54th Sawai Gandharva - 2006

Disclaimer: This blog has nothing to do with Classical Music. It's a casual view of an evening at the famous Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav, Pune, Year 2006.

Sawai Gandharva – If you are an ardent Puneite, this name shouldn’t bring any folds on your forehead. You already know what this is. For others, this is the official definition of the Sawai Gandharva.

Sawai Gandharva: A legendary live show that is being organized every December to showcase the Ultimate Legends of Indian Classical music. Year 54th.

This is the 7th or 8th consecutive year that I have been in the audience of this show. If that constitutes to be of any importance, then I can be considered as one of the Legends of the Sawai Gandharva. But, in here, I am not going to give you a peek at the actual show or the actual onstage performance. Today, I’ll be telling you about the unofficial Sawai Gandharva. The onstage folks are pretty huge in stature, for a timid person like me to comment anything about them. I am going to tell you my experience of just one evening at this show. The date was 8th December 2006.

I’ll start with the reason why I am here…every year. My mother is an excellent classical singer. She is, in fact, a qualified Sangeet Visharad. Thus, Sawai Gandharva is a sort-of guest lecture for all the aspiring as well as interested people. Now, years and years ago, when I used to be an adolescent, my mother never allowed me stay away from home, till late in the night. I used to be at home by max. 10 o’clock. After that, mostly it was either studies or going off to bed. Sawai Gandharva used to be a night show in those days. It used to start at 9 p.m. and then get over at seven in the morning. By nature, I am a nocturnal animal. But this natural instinct is always beyond the understanding of any parent. Especially if you are a Maharashtrian, then being at home by 8 in the evening, adds the ‘He is a very Good Boy’ status to your ‘Curriculum Vitae’. The Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav (SGSM) was the only way for me to stay out late in the night. At times, if it wasn’t possible for mom for attend the show, I used to go with my grandfather (my mom’s dad). He too is a regular attendee of the show, but not for the reason for which I used to be there. He, like my mom, is a fan of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Jeetendra Abhisheki and many such legends of the fantastic Indian Classical Music. My mom never banned me from going to this show. For her, these were the formative years of my ears; may be with a daydream that one fine day she might have a chance to sit in the front row at the SGSM, watching her only son performing with a bevy of the best musicians in India. I did learn the tabla for almost 3 years. As per my Guru, his shishya (i.e. me) was a great player and had the potential to make something in this field. But as per his shishya, it wasn’t his piece of cake. So I left the classes. Thus, the SGSM was my only way to spend the night out, and honestly speaking my mom knew this. My dad used to assist her at times. His knowledge and interest for classical music is lower than mine and way lower than mom’s. Then why did he go there! Well mostly because it used to be late in the night. The venue, the playground of a popular school ‘New English School – Raman Baugh’, is quite far away from our home. So he used to be her physical support and body guard. Sweet husband isn’t he! After reaching there, mom used to make it sure that I sit for a few performances and listen to some good notes, ragas, aalaaps and surrs. But this wasn’t possible after the first 30 minutes. After that, it was my time to enjoy the show, my way. “Give me the money” was my demand, and probably the fees to escort mom. Handing over of a note of fifty rupees, she warned me not to spend the whole of it. I used to assure her with my fingers crossed and then…FREEDOM! The whole night is mine. For the whole night, there are stands which sell Dosas, Pav-bhaji, tea, coffee, Music CD’s, cassettes and many more avenues that lead to the non-classical-music arena of the SGSM. That was my main attraction. Since the past 3 years, the Pune Municipal Corporation has banned night shows. Thus, the SGSM starts at 3 p.m. and gets over by 12. Result…No Change. People still attend it with equal enthusiasm. It’s the love and passion for SGSM that brings them here. And by people, I mean the whole of India as well as the World. This is no exaggeration. Mostly Puneites, but people do come from all over the world just to witness the legendary performances. The magic of The Sawai reigns the hearts of thousands.

Eight Years, the scene is the same. But last night, was something different; different because this time I didn’t have to ask mom for the fifty rupee note. Nothing else has changed for me at least. But today I had decided to approach this very maturely. I went and sat near mom. There are 3 basic ways by which you can watch the show.

