RAGA AMID RAVAGE

The nadaswaram has been a constant note in Yazhpanam P.S. Balamurugan's life, even when the Sri Lankan civil war raged on

- NIRMAL JOVIAL

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it, we hung our harps.

The poignant verses from Psalm 137 in the Bible’s Old Testament echo the lament of men, women and children forced to leave their homes centuries ago. Like the lamentations in the psalm, nadaswaram maestro Yazhpanam P.S. Balamurugan was also forcefully displaced once.

As a teenager, he, too, had shed tears, wondering whether a curse hung over him and his people—the Sri Lankan Tamils. However, even while growing up during the Civil War, Balamurugan never hung up his double reed wind instrument.

“When I was 15, our family had to flee our house in Nallur,” recalls Balamurugan. “For nearly six months, we lived in a place that was 30km away from our village. We lived in temporary sheds; we did not have any money, and had almost nothing to eat.” Even in that situation, his father, Suppuswami Pillai, insisted that he practise the nadaswaram. “He believed that if I managed to stay alive, this music would be the key to sustaining myself and making a living,” he says. “I obeyed him.”

Born in 1980, Balamurugan belongs to a generation that bore the brunt of the devastating civil war in the island nation. Witnessing death and bloodshed was almost a daily affair. For the first 22 years of his life, he hardly travelled outside Jaffna. Today, he is a globetrotter and one of the most sought-after musicians worldwide. He has a soft corner for south India for its knowledge and appreciation of Carnatic music.