High Notes of a Flautist.
Scene One: A little
boy runs along the bathing ghats of
Varanasi, bidding goodbye to his chums
as his father waits impatiently for
him. The family is leaving the city
for Bombay in search of a better life
and to escape from the hardship of a
difficult existence.
Scene Two: The boy,
now in his late teens, walks 12 kilometers
every other day to his guru's house
to learn the flute. A sincere disciple,
has guru pats his head, encouraging
him and telling him to persevere. The
long walk home does not hurt him one
bit.
Scene Three: With a
string of awards, many albums of fusion
music with leading names in the world
of classical music, a musical score
for the celebrated Hollywood film, "Primary
Colours" and a Grammy nomination,
the boy who is now a man, folds his
hands as he accepts tile ovation for
being a worthy successor to Pandit Hariprasad
Chaurasia.
Pandit Ronu Majumdar's life reads like
taut script. Not merely a story of a
small-town lad making it big but a series
of struggles and finally, the sweet
smell of success.
"I treasure every moment of my
musical quest — right from the
days my father initiated me into classical
music till this moment". His father,
a struggling musician in Varanasi in
the seventies, migrated to Mumbai for
better professional prospects. Ronu
remembers those tough initial years
but still says struggle is very important
for Artists.
Two of Ronu's latest albums, In
Search of Life by Universal
and Mysticism On
Woodwinds by Magnasound
are making waves. The first is a jugalbandi
with Swiss pianist Christian Seiffert.
It incorporates the pure melody of classical
Indian ragas with structured western
music rendered with remarkable finesse
on the piano. The second is a solo recording
of the morning raga series where he
plays the languorous Nat Bhairavi.
For a classical instrumentalist, Pandit
Ronu Majumdar is quite avant garde without
consciously meaning to be so. He is
not unduly worried by the criticisms
of puritans who frown on classical pundits
dabbling in popular music.
