Think of Dark Side Of The Moon Meets India…..Liquid Dreams
Liquid Dreams is the collaboration of a female dj and a western classical musician, who both travel back and forth between the hemispheres, and it might be one of the few albums that successfully fuses Indian vibes with western music. India is a continent which developed for thousands of years independently from the West. Part of the eternal fascination of India is that it has been devoted for thousands of years to meditation and introspection and that the depth of its music that comes from this space is unparalleled anywhere in the world. The live instruments are scored against a background of electronica, and include the bamboo flute, tabla, voice, violin and piano, and are all performed by first rate, passionate musicians. One single note of the magnificent flute can be like a soul massage that causes goose bumps in you. This album seduces the listener into a sacred space. It is a one hour journey uninterrupted till the last second, which takes you through its realms and leaves you in a peaceful state of lucid awareness. Think of Dark Side Of The Moon Meets India.
Sita_Ram Dub – evokes the spirit of Indian mantras while a counterpointing dub rhythm adds a vibe of non-seriousness to the otherwise sacred atmosphere. This dubby sitar groove mixes perfectly with a beautiful flute, sounds of ocean waves drift in and out of the track, and you find yourself on a magic carpet to the east.
On The Edge - has bright, light jazzy grooves and more western elements thanks to the violin that brings in long phrases that are playful and tender with soft melodies. Hidden behind clouds of echoes you can feel again an Indian voice, haunting and powerfully evocative.
Genesis For Nina – features the bamboo flute, an instrument that comes closest to the human voice in its expressiveness. There is a cool guitar riff, reminiscent of the 80s which grabs your attention and keeps you interested. The piece in itself is a journey from melancholy to ecstasy. The pulse of the bass unifies the contrasting emotions and makes it also one of the more groovier tracks.
Nartak – is a light and upbeat jazzy groove filled with sunny melodies which combine the classical instruments of violin and piano with a funky tabla. The middle part of the tracks evokes a darker spirit as a contrast.
What? – Here, the positive, playful and light sounds of the indian flute teases the listener to smile and dance. This track can lean a bit on the cheesier side towards the end, maybe a little bit too much jazz!.
Dulgar - is a original composition by Omar Faruk that has been remixed. It sounds more arabic than Indian and is the most upbeat track on the whole album, and it would not be surprising to find this track on a few Buddha Bar style compilations in the next months, as its very global and very catchy.
Liquid - is an epic, symphonic, psychedelic piece that’s quite unique with its deep, sensual and hypnotic power. The flute evokes an otherworldly space that is enhanced by trippy electronic sparkles. It sounds like the acoustic equivalent of a slow motion movie. The synergy of western and eastern elements has succeeded to be expressed beautifully in this track, and it feels like a classical masterpiece of electronica.
Desert Angel – is the last track on the album and here Komala’s voice creates a serene space that evolves on a sparse background. This track moves through many stages beginning with sad whispering overtones and evolving into happy warm vibrations supported by uplifting pads and a bright melodious violin.
There is a bonus video of visuals from Lightmotiv, which seems to be a bubble-inspired colour projection. This is not computer graphics, rather a simple organic experience of liquids reacting and dancing together, with the track Desert Angel as the background score. Its chilled, and colourful, and lets be honest it is for free, so its all good!
This album is a different kind of music experience, the album is nonstop, and seems to have been made as
a whole…the tracks flow wonderfully with ease into each other, interspersed with atmospheric directions with sounds like waterfalls, oceans, warm desert winds, liquid drops, and even a steam train thundering through!
Overall verdict on this cd is it is a sweet idea to give as much as possible on this release, 1 hr music, 1 film, 2 stickers, 2 postcards, and no plastic cd packaging….I say well done Masti Music for pulling out all the stops on this release, and in a market full of cheap, poorly produced music in cheap poorly manufactured packaging this is a breath of fresh air…. I hope it inspires some of the big labels in India to not be so cheap with us the music listener!
