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.

Holi season concerts and fun

No I didn't go out and play Holi in Varanasi this year. In keeping with our usual policy of keeping clean and calm, Yuki and I stayed in and did a big yoga session on the morning of Holi. However, around Holi there was lots of fun to be had in Varanasi.

A couple of days beforehand our friend Gumi (a bansuri player from Kyoto) organised a concert called "Namaste Mela" featuring foreign students of Indian classical music, in which I accompanied Tetsu Takana, a sitar student of Pt Shiv Nath Mishra. Along with one practice, it was the first time we'd met or played together, but hopefully not the last! Very enjoyable.

Hannah played very beautiful alap on Mohan veena

Gumi played Holi in the chai break

Shen and Tetsu playing together for the first time

On the afternoon of Holi it's traditional to put on new clothes and go visiting friends. I took this photo of Yuki and Nao on the way to visit their Guru-Ma.

Holi is on the full moon

An atmosphere of wildness lingers on for a few days after Holi, helped by traditional drumming groups like this (and mobile DJs).

A few days after Holi it was March 11, the first anniversary of the great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011. Many Japanese people in Varanasi gathered at Dasaswamedh Ghat to pray together and to sing a Japanese folk song, "Furusato" ("Homeland"). Yuki was asked to play the harmonium and lead the singing!

Some Varanasi concerts

I arrived in Varanasi the day before Shivaratri ("Shiva's night"), one of the biggest festivals in the City of Shiva. There are usually two big music festivals around Shivaratri: the Dhrupad Mela (now in its 37th year) on Tulsi Ghat, and the more recent khayal event near Durga Temple, sponsored by Jalan's. As my wife Yuki is studying Dhrupad vocal she spent all her time at the Dhrupad Mela - see her blog (many photos, text in Japanese). I visited the Jalan's concert for a couple of items but was mostly disappointed. The sponsor's son's singing sent me out the door. Talk about nepotism.

Meanwhile at Dhrupad Mela... Yuki performed with her Guru-ji Dr Ritwik Sanyal's student group and did very well.

Two days later I saw Tahir Qawwal's excellent Qawwali group Fanna-fi-Allah at a guest house in Assi. Tahir spends parts of the year in Varanasi, USA and Byron Bay, so he is a nearby musical friend for me when our schedules coincide. I've seen and accompanied Tahir in khayal and light classical (in which he is also excellent) but this was the first I'd heard his Qawwali. The atmosphere was electric and uplifting. Kudos to Hari Om Hari on the tabla.

The following day we were blessed to be invited to a special ceremonial concert. My friends Debapriya Adhikary (vocal) and Samanwaya Sarkar (sitar), aka Debapriya-Samanwaya, had their gandabandhan initiation with Benares vocal legend Smt Girija Devi. Many local music legends were in attendance. (I've written previous blogs with Deb-Sam.)

Varanasi 2011

Since blogging just after Saraswati Puja I've been neglecting this blog in favour of quickly uploading my mobile phone snaps to Facebook. Very sorry about that! So here's a quick wrap up of my 7 weeks in Varanasi.... This year wasn't exactly my best trip to India, with a bit too much low grade sickness resulting in a lot less practice and music in general. A lot of my energy this year was focused on obtaining Indian government certification for my tabla imports to clear Australian quarantine. While in U.P. I had a quick trip to Kanpur and a couple of days with a friend in Lucknow, who put me onto someone back in Varanasi who is continuing to work on this problem on my behalf. Anyway, on with the photos...

Baha-ud-din Dagar performing on rudra vina in Ganesh Mandir

Japanese folks in Benares gathered to pray for speedy and safe resolution after the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Miyagi-ken.

My good friend Jimi Miyashita also dedicated his concert in Ganesh Mandir to relief from suffering in Japan and around the world.

On March 17 we had the 7th annual Ashu Babu Memorial Concert in honour of my late guru-ji. This year I MCed in English.

The main performer was tabla solo by Subhankar Banerjee. Brilliant stuff, so much practice.

A couple of days after the memorial concert was the festival of Holi, where the whole town (whole country for that matter becomes waterbomb and water pistol battleground. Here's the aftermath on one shopfront in Dasaswamedh.

