Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Article in Governance Now

Here's my interview with the celebrated dancer - Pratibha Prahlad, published in Governance Now- 
Here is the link- 

Dancer on cultural scenario and promotion of art and art forms

Interviews with Hindustani Classical Music Maestros

Finally, the book is out - Beyond Music - Conversation with Hindustani classical music maestros .
Soon bringing these interviews on my blog.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

My short story- Just a breath away... has been short listed in Wordweaver Short Story Competition. The link to that is as under:
http://wordweavers.in/short_story_2013_shortlisted_15.html

Read and give your views, friends.
Now waiting for the final results.




Sunday, October 30, 2011

khamoshiyaan bolti hain


Maine adhikansh samay gujara hai
khamosh rah kar,
mein khamosh rahi
bheed main
logo main
kamre main
logo se baat karte hue bhi mein khamosh rahi

khamosh rahi main
par kisne kaha ki khamoshi ka matlab hota hai
kamzor hona,
kamzor padna

nahin dost...
aag hai abhi baaqi
chalne do mujhe
jalne do mujhe

kyonki khamoshiyaan bhi bolti hain!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Interview: Vikram Sampat—a multifaceted author

Vikram Sampat—a multifaceted author

He is a writer, a musician and works in a multinational company. He didn’t take up music as a career ashe feels, “I have seen that when one takes music as a career then there are lots of other factors that start affecting music itself. Whereas with something else to fall back on, I could pursue music as I wanted and not let financial constraints dominate my passion.” Before leaving for Germany on Fellowship, I met him in Delhi for a short time. Here’s excerpt from that informal chat:

Geeta: Your book My Name is Gauhar Jaan has got positive reviews. But what has been readers’ response, any idea?

Vikram: Thank you Geetaji for giving me this opportunity to share my work with you. The response has been very heartening. It is something which I never expected because you know within two months of it launch in April by the Vice President of India, the book sold out its first edition. So now we are having a second edition, and we are also having translations in Bengali and Marathi.

Geeta: Oh, that’s wonderful!

Vikram: (Smilingly) Yes, and it’s heartening to know that life of a classical musician too has a market.

Geeta: The book has been launched in various cities. Is it publisher’s vision or your efforts?

Vikram: Well, it is largely my own doing because I am very passionate about the subject and also wanted to ensure that Gauhar Jaan get a rightful place in the pantheon of Hindustani Classical music...so in almost all the cities some of the best musicians came forward and launched the book. In Bangalore, it was Pt. Jasraj, Girija Deviji in Calcuta and Shivji in Mumbai, Arti Ankalekar in Pune and so on.

Geeta: But how did you manage to get such great musician for your launch?

Vikram: Ah...ha! Well, I just wrote to them, requested and pleaded...many of them refused. Some didn’t...and then I think somewhere the topic, and the name struck a chord with them. Besides this, I had to finalize venue, chief guest, invites... all of that and many other things of organizing an event. I had to do it all alone. Now, more than a writer, I think, I have become an expert event manager...ha...ha...ha!

Geeta: And you did all this on your own or you had an assistant?

Vikram: No...Just me... sleep was the biggest casualty.

Geeta: But how did you manage the finances required for the launches?

Vikram: Various organizations came forward in support. Like in Bangalore there’s International Music & Art Society which hosted it, in Calcutta, because it’s a local story, Taj Bengal was very keen to host it, in Chennai there’s Madras Book Club that came forward. So in this way it was taken care of and it helped me a lot because it brought in the efficiencies of that organization to its members, interested readers, etc. All this helped me a lot.

Geeta: Well, now let’s move away from the logistics and go back on the creative aspect of it. What inspired you to write a book on Gauhar Jaan?

Vikram: This and my previous book had been very serendipitous. It is only by accident that I have become an author. It started off at the age of 12 or 13 when TV serial, Sword of Tipu Sultan was being telecast. There the Maharaja and the Maharani of Mysore were shown in a poor light. There was a lot protest in my home town—Bangalore and at other places because the royal family is still held in a lot of reverence. So as a child it was more of a childish curiosity to know the truth behind the false representation. It led me on a 14 year voyage of discovery that led me to my first book Splendours of Royal Mysore-The Untold story of the Wodeyars. And this book led me to Gauhar Jaan. It was during the course of research of this book that I came across Gauhar’s name in Mysore Palace archive. Though she was from Calcutta, she spent her last years in Mysore and died there. The fact that she was the first Indian classical musician to record on the Gramophone, attracted me, and that’s where I started on my voyage on her life.

Geeta: What problems did you face in researching on her?

