Door- and Paas-Darshaning Dilli
Most recent adventures first...
Dastan-e-Mahabharata
An admirable effort at brining the music of Rajasthan and Peru was staged at the Kamani Auditorium on Friday Jul 25 2019. With an impressive stage, an almost 3/4 house and a rousing welcome speech by former ambassador - and current ICCR director - Akhilesh Mishra - who broke into Spanish to express his appreciation for the Peruvian ambassador's efforts towards cultural bonding - the evening promised the raw and powerful music from Rajasthan and Andean pan-flute anchored melodies. We learnt, rather awkwardly though, that the project was conceived by perfroming artist Chano Diaz Limaco's son, Thomas Diaz Limaco, a Scotland-based musician and producer. It seems Thomas - whose role was not clarified till he came on the stage after the initial embassy-fronted introductions/speeches - visted Jaipur a few years ago, was hosted by the Jaipur Virasat Foundation, and then stayed with some of the musicians and imbibed their music. From there, the idea of a joint project took seed in his mind - and on Fri Jul 25 we were lucky to see the fruition of that idea.
The evening began with solo performances by Chano, who set the Andean vibes right away by playing various tunes on the charango, the small guitar-like instrument widely used in Bolivia and Peru. There is something about the rapid-fire charango playing that sets feet tapping and you just expect to see the pan-flute to follow - and lots of swirly colors - and maybe misted mountain-tops...sure enough, the various Andean flutes followed, very breathy and deep. Chano, as we were told, plays with a lot of Afro-Peruvian bands in Lima and he has a fine sense of rhythm that he infuses in his playing.
The much awaited Gazi Khan and his troupe, all with their bright Rajasthani turbans, took stage next. Now, the little I know of Rajasthani music tradition, and that is outside of Bollywood and maybe Ila Arun, comes from consummate artists like Mukhtiyar Ali (for example singing Chadariya Jheeni Re here)...and maybe the Manganiyars...
Gazi Khan began with a song from the Jaisalmer-Barmer region - and how much more desert-y can you get than that? The song had as its theme the "shringar (decoration) around camel's necks, no less!" Gazi Khan has a deep penetrating voice, and after the sarangi set the mood of the desert, he launched into his raw and soulful singing. His troupe had an algoza (the double-flute) player also; however, the algoza playing is slower and builds up in tempo, unlike the double-quick tempo of the Andean flutes.
This was far more apparent when Chano and Gazi Khan came together to essay some attempts at a fusion at the two musical styles. When I say two musical styles, I must clarify that I am not exactly sure of the language of some of Chano's songs - did not seem like Spanish - could well have been an Andean language. In that case we were certainly seeing the attempted melding of two folk streams. The fusion worked mostly - fusions are always tricky - but as noted above, the Andean flutes seemed too powerful and simply overwhelmed the milder algoza. Other than that, the singing from Gazi Khan's troupe and by Chano were well orchestrated - and Gazi Khan was admirable in maintaining the co-ordination between the two teams as he himself provided counterpoint with his kartals to Chano's guitar and flute.
Backstage workings in all fusion attempts are long drawn, almost frustrating attempts and it is a feat to produce truly memorable music across traditions. One can listen to various outtakes of many such attempts over the years - from Beatles to Led Zepplin etc - and the results are always mixed. So, the edges might still be raw here, but this was a great endeavor, not easy by any means and hopefully such collaboarations can be refined even further in the future!
Sangeet-Bari/Lavani demo!
[IHC Lok Sangeet Sammellan 2019 on the Folk Music of Maharashtra, Day 2. Sangeet Bari]
Tibet House - Jul 19
Dr. Bhatt presented a very learned, if not almost an idealist-ic lecture, on the paradigm for a new world order - based on Buddhist principles. Such ideas of a paradigm for a new/moral world order were first given expression, and even administrative force, by none other than King Aśoka, one could say. His famous rock edicts laid out some of the underlying principles - and hopes - of his ideas of governance and community.
In his presentation, Dr. Bhatt laid out various ideas of moral and communitarian living utlizing concepts and practices well known from the Buddhist literature, primarily the pitakas.
