I am watching Ganga. She is her own adjective. I am awed at times by her force and strength, soothed by her gurgling and crooning at other, filled now with her tranquillity, now mesmerised by her turbulence, and feeling blessed by her divine grace. For she is the Bhagirathi and Alakhnanda, coming straight from Shiva's locks. Emerging from majestic
heights, she plays and dances whimsically with those who dare to engage with her at that altitude. She then meanders and surges, gushes and cascades, gurgles and swirls through people's lives, making stories and songs, creating life and love. She can flow calm stretches, a balm to tired travellers, or thrash rapids, unpredictable and challenging to adventurers, or boil whirlpools and terrorise the weak hearted. She can be aggressive, gentle, can have humility and humour, she can be serious and have fun. Other lives and stories cant help but join her. Yamuna, and Gomti and Kosi and Ghaghara unite with her, to flow inexorably towards their destiny. Being her, she cannot but approach her freedom grandly. She stretches herself out and forms the largest green delta before draining into the Bay of Bengal. And there then, there is the peace and stillness of wisdom and harmony. I was seeped into her beauty as I watched Ganga.
Imagine my surprise, when I am watching this scene behind closed eyelids, that outside, Shri. Warren Senders speaks of his Guruji singing once like the waves crashing at the ocean. For the visual of Ganga, the sensations and feelings of being near this mighty river and her entire journey, all at once, was consistent throughout the performance and rendition of Shri. Warren Senders. I am no technical expert of a Hindustani vocal concert. All I know technically is that it started out with an Alaap (Is this right?) of Raag MaruBehag and ended with a Raag Bhairavi Thumri. However, my experience was that of being filled with the sense and wonder of the Ganga. He was accompanied by two musicians, Shri. Chandrajeet on the Tabla and Shri. Anantaraman on the Violin, who waltzed right along with all his twirls and turns, and executed their own beautiful ones too. They were hosted by and performing at a friend's place. (Radhika Rammohan and Uday Shankar, many thanks to you)
(I was also delighted to later find a couple of light Hindi songs with the evening Raga, MaruBehag - Tum Tho Pyar Ho (this is confirmed by Google!) I feel that Yeh Jo Desh Hai Tera is also the same Raga but am not sure.)
Just as the Ganga has many hues and colours, so does our evening's grand seigneur. He also works actively to increase awareness of the very real danger of global warming and climate change, and suggests and promotes ways to reduce carbon footprints at individual levels. In his brief talk with the audience, he seamlessly drew connections from his music and the relevance of sustaining and continuing the tradition of the music to taking action on a day-to-day basis to handle the environmental crisis. Brilliance carried ever so lightly - one of the funny moments was when at the beginning of the concert, he announced that the aircraft is going to take off and all electronic devices have to be put in flight mode!
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| While crossing the Ganga in a motorboat, Calcutta |
Imagine my surprise, when I am watching this scene behind closed eyelids, that outside, Shri. Warren Senders speaks of his Guruji singing once like the waves crashing at the ocean. For the visual of Ganga, the sensations and feelings of being near this mighty river and her entire journey, all at once, was consistent throughout the performance and rendition of Shri. Warren Senders. I am no technical expert of a Hindustani vocal concert. All I know technically is that it started out with an Alaap (Is this right?) of Raag MaruBehag and ended with a Raag Bhairavi Thumri. However, my experience was that of being filled with the sense and wonder of the Ganga. He was accompanied by two musicians, Shri. Chandrajeet on the Tabla and Shri. Anantaraman on the Violin, who waltzed right along with all his twirls and turns, and executed their own beautiful ones too. They were hosted by and performing at a friend's place. (Radhika Rammohan and Uday Shankar, many thanks to you)
(I was also delighted to later find a couple of light Hindi songs with the evening Raga, MaruBehag - Tum Tho Pyar Ho (this is confirmed by Google!) I feel that Yeh Jo Desh Hai Tera is also the same Raga but am not sure.)
Just as the Ganga has many hues and colours, so does our evening's grand seigneur. He also works actively to increase awareness of the very real danger of global warming and climate change, and suggests and promotes ways to reduce carbon footprints at individual levels. In his brief talk with the audience, he seamlessly drew connections from his music and the relevance of sustaining and continuing the tradition of the music to taking action on a day-to-day basis to handle the environmental crisis. Brilliance carried ever so lightly - one of the funny moments was when at the beginning of the concert, he announced that the aircraft is going to take off and all electronic devices have to be put in flight mode!
Wow! the words just flow like the gentle waves of Ganga and at times, take a mischievous peep and I could hear the gurgle, tumble, roar and the tinkling laughter of Ganga Maiya.
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