Just a couple of days after Holi my guru-ma (wife of my late Guru-ji) passed away suddenly. I took this photo at the burning ghats to remind me of that moment.

Saraswati Puja

After 3 flights from Brisbane via Kuala Lumpur and Delhi (where I managed to reach check-in 5 minutes before closing), I arrived in Varanasi the day before Saraswati Puja, in honour of the Hindu goddess of music and learning. There has been a home concert for Saraswati Puja each year for more than 50 years and it has hosted many great musicians including Pt Ravi Shankar, Pt Nikhil Banerjee, and Pt Kanthe Maharaj, who used to play 2-3 hours' tabla solo each year.

Guru-ji's students Manishankar and Gautam


Guru-ji's youngest son Debabrata

This year the puja coincidentally fell on the 7th anniversary of Guru-ji's passing.





I opened the concert with tabla solo in basant taal (9 beats). Saraswati Puja is also known as Basant Panchami (5th day of spring), so this was the perfect chance to play the material I'd learnt in basant taal last year from Sri Govinda Chakraborty, a senior student of Guru-ji.

From the day after Saraswati Puja, people take their statues of Saraswati from the previous year down to the Ganges River and throw them in with much ceremony. The most exciting processions are organised by various student groups who play loud pop music and dance crazily, feeling the spirit in a big way.

More concerts in Varanasi

I saw a bunch more concerts by high-profile artists while in Varanasi: Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Baha-ud-din Dagar, Fazal Qureshi, Dhananjay Mishra and last but not least Gundecha Brothers.

Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia accompanied by Rashid Mustapha Thirakwa. Hari-ji is getting old now, and was visibly shaking. Still it's always great to see a great master, and young Thirakwa's accompaniment was very sweet.

Ustad Baha-ud-din Dagar on the rudra veena - a very deep (bassy) instrument from the Dhrupad tradition. Sublime.

Baha-ud-din was accompanied on pakhawaj by our friend Tetsuya Kaneko of Nagoya. The concert was part of the annual winter series at Ganges View Hotel in Assi Ghat.

Fazal Qureshi, younger brother of Zakir Hussain. The setting was beautiful - an old haveli on Raja Ghat. Fazal-ji played very nicely, although it's hard not to compare with the greatness and beauty of his older brother's playing.

Tabla solo by Dhananjay Mishra, son of Pt Ishwar Lal Mishra.

Gundecha Brothers with Shrikant Mishra at Ganges View Hotel, Assi Ghat. A great performance, and the perfect farewell to Varanasi for me before running to pack for my 1am train trip to Delhi...

Ramakant Gundecha in expressive mood

I like this photo of Toon-ji. He has great chemistry with Gundecha Brothers.

Anwar Tabla Maker

My tabla maker Mohammed Anwar is the son of the famous old Varanasi tabla maker Shamsuddin. Anwar has been making me great tabla for several years now, and over the last year has helped me especially, in producing tabla especially made to pass Australian Quarantine's high standards, and packing and sending me numerous parcels, a big job in itself. I spent my last few days in Varanasi with him, checking tablas, bayans, puris (skins) and various accessories off of the lists of orders I had for myself and a few friends around the world, and then packing them into parcels. Sending the parcels from the post office was very frustrating: after being told by the postal clerk to wait in the queue for an hour, he then processed only 3 of my 7 parcels and asked me to join the queue again! Anyway, we gradually got the job done... Many thanks to Anwar and his sons Salman and Imran for all their help!

Anwar at his tabla shop in Aurangabad, Varanasi

Anwar and son Salman. I've been teaching Salman how to send and check email, and various other computer skills, over the last couple of years. This year we got him a Skype account and I showed him where to get wi-fi on his new laptop.

Anwar's eldest son Imran with some of the drums I'd ordered.

The master at work.

(For those interested in buying tabla or tabla skins especially in Australia, please get in touch.)

Sand sculpture island on Ganga

A sand island appears in the Ganges a little south of Varanasi in winter and there is a sand sculpture competition each year. Here are some snaps from our visit, 2 days after the competition, so slightly wind-blown.

A scene from the boat trip to the sand sculpture island.