In tune with changing times
ANJANA RAJAN
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Laurels have found a permanent abode with vocalist Sulochana Brihaspati.
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PHOTO: Sandeep Saxena
AWARDS GALORE Veteran vocalist Sulochana Brihaspati has won many awards in her illustrious career.
Not many could claim to have received awards from the hands of Presidents ranging from Dr. Rajendra Prasad through Shankar Dayal Sharma. But laurels sit lightly on veteran Hindustani vocalist Sulochana Brihaspati, whose illustrious run continues with the Tansen Samman that she received the other day in Gwalior. In her modest flat in South Delhi, she visits her storehouse of memories with twinkling eyes and a disarming simplicity that belies her robust singing voice. The cultural scene in North India is a far cry from what it was when she performed as a young girl. With concert timings largely restricted to evenings, the range of ragas heard is limited, since most Hindustani musicians stick to the time of day traditionally prescribed for each raga.
"They should organise concerts at such times, so those ragas can be heard," she says. "In Punjab, I remember, there would be all-day festivals. In the afternoon, the organisers would ask us to sing an afternoon raga. In Bihar too, I remember the all-night concerts. And you wouldn't know when your turn was about to come. You might have to change your raga just before going on stage."
It could be because of the time, or because someone else had sung what one had planned. "You couldn't go with a fixed song!" laughs the Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee. Such experiences are possible today too, she remarks, recalling how in Gwalior during the Tansen Samaroh, her turn was last, and she had to change her presentation at the last minute.
Such challenges are not tough for someone who learnt singing as she learnt to talk. "We were four sisters and a brother. We lived in Allahabad, and there would be kirtan every Sunday. Music was a part of life. My mother, Vimla Bai Kalekar, was very interested in classical music and took us to Prayag Sangeet Samiti."
The sisters were puzzled by the interviewer's request to sing the sargam (set of notes). Sulochana, doyenne of the Rampur Seheswan gharana, was then seven. "A child learns a language automatically. There is no need to learn the grammar first. We used to simply imitate our elder sister. So we said, we don't know any sargam, and we just sang a song."
Trained under Pandit Bholanath Bhatt, she also counts her sisters Saryu Kalekar (with whom she used to perform) and Kalindhi Nege among her gurus. "I also learnt under Acharya Brihaspati. He was my husband and guru too."
The early days
In 1960 she came to Delhi for the first time as a scholarship holder from the Ministry of Education to train under the stalwart Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan at Bharatiya Kala Kendra. "The Kendra was then just a set of hutments. The teachers and students all lived there, though my guru lived outside. Hafiz Ali Khan, Shambhu Maharaj, the senior Dagar brothers, Naseer and Aminuddin Dagar, all were there," she recalls, adding that Aminuddin Dagar composed music for several of the Kendra's ballets. Her fellow students included Reba Vidyarthi, Uma Sharma, Rani Karna and others. Birju Maharaj, then a youngster, was also there.
"Rebaji and I shared a room. We would all cook our own khichdi." Another lofty name comes up: "Naina Devi was the warden."
It was not common then for young girls to be sent to a hostel to study music. Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan was already 80. Perhaps his venerable age helped tilt the balance in his favour, she quips.
An M.A. in English Literature from the 1960 batch of Allahabad University, she has been a music lecturer at Daulat Ram College of Delhi University. "You can always get one or two good girls, but college teaching is different from the guru-shishya parampara. There are advantages, though. We need at least some people who understand music," she laughs.
"Music has many purposes. There is self-satisfaction, like doing yoga. Then you give anand to others." Some sing for fame and money, others for the pursuit of knowledge.
Sums up the author of several educational books on music, "There are two brands of sangeet: the Apsara brand and the Saraswati brand!"
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