Upon the sands of time
JITENDRA PRATAP
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Shanno Khurana's vocal recital laced with memories of her journey in the world of music was a treat for listeners.
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THE LEGACY Shanno Khurana received the choicest bandishes from different gharanas. PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM
A large audience from the world of arts gathered the other day at New Delhi's Attic Gallery for alecture-demonstration by the renowned vocalist Shanno Khurana. She was introduced by Naman Ahuja, who showed slides and asked her questions. Much of the discussion and music arose spontaneously.
She commenced her recital with the inimitable old raga Chhayanat, a favourite of the Rampur Saheswan gharana. The vilambit composition was in teevra-tala, and the particular Ek tala drut composition she sang was by her guru's guru, Ustad Inayet Hussain Khan.
Ahuja remarked, "As usual, the taans were fast-paced, you alternated the octaves in which you sing, the swaroop of the raga was clearly exposed within the first two minutes of the recital, the voice production was emotionally charged. These seem to be your fixed techniques. What attracted you to this style?"
Rampur style
She replied that many of these were specialties of the Rampur style itself, and not her innovation.
She admitted she received the choicest bandishes from different gharanas and demonstrated the statement with a trivet (derived from the ancient prabandh form using the words of the pakhawaj rather than mnemonics of a tarana) set to the raga Adana. Although Mushtaq Hussain had accepted her as a shishya and even tied a ganda on her wrist, she was tested by him for several months. He would ask her to sing a particular raga, listen in silence and leave without comment.
This went on for months, and she cried after each session. Finally, four to five months later, as she hit a particular note, the ustad began to cry. Without explaining what had changed, he simply said he was ready to teach her, that his bag full of jewels lay before her, and she was free to pick what she wanted. In retrospect, she said that she realised how her guru had successfully managed to humble his student and test her devotion.
She also demonstrated other aspects of the taleem imparted by the ustad through a rare and old fashioned thumri of the bole-baant type ("Baanke saanvariya tore to naino mein) in raga Khamaj set to madhya Ek tala.
She explained the enormous influence of her other guru, the eminent Sanskrit philosopher and musicologist, Thakur Jaideva Singh. He exposed her to academic training in music, taught her purab-ang thumri, and guided her through her M. Phil and Ph.D. in music. He encouraged her to research the folk music of Rajasthan while simultaneously seeking training in rare ragas from V.R. Athawale and S.N. Ratanjhankar of the Agra gharana.
Early days
Khurana spoke candidly of her development as a vocalist and referred to her naivete when, as a young broadcasting singer in Lahore, she did not know the difference between the Gandhars of ragas Multani and Todi. She grew up in a conservative environment in Jodhpur, and after much insistence got permission to learn from Pandit Ragahunath Rao Musalgaonkar, the nephew of Raja Bhaiya Poochwale of Gwalior. She spoke of the loving support of her husband who had by this time given up being a doctor in the Air Force and started a private practice in Delhi.
The young couple called on the established surgeon of Delhi, Dr. Joshi, where she encountered his daughter Nirmala Joshi, who later went on to become the Chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Nirmala Joshi invited her to teach classical music in her school Sangeet Bharati. This institute introduced her to other like-minded people.
Slides made from photographs taken at different points in the singer's career showed the length and variety of her journey. Regular concerts at the Tansen Sammelan (Gwalior), Harvallabh (Jalandhar), and Haridas (Mumbai) became routine in the 1960s and '70s. She reminisced about her early performances abroad, particularly her singing to troops on the Gaza Strip from the back of a truck. She spoke fondly of her tabla accompanist Pandit Chaturlal, with whom she had performed and practiced for 16 years.
Asked how she felt now, taking stock of her life's journey, she answered with a bhajan composed by her in ragas Jogiya and Maand with lyrics in Rajasthani, the language of her childhood. The words were simple and direct and conveyed the singer's desire for union with God.
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