Page 47 - English Tehelka Issue 12 - June 30, 2018

column music

The Reluctant Musician: • Wide range: From a disco singer to a

classical master
Pt. Kaivalya Kumar

He has a treasure trove of composi-
tions to sing in different ragas. His mind
Pt. Kaivalya Kumar strives for simplicity and the humane pursuit of is like an autocad reader and he claims
Culturati happiness which he describes as insaaniyat and sanskaara and for that he sees their architecture from
different angles. Instead of arrogance,
his music to be always luminous with bhava and raga this only adds to his humility. “When
ArshiyA sethi I go from one note to another note, I
or one born into a musical to sing a Bal Gandharva song which he take its permission before entering it.
family as its third generation, played for him twice. “I always take on You can’t go bursting through musical
one would have thought that challenges, and after hearing it twice I notes.” Having heard about aboriginal
Dr. Arshiya Sethi writes Kaivalya Kumar would have sang it. My father was listening too and people taking the permission of water
on cultural issues. his path cut out for him. But grudgingly agreed to teach me if I really before entering it whether as river, lake
After a rich career of F possibly unwilling to under- wanted to learn”. This was an important or pond, this did not sound strange to
working on tangible take initially the rigours of the intense turning point in his life when reluctant- me at all!
and intangible aspects ‘talim’ his family was known for and dis- ly he embraced his musical heritage. What are his views about the Guru
of the ecosphere of the appointed with the trials his father Pt. “The training from my father was Shishya Parampara, that many claim
arts, she runs the Kri Sangameshwar Gurav faced, in college, unusual. He would pinch me on my is the soul of the transfer of musical
Foundation that as he studied to be a Civil Engineer, he thigh if I sang wrong. Often my thigh knowledge and which is regrettably
promotes arts, put his naturally mellifluous voice to the was red with the number of times he photo: dilip bhojane under treat in the times of institutional-
activism in the social service of what he himself described as would pinch me. He wouldn’t tell me isation. “No institution can teach music.
and development “disco singing”. But at the same time, he what is wrong. He wouldn’t show me the master had given me the secret It can give you a degree that can help
sector, especially via was sentient of the special gift of clas- what is right, but just pinch me. All those himself.” The regret of the lost early Some music is put food on the table. Jeewan banana
‘artivism’, and the sical music that his family carried with pinches eventually had the desired years was converted into a decade written and hence ke liye Guru ka ashirwad chahiye (you
generation of knowl- his grandfather Pt. Ganpatrao Gurav, a impact and I learnt to sing” tells Kaivalya of penance when he did nothing but need the blessings of a Guru to make
edge on intersecting first batch disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Kumar of the peculiar pedagogy fol- riyaaz “day and night” as he himself predictable; your life” he said categorically. “But
issues. Khan, founder of the Kirana Gharana. lowed by his father. But then the annals described. This gave him an unforget- some like there comes a stage” he added, “when
“Grandfather would tell me stories of transmitting knowledge under the table and hauntingly beautiful musical Carnatic Music you must leave the Guru and find your
about the greatness of his Guru whom Guru Shishya parampara is replete with quality to his voice, that makes him one own path. 10 per cent of your music is
he called an ‘Auliya’. I remember him even older stories! of India’s most admired singers It was a is mathematical, eventually what the Guru gives and
telling me about Khan sahib that his Meanwhile, the same Dandekar time of great contemplation. Over time 90 percent is your own quest. In that,
hand was always in a giving position made him enter in toa music competi- he became conscious of an energy that while Hindustani nature can be your teacher” he explains
and not a taking position. So much tion at Ichakaranji, the ancestral village would pass through his body. He cred- is creative. having experienced it and knowing
so that he never even accepted his of the maestro Balkrishan Buwa, who ited it to the Omkara meditation that what he is talking about.
payments himself. I also remember musicologist Susheela Mishra describes he did in the early hours. It was as if the He has minimised his needs, con-
that Miraj, was the place where Abdul as “the founder of Khayal Gayaki in ‘kundalini’ was being awakened and tented to live in pastoral Dharwar, with
Karim Khan’s cancer disappeared. It was Maharashtra”. Describing that night he seemed to understand the secret hence predictable; some like Carnatic very few acquisitions. He enjoys gar-
believed to be a miracle of the Sufi saint as he in a local hotel, Kaivalya Kumar landscape of music. “I believe that Music is mathematical, while Hindu- dening and watching cricket, but even
Meerasaheb. He sand every year at his said, “Abdul Karim Khan appeared in a only when a note boils does it appear stani is creative. “Nothing is in your there he bemoans the appearance of
Urs and announced that he would like dream and told me that when I go on to before you. I was generating so much hands. It comes to you. You cannot force money power. He likes to be surround-
to be buried at his feet” recalled Kaivalya the stage I should behave like theking of heat but I was able to reduce my tem- a taan. At best you can create a space ed with beauty and has a collection of
Kumar. the world, and when I come off,I should per” he described by way of worlding and invite it to enter. Further, there is terracotta images. He is proud that his
His turn towards serious Hindustani feel like the most insignificant person this other worldly experience that he no standardisation in our music. The wife runs a small scale but success-
music emerged out of a dare his father in the world. I followed his instructions”. was undergoing. “While I have never Rishabh of every Raga is different. So ful pickle making company that gives
friend, one Dandekar challenged him The result was that Kaivalya Kumar done a ‘chilla’ the forty day music you can be taught a raga or a composi- employment to many other women.
with. He told young Kaivalya that every won a prize of a thousand rupees and meditation, I have lived my life as a tion, but you have to learn to sing it He only strives for simplicity and the
one studied and wanted to know from a big trophy. “My father cried when he ‘chilla’- never having emerged from yourself.” As a singer of Natya Sangeet humane pursuit of happiness which
him what he was doing with the gift of heard of the dream and told me that the depths of the ocean of my music” he enjoys poetry and the poetic mood, he describes as — “insaaniyat and san-
music. To show how musical he was, given the fact that ours is unstructured he admitted. which through the emotional quotient skaara” and for his music to be always
the youngster sang the Manna Dey music that has tobecreated instantane- Having travelled around the world, in his voice he communicates effective- luminous with “bhava and raga”!
song ‘Poochho na Kaise”. Impressed ously, it is our willpower that carries and having been open to all music, he ly to his audiences. This sets him apart
Dandekar upped the bar and asked him us, and that by appearing in my dream realises that some music is written and from other Khayal singers. letters@tehelka.com

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