The modality of harmonious and flourishing existence in and of society lies in co-existence (sah-yog) - and more specifically, in peaceful co-existence (sah-astitva) - according to Dr. Bhatt. There is yet another constituent factor to co-existence, that of peaceful co-operativeness - sah-kār. A restructuring of social order as overseen by a ruler has be based on the above mentioned co-existence. Additionally, part of effective governance - and a new world order - involves the use of skillful means - upāya-kauśalya - to ensure hita (wellness) and sukha (happiness) for everyone. On the part of the people forming the community, it is essential to practice the brahma-viharas - which Dr. Bhatt described as "universal modes of living" - such as mudita, the quality of empathetic joy. As a sidenote, Dr. Bhatt explained that a bodhisattva is one who has bodhichitta and who engages in bodhicariya. The above mentioned co-existence also assume maitri, universal friendship. Not unsurprisingly, Dr. Bhatt derived the very fact for the need of co-existence from the Buddhist concepts of dependent origination, pratitya-samutpad, which point towards an interdependent existence.
A key point made by Dr. Bhatt was the mundane nature of all such modes of life - co-existence with maitri, mudita etc - which accorded with the vyavhara or worldly ways of life. It was from vyavhara that one could move to the ultimate goal of life, paramārtha, with the correct understanding of dharma/dhamma. It was interesting to see here how Dr. Bhatt explicated dharma in almost its classic sense in the Indian (philosophical) context - its role as a "sustaining principle" (dhāraka) and as a "regulating principle" (niyamaka). It is as an enhancing principle - as Buddha's Dhamma - that it was to help us transcend the vyavhara realities of life and attain paramartha.
Visiting Humayunpur - the reputed enclave of North-Easterners in Delhi.
Location - and how to get there:
Despite quite a number of articles that have highlighted Humayunpur's role as a safe-haven for those from Northeast India, there are few that deal with the neighborhood in detail - and also provide reliable information on its location or details about heading over there by public transport.
What I gathered from the friendly internet was that this Humayunpur was in the Safdarjang Development Area (SDA) in Delhi - whether as a locality or mere neighborhood...I could not be sure.
There were suggestions in these articles I consulted - and via other mapping/transportation sites - that one could take the metro to either the AIIMS or Green Park stations and then hire an auto from thereon.
I decided to get off at Green Park metro station (Yellow Line) and sure enough, I could see a sign pointing to Humayunpur as I exited the metro. This is off of Aurobindo Marg, I think. The auto charged what seemed to be a standard Rs. 40/-. You can tell them to take you to the "NCC gate" - but there happen to be 2 NCC gates - bahar-walla and the andar-walla [The outer and the inner] and I guess the "andar-walla" will take you right onto the lane leading into the Humayunpur locality and market.
The outer NCC gate - and the entrance to Humayunpur that I used is opposite the Deer Park and off of a road that I could not get the name of - seems to be on some sort of a loop road that joins Africa Avenue and encloses parts of Green Park, SDA etc.
The actual lane which I used to enter the Humayunpur area is called, I think, the Chaudhry Hukum Chānd Marg (चौधरी हुकुम चाँद मार्ग).
All of the above details because so much is never spelled out in write-ups about interesting places - and one can spend extra time and money in just reaching a destination for no good reason, really.
Most recent adventures first...
Dastan-e-Mahabharata
Dastan-e-Mahabharata
A presentation of the Mahabharata in Dastangoi form. Using poetry from various Urdu versions of the epic, and alternating this poetry with narration of the great battle
Performed by Fouzia Dastango and Firoz Khan
Written and directed by Danish Iqbal
The Indian Epics are not known for their brevity even though it is often said that the meter and form they are composed in - the ślokas - are very pithy and pack several layers of meanings. The Mahabharata is supposed to contain 100, 000 ślokas - so packing their narrative breadth and depth into a 50-min dastango presentation is nothing short of a feat. Therein lies the beauty of selection, the beauty of piecing together a narrative from narrative-high-points - while still managing to maintain an overall narrative arc! Hats off to Danish Iqbal and his dastangos for achieving a remarkable condensation of the voluminous Mahabharata.
