Music Music in the Air, Everywhere! 5 V
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MORPARIA’S PAGE E-mail: [email protected] Contents JANUARY 2015 VOL.18/6 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ THEME: Morparia’s page 2 Music Music in the air, everywhere! 5 V. Gangadhar Music and the new media – adapt or perish! 6 Managing editor Vithal C. Nadkarni Mrs. Sucharita R. Hegde Piping hot servings of classical music 8 V. Ramnarayan Editor Will 2015 be the year of the ghazal?10 Anuradha Dhareshwar Narendra Kusnur Bollywood’s musical affair 12 Akul Tripathi Assistant Editor E.Vijayalakshmi Rajan Of guns and guitars 14 Bidyut Kotoky The sound of money 16 Design 6 Amarendra Dhaneshwar H. V. Shiv Shankar The Baul philosophy 18 Shoma A Chatterji Marketing Healing with music 20 Mahesh Kanojia Dr. M. Hariharan Know India Better OIOP Clubs Sound of Music 23 Vaibhav Palkar Kusum Mehta Face to Face: 39 Dhanashree Pandit Rai: E. Vijayalakshmi Rajan Subscription Nagesh Bangera Rita Ganguly: Shoma A. Chatterji Features 23 A war of ice and fire 44 Brig. Suresh Chandra Sharma Advisory board An annual reunion 46 Sucharita Hegde Tirtho Banerjee Justice S Radhakrishnan Venkat R Chary Write way! 48 A. Radhakrishnan And now, a pink auto service! 49 Printed & Published by Rakhi Ghosh Mrs. Sucharita R. Hegde for Book Review 51 One India One People Foundation, Columns 52 Mahalaxmi Chambers, 4th floor, Rural Concerns : Bharat Dogra 22, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Economy : Anuradha Kalhan Mumbai - 400 026 39 Young India 54 Tel: 022-2353 4400 Dhanashree Pandit Rai Great Indians 56 Fax: 022-2351 7544 e-mail: [email protected] Printed at: Graphtone (India) Pvt. Ltd. A1 /319, Shah & Nahar Industrial Estate. S. J. Marg, Lower Parel (W) Mumbai – 400 013 visit us at: www.oneindiaonepeople.com Pandit Chidanand Pandit Krishnarao G. Jagjit Singh www.facebook.com/oneindiaonepeoplefoundation Nagarkar Ginde oneindiaonepeople2020.blogspot.com LETTER TO THE EDITOR “Refreshing magazine” I found the magazine One India One People refreshing. The colourful and attractive cover page tempts one to pick it up and peruse the contents. The elaborate cover stories enhance my knowledge and make for good reading. I must make a special mention of the series on great Indians, people who have shaped and done India proud, But reading this article really opened my eyes to why every where I got to know hitherto unknown facets of their life, no matter what the crime, is sacred. I am thankful to your personality. Young India was entertaining too. magazine for carrying this article. The articles on rights of gays, Other plus points are a good layout and good editing. and the Satyarthi article were also very interesting. It’s a matter I found the cartoon page humorous and the selection of of pride that Kailash Satyarthi won the Nobel peace prize this photographs judicious. I wish the magazine would increase year. I live in Mumbai and really enjoyed Akul Tripathi’s article. I its number of pages and progressively add new features. felt as though I was on a Mumbai darshan walk with the writer! I wish it all the best. All the rest of the articles were very informative too. The article – Uma Jayaraman, Pune ‘The brand confusion’ was very informative and one hopes the “An excellent issue!” glitches in the pharma industry are fixed very soon. I enjoyed Kudos to One India One People magazine for the well- the Nature watch column for its very succinct presentation of produced , excellent Human Rights issue. It was an eye-opener the environment facts before us. I am sure you will continue to to read the article on abolishing death penalty. Like most highlight issues as you have been doing so far, issues which no women in today’s India, I have been horrified by the frequent other publication seems to want to write about. Here’s wishing reports of sexual violence against women and have always felt more power to your magazine. that capital punishment would be too good for such offenders. – Sushma Chatterjee, Mumbai Letters should be addressed to Mumbai - 400 026 22, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mahalaxmi Chambers, 4th floor, Foundation, One India People The Editor, 022-2351 7544 e-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] www.oneindiaonepeople.com 022 - 2353 4400 Fax: Tel: 4 ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE January 2015 SATIRE Music in the air, everywhere! In South Indian Brahmin households, learning music was mandatory for both girls and boys and there was no escaping it, says V. Gangadhar. He did his best to follow this august tradition, till peer ridicule foiled his efforts. HE problem with being brought up in a ‘music was delighted because it was my ambition to annihilate the environment’ is that everyone thought you too would learned guru with my own rendering