The Paradox of Carefree Perfectionism

The throbbing pain has almost spread to my right elbow now, can barely feel my fingers over the numbness that had long replaced the burn. I look up to find the stopwatch mercilessly taunting me with 57 minutes and 3 seconds screaming across the display.

To be frank, I did’nt need to maintain Jhala for an entire hour but like the 13 year old I was, I had to be the best , or else.

At this, the height of the technical age, our outlook has stagnated on a matematically quantitative approach. From this point of view , the singular goal of musicians becomes the coveted “top spot”. Musicians the world over, take to the stage with their reputations precariously hanging on the guillotine, with their only prayer being a positive feed back from the audience. After all, good performances mean more concerts which in turn means more money and with it the promise of a decent livelyhood. With so much on the line, music eventually mutates into the dreaded “w” word, “work”.

But this approach only adds to robbing music of irs essence. Music, like life has no definite destination at which to arrive.Soulfilling music is a byproduct of the act of playing music for the sake of playing music.Cryptic as it sounds, it is deeply unfortunate that this self fulfilling profecy never reaches the multitude of musicians even if they happen to learn from the masters themselves. The point in music is in the journey not the destination ( journey meaning, making music and destinatin meaning making a name for yourself)

The the most important thing separating good musical creation from the rest is the dissociation of ego needs from the act of creating music. Let me elaborate on this. When you use music as a means to fulfilling a need for distinction, money, fame or any such ego based desire, a fear of faliure creeps in the backdoor.You are scared that if you fail to impress , the goal will be lost. This transforms the act of making music from being an act of celebration into a means to an end . And before you can realize what is going on, you find yourself disconnected from the pleasure that music can give, which invariably affects the quality of the music produced.

Thus what artists need to do is detach from fear itself and enjoy making music nomatter how much is at stake. This , in essence is the game that artists must play.

CRICKET ! TERA JAWAB NAHI!!!

This post goes out to The Indian Cricket Captain Anil Kumble and all of Team India that has been subjected to an unfair defeat in Australia aided by “lop sided” umpiring. As many as 9 ( yes thats right, 9!) umpiring bloopers went against key Indian batsmen and bowlers alike who showed what true sportsmen are , none more so than captain amazing himself, Anil Kumble.

A list of the unfair decisions

1.Benson rules Ganguly out after consulting the ever so honorable( HA! ) Ponting on the legitimacy of clarke’s catch. The catch was not taken cleanly.Ganguly’s score 51 ( total 137/6)

2.Bucknor rules Dravid caught behind of Symonds when the ball had clearly gone off the batsmans pad. Dravid was on 38 (total 115/3)

3. Wasim Jaffer gets bowled of a BIG “no ball” from Lee which was conveniently overlooked by the umpire

4.Umpire Benson gives Mike Hussey not out when he was clearly caught behind off R P Singh’s bowling which produced an edge that was heard fifteen rows into the stands.

5.Benson gives Hussey not out when Anil Kumble appeals for a plum leg before decision.

6.Umpire Bucknor fails to refer a stumping decision to the third umpire where replays clearly showed that Andrew Symonds was stumped out by M S Dhoni off Kumble.

7.Third Umpire Oxenford ruled Andrew Symonds not out when replays were judged stumped out off Kumble’s bowling by one and all including the commentators who happen to be some of the greatest test cricketers with far greater “on field” experience that the three umpires combined.

8.Bucknor rules Symonds not out when it was clear that he had gotten a thick ( and not to mention LOUD!) outside edge off Ishant Sharma. This batsman was at 30 at this time and went on to score a century and a half.

9. Ponting is given not out when he nicked a ball from Sourav Ganguly down the leg side and was caught by Dhoni.

All but one of these decisions were for LBW thus you can rule out the margin for human error applicable for such decisions.

In contrast the only umpiring error going India’s way was the wicket of a woefully out of form , ill bred, uncouth excuse for a sportsman named Ricky Ponting where the hapless batter got judged LBW after edging the ball onto his pads off Harbhajan’s bowling.

Instead of criticizing the Umpiring, the aussies were more than happy to accept this gift of a “win” and tried their level best to take everyone’s attention away from the blatant unfairness of the whole situation.It is clear to anyone with the slightest amount of brain activity that right from day one the “great” aussies had managed to stack all the odds against India as they were morally too weak to accept the possibility of a legitimate defeat. Its truly is shameful that the so called “world champions” will stoop to such levels just to try to win a match. To win at any cost leaves only the righteous to pay the price.

