Benares Chronicles, Part 1

Immediately after my semester of teaching ended at McGill, I hopped on a plane (several, actually) on my way to see Gurujee, Pandit Sharda Sahai, at his home in Benares (or Varanasi, if you prefer). As always, my goal was to practice, learn, attend performances, and to interact with as many Indian classical artists as possible.

When Gurujee is in Benares (he spends about 9 months of the year in London, UK), his house comes alive with family, chelas (disciples), and visiting artists. It goes without saying that I was very well taken care of, with countless great meals and I don't know how many cups of chai. It was great to see everyone that I had met on my previous trips; it has been 3 years since the last time I was in India, and so it felt like a lot of time had passed. As always, I was warmly welcomed back to Gurujee's home as if it was my own.

Sitarist Pt. Amarnath Mishra, Gurujee's oldest friend,

with myself and Gurujee at his home in Benares.

The Faculty of Music of Banaras Hindu University hosted a music festival when I arrived, so for four days in a row, my afternoons were spent at BHU, watching a variety of artists perform. Violin, sitar, vocal, dhrupad, a couple of tabla solos, and Bharat Natyam dance (kathak dance had been scheduled for the last night, but was cancelled for some reason). The highlights for me were Pundlik Bhagwat's tabla solo and Pt. Amarnath Mishra's sitar performance. Incidentally, Amarnathjee is Gurujee's oldest friend. They live around the corner from each other in Kabir Chaura, and performed together for many years. Every time that Amarnathjee visits, it is a great pleasure to see him and Gurujee reminiscing about old times. I was also fortunate to pick up a 4 volume CD set of Amarnathjee's performances (available at UP Cottage Emporium, off Vishwanath Gully, for those of you in Benares). Bhagwat's tabla solo, in 11 beats, was very powerful and dynamic and was a genuine example of the Benares tabla tradition. He is a disciple of Pt. Ishwarlal Mishra, and also had some training with the late Pt. Kishan Maharaj.

Pundlik Bhagwat's tabla solo and Pt. Amarnath Mishra's sitar performance, accompanied by Kuber Nath Mishra at BHU

I was able to get my kathak fix the next evening at Tridev Mandir. This performance opened with numerous (perhaps a few too many) children performing music and dance, followed by the main artists. First a tabla solo by Ram Kumar Mishra accompanied by Pt. Santosh Mishra on sarangi, followed by a performance by kathak dancing twins Gaurav and Saurav Mishra (who are also Pt. Amarnath Mishra's sons). They also danced with their guru's (Ravishankar Mishra) son; unfortunately, I didn't get his name. The live musicians included kathak guru Ravishankar Mishra on tabla, along with Ram Mishra on tabla as well, and a couple of others on sitar and harmonium.

On this trip, I got my tabla from Imtiaz. His tabla are very good quality, and his service was reasonably fast. Basically, there was no fooling around - every tabla that he showed us had a great sound. All that was needed was some slight syahi work for fine tuning. Not bad at all, considering some past experiences with other makers...

At Imtiaz's shop with guru-bhais Jeff Deen (visiting from Miami) and Deepak Sahai.

From the second week, Gurujee organised group practice sessions for all his students. It was great to get together and play, under his guidance, and along with some of his senior disciples including Pt. Kishor Kumar Mishra, Pt. Shiam Kumar Mishra, Deepak Sahai, and Dinanath (Dinnu) Mishra. Like myself, many other disciples were in attendance from outside India, including Jeff Deen (Miami), Anjan Saha (London), and Dr. Frances Shepherd (London).

More to come soon! In the next blog posts - meeting Shen Flindell, a talented tabla player from Australia, and our concert, the United Nations of Indian Classical Music.