Tuesday, September 12, 2006

A Musical Experience


I was lucky in that growing up, my parents always listened to music. They mostly listened to old Hindi movie songs but Dad would occasionally listen to some Indian classical music. I didn't really pay much attention to it when I was younger. In our house for the first few years, the kitchen was where we did our homework and gathered as a family in the evenings. As such, while mom cooked and my brother and I did our homework, music was always a part of our homework routine. After getting our own rooms, my brother and I found it hard not to study with music on. I realized that I couldn't listen to songs with lyrics since I concentrated more on the words in the background rather than the work. So I started in on instrumental music. Mostly soundtracks and such but also classical music.

In college I began listening to Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka. During the intervening years I continued to take a passing interest in Indian classical music, but it wasn't until I happened upon the CD, Sampradaya that I really took an interest. This album was a duet by Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and his son Rahul Sharma. The instrument they play is called the santoor and it is a hundred string instrument that is native to the valley of Kashmir. On this particular album was a composition known as Raag Janasamohini. The Indian system of music, known as the raag or raga, is a system whereby which certain pieces of music are meant to be heard at certain times of day. This piece was an evening piece but the first time I heard a sample of it in the music store, I was hooked. I picked up the CD right away and put it in my CD player at home. There it remained for months as I listened to it over and over and over again.

Something in the music almost spoke to me. The sound of the music was almost like droplets of rain falling onto the strings of the instrument. Played with a pair of light wooden mallets, this CD created such a mood of 'lightness' that I often began playing it when I needed a bit of cheering up. It remains one of my all time favorite pieces of music. So when I heard that this pair was going to be in concert at the University of Maryland, I didn't hesitate in getting tickets. We were lucky enough to get seats so close that again, we could smell what brand of baby powder the tabla player liked to use to keep his hands and the tabla dry (Johnson & Johnson's Baby Powder!).

Seeing the pair in concert was an amazing experience. The artists in Indian classical music seem to feed off of their accompanyists. In this case father 'fed' off of son and and vice versa. There was such enjoyment in the two of them that you could almost sense the joy in them as they played their pieces. There were no words ever exchanged between them. In fact all their transitions from one playing to the other supporting was through a series of gestures and smiles. It was as if they truly spoke to one another through their instruments. It also made me think on the relationship I have with my parents and my brother. I have been luck to have a family that nurtures and encourages me and in a way, I could relate to the relationship I could see being played out in front of me on stage. There are so many things I never need to say to my parents or my brother. They always seem to know it anyways. It was so good to see that relationship played out musically on stage to the sweetest music I have heard in a very long time.

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