Food is Home – The Little Book of Italian Cooking – Sarjano
He is an impossible man. And I’m glad I’m not his mother. I’m equally glad I’m not his editor. I am only an unlikely friend. While I never met Sarjano’s mama (God bless her), I can well imagine what it must have been like, having bambino Sarjano around while rolling out the pasta dough in their kitchen in Italy – nerve-wracking, to put it mildly. That’s Sarjano – restless, curious, demanding, challenging, questioning, and oh god, frustrating as hell. A person brimming over with animal-like energy, talking endlessly and arguing about everything. Including this book. The first time I read the manuscript, I just knew. I knew this was it. It was not a cookbook. It was not about recipes. In fact, it wasn’t even about pasta. It was a love story. And the author was deliriously, crazily in love … not with a woman (or maybe her, too!), but with life itself. What Sarjano had accomplished with his customary craziness (that camouflages so much wisdom and experience), was an effortless memoir that happened to be about food. Yes food was at the center of the book……….
Introduction by Shobhaa De
For Each Human Being Is Bound One Day to Return to the Sauce
Okay, let’s go for the sauces. Italians love to create sauces, particularly for spaghetti or other shapes of pasta. Believe it or not, every Italian cook has her (or his) own sauce; at least one, which is her favourite.
The one she makes ‘differently’; the one she thinks she has ‘invented’; the one her friends ask for all the time; and finally the one that will (hopefully) lend her name to posterity. So there are millions of sauces, and we’ll have to start with the very basic ones.
The Thousand Colours of Tomato Sauce
Yes, tomato sauce has thousands of colours, thousands of flavours, millions of nuances, and yet it has to follow a few basic principles. To start with I define them in this way: the starting of a male tomato sauce and the female tomato sauce.
Only when you grasp the significance of these two can you mix and match at your pleasure, or even create a bisexual tomato sauce, for that matter!
I love to use metaphorical terms, but what do I really mean when I call one male and the other female?
Simple… One is to prepare a solid body, spicy and tasty; a strong taste, a little aggressive (or more if you wish) and quite determined and imperious!
The other is to prepare a mellow body; softer, gentler, more fluid, delicate and even more creamy, if you wish!
Let’s have a close look at each of these, because if you understand the two kinds of alchemy clearly, you will be able to create and experiment with almost any vegetable.
It goes like this: for the strong body choose garlic rather than onions. Fry it in olive oil rather than butter. While frying the garlic, add the right amount (for your taste) of chilli. After so many years of making tomato sauces I have realized that it is best to use chopped dry red chillies. Please avoid powders, green chillies or anything else. Once you get your hands on a nice bunch of fresh red chillies, make a garland with a needle and thread, as if they were pearls for your kitchen, and hang it on the wall, possibly over your stove. It keeps away worms, ghosts, parasites, amoebae and a lot of creatures of that kind.
When the garlic or onions turn golden, add the pureed tomatoes. (You have to drop the tomatoes into boiling hot water and leave them for about 5 minutes, till the skins get wrinkled. Peel and puree them in a blender.)
Now you have to let the sauce cook. And I don’t mean 10 minutes as you usually do, or 15 minutes or 20 minutes. Not even half an hour. One hour is the minimum! I mean it.
What do you do in this hour? Since you have plenty of time (otherwise you’ll go to McDonald’s, we know) you can decide on how to create, improve, personalize and infuse variety into your tomato sauce.
Let’s have a look at the most common:
Anna’s Tomato Sauce with Basil
For 4 servings
YOU WILL NEED
100 + 50 gms butter
300 gms onions
1 kg tomatoes
Salt to taste
100 gms fresh basil
A few sprinkles of parmesan
1 heaped tbsp sugar or a handful of fresh basil
Anna starts with a lot of butter on a low flame. She uses an incredible quantity of onions, which are chopped very, very fine. When the onions are golden she adds the pureed tomatoes with salt, and again an incredible quantity of finely chopped basil! Not just a few leaves or even a few sprigs. No! Anna really goes for it! Is she trying to make half a pesto and half a pummarola (tomato sauce)? Heck, if only I knew! I have been eating it for the past thirty-five years and it still makes me happy, along with the kids. Now, I don’t know what you foreigners to Italian cuisine usually do when the sauce is ready and the pasta had been boiled enough to be defined al dente (hard under your teeth). Do you put the drained pasta into a large, elegant serving dish, top it with the sauce, add the cheese, mix and serve? How aesthetic! But how stupid too! If I’m allowed to be that forthright. The pasta has to go into the sauce, not vice versa! It is sensible to make the sauce in a wok or a pan or anything large enough to hold both the sauce and the pasta, drain it and slip it into the sauce for the fundamental operation of mantecatura. I don’t know how to translate this one in English, what can I do? Let’s say that mantecatura means giving pasta a chance to absorb the sauce and the cheese and the butter and the basil, by cooking it for 30 seconds only. It makes such a difference that one would rather have more of this pasta, even if it is served directly from the pan, than the other shallow preparation served in a silver dish! Try it, and let me know. She drains the pasta very al dente, she slips it into the wok containing the sauce, she adds another 50 gms of butter, a few sprinkles of Parmesan (even Gouda or Cheddar will do). She stirs it gently for 30 seconds and then serves it. If there are many kids, and the tomatoes are vaguely acid, Anna adds a generous spoon of sugar to the sauce, if there are more adults amongst the guests, she tops everything at the end with extra basil, not even finely chopped!
