A SUBDUED MELODY

The pandemic is threatening the livelihood of Indian classical musicians

- PUJA AWASTHI

When Pandit Rameshwar Prasad Mishra started training under his guru, Bade Ramdas Mishra of the Benares gharana, memory was his only aid. “We would practise in the morning and evening. My elders would say that the pets would be fed, but not me if I skipped riyaz. Every raag had to be mugged. There were no notations or recordings to fall back on. My guru would say that music is not a grocery list that can be noted [down]. It needs to seep into one’s being,” says Mishra, 75.

For classicists like him, the use of technology in any form is abhorrent to the spirit and purity of music. The lockdown and the loss of earnings have not changed this view. “Technology is a bad master,” he says. “It enslaves one. You put on an electronic tanpura (an instrument that provides support to the singer with a harmonic drone) and it plays on monotonously, leaving no room for improvisation. And what if the electricity goes off? You are suddenly clueless,” says the Lucknow-based vocalist who still practices with the manual tanpura, which lies neglected since the advent of its electronic counterpart.