Dr. Suranjita Paul: Sharma Ji, please tell us whether your son or daughter were ever eager to be associated with this traditional profession?
Mangala Sharma Ji: See, if I as a guardian, am myself not confident in this profession, then how can I encourage my children to stick to the traditional profession? It is not possible for them to be in the same business because there is not enough earning in it. As a father, it is very difficult for me to afford a decent lifestyle, and in this situation, I cannot expect my children to be in this profession. They are young, and it is not the right thing to force them into it. As for myself, I have given them an opportunity to learn. My daughter has done her MPhil in Dhrupad from Rabindra Bharati University. She had also done her Masters from the same University. But what do you think she can do with that degree? The government of India has no provision for students who are educated in these lines! In Bengal, no school or college teaches these things where people like my daughter can teach. Where will they go? I don’t know why they have kept a department in Music if there are no job opportunities after getting the degree. The music departments of Biswa Bharati University at Shantiniketan or that of Rabindra Bharati University should be closed down. According to me, they are spending a lot of money on these departments unnecessarily, because the students cannot implement this knowledge anywhere in their future. One sits for his/her examination from Rabindra Bharati University or Biswa Bharati University with a lot of hope, but when it the face the job market, they are left with nothing. What is the point of getting the degree if they cannot feed their own stomach and lead a decent life? If this is the scenario, then why should one invest in taking lessons on making musical instruments? We the makers of instruments are crippled by the government, and I am sure soon this whole tradition of musical instrument making will become a heritage. There is no hope for the future generation to learn from it. After a few years, people will only know of us makers in books. It is so hard to find measurements of musical instruments we make and if there is no adequate income, then why will anyone be encouraged to embrace the profession? In ancient times, people who used to make musical instruments used to get a lot of facilities and thus they were happy in their profession, which resulted in brilliant instruments being made. Now we only enjoy music, but we don’t pay attention to the details of the profession.
Dr. Suranjita Paul: Sir, I think the new generation is not so eager to learn…
Mangla Prasad Sharma: If the government has provision, then one can have ways, without which, why will anyone want to be in this profession?
TRANSLATION: ANKANA DAS
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
128/1A, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Sarani (Amherst Street), Kolkata – 700009
About the speaker
Mangla Prasad Sharma is a renowned manufacturer and exporter of Indian traditional musical instruments.
Tags
Heritage, Instrument, Demand, supply, Delhi, 2014, Work shop, Sangeet Natak Academy
Language
Bengali, Hindi, English
Mangla Prasad Sharma speaks:
Verbatim:
Dr. Suranjita Paul: Now your business is growing and is changing with time… Please tell us a few words about it…
Mangla Prasad Sharma: Because everything is on the verge of being known as heritage, we the musical instrument makers are also going to be heritage very soon. We are destroying our selves by destroying our own culture. Nobody these days come to learn to how to make musical instruments. If demand for these instruments in the market is not there, then we shouldn’t expect there to exist a supply, right? How can we make instruments if we are not getting enough income? I must say that India is losing in this regard, and not I as an instrument maker. I had been very verbal about it at Delhi to, when in an interview in 2014, I was asked to speak about my profession. It was at a workshop conducted by the Sangeet Natak Academy. Now you can see me making these musical instruments, but I am very sure that in a few years, people will read about it in books and only get to see it in photographs. Coming generations does not want to engage in this profession because there is no opportunity to flourish. It is a great tragedy for us that we cannot impart this knowledge about the making of these instruments to the young, and I think that we are very helpless in this regard. The government offers no help for us, though we can see them spending so much money, in lakhs and crores for music colleges, for the PSD, etc. But when it comes to the musical instrument makers, we are left with nothing. The Central Government or the State Government, both have proven to be highly inefficient in providing us with any sort of support. The Sangeet Natak Academy at Delhi had given me the opportunity to attend the workshop there. I was very happy to attend it, and I am very obliged to the Sangeet Natak Academy for this. In today’s world, no one has time to play these instruments, thus the fact that the Sangeet Natak Academy had called me for the workshop is itself a great thing for me. What I feel is, today, foreigners are more interested in Indian musical instruments than Indians themselves are, maybe because they get the opportunity to play these.
Translation: Ankana Das
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
Amir Khan’s student was there, Viswajit Chakraborty, who used to come, but he is dead now.
When did he used to come?
He is dead now, but he used to come to me and I have worked for him. Sandhya Mukherjee’s guru, Jamini Ganguli, Ram Kumar Chattopadhyay, all used to come to me. Among the old people, I have had with me Bade Gulam Ali Khan. Also, Munawar Ali Khan used to come. His son, Raza Ali Khan comes to me even in present day. There is also Buddhadev Dasgupta, who I remember comes to me. Among older generations, there is no such artist who hasn’t come to me.
I have been repairing musical instruments for Akashbani since 1972. It was not a big thing for me to meet with renowned artists. Artists who used the Surbahar, Sitar, Sarod, all come to me and I try my best to satisfy them with my work. After all, if they are not satisfied with my work, they won’t employ me. And in the world of music, the one most important thing is blood relations. I have inherited the traditional profession of our family from my forefathers; otherwise it would have been very difficult.
In Kolkata, you are the only one who can make the Rudrabina, and we know there is no one other than you… Do Indian Rudrabina players still come to you?
In Calcutta, I know Rudrabina player Asit Kumar Bannerjee. At Udaypur, there is Raj Shekhar Vyas Ji. At Mumbai there is Bahauddin Dagar, son of Ziauddin Dagar, who plays the Rudrabina. There is also Subir Mishra, who is an IAS officer.
