Kumar (Classical singer Kumar Gandharva) died on January 12, 1992, and precisely eight months later, on September 12, Anna (Mallikarjun Mansur) handed away. Vasantaa (Classical singer Vasantrao Deshpande) left us way back, a few years earlier than these two. Three icons of Hindustani Classical Music – with their very own glory, stature and brilliance. Like a lot of my contemporaries, I think about myself lucky to have the ability to pay attention to those three in a single lifetime. However greater than that, due to Bhai (PL Deshpande), not solely was I acquainted with them, however I acquired to know and bond with them intimately.
I had heard loads about Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur from Bhai. Round 1947 or 48, I had additionally gone with Bhai to Anna’s baithak at Jyotsna Tai’s (Jyotsna Bhole) home on the event of her daughter Vandana’s birthday, in Pune. I had additionally heard his recordings. However till 1959 or so, I actually had no alternative to get to know him personally. In 1959, after we had been in Delhi, he got here to our home with KD Dixit. Bhai was then working with Akashwani and Delhi Doordarshan. Mallikarjun Mansur had come for some singing or recording associated work to Delhi. Accompanying him had been his spouse and his toddler daughter Girija. Musicians from anyplace within the nation who got here to Delhi for All India Radio recordings had been warmly hosted by the Dixits at their residence.
Bhausaheb (Dixit) and Nirmala-vahini had been like dada and vahini (sister-in-law) for us. We knew one another’s acquaintances and visitors, due to our widespread love of literature and music.
Mallikarjun Anna got here for the primary time to our home that day. He wore a dhoti, a protracted coat, and a topi. It has been 33 years since then, and there had been no change in his apparel. With age, his character and singing had grown and matured. However hardly ever did I discover any change in behaviour, his type of speaking, or for that matter, his laughter. Anna had come to our home for lunch. However earlier than lunch, we had his singing session. Bhai on the harmonium. The Dixit couple, me and Anna’s spouse with their toddler daughter on her lap. These had been the one listeners. I don’t keep in mind what he sang that day. However no matter he sang vouched for all that I had heard about his singing to date. His picture earlier than my eyes that day, stays untarnished. It has not pale from my reminiscence. These days, for the previous four-five years, he had shortened the size of his baithaks, however the viewers acquired every little thing as earlier than. There was by no means any compromise in high quality.
After that baithak at residence that day, Anna by no means wanted a proper invitation to return to our home. Each time he got here to city, he all the time visited us. In a while, each time he got here to Bombay, he would stick with us at our Santacruz residence with none hesitation. As soon as he had a fleeting go to to Mumbai from Dharwad, en-route Delhi or another place. He got here to Santacruz round 11 within the night time with Balaji Joshi. He had had dinner, so there was solely tea and dialog at our place that night time. I very casually requested him, “Anna, what’s the distinction between khyal and dhrupad?” By now, Anna was maybe properly conscious of my profound ignorance of Indian classical music. However my harmless question elicited a considerate reply from him. He defined the distinction to me, intimately, singing each dhrupad and khyal by giving examples. He sang for an hour or two. My question might need been a tad foolish, however I realised that the musical atmosphere that adopted it, lifted the spirits of not solely Bhai, but in addition Anna.
Immediately, I see earlier than me the couch on which Anna was singing that day and in entrance of it’s the couch on which we had been sitting and listening. These partitions and the bushes couldn’t have remained untouched by these pure, meditative notes. When a singer is singing, a hearth, an power is kindled in his physique. There may be such unity between thoughts and physique. A singer’s notes emanate from his throat, a harmonium participant produces sound together with his fingers – however their entire physique is in sync with the sounds. Can the place the place the singer sings, the environment, stay unaffected? Immediately, the lifeless couch in entrance of us has change into as previous as us. Like us, it has lived in that huge home in Santacruz to be shifted to this small home in Pune. Even right here in Pune, Anna, Vasantaa and so many different singers, huge and small, have sung on this couch. Like me, this couch, these partitions, this home are certainly lucky.