Danish, while introducing his effort, named someone from Nabha (Punjab) as his inspiration: evidently the gentleman had several versions of the Gita and the Mahabharata (MBh) of different provenances - and several in Urdu and Persian. This led Danish to procure his own set of Gitas and he claimed to have at least five different versions now.
Whatever his source and inspiration, he packed the MBh into a nutshell - and the shell was the dastan format, so all the flourishes one would associate with the story one got in a mixed - but alluringly sumptuous - Hindi-Urdu idiom.
What was remarkable in this telling was that despite the obvious pastiche form, the splitting and pasting of different episodes from the "original" story, one did not really feel as though anything was truly missing. To put it another way, one never felt shortchanged, as though one was hearing a Cliff's version of MBh or some kind of MBh-lite.
Ik rang hai aag jiska aur ik rut hai paani
Tayim hai asar iska sare dunia e pani
Nadaan hain woh jo samjhe hain ise kahani
Kirdaar hain sabhi iske aap bhi hum bhi
The story begins with the well-known request by Ved Vyasa to Ganesha to be the scribe and his conditions for taking on the role. It moves next to the Janmajeya.
The evening began with solo performances by Chano, who set the Andean vibes right away by playing various tunes on the charango, the small guitar-like instrument widely used in Bolivia and Peru. There is something about the rapid-fire charango playing that sets feet tapping and you just expect to see the pan-flute to follow - and lots of swirly colors - and maybe misted mountain-tops...sure enough, the various Andean flutes followed, very breathy and deep. Chano, as we were told, plays with a lot of Afro-Peruvian bands in Lima and he has a fine sense of rhythm that he infuses in his playing.
The much awaited Gazi Khan and his troupe, all with their bright Rajasthani turbans, took stage next. Now, the little I know of Rajasthani music tradition, and that is outside of Bollywood and maybe Ila Arun, comes from consummate artists like Mukhtiyar Ali (for example singing Chadariya Jheeni Re here)...and maybe the Manganiyars...
Gazi Khan began with a song from the Jaisalmer-Barmer region - and how much more desert-y can you get than that? The song had as its theme the "shringar (decoration) around camel's necks, no less!" Gazi Khan has a deep penetrating voice, and after the sarangi set the mood of the desert, he launched into his raw and soulful singing. His troupe had an algoza (the double-flute) player also; however, the algoza playing is slower and builds up in tempo, unlike the double-quick tempo of the Andean flutes.
This was far more apparent when Chano and Gazi Khan came together to essay some attempts at a fusion at the two musical styles. When I say two musical styles, I must clarify that I am not exactly sure of the language of some of Chano's songs - did not seem like Spanish - could well have been an Andean language. In that case we were certainly seeing the attempted melding of two folk streams. The fusion worked mostly - fusions are always tricky - but as noted above, the Andean flutes seemed too powerful and simply overwhelmed the milder algoza. Other than that, the singing from Gazi Khan's troupe and by Chano were well orchestrated - and Gazi Khan was admirable in maintaining the co-ordination between the two teams as he himself provided counterpoint with his kartals to Chano's guitar and flute.
Backstage workings in all fusion attempts are long drawn, almost frustrating attempts and it is a feat to produce truly memorable music across traditions. One can listen to various outtakes of many such attempts over the years - from Beatles to Led Zepplin etc - and the results are always mixed. So, the edges might still be raw here, but this was a great endeavor, not easy by any means and hopefully such collaboarations can be refined even further in the future!
Sangeet-Bari/Lavani demo!
[IHC Lok Sangeet Sammellan 2019 on the Folk Music of Maharashtra, Day 2. Sangeet Bari]
The Lavani demo at the IHC on Sunday, Jul 21, was a rousing, foot-stomping effort as a driving dholaki rhythm evoked the authentic folksy setting and three lavani dancers - dressed in gorgeous silks the Maharshtrain way - danced, stomped, twirled and (mock) flirted with the audience. Anchored by a consummate narration - in almost flawless Hindi - by producers Bhushan Korgaonkar and Savitri Medhatul, the event featured energetic performances from all present on stage, not the least among them from Sangeet Natak Akademi winner Shakuntala Nagarkar who wowed the audience with her chutzpah and sauciness. She was ably supported by Akanksha Kadam and Latabai Waikar.
