Two Lions and a Gun…Pt.Ravi Shankar & Pt. Kishan Maharaj?
Jun 21, 2010 Uncategorized
5 p.m. My Guruji, Pt. Kishan Maharaj, sends me a message…” Ask Sandeep to wear a nice kurta for the concert tonight!”
This is very surprising, I tell myself…I would anyway wear a nice kurta to tonight’s concert…it is a concert of Guruji with Pt. Ravi Shankar, come on.
The entire city of Varanasi was waiting for this concert of there’s. They were getting together on stage after a long gap.
So why this special instruction? Anyway…not giving much thought to it I brought out the best I had and wore it. As I came out of my room to pick up Guruji’s Tabla case and put it in his car…came the other statement that had my heart thumping…. “Bring your Tabla, too!”
“What??????” “Did I hear that correct?” “No…It can’t be!” Myriad thoughts crossed my head, like lightning! No…I cannot be playing in this concert. My heart thumping wildly by now, I asked mildly, “Guruji , my Tabla?” “ Yes you are playing tonight!” was his simple answer!
The whole world seemed to open up under my feet at that very moment…Oh, God…I must be dreaming…this cannot be true….If I had known earlier, at least I could have practiced more.
And Guruji…he could have at least told me a day earlier? Not that even a week would have been much. I would have rather preferred an entire month to prepare for just this one concert.
I was all of 15 years and was going to debut with Pt. Ravi Shankar and Pt. Kishan Maharaj ji on stage!!! Can you beat that!
And preparation? Nil!
O.K. I tell myself, I am sure Guruji is going to give me some tips before such a crucial concert.
We sit in the car and I keep waiting for him to say something…nothing comes out of his mouth. He is behaving as if this is just like any other concert?
Nothing still and we are about to reach the venue….
As we alight from the car…he looks at me and says, “ I don’t want you to be scared of anyone on stage…if I see that you get scared during the concert I will kick you off the stage then and there!”
Well there it was, the invaluable tip!
Enter Pt. Ravi Shankar, Greetings done, my Guruji tells him “ This is one of my favorite students, another bengali like you, he is going to play tonight with us.” Ravi Ji looks and smiles at me.
I am hoping against hope that they would probably practise a little so that I may know what they are going to play in another 30 minutes time…but practise? They do not even discuss anything about the concert!!!!
There I am suddenly infront of thousands of people and you can almost hear the eagerness with which the audience is waiting for the concert to begin.
Enter the Maestro’s…thunderous clapping!
Pt. Ravi Shankar announces the Raag and then to sound the death knell he mentions the Taal (Rhythm cycle) “ Dhamaar”!
This is the Taal that they both were famous for playing together. It was like the “piece de resistance”!
And can you believe it when I say that I had not even been taught this Taal till then?
End of a long Aalap. Time for the composition to start…I tell myself, Guruji knows that I have not been taught this Taal, he will definitely ask me not to play till some other easier Taal is played.
But little did I know, as Pandit Ravi Shankar starts his composition, Our eyes, mine and Guruji’s meet. Mine praying, that he asks me not to play…his, shoots a bullet into mine…and the only answer it had was “you better play or I kick your behind off the stage!”
Guruji used to have “Paan” (chew betel leaf) in those days…so he just makes this sound that means… “Play or Die”.
Then he took the mic and said something to the world that still resonates in my head and heart!
“ Ladies and Gentlemen, imagine someone who has just bought an air gun stepping out in to the woods. He thinks he will shoot some odd bird or rabbit…but what would happen if what he sees in front are Two Lions instead…( Pt. Ravi Shankar and himself) well, that is the condition of this student of mine. Please forgive him for any mistakes that he makes but do bless him .One day he will make you all proud!”
So there I am, starting my opening piece in a Taal, which I don’t know, but Thank God, Guruji had never spoon fed us…!
I quickly react and start improvising on another Taal, which is “Rupak” a seven beat cycle.