As soon as, we had been having our traditional night chat right here. I remembered an identical night in Dharwad, the place Anna’s daughter had sung Basaveshwar-vachanas with Anna. I requested him to sing them for us, once more. Anna began singing them. Vasantaa was sitting reverse him. He began matching him word for word. When one completed, the opposite started. That poignant night of the musical question-answer session between Anna and Vasantaa remains to be contemporary in my reminiscence. However our a few years of acquaintance with Vasantaa, we hardly knew of his familiarity with the vachanas. Due to Anna, we got here to know of this side of Vasantaa’s.
For the previous 20-25 years, with a couple of exceptions, Anna all the time stayed with us when he got here to city. Bhai has described him as “the person who resides in music”. Does he reside in his singing, or do his notes reside unwaveringly in him? Mallika means the flower, jaai. Throughout the baby naming-ceremony, when Anna was named Mallikarjun, might anybody have prophesised that musical notes would encompass him just like the pure, blessed and refreshing perfume of jaai flowers? When he stayed with us, our entire home turned musical. However I need to add that, aside from the music, in all different features, Anna was fairly astounding. He would inform us of his date, day and time of arrival. However the day used to hardly ever match the date. We’d discover him someday round that date or day. Having knowledgeable us of his coming at night time, he could be at our doorsteps within the early afternoon, or the following morning. His wants had been quite simple. I took care of his specific model of beedi, boiled water and agarbatti, and the way in which he needed his room. He was so positive that these wants could be taken care of, that he handled our home like his residence. I knew of his likes and dislikes in meals and ready them accordingly. Perhaps due to this concern, he typically advised folks, “My Tai is like my aai” – my sister is like my mom. When his stick with us was longer, he was invited over for meals. I made it a degree to inform the hosts that Anna solely has boiled water. I used to be fairly positive they might care for it, however Anna by no means was. Earlier than we left residence, he would flip round and inform me, “Tai, we could take our personal water? What assure that they gained’t neglect?” He could be so anxious, so I’d take his water alongside. Seeing that religion, I’d typically assume that he would even drink faucet water from me and never fall sick however could be uncertain of others’ fastidiously boiled water and are available again residence, thirsty.
Not solely did he have abject religion in us, however I additionally skilled his deep and, at instances, blind affection. As soon as when he was staying with us, our acquaintance, a household from Bombay visited us. That they had introduced fried fish and different fish preparations with them. All favourites of Bhai. The plan was to have me simply make rice and revel in a luxurious meal of rice and fish. However seeing Anna at residence, they hesitated. We quickly needed to discover a compromise answer to this meal downside. Bhai might nonetheless have a few of the fish, after Anna went again, in order that was promptly saved within the fridge in small bins. Bhai was chatting with Anna within the outer room. Vasantaa and Dinesh had been there too. Each, avid fish eaters. Making an excuse that every one will be unable to eat collectively on the eating desk, we determined that our guests, Vasantaa and Dinesh would partake the fish first. The second spherical could be the vegetarian spherical with Bhai and Anna, and the third spherical could be us, ladies. Whereas they had been consuming, I made tea for Anna. Thus, I attempted each strategy to cover this subterfuge. However whereas they had been having meals, Anna wanted matches for his bidis and he handed them on the way in which to his room. He would have clearly smelt the fish. However he pretended to not discover it. Seeing our predicament, he determined to disregard the whole affair. Out of his love for us, he forgave us our sins.
We don’t observe any gods, faith or rituals in our residence. However when he stayed with us, Anna was very diligent together with his puja after his tub. He in all probability introduced his gods in his bag with him. I’d put together a thali with a brass pot, water, flowers, agarbatti and so on. and he needed to make do with that. He would end his puja inside five-six minutes in his room. He didn’t anticipate something extra and neither did I ever argue with him on this.
