Only the Soul Knows How to Sing! *

I am too ignorant to technically analyse each raga and its swara sancharas – here is a rasika sharing her experience of Sri. Sakethraman’s concert organized by Hamsanadam Academy of Music.

If bliss is what one wanted to experience, you should have been there at the concert by Saketharaman on 9th Jan 2010.

I felt as if poised, floating ecstatically in another world;
I heard nothing but the deep resonance of swaras;
I saw nothing but the heavenly light that music created;

His rendering of all the ragas and kritis was so endearing that I was disappointed and regretted as he concluded each raga. I was almost enchanted by this magician’s surprises as he delved deep into raga Bhairavi; the swaraprastaras were equally enthralling.

As I re-live the whole experience, which was so soulful, expressive, animated, dramatic and emotional, I recollect and realize a phrase that has always lingered in my heart forever – “Only the Soul Knows How to Sing”*.




(*the title of the one of the verse collections of the great poetess Kamala Das)

My Day!

December 9th 2009...
It was such a wonderful day in my life… Everyone around me made it so beautiful and memorable… My b’day.

All my friends and relatives called from all the parts of the globe to convey their wishes…Not that I don’t get wished every year; I do; but not 250 people…
Things sound to have suddenly changed… for good!

Vikas got me a new tambura sruti box… such bliss to sing along that sruti early in the morning.
Art for art sake?
Nope.
Art for my sake!

I sink in the experience again.
Only feeling.
No words!

Being a Singer

I can’t believe it myself!
It is almost 9 years since I stopped learning music and even singing. Forget about singing, I don't even hum a tune!
And now, after this pretty looooooong gap, I am learning music again! My parents, my husband, my in-laws, even my baby could not believe it!
Why? I can’t believe it myself!
Yes, now I sing, practise and listen to music.
I don’t know what stopped me from doing this for the past several years. Perhaps now is the time. As The Alchemist says, when you truly want to do something, and if you are passionate about it, the entire world conspires to make it happen for you…. Yes! I believe in the alchemist now!
My coach was mentioning something similar to me the other day – the difference among knowing, doing and being. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, ‘being’ rings in my ears all the time! I guess, it is a part of the evolution – the evolution in me.
I know and I become contented with the knowledge that I gained. I may do it sometime. If I am passionate, I do it more number of times. When I consistently do is when I become and BE. It becomes a part of my being.
I am sure that many of you would have read and reviewed and talked and discussed and argued and known enough about ‘being’.
I still would like to write about it because I feel what ‘being’ is. Now, for me, it is beyond description, therefore, beyond words.
People around me warn – that I should be consistent about my singing. The history should not repeat – what I did a decade ago.
Yes, I realise – now I should ‘be’ a singer; not just sing songs….
But the question is if I ‘realise’, is it ‘knowledge’ or ‘being’? (Sigh, sigh…)
It is a very long road to ‘being’!