Some Layam

Today my mridanga teacher asked a simple question. Where should the sol
7 (1) Tha. Kita Thakita thom.
7(1) Tha. Kita Thakita thom.
7 Tha. Kita Thakita thom
start in chaturashra madhyama adhi tala. By this point, I should have known it, but instead, I just gave nondescript answers like “1” and “7.” I completely missed the point. I was supposed to say where in the talam it was in mathirais.
I said that “The sol starts after the 7 mathirai of the utharangam.” That was completely wrong. My teacher said it was akin to saying “A mridanga is made of the same things that go into tables and chairs after the mridanga is made.”
Then he talked about how we should just subtract 23 [(7+1)x2+7] from 32, the number of mathirais in the tala. I said it was 9 aksharams, which was completely incorrect. My teacher told me that I should NEVER get confused between the two. He said it was nine aksharams after the samam. Then he asked where the the sol started. After many more incorrect answers, I said that you had to push 1 mathirai after the 3rd laghu. We did some more examples, like-
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
Since it was the same as
8
8
8
It took 6 aksharams at madhyama kalam (4 mathirais/aksharam). My teacher asked where the sol started. I correctly stated that it started at the 3rd laghu.
The next example was
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6 Tharikitathaka
I started saying all sorts of things, like “between …” and “… after samam.” Finally, I understood and said that you pushed 2 mathirais after the 3rd laghu and then said the sol.
Another example was
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5 Thadhinginathom
This time, I correctly said it started after pushing 3 mathirais after the third laghu.
Then we got back to the original question. Both me and the other student said that you pushed 1 mathirai. We then said all the examples.
We did some last few examples. The first one was
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5 Thadhinginathom
I said we push 3 after the samam and I was correct.
The next example was
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6 Tharikitathaka
I said 6 mathirais before samam, which was correct, but my teacher told me that when you have to do math like this in a fraction of a second, it has to be after something, not before. Then I said 2 after the first aksharam in the last dhrutham. We then said it.
The last example was challenging. It was
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
7(1) Tha. Kita Thakita thom.
7 Tha. Kita Thakita thom
The class ended at that point and we have to say that next class as a challenge. It was a very productive class.