Being in the North East, in the
service of Chabiwala Bank has its own
advantages. Wish our people clamouring for change of posting realised that.
This is the only domain of the country where bank officials can get to know all
CMs and Guv’nors. The biggest boon nacheez
and Missus can count is getting to know personally, some of the top ranking Musicians
of the country, who, naturally, are Maharashtrians, ha, ha, ha.. Where else
could we have sat in the front rows of the diminutive Guwahati auditoria, at a hand-shaking
distance from the artiste, and savoured those swaras and taans as they
emanate from the very well-springs…, finally to stride into the green room with
the Assamese organisers, and startling the artiste with admiration expressed in
chaste Marathi…Only a month back we wrote about a tete-a-tete with Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande-how unassuming she was…आणि त्यांने
घडवून आणलेले षडजाच्या विराट
स्वरूपाचे ते दर्शन…
This time our PR man Shyamal delivered
a plain and limp envelope, which we opened, and jumped in our chair. It was a
commemorative Light Music Recital under the auspices of good old Akashvani, the
main artiste being none else than Padmashree Sau. Padmaja Joglekar! Boyyyy..was
Missus enchanted to see that card
when we returned home as usual at 10 PM…!
As a couple we von ‘Bailiffs had
always been fascinated with that bright, shining persona, who, as common
knowledge goes, is a part of , so to say, Mangeshkar gharana. We’re always intrigued by the low profile she seeks and manages
to maintain at such musical heights- that aloofness certainly has the merit of
restricting brand-dilution.…
Just look at these early Sahyadri videos
of two of today’s top Marathi divas,
and see or yourself the edge Padmajatai displayed,
which she retains, we’ll boldly assert..धुंद मंद ही अशीच .
Missus in particular always tunes in to those music samarohs on Marathi channels, and if she
even spies Padmajatai in the
audience, her day is made! So…, scarcely did we imagine that we’d see the grand
personality ru-ba-ru, hearing her
first hand, possibly inviting the kind and unassuming artiste home for a plate of poha-jalebis of Indori descent..
Fond as they are of music, and
also not meanly gifted, our Assamese friends are unaware of reputations on the
sub-continent. On the Invitation Card, Padmajatai was billed at the end of the programme which was to commence at
7.00 PM. The first two artistes, though very competent, were relatively junior,
and the prospect of having to wait for Padmajatai’s performance till 10.00 was daunting. After she met the
organisers, the artiste’s pre-eminence perhaps dawned on them, and she was
ushered in first. In Assam, the only source of knowledge on artistes is Hindi
filmdom, and therefore they’ll accord recognition to Pta. Arti Ankalikar or
Pta. Kishori Amonkar or Bade Ghulam Ali Khan for that matter. As Padmajatai would enlighten us later, the unfortunate
tendency to treat Bollywood presence as the touch-stone of eminence is
universal. That’s what makes the artistes visible, and perhaps bestows market
value on them…Market-cap, he, he, he…
But this ignorance of our audiences
was what created that huge roller-coaster on the Brahmaputra, just across the
venue, Rabindra Bhavan that evening…Padmajatai
sang her popular numbers that evening, Dive
Laagle, Runu-zunu, and Hasra lajra
shravan aala. The audience reaction had to be seen to be believed थक्कच झाले म्हणायचे
!… There was a huge round of applause at every nook and turn of the songs. You
have, of course, heard them. The crown of course went to Runu-zunu….
A constellation of factors had coalesced
in lucky happenstance, raising the evening to its heights. The occasion perhaps
imbued the accompanists with an astonishing sense of anticipation. The ensemble
had done only 2 rehearsals with the artiste on the previous day, after she
landed in Guwahati after a back breaking flight, but they, in particular the
flautist, accompanied as if they were her regulars. The tabalchi was decent and restrained, notwithstanding his tabla skills and did not attempt a
‘Zakir’. Without being familiar with these songs, which are household tunes in
Maharashtra, he performed the tihais
and paltas faithful to the original, at
the appointed places. The stage vibes were also quite interesting, and were
sort of ‘inverted’. Normally you’ll see the accompanist egging on the artiste,
the way Pt. Walwalkar cheered Pt. Bhimsen…Here it was the other way round. So
great was Padmatai’s relief at the
smooth sailing, that she repeated and repeated her startled ‘’Kya baat hai..?’’ charging up the accompanists
in a virtuous cycle…
Wish one had taken down the names
of the accompanists. The flautist was a Rabha, though. Something to be said for
people employed with the Public Sector- a basic minimum standard of excellence
can always be expected- be it an Air India or a BSNL…
After the recital, the Who’s Who
of the Assam Music world made a beeline for the back-stage, mumbling words Tai
could barely comprehend. Everyone was there, save Bhupenda ! Of course Padmaja did not expect to find a dardi ghati jodpe there, and we
chatted for a while about Missus’s gharana and of course her own. We were
rewarded with her well-known CD " मराठीतील
अनमोल काव्यरचना".
The rest is History. Missus with
some trepidation invited Padmajatai
for breakfast at garibkhana next
morning, and after doing a little arithmetic about travel time and ETD of
Mumbai flight, she graciously agreed!
Ahem…seems we have exhausted the
Missus-imposed word limit of a 1,000 words per post, and the substance of the Communion,
including the critiquing part, remains.
We’ll meet on the other side, and to whet the appetite of that fictional
character, the ‘Reader’ of IK, let’s reveal that the first thing Tai did was squat in our Devghar, intoning “अशक्य ही शक्य
करतील स्वामी”, that is the “ स्वामी
समर्थ तारक मंत्र”(click to hear her @ 1, Trinayan Path).
उपमा:
question was: how does one describe the audience reaction seen on the evening of
23rd July: response appreciated by Padmajatai:
a blind friend receives gift of Vision and surgeons get the bright idea that she be brought
face to face with Niagara Falls for her first deedar-e-qudrat, as her bandages are removed…! What shall be her reaction...when she beholds the Niagara as the first brush with vision...?
SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME:
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| AT GARIBKHANA WITH MISSUS AND PET RHINOCEROS SHIVANI |
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| BREAKFAST AT TRINAYAN: WITH MISSUS AND NACHEEZ |
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