-Brian Mendonça
Early mornings are a time of great energy. The
bowl of night is dispersed and hope seeps through. To help on this inward
journey of rehabilitating the self, I keep vigil at my balcony to see the first
glimmerings of dawn which usually happens around 6 a.m. By 6.15 there is a
feverish twitter of birds in the trees in the garden outside. Many times they
suffice to be my alarm when the mechanical one is silent.
There is a fine differentiation of roles in the
morning to ensure that all objectives are met. Queenie will prepare the
breakfast and the tiffins while I have the odious job of waking Dwayne out of
slumber. Indeed when he is fast asleep he looks like he has just been born-
down to the beautiful eyelashes he sports. His plea is for the more rocking
kind of music. So I play for him 91.9 Radio Indigo on FM radio to rouse him out
of his slumber.
Once he is in the washroom I discreetly shift the
station to 105.4 FM broadcasting from the studios of All India Radio, Panaji. I
eagerly wait for the 30 minutes of Shastriya
Sangeet i.e. Indian Classical Music slot from 6.30 a.m. to 7 a.m. As the
performer and the raga are announced
I feel myself relaxing and immersing myself into eddies of sound.
Ragas
are chosen according to the time of day. So there are early morning ragas, ragas for later morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, early
evening, late evening, the ascent of night, late night, and so on. So there is
always a raga to match your mood.
Morning ragas
include Ahir Bhairav, and Bilakshani Todi; afternoon ragas include Poorvi and Bhimpalasi; evening
ragas include Yaman and Hamsadhwani, and night ragas include Malkauns
and Bihag. Ragas may also be
assembled on the theme of love like raga
Lalit, or on the seasons like Malhar.
Last week I heard raga Charukesi. Charu-kesi means ‘with beautiful hair.’ The emotions
expressed are love, piety and pleading. From the base notes to the upper
reaches of the melodic register the singer sang the intricate nuances with
practised ease yet with a rare intensity.
Younger audiences perhaps would be more interested
in fusion music. I recommend a recording of a live performance of Anoushka
Shankar on sitar with an assembly of global musicians in attendance at
Countances, France in 2014. The performance was titled ‘Voice of the Moon.’ It
is available on YouTube. What was riveting was that the performance featured
musicians and instruments from the Hindustani, Carnatic and Western traditions.
Charukesi
is believed to be taken from the Carnatic tradition and has only recently been amalgamated
in the Hindustani tradition. Our vast and diverse musical heritage needs to be
nurtured for the generations to come.
The day ended with the blanket of night outside my
window and Ustad Rashid Khan (b.1966) rendering the pathos of Charukesi teasing out the bandish (refrain) ‘Palaka Na Lagi Mori Guiyan.’
The words are in Brajbhasha. Loosely translated they mean, 'I am unable to even blink (close) my eyes, without thinking of you.'
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Published in Gomantak Times, Weekender , St. Inez, Goa on Sunday, 16 September 2018. Pix courtesy spotify.com
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