Claim OwnershipGayati. Live. Breathe. Sing! Informal singing by Gauri Varma
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© GAURI VARMA
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Largely untrained, I sing because....I am! To express my inner being. To connect with a rainbow of universal thoughts and emotions through informal, solo renditions of some favourite songs in varied languages and genres (semi-classical Bandish, Sufi compositions, Ghazals, traditional wedding songs, folk songs in Hindi dialects/other Indian vernaculars, Bhajans, Sanskrit Stotra, Hindi film songs, popular English songs etc as the fancy takes me). I sing raw, without accompaniment or with minimal instrumental accompaniment.
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Available on
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76 Episodes
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I have attempted a favourite Shiv Bhajan, a beautiful version of which has been liltingly sung by Pandit Chhannulal Mishra of Banaras, based on Raag Des. The lyrics in colloquial Hindi (closest to Bhojpuri) are from Goswami Tulsidas' 'Ram Charit Maanas' and describe Shiv endearingly as the paradoxical ascetic-house holder, oblivious of social conventions, with a snake wrapped around his neck, ash-smeared semi-naked body, the bestower of blessings to all but himself, possessor of nothing. He is accompanied by his faithful spouse, Parvati, who
fondly chides him for his eccentric ways.
Composed by the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar in the 19th century, using his pen name 'Aashiq Rang', this beautiful Bandish pays homage to Sufi Pir Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and at the same time, nostalgically describes the unique beauty of spring in Zafar's beloved homeland of India, a magical time when golden mustard and 'tesu' flowers bloom in lush forests, the mango trees blossom preparing to fruit, the koel sings, and young, fair maidens beautify themselves. A 'maalin' (woman gardener) brings an earthen pot and plants an array of flowers in it to take as an offering to the door of Khwaja Nizamuddin. Zafar remembers his promise to visit that hallowed doorway, a promise made a long time before, which he was unable to fulfill. My amateur rendition is based on Raag Shahaana Bahaar, in the style of the Agra Gharaana.
I have attempted a haunting love song with tender and sad lyrics. Two people who were deeply in love with an ethereal sort of love are separated by circumstances. But their love stays alive within their hearts and though they will probably never be together in the 'real world', they continue to commune through their thoughts and dreams and remain connected at a subliminal level. Originally sung by Pakistani singer Shuja Haider in 2014, the song was reworked as a longer, more complex duet directed by Haider and sung by Momina Mustehsan and Asim Azhar in Coke Studio Season 9 in 2016. The lyrics are unusual as is the melody in its use of varying rhythms and tempos.
The song demonstrates an interesting fusion of Western and semi classical music. I have attempted a much simplified version of the duet as a solo, primarily vocal rendition with only a Tanpura accompaniment.
I have attempted a traditional Christian chant that goes back to the early centuries of the Christian era. It is in Latin and rejoices in the birth of Christ. It was incorporated into the formal Catholic liturgy by Poper Gregory but its early renditions predate his time. The chant says that Christ is born today and therefore the angels and archangels rejoice on earth today. All the just and righteous too rejoice saying, 'Glory to God in the Highest'.
I have attempted a beautiful, traditional wedding song which is rooted in the villages of the North Indian Gangetic Plain. Ascribed to 14th century music maestro, poet and Sufi Khwaja Amir Khusrau, the charming, lilting folk melody and lyrics go back centuries and such songs have been sung in the villages of this region for centuries. Amir Khusrau would have been inspired by current rural wedding songs and rituals when he composed this. The poignant song expresses the sentiments of a young bride-to-be addressing her beloved and large-hearted father. She asks him to find the sturdiest greenest bamboos to construct the wedding pavilion or mandwa in the courtyard of her paternal home and to celebrate her wedding with great splendour. She asks him to summon all the local astrologers to set an auspicious time, to invite all the local notables and to send her off with horses, elephants, parrots, gold, money and other valuables so that her mother-in-law doesn't taunt her that she came from her father's home without even a comb for her hair. She says that the threshold of her father's home is a mountain that she must find the courage to cross. Once crossed, she will enter the land of her husband and will not be able to return to her father's home.
I have attempted a favourite, traditional wedding song, probably sung for centuries by women of the Gangetic plains, especially in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The lyrics describe how that day is an auspicious one for Ayodhya and the joyous preparations that are taking place in that ancient city as Prince Ram is about to become a groom. The inhabitants plaster their courtyards and kitchens with cleansing cowdung. The priceless 'gaj-moti' or elephant-pearl is in evidence, a sign of the royal prince's splendour and power. A golden 'kalash' or pot is ritually installed in the marriage courtyard and a clay pitcher of water is placed , invoking the divine energy of the Goddess to bless the wedding rituals that are to commence. The youthful groom comes and sits on the low wooden stool or 'chauki' and ekders bless him by showering handfuls of pearls upon him.
