When She is the Sound

Photo Courtesy: Rupam Sarma, who photoblogs from Assam on www.rupamsarma.blogspot.in

 [Today is Mahanavami of 2012. In Tamil Nadu, this day is celebrated as Saraswati Puja. For me, Mother Saraswati has always held a special place for I am drawn to study and to fine arts. Today I decided, instead of sharing photographs or writings of my experience of India, I will share the soundscapes of India—as I heard her.

Note: Most of the sounds were recorded on my blackberry and are not of excellent quality but you will get the feel!]

Let me begin with the sound of Dhak that I recorded on Mahasaptami during Sandhya Puja (evening puja) in a pandal in Chennai. This sound warms my heart in more than one way—not only is it unique and so utterly Bengali, it is my most favourite sound from my childhood.

http://soundcloud.com/ammasbhavana/vn-20121021-00001

Let me now take you to a Tribal orphanage in Bishnupur, Ghumla District, Jharkhand where girls had gathered for an impromptu Saturday night event. There was no mike and the kids were not expecting a guest. Yet they sang so easily, so wholeheartedly that I wished I had a more sophisticated recording instrument. Listen to the rhythm and to the crisp voices.

http://soundcloud.com/ammasbhavana/vn-20120811-00014

Now let us journey to village Karoundha in Uttar Pradesh, close to Pratapgarh. I met a family of Upadhyayas and asked the senior Upadhyaya to recite some of his favourite Hindi poems. He recited some from his own and a couple from his favourite poets. There is something heavenly about hearing an original Hindi speaking guy recite a Hindi poem in the Hindi heartland of India.

http://soundcloud.com/ammasbhavana/vn-20120726-00005

Let me bring you down south to Auroville. This is what I had written after listening to the Great Padma Shri Prahalad Tipaniya sing kabir bhajans “As the rains canopied the audience, a brown man picked up a tanpura browner than him and wooden cymbals to sing a melody in a language as brown as this earth. First the craving of meaning dropped, then the words itself till listening became as formless as the one it invoked. Aah yes, the words of medieval weaver from the banks of Ganges returned to the shores of love in Auroville this week and this rootless Chennaite witnessed.” You have below a recording shared with me by Aurovillian Patrick of a practice session of one of the songs sung by Prahaladji and I have provided a youtube link to an original Prahalad song for your hearing delight.

http://soundcloud.com/ammasbhavana/mat-kar-maya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRtl0LrtdsE&feature=related

Perhaps the most powerful sound that I heard through my entire India village trip of 2012 was this school assembly song in a school for the disabled somewhere in a naxalite-zone in Ghumla district in Jharkhand in August 2012. This is what I wrote about the assembly later:  “Can't write much as I have only my blackberry. Let me just say this: I came to this school at the end of intense morn where I visited herbal garden, plant nurseries, villages n I was tired. But my adivasi guide, who kept teasing me--"so what do u think adivasis look, eat n wear" forced me to visit this place. Before I knew I was in the school assembly hearing the kids sing: "don't stop smiling, don't get run away from troubles. This, after all, is life." I stood there, gently chastised by the words, watching as the kids sang full breath, full voice to beyond the school, beyond the hilly roads, descending through clouds of hope into the river-green horizon of this exquisite state. I took this photo soon (see above) after the assembly n captures what I felt about all of our futures that morn.” Now listen to the assembly song.

http://soundcloud.com/ammasbhavana/vn-20120812-00015

No soundscape is complete for me without a baul song. There is something magical listening travelling mendicants sing full-throat to a transcendent and an immanent divinity. I had the joy of listening to several recordings at my friend Patrick’s house in Auroville. I listened to a singer burst in during Janmashtami celebrations at a hostel in village Karanjo in Jharkhand. But the recording is not great, so I provide an additional youtube link that was shared with me by a facebook friend. This youtube video is an impromptu recording done by a traveller in a moving train. But the sound bursts forth with all its elegance like a peacock flutters and displays his feathers. Do listen.

http://soundcloud.com/ammasbhavana/vn-20120809-00010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xt1EVA7SfM

And with this I close this navratri series Sa Ham-I am She. I thank the Divine Mother for her unending grace in helping me complete this series. I thank my readers who have supported me both by reading as well as commenting on the blog, facebook, twitter and through email. I offer this series as my worship to all that is feminine in this world and beyond.

Aum Tat Sat!

1.       Sa Ham-I am She 

2.        She is She-Girl Child in India

3.         Mother Managers

4.         Solo Woman Travelling—some do’sand don’ts

5.         Friday Thoughts: To Buri Maa(Old Mother

6.         When She is Mother Earth

7.       The Many Faces of She 

8.       Reflections on She