Born in a reputed musical family on 23rd August 1963, I started learning flute at the age of five from my gurus Padmasree Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt Sikkil Neela (Mother) and Smt. Sikkil Kunjumani (Aunt). Learning was very informal. I was gifted a small flute in Nagercoil (think it was pitch ‘7’ to suit my little fingers) . They very casually taught me how to create sound, special blowing exercises and sarali varisais in ragam ‘Harikamboji’. Literally speaking, the basic lessons in sarali varisai took months for me to play on the flute. So slow and non-receptive I was to music. However my mother and aunt used to coax and cajole me to play on the flute.