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Photo: S.Thanthoni

Serene: Shambhu Das.

The artiste was introduced and warmly welcomed by the club committee and members as well as by the couple Jayaram and vocalist Vani Jayaram who recalled their long-time association with him. Eminent music director and chief guest, V. Dakshinamurthy also extended his felicitations.

Formerly a professor of Indian music at York University and currently master of a private music school ‘Sangeet’ in Toronto, Canada, Pt. Shambhu Das holds a Guinness record for marathon non-stop playing on the sitar in a fund raising initiative for Tsunami victims.

He has performed extensively in the U.S. and Canada, giving lecture-demonstrations in many universities and is a sought-after guru who has trained several disciples in India and abroad.

In the piece entitled, ‘In Search of Peace - Music and Meditation -spirituality in India Today,’ which the artiste had earlier presented at the All Faiths convention in Chicago in 2007, the sitar featured solo sans live percussive accompaniment.

Taking up raag Komal Rishabh Asavari for elaboration after a guru vandana, Shambhu Das explained that the alaap was structured in three formats, one leading to the other – Hindustani classical, Fusion and Indo-Jazz.

A video projection served as a backdrop to visually illustrate the concept sought to be defined by the music.

A montage of images capturing Varanasi flickered across the screen, some fleeting, some enduring - the fluttering flags on the banks of the Ganga, serene witness to rituals of birth and death, a boat slowly drifting past the ghats and chhatris silhouetted against dawn and twilight haze, all accentuating the raga’s melancholic air and introspective ambience.

The subdued notes conveyed a gamut of emotions from desolation to man’s search for identity and salvation and finally renewal of life and hope.

Following this was a brief delineation of raag Charukesi painted in broad strokes to the accompaniment of a recorded beat in the chatusra gait. The concluding item was a sketch in raag Desh, in response to listeners’ choice.

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