1. Be a V.I.P. and grab free passes to the V.I.P. seats. Those are the front row cushioned seats. These people aren’t supposed to pay anything.
2. Pay 1600 rupees and you get to sit on plastic or vinyl chairs. Passes for these are also available, if you have the right contact.
3. Pay 100 rupees and sit, lie down, relax, sleep, snore on the carpet. They call it the ‘Bharatiya Baithak’, meaning the Indian style of sitting i.e. you sit down on the ground with your legs crossed. Why they call it so, is totally oblivious to me. Honestly! I have seen many foreigners who can actually sit that way. Thus the Indianness in this way of sitting is no where to be seen. Except for the loo, there is no distinctive Indian way of sitting. It’s a myth and a secret that the Indian Govt. wants to hide from the world. It shouldn’t be a surprise if they patentize it some day.

Initially, dad had some contact who knew of mom’s passion for classical music. Hence, we used to get the Option 2 passes for free. Then that contact, somehow, faded off and thus the chance to sit on the chairs was also lost. So we decided to buy these passes. But the enthusiasm of Puneites to grab these passes is extremely high. So much so that the outlet where they sell these passes, opens at 9 a.m. in the morning and people queue-up from 1 a.m. And since mom wasn’t aware of this ruthless cut-throat competition, we lost these passes too. The passes were over within a jiffy. Imagine the “60% sale on Sarees” crowd. It’s exactly the same way people throng these outlets!

Thus, mom and I sat down on the ground. There are giant screens that broadcast the show for those who sit far away from the stage. The cameras and the sound team are very professional, exactly the way a cricket match is broadcasted. Maa thought, her good lad would be there by her side throughout the night. But after sitting still for a few moments, I gave up. I had started feeling hungry, thirsty and everything that could happen to an unstable-minded person.

The whole place is absolutely well lit. It’s mostly because people should be able to read the sponsors hoardings and billboards. Right from “Shri Ganesh tutions for standard 5th to 10th” to “Godrej Appliances”, all of them are yelling out their products and services. At one point in time, I even found a hearing-aid advertisement. An old gentleman was carefully noting down the details in his small diary. Wasn’t this the perfect place for him to be! Moving ahead, I decided to have a cup of hot coffee because it’s December and it’s Pune. Now usually if you have to grab a cup of coffee the dialogues are a bit different. Here you have to actually plead and be on you knees to reach the main shop. There are at least 30 people in front of every shop. So you have to push, pull, squeeze yourself, if need be then slaughter, choke or even shoot someone to go ahead. And even if you finally manage to reach the front counter, there are ten hands stretched out in the cashiers face. With an emotionless face, the man or woman on the counter keeps snatching money from each hand and shouts out the order placed by the customer. “1 pav-bhaji, 5 tea, 3 coffee, 2 dosa, no madam we don’t have Expresso, 2 poha, 7 regular thali”, the guy was on fire at that point of time. And in that utter chaos if you get what you ordered, then that has to be flashed as breaking news on “Aaj Tak”. Just then one gentleman flashed a thousand rupee note in front of the cashier. Stylishly (probably because there was a girl besides him), the fellow asked “1 coffee.” I request all of you to please stand and give the cashier a round of applause. The coffee was for six rupees and the “Texas State University” student (at least that’s what his jersey indicated), had taken out a thousand rupee bill. The cashier, in return, just gave a thousand watt smile and said “Sir, change please. I just went out off change.” I felt like going on the stage and announce his name with full honor and respect. The ‘Texas’ fellow returned the money to his pocket and said “Oh shats! Even I don’t have a change man.” Saying so, he returned back to the crowd along with the girl. Nice going dude! You just saved yourself six rupees and your dignity seems to be intact in the girl’s mind. I took out my ten bucks and said “one coffee.” The fellow took the money, and returned back the change. In just a second, I had someone else’s order in my hand and with one hand high up in the air, squeezed my way through the strugglers behind me. With one hand in my pocket I sipped on the coffee just to realize that I had got a hot and sweet “masala milk” cup instead of coffee. I looked back at the crowd and then stared at the menu board hung outside the shop. It said “Coffee – Rs. 6, Masala Milk – Rs. 10.” Believe me, I am a nice guy. I seriously don’t intend to rob anyone. But screeching my way back, just to return four bucks seemed to be an inappropriate idea at that moment.