As Anna has contributed to the creation of an easy, simple and effective feminine tomato sauce, her husband, Alberto, has contributed to the creation of an easy simple and effective masculine tomato sauce. (We are only playing with words and metaphors—don’t take me seriously!) So how does Alberto’s version go?
Alberto’s Tomato Sauce with Parsley
For 4 servings
YOU WILL NEED
3 whole heads of garlic
Dry red chillies to taste
1 + 1 large wineglass of the best olive oil
1 kg tomatoes
2 + 1 large bunches of Parsley
Salt to taste
FOR THE TOPPING
A sprinkle of roasted, crushed dry red chillies grated Pecorino (seasoned dry goats cheese)
Alberto starts with chopping finely a lot of garlic. And I personally really love it! What do we mean by a lot? This tricky Alberto is quite capable of hiding the amount of garlic he puts into his favourite sauce. He may show you a huge quantity while he chops it, and say that he will use only half of it, but when you turn your back he will grab the lot and put it quickly into the wok. Nor will he let anyone see how many red chillies he is putting in. I can understand that each cook likes to maintain a little secrecy about his recipes! So, like Alberto, chop a lot of garlic without hiding it, and a lot of chillies. Use a large wineglass of the best olive oil you can find and sauté the garlic and chillies in a wok. When the garlic is golden add the same quantity of pureed tomatoes as for Anna’s sauce. Then you let it cook slowly, while chopping finely at least 2 large bunches of Parsley, which you add to the sauce. Carry on cooking till the sauce becomes thicker and thicker, for it shouldn’t be too liquid, while there is no need for it to be too thick either. You can, taste the sauce and feel its consistency and depth, and the salt too. Cook the pasta. Drain it and slip it into the wok containing the sauce, where you will give it a good mantecatura, adding, following Alberto’s recipe, another wineglass of the best olive oil and another bunch of finely chopped parsley. As it this is not enough, Alberto likes to provide some extra red chilli roasted on the flame, for the ‘real men who like real stuff’ Buon appetito
Excerpt from‘Food is Home’ It is published by Penguin and available throughout India.
Sarjano has opened the International Academy of Italian Cooking Arts at his ristorante ‘My Place’ in Vagator, Bardez, Goa, to everyone who wishes to learn the subtle art of Italian cooking, he is also available as a Food and Restaurant Consultant, he is a widely traveled Italian chef, with more than 20 years experience cooking in the kitchens at the ‘Osho Resort’ here in Pune, India.
Sarjano can be contacted by e-mail – swsarjano@hotmail.com
photo by Kamakshi
Scott – Take Me Away…
Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey, Counterculture hero and guru of psychedelic drugs. Kesey has been called the Pied Piper who changed the beat generation into the hippie movement. He was an unlikely candidate to become one of the most controversial figures of his age. The youngest of two sons, he was born on September 17, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado. An unusually confident and charismatic young man, he enrolled in a prestigious creative writing program at Stanford University and began tearing the place up almost upon arrival. He volunteered at Menlo Park VA Hospital in a government-sponsored program, participating in experiments conducted to study the effects of hallucinogenics. These chemicals included psilocybin, mescaline and LSD. It was this experience that fundamentally altered Kesey, personally and professionally. While working as an orderly at the psychiatric ward of the local VA, he began to have hallucinations of a native American Indian sweeping the floors. This formed the basis for ‘Chief Broom’ in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. He published it in 1962. The novel was an immediate critical and popular success. Dale Wasserman adapted it into a successful stage play; Milos Forman directed a screen adaptation in 1975. The movie starred Jack Nicholson and won 8 Academy Awards.
