2 years completed at S. I. T. E. today… Since March 25th we’ve been in lockdown just like everyone around. Prior to lockdown we had some classes as usual and a very special Surbahar Recital in October 2019 to celebrate Pt. Nikhil Banerjee’s 88th Birthday by the well-established artist Souravbrata Chakraborty.
Thereafter I played some performances during the concert season before lockdown. During these concerts I also experimented with a composite Jawari made of layers of the original Jawari combined with some granite, significantly changing its tone and bringing in different nuances to the tone for me to explore! The Tabli or the top of the gourd is thin, although excessively resonant in its timbre, in the Hiren Roy Sitar that I’ve been using in the last few years. And given that most sound professionals who simply boost up the frequencies(!) rather than strategically cutting off the unnecesary range, I needed to cope up in some way. They ought to set the Tabla according to the Sitar and not vice versa, but as I’m yet to even see this on a stardard basis, I had to give it thought on how to work around my tone. Something that would remain clear and well defined even at higher deciBel levels.
And then came lockdown! So at first we got busy producing a short video byte for the Indian Museum in Kolkata in a message to spread hope. It was my conscious decision to play with both fingerings on the Sitar – the old traditional approach in a Hindustani Classical rendition as well as my new fingering that I developped in my research that originated from my Sitar playing to formulate the SiGui, in my original acoustic prelude-like fusion composition that I concluded with in the byte.
Then we produced “Bhai, Vikas…” our marathon effort the #sitarwonderboy shared on what he finds essential for progress in music, on the eve of Buddha Purnima; in a journey of 18 years with Sitar, through phases of complete darkness, the thirst to progress as his way forward in the middle of suffering that seems to have been caused by some of the literate under the illusion of being educated.
Thereafter we produced “Body Logic in playing Sitar”, a 2-Part documentary to publish my well-tested process in my learning the Sitar. As I realised that it could be a wonderful research further with the right minds offering to collaborate with in future. As of now I’ve decided to explicitly share the building blocks that I know as I would not like Sitar to remain confined to closed quarters of some group of “cultural elites” who have no clue on the extent of progress that they have hampered by believing and not seeking. I wish to make knowledge universally accessible and stain-free from any gharana odours that have strongly segregated so many practitioners idealogically and more(!) creating deep divides rather than the accepting progress owing to our culture beyond religion – the Sanatana Dharma!
Hint: I was recognised 12 years ago as a promising young talent, up and coming. One would expect to recieve a mere 50 concerts a year without marketing (1 per week) which I’ve never got! So how is it that while professionals who played at my level or below got to play in 150-200 concerts a year while I haven’t even crossed 200 in my 12 years?! All unfair lobby and no room for genuine merit. They cannot cope up psychologically with the fact that my getting 1/10th of those opportunities that they are enjoying is not preventing me from playing better than them!!!!
Negativity will always be there, but I’m glad that I find occasions to rise from these low points.
With best wishes for a meaningful progress – in Sitar & in life,
Soham Munim
27th July 2020