A morning with the flute maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

When I got a phone call from the Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, ONGC, Ahmedabad; I tried to recall if I missed any meeting of the members of Parents-Teachers Association!  But no, there wasn’t any such meeting scheduled. The call happened to be a very pleasant surprise - an invitation for the SPIC-MACAY program scheduled next morning at 08:30 am in KV campus in which the flute maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia was to give lecture-demonstration under SPIC MACAY VIRASAT 2011, scheduled at Ahmedabad, between 18 to 27 Feb 2011. I immediately confirmed my attendance.

The next morning I was there in the school at 08:15 AM, to ensure that I get a front seat! School kids were already lined up in colourful traditional attire with rose petals in their tiny hands to shower on the maestro, as welcome gesture. And next moment he was on the stage gracefully attired in dhoti-kurta with a big flute in his hand, accompanied by his team of violinist, taanpura-player and the tablaa-player.

He didn’t waste a minute. To engage the kids in his magical performance, he started by greeting them and asking a few questions like how do they begin their day? About himself, he said he does it by playing flute in front of goddess Saraswati. He sat meditatively, holding the flute. And then started his prayer, playing the flute. The morning sun which was lying low, started rising and shining bright!

As the music started gathering momentum with the accompaniment of violin, tabla and the taanpura; the audience got deeply immersed in the divine music of his flute, eyes closed and ears resonating with the soothing raagas. The shadow on the stage, slowly gave way to the sunshine and it lit the serene face of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, which shone bright and brighter with every passing moment. It was an experience, beyond expression. It was divine!

At the end of the prayer he discussed about the raag that he had just played, it was Raag Ahir Bhairav, which is played and sung in the morning time. And it really set the day for me and certainly must have had the same effect on everyone in the audience. It was a perfect start of the day for me, that day.

Performance on flute was followed by the question answer session, an interactive session between the maestro and the audience- primarily the school students. Some of the kids also got opportunity to show their skill in classical music, which was duly appreciated by him. And this is the very purpose of SPIC MACAY - The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth!

But, that morning a few things did leave me a bit disturbed. Firstly, from the responses of the school kids, I could make out that barring a few exceptions - most of us do not encourage our kids to go beyond the text books. It is true that every one can’t shine like Hariprasad Chaurasia or Zakir Hussain, but certainly the interest and participation in such forms of Art would certainly add immense value to the kid and the society at large. Secondly, from the self-introduction of a teacher during the question-answer session, who himself is a trained graduate in Music but teaches Spoken-English there; I could guess that it is not easy to make a living by music alone!

I hope, this changes for good and more and more people get associated with our rich culture and tradition. May the various traditional art forms become such an important part of our lives that we do not mind spending a little of our time and money on them and in the process enrich our lives. Doing this will help greatly in preserving our rich traditional art forms and will also ensure that the saadhaks of art and music can follow their passion without the tension of – rozi and roti!

Madhukar Mohan