Ken Kesey & Jerry Garcia on LSD & Creativity
While at Stanford, Kesey lived at Perry Lane, a bohemian community in Palo Alto, where he became notorious for throwing parties in which certain chemicals mysteriously found their way into the punch. These parties were noted in some of Allen Ginsberg’s poems. Kesey and his Merry Pranksters became notorious for their ‘Acid Tests’, it formed the basis for the best-selling book by Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities. He recruited Neal Cassady from Jack Kerouac’s book On the Road to drive the Bus, he became the most celebrated member of Kesey’s fledgling group, the Merry Pranksters.
The Bus a 1939 International Harvester school bus-called ‘Furthur’
was especially prepared, the seats were replaced by couches, many-colored iridescent day-glo sprays were applied liberally to enhance the coating, intricate sound and film equipment was installed. They filmed a significant portion of the journey, and would later show clips from the trip to chemically-induced audiences at their parties. Much of the hippie aesthetic that would dawn on the San Francisco scene in the late sixties can be traced back to the Merry Pranksters who openly used psychoactive drugs, wore outrageous attire, performed bizarre acts of street theater, and engaged in peaceful confrontation with not only the laws of conformity, but with the mores of conventionality. His goal was to break through conformist thought and ultimately forge a reconfiguration of American society. He became the proponent of a local band known as the ‘Warlocks’, which later became the Grateful Dead.
By 1966, When the government had made LSD illegal, Ken and the Pranksters had to flee to avoid imprisonment for possession of marijuana, they hid 6 months in Mexico, with the bus, he then gave himself up to the authorities, and was jailed for 5 months. But nothing could stop the psychedelic era that was about to explode in San Francisco. Even decades after his counterculture experience, he did not ‘settle down’ every now and then, he warned that he got the itch to do ‘something weird’. Ken Kesey died on November 10, 2001.
Suddenly people were stripped before one another and behold! As we looked on, we all made a great discovery: we were beautiful. Naked and helpless and sensitive as a snake after skinning, but far more human than that shining nightmare that had stood creaking in previous parade rest. We were alive and life was us. We joined hands and danced barefoot amongst the rubble. We had been cleansed, liberated! We would never don the old armors again.
Ken Kesey, Garage Sale
Joe Lysowski – An Artists Journey
How did you become an artist, could you talk about your work, and what triggered it?
When I was
growing up, if you didn’t go to college and didn’t have an education, you were like cannon fodder. The military made me realize that they wanted me to kill somebody. It was all going in that direction and when you’re 17, you think that’s how it is. When I got out of the Marine Corps I got a degree in sculpture. At the same time I got my degree in design; I thought, I don’t want to design for industry, I don’t feel like being known for the best electric razor and toothbrush. So I went into art. I went to Mexico and got my M.F.A in painted sculpture. You know what I realized through art? It develops your intuition – to be in the right place at the right time, to go down the road and realize, that I should go this way or that.
How did you arrive in Haight Ashbury?
It was 1967, I was working on a show for a museum; and it was going to be 3 storeys of painting and sculpture. It was the Triumph Museum of Art which has now become very important. And the director was Lydia Modivatelli. She named the show – Psychedelic Art. They said my art was psychedelic. For me it was colourful, my mother used to knot hats like that and she wasn’t psychedelic!
A man with Ken Kesey, who was called the ‘Hassler’ was helping me to take this show over to the Triumph Museum. He said there is going to be this big thing happening called a ‘Love In’ in Golden Gate Park. He said, “You’ve got to go, you got to be there, all these people are going to be there.” It was the first ‘Be In’ right there at the beginning of Haite Ashbury It was beautiful! they rejected this notion of how men should look, they wore beads, they had long hair; this whole feminine side of them could be shown which hadn’t been before. Everybody was like your brother or sister. People were coming down the Big Sur coast-line – hippies hitchhiking. They were trying to change their lives and that was the feel. People were on the road everywhere, sleeping in the Park.
You thought there was going to be a dramatic change because there were all these important people, musicians, and people in the Creative Arts, all very powerful. I thought I could also help to make that change too, I wanted to be there.
What draws you to India?
I left for India that first time in 1967. I wanted to go where the Maharishi was and maybe do meditation. I met a man down by the river; and it turned out to be Mike Love of the ‘Beach Boys’. He said “Come with me, you can sleep overnight at my place and I’ll take you in the morning into the Maharishi’s.” We did big paintings of the Maharishi’s guru for peace centers all over the world
Then I left for India the second time when I heard about Osho. I wanted to see how he had created the commune here. India’s got so much to teach people, and all these people come here to learn.
