Fiction/Humour by Srimayi Mylavarupu – A 10 year old music student of Ambalam from USA
One day a man named Ram was walking in a forest. He was reluctantly chopping firewood for his sister and husband. He was very poor and they had let him move into their house. As it was nice for them to do that, they were cruel and made him do the hardest chores. Today, he was chopping firewood, an exhausting job.
Ram stopped to wipe the constant sweat that was dripping on his brow. He started to whistle a tune to a famous folk song. As he gradually got farther in the song he started singing it. The lyrics came out in a croak. He loved to sing but was terrible at it. His voice, instead of sounding like silk, sounded like a dying mere cat. As he was chopping, he heard a thump. It got louder. Accompanied by the thump, came a tinkling sound of music. It was high squeaky voice singing the lyrics he couldn’t understand. Ram carefully approached the man, he was short rotund and jolly. The man was setting a fire to warm his shriveled and cold body. “Hello!” said the man. Ram replied as well as noticed that the fire before him was dying out. Ram cautiously fed more firewood to the fire and continued to do so all night long. When the first light appeared, the man stopped singing. “Thank You,” he said, “You have done me a great favor. “I’ll grant you any wish you want. I am a poor man, but I will try to help you in anyway I can. Mesmerized by the man’s words, ram eyes were filled with excitement. “I wish for a beautiful voice,” he said. The man nodded and promised he would teach him the little music he knew.
After a few months of training, Ram became a beautiful singer. When Ram opened his voice, a terrible song no longer came out, instead a beautiful sound spilled out. Ram was excited and trudged home singing and singing and singing. As he passed the town, many people stopped to gape at his voice. Soon he ran out of songs to sing and started to compose his own. “ Sa,” he started. Uh-oh. He didn’t know what next to sing. “Ri Ri Ri,” chirped a bird near by. “Ri,” he sang his voice just a bit higher than his Sa. “Ga Ga Ga,” cried the wind. “Ga,” he sang. “Ma Ma Ma!” cried a girl near by. “Ma,” he recited climbing 1 more step. “Pa Pa Pa!” cried a nearby boy. “Pa,” he sang, not sure if people would like his song. And so on he listened to calls and came up with words to his song after Sa, Ri, Ga, MA, Pa. “Da, Ni, then up to high Sa again. “What is the name of this delightful song?” people asked. Ram heard a wishing sound of the water “Swara” it sounded like. Without hesitating he said Swara.
Even after years passed, nobody forgot the 7 Swaras. It was so magnificent, people created a new type of music: Sangeetham based on the Swaras. Any composition was based on these which had been made long ago.
