The well-known sitar player Sanjoy Guha is now serving as a faculty member at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London. He learnt music from a number of highly reputed musicians including Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra, Pt. Deepak Chaudhury and Vidwan M. Balamurali Krishna.
The well-known sitar player Sanjoy Guha is now serving as a faculty member at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London. He learnt music from a number of highly reputed musicians including Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra, Pt. Deepak Chaudhury and Vidwan M. Balamurali Krishna.
Tags
Montu Banerjee, Harmonium, Vilayat Khan, Sitar, Taan, Chaupalli, Choupalli Anga, Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Mahajati Sadan, Amir Hussain Khan, Chhanda, Sanjay Mukherjee, Anindo Chatterjee.
Mantu Banerjee, the renowned harmonium player. Mantu babu lived right next door to us. I was very close to him; he used to call me Nati (grandson in Bengali). He used to say, “Come, let’s go for an early morning walk.” When he walked home in the evening and found me playing or doing something else, he would ask me whether or not I had practiced my instrument that day. Then he would say, “No, no, no, you should play as well .
Ustad Vilayat Khan
” Immediately, he would reminisce about Ustad Bilayet Khan, who, while living at his house, would play carrom till late in the evening, say till 9:30 to 10 pm. And then he would start his practise, which would often go on the entire night. He would say that games and sports were very important too. So that was an experience I had of him. Another thing I noticed was that, Mantu babu always performed with a lot of force and energy. One day he told me “Come, play your sitar for me. Im getting old now, I don’t know if I would be able to hear you play later in life.” He asked my uncle to bring my sitar. Back then, I could only play memorised music. So, when he asked me to play a certain Taan again, though I couldn’t recall it clearly. Then, he said to my uncle, “This is of Chaupalli in origin. It is similar to a Chaupalli composed by Amir Hussain Khan.” He said the bole out aloud, as if recalling it from his memory: ta kita dhe ke ta, ta kita dhe ke ta. Later my uncle said, “My brother learned it from Gyan babu, the composition, which is why the taan was made into that rhythm.”
“Wow”
I had also been there to listen to him playing. At Mahajati Sadan, when Sanjay Da was also there, along with Anindya Da was also there. And he would play with such ease… It was nothing for him to play in front of those people. Those were a different kind of experience altogether.
Very Good.
Translated by: Ankana Das
Picture Courtesy: Sri Kamalakksha Mukhopadhay, Eminent Harmonium Artist and Google
SAP-LAB Department of Instrumental music. Rabindra Bharati University
About the speaker
Arup Dey is a famed Tabla player and Guest Faculty of the Department of Vocal Music, Rabindra Bharati University. He is one of the prime disciples of Keramatulla khan.
Tags
Keramatulla khan, Masid Khan, Father, Moody, Tabla, Teaching, 1968, 1969, 16, Ripon Lane, Masit Khan
SAP-LAB Department of Instrumental music. Rabindra Bharati University
About the speaker
Arup Dey is a famed Tabla player and Guest Faculty of the Department of Vocal Music, Rabindra Bharati University. He is one of the prime disciples of Keramatulla khan.
Vidushi Subhra Guha is a leading female vocalist of Agra gharana. She was a scholar of ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata and later she was nominated as a Guru in the Sangeet Research Academy.
Tags
1988, Vilayat Khan, Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Vilayat Hussain Khan, Pran Piya, Yunus Hussain Khan, Raag Jog, Sthayi, Antara, Notation, Zila Khan, ITC-SRA
Ustad Vilayat Khan visited the Sangeet research Academy in 1998. The Tenth Anniversary Celebrations saw the presence of almost all musicians, including Vilayat Khan, who had come and stayed there for a week. I had a great adoration for him. Even if I would touch his instrument, I got excited and gave the same expression what I would give if Bade Ghulam Ali Khan comes here before me at present. I used to be close to him at all times, going to him at 7 in the morning and return to my hostel room on campus at 11 p.m. There were so many things he would say, such beautiful singing too. Maybe not everything what he was saying would be true, but the way he was presenting those enchanted me and the bandish that he sang, I felt the most melodious thing I had ever heard.
Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan
Let me tell you of an incident of that time. The evening before he was due to leave, he asked me – “You know of Vilayat Hussain Khan, considered one of the greatest Ustads of the Agra Gharana, father of Ustad Yunus Khan, whose pen name was Pran Piya. Do you know Bandish composed by him?”
I said, “Yes, I have learned this,” and sang to him a Bandish in Jog, in quite difficult Ektaal.
I sang the Asthayi once. He said, Sing the Asthayi once again. I sang the Antara. He was all praise and asked me to sing the Antara again. In total, I sang the Asthayi and the Antara twice each. He said, “Beta, I am going back tomorrow. Please make a notation of this for me.”
The next morning I had prepared the notation and went to him. He was scheduled to leave at 11 or 12. He took the notation and kept it in his pocket.
“Didn’t you check if the notation is all right?”, I asked.
