BEING PANDITA MALINITAI

{for English version: http://www.indrayanikaathi.com/2013/07/importance-of-being-malinitai.html}

वाय गोपाळकृष्ण "इंद्रायणीकाठी" ह्या ब्लॉग चे प्रेरक … मूळतः हा ब्लॉग शास्त्रीय संगीता बद्धल सौ (शास्त्रीय गायिका ) आणि लेखक (dabbler ) ह्यांच्या संवादां   बद्धल असे- इंग्रजीत … ही संभाषणे गुवाहाटी शिलॉंग Highway NH ४० वर शनिवारी होत , आमची राजधानी weekend करिता मेघालय ला हलवतांना …. आईंच्या आग्रहा वरून त्यात मराठी ची भर पडली, आणि हिरव्या चाफ्या च्या शोधांत आम्ही निघालो! मुद्दा  असा, कि संगीताच्या मार्गा वरून भटक्ल्यास गोपाळ हिरमुसतात, म्हणून आज मराठी blog वर तेच प्रयोग करून पहिला, and transplanted the sapling to the English blog, he, he, he  …!

असो! नगाम्पु कुकी- आमचे ex-Army वाहन चालक, तैयार, Scorpio चा AUX stereo-pin ला connect करून ! नेहमी च्या सवयी प्रमाणे पहिले गाणे ''छा गये बादल नील गगन पर ''- निझामुद्दीन खान च्या वेड  लावणाऱ्या तबल्या करता, तद्नंतर मालिनी ताईंचा वेड लावणारा   चारुकेशी -ना वक्त कि सीमा, ना समय का बंधन …. आणि शेवटी- नया-बंगला सोडता-क्षणी- main course-ताईंचा मारवा/मालकौंस/सोहनी… Lummawrie, Laitumkrah ला मध्यरात्री घरी पोहोचत पर्यंत ताई नेमकं शेवट ची तिहाई घेतांत -she is so systematic , you know -गणितज्ञ आहेत त्या …! आणि ज्या प्रमाणे आम्हां सर्वांना NH  ४० ची वळणोन-वळणे ठावुक आहेत, त्याच प्रमाणे त्या जादुई रचनांचे काने -कोपरे-लागे-बांधे सुध्धा … कारण जर आम्ही ह्या रस्त्या वर 'x' दा फिरकलो आहोत, तर (k+x) वेळा बंदिशांचे श्रवण केलेले …व्हेयर  'k' इज अ पॉझिटिव इंटिग्रल कॉन्स्टंट आणि 'x',  अ व्हैरिएबल   … 

आजचे मुद्दे थोडक्यात असे…

(i) Youtube वर ताईंची भेट कृपया ऐकावी … artiste चे संगतकारांशी संबंध … कसे प्रेमाचे असावेत …

मालकौंस ऐकतांना आज आम्ही पेटी आणि तबल्या वर ध्यान केंद्रित करतो .…. बहुदा पं. थत्ते आणि पं. कामत असावेत … काय पण सुरेख ती पेटी …

UNBELIEVABLE FEATHER TOUCH

संतांनी सांगितले, आणि आपण सर्वांनी हे अनुभविले … जगात दोनच prime movers आहेत नाहीकां …? प्रेम आणि भीति … Love -Fear. . ? Recital मध्ये you can promote an unhealthy competitiveness…  that is antagonism …Fear …  the sort डांबरट Hairy Harry and Her Highness do  …  or it  could be goodwill amongst all men (which includes women, he, he …)

आमच्या सौं च्या मतां-प्रमाणे ताईंच्या ह्या मालकौंसात संगतकारांने सुद्धा अत्योच्च असे शिखर गाठले . Motivated संगतकार  संपूर्ण अनुभवाला एका अनोख्या पातळी वर नेवू शकतात… थत्ते किंवा वळवलकरां सारखे संगतकार … ते गुणवत्ते चे एक safety net- अगदी सर्कशी सारखे … निर्मीत करतात, ज्याच्या खाली main कलाकार घसरू शकत नाही … शेवटी vocal मध्ये team -work असणे सुखाचेच नाही का? मोठ मोठे कलाकार आपण notice करतो … पंडित भीमसेन असो वा  मालिनीताई … आपल्या तल्लीनतेत संगतकारानशीच स्मितहास्य करतात, audience शी नव्हे … ताईंच्या मालकौंसात तर ताईंने चक्कं दोघा संगतकारांना आपसात सवाल जवाब करण्याची संधी हि दिलेली !

ह्या प्रेमळ माहौल मुळेच ताईंचे recital is different ….ताई is different … आप सौ साल और  गायें…. ! 