I have attempted a favourite Punjabi folk song with Sufi tones. A simple rustic woman expresses her deep selfless love for her handsome lover or 'soneya'. She says that she prays daily to God for his wellbeing and wants nothing else. Her lover has given her so much joy that she is filled with gratitude and wants nothing but to live and die at his feet. She wants him to fully enjoy the prime of his life as Time waits for no one in this world. She prays that if his death is destined before hers, God should take her life instead, as it is her desire that her lover's hands prepare her grave.
On the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, I am singing this simple, joyous, popular Hindi bhajan which is infused with loving devotion. The elephant-headed God of auspicious beginnings is fondly invited to enter our homes and bring along other beloved gods with Him, including the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh as also Sita, Ram and Lakshman. Lord Ganesh is asked to bless the home, remove all obstacles and shower his blessings on all its inhabitants.
I have attempted a favourite love song written and sung by Neil Diamond in 1972. Its intense lyrics can be varyingly interpreted: is he singing of an exceptional love between a man and a woman, or the soulful bond between himself and his guitar (music) or then the spiritual yearning and love between the soul and Divinity? I could not provide the beautiful guitarwork that enrichens his song, so choose to sing without any instrument, which undoubtedly takes away from the beauty and rhythm of the song, but nevertheless, I have made an attempt as I love its lyrics.
I have attempted a favourite Bhajan praising Lord Hanuman, the Shri Hanuman Lahari, composed in the 16th century by the mystic poet Goswami Tulsidas. This version was popularized by the singers Rajan and Sajan Mishra. This Stuti is replete with sentiments of Bhakti or loving devotion and extolls Hanuman who is the personification Himself of selfless devotion to Sita-Ram, endowed with strength, courage and compassion.
I have attempted a favourite song from the Hindi film Junoon (1979), which evokes some.charming scenes traditionally associated with a North Indian monsoon, especially in rural communities. Set to a lilting folksy melody, the lyrics in the colloquial Hindi of Uttar Pradesh describe the feelings that the dark clouds and cool breezes of the monsoon evoke in a young woman, after the searing heat of the Indian summer. The monsoon weather makes her romantic and playful. The singer describes how the buds of the jasmine and bela flowers begin to open in this season and release their heady fragrance. Tree branches sway with the movement of rope swings as the singer and other young women swing joyfully, their green 'chunaris' refusing to stay demurely on their heads, while their bangles tinkle as they move. The singer can't escape the rain and doesn't want to. Apparently complaining, she actually is enjoying getting drenched in the courtyard and terrace of her home. What is more, her lover's bed (placed in the courtyard or terrace as was the practice in the warm weather) also gets soaked in the gently falling showers of the monsoon along with her crisp, dry cotton chunari.
I have attempted a chant of six sacred Sanskrit verses termed the Nirvana Shatakam or the Atma Shatakam, composed by ancient Indian saint and Guru Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century AD. The verses describe the profound nature of the Supreme Blissful Consciousness or 'Shiv' that is, in fact, identical with the individual Soul or 'Jiva'. A beautiful poetic exposition of the Vedantic philosophy of Advait (Non Dualism), the verses describe Shiv as that unchanging Consciousness that is complete in itself, beyond the body, mind, emotions, attachments, desires, social relationships, Nature, religion, sin, virtue, death and even salvation. And all individual souls are its reflection and therefore also indestructible and sacred. The inner realisation of this essential Unity is true spiritual Liberation.
I have attempted a favourite song from the Hindi film Tamaasha' (2015) which has beautiful and unusual lyrics by Irshad Kamil. The song in the film is a duet in which a woman expresses her wish to always be together with her lover because his presence completes her and causes any sorrows that come her way to slip away. She is immersed in her longing to be with him through the daily hustle-bustle of each passing day and wishes that she could find a way to make hin stay with her a few more moments each time she sees him Her lover however, while attracted to her, seems to cynically question the adequacy of their togetherness to actually take away from the painful realities of life, which must be faced regardless of whether they are together or not.
I have attempted this haunting Punjabi folk song which draws on the old legend of Soni and her lover Mahiwal. In simple Punjabi with a lilting melody, it recounts how Soni , who used to secretly visit her lover at night by swimming across the river Chenab, using a large earthen pot to carry her across, is faced with a fateful choice one stormy night. Her sister-in-law, learning of the affair, conspires to replace the baked clay pot with a raw one. That stormy night, Soni has an irresistible urge to visit her lover and pleads with the pot to take her across. The pot reveals that it is raw and incapable of supporting her but she insists, saying that she so ardently wishes to meet Mahiwal that even if her corpse reaches the other side to meet him, she would take that risk knowingly. Was this her stubborn foolishness or her complete surrender of self to a greater emotion: an overriding Love in the face of which death was a small matter?
