Director of the festival, detailing my schedule till out departure. There were artist badges we should wear, meal and coffee coupons, and the festival brochure. The drive was nearly two hours and Jani updated me local news and customs. He is a guitar player and one of the nearly 200 volunteers who work for this festival. As in any other country, he is finding it difficult making a living out of music and is also training to be a psychiatric nurse! Some things are the same all over the world, right?!

We had dinner with the director Eija Koivusalo, who had been my contact, and some other people from the festival office. We then met Kerbo—she would be our guide during our stay. Unlike Germany, most Finns speak English. Kerbo has visited India and also many other countries. She was very articulate and it was a pleasure to have her with us.

June 5th

The real purpose of our tour started! The day began with a TV interview for me. A few questions on what I hoped to tell them in my workshop and what I expected.

The workshop began at 1000 hrs. I had my CD presentation and my tambura. It was a very interesting workshop as all the participants were musicians/ singers/ choir conductors…….! It was easier talking to them but also more challenging as they were all professionals.

I could explain more intricate details regarding our music and they could follow it very well. I got them also to sing and I must say, they are quick learners. The afternoon saw Murari explain violin playing techniques in India. Sundaresan demonstrated the mridangam, kanjira , morsing and the konakkol with great aplomb.

We attended the performance of a Swedish group called THE REAL GROUP. It was amazing—they had no instruments but together the five of them created real magic on stage, mimicking various instruments even as they sang! Incredible!!

The flags of the participating countries were flying outside the main hall. My heart filled with pride to see the Indian tricolour flying high there.

June6th
We walked around and saw a little bit of Tampere in the morning. Went to the museum and had a good time. My concert was at 21hrs. My sound check was at 19hrs. It was sheer pleasure—the stage, the mikes, the lights—absolute professionalism. (They had earlier faxed me the stage proportions and asked for my requirements in terms of seating, mikes, etc.) Each person executes his job perfectly.

We started about 15mts late. The hall—Old Customs House—was packed. I started with Saveri varnam and did Nanupalimpa in Mohanam as the main piece. Sundaresan played the kurraippu with kanjira, morsing and konakkol thrown in. The applause at the end of this piece was tremendous! I concluded with a javali and a tillana.

My goodness, we had an ovation of more than 5-6 minutes! It was overwhelming! They wouldn’t let us leave the stage! I had to sing one more song before they let us go—and that too because there another special performance from Africa after us.

It was an exhilarating experience to say the least. What made it more special was that the appreciation was from a musically very knowledgeable gathering.

The group Tartit, from Mali that performed after us was quite robust. Their music resembled our Rajasthani folk music. An interesting incident was one lady participant’s fascination for my Sari! She took a photo of me and then wanted to know where the zip was! I had to show her then that it is an unstitched garment and tell her how to wear it!!

June7th
Our day of leisure in Tampere. Went sightseeing in Kerbo’s car, ate doughnuts and icecream, shopped in their supermarket.

Vegetarianism is catching up among the younger generation and we were ok on th e food front. Of course, we’ve never eaten so much lettuce in our lives, so regularly! We enjoyed Mexican enchiladas and tortillas, Felafel and Thai tofu stirfry. There was good bonhomie among our team and everyone was game to try out new things . It all added to a very enriching experience and made us more aware of different people and cultures and reiterated the fact that the world doesn’t revolve around Adyar and Mylapore alone!!

We also attended more concerts. Philomela from Finland was very impressive. Also, Anuna from Ireland.

June 8th
Left Tampere at 0330 hrs to catch our flight from Helsinki to Chennai via Frankfurt. Back in Chennai by midnight.

Finland has a population of about 5 million people. It has very severe winters and short summers. They suffer from a very high rate of suicide as the winters can be very depressing. But the country is very rich in its music and folklore, not to mention their sportsmen. The sheer energy and enthusiasm of the people is amazing. Almost 60 choir groups participated in the competition. With the resources at hand , the festival was a perfect study in organizing efficiency. People are truly cultured. You may enter the hall only between pieces, if you are late. There is no sauntering in and out of concerts. People come because they want to listen and they listen with full attention. No talking in between. It would be really good if we could practice some of this etiquette in our concerts back home. We have every reason to be proud of our culture and rich heritage. Maybe we could culture ourselves some more?

It was a very satisfying trip to me personally. We in Chennai know about Carnatic music and its glory. But what is immensely gratifying is to be able to communicate this to strangers—to us, to our customs,language, lifestyle and music. Bias is inherent towards vocal music because of the perceived language barrier. To be able to transcend all this and create a sense of happiness and satisfaction among the listeners is something that has to be experienced. It is a challenge and therefore an achievement—something that I shall look forward to always and render as my service to this art.