Lata ulajhi suljha ja balam...Soma Ghosh

 (Birthday special: 20 April, 1962 in Varanasi)

(Photo: kashi patrika)

Soma Ghosh has many feathers in her cap. She’s the first woman to ever sing in the Parliament of India, she’s an adopted daughter, a musical protégé too of the legendary shehnai player Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan.
Adept at Benares style singing, namely Thumri, Tappa, Hori, Chaiti, Kajari, Dadra and Ghazal, here Soma traces her foray into the world of Indian classical music, recounting her interaction with her Guru Bageshwari Devi, how she came to be adopted by Ustad Bismillah Khan.

संगीत की दुनिया में सोमा घोष किसी पहचान की मोहताज नहीँ हैं। बनारस में जन्मी, पली-बढ़ी सोमा घोष की कर्मभूमि भले मुंबई है, लेकिन आज भी उनके दिल में बनारस धड़कता है।

बकौल सोमा, "मैं बनारस को खुद से अलग नहीँ कर सकती हूं। बनारस को शिव की नगरी कहा जाता है और यह अपनी मूल प्रकृति में भी बिलकुल वैसा ही है जैसे स्वयं शिव। यहां के लोग भी वैसे ही हैं। बनारस का मुझ पर खासा असर है और मुझे तो लगता है कि खुद मैं भी ऐसी ही हूं।"

Tell us about your early life and how you forayed in to the world of music…

I was born and brought up in Benares in a cultured and educated family. My grandfather was a close friend of Madan Mohan Malviya and was the first professor of Pali and Sanskrit languages in the Benares Hindu University. My father Shri Madan Mohan Chakravarty was a freedom fighter who put down his entire life for the nation.
My mother was another gem of my family, filled with humility and virtuosity. Jaisa gati thi, waise hi likhti thi, kavita, nibandha, sab kuch. She was a classical music teacher herself, aur mujhe yaad hai ki Ma mujhe god main lekar hi kai baar class leti thi sangeet ki.

My mother’s lap was from where and how I sallied in to the world of music and I cannot be ever more thankful to God to have given me birth in such an illustrious family.


Recount to us your association with Guru Bageshwari Devi…

Bageshwari Devi ji was serenity redefined! Each particle and atom of her body sang, and humility was such that she chose to live in a small temple on the Vindhyachal hills. Ek chote se kamre main rehti thi, aur sadhna, bas sadhnna, unhe jagat se koi lagav hi nhi tha.
I used to go to her and learn music at the temple. And more than learning music I used to observe her and learn how to live a simple yet dignified life. Whenever she used to sing, every emotion and colour used to light up her face. When I asked her how, she said that dancers dance and tell a story, actors act, so singers have to sing. And even the most abstract ragas have to reach across to the rasikas and tell them a glorious story, only then can one call themselves a musician.

Can you sketch us an account of the father- daughter relationship which you shared with Ustad Bismillah Khan?

I’ve been trained my entire life in the dramatic Gwalior gharana and the technical Senia gharana. After completing my doctorate and reaching a maturity level, I tried to mix the two styles which Ustad ji liked a lot.
I had invited him for a concert of my NGO Madhu Murchhana and although I did not want him to hear me, he did when he was backstage and exactly that moment he told me that he has adopted me as her daughter. He said, ‘Sangeet ka koi mazhab nahi hai aur sur ko kisi upadhi ki zarurat nhi hai, tumhare pass sur hai, tum Kashi Kokila ho’. From that day he asked me many a time to sing with him for he thought that people would notice me more this way and he did this feat because he thought that spreading pure music was his dharma.

Any memorable performance you remember distinctly?

Khan Sahab and I were performing at Nehru Centre in 2002 and in the audience was Naushad Sahab. I was singing Raag Bihag, “Lata ulajhi suljha ja balam”. And Khan Sahab was so surreal in his rendering that Naushad Sahab used to get up at every sam and clap. That was one performance I won’t ever forget.
(Interview thehindu)