Kavita A Chhibber
When I was growing up, it was Pandit Bhimsen Joshi whose voice was a permanent fixture in my parents’ home.
This remained so until I accidentally discovered the voice of Pandit Jasraj singing “Mero Allah Meherban”.
I went and bought every single album of his that I could find. I was just mesmerized.
So there would be heated discussions, with rookie, untrained, western classical music lover (me) telling my classically trained mother (and that too a student of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s father Uma Dutt ji) that Pandit Jasraj’s voice had something no one else had.
Little was I to know that years later our paths would cross and I would share this very story with Pandit Jasraj.
A few months before I met him for the first time, a friend of mine had been given a sound scolding from Pandit Jasraj, because instead of touching Pandit ji’s feet, he had done a mere namaste.
When he found out I had requested an interview, he warned me: “Pandit ji is very unpredictable, and very sensitive. You are so blunt and outspoken. I am trying not to think of what will happen if Pandit Ji and you both are not in a good mood.” I laughed and said, “Then there will be fireworks! And not the melodious kind!”
I remember talking to my husband Ajit about him at the time. He mentioned that Pandit ji was a traditionalist, demanding complete surrender to music and absolute reverence to the purity of raga during his renditions.
More than a gifted performer, Pandit ji was also noted for his graciousness and generosity in sharing his knowledge with scores of disciples all over the world. He had a strictness for perfection that sometimes reared its head with his disciples even during the course of a performance.
Pandit ji was also an accomplished tabla artist before he became a vocalist . As such, his command of laya (rhythm) was just as precise as his divine gift for swara (melody). Indeed, many of the young tabla players who graced the stage with him became seasoned vocal accompanists due in large part to his grooming.
I was told by the concert organizers a few weeks later that the interview was on. When I reached the house where Pandit Jasraj was staying, I saw tense and scared faces. They looked at me and said “Pandit ji is not in a good mood. He is also tired from travel. So we won’t be around. Interview him at your own risk!”
I walked in and saw this very handsome man with chiseled features and a face that burst into a warm smile when he saw me enter.
It began an interview that went on for several hours. Pandit ji was a natural story teller, and his life story was simply enthralling. Anecdote after anecdote followed and time just flew.
It remains one of my most accessed interviews to date.
Pandit ji was really happy. He said it was because I had done my homework. Then he remarked to me, “I can make out from your voice that it has melody. Sing something.” I have a hazy recollection of singing a Geeta Dutt song. I mean who really says “no” to Pandit Jasraj? He said, “You are already dressed in white like Ma Saraswati. Be worthy of her blessings and practice.”
I promised him I will join the Jasraj School of Music which was opening in Atlanta at that time.
As I was about to leave, he insisted I stay for dinner.
The hosts came in baffled at the transformation.
I actually got a call from them saying “What did you say to him? He was so happy!”
The next day I was emceeing his concert. He warmly insisted I light the inaugural diya (lamp) with him before his concert commenced.
It is an honor I will never forget. Over the years I met and interviewed Pandit Jasraj many times.
He was always warm, fun and very honest. He was also always extremely kind to me. I remember a performance at Georgia Tech. Pandit ji was about to end the concert, when at my request, he sang two more beautiful compositions including “Mero Allah Meherban” which sparked my love for his artistry so long before.
Pandit ji was also the person who calmed me down when another classical musician did something to annoy me. I remember that as well with affection.
He then asked me how my musical training was coming along. Was I training at his school as I had promised?
In my life until then I had tried learning from four ladies and after just the first couple of lessons, they would invariably find out they were expecting a baby. My music lessons wouldn’t proceed any further.
There was also a gentleman who was teaching in Pandit ji’s school, an import from India. When I started with him, I told him that story. He smiled and said, “There is no danger of that happening with me!”
Two music lessons later he tells me sheepishly his wife was pregnant and so he was returning to India!
Pandit ji had a hearty laugh when I shared that my musical training was literally filled with pregnant pauses!
I remember once we were all together and violinist Kala Ramnath screamed at the sight of a cockroach. Pandit Jasraj, a staunch vegetarian, said nonchalantly that, being from Bombay, cockroaches are part of the meal plan inadvertently.
He was very honest about his life. If I ever asked him difficult questions, anything off record or on record, he never shied away from responding. He was also incredibly secular and it came across in his conversations and his way of thinking.
My last memory of him was a phone interview I did from Boston about Pandit Ravi Shankar after the first anniversary of his passing. Pandit ji’s love for Ravi ji was obvious in the wonderful stories he told me. At one point we were laughing nonstop.
My last memory was meeting Pandit Jasraj in New York a few years ago along with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.
All of us felt so happy to see these two legends on stage together. Something that was more a novelty these days than the norm.
I went to meet him backstage, and that warmth still lingered along with his candid observation that he didn’t particularly like the CD he was about to autograph for me.
Yesterday when I woke up to the message that Pandit Jasraj was no more, I felt a sense of loss that one feels when a family elder leaves.
Pandit Jasraj has left a treasure trove of music and memories that all of us, a global family of music lovers, will cherish until we meet again.
Sharing a couple of the conversations that I cherish personally:
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