In Dharwad, he had a devoted wall in his home with a line of images – of Lingayat swamis, shiva-lingas and the remainder. Day by day after his tub, his brow anointed with ash, he would do an elaborate puja of those images with sandalwood and flowers. Rajshekhar was his solely son. The remainder had been all daughters. Rajshekhar was a Professor of English and a disciple of Anna. However after marrying a Brahmin lady, Rajshekhar discovered the doorways of his residence closed on him. So strict was Anna’s adherence to non secular traditions. However in that line of images on the wall, together with the gods, there was additionally a photograph of Alladiya Khan-Saheb. This photograph acquired the identical veneration and worship because the gods. What was then, his stand on caste and non secular taboos? I couldn’t assist myself and at some point, ended up asking him, “Anna, in your Dharwad home, you do puja of Alladiya Khan-Saheb’s photograph additionally?” Folding his palms collectively in prayer, he mentioned “What are you saying, Tai? Guru is god.” Does this suggest that in his thoughts, he had made a neat division between following bhakti in direction of his Guru however following customs when it got here to coping with his son?
We had visited him typically in that Dharwad home. At instances, after we needed to go to Belgaum, Ghatprabha, Hubbali, or Dharwad for work, we might go to him at his residence to see him. At instances, we might go to Dharwad solely to see him. If we had been simply the 2 of us, we might keep in his home. In that home too, there could be music on a regular basis. One night, Anna was singing Raag Puriya. It was getting alongside very properly. Simply then, we noticed his daughter beckon him inside from the door. All people in his household revered him. His daughters too had lovely voices and had been good singers. So, we knew that no person would cease his singing halfway with none purpose. Anna too felt that, and he left us to go inside. We sat there ready for him, speaking to one another in muted tones. Some five-seven minutes had handed, and Anna nonetheless had not returned, so I acquired as much as go and see what had occurred. What do I see? Anna’s daughter was having a seizure – an epileptic match. Anna had her head on his lap and was making an attempt to get her again to consciousness. Vahini and the opposite two daughters had been frantically making an attempt to revive her by making her scent onions, splashing her face with water, and desperately making an attempt to pry open her clamped enamel. I too tried to assist in no matter method I might. “Ought to I name the physician?” I requested. To that Anna replied, “It’s high-quality, Tai, she might be OK. There is no such thing as a want to fret. Please inform Bhai that I might be there quickly.” Very slowly the lady regained consciousness. Anna was in tears. Wiping his eyes, he began laughing. Maybe that they had handled such episodes earlier than. May that be the rationale for his or her composure and the rationale they didn’t name the physician? Who is aware of? I went again and sat. Simply then, Anna too got here out. The tanpuras had been strung, and he re-started his singing on the exact spot the place he had left it. As if nothing had interrupted it. We had been awe-struck. Is that this all so simple and simple? It appeared as if Anna was having a dialog with Puriya, which he needed to cease abruptly. When he got here again, they resumed this dialog, with out additional ado. Or is it that Puriya was nonetheless there in that room when he left it, breathlessly ready for him. And the second Anna got here again, she mingled together with his breath. This particular person, dwelling concurrently in life and in music, is he one man or two? Are there two unbiased personalities dwelling in a single physique? Merely a couple of minutes in the past, I witnessed the tearful agony of a father. However even in that state of turmoil, one a part of his thoughts had carried on together with his singing. It had not affected his tone, his pitch or his rhythm. After he completed singing that cheez, there was spellbound silence. Bhai then casually requested him, “Is Akka all proper? Sunita was telling me about it”.
“It’s all high-quality. In life, one thing or the opposite will maintain occurring”, and he began together with his subsequent cheez.
For some purpose, if he needed to abruptly cease his singing, he had an uncanny means to renew it on the very exact word he had stopped. As soon as we had a baithak in Pune in B Gadgil’s home. His taans had been unrolling like a reel of silk, when he needed to cease abruptly as a consequence of some glitch with the tabla. It took about 5 to seven minutes for issues to get again on observe. Anna confirmed the tabalji (the theka) together with his palms and inside seconds, he resumed his taan and his singing. There was no disruption within the mehfil. It was as if nothing aside from Anna’s singing had even occurred there and even that break was our creativeness. Our immersion in his singing continued uninterrupted. It was solely later that we recollected the interruption and realised that no interference of any variety has the facility to interrupt Anna’s mehfil. It is sort of a firefly flitting throughout an ocean of stars. We don’t neglect the firefly, nevertheless it doesn’t have an effect on our enjoyment of the celebrities.