(ii) पंडित भीमसेन हे एकदम मौलिक व्यक्तित्व …. original… left no photo-copies behind … only one or two smudgy carbon-copies … प्रश्ण असा कि का बऱ्याचदा सबंध बंदिशी-च्या-बंदिशी त्यांने एखाद्या अभंगा भोवती विणल्या?  उदा. अणुरेणिया थोकडा ( पुन्हा मालकौंस ) चे संपूर्ण version , जे त्यांने UK मध्ये माता निर्मला देवी (हरीश साळवे ह्यांच्या सख्या आत्याबाई) ह्यांच्या उपस्थितीत म्हंटले …किंवा  तीर्थ विठ्ठलं क्षेत्र विठ्ठलं… (अहीर भैरव- १९७५ चे सवाई गंधर्व, पुणे)

पंडितजी रसिकराज, आणि एका प्रस्तुतीत वेगवेगळे घटक अर्थात elements महत्वाचे असतात- राग प्रकृति, काळ-वेळ, शब्द, भाव, felicity, style, इ. -हे त्यांना प्रकर्षाने  जाणवत …. असे आम्ही १२ वर्ष पूर्वी इंदूर येथे green-room मध्ये झालेल्या चर्चेत त्यांच्या तोंडून ऐकले. त्यामुळे त्यांने सास-ननदिया-सौतन-पनघट च्या रटाळ रंगांच्या शिवाय अनेकोनेक इंद्रधनुषी असे रंग प्रचुर मात्रेत वापरले- सास-ननद की नसीहात से बगावत म्हणायची!…मागे असेच काही पंडित जसराज अमीर खुसरो च्या वारसा पलिकडे जायला हवे, असं बोलले होते … जसराज ही शब्दयुति चे master आहेतंच … 

On the lighter side,… freakonomic करण असे, chemically induced तंद्रीत सहजच कलाकार रस्ता विसरेल, तेंह्वा भरपूर direction signboards हवेत, आणि ते सहज प्रदान करंत अभंगांचे शब्द आणि भाव…! no disrespect meant हं! 

मागे मी पंडितजींच्या हाव-भावांवर इंग्रजी ब्लॉग मध्ये काही लिहिले, ते असे… Secret Weapons of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi …

Importance of Being Malinitai

One one important concept we wish to explore is the interplay of the two polarities of Indian Classical -one, Scholarship about Raga, and two, the engagement of the auditory and intellectual faculties of the Classical Music connoisseur...

An illustration of the supposed dichotomy between theory and sensory felicity was presented thus, in the post ''Be a Good Listener", 

"....(Pt.) Ratanjankar used to interview leading artistes as part of his mission, documentation of Indian Classical, and sportingly courted the wrath of some of the unpredictable geniuses. Ustad Abdual Karim Khan roundly castigated Panditji thus: tu bara swaranche khoke wajawnara, tu mala kaay wicharto tumhi gujri todi kashi gaata', or something like that. That's the level of resistance to documentation of any kind in our society..." [1]

Attention is again drawn to the following passage in the post 'Fourth Commandment Zindabad' where the great musical thinker Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan alludes to a favourite she-r:

मख्तबे इश्क़ और मख्तबे मौसीकी का ये देखा दस्तूर,
उसे ज़िन्दगी भर छुट्टी न मिली, जिसका सबक याद हुआ……   

“This, we learn, is the custom of the School of Romantic Love, and the School of Music- he who learnt his lesson well never got a Day Off!" 'Study' is but 'Leisure' to the one who really 'ínternalised' the lesson... We suppose this aspect of universal Musical Experience would bear  introspection and will receive attention in some of the coming posts, inshaallah.

So- what has all this to do with the title we give to today's entry..."Importance of Being Malinitai"?- the World, if Missus, and YT's intuition, are to be believed.

Listen to her Charukeshi:

At 2.03, 2.06, 2.08, 2.10 and 2.13, for instance, and at numerous other 'places' ('जागा' in Marathi) you'll find 'lehak' discontinuities, which, given the auditory equivalent of 'persistence of  vision' applicable to Cinema, seek, possibly involuntarily, to create a three-dimensional structure of the Raga, as against a linear or two-dimensional one. It can also be likened to the trapeze act where the artiste abandons one swing and clutches the other...no safety net..Once we work out the notational structure in association with Missus and Senior, we'll be able to assert with greater authority, our shared belief, that Malinitai is THE Thinker's Musician, or the Musician's Musician,blessed at the same time, with consummate tonal felicity..

To elaborate the idea of a three dimensional presentation of say Charukeshi (is only an illustration, not from the clip), just see the figure to the left, which is, let's assume, Malinitai's recital. Two taans commence in your mind from the black dot, which is सा. The actual taan sung is the unbroken line, say SA RE GA MA PA MA GA RE. By means of an illusion, say a sort of ventriloquism, the unsung part of the previous taan say SA RE GA MA simultaneously appears to fall on your ear in the shape of the dotted line, actually beginning from रे  but seemingly interpolating to सा,  thereby creating the illusion of a three dimensional structure of the recital. Mince that's our hypothesis हं,..