You had done theatre work in London in the 1960’s, Tell us more?
I had talked to George and Paul from the Beatles at the ashram, they were sponsoring theatre in London, for Women’s Lib. The production
was called ‘Vagina Wrecks’ by Jane Arden. They asked me to do the lights and sets for the play and I said, yeah sure. Jack Barne was the director and Victor Spanetti was the leading man. All of London came to see the play. It was beautiful. The write up said the lights and the set design reached magical proportions! Ah, the sixties – it was beautiful! It made a dent in society, changed behavior patterns, and opened up many things, like meditation.
Ken Kesey was a friend of yours. Could you talk about that time in your life, and other influences?
Ken Kesey, he was such a strong man; I really didn’t expect him to die. They called me up to speak at his funeral about what it was like to be in London together. He had a beautiful house in Hampstead Heath, London. He got it from a man who was a writer called Robert Stone. I lived there with him. He wrote ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’, ‘Sometimes a great notion’, ‘Demon box’……….. He was a graduate of Stanford. He even wanted to make his play ‘Atlantis Rising’ into a book, he said we’ll do it together….. Another friend was Neal Cassidy, he was in the book ‘First Third’ by Kesey. He was a writer himself, and he always drove the bus for Kesey. (See related Ken Kesey article)
Also Ramdas – Dr Richard Alpert. I got a house near him and went to see him everyday. Somebody would ask him a question and he would always come up with something so profound. I got a grant from him to make a movie in Guatemala, ‘Illusions that created the Mayan Culture’. I had realized Mushrooms! That would have created their fantastic weaving and mathematical minds? You know, the Mayans predict 2012 as the end of their calender, that there is going to be a cataclysmic change, but we don’t know what it will be, or what will happen!
What was “Atlantis Rising” for you?
I had thought about children in London and the fact that the class system was so structured; that when a man opened his mouth, you knew what class he was in. It didn’t matter that it was a classless society supposedly, just his accent would peg him. And so I did this play, I wanted to do it for the children. And since there were only kids coming, I made a tube that only children could crawl through; to get into the theater. No adults were allowed. We called all the orphanages in London and invited them all, the play was called ‘Atlantis Rising’. It was for the children to really realize that they could change the world. That was ‘Atlantis Rising’ to me.
All Paintings by Joe
Bodhigita
Bodhigita, how did you come to music?
I started to learn music when I was seventeen years old, a bit of guitar. And when you start to learn the
guitar, it’s natural that you also sing because it’s essentially a harmonic instrument. Then I met a guy who became my first husband and he is an excellent musician, amazing. He is a guitar player and my teacher. I learned a lot from him – all the Bossanova stuff. I am really grateful to him, and I still learn from him. He created a music school in my city, Bahiaa; and this is big work because in Brazil you have this colonial mentality, like in India. The majority of music schools in Brazil are teaching classical music, which means music from Europe. And our own music which is so rich, they don’t teach in the schools. You have to learn it on the streets! He got together with two other musicians and they made this school to teach Brazilian music. This was a big thing in Bahiaa, everybody started going there. I was studying there, and teaching guitar and music theory, as well as learning from them, because the best musicians were there.
And then I started to play more professionally, to sing and do recordings. For a long time I was working in studios, doing backing vocal for many different bands. People got to know me, and then I started to work in different styles of music.
When did you discover Osho?
I was singing in the Carnival which goes on for one week in my city. It is a big thing; it’s the biggest carnival in Brazil. And we work fifteen hours non stop on the streets singing! You are singing and singing, and then you arrive home in the morning only to then go back out again and sing! You go for a whole week like this – it’s really tough. Every time after the Carnival was finished my voice was gone; because you sing and make the energy for a million people. Usually two-three days after the Carnival, the voice came back. But this time the voice did not come back – one week, two weeks…. And then I was going mad because this was my treasure. After one month I went to the doctor and he said I have to do surgery because I have a knot in my voice chord. I was really scared. I started to look for a different way, a more natural way of treatment. Then I met a sannyasin who was working with ‘Pulsation’, one of the processes that were created here, around Osho. After one month the knot disappeared; I didn’t have to do anything really, it was completely okay. I did Pulsation which is a lot of breathing, and it released so much in me that was contracting my breathing, and contracting my body. I started to know more about Osho through his sannyasins who were working there. I also took sannyas there, in my city. And so when I came here, I was already Bodhigita – it’s my sannyas name. It means ‘song of enlightenment’, and it has everything to do with my life. It’s connected with awareness and it really is my way; because music has been in my life since I was born. It’s very strong – I feel more alive, full of energy, more open, more flowing when I’m playing and singing. I feel it has everything to do with me.