Our recollections of Anna will not be nearly music. Anna used to talk to us on different topics, as properly. He used to love listening to Merdherkar’s and Borkar’s poetry recitations from me, and sometimes recollect related poems in Kannada and recite them to us. He favored poetry and good literature and had a very good information of them. He used to precisely translate Kannada vachanas into Marathi. There is perhaps a couple of grammatical errors right here and there, however the gist was transported from one coronary heart to a different.
He hardly ever criticised anyone. I don’t assume he had the time for that and neither the inclination. I as soon as requested him, “Anna, you already know a lot about music; have learnt and contemplated a lot on it. Who would you rank as a very good musician, right now?” Laughing out loud, he first tried to dodge my query. However after I continued, he solemnly answered, “To be very trustworthy Tai, neglect about right now. Even 50 years from now, if something endures, it in all probability would be the music of Narayanrao Balgandharv and Begum Akhtar. The remainder of us might be left behind.”
These phrases of Mallikarjun Mansur, the person who had devoted his total life to Hindustani classical music, inform us not solely of his acute notion, but in addition his means to see by way of the socio-cultural change that was to mark the approaching instances.
Individuals typically wish to bask in tittle-tattle in regards to the private lives of singers, or for that matter, anyone well-known. One will get to take heed to a whole lot of gossip about Narayanrao Balgandharv and Gauharjaan. Narayanrao had married her and folks by no means ceased to unfold canards about this. As soon as in a baithak, any individual introduced up this subject once more and I shall always remember Anna’s rejoinder. Gauharjaan used to work in Anna’s elder brother’s theatre firm. At the moment, she and Balgandharv had been nonetheless not acquainted. However even then, each time she used to take a seat down for her riyaaz, she used to maintain a photograph of Narayanrao earlier than her. Such was the fervor of this lady’s love and she or he acquired the reward of that love from her beloved. Who’re we to touch upon this? It isn’t correct for us to gossip like this and it’s not even true. “I’ve seen it with my very own eyes, Tai. Hardly ever has anyone liked one other with such intense devotion. It isn’t simple. Extraordinary mortals can not do it.”
On many cases like this, one acquired the sensation that Anna believed that the power of human relationships had the facility to transcend variations in caste, creed and faith. However why banish your solely son as a result of he married out of caste? This was an unsolvable riddle. And each time I felt daring sufficient to interrogate Anna on this, I solely acquired a half-hearted and disappointing response.
I keep in mind one other event after I acquired simply such a response from him. Although, the difficulty this time was not private. Bhopal’s Bharat Bhavan had organised a music programme and a lecture demonstration with him. Fairly a couple of of us mates went there on this event. The music session was wonderful, as anticipated; however even the lecture was partaking. Anna spoke frankly and thoughtfully about a whole lot of points and one acquired a way of how completely he had imbibed his music. I typically used to ask my inquiries to Anna at residence. However the session that day was so engrossing that I discovered myself asking him a query on raags and their time of singing. Sometimes, each raag is classed as belonging to a sure a part of the day and needs to be sung throughout that point solely. Many singers select their compositions in a mehfil primarily based on this classification. Did Anna imagine on this timing schema? If that’s the case, how can he clarify radio recordings, that are executed in the course of the night time, however relayed the following morning or afternoon on the radio? Such was my question. The concept that one specific raag has to sung at a specific time doesn’t maintain a lot that means right now, he mentioned. It’s only a practice to be adopted.
I carried on, “But when this custom is so meaningless, shouldn’t stalwarts such as you give it up?” To that he retorted, “Those that wish to give it up, are free to take action”. Wasn’t this a method of evading my query? However this response acquired a whole lot of laughs from the viewers and that’s that.
Typically, a real insurgent finds the power to interrupt traditions and undertake one thing new. Typically, traditions evolve and alter on their very own, however at instances, out of inertia, they merely maintain occurring. Which raag needs to be sung at what time of the day has no actual significance. None of this has any affect on one’s musical journey, or the heights one needs to attain in music. What issues is how you’ll be able to set up the raag, give it your distinctive flavour and character, and see it flower into one thing that provides ecstasy each to you, and your listeners. Kumar was a insurgent on this area. He crafted his personal new house, however even he didn’t choose up this gauntlet relating to raags and their timings. The truth that they don’t give a lot significance to it maybe implies that it’s an insignificant problem. I used to be left considering perhaps insisting on a solution was my idiosyncrasy.