One composition I knew in Rupak was “ Dha thit Dha thit dha dha tinna kita tak…”. I just start playing that…I am not even breathing or alive…. it is a long and nice piece and somehow almost in slow motion it ends right at the downbeat.
As I hear clapping, I wake up and catch Pt. Ravi Shankar nod in acceptance towards my Guruji with a smile. I warily look towards my Guruji and see him beaming and smiling at me with pride!
Wow, what a relief…and I am still on the stage!!!!
L to R: Pt. Kishan Maharaj, Pt. Ravi Shankar, his student and Sandeep Das
This is one of the many such situations that he would just throw me into in the future. I would wonder then…why he doesn’t he tell me in advance?
I thank him more and more with every passing second now. Cause no matter how far I have flown, how little I have slept, what I have eaten or not…once my hands are on my Tabla and I am on stage…I am always ready for the show!!!!
I wish I could thank him in person once more!!!!
Famous Indian Tabla Player!
Jun 7, 2010 Uncategorized
It was a loooong trip to Bangalore from Varanasi by train. The year was probably 1988 or 1987. One also had to change a train at Chennai and connect to Bangalore.
2 nights and God only knows how many days later I was finally at the Bangalore station. Literally waiting for my ride to the hotel, a quick shower, food and then off to get some sleep.
I was at the platform waiting for someone to receive me…I saw some people running around with garlands ( traditional way of welcoming someone in India). There was a placard with “something” written on it…I say “something” as it was written in Tamil and it could be as foreign to a North Indian as to a North American or anyone else from any part of the world!
One by one every one disappeared from the platform except me and these few people who were still running around…definitely looking for someone.
Remember these were Pre-Cell phone days and thus there was no way for me to reach the organizers to ascertain who had come to receive me.
I finally decided to stop one of them with the garland and ask if by any chance they were looking for me. I stopped him and gave a smile as sweet as possible…and signaled and asked if by any chance it was me…but before I could proceed any further, he gave me a disgusted look as if to say I have enough problems already, don’t add to it. And hurried away from me looking carefully inside every coach that he could.
So there I was left alone again and starting to imagine the worst-case scenario.
1) Concert has been cancelled,
2) Now I have to fend for myself,
3) My return is booked on the day after tomorrow,
4) Do I have enough money to sustain my stay in a hotel?
5) No credit cards for self employed musicians in those days…(that’s another story.)
Suddenly I see these people looking at me from a distance and talking amongst themselves, almost placing a bet on me…!
Then a glimmer of hope as I see this one with the placard coming towards me. He comes to me and signals at the placard, obviously trying to ask me whether this was my name on the sign or not?
But there were three problems
a) The placard was written in Tamil
b) The guy could only speak and understand Tamil
c) I could not read, write or speak Tamil.
I desperately kept saying my name in English, almost begging that it was me that he was looking for. But he looked at me and just turned away.
I thought, there goes your chance of getting a free ride into the city atleast. Just as I was giving up hope the others in the group arrived and one of them asked, “ Are you Sandeep Das, Tabla player from Varanasi?” with a heavy southern accent.
Don’t take it otherwise but if you have faced it you know what I mean. Making out what the other is saying can be pretty tough.
I jumped at the mention of my name and almost shouted, “Yes”, three times!
They all looked at one another almost in surprise. The one with the garland decided that he had enough of carrying this thing around and promptly put it around my tired neck. The others started another animated conversation amongst themselves. A word of which I could not gather.
Then the one who could speak bits of English turned towards me and almost apologetically said, “ We were not expecting someone young and dressed in a T shirt and Jeans to arrive as Sandeep Das.” “We thought Sandeep Das the famous Indian Tabla player is someone older and since he is from Varanasi he would definitely be chewing Paan and wearing a traditional Kurta and Pajama!”
Little did I know that this was not going to be the first or the last such experience. Starting with this incident and many such that followed there was a time that whenever I was going to a new or little known place. Or going somewhere for the first time I would change into a Traditional dress before getting off the train or if taking a flight, would wear one to start with.
Not to say that I am any bit famous now …but I am glad to be an Indian Tabla Player at least!