The audience got a bit of the background to city-dweller Korgaonkar and Medhatul's journey in trying to discover "authentic lavani" as they stumbled upon a rather unglamorous Aryabhushan Theater in Pune which hosts lavani performances and is still going strong. They then probed deeper into the artists' lives, their religious backgrounds and also about the unique instituition of "lavani baithaks" where the so-called audience is refered to as customers..
The performers gave their heart out and Delhiites savored a treat!
"Buddhist Paradigm for New World Order"
Venue :
Conference Hall, Tibet House
Speaker/Teacher:
Professor Siddheshwar Rameshwar Bhatt
Conference Hall, Tibet House
Speaker/Teacher:
Professor Siddheshwar Rameshwar Bhatt
Dr. Bhatt presented a very learned, if not almost an idealist-ic lecture, on the paradigm for a new world order - based on Buddhist principles. Such ideas of a paradigm for a new/moral world order were first given expression, and even administrative force, by none other than King Aśoka, one could say. His famous rock edicts laid out some of the underlying principles - and hopes - of his ideas of governance and community.
In his presentation, Dr. Bhatt laid out various ideas of moral and communitarian living utlizing concepts and practices well known from the Buddhist literature, primarily the pitakas.
The modality of harmonious and flourishing existence in and of society lies in co-existence (sah-yog) - and more specifically, in peaceful co-existence (sah-astitva) - according to Dr. Bhatt. There is yet another constituent factor to co-existence, that of peaceful co-operativeness - sah-kār. A restructuring of social order as overseen by a ruler has be based on the above mentioned co-existence. Additionally, part of effective governance - and a new world order - involves the use of skillful means - upāya-kauśalya - to ensure hita (wellness) and sukha (happiness) for everyone. On the part of the people forming the community, it is essential to practice the brahma-viharas - which Dr. Bhatt described as "universal modes of living" - such as mudita, the quality of empathetic joy. As a sidenote, Dr. Bhatt explained that a bodhisattva is one who has bodhichitta and who engages in bodhicariya. The above mentioned co-existence also assume maitri, universal friendship. Not unsurprisingly, Dr. Bhatt derived the very fact for the need of co-existence from the Buddhist concepts of dependent origination, pratitya-samutpad, which point towards an interdependent existence.
A key point made by Dr. Bhatt was the mundane nature of all such modes of life - co-existence with maitri, mudita etc - which accorded with the vyavhara or worldly ways of life. It was from vyavhara that one could move to the ultimate goal of life, paramārtha, with the correct understanding of dharma/dhamma. It was interesting to see here how Dr. Bhatt explicated dharma in almost its classic sense in the Indian (philosophical) context - its role as a "sustaining principle" (dhāraka) and as a "regulating principle" (niyamaka). It is as an enhancing principle - as Buddha's Dhamma - that it was to help us transcend the vyavhara realities of life and attain paramartha.
Visiting Humayunpur - the reputed enclave of North-Easterners in Delhi.
Location - and how to get there:
Despite quite a number of articles that have highlighted Humayunpur's role as a safe-haven for those from Northeast India, there are few that deal with the neighborhood in detail - and also provide reliable information on its location or details about heading over there by public transport.
What I gathered from the friendly internet was that this Humayunpur was in the Safdarjang Development Area (SDA) in Delhi - whether as a locality or mere neighborhood...I could not be sure.
There were suggestions in these articles I consulted - and via other mapping/transportation sites - that one could take the metro to either the AIIMS or Green Park stations and then hire an auto from thereon.
I decided to get off at Green Park metro station (Yellow Line) and sure enough, I could see a sign pointing to Humayunpur as I exited the metro. This is off of Aurobindo Marg, I think. The auto charged what seemed to be a standard Rs. 40/-. You can tell them to take you to the "NCC gate" - but there happen to be 2 NCC gates - bahar-walla and the andar-walla [The outer and the inner] and I guess the "andar-walla" will take you right onto the lane leading into the Humayunpur locality and market.