Anna was not a insurgent. However his adherence to custom was not blind. It was easy and straight-forward, however he had thought it by way of, meticulously. Each time he used to sing, he was attired in a dhoti, coat, and a topi. It had nothing to do with grooming or shade coordination. Nevertheless it was all the time neat. Perhaps not freshly ironed, however by no means dirty. Bespectacled, with brow anointed with ash, it was amusing to see him like this. At instances, it was additionally humorous. However the second he began to sing, it was as if a magician had turned his wand and the scene modified immediately. It didn’t take lengthy for him to determine his mastery. His first word hit the ears and one acquired right into a trance. In his baithak, he transported the viewers to a realm the place he was immersed in sculpting a shocking musical sculpture, through which they poured their eyes, their ears, their life. The viewers was a witness to a fascinating spectacle through which this was delivered to life earlier than their eyes. To see him sing, then, was to have a “darshan”. One might by no means take one’s eyes away from him. Notes high-quality as silken skeins, pure and gleaming like pearls, his persona remodeled into one thing divine. The musical notes seemingly besotted by him. That was not stunning. He enticed them like a lover – slowly, sweetly and intensely. When this chase reached its pinnacle, the breath-taking appreciation from the viewers and Anna’s uproarious acknowledgment of it was a sight to behold. A dwelling spring of euphoria flowed in that musical panorama. One noticed the creation of music in Kumar’s baithak; however in Anna’s baithak it was as if a musical treasure trove was being prised open earlier than them. He had you beholden, from the start to the tip. Anna was an orthodox follower of his Lingayat Math’s and Guru’s customs, rituals and conventions. However his love-affair with music was not simply transcendental. Kavan des gayo, Mat ja jogi, Hello raat savat bai, or Neend na aayi – when one listens to quite a few such compositions, you realise not solely is that this man a real devotee of musical notes, however he’s their supreme lover.
How did Anna obtain this? How did he hone his craft? Or for that matter, how do the good obtain greatness? One is probably born with a few of it. Then there may be exhausting work, wrestle, ambition, a burning need, and the path proven by one’s guru, which Anna calls “guru krupa”. We acquired to listen to loads from Anna about his musical journey as a disciple. With one exception, all these recollections solely mirrored Anna’s ardent adoration and gratitude in direction of his gurus.
And what was that exception? Not that it was executed on goal. He had gone by way of that have at a uncooked age when he was passing by way of making an attempt instances and maybe that’s the reason he couldn’t simply neglect it.
As soon as after we went to Dharwad, we visited Kundgol. Anna too accompanied us. There’s a musical soiree on the eve of vocalist Sawai Gandharva’s loss of life anniversary there, yearly. It’s maybe celebrated even now. There’s a grand feast for 2 to a few days. Musicians from throughout collect there and do their bit. Music lovers from close by areas congregate. Once we went, there was an enormous crowd. Anna additionally sang for some time, and we returned.
On our method again, I advised him “Anna, there was an enormous crowd, however completely undisciplined. Individuals had been going about their very own enterprise in between.”
“Properly you see Tai. Persons are getting free meals for 2 to a few days, so the poor collect across the place. What’s their curiosity in music?”
“You have to be going there yearly, to sing, is it not so?”
“No…no..right now was my first time.”
We had been a bit shocked. However on our subsequent journey, we got here to know the rationale.
