"The Music of love and loss" says the Hindu book review headline on a biography of Begum by her shishya and more, Shanti Hiranand.
Given that I haven't read the biography and that I would be truly put to much grief to obtain a copy in this one-horse outpost, by whatever name you call it, I'd better try to obtain a copy from Darya Ganj when I get to 'civilized' Delhi. (This particular gripe is occasioned by the futile labours I've been put to in procuring Jejuri, which I'll have to buy, in the expensive US edition, from Khan Market next time I hit that haunt!)
I love Akhtari begum. Her voice is the ultimate mirror to her life and her losses (loves?). Could her depth have been in any manner linked to the humble-ness of her origins? Could social stigma have been the only reason for her long marriage to Abbasi? Could her voice have been as powerful and painfully resonant without the turmoil she faced in the traditional 'respectable' joint family she married into? Did it have anything to do with the swinging wildly between spells of domestic bliss and dangerous depravity? Could the diamond studded nose have been truer in leading the listener to musical nirvana if the face behind it did not have the mandatory wrinkles and worry lines of a lost non-belonger? Did she not seek to stray from the path of domesticity to seek a far greater and meaningful role for her powerful and pain-filled voice?
And if any of this is true, what then of the great diamond studded muse of southern India? Was Sadasivam as much a muse for her as Abbasi was for Begum? Did they sing for their husbands? Were their lives and music sublimated to a higher form merely due to marriage to the person who was their ultimate fan and in MS's case, her advisor-cum-manager?
What a lot appears to be in common between these two supreme performers. And yet how did one plumb such depths of raw physical pain and anguish and the other scale the rarefied heights of purity? No comparisons but seeking to observe parallels. Can true musical lines ever be complete parallels howsoever distinct they appear? Don't they all converge at some spiritual metaphysical point?
PS: This post started off very differently but then with the days its been at the edit board, it seems to have acquired its own tone. So there isn't much of my contribution here. Can you see? :p
5 comments:
Dear Shankari:
thanks for visitng my blog and wishing P an me. i am glad to have visited your blog and of course reading about Anugarh's story was really touching and a reality check as I am preparing myself for motherhood.
Will visit you often. Hey and u definitely don't think sour. happy New YEar!
You are sweet Cecilia!
You bet I'll be praying for your baby bean.
Hey Shankari
Your post raises more questions than give answers. I am an illiterate when it comes to music and its various traditions. I, perhaps as a pedantic, was hoping more of an academic discourse on music here. :-)
Nevertheless, it does urge me to go back and pull out something by Akhtari Begum. :-)
Cheers
Dan
Sorry Dan, I'm no authority on music either. Just some thoughts which I wished to write as we were talking but couldn't. This is what finally came through, questions and all.
Must check this out :)
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