Vikram: It was a Herculean task because, as you know, documentation in the field of art and music is something that we woefully lack. Lot of information is passed on through a word of mouth, anecdotal. I made several trips to Calcutta, Darbhanga, Rampur, Banaras, Mysore, Mumbai, all places that played significant roles in her life. I met old timers, musicologists, musicians who survived, but other than that I was keen to get some original documents related to her. After all, whatever they told me was just stories, which one keeps hearing from time to time. There were two very famous court cases that she fought in her life which I tried to get from the Calcutta High Court and other places. This created a template to build her life story. In one case, she actually had to prove her parentage and during the course of that case her entire lineage gets exposed, her father, grandfather, mother and so on. So that became one important source. Then I gave importance to the memoirs of Friedrich William Gaisberg, expert who came to record her. I managed to procure his memoire from Germany. His diary jottings had very elaborate details, of how he met her; how she came dressed to the studio, and how she bargained for a higher fee. In a typical European fashion, he had catalogued everything. So this also became a very important source. Then the book of poems—Makhzan-E-Ulfat-E-Mallika by Gauhar’s mother, Badi Malka Jaan. This I procured from London—the only copy. It had 600 ghazals, penned by her and a short biographical sketch. All this along with newspaper reports of the time, obituary, cases in the court flashed in the newspapers became my research material.

Geeta: What about the incidents about her giving lavish parties when her cat gave birth to kittens and many other similar incidents that you have mentioned in your book?

Vikram: Well, some of it is apocryphal stories. These have been passed on from generation to generation and have been accepted as the truth. But several of them have been mentioned in Bangla literature, and they have accounts of eye witnesses, her contemporaries. One thing that comes out from Bangla literature is that she was very flamboyant and extravagant.

Geeta: You have been learning classical music also. What stopped you from taking it as a career?

Vikram: It would have been a dream come true...but somehow I have seen that when one takes music as a career then there are lots of other factors that start affecting music itself. Whereas with something else to fall back on, I could pursue music as I wanted and not let financial constraints dominate my passion.

Geeta: Your parents are also into music or writing?

Vikram: No, both are bankers and Kaansen. We are a regular feature in all the concerts. Actually. with Tamilian father, Maharashtrian mother and living in Karnataka, I naturally developed a flair for languages. It all came quite naturally to me.

Geeta: So, India coming together in your household...

Vikram: Sort of...ha...ha...ha...

Geeta: Now what next?

Vikram: Haven’t thought about it but right now I am going to Germany for three months on Fellowship to Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, Germany, to do research on Music and History.

Geeta: Thanks a lot Vikram and wishing you all the best for future projects.

Vikram : Thanks. It was wonderful talking to you.


Friday, August 27, 2010

on short story being commended

It was like any other day, doing my usual work and thinking about stories, characters and plot. But as I opened my email box there in was stored a surprize for me. My short story- Living in Shadows has been highly commended in global competition. It made my day...I was just too happy...elated...at last!!
Well, I'll share my feelings some other time; right now is the link to that story-
http://www.globalshortstories.net/Globalshortstories%20winners%20july%2010.pdf

Till next time

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Last Meeting with the Legend



It was a moment of truth.
Our Ajji is no more. The legend of Hindustani Classical Music, Padmavibhushan Dr. Gangubai Hangal, passed away on the morning of July 21. It took me sometime to realise the magnitude of this loss, not only for me, but for the entire Hindustani classical music world. And as the truth dawned upon me, memories came flooding back.
It was only a year ago that as Programme Director of Radio Gandharv-24 hour Hindustani Classical Music Station on Worldspace Satellite Radio, I was trying to take the interview of the stalwart, who had come out of the shackles of baiji culture, and carved her own respectability in the vast ocean of classical music. Since childhood, I had seen how people – musicians and common men bow their head in reverence to the very mention of the name— Gangubai Hangal. For me her life struggle was as intriguing and mesmerising as her music with those spectacular taans, serene alaaps, easy transitions from one saptak to another and above all her deep, resounding ‘masculine voice.’
I wanted to meet the woman behind the music, the real Gangubai Hangal. Just before her 96th birthday, last year, I received a telephone call from Hubli, informing that Dr. Gangubai Hangal would like to talk to me. It was a priceless moment. She invited me to visit her, “Beta, come down to Hubli...I do not know how long will I live...I listen to your station, Radio Gandharv, whole day...it is very good...come to Hubli...I want to talk to you...” I was speechless.
The very next day, I along with my team, reached her home— Ganga Lahari in Deshpande Nagar, Hubli. Draped in a purple saree, Gangubai Hangal did not look that old or ill. Rather she was bubbling with energy, like a child who has too much in her heart to share with her friends. “I am very fond of playing cards,” she confided, revealing a set of cards under her pillow, “Kumar Gandharva and I used to play whenever he used to come here or if we were together in a concert...” And who used to win? “I...most of the time.” She replied quickly, laughing heartily.