of the Karahara priya Tsing, appreciate music, identify ragas and so on. If raga which was supposed to be among the tougher ragas. that did not happen, you were in trouble! Take my household Vadhyar looked at me doubtfully and nodded. I let go with a for instance. Mother sang divinely. The three elder sisters full-throated rendering of what I thought was the Karahara had a music master to teach them, one aunt was proficient priya raga. Vadhyar’s eyes became glassy, he took his head in playing the veena, another aunt on father’s side had in his hands and moaned, “I am not feeling well, sudden graduated to singing on stage. headache”, he muttered, and finished the lesson for the day. In short, I belonged to what one would call a ‘musical The lessons continued but faced a new obstacle. Our family’. drawing room where the music lessons were held was visible Everyone of us has studied literature where the from the staircase. Our landlord’s son and friends (around Shakespeare chap wrote those ‘immortal lines’, ‘The a dozen of them) who came to know about my music man that had no music in him was capable of this, that lessons assembled there and went on making faces at me. and worse including stratagems…..”. Look, a man may I often could not control my laughter despite stern looks not be interested in music, but why call him names like from mother. Well, a couple of more pranks followed with ‘stratagems’? What gems were they? But the tradition in the same disastrous results. My mother and grandmother Hindu Brahmin families was whether one liked it or not, explained to the Vadhyar, “Usually he sings very well. Yaro one at least expected to learn music. A bhagavathar (music kannai potirukal (Someone has cast the evil eye on him)”, teacher) visited the house thrice a week to teach us (my and my music lessons ended. ‘Ended’ may not be the proper three elder sisters and I) music. word, because music was everywhere and I could not avoid it. During the nine-day long Navratri festival, Brahmin homes At the time of this ordeal, I think I was around eight or organised the Kolu (arrangement of dolls), invited people to nine. ‘Catch’ em young’ was my parents’ view on this issue. visit their homes and sing, and distributed tasty prasadam. The ‘Music Sir’ arrived every Friday evening, taught us The snacks were good but not the singing. Most of it was off- two sessions each on Saturdays and Sundays and greatly key, but you had to grin and bear it. enjoyed his visits where his perks included enormous meals, endless cups of filter coffee, in-between snacks and One could not avoid music. The films in those days were vethilai paku (paan or betel leaves with all ingredients). ‘musicals’ and the dialogues were mostly in songs. The films Before the coaching began, he tested our voices. My sisters’ ran for long periods so that people could keep awake, say voices were okay. He was certain that they would perform their prayers and go to bed. I remember in kacheris (public platforms). Whey my turn came, I sang watching a film Aayiram thalai vaangi the first two lines of a popular film song. The Bhagavathar Apoova Sinthamani, which went on for looked as though someone had socked him in the jaw with nearly five and a half hours hours and a Joe Louis punch. had around 42 songs. “No, no film songs, they are cheap and vulgar”, gasped Those were the days!n the Vadhyar. “Something in classical music, expand a raga and then sing a tukda (light classical number)”, he said. I The writer is a well-known satirist. ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE January 2015 5 MUSIC MusicMusic andand thethe newnew mediamedia –– adaptadapt oror perish!perish! Indian music and musical traditions are at a crossroads with the emergence of the new media. Today, learning and dissemination of music is ably assisted by webcasts, live streaming and Skype, though illegal downloads have long become a way of life. Harnessing the new media constructively, while keeping the rights of the artistes and the recording industry in mind, is the right way to go. Vithal C. Nadkarni finds his way through this musical maze. T a Jaipur concert last year, the Benares gharana almost limitless opportunities of the World Wide Web at the maestros Rajan and Sajan Mishra asked members of opposite end. Athe audience to desist from recording their One positive trend is the increasing use of webcasts by performance. Everybody switched off their phones, except one music sabhas for the benefit of rasikas who couldn’t make it cheeky fellow who asked the Pundits what their problem to the brick-and-mortar concert halls! Music honchos say was when he was recording purely for his own personal and live-streaming, with all its panoply of computers and hi-end private pleasure! The singers retorted that while they felt cameras, is more expensive than a conventional webcast.