11/30/2011

November 2011

This November proved to be an active month- कबीर-wise for me. For now what I call as 'active' does not have to do with anything except my own riyaaz, compositions and writing. But this month I also had a little program, in the house of a recently made friend; who happens to be a senior professor in Lady Irwin College of Delhi University. Meeting her had been another accident and an interesting tale too.

Her mother met me a few weeks after I met her and upon hearing that I sang Kabir expressed the desire to hear me sing. Looking at her and the way I usually am with the elderly I said I would come down to her home and sing it! And a few weeks later, her daughter arranged it for her mother's pleasure; to have an evening of Kabir bhajans; in a little gathering that comprised a few of her friends and fewer of mine. Since I was venturing into singing out after a long time I thought at least one or two who really wanted to hear me sing ought to be invited. I invited one professor from the CIE and one from Psychology. The former came and the latter apologized later, but invited me to sing at another place later! (in this picture it is me sitting with aunty- Mrs Bhalla after the singing was over and she hugged me)


 On the left here is Dr Anjali Capila and one of the other guests for the evening Vijay, while the one on right- is Tansen Shriwastava; my tabla artist friend and accompanying artist for the evening.


So on the said evening-13th Nov 2011, I sang Kabir bhajans for the longest till yet- approx two hours and a quarter, to a group of about 12-15 people. Tansen played the tabla with me, Karim provided the humour for the evening, Murad pitched in with his poetry, his mother invited me to sing in another program, Poonam-ji invited me to sing also, something she wanted for some time now...and of course there is an invitation to sing somewhere in the mountains too. Whenever more of those singing programs happen I shall note them down here.

But for this prog I must note here that I sang one bhajan of Smt Veena Saharabuddhe (ghat ghat mein panchhi bolta) taught to me by my guru, Smt Madhuri Dandage, one by Kumar Gandharva- jhini jhini (and even shared the meaning of it) one by Madhup Mudgal -haman hai ishq mastana. The rest about 12-13 were my own compositions. The last one that I sang was aaoonga na jaaoonga -

आऊँगा न जाऊंगा ना मारूंगा न जिऊंगा
गुरु के सबद मैं रमी रमी रहूँगा

11/27/2011

29th Dec 2000- The release of Kahe Kabir Album

these are a few pictures from the day, my Kabir Album was released. It was released by the older of the Singh Bandhus- Sardar Surinder Pal Singh-ji at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi. I have shared here a news item that appeared in the Hindu paper of 29th Dec 2000.
Below, in this picture I am standing with my guru, Smt Madhuri Dandage.
 This third picture is of me singing with the other musicians on the occasion of the release. It is so long back, that memories are really faint for me- but when I look back today...I can only reconfigure it in my mind with the word, "Oh, so this also happened in my life!!"

Satguru mohae bhaavae

From my four CD Kabir album, called Kahe Kabir, this is one bhajan that I am now in a position to share. It was recorded when I was i...