Remembering her days with guru-bhai Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, her eyes turned moist. “He used to accompany me to the railway station with a lantern, he used to do all the household chores at our guru, Pt. Sawai Gandharva’s place, he used to fetch the water himself! But now I hear he is not well.” And as I was trying to revive her memories of her younger days, her struggling days, she often digressed and came back to the present, “Where is my magazine... when is doctor coming... when do we have to go for pooja...?” It was as if she did not want to visit the bylanes of her pain and struggle.
“I think she is tired now. Moreover, after a while she has to go as a chief guest to inaugurate a pooja,” her grandson Manoj Hangal told us apologetically.

We returned the next day, more determined to uncover memories about the days when she feared being ostracized by the rigid social system. We reached her place early next morning to find her surrounded by little guests—school children who had come to seek her blessings. “Do you sing?” She asked, gladly joining them as they clapped and sang. With them she became a child. Full of enthusiasm and excitement. The children were not ready to leave her and she regaled them with her childhood stories. It was only after repeated requests by the family members that she agreed to return to her room. And hardly had she entered her room when she was joined by another guest, a VIP. And instead of being tired or breathless, she enthusiastically entertained him. Both of them started talking about music. “Ajji is busy the whole day. People love her and she loves talking, particularly about music,” said Manoj Hangal. I decided to steal a few moments and asked her, ‘Ajji, how was it singing in the 1923 Congress session?’ Prompt came the reply, “Oh, that...I was in school then...We were taught an invocatory song at school and taken to the session. Mahatma Gandhi was sitting in front of us. Everybody liked our singing. But I was frightened that after the session I would be sent outside and not allowed to eat with the others...there were a lot of prejudices regarding caste at that time.”
Time erased those differences. As she gained popularity in music, the differences of caste and the social stigma of being the daughter of a baiji faded away. Though her mother was a Carnatic musician, Gangubai Hangal learnt Hindustani. “On my way back from school I used to stop at a small shop where they used to play gramophone records. I would stand there and listen to Hindustani music—a bandish that I still remember from those days is 'Radha bolo mukh se'. I was enchanted by Hindustani music. All the time I was singing lines from those compositions. Seeing this, my mother decided that I should learn Hindustani music and to find the right guru for me she sold off our house in Dharwad and we shifted to Hubli...She sacrificed her life for me. She stopped singing...She was so young when she died, only 35. She had an operation and her stitches came out. She was there through our tough times but she didn't live to see all that I achieved.” Choked with emotion, she was lost in her world of memories when another guest knocked and she was off to attend a public function.
It was hot and sunny outside. The heat was debilitating. But nothing could unsettle Gangubai Hangal. The wheel chair, the weather, her health—nothing at all could kill her spirits. Even at the age of 96 she was ready to perform and missed her daughter, Krishna, who used to accompany her in concerts. “She used to sing very well and she learnt it on her own as a child...she is no more....I don’t feel like singing without her...”
Ajji’s life revolved around music. Despite organisers’ time bound restrictions on her, she sang and won many a heart. “Gangubai gayegi...they used to announce, and I would sing. Once, in the early days, they told me I had only 15 minutes to sing. I was so upset, but Bismillah Khan who was also at that concert, encouraged me. Often organisers used to doubt my singing, seeing my small size.” Saying this she burst into laughter. And I reminded her that all good things come in small sizes!!! “But it has its problems too...see now I don’t even get my footwear so easily...” Her laughter continued to echo in the room, joined by all of us.

Ajji sang everywhere. There was a time when she was invited to each and every concert. She often had to travel, leaving her children and ailing huband behind because she had to perform to keep the family afloat. She stayed in the same house in Hubli throughout her life. “How can I sell or renovate this house where my guruji (Pt. Sawai Gandharv) stayed?” Throughout her life she hung on to the memories of her guruji, mother, maternal uncle and daughter. “They were there with me through the hard time but none of them lived to see the recognition I got. That's the way life is...” Her mother’s photograph is kept on the side table, along with a few music magazines. While talking to us her eyes often travelled to that side table and on not finding an issue of the magazine, she immediately called her grand daughter, “...Where’s that issue...Kesarbai’s photograph was in that...”She could only rest after that magazine was deposited safely back in her hands. “See, this is Kesarbai...she was the queen...”
It was getting late and Ajji was chatting happily. She wanted to share many more experiences with us. But for the family members and doctor’s strict orders we had to leave. Little did we know that this was our last meeting with the legend.

Today, she is no more. But we will always remember her warm smile, her indomitable spirit, her enthusiasm and caring nature, her self-deprecating humility, modesty and her fierce pride in preserving her self-respect. Such people are rare to find. We have to meet them to understand the truth about life, music, devotion, passion and simplicity. The last meeting will last forever...▄