To connect, is to bring together!
A connection is established when two things are linked or associated together!
But what if all these connections are again connected?
That is what I meant by connecting connections!
So here I am writing about a beautiful experience we had yesterday, that is on 25th of August 2020, of course virtually (maybe secretly thanking the pandemic situation in mind.)
The concept was of Kedar Naphade dada who is a senior disciple of Pt.Tulsidas Borkar guruji and is currently located in New Jersey. The idea was to take a week, schedule 4 sessions of two hours each, per day and include people or students all over the world in their preferable time slots, grouping them in 4 per session.
Each session was very well articulated, the structure being -
Everyone joining over video call, firstly discussing about what is to be practiced and then taking a specific taan/alaapi/alankar/palta and practising it for 10 minutes by muting themselves. Then after 10 minutes each one is to demonstrate one by one how they practiced, the fingering used etc.
Again taking a goal and proceeding for next 10 minutes..this was the basic structure.
Kedar dada fondly called it
"Harmonium Hangout: Wicked Workout Week"
Or the
"सुर-मय सह-संवादिनी-साधना सप्ताह शिबिर"
I was a little intimidated being a novice amidst all these "दादा लोक" (as I love to call all of them). But Kedar dada saw to it that I joined..and I can't thank him enough!
So coming back to the title of this write-up..what were the connecting connections?
Firstly all the people participating were based in
New Jersey, Boston, Toronto, Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Bangalore, Koteshwar (Karnataka) and Raigad (Maharashtra)!
We connected geographically!
Then we come to the participants, right from me (who must be the junior most) to Sudhir dada, Kedar dada or Ravindra ji who have decades of experience in the field and vast knowledge which I need not mention, all were at the same level trying to practice a particular taan/palta..
Some were direct students of Borkar Guruji, some were students of Kedar dada, Sudhir dada and Siddhesh dada..but did it make any difference?
Not at all!
Here we connected generations!
Did everyone have the same mother tongue?
No. Right from Marathi to Kannada to English, we all managed to converse well having bits of hindi as well!
Here we connected emotions inspite of the Language differences!
Yesterday's session was based on Jod Raagas which is a connection of two Raagas!
As Sudhir dada enlightened us newbies जो राग जोडी से चलते है वो जोड राग!
Here we connected Raags!
Borkar guruji was well recognized for his humor!
कोटी करावी ती गुरुजींनीच!
It seems all his students have taken the quality of Guruji and Ravindra ji added to it! What a session full of Puns we had, Hillarious!
Here we bridged Humor!
After every 10 minutes and individual demonstrations a lot of discussion took place about chalan of a Raag, specifically Jod raag, the fingering techniques etc.
Here we connected thoughts!
And last, and the best!
We connected gharanas!
Were they all disciples of Borkar Guruji?
No..almost all were of Guruji's tradition, but Ravindra Katotiji who is a very senior Harmonium Player and is a senior disciple of the great Rambhau Bijapureji.
In Hindustani Classical Music the 'घराणेशाही' is always highlighted as the negative part of classical music. Right from the iconic play "कट्यार काळजात घुसली" to the very recent web series named Bandish Bandits, none is an exception.
But I can proudly say that this
"Harmonium Hangout: Wicked Workout Week" or the "सुर-मय सह-संवादिनी-साधना सप्ताह शिबिर" is an exception.
Here we didn't restrict people from participating on any basis, right from their guru gharana to their age or their experience.
Infact in yesterday's session Kedar dada specially asked Ravindra ji to demonstrate a raag composed by him named AtalMalhar!
And also discussed about Bijapureji's left hand technique. (followed by Puns of feeling of being "Left-out" etc!)
So getting to the point, connecting each others music, and taking the good from every style is what we, the younger generation is learning from our elder gurubandhus..
संस्कार संस्कार म्हणतात ते याहून वेगळे काय असतात?!
गुरुजींची शिकवण, या सगळ्या ज्येष्ठ गुरुबंधूंची अपार मेहेनत आणि आमच्या सागळ्यांप्रति आणि संगीताप्रति असलेल्या प्रेमाने मन भरुन गेलंय!
बरेच दिवस अनेक गोष्टींमुळे बॅटरी लो झालेली, ती काल फुल्ल चार्ज झाल्यासारखं वाटतंय! आजच्या सेशन मधे पॉवर बँक सुद्धा चार्ज करुन घेईन म्हणते!
आणि तूर्तास इथेच थांबते!
©कांचन लेले