Anna had began singing at a really younger age. He picked it up from wherever he might. He was eager to have a guru educate him systematically and so he approached Sawai Gandharva. Sawai Gandharva declined to take him as a disciple. Perhaps he had his causes. In these days, accepting disciples meant that you simply needed to oversee their repairs and have them dwell with you. Maybe that was not potential for Sawai Gandharva. Who is aware of the true purpose? However Anna felt that since he was a Lingayat, this Brahmin guru refused to just accept him as a disciple. Such casteism is par for the course in our nation. In Belgaum, on the eve of Shivratri, a Vaishnav good friend of ours referred to as us for dinner. It was a veritable feast. We initially thought that this was in our honour. Later to our dismay, we realised this was a ritual of Vaishnavite one-upmanship over the Shaivaites who should bear a quick that day. Such boundaries just like the Hindu-Muslim non secular boundaries as additionally caste-boundaries are rigorously noticed. Like it’s some type of a solemn obligation. So, possibly, Anna was proper. However he might always remember this jibe, and regardless of Kundgol being so near Dharwad, he had by no means visited that musical occasion. That day together with us, he merely acquired a formality executed. There was no coronary heart in his singing.
Anna scrupulously upheld his duties as a householder. His daughters had been taught, and their marriages duly solemnised. His son had studied properly. It’s only now that the monetary state of affairs of singers has improved a bit. A variety of musicians of Anna’s era needed to spend their life in penury. No matter that, Anna sorted his household’s private wants and his household took utmost care of his. However in different features, it was a very completely different matter. As soon as, in his Dharwad home, Anna opened his cabinet to indicate us one thing. An enormous quantity of paper and letters haphazardly stacked in there got here tumbling down. After I reached out to place them again, I realised a few of these letters weren’t even opened. Maybe they got here in Anna’s absence and had been stored within the cabinet and forgotten. A few of these had been invites for music live shows, offering good-looking emoluments. Alas, timelines lengthy gone previous. Sheer negligence had made him lose a lot cash. Tch..tch-ing his remorse, he guffawed out loud and that was the tip of the matter.
As soon as from our residence in Pune, after we had dropped him off for his journey to Mumbai, I requested him “Do you may have your ticket with you?” “Sure” he retorted and out got here from his coat pocket, a clump of half a dozen tickets, all disparate instances and locations. In that bunch, there have been a number of Pune-Mumbai tickets as properly. I looked for the appropriate one and handed it over to him and discarded the remainder. That once more acquired the same old chortle of laughter from him. At the moment, I couldn’t assist however assume – couldn’t not less than one in all his many daughters care for these mundane necessities? However that was out of the query. I don’t assume Anna ever felt that want, and neither did it restrict him in any method. Nor did music lose something. Each particular person has his personal horizon, his internal boundaries. What’s the horizon, in spite of everything? It’s the outermost restrict of 1’s sight. Anna’s thoughts’s eye might understand far and extensive, touching musical infinity. He might see every word, as is, in its acceptable place, like a self-illuminated star. However his worldly eyes couldn’t fathom the untidy garments, cash and the unopened letters clamped within the cabinet. Their horizon was bounded by the taans of his tanpura. The land past that was not his to see.
Once we got here to know of Anna being struck down with a malignant type of most cancers, we rushed to Dharwad to see him. On the journey, we had been listening to cassette tapes of Anna. My thoughts was a tumult of recollections. Whereas I used to be listening, a reminiscence of Bhausaheb Dixit abruptly got here to me.
Dixit was chargeable for our first assembly with Anna, and Dixit handed away as he was listening to Anna. He had urged his brother to take heed to a music cassette of Anna’s that he a lot adored. At a specific level, he advised his brother “Now, discover how taking his flight, he comes again to the sam. Tat dha, tat dha, tat…” And on the third dha, Dixit left his worldly abode. All very inexplicable. A liked one left us that method. One other liked one was on his method.
As soon as on his method again to Dharwad, Naralkar, who was dropping him off on the station, requested him “Anna, when will we see you once more?”
“Oh, I might be again on November 10. I’ve a live performance on the eleventh.”
“Why tenth? Why don’t you come earlier, on the eighth?”
“Why? What’s so particular about eighth?”
“Oh. Bhai’s sixtieth birthday is on the eighth.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll come on the eighth.”
And Anna was there, early on sixth morning. We stored receiving calls from the midnight of the seventh. Individuals’s enthusiasm was hardly letting us get any sleep that night time. We acquired up earlier than 3am. Round 3.30am, as we had been having our tea, Anna began singing Bhairav alongside together with his tea. He gave the thekas on our eating desk and sang for round 30-45 minutes. This was Anna’s reward to Bhai on his birthday.
