Silsila-i-Jogiyan by Sital Singh Bikhwud

سلسلہ جوگیاں

سیتل سنگھ بےخود

Anglo-Persian Taxonomy of Indian Religions

The Annemarie Schimmel Memorial Lecture

by

Carl Ernst

This is not about the book. I have not read the book. I attended a lecture on the book and this is my take on the information I learned.

Sital Singh Bikhwud was a Munshi for the Raja of Banaras in early 19th century. Later he was asked by an East India Company officer to catalogue the various mystic religious  sects of Banaras.

These Munshis, the learned Hindu secretaries, were well versed in Persian and Arabic and were employed by the Kings and Rajas to document; mostly for tax and revenue purposes but at the same time wrote and experimented in philosophy, art and mysticism.

So he was asked to write a treatise of mystics.  What he did was much more than that. He identified many sects, wrote about their belief systems and practices and commented widely on their lives. 

As the language of his work and higher thoughts was Islamasized Persian, that is the language and terms he used to describe his subject. His nomenclature was Islamic and not Indian. For example, the sects are mentioned as mazahib and firqas. The relationship between master and the disciple is termed as Pir and Mureed and so forth.

It implied that the language of ones choice does influence once outlook. These munshis, many of them had written much about mysticism, where the line between a dervish or faqir (Muslim terms) and a jogi or sadhu (Hindu term) becomes blurred.

Perhaps the origin of the Indian mysticism was older than Islam's advent, but development and progression of various Indian orders were heavily influenced by Muslim mystics. These munshis  themselves became spiritually and intellectually involved in the viewing all this through an Islamic prism.

Of the various sects, firqa's he describes, the more notables are

vanisha, shiva, shakti, akashwasi's, sabwasi, nanakshahi and jain.
They include those mystics who would go out in the wilderness, or worship a certain deity, or exist as couples, or get involved in certain rituals like looking at the skies or having the hands up in the air for extended period of times  (months), or various other ascetic practices.

It was in fact the enormous emphasis of British to put people, their languages and belief systems into boxes, that Indians of today identify themselves as Hindus. In Satal Singh's book for example, there is no mention of the word Hindu at all. And this is as late as early 1800's.

According to Carl Ernst, the lecturer, Satal Singh is not the first one to write such a classification. There has been many attempts in the past to categorize the religions of India before this.

In Arabic, the earliest is by Ibn Khordadbih 820-912 in his kitabe masalik wa malamik in which he explains the different people of Abbasid Caliphate including Indian sub continent.

Later al-Idrisi who born in Muslim Spain under Almoravids and later was at the court of King Roger II in Sicily wrote in 1154. The Book of pleasant journeys in the faraway lands mentions 42 religions of India. He had never been to India but learned about East from Muslim merchants.  He was a famous geographer and , it is known that Columbus had used his maps. The modern integrated integrated geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing software has its acronym IDRISI named after him.

Later in Persian, the first description of Indian religions is by Abu Fazal in Aine Akbari in 1602. He used the criterion of philosophy to separate Indian religious thoughts from one another.  He had a philosophical way of describing the religions, and for example he thought if Islam as a 'sect of Muhammad' and not more than that. He does not mention Sikhs at all, even as they existed at that time.

Then there was a Modeb Shah, who actually was a Zoroastrian but pretended to be a Shia. He wrote in 1656? Dabistan e mazahib and used the criterion of Belief to classify different religions.

And there was a Hindu Rai Chatar Man Kayath in Chahar Gulshan 1759. describing the ascetic practices of various religions. This is the first book of the above which mentions Sikhs. 

Sital Singh seems to be an interesting character. Apart from being a munshi, he had been a mystic philosopher and had written a book Khayal e Bekhudi in 1857, Bekhud being his takh'alus. 
 

 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076496478;view=1up;seq=4

He was quite close to an Greek Indophile  Dimitros Galanos who lived and died in Benaras in 1833 whose epitaph was penned by Sital Singh stating that :

 Woe, a hundred times! Dimitrios Galanos departed from this world to the eternal nomads. Woe me! Weeping and wailing have I said it. I am out of myself. Ah, he has gone away, the Plato of this century
Written in Persian and Greek. 

Carl Ernst is a professor of Religious Studies at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hills.  He has written much about eastern religions and edited a book on Islamophobia. One interesting book is How to read Quran.http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=2202
. http://www.unc.edu/~cernst/index.html

The lecture was a part of series of Metropolitan Museum of Arts lectures, carrying the name of Annemarie Schimmel Memorial Lecture. Hers was a household name during my days in Pakistan.

 

The Alchemist by Paublo Coelho

First edition cover

A dear friend of mine was planning to go to Spain. We exchanged some notes and he wanted me to read this book. In a few days the book arrived in the mail.

I had not heard about the book or the author before. My child had. The book has been sold more than 30 million copies. It has the Guinness World Record of being the most translated book by a living author.

The original book is in Portuguese and the writer is Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian. Traveling through Andalusia, he found his calling to be a writer. He never looked back.

What a book! It is easy and quick to read. It reminded me of the Tales of Alhambra by Washington Irving. http://ghareebkhana.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-legends-of-alhambra.html  Old folklore stories retold by Irving talk about the lives of Andalusians. Long after the Moors were gone, there was still a fascination with them. They were thought to posses secret powers, left hidden secrets and had the power to converse with nature at a different level.

This book, the Al Chemist, takes that fascination to another level. It takes a young ambitious Andalusian shepherd, Santiago across the sea to Tangier, and then ultimately to the Pyramids.

Santiago, a shepherd by choice, wants to see the world. He loves to read books but is full of innate wisdom and learns from the nature and surroundings. He longs to see the girl he saw once and spends the whole year to get back to her. On the way destiny takes him on another path. He stumbles into a fortune teller and a self proclaimed king. He is told that he has to find his personal path and a hidden treasure is waiting for him at the Pyramids. 

Taught to watch for the signs and omens, he embarks on a journey which takes him to far away lands, where he has failures and successes. He experiences closely the realities of life, learns from his own intuitions, masters new trades, helps others find their personal paths, travels across the desert, earns the trust of Arab chieftains, and finds the love of his life in Fatima, a girl of the oasis.

Although being sought by a fellow traveler, it is Santiago who wins the heart of the the Al Chemist, a bicentenarian living in the oasis,  who knows the art of turning lead into gold. The Al Chemist is convinced of the boys earnestness of desire, accompanies him through rest of the turbulent journey, and ultimately helps him reach the Pyramids, where the boy has to find his hidden treasure alone.

It is here, that he finds out the true meaning of treasure. It was always within his possession. He just have to go back and get it.

Highly symbolic, it tells the story of a relatively modern time, just one hundred year old, in a language of early post-Moorish era. 

It is the story of finding one's calling and as it says, when you are about to realizing your Personal Legend, the whole world conspires to help you.

You feel like you are reading a tale out of Arabian Nights, Alif Laila,

The popularity of the book tells me that in this day and age of artificial wisdom, there is still a longing rustic stories told in the simple language of heart.

Reading it took me back to my trip to Spain.

You can read more about that in my series of posts searchable under the heading.
http://ghareebkhana.blogspot.com/search?q=spain

Completing The Verse/ A Time Honored Tradition

Completing The Verse/ A Time Honored Tradition

Is Leay Tasweer e Janaan Hum Nain Banwai Naheen


My dear friend Dr Shahid Latif runs a very vibrant list of Pakistani physicians. http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ApnaList/info

A few months back, in May 2013, Dr Alam Ara posted the following on the list. Around the same time it was posted in the Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/apni.zuban.urdu/posts/511529735573629

The king asks his four subjects, a religious scholar, a lover, a blind man and a pauper, to complete the couplet with a second verse of their own. 

The first verse literally means: 
That is the reason I (royal we) did not commission beloved's portrait.
Is leay tasweer e jaana hum nay banwai naheen


Religious scholar: As idolatry is against the religion, I ----

Lover: Singularity would have been lost, So I----

Blind: As I cannot see and it would not speak, I ----

Pauper: As it would have cost and I am penniless, I----

ایک بادشاہ نے چار آدمی طلب کئے ان میں سے ایک عالم تھا ، دوسرا عاشق تھا، تیسرا نابینا تھا اور چوتھا غریب تھا ، بادشاہ نے ان چاروں سے کہا کہ میرے دماغ میں ایک مصرعہ آیا ہے تم لوگ اسکو مکمل کرو ، مصرعہ یہ ہے:

۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ­۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔

؎ اسلئے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں

۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ­۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ­۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ­۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔

چاروں نے تھوڑا سوچ بچار کیا اور اپنے اپنے حساب سے شعر بنائے جو کچھ یوں ہیں:

عالم : ؎

بت پرستی دین احمد میں کبھی آئی نہیں

اسلئے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں

عاشق : ؎

ایک سے جب دو ہوئے پھر لطف یکتائی نہیں

اسلئے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں

نابینا : ؎

ہم میں بینائی نہیں اور اس میں گویائی نہیں

اسلئے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں

غریب : ؎

مانگتے پیسے مصور جیب میں پائی نہیں

اسلئے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں

Apart from what people posted on the facebook, among our own group some tried in light vein.

Amer Akmal posted:

چہرہ بالوں میں چھپا ملتا کوئی  نائی  نہیں

اسلئے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں

Aftab Naz, notorious for his light comedy, posted:

پیار مانگا تھا مگر لفٹ اس نے کروائی نہیں 

اسلئے تصور جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں 

But then there was our own veteran Abdul Rehman Abd, a published poet. The following were his extempore verses.

Fiance': As she has as yet, not vowed till death, I ---

Miser: Counterfeit earns no respect when the original is in hand, So I----------

منگیتر :

مجھ پہ مرنے کی قسم اس نے ابھی کھائی نہیں

اس لیے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں 

کنجوس عاشق :

اصل ہو تو نقل کی کوئی پزیرائی نہیں 

اس لیے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں 

And then he thought of two other couplets and posted right back. 

One was from the competitor suitor, ie Raqeeb and the other, a real classic Abd one, was from the Next door (next window) neighbor. Enjoy: 

Competitor: Contended with the copycats? Not me, so I -----

رقیب :

نقل پہ ہوں مطمئن میں وہ تماشائی نہیں 

اس لیتے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں 

Next Door: Never needed that!

Aaj tak is ki zaroorat hum ko paish aai naheen

Is leay tasweer e janaan hum nay banwaain naheen

ہمسایہ :

آج تک اس کی ضرورت ہم کو پیش آئ نہیں 

اس لیے تصویر جاناں ہم نے بنوائی نہیں 

PS: I have not yet found the complete original couplet nor the name of the poet.

Anybody knows?

Knowing Jesus Through Reza Aslan

THE LOST CASE OF HISTORICAL JESUS

The first time I heard of Reza Aslan was in 2006, when his book  'No god but God' was out. He was on book tour and was invited to various CAIR events. He was a good speaker and spoke very well about the need for community activism and engagement with the larger civil society.

Never in that time I got any hint of his personal story. The journey he had traveled to reach there. I assume that he was not hiding his detour into Christianity before reverting back to Islam. It was not hidden but it was not out there. At that time I read his book; it was a good one. It is a good introduction to Islam for an outsider. It was objectively written and addressed many controversial issues head on. He did claim to write as an insider.

Then somehow I stopped seeing his name in the invitations to community events.

Fast forward 2013 and I heard that a book is out on Jesus, written by a former Christian. The writer was being unjustly bashed for authoring a book like that and his credentials were questioned. Fox News interview had gone viral. I did not pay much attention to that, and only later realized that the author was Reza Aslan. I got interested, saw the interview and eventually read the book.

It is interesting to note his personal history. Transplanted at a young age from Iran to California at the time of revolution, his family was part of the Shah's elite. Religion was only a name tag for them both in Iran and after moving to USA. Religion was considered synonymous with all things bad with Iran and their traumatic uprooting. Growing up in California he found Jesus. Not only that, he was able to convince his family including his mother to convert. Later he married a Christian. Eventually he moved on and found a new meaning of his parent's religion. Now he is a former Christian, and a professor of religious studies. He has not lost interest in the person of Jesus and this eventually let him on a quest to find the historical Jesus; not what is the image of Jesus as the Christ and the Savior.

This is the first book I have read about Jesus. So my limitations are there. I cannot sift out what is mainstream Christian belief and what is considered objectionable by those who believe in Jesus as the savior. Nevertheless, I think it gives much information in a seemingly non judgemental way, that the reader may derive his or her own conclusions.

To me it offered a lot of information. Until now, all my knowledge base is based on what Islam and Quran says about Jesus. I have learned the Islamic version of Jesus What is believed to be Jesus's story and what is the supposedly wrong concepts accepted or corrupted by the Christian clergy.

I mention the following for my own benefit and for the interest of those like me, who may find these pieces of information interesting, if not puzzling or outright blasphemous.

• Jesus time was the time of Roman occupation of Palestine. It meant much of present day Israel, Palestinian territory, Lebanon and Syria. The Temple was still there in Jerusalem. It was destroyed in 70 AD, some forty years after Jesus crucifixion. Jesus was not alone in that century to claim being Messiah. There were many at that time who professed to be the awaited messiah. Many are mentioned in Roman and Jewish sources but Jesus is NOT.
• There are four gospels, all are written after the destruction of the Temple. They are 'authored' by Mark, Mathews, Luke and John. First was around 70 AC and the last was around 120 AC. They all show Jesus as a pacifist, and each subsequent gospel raise his image closer to the status of being a part of godhead.
• There is a discrepancy in the books as to where he was born. Most believe it is Nazareth, but two of the gospels say it was Bethlehem. The thought being that Bible states that the Messiah will be from David's lineage. Bethlehem was David's birthplace and that being Jesus's birthplace would ease the claim of the same lineage.
• He had four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, and many sisters. All from Joseph and Mary, although some revisionism has taken place and some claim that Mary had no other children. All these 'siblings' were Joseph's children from a prior marriage. (This is reminiscent of a certain belief that Bibi Fatima is the only child of Prophet and other daughter's of Prophet were in fact Khadeja's children from earlier marriage)
• In fact his brother James was the leader of the religious movement after Jesus was crucified. This is interesting as the concept of Virgin Mary and the immaculate conception of Mary is quite quintessential to the Catholicism
• His birth, and early life is missed in the gospels. The first gospel, Mark's starts with his baptism by John. (Hazrat Yahya)
• There is an interesting shift in the narrative of Jesus's spiritual relationship with John in the four gospels. In the first one, there is clear mention that Jesus was baptized by John, placing John at a superior spiritual level. By the fourth gospel John is telling that the one after him ie Jesus is the main person. 
• As John had a miraculous birth, born of an old barren mother, it became important that Jesus's birth should be even more miraculous ie virgin birth. 
• There is a juicy story about the death of John. He had objected that the local Jewish client-king tetrarch Herod Antipas had married to his brother's wife, Herodius. She was not happy with John for that reason. One day she asked her daughter, the 'sultry temptress' Salome to perform a lascivious dance in front of his step father. Smitten by her beauty, he asked her to ask whatever she wanted, The girl looked at her mother who asked for John's head.
• Many of John's followers eventually became Jesus' followers after John's execution. In fact two or the 12 Apostle (hawari) were initially John's disciple.
• Jesus had around 72 disciples; it included women. They were asked to chose Jesus above their families. (72 comes as a sacred number in Islam also. There were 72 martyrs. In Islam also one is asked to love the Prophet more than their family members ie children and wives)
• The inner core of disciples were the 12 apostles. All were men, and some were originally John's disciples. They were 12, corresponding to the 12 Jewish tribes. And when one of them was killed, (Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus to the Romans, another was chosen immediately to keep the number 12 constant. Again, 12 is a sacred number in Islam, ie twelve Imams) 
• Jesus did not want to perform miracles on gentiles and compared them, at least in one quotation, to dogs (Mark 7:27)
• Jesus had enough with those seeking miracles, Mathew 12:38. Something like Quran's abhorrence for miracles. 
• Some Jews thought of Jesus as Elijah reincarnated.
• Many people are called Son of God in Bible. We in Islam familiar with the verse which mentions Uzair as being claimed son of God. In Bible the son of God is used as a sign of closeness to God. David in Psalms 2:7 and Israel in Exodus 4:22 are claimed to be God's sons.
• Jesus had called himself Son of Man. 
• The quote which sealed the fate of Jesus, was when asked by rabbis whether it is right to pay tithe to Romans. He looked at the coin, which had Caesar's imprint on it., and said, "Give back to Caesar what belongs to him and give back to God what belongs to Him'. As per Reza it meant openly rebellious thoughts, as it meant that Jerusalem does not belong to Caesar.
• Jesus himself named James as his heir.
• After the crucifixion of Jesus, his family stayed on in Jerusalem instead of going back to Galilee. His brother James, became the leader of the mission, ie head of the 12 Apostles. 
• James was later stoned to death by Jewish Temple authorities. It is his death, mentioned in the historical account of a first century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, which is the first ever mention of Jesus in any non biblical literature. It mentions the death of 'James, the brother of Jesus, the one they call messiah'. It was in year 90 AC or so
• There was a divide in the Christian community early on when the outside Jews ie the Diaspora Jews which were more Romanized became more involved. These Jews had been exposed to the Roman way of life and were critical of the traditional ways of Jewish rabbis and priests. They found the message of Jesus much interesting and close to heart. Eventually there were two groups of believers in Jesus, the Hellenists (the Romanized Jews of Diaspora) vs the 'Hebrews" the locals. The Hebrews were more inclined to keep Jesus in the Jewish tradition, while the Hellenists wanted to do nothing with the Jewish traditions. The main leader of the Hellenists was Paul.
• Paul was NOT one of the 12 Apostles and never knew Jesus personally. He was an avid opponent and supporter of the persecution of Jesus followers after his crucifixion. He only changed when he had a vision of Jesus who asked him "Why are you persecuting me?"
• There was a constant tussle between Paul and James, Jesus' brother. In the end Paul had to succumb to James demand and reluctantly performed rituals at the Temple, acknowledging the Jewish base of Jesus' mission. At that time Jewish hierarchy tried to punish him for all what he had said about them, but Roman soldiers captured him, mistaking him as another suspect they were looking for.
• The story of Paul's imprisonment highly resembles what Quran says about Jesus that someone else was taken by the Roman's thinking of that person as Jesus.
• Later on Paul's case was transferred to Rome on his request.  Where he was eventually executed, along with Peter, first of the Apostles, who was in Rome before Paul arrived. The King mistakenly thought both of them playing a role in the Jewish Revolt which ultimately led to the destruction of the Temple by Romans a few years later in 70 AC
• Paul's Jesus was the first creation before Adam was created. (Similar to what many Muslims believe that the Prophet was the first creation even before Adam)
• Paul's epistles, which eventually became the hard core of Christianity as practiced today, had no mention of historical Jesus. 
• The Jewish revolt which evicted Romans from Jerusalem was spearheaded by the Sacrii. Very much like the present day Taliban, they were very militant in nature, and the slogan was no god but God (la illaha illal La). 
• After three years of 'independence' Romans eventually captured the city and killed everybody and burned the Temple to ground. Western Wall is the only remaining remnant.
• Many of the Romans caught on with this concept of a Jesus who is peace loving and has nothing to do with the rebellious Jews (who had to be exterminated and their Temple destroyed) in opposition to the historical Jesus who was a zealot, anti Roman and anti establishment and was eventually killed for that.  
• In 325 AC, an all Roman Conference of Christian bishops in present day Turkey were summoned to 'resolved' the issue, at the request of the King Constance, the first Christian Roman King. They were to decide the Christian doctrine including whether Jesus was Son of God or Son of Man. They voted in favor of Jesus being literal son of God. 
• In 398 AC in present day Algeria the New Testament was compiled. Most of Paul's writings were in it, and only one attributed to James.
• Rest is history. Paul had won and James had lost.
• All of Jesus life events are somewhat consistent with Jewish traditions. It is the concept of his resurrection after crucifixion, which has no precedence in Jewish religion and something new.
• In fact the die hard belief of his followers in Jesus's resurrection made Jesus's story different form so many other claimed messiahs executed by Romans in that century. 
• Jesus' last words, "Why have you forsaken me?"

In short, the book is not a devotional biography of Jesus. It makes a good attempt to show Jesus as a human being with all its limitations and strengths. It makes a case of how the image of Jesus has changed form a zealot he was in real life to what the world now believes as the savior and the non worldly Xristos, Jesus Christ.

Ditched At The Bridge,سانوں نہر والے پل تے بلا کہ , By Sachal Jazz

Ditched At The Bridge
سانوں نہر والے پل تے بلا کہ
by Ted Nash

SACHAL JAZZ ENSEMBLE with Wynton Marsalis

A week later of attending Anoushka Shankar's concert, it was the performance of Sachal Jazz Ensemble at Lincoln Jazz Center, in Rose Theater at Columbus Circle.

The first time I heard of them was last December when Dave Brubeck died. I shared his Take Five with friends in his memory. An APPNA friend, Dr Naeem Siddiqi, send back the Sachal Jazz version of it.  It was an amazing mix. Later I found that the group has dared into multiple musical experiments.

Now they were here in town. They had two performances back to back, on November 22nd and 23rd, Friday and Saturday, house full. There is a good review by New York Times, but here is my take.

The emcee was Wynton Marsalis, the Music Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, sitting at the back with his trumpet. He did a good job of explaining the background and introduced every body. He appreciated Izzat Majeed's effort to chose Jazz as the medium of fusion, thus connecting classic Indian music with the wider audience worldwide.
 

The conductor was from Sachal, Nijat Ali. It is the first time that I saw someone conducting eastern music. A new concept! To me somehow it seems that the music flows on its own and the conductor is enjoying it, appreciating with the movements of his hands and head a lot more than actually directing it. Perhaps I do not know the ins and outs of music to make such an outlandish remark.

There were ten compositions. Five were basically Pakistani themes and the other five were Western. All of them had good mix of sounds, and some mixes were more seamless than others.

It started with Tere Ishq Nachaya by Wazir Afzal, and was very entertaining to listen to the trumpets and trombones with the tabla, sitar and bansuri.

Others included Ranjha Ranjha by Qadiur Shagan and Mahiway by Khurshid Anwar.

Among the Western compositions I knew included My Favorite Things. from the Sound of Music

 

.

Take five was excellent to watch in real life. All the notes of the music played excellently by Indrajit Roy-Chowdhury, who was sit in for Hidayat Khan. Unfortunately later his sitar's string broke down and we could not listen to more of his work.

The icing on the cake was the peace named, "She Ditched Me". What a surprise, it was famous composition by Salim Iqbal, and sung by Noor Jahan sanno nehr waly pul tey bula kay. This song is from the Pakistani Punjabi film Dukh Sajnaa De. Lyrics were by Khwaja Parvez.

Could not  have asked for more. If ever you get hold of that, please do take a listen. You will not regret it. Especially the tune played by Ted Nash on piccolo carried the night for me.

The last peace was Rythmesque composed by Nijat Ali. A master piece of a grand finale.

The exceptional work was of Baqar Abbas the flute master. Could not imagine the simplest of the musical instruments could have such a wide range of tones, both Eastern and Western and in a flute competition between him on bansuri and Ted Nash on piccolo he clearly held his edge.

And then it is Ballu Khan the maestro table player. Mind my words, he is certainly in the league with Zakir Hussain and Tari Khan.

