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.

the posts on this blog

for some reason some of the entries on the blogs appear in Hindi. I have not yet figured how why or how it happened. But I hope for those of you who are interested in what I occasionally share here, this is not a big problem. If it is please let me know, I will try to work things out a little better.
thanks and regards

days when life is too much to bear

On days when life gets too much to bear
I just want to look within, without and withdraw
And then the din gets so much that the din becomes an ocean
A time when only a single word of wisdom is needed to quell the surge
The word doesn't come, the inspiration does not dawn

But the guru is never faraway
And for today I am picking up something to inspire myself,
Let's see what Kabir says for today-
सुमिरन से सुख होत है, सुमिरन से दुःख जाय
कह कबीर सुमिरन किये, साईं माहि समाए

perhaps I should just be with this thought for today-
(oh, this blog entry is not meant to be a poem, though the format is poetic)

media report sent from Bhubaneshwar

A friend from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa sent me this via the internet...I thought I could share it here. In any case the program that I sang in I had already posted the following picture from that evening. If you notice carefully, the sari I am wearing in the newspaper photo and the one in the following blog entry is the same:). That means they were taken on the same day, but by two different people.

its ten years and more....

My journey in Kabir started over ten years ago- when I was a 27 year old...oh well! that makes its at least 11 actually. So finally, the road now brings me to that point where I am singing only Kabir in this program, as a little contribution towards peace, democracy.
At the start of the program someone commented, "why should artists be a part of a democratic struggle and lend their support to anything social?" I was surprised with the ignorance of the question. People do not realise perhaps that the mind of a person is a reflection of the predominant consciousness of the times. Those people who are at the helm of the artistic expression are not always the ones who are expressing anything different from the dominant themes.
In every time in society there are people who oppose the norms that prevail in those times. Kabir opposed a lot of things in the times he lived in- including Hindu-Muslim divide over religion, forms of worship, ignorance, patriarchy, greed, casteism and so much more. In his spirit I find my own spirit reflected. That is why I say that I live Kabir, not just sing. In so many of his verses my own soul finds an expression.
This photo was taken in a program in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa- the first where I sang only Kabir, no other poets. The new things I sang here included this doha-
मन मैला तन उजला बगुला कपटी अंग
तासों तो कौवा भला तन मन एक ही ढंग
this was sung as a prelude to my very favourite bhajan
मन न रंगाये रंगाये जोगी कपडा
आसन मारी मंदिर में बैठे, ब्रह्म छाडी पूजन  लागे पथरा*
मथवा मुंडाए जोगी कपडा रंगों ले, दाढ़ी बढाए जोगी होई गैले बकरा
मन ना रंगाये...

( the irony of this is that while Kabir himself laughs at those who grows their beards and he says they become like male-goats...he himself has been innumerably shown with a beard. I was careful of this thought when I designed my own album cover of Kahe Kabir, my kabir album and my Kabir did not have a beard, the way I thought he would have been himself:))
( I do not remember if this is already an entry in my blog)
जंगल जाए जोगी धुनिया रमों ले, काम जराए जोगी होई गैले हिज्र
मन ना रंगाये ...
(Kabir says by escaping into the forest and controlling Kama- lust, the god-fearing hermit thinks he can please god; if only he soaked his soul, not just his mere garment)

This bhajan has an interesting story behind it. This was recommended to me by a colleague of my father from Zakir Hussain College, who said to papa that maybe I should be singing this particular bhajan. Some of them even sent me a rudimentary tune. So I took the suggestion, without communicating with anyone of them myself, I composed the bhajan, from the lyrics they sent to me. Anyways, by the end of it, it became a very good, strong voice of protest from Kabir and me- to poke fun at all the sham that goes on in the name of GOD all over the world.

* that brings to mind another Kabir doha
पत्थर पूजें हरी मिले, तो मैं पूजूं पहाड़
तासों तो चक्की भली, पीस खाए संसार
my simple translation: In this doha Kabir is laughing at those who worship god in the form of idols and says that "if by worshipping a piece of stone I can get GOD then I would be willing to worship a mountain. Then illustrating the significance of the stone, he says it is better that the stone have a better utility, like a grindstone- at least it serves better by letting people grind their flour and fill their hunger." I have never yet sung this doha but I do have a tune in mind to sing it when there is a scope.
This program, from which I have put the foto here, was on 9th October 2010.

guru...an unending song...guru se lagan kathin hai bhai

there is so much that Kabir has left behind on the subject of the 'guru' and also at least some of the songs I have sung myself that it is not possible to make different posts out of them, so I will write most of them down here itself. Nature to me seems like the first guru- especially flowers when they bloom for a short while, enliven the soul and die...

koi sunta hai

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/2833


This is a link for the movie made by Shabnam Virmani, which talks about the life of Pt.Kumar Gandharva. Now this documentary is available for viewing on the internet itself. Someone just sent me a link. I thought I could share it here. I appear in a very brief part here, singing one of my Kabir pad, which brought a number of people to me asking me about the lyrics of the song, till I finally decided to make a blog out of all the Kabir work that I have done and will continue to do. The very first entry of my blog contains the lyrics of that song, that I have sung in this film- Jaag Piyaari. To go to it, you will have to go to the 'older posts' section which appears at the right hand bottom of the blogposts, till you reach the last page of the blog. I hope to soon someday, put the song here itself for you to hear. I do not have the means to execute that desire of mine, but I am sure it will work out soon someday.