This October

This October

A young woman who is doing research in Kabir and performance in music and sociology came home and we talked on two occasions; several hours of discussions actually. A very bright young woman. Always inspiring to meet such young people for there is many a one who is on a different quest- and you realize that even if your music or your thought touches one more person in the world somewhere it is worth it. Her study is part of her MPhil work at the Jadavpur University, Kolkata. I am still not clear why she chose me among scores of other singers who sing Kabir. But yes, it is me and Neela Bhagwat who she is working on for her present study. Maybe for Phd it would be more senior performers.

Thanks to her for getting Kabir out of my long ago creased folds of the brain- I sat down afresh after long years...and the change that I wanted in my compositions finally started to show. This time I could work on compositions in pure ragas; unlike the manner of the past when I had made musical compositions and they were not necessarily within ragas.

So the new compositions are in three distinct ragas...and i am really thrilled that I have worked in something completely unprecedented for me- Durga, Shuddh Kalyan and Vibhas (with a shuddh dhaivat, not Komal)
I am happy because before this I have never worked in this manner, not that I have not tried, it has not happened for me that I could work in three uncorrelated scales this way.

Oh yes! this October on 2nd - I sang Kabir in the Deer Park Institute, Bir, Himachal Pradesh- on the concluding day of a conference in Education/Shiksha- it was extremely well received. I am grateful for the opportunity - either ways. It was a great conference, with scholars from scores of schools of thought and traditions. In this picture we see a Jain nun giving a talk, while in the audience there are scholars of every hue and shade sitting there. I was fortunate for such an august gathering. IT was the Director of the Krishnamoorty schools, Bangalore who coaxed and egged me on to sing so that he could hear me:) But everyone else did too by the end of it...including the Rev Samdhong Rinpoche.

Okay here are the starting lines of each

पानी में मीन प्यासी मोहे सुन सुन आवत हांसी (Durga)

मन रे तू करी ले साहिब सों प्रीत (Shuddh Kalyan)

जीवन मुक्त सोही मुक्ता हो (Vibhas)

I do want to say this here- that at the conference there were a number of international audiences. And it was so touching to receive mails from at least three of them (2 who did not understand the lyrics of Kabir) that they felt touched by the music. I am utterly grateful to god for their kindness and giving me the hope that my music is worth the effort I  make- for it touches. These two were from Sweden and Australia- two separate individuals actually. The third who acknowledged that in a public email to me is a Buddhist monk.