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Tapping tappas
A TRAILBLAZER Shanno Khurana at her New Delhi residence Photo: Anu Pushkarna
`I don't belong to a musicians' family. In my family they are all doctors, engineers, foreign service people,' says Shanno Khurana. A star among Hindustani vocalists today, she does not seem to lack anything the `khandaani' musicians might have. The eminent vocalist's album of tappas, Sufi Raah, was released by the Parzor Foundation recently.
"The tappa is a highly classical form within Hindustani music," she explains. The high speed of rendering the compositions coupled with the technical demands of this form that dates back to the 15th Century camel drivers of Rajasthan is part of the reason it has become a rarely performed art. But, says the veteran, "Tappas always fascinated me."
Born into a Punjabi family and brought up in Jodhpur, she was introduced to music through the teacher who came to her house to teach her sister. The question of becoming a professional musician never arose, since
"In Punjab at that time women musicians were looked down upon as `the other woman'," recalls the singer.
Early lessons
And although the lessons were not for her, the young Shanno would learn the songs being taught to her sister. "I was obsessed with classical music," she says simply. "Once a sanyasi came and told my father, `This daughter of yours will take to the stage.' He was horrified!" she relates. It was only when she was 12 that she was allowed to learn classical music formally from Raghunathrao Musalgaonkar.
That her guru was such a gentleman, "he wouldn't even lift his eyes", must have helped in her musical training gaining family acceptance. Later she trained under Guru Mushtaq Hussain Khan and Thakur Jaidev Singh, under whom she did her PhD.
Married off at a young age to a doctor in the Air Force, she is now a grandmother and points out how keeping a balance in life has helped her to be successful on the home and professional fronts. "I have always kept a Lakshman Rekha between my family life and my profession."
It may sound coy, but she is quick to credit the support of her husband.
"When I went to Khairagarh University to take the music exams, I was the mother of two small children and felt she I could not leave them, but my husband, who had by then established his dental surgery practice in New Delhi, insisted I go."
Travelling the world as a woman professional wasn't as commonplace in her generation as it is now, but once a trailblazer, always a trailblazer.
Only to be expected form someone who describes herself as being in the habit of "inflicting" challenges on herself!
ANJANA RAJAN
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