How it all started

As a small boy..I watched and listened to my aunt ..my mother's sister..  Umma Kaija (Hafil Vilcassim's wife) play the piano we had in our Fort Galle house. I was fascinated with the way she poised her fingers over the keys..her left hand moving differently to the right hand which was busier than her left. I said.."that's a nice melody or words to that effect as a small boy would speak.


" aender maaven, ( my son)..this tune is called auld lang syne..it is a nice tune, isn't it? " I nodded in approval and told her that I like to play like her..."Yes, you can ..but there a few things that you have to learn...and I'm sure that you'll be able to do this..you know why..because you are interested and you are a small boy..and when you grow up..this interest will make you become a good musician."


She made me glad with that remark..a remark that lit my music aspiration!  It was like...yeah, Umma Kaija thinks I'll be able to play the piano. A simple remark that kept me dreaming of becoming a... some sort of a musician.


So , I put a pillow on the piano stool to make it higher and and held my hands high over the keys of the piano..the way Umma Kaija did and I went through  the motions similar to what Umma Kaija did...but the tune did not happen the way it did when my aunt played..I tried again and again but it did not happen.I could not figure out what I was doing wrong !


 So, let me take you to the days when we moved to Karlsruhe gardens in Colombo..Ceylon. I attended Carey Baptist College, and so did my brother Rizvi...Now, he..Rizvi, had friends coming to see him at home ....and there was this guy Joe Candappa who brought a ukelele with him ..and Rizvi and Joe used to get into our 'office' room and start singing and playing and my brother Rizvi sang..'When the Blue Moon turns to Gold Again'..a song by Elvis Presley...


"Let me come into the room..Rizvi," but he said he cannot let me in...and I said that his friend's ukelele playing is useless...and told him " wait till you see..I am going to get a ukelele and I am going to get my friends to come and sing..it'll be better than what you are doing...By the way, my brother had a wonderful voice...but his weakness was that he could never keep time..but I did not tell him that.


to e continued