Tell us about your journey to India?
I came to India for the first time at Carnival time. It was the first year I didn’t work in the Carnival; which for many musicians in Brazil is the time that you make good money, and then to be able to relax for a while after. That is the time I came here, I didn’t work and it felt so good – it was so beautiful. When I went back to Brazil, I could not be there anymore because my body went to Brazil,and everything else was here, in India. So I started to come every year. The nice thing is that India became a place where I play, just for fun, to meet friends, musicians from everywhere.
I love music, and I feel that music has no borders, no nationalities. But each culture has its specific way of expression. I’m Brazilian, I feel blessed that I was born there, I was listening to Bossanova as a kid., all this kind of music is in my body. its offbeat, which for some foreigners is so difficult, but for us its just in the body, we move in this. For me its one of the richest expressions in music, in all senses, Brazil is a big mixture of people from Europe, America Africa, and Japan! So it’s really rich, rhythmically and harmonically too. If you search for good music in Brazil, you are gonna find really sophisticated harmonies, and rhythms and melodies there.
Do you play your own songs?
I play my own music. I started to compose after some time. And this is also connected with my meeting with Osho because it started to open up my creativity and I start to become more aware of what was blocking me and holding me back. When this awareness started to open, and the creativity was flowing more, I started to compose. But I play a lot of Brazilian music because Brazil has so many really good composers, Masters in music. Ah, João Gilberto is the master for all the musicians in Brazil and he is amazing. He’s a genius, and he’s still alive. So people are drinking from the source. He’s around 73, playing and singing, better and better. Jobim was also another big name in Bossanova in Brazil. These two guys are the main. Of courses there are many other very talented musicians in this movement.
Girl from Ipanema- Tom Jobim and Joao Gilberto
Are there any other influences in your life?
Osho for me is the biggest happening in my life, changed my life completely and it still goes on. It’s endless. Of course, through this meeting, I also understood that each and every meeting in life is so important. I remember he was saying once about this, that everybody is a Master, that each and every person you meet and each situation teaches you.
To make music also opens the heart. The more you make, the more the heart opens. Everything you do with the heart has this quality. I feel that once you go from this space with totality, with your truth, it’s there! Zakir Hussain! I am crazy about him! It’s amazing because there is nobody there. When he is playing, the tabla and he are one, there is no Zakir, Mmmm… He was playing almost two hours non-stop and people could not take their eyes off him. Everybody was silent… when music comes from this space you can really touch people. If music comes from the head or the ego where it needs recognition, then it’s boring.
You always rock the party. What is your secret?
When we were playing in the ashram, we played a lot for Celebration, to create energy. It’s so much fun, it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes, if you play the wrong rhythm, the wrong note… if you are playing your truth, it will be fun, for you and for others. You know this Oshoba thing that they would do in the ashram, which is based on the samba. Nivedano was doing this here. Many people told me that Osho said that this is the music that he wanted. I was not here then, but I could understand. Brazilian music is something which is really energetic. It lifts the energy. Wherever you are, and you play, Boom! It happens, It’s magic, it’s so magic! The energy goes up, it’s really strong. Wherever we go, and we play this music, people start to dance and enjoy. It’s the quality of the music.
Once I met a very good musician in Denmark, I was recording with him, he said this music will be famous all over the world and it became. He became rich; he made all the plans before. And he was telling me, Bodhigita, you have become too serious. When you are identified with the title of musician, then you have all these ideas about what it is, then it becomes such a tight closed dress, that you cannot move. He was telling me this, many years ago, that you’ve become so serious, just be like a kid, play, enjoy and have fun. And I am experiencing this, when I have fun, everybody has fun too. I think this is the key from what you were asking me. We are all kids, na ? we just became a little bit more rigid…But if we allow the music to enter us, it comes back. Music has such a power. Its therapy, its celebration, its everything. It’s a vehicle which penetrates each and everyone easily. I think we are all blessed to have this strong connection with music.
How is it for you being a strong woman, a sannyasin, artist, now having a daughter…how has the whole experience been?
