How I started listening to Hindustani classical music?
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| Pandit Jasraj in concert |
As I listened to Pandit Jasraj singing Madhmaad Sarang composition -
"Rasikani Radha palana jhoole", lot of old memories got rekindled and
I'm sharing some of it.
Typically it is college days when people pick up addictions. I don't want to name the addictions but you know what I mean. And it is typically friends/peers who initiate one into it.
When I was studying engineering in IIT Varanasi, I was initiated into an addiction by Anant Sharma bhaiyya, an M.Tech student.
What did he initiate me into?
Hindustani Classical music. Specifically Pandit Jasraj.
And boy what an addiction (love) it is that it has not left me till date. Can I thank Anant bhaiyya enough for this?
Those days we used to search music shops for any available cassette of Panditji and buy it. I can't count the afternoons and nights spent listening to Panditji's cassettes in the hostel room. Many a times it would bring tears in the eye and I could feel the tear drop tracing its path from the corner of the eye, over the cheek and finally on the neck. The experience would be so intense that lifting the hand and wiping the tear would feel like spiritual blasphemy.
I met and heard Panditji live first time in my college days during Sankatmochan sangeet samaroh, Varanasi. Even heaven will be pale in front of the experience of listening to Panditji live in Varanasi. And I have been so lucky and blessed to have heard him live in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore as well.
It is so easy to melt into nothingness and pure love listening to Panditji.
When life gets tough, it is easy and natural to complain about the cruelty of life. Did I ever thank life for its beauty and grace in the way I was introduced to Panditji's music and still get swept over by his voice?
May be I should.
Typically it is college days when people pick up addictions. I don't want to name the addictions but you know what I mean. And it is typically friends/peers who initiate one into it.
When I was studying engineering in IIT Varanasi, I was initiated into an addiction by Anant Sharma bhaiyya, an M.Tech student.
What did he initiate me into?
Hindustani Classical music. Specifically Pandit Jasraj.
And boy what an addiction (love) it is that it has not left me till date. Can I thank Anant bhaiyya enough for this?
Those days we used to search music shops for any available cassette of Panditji and buy it. I can't count the afternoons and nights spent listening to Panditji's cassettes in the hostel room. Many a times it would bring tears in the eye and I could feel the tear drop tracing its path from the corner of the eye, over the cheek and finally on the neck. The experience would be so intense that lifting the hand and wiping the tear would feel like spiritual blasphemy.
I met and heard Panditji live first time in my college days during Sankatmochan sangeet samaroh, Varanasi. Even heaven will be pale in front of the experience of listening to Panditji live in Varanasi. And I have been so lucky and blessed to have heard him live in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore as well.
It is so easy to melt into nothingness and pure love listening to Panditji.
When life gets tough, it is easy and natural to complain about the cruelty of life. Did I ever thank life for its beauty and grace in the way I was introduced to Panditji's music and still get swept over by his voice?
May be I should.
PS. Originally published on April 24, 2018 on Facebook.
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