Up-and-coming artistes must not perform in public till they are fully ready to take on the stage. Else, a bid too early may badly backfire. To be a platform artiste one needs sufficient preparedness and before the desired level is reached, one must abstain from undue self-exposure which on failure may be unnerving and detrimental to the flourishing of the future career of the budding artiste.
The legendary Ustad Badal Khan, Guru of Pandit Vishmadev Chattopadhyay, used to say that a student of Hindustani classical music must learn the art from the age of five to the age of forty-five before he is chiselled well enough to perform before the public with credit. While many may find this prescription too far-fetched, impractical and damaging to the professional prospects of a performer in today's world, it remains, however, the only standard method of the proper preparation of an artiste with minor adjustments made in specific cases of outstanding musical merit. The failure to follow this dictum of the great Ustad is proving to be the undoing of the ancient musical art and is the singular reason why there is such a dearth of musicians worth the salt these days.
Even if the stricture of sadhana for forty years be raised, the intent of the statement of Badal Khan Sahib needs to be affirmed in one's musical journey if one is to attain to a semblance of mastery over this difficult art of raga music where the features and nuances of the ragas often take a lifetime to comprehend in depth and the spirit of the ragas still remain elusive. Mere note production in tune is not music and herein lies the challenge. To attain to maturity of understanding of the spirit of the ragas even more than achieve mastery over the technique of rendition takes years of toil, contemplation and life's experience in the solitude of sadhana in the absence of which shallow musicians are likely to be the products in haste of performance.
Raga music is oceanic in depth and extent and to attempt mastering it in a short while is in line with the old adage of fools rushing in where angels fear to tread. Thus, it is an entreaty of this writer that budding artistes keep honing their talents in the seclusion of their music room till they burst into full bloom when they can take on the world and carry their audience to sublime heights of musical rapture. If such a day they can wait for, then we will once more see the renaissance of Hindustani classical music. May Mother Saraswati bless such sincere aspirants in their sadhana in seclusion!
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Ustad Allauddin Khan who spent a lifetime learning and teaching music to produce stalwarts like Annapurna Devi, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Nikhil Bannerjee, Pandit Pannalal Ghosh, Pandit V.G.Jog, Pandit Ajoy Sinha Roy, Ustad Bahadur Khan, Ustad Ashish Khan, Vidushi Sharan Rani and a host of others.
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