Knowledge knows no boundaries

Online platforms are ready to pack and parcel anything at your beck and call. At the click of one or a few extra buttons, shake a leg, tap your fingers, or sit abroad and learn to order  tea in Hindi — the choice is yours.

Online interface has been growing with each passing second and minute to be the bestest buddy of man and a single-window for the tech-savvy Keralite to grab things at the stretch of a hand. What started off with e-carting and drab textual online tutorials have leapfrogged and if there is a will, conducting reality shows via Facebook is possible, whatever the format be.

An idea of admins of the Facebook group Namboothiri materialised into the music reality show, ‘Voice of Namboothiri’ towards the fag end of 2015 breaking the stereotypical elements of heavy ornated settings, on the spot judgement and magnificent display, such shows are often associated to.

The group members who have been active for social causes and charity initiatives were getting a platform to explore their melodic abilities in a most comfortable and convenient fashion.

“Other than the knowledge about such a move somewhere in England, we were totally alien to the idea at first. Our group had welcomed the proposal wholeheartedly. Thus, we opened the show with 120 participants and three were declared winners in the finale held towards mid February. The voice clips sent to the judges were posted on Facebook for the members to award marks. Winners were decided after taking an average of the marks entered by judges and members in each round,” says Padmakumar V.K. alias Jayan Kaviyoor, one of the group administrators.

The grand finale was a real-time event conducted in Mannarasala auditorium in February this year and three were declared winners in the first, second and third places. Music world seems to reap the bounties of the e-way in the most fruitful way, thanks to the advancements in webcasting.  

Noted Hindustani vocalist Pandit Ramesh Narayan is in his second year of offering Skype lessons to an eclectic student community with Europeans and NRIs. Currently, his students number 20. “My classes are scheduled early morning for three hours. Unless I have some prolonged concerts to attend, the chain won’t break. Each student gets an hour of dedicated tuition. Online classes are effective as I can give a student personal attention with enough room for correction and improvisation,” he says.

The teaching-learning starts with the students meeting him with gurudakshina during foreign concerts. Many moons ago, Korambu Vikraman Namoothiri, the master percussionist marked the beginning of real-time e-tutorials on mridangam when such a venture was nothing but a strange phenomenon in Kerala.

The impulse was the constant compulsion of some of his students who suddenly had to shift locations to Middle East countries and he could not say no to their demand to continue teaching. He signed into Skype from Irinjalakuda and the students from their locations in Gulf countries. He opened a dedicated space on his website soon. Right now, he has got 18 students from India, Europe and Gulf countries.

“In the initial days, students joined through word of mouth. My elder brother has put in much effort as he is an avid globetrotter. Right now, I have students from every corner of the world and one is from Irinjalakuda itself. People who pooh-poohed the idea have no say now as my students get the same lessons as we do in the classroom tutorials,” smiles Vikraman.

He has set convenient time tables in the evenings to suit the time zones of students so that they can appear for the classes in the morning. He says it’s no different to teach students whether they sit in Kerala, America or Dubai. On ooVoo video chats, he has an experience of teaching 10 students simultaneously.
Violinist Trivandrum R. Mahadevan is in the preparatory phase to launch e-tutorials.

“People can easily learn western music as it has some easy-to-understand flat notes. For classical tunes, things change. In Skype classes, the students can learn such intricacies well,” he says. He observes that for those finding proximity factor a challenge, the right option is e-tutorial.