I think we have had him with us today…
No, today we have here Pandit Gopal Chandra Paul with us. I also remember Aminuddin Dagar, who used to come to me. Just a few days ago I worked for Zia Fariuddin Dagar. All the people from the Dagar family come to me. In the past, I have also worked for Biswa Bharati University at Shantiniketan, Rabindra Bharati University, Benaras Hindu University, and Delhi University.
Is the technique behind the making of the Rudrabina very different?
Rudrabina is a very different thing.
I mean, the Rudrabina that the Dagars play, the ones you have made, is it different in its measurement or is it same as other Rudrabinas?
Generally it is just the same. Just one tax has increased. Earlier there was present seven, but Ziauddin Dagar changed it to eight. Ziauddin dagar was the father of Ziauddin Mohiuddin Dagar, whose son was Bauddin Dagar. They are all traditional people from Jaipur, Rajasthan. And these are the people who created Dhrupad from their Gharana. In the past, I had worked for Ustad Asad Ali Khan, who used to live in Delhi. He was a Rudrabina player as well.
Carsten Wicke
Carsten, who now lives in Tollygaunge is also making himself known now. Almost twenty years ago I gave him his Rudrabina. He took his lessons from Asad Ali Khan. Now he sells recorded CDs of his own music. Twenty years ago he came to me with his Rudrabina in a very bad condition. I had repaired it for him and sent him to Asad Ali Khan for his lessons. Asad Ali Khan also used to come to me. He used to sit in this very spot. If our artists from India get opportunities to travel to foreign countries, it is my greatest pleasure.
Pt. Anindya Banerjee is an eminent Sarod and Sursringar player from Maihar gharana
Tags
Temperament, artist, Kala Sangam, Malkauns festival, Vilayat Khan, Alap, Playing sitar, Riyaz, Balcony, Practice, Compliment, Salam, Irshad Khan, apology, Allauddin khan, Early 2000, Kishan Maharaj, Organiser, Ali akbar Khan, 8pm, Varanasi, 1am, Green Room, Alap, Gat, abartan, Tanpura, Sharan Rani, Kalamandir
Language
Bengali
Pt. Anindya Banerjee speaks:
It appears that the year of the Malkauns festival as stated in the anecdote requires a review. We are working on it. — Editor
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
Pt. Anindya Banerjee is an eminent Sarod and Sursringar player of Maihar gharana
Tags
Ramakrishna Mission, Golpark, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, 18000/-, 19000/-, Artist, Organiser, Ulhash Kashalkar, 5000/-, 8000/-, vocalist, Tabla player, United States, Concert, Samta Prasad, Reception, Lahara, Disciple, 1977, Audiences, All night concert, Ali Akbar khan, Vilayat Khan, Duet, Girija Debi, Nikhil Banerjee, Netaji Indoor Stadium, Allauddin Music Circle, Stage
Language
Bengali
Pt. Anindya Banerjee speaks:
Verbatim:
I had a very odd experience while organizing concerts for Ramkirishna Mission, two or three I’ll mention, one is, it’s basically based on monetary things,
M.S.Gopalkrishnan
Once M.S.Gopalkrishnan refused to take some extra money, what happened, he was suppose get rupees eighteen thousand or rupees nineteen thousand or something, but instead in order to make it round off and we wanted to pay him rupees twenty thousand, but he refused to take that, and we said that we have made this voucher so we can’t cancel it, but he said no no, he was adamant, he said you make a new voucher and then I’ll accept it. So we had to give him the exact amount. Which is a very rare thing because in most of the time the artists want to grab as much as money from the organizers.
Second thing happened also with Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar. He agreed to sing with five thousand rupees, but he we had fund so gave gave him,eight thousand rupees, three thousand rupees extra, which he also refused, he said “no, I can’t take that extra money and on top of that this is a very religious institution, I can’t take extra money from them”. So there were two other musicians, one very famous vocalist, who took first class air fare, he did not come and he used the ticket, and he never talked about that thing and never returned that money, which is very bad. Same thing also happened with one very famous Tabla player who resides in U.S.A. He didn’t come and next time he said last year while coming to this concert I had to pay so much extra money, so please give me that money. But actually he didn’t come and didn’t spent any kind of money but we had to sent because he was such famous artist. So in organizing concerts, this kind of things happens.
It happened with Samta Prasad ji also, we organized a concert with three very famous Tabla player’s solo, again in Ramkrishna Mission, so Samta Prasad ji came two years earlier than the concert and he stayed at Ramkrishna Mission guest house, he thought that this guest house is like a hotel, So he used to call at the reception at a very late night and asked for Paratha and Boti Kabab or something like that, and though it was prohibited but he used to have drinks there, then one day he fell sick, actually he fell sick after playing his Lahara, then we found that he consumed almost two k.g.s of Kaju Badam ( Cashew Nuts) and we came to know that from his disciples that their Guruji consumed that amount of Cashew Nuts, so we had a big problem in cleaning the room and so these things also happens organizing concert.
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Vilayet Khan
We also had a big fighting with the audience in 1977. We organized a night long concert of Ali Akbar Khan Sahab and Vilayat Khan Sahab duet, and also Girija Devi and Nikhil Banerjee at Netaji Indoor Stadium. We had a music circle called Allauddin Music Circle, on behalf of that we organized that concert. You know that the stage there is oval shaped and so everyone could not seat in front, because all tickets were sold out so many people were seating at the back side of the artists, which they didn’t like, and they kept on shouting that ‘you have to turn, you have to turn’, which couldn’t be possible and as we were the part of organizers wearing batches so people can find us and they started abusing us and somehow we have announced on the stage that it is not possible so please bear with us and just listen them playing but they kept on shouting that no we want to see them too and not only listening we also want to see their face and mood and expressions of the artists, so we were almost beaten up by the audience but somehow we were rescued so this is another part of organizing a concert.
