Kannur: A 44-year-old teacher travels hundreds of kilometres regularly to learn chenda from a youth barely half his age, pursuing a childhood dream he had long set aside. The teacher-turned-student is Lal Thomas, a native of Karthikapuram in Kannur district, while his guru is 20-year-old Abhinav Thottippal, a young chenda artiste.

Lal, who works at Prathyasa UP School in Udayagiri, Kannur, has nurtured a deep passion for the traditional percussion instrument since childhood and has long aspired to master it. He is currently learning under Abhinav, a chenda teacher at Harisree Vadyakalakshetram in Thrissur.

Lal heard about the Vadyakalakshetram from its official web page and decided to learn chenda from the institution immediately after he realised that it was headed by Kelath Sundaran Marar, a 'mela pramani' (the artiste who leads a performance).

After enrolling as Abhinav's student, Lal travelled to Thrissur from Kannur every weekend and stayed at a lodge to take the chenda lessons. 

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The classes, which have been taking place over the last six months, will be over soon. After putting in hard work learning the chenda, Lal will perform his 'arangettam' (debut) at Thottippal Bhagavathy Temple at 6.30 pm on Tuesday, January 6.

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