Date: Sun Dec 3, 2000
Subject: Guru-ji

Hi folks,

Today I'd like to write about one of my favourite subjects - my Guru-ji. While my opinion is certainly biased, I believe he is quite an incredible man and his story is worth sharing.

Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya was born on March 17, 1917 in Varanasi (then known by its British name of Benares), the son and grandson of famous Bengali Ayurvedic doctors. As a boy he expressed an interest in learning drums and started learning pakhawaj (a double ended drum - the North Indian version of mridingam) at the age of 8. A few years later he saw Ustad Kanthe Maharaj, one of the great tabla players of the Benares Gharana, giving a performance and decided he wanted to learn tabla from him.

He must have been an excellent student because by the age of 21 (1938) he was starting to gain fame in his own right - at this time he performed at his first music conference accompanying none other than the great Ustad Allauddin Khan
Anyone who knows about Ustad Allauddin Khan would find this as amazing as I do. For those of you who don't know, he is probably most well known to the West as the guru of Ravi Shankar (who was in the same class at school as my Guru-ji), Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (Allauddin's son) and Nikhil Banerjee, and in India he is now known as 'The grandfather of modern Indian Classical Music'.

About this time, his grandmother asked him to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and father (who had died an early death at the age of 38 around 1933) and become an Ayurvedic doctor. So during the War years, he went to Delhi to undertake the 5 year degree at the Ayurvedic College there. At the same time as taking lectures, studying and gaining practical experience in his medicine guru's clinic, he was maintaining his tabla practice, giving lessons on Sundays and performing concerts and radio recitals with the likes of Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan. I can't imagine where he got the energy to maintain such a busy lifestyle.

After completing his degree and returning to Varanasi, he set up his medical practice and continued to give tabla performances, learn from his guru-ji and practise around 6 hours a day. From here on he always thought of medicine as his profession and music as a hobby, so he never took money for performances except for expenses like travel, food and lodging. As a result he never made any professional recordings (in those days it was nowhere near as easy as now to make a recording), save a few which might be discovered with some difficulty in the All India Radio archives and is nowadays not so well known except to the older generation of music-lovers in Varanasi and some other places. He was quite famous particularly in Calcutta as well as Varanasi. When I organised a concert for Debaprasad Chakraborty and Gladwin Charles in Brisbane a couple of years ago, Gladwin Charles (from Delhi) had never heard of him. On the other hand, when I met Debaprasad Chakraborty (a Bengali) the first thing he said to me was, "Your guru-ji was a *very* great tabla player".

In the room where I take lessons there are many photos of Guru-ji giving concerts with various famous musicians such as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Mushtaq Ali Khan and so on, but one photo stands out in particular - a concert in Calcutta in 1952. On one end is Kanthe Maharaj (guru-ji's guru); on the other end is Guru-ji. In the middle is Allauddin Khan and on either side of him are Ali Akbar Khan and Nikhil Banerjee, while Ali Akbar's son Aashish Khan is one of the tamboura players. This concert went from 3.30am to 7.30am. For those of you who aren't up on the famous names of Indian classical music, the only comparison I can think of is the great all-star jazz bands of the fifties with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and so on.

About 10 years ago Guru-ji had a near-fatal heart attack due to high blood pressure. At this time he was forced to stop performing and practising and ever since then, he can only play rarely for a short time before he feels his blood pressure rising. But he still loves to teach and his knowledge seems to be fathomless. Every day he can give me something completely new, in any taal (time cycle) - I'm currently learning Char Taal ka Sawari (11 beats) which very few tabla players in the city could teach. After lessons, he shares stories of his experiences with his students and inspires us to practise and practise and practise even more. I feel so lucky to have found my way to him.

One of his beliefs which I draw much inspiration from is that music should be a divine experience. He often says that nowadays, Indian classical music has no depth - it's very showy and fast and tricky, but without the depth of former days. Nowadays, audiences go "wow, amazing" and lots of applause, whereas before audiences would be going "aaah" and the music would inspire them to tears. Nowadays many musicians rehearse together and work out impressive sections, while before musicians would often meet on the stage. This sort of music can only come from years of intense practice and devotion, from thinking of music as an offering to God and allowing inspiration to come from spontaneity, which can only happen when one is completely free with one's instrument due to "too much practice". It is this attitude which I try to bring into EthnoSuperLounge by bringing musicians together in a free-spirited improvisational atmosphere. We are not at the standard of musicianship of the likes of Ustad Allauddin Khan, so we cannot hope to attain the same experience - sometimes the improvisations are messy or overly simple, but I think that when those inspirational moments come it makes it all worthwhile.

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum