{"id":2379,"date":"2010-12-06T19:54:26","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T14:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?p=2379"},"modified":"2022-02-04T15:36:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T15:36:46","slug":"the-weekend-fantasy-bhimsen-joshi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2010\/12\/06\/the-weekend-fantasy-bhimsen-joshi\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhimsen Joshi – Quenching the Quest for Salvation Through Classical Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“If you had a chance to spend a weekend with a man – any man in history or now – who would it be?” asked A. We were partying and all of us had seen better, more lucid moments. The moment the question came up, it was like being attacked by a bunch of teens –“haan, haan … bol na” “sharma mat”, ‘yahan hum sab dost hi to hai” kind of teeny bopper comments. Given that most of us remember Indira Gandhi as PM, and grew up watching chitrahaar – it was a kind of regression of behavior . … but…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Which man – stranger- would I spend the weekend with… The answer is quite simple – Bharat Ratna Bhimsen Joshi in his prime, all the way from the 1960’s to the late 1980’s. What would I do that weekend, ? well, when you had a weekend with someone of his talent – you won’t waste it on anything else – i would have heard him sing through the 48 hours…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met him, almost 20 years ago – I was a college student and he had come to perform at the Kufa Art Gallery in London – and i trudged all the way to hear him sing. that was the best 4 hours I had spent of my life. IT was morning, some 9 am types – a cold day and he had us enthralled – all of us sitting in a baithak<\/em> with the most incredible performances of Raga Deshkar and Hindol. He took requests and the crowd asked him for Bhairavi … he began by singing Jamuna ke Teer …. but somehow he got so immersed in the raga he moved on from Jamuna ke Teer to sing Jo Bhaje Hari ko Sadha. I have most of his recordings as part of my collection, and this piece never was released. He sang it for almost half an hour…. There was nary a dry eye in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his prime, his power and mastery and intensity in exploring the raga were unmatched. This is a recording from 1957, Raga Multani<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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