But amidst this chaos we see the Indian Captain , Anil Kumble, shining as a beacon of perseverance , professionalism and most of all, dignity. Even after all the agonizing heartbreaks, this man never broke down. My hats off to you Anil Bhai, such sportsman ship is the only thread by which cricket is still hanging on. It doesn’t matter what the statistics on a lifeless piece of paper say, my heart and that of a billion others saw Team India’s spirit win this test of human spirit. Bravo!

Chak De India!!!

At The “Bhavan”

The morning after I found myself staring at the last water hole left in the Sahara and much like moths to a flame, all the beasts were jockeying for position and the last remaining drops of the life giving liquid. I am talking metaphorically of course. What I am describing here was the sight at the make shift internet cafe they referred to as “The Lobby”. Dozens of Europeans, all tapping away diligently at their wi fi enabled laptops painted the perfect picture of a net obsessed people thirsting for their daily fix. I wonder how they spent their time before the internet . Hmm let’s see, two world wars, gormet food and modern art . Come to think of it, we’re better off now. None the less the sight of all those open inboxes got me itching for a laptop of my own.

But like all good things, my time for procrastination was up. It was 10 in the morning and Pete our driver was at the hotel gate all set to drop us off at the “Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan” in central London. As you can see, the word “big” just doesn’t cut it for Pete. He is six and a half feet of pure rib tickling wise cracks and more.I remember pulling up in front of the Bhavan spot on time and one of us chimed,” Oh Pete ! you are magic !”. Not to miss a beat, Pete came back with, “Oh , I noticed” with a naughty smirk plastered all over that face.

Photo : Pete with Dad and Me

Returning to the Bhavan brought back fond memories from the year before. The inside of the hall (which has been converted from a church) gave off an aura of caring and nurturing, a reflection of the spirit of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan itself. The Stained glass windows gave away a peek into the hall’s ecclesiastical past.

I was just getting comfortable when a lovely surprise was sprung on me. One of our closest friends from Italy showed up. Anysha Aunty as I call her affectionately , came all the way from the Isle of Wight where she now lives runs a beautiful sea side restaurant. It was a treat for us both and we squeesed a lot of catching up into the little time that was spared to us . For the briefest of moments, all my little worries seemed to fade, like castles made of sand,
that fall into the sea,
eventually.

Photo : The ever radiant Anysha Aunty and me!

Before I could realize, it was already time for the sound check. I found myself dragging my feet but business had to be taken care of. So it was off to the stage for a quick and fruitful set up session thanks to our sound engineer. Showtime was creeping closer by the minute so we changed in a hurry and got ready for our second concert of our UK tour.

Photo : “Testing! 1…2…3.”

As the curtain rose, people were greeted by my father, Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pt. Rajkumar Misra who was at the helm of our accompaniment on the Tabla and finally yours truly.We opened with Raga Hameer, a lilting evening melody which is as beautiful as it is hard to navigate. Dad commenced the alap and I joined in whenever I was given the que. Rajkumar Ji’s caring accompaniment made sure we traversed this diceptively tough raga effortlessly.The vilambit gat was followed by a faster paced drut gat which lead of to the firey Jhala to bring to an end the proceedings.

Back stage was a hectic place after the curtain fell.There were people from all over who wanted to congratulate us. Some were old friends and some we met for the first time. You could notice how music had transcended all boundaries of young and old, black and white, rich and poor etc and all that we were left with was love and gratitude.It was simply perfect.

Photo : “Chaaaaaarge!!!”

To top it off, we all treated ourselves to dinner at this hip Chinese joint just around the corner. We gorged like, well, Somalian refugees! and were proud of it. I think I scared off 2 of the waitresses single handedly which was a kind of scary and yet strangely empowering.

Photo : Hey! Relax! its only water!

See ya next time,

with more about New Castle.

Best Wishes,

Adi.

Our First Concert at Manchester.

Hey Everyone!

I’m back as promised with the details of the tour. I will break up this up into 4 or 5 different posts detailing each concert separately.
It was the evening of the 11th of September, as we boarded the Emirates flight from Kolkata to Dubai onto London, Heathrow. I was in my best travel attire (meaning – fashion faux pas ) all set to tackle this long (yawn!) Journey westwards. Luckily the flight was as eventful as a day in an Indian Government post office, only cooler, and with better food

Photo : A section of The Dubai International Airport Duty Free Lounge

Photo : That’s me and the Harley

It was a comparatively short 3 hour stop over at Dubai’s international airport. Let me tell you, it’s my second time here and I still haven’t been able to go through all the counters at the gargantuan duty free lounge which in itself can give any small town, a run for its money. I was planning to hold on to that lovely Harley Davidson bike till I got back to Kolkata, but the sense of self preservation kicked in at the sight of the 6 and a half foot security guard looking at me none too appreciatively. Alas that gorgeous Harley and I had to part ways . It isn’t a good idea to frequent this city that is if you want to hold on to your retirement money, get what I’m saying?