This phenomenon, which we call a three dimensional structure, was noted in the context of  Hindustani vocal by the British musicologist Willard, who in 1834 AD, wrote the very second book in English on Indian Classical. He writes:

"When these flights are more lengthened than a single appoggiatura (*) , the ad libitum movement runs through the full time of a whole measure, or a certain number of measures, reckoning from the instant of its adoption to that when it is dropped, taking up the measure of the rhythm at the same foot where it was dropped, or if these passages require more or less time than the complement of the measure requires, allowance is made for it in re-joining the melody."

(*) something like padding up a note.

By the way some other aspects of Tai's prowess have already been talked about by us in previous posts...as we wrote on another occasion, Malinitai was a Mathematics teacher in the first place (as was the writer himself).

[1] translated: you, who play that 12-note idiot-box, have the temerity of asking ME how I sing Gujri Todi...? 

NARAWARA KRUSHNA SAMAAN

Subject of blog today is the redoubtable MJL. We dare not unravel that name in such a thing as a blog, boss!

Way back in the early 1880s we were put in charge of a Delhi branch of the Little Chabiwala Bank. The branch was ‘on the edge of a deserted block in a remote part of the city’, as our Security Officer from Head Office had put it succinctly in his first report. Ergo there were few opportunities for dhanda- business, and our predecessors relied exclusively on funds cadged from remote parts of the city, be it Nehru Place or Connaught Place or Outer Space. In that Satyuga of banking, the interest rates were all RBI controlled, the services were atrocious uniformly, and the behavior of the entire frontline staff, uniformly obnoxious. Mince, the only way one could ‘achieve’ ones deposits budget was the use of one’s connections, which could be that of the Gandhian variety. MJL was not ‘that’ sort, of course, it’s a sin even to think of that, maaan!

MJL was the Finance Head of a very large Corporation, which liberally doled out funds to their various bankers, they haddd to keep them in sommme bank or the other. Our branch had some deposits which matured as soon as we took over, and were withdrawn. But we were confident of achieving our budget on the back of MJL’s Corporation or Cooperation, for, MJL happened to be a Maharashtrian , moreover from our kaashhte. So… we ventured forth to test the Fevicol in our bond, and one afternoon fumbled into his August Chamber, to chat up our man and discover common relatives. Normally the ghati-to-ghati degree of separation turns out to be Zero. And the end of our exploration is to meet one of our relatives, he, he, he…! With apologies to nobody, he, he, he…!

Things turned out to be a bit more complicated. MJL was, and that was the first time we set our eyes on him, a short bald dour gentleman with a wiry muscular body and with due respect, a bulldog like countenance. Charity begins at home, and charity for a Marathi is NO, and therefore we heard that two letter heartbreak word, almost before we could say ‘what about your funds, Sir?’ Bahhh.. given the reputation of Marathis, we should have expected that nooo….? They repel each other like same-polarity-ends of two magnets.

 Bade be abroo ho kar tere kooche se hum nikale….(first line of couplet is ‘nikalna KHuld se aadam ka sunte aayaiN haiN lekin..’)

But being the never say die type, and finding no option, we continued to woo and court MJL, and at the end of the second expedition, knocked, on Diwali eve, the door of his lavish abode in Asiad Village, to be ushered into the living room by his un-Marathi-like and extremely courteous wife. Happy Diwali to you and your family. With our better half in tow for effect, hands clutching a huge dry fruit box, and our Corporate compliments. “he ajun yaaychehet…, basa..” Madam said, MJ was not yet home, naturally, we should have expected him to be a workaholic. As we continued to discover our common Roots, inn stormed MJ…whew…and blew his top! “Who the h_ _ _ gave you my address, I’ll sack that madrassi PS…who who who allowed you to come here..?” said he. Verrrry Marathi… Puneri tadka…but to our relief, he was (still is) blessed with a grrreat wife, I sayyyy… “Youuu…, tumheee mhanje agadich na…..go to your room and change”…and turning her head to us told how much she detttesssted his manners, not to worry please.

MJ is all courtesy when he changes into informal attire. Bon homie returns… like sparrows returning, reassured, to the shelter of the dense tree they has so fluttered away from in panic, a while ago. Conversation warms upp, Missus enthralling us with her gharana bandish “kalaa naaahi aaaaye“ in Maru Bihag and that does the trick. Say it with Maru Bihag.

