A Gem of a Composition

My music learning has been a long and ongoing journey.  In my early childhood days, I saw a Kannada film by the name of Sandhya Raaga in which Pandit Bhimsen Joshi had sung the theme song.  The gist of this song was the hero saying, “Oh, the goddess of music, I believe you, I worship you, I live on your blessings.” I was fascinated by the melody and the style of singing. I have followed the same philosophy in my life.  While I was doing my masters in history and archaeology at Karnataka University, Dharwad, I also enrolled for a course called Sangeetaratna which was a six year long course. After the Masters, I got into PhD Program which allowed me 4 more years of stay. This fell in sync with Sangeeta Ratna course.  Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur, Pandit Panchakshari Swami Mattigatti, Pandit Basavaraj Rajguru, and Pandit Sangameshwar Gurav were my teachers.

           

I have been singing from my early childhood, though I never had the opportunity to formally train till I joined the course at Dharwad.  But my childhood impression of Bhimsen Joshi’s style guided me to go to his immediate prime disciple, Pandit Madhav Gudi.  Pandit Gudi, who spent 26 long years with Pandit Bhimsen Joshi under the true gurukul system, had imbibed all the nuances of his music, mannerisms, lifestyle, and everything.

           

I am a strong believer in the theory that let noble thoughts come from all the windows.  I have interacted with very many great teachers and artists which can be compared to a flowing river which culminates in an ocean.  As all of us can guess, you can only take a handful of water even though you are in front of an ocean. That’s exactly the case of learning music.  My desire to learn has been innate, sublime, and subconscious too.  While I was with Pandit Madhav Gudi, he would encourage me to listen to other styles and artists.  His guru, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, has confessed that he was influenced by the singing styles of Kesarbai and Ustad Amir Khan, but Joshiji learned from Pandit Sawai Gandharva who was a direct disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan.  We can see an impact and influence of Pandit Joshi’s music on all of the younger generation musicians despite the fact that whom they are learning from and which Gharana they belong to differ.  This only goes to show that good, true music will attract everybody, everything, and that it is all pervasive

           

In 1988, as my learning, listening, and practice was in progress, I came to All India Radio Bangalore as a program officer.  Even then, I would make frequent visits to Dharwad to learn from Pandit Gudiji and in turn, whenever he came over to Bangalore, he would stay a week or ten days and fine tune my music.  Also, my stay in All India Radio for three years helped me to know many other artists of both Carnatic and Hindustani style.  Pandit Manik Rao Raichurkar was one such maestro who I met while I was in All India Radio.

           

Pandit Manik Rao, as the very name suggests, was a gem of a musician. He hails from a small town by name Raichur. His early training in music was by his uncle Nagesh Shastri. Later he took intense training from Pt. Jagannathbuwa Pandharapurakar for seven long years under true Gurukula system. Between 1948 to 1951 he also served in All India Radio which allowed him to interact with several great musicians of that era. In the year 2004 he was conferred honorary doctorate by Gulburga University. In 2006 he was conferred The Rajya Sangeeta Vidwan award by the Government of Karnataka.

He was in his mid-sixties when I met him and I should concede that it’s only after forties and fifties that a musician and his music will be more mature as he will have seen the life, the pain, the pleasure, the pangs of separation, and so on.  The elder the musician, the more mature his music is.  Pandit Manik Rao had even gone to Pakistan, then the unseparated part of India before independence, and had learned from many Ustads after the partition.  During the sensitive days of Hindu-Muslim confrontation, he had to come back to India. 

            

He was also the member of Karnataka Sangeetha Nritya Academy.  He had come for a meeting and as an officer in All India Radio, I had gone to cover and report that meeting.  After the meeting, I requested Panditji to come and record for our All India Radio Archive.

           

He accepted my invitation and came over to All India Radio.  He sang a beautiful Gorakh Kalyan, more so a unique, unheard drut bandish, Baaje Murali Mana Baavara.  I fell in love with that composition.  I also fell at the feet of the maestro, requesting him to teach me that bandish.  As he was scheduled to travel to Raichur by train at eight o’clock, he politely said, “Nagaraj, please excuse me, I have to leave today, but when I come to Bangalore next, I will definitely teach you.”  Honestly, he had no obligation to teach me either as I was not his direct, official disciple. 

           

My All India Radio work would demand that I leave home at 8 in the morning and come back at 8 in the evening.  With the entire day spent in the office and the stress and anxiety, I would be left with no enthusiasm to practice music after coming home..  My wife, Sudhamayi, who had married me thinking I would be a musician, my teacher Pandit Madhav Gudi who had passed on a great musical tradition to me with passion, and my grand Guruji Pandit Bhimsenji who had enormous vision and faith in my ability, were partly disillusioned that I was ending up as a glorified clerk in All India Radio.  They all convinced me and encouraged me to leave the job and take the plunge into the world of music full time.  Hence, I quit a lucrative, secure job and took to my two Tanpuras. 

My new life had begun teaching a few students, occasional concerts, reinventing the old raagas, their twists and turns.  As I was doing my riyaz one of the days, somebody knocked at my door.  My wife, Sudha, opened the door and one very unassuming, simple person at the door told her, “Please tell Nagaraj that Manik Rao has come.”  I also heard the voice and suddenly rushed toward the door.  I could not believe that Panditji was at my home.  He made a subtle inquiry about my well-being and also exclaimed at the fact that I had left the job. He again had come for meeting at the state academy had recalled singing Gorakh Kalyan for radio. This time too, he had taken the pains to go to All India Radio, search for me, take my address, and change three buses to reach my house.  Straight away he said, “Nagaraj, come on, let us learn the bandish in Gorakh Kalyan, Baaje Murali Mana Baavara.”  I was not able to comprehend what was happening with me and was overwhelmed and awestruck.  So he started teaching Baaje Murali Mana Baavara.  We had a session that lasted for a few hours long.  He made sure I would imbibe all the nuances and subtleties of the raga and the bandish.

Once he was totally happy, we stopped the session.  We had a very mild, informal lunch as we had not predicted his arrival.  He had no mundane expectations from us. Panditji said, “Nagaraj, I have learned this bandish from great Ustads in Pakistan.  Now I am happy that I have passed it on to a deserving musician of the next generation.”  That was really a gem of a bandish taught by Manik Rao.  Isn’t our world of music, the guru and the shishya, beautiful and lovable?  Yes, it is indeed.

Here is that very Gem of a Composition - Baaje Murali -


Please click here to listen.