Fiddler on the second floor!

I touched a violin again after almost 8 years on yesterday! Last time I remember, we were at CIT for Harmony-97 when I borrowed a friend's violin (who was there to compete in the classical music events) and made a fool of myself by offering to play for the other guys. This time, I had no audience and I let my hair down, well sorta. I should have realised that I was not exactly playing well, when about a minute into the exercise, M excused herself from the hall to get some work done. But my senses were clouded by the exhilaration of playing after a long time.

First, in order to get the tuning right (N, who owned the violin had not played for a couple of years at least), I tried to play Jana Gana Mana and it was not too much trouble. I seemed to have got it right as soon as I was able fix the tuning. Thus emboldened, I tried to play the simple Vara Veena and nailed it (without too much improv) in the 5th try. Next I tried Ra Ra Venu and gave up halfway when my fingers refused to move as fast as my mind willed them too. I thought mebbe the dryness on my finger tips were the cause, but since N was not at home, I did not want to do anything, especially since I was playing without her permission (she did not mind when I told her later). So I tried to play something slower, another geetham - Mandhara Dhara Re and I found that I actually sucked. And try as much as I did, I couldn't get my fingers to move to the tune of Tulasi Dhala! So on the whole, it was a downhill journey.

But the future is not completely dark. I could come to some conclusions pretty easily, once I put the violin down after 15 minutes.

1. I haven't exactly lost the feel of it, but I am not completely there either..
2. I should probably start playing again, now that I don't have to choose between the violin and the cricket bat.
   
3. My fingers are longer now.

Suddenly I feel the urge to get back and play the violin again. I realise, now that cricket and music are not competing for my time, I might just be able to play without worrying that my friends are having fun without me. This was mainly the case when I learnt it while at school. Usually my classes were scheduled by my mom who wanted to use it as a tool to keep me from getting into trouble (apparently cricket was "trouble") and soon it became a case of me being mentally absent while being physically present! I actually have had the whole story of my violin lessons as a (unfinished) draft for quite sometime now. Maybe one of these days, I will post it.

And I should probably ask my people to take my violin out of storage at home in Chennai and get it serviced or something. My mom would certainly be happy.