I have attempted a geet-numa-ghazal (a ghazal sung in light, song form) written by Late Nasir Kazmi (1925-1972). In this romantic poem written in simple Urdu, an ardent lover voices both his longing for his beloved as well as the apprehensions this love arouses in his mind. His fears indicate both the depth of romantic love as well as its fragility. He engages in gentle irony by wondering if he may at some date, weary of even she who has so besotted him. The rest of the couplets however contradict this fear by describing how, when he meets her after a long time, he fears that the day will end too soon. He solicitously advises her not to engage with sad people lest her beauty scatter in their burdensome company. His deep desire is that she come to him and then not leave for their entire lifetime. He keeps fretting about attaining his love, and what its fate will be, and, again, ironically comments that even this habit of tormenting himself with such thoughts is perhaps a skill not to be wasted. In the last couplet, there is a sense of melancholy where he invites his beloved to spend a little time with him just shedding tears together, lest the swelling river of emotion recede leaving them stranded.
I have attempted a favourite thumri composed in Raag Bhairavi by Hindustani music maestro Late Ustad Faiyaz Khan of the Agra Gharana in the 1920s-30s. The words, in the colloquial Hindi of Western Uttar Pradesh, express the hurt and anger of a woman whose beloved has been neglecting her. She chides him and asks why he is making false excuses for not visiting her when the real reason is that he has been callous and betrayed their love. She tells him that he should not come to her but rather should go back to his home and spouse where he spends all his nights anyway. She asks sarcastically if he was unable to move around because he had applied henna on his feet like some coy bride or whether it had been raining (just for him), that he couldn't visit her. If like he claimed, he couldn't get any opportunities in the day, didn't he have the night to make time for her!
I have attempted a favourite song from Hindi film 'Taal' (1999) , written by Anand Bakshi with haunting music by A.R. Rahman. Sung in the film by Hariharan accompanied by Sukhvinder Singh, i have modified it for my simple amateur solo rendition accompanied by the electronic Tanpura. A favourite of mine, the song 's melody bears the stamp of Rahman, with its harmonious fusion of Indian semi-classical and Western musical styles. An intense love song, it has an undercurrent of spiritual soul-longing for the beloved.
On the auspicious occasion of the ninth day (Navami) of Ashwin Navaratri 2022 I have attempted this energizing ancient Sanskrit hymn to the Devi in her form as Vindhyeshwari or Vindhyavaasini: she who resides in the mountains of Vindhyachal. Vindhyeshwari is a very old form of the Goddess refered to in the Mahabharat and various Puranas. She is also called Vanadevi or the Goddess of the forests. According to one narrative, the primal human Manu prayed to Vindhyeshwari and was granted the boon of having progeny. The Puranas also recount that Devi forecast that she would reside in Vindhyachal and when the demons Shumbh and Nishumbh create misery on earth, she would slay them in Vindhyachal. The sacred temple of Vindhyeshwari near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh is a renowned Shaktipeeth where the Goddess is believed to be present in her complete form. Vindhyeshwari is a brave, aggressive but benevolent Goddess. The Vindhyeshwari Stotram is composed in the Panch-chaamar meter which is a lively meter indicating her bravery. My small attempt is inspired by the masterly rendition by Pandit Chhannulal Mishra ji of Banaras.
I have attempted a beautiful Sabad Kirtan, comprising of couplets composed by Shri Guru Nanak ji in the 15th century. This traditional Bhajan/Kirtan was featured in Hindi film 'Halla Bol' (2008), sung by Sukhvinder Singh. The couplets, set to the traditional lilting melody of popular North Indian devotional kirtans, are composed in an amalgam of mediaeval, colloquial dialects and nascent veranaculars of North and West India such as Awadhi, Brajbhasha, early Punjabi, Sindhi, Rajasthani, other 'Apabhramsha' (popular spoken simplified forms of Sanskrit) and Arabic. They were thus composed in the language of the common people of that time, as was the practice of the Bhakti saints of the period. The words testify to the deeply mystic spirituality of Guru Nanak. They stress the crucial importance of the 'Satnam' (True Name of the formless God), 'Satguru' (True Guru) and of loving devotion to both of these in order to attain the Divine.
I have attempted this famous song which belongs to the Celtic folk ballad genre, lyrics of which were ironically composed by English lawyer-songwriter Frederic Weatherly, in 1910. They were set to the tune of a haunting old Irish melody called 'Londonderry Air' in 1913, which is supposed to have been discovered in the mid-19th century by a collector of old Irish music, Jane Ross, but the roots of which probably go back to 17th century Irish harp music. 'O Danny Boy', with its poignant lyrics and melody, became popular during World War I and over decades, it became an identity-song for the Irish-American diaspora, evoking a feeling of nostalgia for the homeland amongst that community. The ballad was first sung by English opera singer Elsie Griffith in 1915 and has subtle operatic overtones. The lyrics are varyingly interpreted, often, as expressing the longing of ageing Irish parents for sons gone to war, but the song may equally, especially when sung by a woman, express the painful longing of a country maiden awaiting her lover and calling out to him amongst the glens and mountains of her beautiful native land, knowing all the while that she may never see him again.
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