Self-quarantining for creativity

Strap: The great masters of Indian music owed their success to self-isolation and rigorous practice

Krishnaraj Iyengar

“Mita do apni hasti ko, agar martabaah chaahte ho. Dana khaak mein milta hai, tab gul-e-gulzaar hota hai” (Forego your sense of self if you want to achieve greatness. It’s only when a seed is thrown in the soil, does it blossom into a flower of a lush garden). This was the famous Ghalib couplet, late Sitar maestro Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan often quoted, to sum-up the intensely grueling process of becoming a successful Hindustani musician.

Apart from several years of taleem from the guru, riyaaz or practice is an indispensible part of the life-long saadhna of an Indian classical musician. As the world hones its creativity during self-quarantine with activities like music and art, Hindustani music’s great masters pioneered the art of perfecting their creativity through isolation.

Incredible isolation

“Self-retreat is what these maestros exactly did, like spiritual seekers do, for intense meditation and contemplation,” explains internationally renowned tabla and sitar maestro Pandit Nayan Ghosh. “My grand guru Ustad Ahmedjaan Thirakwa, the Mt. Everest of tabla, spent 16 hours a day on riyaaz continuously for nine years locking himself in a room, totally cut off from the world outside. His brother would pass on his daily meals through a small hole in the wall!” he adds.

As a bachelor, his father, tabla legend Pandit Nikhil Ghosh would spend several hours locking himself in his one-room tenement, doing riyaaz until his sweat trickled down the sink in a little stream. “Once he didn’t have money for his meals, but continued practising, saying to himself: ‘If there’s a God, I’ll eat today’. A kind neighbourhood lady, hearing the young boy practicing relentlessly since the morning, took pity on him and offered him a hearty meal,” Pandit Ghosh recounts.

What is the secret of endurance? Dopamine, believes senior physician Dr.Deepak Solanki. “Music increases dopamine by nearly 40 per cent and is often an alternative to exercise, with a heightened sense of reward and achievement. It is the secret to longevity, especially with artistes who practice their passion continually,” he shares.

Riyaaz revelations

“I don’t fear a man who has practised a 1,000 kicks, but he who has practised one kick a 1000 times,” Bruce Lee once said. The focused and continuous practice of one particular subject, like a tabla bol, a sitar jhala, a vocal taan for instance, is considered true riyaaz.

Musicians generally lock themselves in a simple room and face the wall during riyaaz, for perfect focus. With little or no interaction with the outside world, these periods of extreme isolation are spent solely in eating, daily chores and riyaaz. A forty day period of rigorous self-quarantine and practice is called ‘chilla’.

Although in areas like Mumbai’s Grant Road, the historic hub of Hindustani musicians, space is an issue, impoverished maestros even practised under building stairways while many huddled up in one room, practised their own bit, the other’s causing no distractions, a feat of supreme focus.

“I adapt the riyaaz model of these great classical maestros to my filmmaking,” remarks Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Kabir’s famed words “ek saadhe, sau saadhe” ( having one focus means you’ve achieved everything) has been a mantra for Indian musicians.

While for legendary vocalist Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, riyaaz was like breath, Ustad Vilayat Khan’s unmatched sapaat taans came from inhuman riyaaz. While Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, Khansaheb’s practice partner’s palm would bleed while practicing ‘dhere dhere’ 10,000 times on the tabla, the former would continue practising despite blood dripping down his fingers!