September 15, 2024

It’s September again. The hot summer is giving way to nice breezy fall evenings with leaves just starting to turn reddish brown. Is it a surprise then, that on the very first weekend after a long busy week, my mind was yearning for some music? 

So, yesterday I naturally gravitated towards the India International School in Chantilly, VA where a young duo of master instrumentalists were to perform – Abhsihek Borkar, a unique Marathi name in the Sarod players’ world crowded with excellent musicians from Bengal, and Yashwant Vaishnav, a master Tabla player.

I eagerly drove for almost two hours to attend the concert, and I must say, it turned out to be way beyond worth the drive! Both the artists’ names are not unfamiliar for the fans of Hindustani Classical. But I was surely not expecting such a transcendental experience from these young masters.

Abhishek and Yashwant, humble in their manners, taking the stage with just a hint of a smile, bowed to the audience and announced the first raag for the evening – Charukeshi. 

Abhishek started with what turned out to be one of the most beautifully meditative alap in this popular Carnatic import with exquisite meends. Charukeshi started unfolding its full glory in the hands of this young master, slowly revealing all its colors and instantly taking the audience on a journey of emotions – a pathos-filled calm, sprinkled with bright sparkly moments of joy, nostalgia for lost memories that the mind is happy to relive. 

The alap was followed by a unique combination of two vilambit bandishes, one in teen taal and the other in jhaptaal, with a transition so smooth that it felt like a single composition. The “drut” bandish that followed was again in teen taal. Throughout these, the extempore ‘alap’ and ‘taan’ work were obvious displays of the creative genius musicians at work, but a pleasant surprise came when suddenly the Sarod sound almost completely transformed! Abhsihek had started playing “western” chords, but the development surely stuck to the grammar of the characteristic Indian raag! This smooth integration of chords in classical Indian concert was something so uniquely innovative; we were all thrilled to see the familiar raag in its completely new avatar. In almost ninety minutes of this single raag performance, Abhsihek made Charukeshi literally bloom like a magnificent flowering tree at the peak of Spring. No wonder it ended with thunderous and long applause of an ecstatic audience. 

After a brief interval, the artists started with the familiar raag Jhinjhoti. Abhishek, with his mastery over the Sarod, was creating patterns and colors of this sweet romantic raag that equally displayed his Maihar gharana legacy and his unique creative contributions. It was all so joyful and fulfilling and yet we were all left wanting more. The reasonable time limits were already crossed, but everyone in the audience insisted for more and the two artists graciously complied. What followed at the end was a couple of beautiful Tilak Kamod dhuns in ‘madhyalay’ addha teen taal and ‘drut’ teen-taal.

Throughout the performance, the master tabla player Yashwant Vaishnav accompanied with such virtuosity and maturity that it felt like the two artists were a single soul. 

What else can one call all this. but a blessing from the gods of music? The evening will be cherished for long in the minds of a grateful audience. I, for one, surely feel like I will carry the memory with me for years to come!

- Anil Maybhate