Mmmmm… its such a magic thing I never thought that I would become a mother in this life. And when she came there was such a big ’Yes’ inside of me, and life changed completely, completely! Its so rich, I feel so blessed with this companion in my life, I’m really super grateful. When I came to India, I didn’t know I was pregnant, so the first 5-6 months I was here, and I went to Dharamsala and then I went to Italy. We traveled the whole country during the summertime with a big belly. Then she was born in the north of Italy. When she was one month old, we went to Brazil, to Bahiaa, and to Sao Paulo, and now we are back in India. She is the best companion I can imagine, if My mood goes upside down, she is always pumping me up. It’s so good, really good! And now I respect more and more the women who become mamas, mothers. Because its got everything to do with unconditional love, you devote your life to this. Children take all the space, with them, there are no borders in between. It is intense the connection with the mother, at least in the beginning, it’s intense! And sometimes its not easy. And also because their existence checks you all the time. in all the senses you can imagine. But it’s so good, I am happy.
Your other passion is Ayurvedic massage ?
Yes….. When I had this problem with my voice, I was doing treatment with Ayurvedic Massage and it changed completely my body. And then it entered my life with such power, that it became my life. So it was not something I planned. I studied psychology, I’m a psychologist. And I never thought I would work with massage in my life. But it came. Life is like this, in Brazil I do body therapy which I learned here. And this is also something I love very much as a work. I am completely devoted to it – Ayurvedic Yoga Massage. This is my main work there…. laughs…
Do you combine music with massage?
You know, I don’t do this as a regular way. But I tried something which was really strong. To do the work and to sing at the same time. It was not something I was planning. It came. You know when you are working and something comes and I was just letting it pass through. There is such a strong connection when you are working with the others body, two universes are becoming One, so many things are coming up, it was so good , for me, and for the other person. I should explore this more, because both are very powerful – music is a healing.
In my sessions there is always music, and a lot of Indian music.
Interveiw by Thaisa, Faiza and Kamakshi
Vanishing Green -Randhir Khare
Summer 2006 in Pune has been brutal. And as I walk down North Main Road, Koregaon Park, I can feel the heat rising up through my soles and spreading inside me till it virtually begins to ooze out of my pores. Most of the shade trees that once lined this road are now gone. They have been wiped out. I remember
one morning standing out here watching a grand old tree with enormous spreading branches go down. There was nothing dramatic about its demolition. Half a dozen people with axes and saws severed its limbs and within an hour reduced the green shade to a foot high stump. Then others took over, drilling and digging into the earth around the base and tearing the remains out by the roots. The cobbler, fruit seller and florist who once sat in its shade and carried out their business stood nearby, watching helplessly. For nearly a month or so after that the one kilometre length of this road that runs through Koregaon Park felt its girth expand as the stately trees once lining its sides were knocked down like the condemned before a firing squad. The big bosses of the city had decided to widen the road and convert it into a bypass so that the pressure and pollution caused by vehicular traffic on the nearby main road would be considerably reduced. Pune is rapidly going the way of all other Indian cities…human need dominating natural balance and order; immediate human want taking precedence over long term good; the needs of a few stemming the rights of the many; the affluent and politically powerful deciding on behalf of the many.
The urge to control and dominate the environment seems to be a matter of course not only for Indians but also for most of humanity. We human beings have always imagined that we are the centre of the planet. It’s the old Adam and Eve Syndrome still at work… ‘all nature has been created for our benefit – to harvest, to pillage, modify, recreate, redefine’. It’s almost as if humans are exclusive beings, existing outside the energy fields of natural cause and effect, outside the food chain and the web of interdependence.
Our relationship with the earth best reflects our attitudes towards nature. To most of us, the earth is ‘land’, ‘property’, ‘territory’. We buy and sell it, carve our estates out of it, mark off boundaries of cities, districts, states, countries. We wage wars over territories, subdue, enslave, destroy other humans and usurp their lands…and we even sail to other planets in our effort not merely to discover and uncover but to own and control.
But, think about it – can we really own land? Can we own the earth?