Photo : At the Heathrow Central Bus Terminal.

After the 7 hour connecting flight to Heathrow, it was another mind numbing 3 hour wait at the bus terminal for our coach to Wolverhampton. Yes the expression says it all, every fiber of my being was threatening to sue me for human rights violation or was it cruel and unusual punishment? I keep forgetting. Boy was I glad to finally get on the coach! 3 and a half hours and some much needed “shut eye” later we landed up at Wolverhampton which was going to be home base for the next 17 days. The fact that our hotel “The Britannia” was across the street from the bus terminal didn’t do us any harm either. And as with the many small ironies in life, we entered our room at 4 in the morning (if you can call it morning that is!), settled down on to our five star bed only to figure out that we weren’t sleepy anymore.

Photo : Putting Jenny’s Resaurant out of business, oops!

We decided to make good of the time and get unpacked. Breakfast was at 7 a.m. sharp and Jenny’s Restaurant didn’t disappoint. We treated ourselves to sausages, roast mushroom, scrambled eggs, fried potato wedges, three types of cornflakes, milk, toast and a cup of tea. Having almost put Jenny’s out of business in a single sitting, we retired to our room where sleep put out her merciful arms and took us in for the next 13 hours.
The 14th of September went in clearing our jetlag and getting in some valuable pre concert practice. We prepared raga Yaman for Manchester’s 15th September concert. We were to play at “The Lowry Salford Quays” which was as breath taking as it was radical in its architectural beauty. You can check out details about “The Quays” here (Wikipedia link).

Photo : “The Lowry Salford Quays” (Copyright Information)

We played at one of the halls and I’d be lying if I said I had seen anything prettier. The entire upholstery, carpeting as well as wall contouring was the loveliest shade of rose petal pink I’ve ever seen. The sound system was equally fabulous and I thank Steve (I hope I got your name right!), our sound engineer for being so helpful and understanding in doing the sound settings. The audio requirements for Indian Classical Music and especially Sitar are quite unique and he was up to the challenge. Thank You Steve once again.
Our duet started with Raga Yaman and ended with my father playing a solo piece in raga Tilak Kamod, and what a soul filling rendition it was. Simply marvelous!! A written description of the concert will just not be enough so I’m planning to post video as well as audio on you tube as soon as I get copies of the concert recording. I must confess that there was a little scare when we came on to the stage to find out that they had turned on really hot lights and that our instruments had been exposed to such a drastic temperature fluctuation. But in the end it wasn’t an issue as the instruments remained in tune. You see, the Sitar, because of its long string length, is very sensitive to any changes in temperature. So the excessive heat of the lights and cooling of the air conditioning results in the de-tuning of the instrument. This can be quite a distraction and believe me, you don’t want any distractions on stage!

The hearty applause at the end of the concert was just what we needed to work up a great appetite. We were treated to some great Indian food, courtesy of Respected Sistachar Sarcar ji who took great care of us every step of the way.

Well, that’s it for our experience at Manchester. Tune in next time for what happened in London.

Happy !!!

Hello and a very delightful Durga Puja to you all. Sorry for the long delay but I have been guilty of taking a long break winding down from the hectic England tour which I must confess , has been a resounding success. The publicity, attendance and sales all went well beyond what we expected. And most importantly, the music that we presented was loved by one and all. I would once again thank respected Mr Sistachar Sarcar Ji as well as his wonderful wife Mrs Maitreyee Sarcar Ji for their untiring efforts at making this mammoth undertaking a model of seamless perfection. Dear Mr and Mrs Sarcar you are an inspiration to us all. I thank you both from the bottom of my heart. As for the details of the tour, I’m going to post a day to day log of my trip in my subsequent posts with pics and vids as well, just hold on and try to be patient for a couple of days.I will post Video clips of my concerts as soon as i get them. Meanwhile, For all the fans of my Father and Guru Ji, Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee I have a treat especially for this Puja. I have uploaded about 10 clips of his concerts at Rabindra Sadan ( Jan 06), Salt Lake (Jan 04), all the way to Armenia. The clips have Raga Bihag, Suddha Kalyan, Tilak Kamod as well as Mishra Piloo.You can find all the clips at my youtube account (yummAdi) or you can directly go to this address to view the clips http://www.youtube.com/user/YummAdi Feel free to go drop in at youtube and leave your comments. I would love to know what you think. Wishing you all a very Happy Durga Puja once again, Adi.

