It was during one of her visits to Malaysia when she had tagged along with her mother to the Sri Ragam Fine Arts centre in Klang, where she sat mesmerised, watching students learn to play the veena, one of the oldest Indian classical musical instruments around.
Unable to forget the melodious strains she heard that day, she begged her parents to let her learn to play the veena too.
“Watching the students play the veena really intrigued me and from that moment I knew I wanted to learn the instrument,” she told FMT.
The only problem was that Karthiki was living in Dublin, Ireland where she was born, and only returned to Malaysia occasionally with her parents to visit family here.
Still, she was able to learn the veena at the centre for one year, under the guidance of her guru Sri Mathi Mohanapriya.
Once back in Dublin however, and with no music school in sight that taught the veena, Karthiki was forced to turn to online classes instead. Her trusted guru agreed to stay on as her teacher – but from a distance.
Now a confident and talented 17-year-old, Karthiki has been playing the veena for nine years and loving the experience every step of the way.
On Aug 7, Karthiki held her arangetram, a graduation ceremony that is considered sacred. And not one to take her music lightly, she returned to Malaysia six weeks before the event so she could fully prepare for it.
“Despite living in Ireland, Malaysia is where I fell in love with the veena and where I spent my first year learning the veena so I just had to complete my arangetram where I first touched and cradled my veena,” she shared.
Speaking about her arangetram, Karthiki said, “It was such a mind blowing and humbling experience for me and has definitely encouraged me to continue playing the veena and one day be able to teach as well.”
Looking back at her journey through the years, Karthiki said the entire experience of learning the veena has been worth the effort.
“I spent many weekends and weekdays after school dedicating my time to lessons and practising,” she said.
During the summer holidays when her friends used the time away from school to holiday with family or party with friends, Karthiki was back in Malaysia perfecting her veena-playing at the centre.
She recalled how travelling back and forth, lugging a huge but fragile musical instrument, was nerve-wracking as there was the constant worry that the veena would be damaged or worse yet, broken by rough handling.
Which is precisely what happened once when her parents surprised her with a second veena.
“I was very excited to unpack it when it arrived in Ireland but my excitement instantly turned into something sad and emotional when I saw my Veena was broken in half.”
With no veena expert to turn to in Ireland, they had to figure out a way to fix the instrument themselves. And thanks to her father, the broken veena was made whole again and she was able to play it.
Karthiki will be returning to Ireland soon to complete her final year of secondary education.
“I hope to one day be able to open multiple veena centres all over the world such as in New York and in my hometown Dublin where I will be able to perform as well as teach the veena,” she shared.
She said she felt strongly that it was her responsibility to pass down her knowledge of the veena to future generations, and to ensure that they too had the chance to experience playing this beautiful Indian classical musical instrument.
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