According to the Katkaris, an ancient hunter-gatherer community still surviving along the Konkan region of western India, land is sacred. It is common heritage, a common resource – to be shared. Earth and all living beings on it are inextricably linked with one another. A large community of Katkaris still live in scattered homesteads in the region of Malavali, hardly an hour’s drive away from the city of Pune. Their living quarters consist of roofs thatched with wild grass or paddy stems atop bamboo walls smeared with mud, perched on common land just outside the limits of the village. Those who live in the village treat them with disdain. I remember how shocked the non-Katkari headman of the village was when he discovered that I had Katkari friends. ‘They are lower than animals,’ he said, ‘what do you have in common with them?’ I ought to have answered his question. But I have never ceased reflecting on it.
I do not belong to a community of hunter-gatherers but I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to have travelled and even lived amongst people belonging to early communities all over the Indian sub-continent. My friends from these communities have helped me to discover my own place in the web of life on this planet. The Saheriyas from the region of Sheopurkalan taught me about the medicinal properties of trees, plants, roots, bulbs and herbs. The Bhils of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, revealed the relationship between human beings and animals. The Todas, a pastoral community living on the high grassy slopes of the blue Nilgiri mountains of southern India, demonstrated the sacredness of their earth…every hundred yards of Toda earth has a special name which reflects its metaphorical, spiritual, economic and ecological character. The Gonds, the Santhals, the Muriyas and a myriad others, offered their wisdom and experience which helped me understand that all meaningful growth, change…give it whatever word you wish…must be based on the knowledge that we humans are not exclusive beings but are part of nature’s intricate fabric.
Being on top of the ladder of evolution does not give us ownership of the planet, nor the right to manipulate nature. Instead, it invests us with a degree of responsibility that far exceeds that which humans of the past were entrusted with. If we are to play out our roles as responsible partners, we must always remain aware of our place in the web of natural life. By doing so we will sustain our vital links with other life forms of our natural environment. Maintaining these links means keeping the natural force of continuity alive. Continuity is the life-link between the cave dweller and the astronaut, between tradition and modernity, the past and the future. It sustains and enriches life, providing us with a stable and dynamic foundation for meaningful evolution.
It is not my intention here to discredit or undermine contemporary human scientific endeavour or the eco-friendly intentions of many in positions of power on our planet. I am willing to commend any effort made to help life on this planet to be more bearable, equitable, nourishing and potent. But I am certainly not willing to commend efforts to use science and technology to reduce the planet to one of inequality, disregarding other forms of natural life, ancient lore and wisdom, other beliefs and customs… the sacrifice of the few, against their will and choice, for the benefit of the many and the advancement of the so called frontiers of knowledge.
Time and again it has been evident that Nature is our finest university. Some among us acknowledge this truth but a growing majority don’t and prefer to function in vacuums… compartmentalising our existence and our relationships with self, work, community and other beings. The values which are evident in the way we actually live our lives often contradict what we say we believe in. Nature provides us with excellent examples of outer and inner harmony, balance and interdependence, co-relating diversity and personal identity and the dynamic potential of continuity.
Some of us exploring the brave new worlds of science and technology are acutely aware of, respect and learn from Nature. But unfortunately, this awareness, respect and spirit of learning does not find expression in everyday living and somehow gets brushed under the carpet in the boardrooms of those of us who feel that nature merely provides raw stock for us to fashion to our own ends.
Trees in cities like the one I live in are planted without a thought for the future. What will happen when they grown tall and spread their branches? What will happen when the vehicular traffic increases and the roads have to be widened? What will happen when human population bursts the city at its seams and trees and parks must give way to housing colonies?
If trees are only planted to beautify avenues and fill parks, why do we bother to put them through the celebration of growth and the agony of death? Erect artificial greenery. That saves a lot of bother. And besides, we can actually have blossoms all the year round.
Most of the beautiful old trees all along this road I walk on now are all gone. Elsewhere in India, parks are vanishing, forests are being invaded, rivers polluted, species of flora and fauna are being shoved towards extinction. And in the great wide world around the oceans are being pillaged, the land altered beyond recognition.
The tragedy is not that we are ‘depleting and destroying precious natural resources’ but that we are abusing a vital and potentially nourishing relationship. The choice that faces us is whether we want to persist in our effort to negatively enhance our supremacy and control over other life forms on planet earth or do we want to redefine our roles as dynamic and responsible partners in the process of evolution. Whatever path we choose will determine whether or not our species will survive and truly evolve.
Randhir Khare – The writer, a resident of Koregaon Park, is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction and essays. He works with children and young people on creative programmes in response to the environment and related issues. He may be contacted at
randhirkhare@hotmail.com