“Anna, can I ask you one thing?”
“Positive. Go forward,” and he laughed aloud, as traditional.
This laughter was distinctive, his alone. It all the time accompanied him. In good instances and in dangerous.
“Anna, each singer has his distinctive sa. A, G, G+ no matter. Now when a singer begins together with his sa, how is it that listeners are in a position to surmise which raag is he going to sing? Can one recognise a raag solely on the idea of sa?”
“Sure Tai. When that sa comes, it doesn’t come, bare or unadorned. It’s dressed within the outfit of that exact raag. Then one can simply recognise it.”
As soon as, we had organised three consecutive live shows of Anna’s in Pune – morning, night and night time for a choose viewers of about 600-700. Anna had dropped by a day or two earlier. He had chosen his tabalji and accompanists. All preparations had been on the dot. However Anna appeared anxious. I used to be a lightweight sleeper, and that night time I wakened in the midst of the night time to see Anna restlessly pacing up and down.
“What occurred Anna? Would you like one thing?”
“No, Tai. You return to sleep.”
After I got here again after a while, Anna was nonetheless awake.
“Anna, shall I make some tea?”
“Why do you are worried? This isn’t the time for tea. You return to sleep.”
“What does it matter, Anna.” So I ready some tea and each of us sat collectively, sipping it.
“Anna, are you not feeling properly? You look anxious.”
“Che, che, Tai. Nothing is the matter. Every part is ok. However you all have organised such an enormous music programme. Every part ought to go properly.”
And he laughed as traditional. However his tone and face regarded perturbed.
All these three live shows had been wonderful. Those that had the fortune to take heed to him that day felt blessed. Individuals nonetheless reminisce about it. That night time, Anna slept like a log. A lot in order that we had been anxious when he didn’t get up as traditional the following morning. Anna should have executed tons of of baithaks in his lifetime. However he nonetheless felt the strain of the three baithaks that we, with our blind religion in him, had gone round organising. Later, he advised us as a lot.
We reached Dharwad. He had recuperated from an enormous kidney ailment, just some months in the past. He had even resumed giving musical live shows. Nonetheless, we might see that he had change into weak, when he got here to Pune. However on this, maybe our final go to, we couldn’t face him. He was within the throes of loss of life. He had not been knowledgeable of his most cancers, however he was positive that these had been to be his final days. He had expressed his need to go to his Math and sing there for a couple of minutes. His voice had change into so frail that the singing couldn’t be recorded.
“Anna, what did you sing that day within the math?”
He advised us about that Kannada verse of Basaveshwara, and its Marathi that means.
“The moon and the ocean are drawn to 1 different. Their bond impregnable. But the ocean can do nothing to the moon when he’s assailed by rahu and ketu; So is the moon helpless, when the ocean is struck by storms. In the long run, no person can come to 1’s assist. It is a solitary journey.”
We spent a whole lot of time with Anna that point, ensuring his days could be peaceable. We met all his family members and his docs. We tried to know every little thing. That this might be our final go to was the one message we acquired.
After I first met Anna in Delhi, I gave him my namaskar. After that, we discovered no event for protecting such formalities between us. That day, after I left his residence, I folded my palms and mentally did my final namaskar. Anna too folded his palms, took them to his brow and closed his eyes. This was his first and final namaskar to me. Not namaskar, however Ram-Ram. There was one other factor uncommon about that go to. Anna had not laughed, not even as soon as. The sound that had change into frail that day within the math, whereas singing Basaveshwara’s rachana, had muted his laughter. However the that means of Basaveshwara’s rachana continued to bounce earlier than my eyes.
Vasantaa left, Kumar left and now Anna additionally left. Forsaking the treasure of their music. Singers depart and their songs stay. They’ll have newer variations. However the music in our residence has died. And with it, the sounds of Anna’s childlike uproarious laughter.
The Marathi unique of this essay is from Soyare Sakal (1998). Sunita Deshpande (1926-2009) was a Marathi author and essayist. Translated from the Marathi unique by Rajalaxmi Kamath. The copyright of the Marathi unique is held by IUCAA, Pune.