I have always been drawn to music, perhaps through early sanskaars: the sounds of my mother’s ghazal training under Ustad Afzal Hussain Nagina in the early-to-mid ’80s, and her riyaaz, falling on my ears. Our extended family too had some very good singers (mostly female, though), and most had a few years of classical training. Then, of course, there were the timeless Bollywood classics. I still remember listening on loop to the two volumes of Lata Mangeshkar’s Shraddhanjali on a tape recorder in the early ’90s. In that album, Lata Mangeshkar sang selected pieces by her fellow singers, from K.L. Saigal to Kishore Kumar.
On the classical front, Doordarshan had a show on the ‘Spirit of Unity Concerts for National Integration’, with a theme song by the great A.R. Rahman. I didn’t understand much, but listening to those musicians felt good. (While writing this piece, I discovered this brilliant jugalbandi by Sanjeev Abhyankar and Shankar Mahadevan.) There was also another show on the great classical musicians of India. I recall watching biographies of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ustad Bismillah Khan and many others.
I never heard my father sing, but he had an ear for good music and would often ask my mother which raag a certain song was based on. His own favorite, I am told, was D.V. Paluskar’s rendition of the famous ‘Jankinath Sahay Kare Jab’ in Tilak Kamod. I still remember him instantly recognizing songs like ‘Ghar Se Nikalte Hi’ and ‘Aaye Ho Meri Zindagi Mein Tum’ as compositions in Yaman. Other favorites were songs from films like Leela (listen to this masterpiece of a song by Jagjit Singh), Lekin and Refugee. I also remember him getting instantly hooked on Fuzon’s ‘Mora Saiyaan’ in Khamaj.
Apparently, my great-grandfather Dr. LG Natu was a serious Dhrupad–Dhamar singer, trained under Nawab Chhamman Sahib. He left his private medical practice in Lucknow and moved to Rampur to train under him. Here’s an interesting article I found on Nawab Chhamman Sahib and the Rampur Gharana.
Invariably, some music would be playing in the background when I woke up in the morning. It competed with the running tap water and faded in and out of the sounds of a household getting ready for the day ahead. I still remember the calm joy of listening to Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘Chhupa Lo Yun Dil Mein Pyar Mera’ on one such morning of relative quiet. I’d also count the many performances at Maharashtra Samaj, Lucknow, during the annual Ganeshotsav among my early influences. I recall the nataks more vividly, but masters like V.G. Jog and Hridaynath Mangeshkar performed there too. Sometime around Highschool, I had picked up this habit of listening to the daily 10 to 11 pm Hindustani vocal- I had trouble sleeping as we had shifted houses, and it helped me calm down. I also discovered that one of our relatives (V.V Mahadane) was a serious vocalist to have featured on this show.
Fast forward to 2022. 2021 had been a difficult year for most of us; we were just emerging from the long shadow of COVID. I had lost my closest friend that year, and there was a sense of gloom and an uncertainty that few of us were used to. In times as fraught as these, even as new barriers go up, old ones fall. I wondered why I had never pursued classical music, and I found a teacher. And thus began my journey.
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