He said, “I cannot read Hindi. This I have taken for Zila (his daughter). This will be useful for her.”
I was thinking, he praised it so much, and now this…
He said, “You want to hear? You want to hear it from me? Here you go.”
Remember, I had sung the Asthayi and Antara only twice, and that too of a bandish that was quite long. And the very next day, he was saying, “I have not slept well the whole night, I was committing the Bandish to memory.” He sang the entire Bandish, without having put it to paper or having read the notation. He said, “It is now in my memory.” He didn’t have to record it. In his words, “This memory of mine, this is the record. I will never forget this in my lifetime. I did not sleep well at night, so that I could memorized in my mind.”
(Demonstrating the bandish) Can anyone sing this after having listened to it once or twice? It is so long and complicated. Just take a look towards its starting point; it’s quite difficult to start it in accordance with the framed time cycle. But all he needed was the twice repetation of both Asthayi and Antara, that’s enough for him.
Vidushi Subhra Guha is a leading female vocalist of Agra gharana. She was a scholar of ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata and later she was nominated as a Guru in the Sangeet Research Academy.
Tags
1981, Sangeet Research Academy, Riyaz, Guru, Sishya, Agra gharana, Atta Hussain Khan, Faiyaz Khan, Sunil Bose, 1978, Music Scholar, 1975 – 79, Taalim, Nisar Hussain Khan, Nivrutibua Sarnaik, Latafat Khan, Hirabai Barodekar, Yunus Hussain Khan, Girija Devi, A.T Kanan, Malabika Kanan, 1993, K.G Ginde, Vijay Kichlu
Vidushi Subhra Guha is a leading female vocalist of Agra gharana. She was a scholar of ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata and later she was nominated as a Guru in the Sangeet Research Academy.
Tags
Guru-Sishya parampara, K. G Ginde, Srikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar, Bandish, Bhatkhande Music college, Faiyaz khan, Lucknow, Raag Viyog-Barari, Sunil Basu, Sangeet Research Academy, Raga Chayanat, 1994
Language
Bengali
Vidushi Subhra Guha speaks:
Hand-written Notation of Pt. K.G. Ginde. [Courtesy Subhra Guha]
Verbatim:
I believe in ‘guru-sishyaparampara’. Pt.K.G.Ginde was the disciple of Sri krishna Narayan Ratanjankar, S.N.Ratanjankar. He was an ocean of learning, how can I describe him, he could see the bandishes differently. When I sing a bandish I can feel it clearly. Gindeji started his learning at the age of ten, his father had left him with Ratanjankarji and told him to raise him up as he sees fit. So, he passed class ten from Lucknow and for twenty-eight years he lived with Ratanjankarji, never leaving his side. I saw Gindeji very closely; he had few demands in life, bare minimum things without luxury. He had a simple cot to sleep on, a wooden table-chair for his studies, no fancy things. He had a very poor income as the principal of Vatkhande college, I think now it would be a large sum compared to then. Anyway, I want to depict two incidents here to remember him.
Pt. S.N. Ratanjhankar
Gindeji knew every bandishes of Ratanjankarji and he wanted to publish it. It would be a great help for everyone, but when he asked the publishers they demanded a large sum which he didn’t have, so he started to write them down. I want to show you the book; it was unbelievable that it was handwritten. He used a simple scale and pencil to write down the bandishes. He spent days in a table with a pen, pencil and rubber and produced six of this. We can imagine how much reverence and dedication to his guruji can made him do this. You have to see it to believe the different swar were written using scales and eraser. His entire being was dedicated to this job, to immortalize the work of his guruji. Sunil Basu also learnt from Ratanjankarji and whenever they met they used to discuss their guruji. Every time my guru Gindeji came over to my place they used to remember his guruji and Ustad Faiyaz Khan and they would cry with all the emotions. We were quite novice then and my fellow disciples would laugh behind his back and asked me whether I got bored with the same topic every day. I too, was quite young then but now I can understand that the love behind this. They didn’t discuss the same incident every day, but the same topics would come up after some time. The gandhar his guruji sang in some programme, or some other songs and they used to cry over these. I was so overwhelmed to see them crying that I joined, I never heard any of the discussed persons and I never knew them personally but still emotions were high and I flowed through it. I now understand that to achieve proper leaning from a perfect guru is a boon and the devotion would come automatically.
After twenty-eight years Ratanjankarji asked Gindeji to live on his own, to start a life and career. The day he left his guru’s house in Lucknow he went to return all bank passbooks and other documents of Ratanjankarji which he always kept and maintained. Ratanjankarji was furious, you want me to keep a tab on you? And he tore them up, he was so upset himself. He then gave Gindeji a new composition, a new raga named Viyog Barari. He never sang this raga, he would get so emotional. I heard from Sunil uncle that Ratanjankarji was a very strict man. He was almost devoid of emotions. It’s rare to see him smile and they never seen him crying. But that day as Gindeji was leaving he was singing this raga and crying. All the people present there were crying helplessly. This is the ideal relation between guru-shishya which I am talking about.
