One Musical Evening

I am a follower of Indian Classical Music, both Hindustani and Karnataki (Carnatic). I like to attend music concerts whenever I get time. Two/three months ago I witnessed a great concert by the renowned Hindustani classical singer Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. She is from Jaipur Atroli Gharana. This was an evening concert in hostel-3 mess arranged by SPIC-MACAY. Some introduction to SPIC-MACAY is in order before I narrate my experiece about the concert. SPIC-MACAY is an abbreviation for Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture amongst Youth. Spic-MACAY has a number of celebrated artists who perform all over India for the cause, clear in the name of the society. The concert that I am referring to was one organized by SPIC-MACAY. For further information on SPIC-MACAY, you may visit their webpage.

Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande started the concert with a raga called Rasikpriya. This raga is very similar to Kalavati raga except for rishabh in avarohana. She sang the raga for about 30 minutes. Her singing was so effortless that many must have felt that singing is very easy. A similar experience we get when Sacin Tendulakar is batting. He makes batting look so easy. Her aalap and boltana were especially superb. After this performance there was a break for an interactive session which is a very important aspect of any SPIC-MACAY concert. In this session audience get a rare opportunity to interact with the performers. Someone in the audience asked a right question about the lyrics of the songs that are sung by Hindustani classical singers. Many times the lyrics are not understood. To this query, her response was that the lyrics are not very important in Hindustani classical music. In the initial stages of the raga expansion in the concert, lyrics play a role in setting certain mood. However after some time in the raga expansion, one is free to give his/her own interpretation in the mood built and draw their own pictures. This is the power of Hindustani classical music. This way everyone is able to draw his/her own picture in their mind. To illustrate this point she sang raga Shree for 3 minutes. All of us closed our eyes and drew pictures in our minds. Guess what, every one had a picture in their mind and many explained it in the discussion that followed.

One thing I learnt that day: for all these great musicians, the language of communication is music. That is why they are so great. I could feel that the singer was able to communicate with the tabalji and peti vadak with the tanas and boltanas she was singing. All of them were enjoying that musical conversation. Next time when you attend any musical concert, you may understand the musical language and then you can proudly claim that you understand Indian Classical Music.