#sareespeak

#sustainablesareeing

#veenafirst

Disclaimer – long post, as am not able to be in Chennai for the music season, the rambling has got worse. 🤓

A spate of chamber music concerts, dance arangetram programmes over the past few weeks. In Auckland.
Immersed, soaked, drenched, in music and dance.
I’d like to refer to it as the NZ Margazhi Arts Festival.
Vocalists, violinists, mridhangist, dancers mind blowing.
Young, in their teens and twenties.
Came away from these concerts, fulfilled that the Arts has a future, in NZ, our young generation will carry on, way after we’re gone.
Yet, I have some niggling thoughts.
Now let me see if I will make sense.
When artistes are good, rasikas leave with hearts, minds, souls full, having blissfully feasted on an evening of sensory overload.
Artistes are congratulated on how good they sounded, how they owned a particular piece. And some are told, blessed, if the artiste has a parent or parents or siblings or family members who are artistes, that the apple doesn’t fall too far away from the tree or that fish needn’t teach their young to swim.
A plus point – the artiste might have had a head start, probably the artiste had been immersed in music within the mother’s womb
But that is not the only reason the artiste has reached this stage.
The artiste works.
Very hard.
Day in day out.
4am practice sessions. Day long, singing, listening, practising, absorbing.
Constant immersion in ragas, krithis, recordings of legends, young, old, contemporaries.
I iterate here,
talent is not just born,
it has to be nurtured,
stirred,
moulded into
becoming a ginormous icon of pure magical wonder.
My gurus, great artistes have regaled me with tales of childhoods comprising, rising at the crack of dawn, practising, going to school, returning home, completing homework, practising, having classes, attending concerts, performing practising again, completing doctoral studies even.

What does this tell us?
Simple.
To get to a point of becoming one with the Artform, possessing Art Siddhi,
Any student who wants to excel in the arts (or in any field in life) MUST

1. Be prepared to work hard, very hard
2. Practise effectively, intelligently
3. Listen, observe, listen
4. Attend classes, constant learning, revising
   And
   parents play a huge role in supporting the young artiste, in ensuring
5. lessons are attended
6. Practise is rigorous and done daily
7. Kutcheris, lec dems, workshops are attended
8. Listening, watching, imbibing old and current greats, those who have trodden the great path, is done.
   The only difference between these two types of artistes is the family upbringing and background.

So young or old upcoming artistes, it doesn’t matter if you have come from a family of artistes or your family knows next to nothing about your art, the onus is on you to work hard, extremely hard, be willing to sacrifice, and be surrounded by a support network of parents, spouse, family, friends, like minded peers.

Here’s me on the Saturday, draped in a wistful blue silk, with lilac, gold, green borders and pallu, about to attend a weekend of dance arangetrams in which the musicians are young, upcoming, talented. Saree gifted by a dear friend, purchased in Singapore. This saree seems to want to attend performances, the last time it attended Disney’s Aladdin to watch my niece in her role as Princess Jasmine 🥰.

Sunday’s saree was removed soon after entering the house, on returning from the arangetrams, so I only have captures of the emerald green and orange bordered cotton silk. This saree was gifted to me by my daughter’s dance guru when he visited NZ a few years ago. Coincidentally, nothing is a coincidence though, appropriately, Am wearing this saree, a random pick, while my daughter provides vocal support for the dance programmes, as if silently being blessed by her gurus.