The story I was talking about, the hand-in written notations of the bandishes of Ratanjankarji. Gindeji wrote them himself with such meticulous perfection and then he came here in Sangeet Research Academy and presented the six volumes to them.
Hand-written Notation of Pt. K.G. Ginde.
He then said that I would be ever indebted to my guruji. If I reborn ten times and he wear his chappals made by my skin, I would still be indebted to him. But I have tried to give back a little bit and this is my humble offering. These six parts of the compilation of his bandishes are all here and I am quite content to leave this world. I think my job is done here.
Pt. K.G.Ginde
Within seven days, he had a little anomaly in his heart. Then suddenly within a month of his submission of his life’s work he passed away suddenly. He was eating and humming raga chhayanat, suddenly the spoon slipped and he fell too. No chance for a doctor to do anything. I think a proper sadhak (monk) could only achieve such level.
This was perhaps in the beginning of 1983. One day, Dipakda said, ‘come when Guruji, Ravi Shankar, is here, and I will introduce you to him’. I had always nurtured this dream of seeing him from a distance, never thought I would have the good fortune of offering my Pranaam to him. Anyway, one day Dipakda took me to Sridharji’s house in Ballygunge where Ravi Shankar ji was practising. When we got some time, Dipakda said, Guruji, ‘this boy is playing well, please listen to him some day’. Ravi Shankarji took a look at me and said, ‘it would not be possible this time, come next time’.
He came to Kolkata again about 6 months later. At that time, I used to come to Kolkata from Chandannagareveryday, took lessons from Guruji, did Riwaz , gave some tuitions here and there and went back home at night. I got news that Panditji had come to Kolkata. At that time we did not have the advantage of mobile phones. So I could not call up Dipakda to ask if I should come since he was here. I decided to go there directly. At that time I used to play with Protyush in his home classes, where Buddhakaku used to teach.
On that particular day, Buddhakaku had not come, but his senior student Debashis Bhattacharya, a very good friend of mine, was there. I played in the class, we did Riyaz andpractised together after the class. I was in two minds over whether to go back home, but decided in the end to go to Shridharji’s place. When I reached there, the gatekeepers initially prevented me from entering, due to the disheveled state I was in .So I asked them who else had come, and if a bearded man had come. As they answered in the affirmative, I understood that Dipakda was there. I decided to wait. After waiting for half an hour, I suddenly saw Dipakda coming out. He saw me and said, ‘Oh, Arup, you are here! Have you brought your Tabla?
I was astonished. How could I have brought a Tabla along?
So he asked me, “Can you arrange for a Tabla from anywhere?”
I said, “Tanmay( renownedTabla player tanmoy Bose ) stays nearby, but I don’t know if he would be at home now, it would be a waste of time.”
Dipakda said, “It’s your bad luck then, Guruji would be sitting with me today, if you had your Tabla with you, you could have made him listen to how you played.”
I went in with Dipakda, to find Ravi Shankarji alone, tuning his Sitar.
Dipakda said to him, “Guruji, he has come but he did not know you would be practising , so he did not bring his Tabla.”
Ravi Shankar ji was in the middle of his tuning, he opened his eyes to look at me, then closed them again. Some moments later, he asked me. “ Do your hands sweat? Do they sweat when you play?”
I said, No they don’t.
Then he said, “ Alright, bring me the Tabla case from the corner.” I did so.
He asked me, “ Do you know whose Tabla this is?”
There was no name on the case, so I said no.
Pt. Kumar Bose
“Kumar, Pandit Kumar Bose had come to play in the morning, he will come again tomorrow, he has left his Tabla here.”
Just imagine my good fortune.
Ravi Shankarji told me, “Alright, you play on that Tabla, but be alert that your hands do not sweat.”
So this was the first day I played before him. Playing with him was like a dream come true for me. Then he said, “Come here tomorrow at ten.”
I went home at about 1:30 in the morning. When I came back the next day, everyone was there, Jog saheb, our Bade Guru Jnanprakashji, Anindoda, Kumarda, Indranil Bhattacharya everyone. And he introduced me to everybody like this, “This boy has played well, all of you please give your blessings so that he turns out well in life…”
It was a great achievement for me to have received his blessings. Later, I had the opportunity of playing with him at many places.
70 7&8 Nirala Apartment, Boral. Kolkata -700154 at the residence of Arup Chattopadhyay
About the speaker
Arup Chattopadhyay is a renowned Tabla Player and a globetrotting musician. He is a prime disciple of the tabla legend Pt. Shankar Ghosh.
Tags
Rajib Chakraborty, Ravi Chakraborty, Chandannagar, 1979, 1980, Shyamadas Chakraborty, Kalighat, Moor Avenue, 1984, Rabindra Sadan, Academy of Fine Arts, Institute of Indian Culture, London, Ravi Shankar
