Impassioned!
The story/Of life is quicker/Than the wink of an eye/The story of love/Is hello and goodbye…
-Jimi Hendrix

(column by Aliya Rao)

Briefly brilliant and suddenly truncated, their lives were like shooting stars. Superficially, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the 1960s music icon Jimi Hendrix seem poles apart. After all, the former was born into an elite English family, while the latter was of a mixed descent (African-American, Native American and Caucasian) and grew up in a Seattle home filled with adultery, alcoholism and poverty. Search deeper and you know that both icons were heart-breakers who fell in and out of love at the snap of a finger and shared a don’t-give-a-damn attitude and conspicuous talent in their fields that enamoured subsequent generations. Despite being born 150 years apart, Shelley and Hendrix had a common philosophy of life and were the poster children of rebellion, free love and anti-establishmentarianism in their times. Born in England after Europe had witnessed the French Revolution, Shelley incorporated the Revolution’s libertine ideas in his life and scandalized English society with his unorthodoxy. Despite dismissing the institution of marriage, he eloped twice, both times with 16 year olds.

Both marriages were unconventional; an ‘open marriage’ with his first wife Harriet Westbrook, and living in a threesome with his second wife Mary Shelley and her stepsister Clair Clairmont, whilst simultaneously maintaining affairs with various young women. On the other hand, in the hippie infused atmosphere of the 1960s, Jimi “King Guitar” Hendrix’s philandering was the norm for a rock-star. With women clawing at him, Hendrix had more than his share of romping. He carried on two simultaneous longterm relationships whilst also indulging in numerous one-night stands (reportedly even one with Brigitte Bardot). While Hendrix supposedly fathered Diana Carpenter’s daughter Tamika, and a Swedish woman’s son, Shelley had two children each by Harriet and Mary, and was possibly the father of a child by Claire. Besides having an evergreen interest in women, Shelley and Hendrix were sensitive and choleric souls.

In his younger years, Shelley, a quiet and awkwardly pensive boy, was oft en mocked at by his peers at Eton. With a fiery rage, he sometimes reacted violently, once stabbing a boy with a fork. Hendrix too, had outbursts, usually after drinking or taking drugs, when he would throw objects at whoever unlucky happened to be there. Answering questions about his conniptions, Hendrix replied, “Oh, yeah. That’s always happening… I didn’t know it was anger until they told me that it was... with the destruction and all that.” In a career spanning 12 years for Shelley and a mere four years for Hendrix, both artists displayed their rebellion. Hendrix used his fame to protest against the plight of a part of his ancestry by dedicating his song ‘I Don’t Live Today’ to Native Americans and said, “If it was up to me, there wouldn’t be no such thing as the establishment.”

Shelley, an idealist and firm atheist even got expelled from Oxford for authoring a pamphlet called ‘The Necessity of Atheism’. Controversial as their lives were, their deaths were even more enigmatic and tragic. Surrounded by hazy rumours of murder and suicide, both Shelley and Hendrix died young. Drowning in the Mediterranean Sea shortly before his 30th birthday, Shelley’s death spewed speculations as to how the boat could capsize when there were two experienced sailors on it; whether it was a suicide given Shelley’s melancholia in the months preceding his death, or whether it was a politically instigated murder. As we approach Hendrix’s 36th death anniversary on 18th September, fans are reminded of the star’s untimely demise at the young age of 27 by overdosing on barbiturates (whether it was an intentional OD, a murder or an accident still remains unclear). Living for a combined total of only 56 years, Shelley and Hendrix nevertheless made long-lasting impacts as the assigned bards of their times and forevermore.

...Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight...

(End of Aliya Rao column)

Musical Musings
Treasuring our motherland’s melodies

(column by Anu Gulmohar)

Notes emanate from the bamboo flute softly pursed to his lips, rising into the air moist with the melody of the chords of the santoor, together creating a raga that makes even the nouveau listener lose himself to its magic… And yet, like a spell broken a-rude, generations seem to drift before getting sucked into a whirlpool of popular music. Artists who sustain the harmonies of our homeland are few and far between, and the new blood in this trade comprises mostly of sons and daughters of maestros, or so it seems. Knowledge of these cultural treasures is imparted through the guru-shishya tradition, which has ensured their endurance long after their Mughal patrons exited the mise-en-scène. But this pillar of Indian music too has had to pay its dues to the winds of time. As the ever experimentative and enterprising Shubha Mudgal notes, “The relationship has undergone changes that are invariable with the passing of time. While serious students of music continue to learn under the guidance of a guru, often living in their (the guru’s) home as part of his/her extended family, there are also modern designer-gurukuls set up by famous musicians oft en with corporate funding, where students may need to pay a whopping fee.”

The musicians being moulded to be- come tomorrow’s Ustads, are mostly from families devoted to this calling since several generations. For example, there’s Ayaan and Amaan Ali Khan – sons of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Anoushka Shankar – daughter of Pt. Ravi Shankar, Rahul Sharma – son of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Ustad Zakir Hussain – son of Ustad Alla Rakha. Ustaad Shujaat Husain Khan, who’s also the son of the sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan challenges, “For every artist with famous parents you name, I’ll give you five who’ve made it despite not belonging to an established family!” Says tabla player Shri Sudhir Pandey, who renounced his profession of an Income Tax officer to pursue his true passion, “An artist with a non-musical background has to have the courage for the tough journey to the top.” Also a first-generation artist, Shubha Mudgal adds, “I’ve had my share of struggles and indeed, the struggle is not over for me, but I cannot say that life is easier for artists from well known families.”

On 29th August, Amar Jyoti (a musical tribute to the unknown soldiers), was held in the capital, organised by the Pandit Chathurlal Memorial Society, in which Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Ustad Shujaat Husain Khan performed. A serpentine queue of people attired in everything from saris to capris, extended outside the venue. Yet it was only a speck when compared to the ones that form for concerts of stars like Bryan Adams. “Indian classical music appeals to people of refined sensibilities who are able to comprehend the depths of these harmonies,” said Ustaad Shujaat Husain Khan. Yet the fact is that while this event had free passes, concert-tickets featuring pop stars rake in loads of moolah. Adds Arvind Rajawat, Regional manager of Saregama India Ltd., “The best selling albums of classical music don’t notch up to even 2% of the sales of hit Bollywood soundtracks,” but the demand for their evergreen albums like the 1967 album – Call of the Valley – doesn’t plum- met like their Bollywood counterparts. Frequent worldwide tours are also undertaken for their international fans. The financial security of the hundreds toiling away in anonymity remains questionable. But as Shubha Mudgal puts it, “It is their passion for music that keeps them going, in the face of all odds.”

(End of Anu Gulmohar column)