Izzat Majeed came on stage for a short while after the intermission. He was very humble and thanked everybody. I heard that he was influenced by Louis Armstrong. I missed the discussion at the beginning of the program where he spoke at length.

It was heartening to see them perform at the Rose Hall @ Lincoln Center. Much of the audience was not Pakistani. Wished more were there.

TRACES OF YOU, ANUOSHKA SHANKAR at NYU

TRACES OF YOU, ANUOSHKA SHANKAR

I am not a fan of the popularly know fusion music. My default opinion is that fusion creates noise and confusion. Mixing of music is hard for me to appreciate even when it includes some of the work by Late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

In the last few weeks I had a chance to attend two performances. Both were experiments of fusion music between East and West. The names of performers were too tempting to resist.

First was Anuoskha Shankar, the daughter of legendary Ravi Shankar. I had heard her before when she accompanied her father years back in Carnegie Hall. Over the years she had developed her own style and has been experimenting with western music for a while. For the fans of Spanish flamenco it is a treat listening to her album Traveller, for which she earned one of her three Grammy nominations.

She performed at NYU Skirball Center of Performing Arts on November 16th, 2013. The concert was in conjunction of new 2013 release Traces of You.

It was a sold out performance, with an eclectic mixture of instruments, both eastern and western. The interesting exception was absence of tabla. The percussionist Pirashanna Thevarajah used the supposedly less sophisticated dhol which was on his lap all the times. He made good use of if and the sounded just as great.

Another percussion instrument was the Hang. It is a steel drum, a recent invention out of Switzerland,  looks like a UFO and played by hand.  It could be used both sides, he had three of them and turned upside down when needed. Gave a dull note but was interesting to watch and hear. The player was Manu Delago and when I looked up the Hand in Wikipedia, he is featured  there. Perhaps he is considered a master of this instrument and he is on her team. 

  

One very emotional piece is In Jyoti's Name. Jyoti is the name of the girl who was assaulted in a gang rape and ultimately died. It is very disturbing and the accelerated escalations of notes depict the distress, anger and despair experienced in such a horrible experience.

All her pieces were a mix of sitar along with Shehnai, dhol, tanpura, cello, keyboard, Hang and drums. It got fast and loud too much and too soon. Some items had lyrics in it. they were all in English. Supposedly the actual album would have Nora Jones, (her half sister) but in the concert it was Ayanna Witter-Johnson. She has a great voice,  but some lyrics seem out of meter.

Perhaps I did not understand this music that well. Perhaps I am a generation removed to enjoy this kind of mix. It was a bit loud for me, but still there were many enjoyable moments in the performance.


I kept on waiting to hear something purely classical. It did happen, after the concert was almost over. After taking the collective bow, she returned to the stage to play a classical piece, in memory of her father. It was no fusion, just pure sitar, and it was fantastic.

I think of all her work, the Traveller is the best. It is a fusion with the Spanish flamenco music, which some say originated from the folk tunes of gypsy Roma people, whom many consider of Indian origin.

A week later, Sachal Jazz at Lincoln Center-----

Miss You, Abbaji

This was written on November 14th, 2013

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/5323497382/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Today is the Aushura Day, ie 10th of Muharram, and is also the 19th anniversary of Abbaji.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

The more I grow older the more I realize what a guy he was.

Carefree, funny, witty, caring, sensitive and honest.

He was unable to acheive many wordly goals.

In fact he settled for a lot less than what was expected of him by his family.

Somehow he was content with what he had. What he did not have bothered him not that much.

Always managed to bring some fruit on daily basis on his way home. We always had sweets at home.

Perhaps that is why mother always thought he had more than he actually had.

When mother got sick, he took care of her for a long time, assisting her in all activities of daily life.

She perhaps did not know that he was not that well either.

He never let me know what problems and humiliation he had to go for me for my issues with the authorities.

He made sure if either of us were unaware of the expectation of the others.

Worked behind the scenes to keep us together.

He was a good man. Wish that I had known him more when he was around.

I miss you Abbaji.

Be Well.