This happened when Dr. Balamuralikrishna was in his teens,
around his town of Vijayawada. Shri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, already a doyen
of Carnatic music was to give a concert in that town. The scheduled violin
artist sent a message quite early in the day that he would not be able to make
it to the evening-concert due to certain unavoidable problem. The organizers
suggested that a boy called Balamurali Krishna in the same town would be able
to accompany in the concert. Shri Ariyakudi quite well accepted the idea to
taking Balamurali as a substitute violin artist. In the afternoon, Ariyakudi
sent his disciple to Balamurali to come for a practice session. The disciple
worded the suggestion unwittingly in lines – “my guru called you to give you
practice a while in advance, so that you can play violin better in the
concertâ€. The young and hot-blooded Balamurali, perhaps not being aware of the
stature of Ariyakudi, replied, “I shall
play well even if your Guru does not teach me a couple of hours prior to
concert. Let him relax; I shall directly sit for the concertâ€. Knowing about
this kind of reply, Ariyakudi was taken aback, and did not attempt to greet the
boy prior to concert.
Balamurali became more
serious and played for the concert with moody countenance, even sitting in a
direction away from Ariyakudi the vocalist of the day. The concert was going on
without usual gestures across the artists. After a while Ariyakudi completed
his Kambhoji alapana and it was the turn of Balamurali to play the ragam on
violin. With whatever mood he was in, he managed to play in a manner that
Ariyakudi acknowledged saying
‘shabhaash’. Balumurali was thoroughly touched by the appreciation; he placed
the violin aside and touched the feet of Ariyakudi the doyen, with great
obedience. All the anger got washed away with the flow of love; then followed
the real joyous music.  Â