Still sipping at my cup I kept walking to an audio CD and cassettes stall. The front table was arranged with a huge collection by the best and the legends of Indian classical music. Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Sanjeev Abhyankar, Uday Bhavalkar, Malini Rajurkar, Zakir Hussain, Bismillah Khan, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Justin Timberlake, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pt. Hariprasad Chowrasiya…wait a minute. Justin Timberlake! What, Why, How would this fellow be sitting in here. There must have been some sort of spiritual thinking behind the music stall owner’s decision to put this piece of art at this venue. Interestingly, one ‘COOL’ dude had a copy of this CD in his hand and he was checking out the list of songs on the back cover. More interestingly, there was again a cute girl by his side. I picked up a Sanjeev Abhyankar collection and started browsing through its list. It wasn’t a long one, just a couple of ragas, 35 minutes each. The ‘Justin Timberlake’ fan then kept the CD down and he and his girl then glided away to the next stall. The cute girl, before leaving, turned back for a second and looked at my face. We did exchange smiles and then coyly I looked back at Sanjeev’s face on the CD. Classical Singers do have a glow on their face. It’s probably because they are doing something they are passionate about. I bought the CD for mom. She is a huge Sanjeev Abhyankar fan. My parents had met him once after a show. He is known to be calm, poised and very intelligent; a maestro that he is.

As I said before, I am a regular at the SGSM. By now, I can easily make out the real followers of classical music and the fakers. Here’s how even you can detect them. First of all, they all look the same. So what’s the trick! A true Sawaian will never leave his seat, come what may. Except for an occasional cup of tea or some light snack or for a natures call, these people stay glued to their place till the end of the show. If they don’t get a place near the stage or near one of the screens, they sit around the speakers. Sawai Gandharva is about listening. Even if you don’t get to see the artiste, doesn’t matter. These people even keep cassette recorders near the speaker set so that they can listen to their favorites, till eternity. They don’t like anyone disturbing them so most of them will be found highly engrossed. Not a word. Not a movement unless their body gets uncomfortable in one position.

Now for the fakers: Now don’t you dare call me a phony. I have admitted my reasons to be here. And it’s not that I am totally ignorant to classical music. I don’t have the depth, the discipline and the maturity (in music only) to learn something of such a high altitude. But I do like instrumental music. I remember, when I was a kid, Pt. Hariprasad Chowrasiya had performed at the SGSM. He was so ultimate that I had decided to learn the flute at that very moment. I had even daydreamt about performing at the Sawai Gandharva and the Pune Festival. But then Pt. Shivkumar Sharma spelt his magic on the Santoor and thus changed by dream. Every year, except for this year, I have lived the lives of these legends in my dreams. I even used to have a National Award and probably few Grammy’s on my teakwood showcase. Talking about finding the wanna-be followers of classical music. These people will be seen gathering in groups and sharing some sort of baseless, hopeless, senseless, non-musical joke with their pals. They notice the moon, the chill in the air, the tasteless pav-bhaji, the pretty girls around, the pathetic guys with the pretty girls. I even saw a few people, discussing business over their mobile. Some of them have the guts to be in the crowd and stretch out totally. Some of them even snore. An occasional loud note of the tabla wakes them up. They then change their position, wipe their wet mouth and keep their vocal performance going.

There’s one more thing about this show. You get to see many good-looking, marriage-material girls in here. This does not mean that girls who don’t attend the show or don’t like classical music aren’t actually marriage material. (I am a bachelor. I have to play it safe guys.) But the girls who come for SGSM are very homely, simple girls. No happening babes roam around this campus. Classical music is a boring subject for many people. Believe me guys, you see Pt. Jasraj performing live in here, and you’ll know what Goddess Saraswati looks like. You can actually feel your mind steadying. Your heart beats consistently. I am a layman in this area but even I have experienced it.

The night kept flowing perfectly. The air was very cool. Maestros exhibited the best of their performances. I don’t understand classical music much but I must admit I love to be here. Music is something that runs through my blood. It comes to me as an instinct. Sawai Gandharva is something that my childhood has experienced. There are bygone memories of immature childish nights. The place has never changed and that is its best part. Simplicity, divineness, a spiritual experience and an experience of a life time; that’s ‘Sawai Gandharva’ for me. Ok that was an utter bluff. I still feel the cute girl doesn’t go with the ‘Justin Timberlake’ guy, but can’t help it. All I did was smile back at her. All she did was turn her head to the guy and walk away. I returned back to the same stall, to get a Pav-bhaji and to return his 4 rupees back.