srramanujam
Active Member
The Government has sole ownership over hidden treasures. If any of our poor souls were to dig the backyard (difficult for me from the third floor), and stumble (i certainly wish not to, from the third floor) on a treasure, it becomes Government property. We have to duly notify the appropriate authority who will promptly, appropriate it.
There are times, when Government gives those hidden treasures away. This is one such.
All India Radio and Doordarshan had an absolute monopoly over recordings for a long time. There was no competition from satellite TV and MP3 then. Radio was the common man's potion and personal music was expensive. 60 minute cassettes were upwards of Rs 50 and CDs were at a touch me not price, if ever they were visible.
AIR and DD collected gems in those days quietly. They still lie buried within their archives. Once in a while, someone picks up the tapes and they gently waft into the commercial world. They never match the big bang impact of the commercial soundtracks. Many of these gems will sell a tenth or hundredth of Billu Barber or similiar cacaphony.
Given their low commercial prospects (not just because of taste but also due to the menace of downloadable low bit rate MP3), it takes as much serendipity to stubmle on them. I got my share while waiting for a lunch meeting in Khan Market in Delhi. The side label of the CD said Ustad Bismillah Khan but there was the familiar spiral logo of DD that made me take the CD out. Somewhere in the back cover it said coming together of great artistes and it listed N. Rajam and Pt Kishan Mahraj. The CD was damaged and i couldnt find another (though stumbled on another DD recording of the Ustad alone and picked it up too, that's another post).
In one of those rare experiences in a place like Delhi, the attendant himself offered to let me take it with a no question return policy. In an even rarer experience, the owner affirmed this offer. Whats happening to Delhi, its getting too refined nowadays. I was on a four day trip with my laptop without CD drive and had to wait till today to see if it worked. It has its imperfections. EAC helped create a 99.5% rip (those morals will now force me not to return the CD now). Well, a gem without a blemish may very well be a chinese fake nowadays, so i am happy with this near perfect rip.
The whole CD is one glorious Rag Yaman, all 54 minutes of it. I have zero technical knowledge of classical music and seem to like it that way. All of these 54 minutes is bliss. It has the all familiar gentle start of the Ustad. Somewhere along the line N.Rajam joins unnoticed and coasts along. The inevitable staccato of the Ustad is matched with N.Rajam along the way and they drift back into smooth melody. Shehnai and Violin alternating and you can hardly notice the switch. The art flows uninterrupted.
The digital life plays such cruel tricks. In an instant it gets me access to these pleasures. In the next instant it reminds of what i can never digitise. None of the perfect rips, the THD statistics, the driver designs or the db sensitivities can digitise the goose pimples of listening to it live on the banks of Ganga. The music faithfully records the occassional rapture of the audience and the exclamation of the maestro, and if i close my eyes, i can see the ghats and can feel the music waft like the river, and i am almost, almost there.
Salaam Ustad, and when i eventually end up seeing Varanasi, its not the river, the rituals or the Lord that will captivate me. It will simply be the undying memory of this digital divinity.
This piece of immortality is labelled Bharat Ratna Series, Naad Shikar Ustad Bismillah Khan, Volumes I and II, and costs a mere 195, inclusive of all the taxes that accrue to the Govt for letting you sample this.
There are times, when Government gives those hidden treasures away. This is one such.
All India Radio and Doordarshan had an absolute monopoly over recordings for a long time. There was no competition from satellite TV and MP3 then. Radio was the common man's potion and personal music was expensive. 60 minute cassettes were upwards of Rs 50 and CDs were at a touch me not price, if ever they were visible.
AIR and DD collected gems in those days quietly. They still lie buried within their archives. Once in a while, someone picks up the tapes and they gently waft into the commercial world. They never match the big bang impact of the commercial soundtracks. Many of these gems will sell a tenth or hundredth of Billu Barber or similiar cacaphony.
Given their low commercial prospects (not just because of taste but also due to the menace of downloadable low bit rate MP3), it takes as much serendipity to stubmle on them. I got my share while waiting for a lunch meeting in Khan Market in Delhi. The side label of the CD said Ustad Bismillah Khan but there was the familiar spiral logo of DD that made me take the CD out. Somewhere in the back cover it said coming together of great artistes and it listed N. Rajam and Pt Kishan Mahraj. The CD was damaged and i couldnt find another (though stumbled on another DD recording of the Ustad alone and picked it up too, that's another post).
In one of those rare experiences in a place like Delhi, the attendant himself offered to let me take it with a no question return policy. In an even rarer experience, the owner affirmed this offer. Whats happening to Delhi, its getting too refined nowadays. I was on a four day trip with my laptop without CD drive and had to wait till today to see if it worked. It has its imperfections. EAC helped create a 99.5% rip (those morals will now force me not to return the CD now). Well, a gem without a blemish may very well be a chinese fake nowadays, so i am happy with this near perfect rip.
The whole CD is one glorious Rag Yaman, all 54 minutes of it. I have zero technical knowledge of classical music and seem to like it that way. All of these 54 minutes is bliss. It has the all familiar gentle start of the Ustad. Somewhere along the line N.Rajam joins unnoticed and coasts along. The inevitable staccato of the Ustad is matched with N.Rajam along the way and they drift back into smooth melody. Shehnai and Violin alternating and you can hardly notice the switch. The art flows uninterrupted.
The digital life plays such cruel tricks. In an instant it gets me access to these pleasures. In the next instant it reminds of what i can never digitise. None of the perfect rips, the THD statistics, the driver designs or the db sensitivities can digitise the goose pimples of listening to it live on the banks of Ganga. The music faithfully records the occassional rapture of the audience and the exclamation of the maestro, and if i close my eyes, i can see the ghats and can feel the music waft like the river, and i am almost, almost there.
Salaam Ustad, and when i eventually end up seeing Varanasi, its not the river, the rituals or the Lord that will captivate me. It will simply be the undying memory of this digital divinity.
This piece of immortality is labelled Bharat Ratna Series, Naad Shikar Ustad Bismillah Khan, Volumes I and II, and costs a mere 195, inclusive of all the taxes that accrue to the Govt for letting you sample this.
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