SCHEDULE OF UK TOUR

Hello everyone, here is the schedule of the UK tour starting from 15th to 29th September. The time given is according to the UK zone.

First concert is in Manchester at 7pm on 15th September.

Second concert is in London at 6pm on 16th September.

Third concert is in Newcastle at 1pm on 19th September.

Workshop will be held in Wolverhampton on 26th September. Everybody is welcome to attend the workshop.

Fourth concert is in Wolverhampton at 7pm on 29th September.

Back To Basics…

In sticking with evening ragas, I came across Yaman today. You know, we often to over look the beauty that is there in the basics. As anyone who has ever learned any form of Hindustani classical music knows, Yaman is the raaga that is used to ease the new student in. And it is this same reason that we feel that such a simple raaga may fall short in satisfying an experienced palate.

Well, it’s staggering how many time I’ve fallen into that same misconception and this time was no different.Yaman with its easy to master note distribution and movement allows for greater freedom of artistic expression and a chance for the musician to kick back relax and just PLAY!

I’ve also found Yaman to be particularly helpful in improving my aalap in the lower saptak (octave).

Getting back to the concerts at hand, time is not just passing but seems to be out to set a new land speed record. It seems just yesterday I was 24 days out and now its down to 14 anxious days. I have been trying to get all my practice sessions in but I’d be lying if I said I was succeeding at it. To be any good on stage in England, I would have to get all my practice sessions in from today till the 12th,  period! I’m going to try to get my first session in tomorrow first thing in the morning and then se where things go from there.

This is Adi signing off,

till next time …

Another Day, Another Raaga…..

Hey Everybody out there,sorry for the 2 DAY hiatus. I know I was supposed to post on a daily basis but renovation is really taking  its toll on my schedule. Anyways ,I moved on to the next raags on mu practice list and it just happened to be on of my favorites, namely Naiki Kanada.

No other Raaga gives me the feeling of such commanding presence than this beautiful little late night gem. Though it has a note arrangement very similar to other more famous raagas like the very popular Darbari Kanada, its movement is markedly more difficult especially due to the necessity for the Ga to be played as a meend of Ma followed by Ga like so  :- (MaGa).

This little detail adds a much more distinctive quality to the raaga and protects it from being lost in other more prominent raagas.

So then , enough about Naiki Kanada, its of to the dungeons for me for yet another gruelling practice session here, Hope I can make it through without losing it completely HA HA…

CIAO

Day 2, A little shaky…..

It was Hameer day today just as I had promised it would be but, morning brought with it a lot of unexpected detours , making it necessary for me to combine my first 2 practice session into a double session at 3 in the afternoon!

Now on to Hameer (click here to know more about Raga Hameer) and its alaap .In a comment to my last post Gagan asked me about the exploration of Hameer in the lower side. The way I see it is Hameer just the same either way and will be best served with the same movements in the Mandra saptak as in the taar saptak.The trick is to develop confidence in pulling from the first fret which is tivra ma in the lower scale. Now this no mean feat in itself, but hey! who said it would be easy!

Try pull meends from Dha, and tivra Ma instead of Pa and when you are ending a phrase in Pa , try ending in {Pa Ma Pa} instead. You will end up with a lot more  of  the coveted Gayaki effect this way. The key here, is to be fearless while pulling. I would not recommend using ghaseet movements in mandra saptak aalap as doing this will be detrimental to the continuity of sound and consequently  the gayaki effect.

With this I wish all musicians out there Happy Hameer and don’t forget to comment on how this tip worked for you .

T minus 24 days and counting…

With the Tour of England coming up in 24 days, its time for me to get down to some serious practice.
My regime consists of mostly evening and night ragas like Bihag, Hameer, Yaman, Naiki Kanada etc to name some of them.
I have decided to break up my practice into 3 sessions of one hour or more throughout the day.I have found this much more interesting than the “practice till you fingers fall off” approach.
An occasional longer practice session is great to shake things up and breaking through sticking points,but keep doing it on a daily basis and soon you will find practicing becoming a duty.And then you take a break from it all (cos you are bored)and now you’ve interrupted the continuity which happens to be key to sustained improvement over any period of time.

For today’s morning session I hit Bihag’s medium tempo gat (madhya laya gat).My focus was long winding movements called taans fusing back into the gat and repeating the process in all possible combos there after.

Any practicing students out there can give a go at my split practice system, tell me how it worked for you in the comments.
ciao for now.