Thursday, April 19, 2012

Varanasi sessions

Here are a last couple of pics from my time in Varanasi this year. On weekends I visited my late Guru-ji's house, where his son Dr Debabrata "Bappa" Bhattacharya and student Manishankar Tripathi continue the tabla tradition there. Here we are playing with 14 year old Asheesh, who is going really very well. While there I received some training in the famous 15 beat taal, Pancham Sawari, from Bappa-da.

I also visited the home of renowned tabla player Pt Ishwar Lal Mishra, nephew of the legendary Pt Anokhelal Mishra, and his sons Dhananjay (tabla) and Anand (sitar). Dhananjay and Anand were to visit Australia later this year so I went a couple of times for practice in anticipation of a concert together in Brisbane. (Unfortunately their visas didn't work out so the tour has been cancelled this year.) It was a great honour to practise with Ishwar Lal-ji and get some bols and some feeling from his way of playing.

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