Aruna Sairam
a musical journey through time

Hema Iyer Ramani

Strains of beautiful lines such as these wafted through the entire space ina homely apartment in Bombay each morning. If itwas in praise of Rama one day, it was Muruga or Krishna the other day. Aruna Sairam woke up each morning with a glimpse of the beautiful idols of Radha and Krishna in her parents’ home in Bombay. The idols stood listening to music as soon as dawn broke. Like her beloved Krishna, Aruna too listened to an outpouring of songs in various ragas and she really does not emember when the strains of music filtered through her head and escaped from her lips into the ears of all other music lovers. As a little girl, Aruna loved the game of hopscotch. If she threw the stone waiting for it for fall on the desired square in the game that she played each day, strangely, at home too, she found herself drawn into the game of hopscotch most unconsciously even as she learnt music!Aruna woke up each morning to the sound of music even as her mother Rajalakshmi handled her morning batch of music students. So until she got ready to leave home each morning for school at 7.30, Aruna moved from Jantavarisai to possibly Varnam in the afternoons, Abhangs in the evening or a full-fledged RagamTanamPallavi in the late evening.