Ragas and RaGas

Indian classical music is known for its ragas, and many have myths and legends associated with them. It is said that when Tansen, a musician in Akbar's court sang Raag Deepak, the lamps would light up, and when he sang Malhar, the rains would come down.

I propose that we learn the appropriate ragas for the following-

Peezza raga, to make a pizza appear in less than 30 minutes.

Percentage raga, to get whatever percent grades in any exam. Teachers can stay at home.

Good hair raga, to make your hair fall in place and behave. salons and shampoos, goodbye.

Border raga, to solve border disputes with Pak and China.

Adrushya raga to make lousy TV serials, and dance shows disappear forever.

Book raga, to make any book you wish for appear in full text, free..the author reading it out for you.

Chai raga to make tea available on tap. Coffee will still need you to go to Starbucks/Coffee Day and spend 200 bucks.

Brownie raga, so you can score brownie points with your friends, maybe by making selfies appear from places you have never been to..

and of course, the Women's Empowerment raga, perfected by RaGa, to make women empowered instantly.

Santoor and Tabla- Subhanalla

That inspired title comes from a concert I went to last night. One thought as I listened to the beautiful music being created on stage, in person by the musicians, was- why can't (or don't) we do this everyday? Might be tough to do live, but may be on a CD or other gizmos, it's entirely possible.

Even if you don't follow the intricasies of classical music- I don't- the master musicians sound divine. The players yesrday were Ram Kumar Misra from the Varanasi gharana on tabla, and Dhananjay Daithankar on the santoor- an instrument revived by Shiv Kumar Sharma in India. If I am not mistaken, it is this instrument that livens up the effect of "Tum agar saath dene ka vaada karo" from Humraaz (old, Sunil Dutt and Raj Kumar starrer), under the composer Ravi.

I went back to the times I heard Pt. Ravishankar (in 1991), Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma and Zakir Husain in Atlanta in maybe 1989, and Hariprasad Chaurasia and Amjad Ali Khan in a lecture-demo at IIMB for the cause of promoting Indian music among young people (we were young then!) through SPIC-MACAY, an organisation that has done just that over 3 decades. This one was also organised by them. Hats off for their good work. Another lesson learnt yesterday. The best things in life are free!