Arrre….Deposits I never place with a Marathi, but what’s a deposit? It’ll go away in 30-60-90-180-365 days, I’ll give you things you’ll cherish till your last day…something priceless… And he trots into his room, dipping into his treasure-trove, comes out brandishing or better still, cavorting with, an audio cassette. Vintage Malini Rajurkar, live, recorded by me stealthily at a private concert. No qualms compunctions there. Friend, I have got a hundred such recordings which don’t exist anywhere but in imagination, or in my collection, which shall be issued to you one by one, when you surrender the one you took last, you can copy them and return them, and God save you if something happens to wonnnnne cassette. Two at a time… please pleaded Madam, how many times do you want him to come and go, come and go in suchhh a big stupppuid city…

Duly appeased, we rode home on our old warhorse, the grey Vijay Super and copied the cassettes before MJ kaka changed his mind. Much of that collection is there in our custody, now on CDs.

Malinitai:

Collection is priceless certainly, particularly Malinitai. In which she jokes and talks about the courtesy one must extend to the accompanists, ...very articulate for a right-brainer. We almost worship her, sharing as she does, a Gharana with Missus….Gwalior. Ya.. that’s where Miyan Taansen happened. Haddu and Hassu Khan. Ramaashray Jha. Gwalior Sangeet Sammelan…Self effacing, she says she is simply a house wife dabbling in music, with no talent for music like…methinks she alludes to K somebody who is rude to accompanists… ! With dead pan seriousness she says! 

The links here will lead you into that magical world…

 (Narawara)

Not to forget the greatest Charukeshi ever:

With limited blinkered knowledge, with the due consent of Missus, we can averrr that so far Gwalior Gharana is concerned, there is no one like her today, including Dr. Sahiba…Who else can execute a crisp taan consisting well-demarcated-ly, only rishabh and gandhar?

House wife, naa tya swatahla mhanalya naahi kaaa? Her khayal is like a well kempt homestead, mince aggadi vyawastit…..no pasaara.. haaaaan, even pasaara awarlela, he, he, he. Neatly kept household. Few can match that flawless sur. Manik Verma…yes!

Pt. Bhimsen Joshi’s renderings we can say, so far our limited knowledge goes, are like dark halcyon mysteries, Panditji pulling out a miraculous taan, gesturing as if picking an invisible anu-renu out of vacuum…. he, he, he…In the case of Mailinitai, they are pre-crafted to perfection, and Kumarji-like,… not exactly staccato…, but not long-winded…apparently Tai has had some respiratory problems in the past ? Every style has its own place and significance….times also change…aur tappa to waisa koi ga hi nahi sakta..

Tempora… MorAy…ssss:

We are always perplexed with eminent Marathi light-singers endlessly presenting Lata, Asha, Dinanath songs, along the entire time continuum starting the first rendition, the birth of the song. Singers have become bold enough to sing songs immortalized by Latadidi or Ashaji. Light music is tough, Missus always says. Classical is course material. But then there are artistes who make the age-old song sound brand new. How the basics of compositions get transformed with times! Some rendering and albums are off IPR, aren’t they? We keep onnn listening to some audacious renderings. Bela Shende throws even Missus off-guard. Listen to Lataji and Belaji sing Gadima's  “Dhund Madhumati…” from Kichak Vadh.. The only difference is that Latadidi’s rendition drips honey. In Beladidi’s favour we can say ..tempora…mores…who’ll accept that old point of view…?Times are less sentimental today..aren’t they? 

To us Belaji looks more comely in her plain-Jane “Dhund Madhumati…” video avatar than in her ‘makeover’, but now it is too late, we suppose, too bad!

Post script:

Here goes the immortal ghazal from Mirza Ghalib sahib, tolerably translated by some nice lady Meenakshi Madhur, courtesy Rediff.com:

hazaaroN KHwahishaiN aisee ke har KHwahish pe dam nikle

bahut nikle mere armaaN magar fir bhee wo kam nikle

thousand desires and each one worth dying for

many of them were fulfilled yet so many remain unfulfilled

nikalna KHuld se aadam ka sunte aayaiN haiN lekin

bohot be_aabru hokar tere kooche se ham nikle

ousting of Adam from heaven we have heard of, but

the dishonour with which i was ousted from your heaven was worse

mohabbat meiN naheeN hai farq jeene aur marne kaa

unhee ko dekh kar jeete haiN jis kaafir pe dam nikle

in love, living and dying lose their differences
you go, die for the same person who breathes life in to you.
KHuda ke waaste parda na kaabe se uThaa zaalim
kaheeN 'eisa na ho yeh bhee wohee kaafir sanam nikle
For heaven's sake lift not the veil from the 'kaabaa'
lest you may uncover the same infidel whom I (am not supposed to) adore
kahaaN maiKHaane ka darwaaza 'GHalib' aur kahaaN waaiz
par itana jaante haiN kal wo jaata tha ke ham nikle.
the priest out of the door of wine house (they say) thats never possible
but all i know is that yesterday i saw him enter the same door that i departed from!

                                              Closest we can get to revealing him