The outer NCC gate - and the entrance to Humayunpur that I used is opposite the Deer Park and off of a road that I could not get the name of - seems to be on some sort of a loop road that joins Africa Avenue and encloses parts of Green Park, SDA etc.
The actual lane which I used to enter the Humayunpur area is called, I think, the Chaudhry Hukum Chānd Marg (चौधरी हुकुम चाँद मार्ग).
All of the above details because so much is never spelled out in write-ups about interesting places - and one can spend extra time and money in just reaching a destination for no good reason, really.
As you walk on this lane heading towards Humayunpur, you should spot the shop sign for the eatery, Bhansaghar.
One must state upfront that walking into Humayunpur is probably not the most pleasant experience - well, let me backtrack and put it this way: it is not unlike the experience in several similar purs and nagars and other such areas of Delhi which are part urban and part semi-urban, areas which interpenetrate much of Delhi on account of the way it developed. So, cheek by jowl with fancy Green Park and SDA and Hauz Khas will be this locality like Humayunpur with a warren of lanes and a snarl of overhead electric wires and speeding scooters and motrocycles and even enormous, bullying Scorpios - all jostling for space. Munirka is another locality which is like that - another area with narrow lanes and questionable construction, where students and artists and activists take refuge to escape the bruising rents in the city; and so is the area just outside the Sarita Vihar complex (Madanpur Khadar?), for instance...and very many such places, especially in South Delhi (Khirki Extension?).
Back to Humayunpur. What it is not is - a Paharganj or a Chandni Chowk, if you are looking for almost a continuous tablaeu of a mix of tourists, cheap eateries (and even eateries geared towards tourists) and ample shopping.
For the Humayunpur adventure, you have to follow several narrow galis and you will find scattered among them, in between regular grocery shops and saloons and salons, a northeastern or Nepali or Tibetan - or even a Korean (the newly opened Dongne The Town) - restaurant. Interspersed among all these are the Phogat Havelis, the Chaudhry bhavans and some actual chaudhrys and taus smoking the hookah. There is a lane marked Jatav Panchayat also - and maybe it can give you an idea of the mixed composition of this place and the many layers of social formations that coexist, with the northeasterners probably the last to set foot (and root?) here.
We happened to choose one of the hottest days in June to visit and were, predictably, hot and bothered. And add to all the heat is the constant alertness one has to exercise as scooters and motorcycles whizz pass every now and then. You might even get a water drop on your head from somewhere on high and you really do not want to know where it came from, and whether it was a benediction.
To escape the craziness, we ducked into Dongne The Town, the Korean place mentioned earlier. It has a variety of Korean dishes and appetisers to choose from and a number of cool/tea drinks. We played it safe and ordered the Chilli Crispy Kimbap (Veg) [Rs. 220/-] and a Blueberry Yogurt cooler drink (Rs 170/- or so]. Our mistake as we did not read and understand the implications of what went into the Kimbap - chopped fresh green chillies!! - and they are plentiful enough that if you don't take well to green chillis, your mouth will be on fire soon. Somehow the fresh water service on table was tardy and hesitant - though we did get a glass with an ice-cube in it after we made the request. The kimbap itself with its crispy rice was ok, especially when dunked in soy sauce - but seemed to have been heated (fried?) a bit longer than it should have. The cooler was a welcome drink for us escaping the heat - but for two budget-minded adults trying to share one glass, it was too small to slake any one's thirst (also - the blueberries and other fruits advertised are not fresh but some sort of fruit pastes, just so you know). The place itself is clean and is painted mainly white on the inside which gives it a cool vibe. There is also a relatively clean restroom for customers' use.
Along some of our meanderings, we spotted a shop which looked a typical hole-in-the-wall grocery shop but also were hung inside it several wicker baskets - no sign announced where those baskets came from - and sadly we did not ask...maybe next time...we also caught snatches of Haryanvi (Ragini) music coming from some of the shops and this added to the multi-layered cultural experience.
In the end, on account of the heat, the constant vroom vroom of scooters and motorcycles and the sparseness of the layout of the northeastern establishments, we decided to make a quicker exit than we had planned. Hopefully, we can come back when it is cooler and explore in greater earnestness.
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