𝗨𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗚𝗵𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝗹𝗶 𝗞𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗮𝗴𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘄𝗮

    Perhaps it was one of those afternoons when you still churn the sedimentary dregs of sleep post your power nap, relish the overdose of melatonin in your blood cells, and sense a profound desolation of indolence. You desperately need something around. Yes, you read it right - something. You don’t need someone, but probably the vision to handle your free will.

    And then you call up your satirtha, disciple of the same guru. “Hey, bud! Game for spending some time with Marwa?”

    He agrees.

    Even after sixty years of His death, you reincarnate the combatant in you with his explanation of raga Marwa while noticing the agile swiftness from dhaivaat to komal rishav. You grasp the undeniable prowess of its dynamism. You stand on its every note and smell how tired and wretched the warrior sounds after a long unwilling battle, which was never meant to be his forte. He lost. But is all lost? ‘The study of revenge? The immortal hate?’

    No more. Khan saheb’s Marwa taught you to accept the inevitable with his mellow and melancholic rendition of komal rishav in the upper octave, which stands in sheer contrast to the same note in the middle octave. The latter epitomises the male ego and certitude. But now, you invoke the goodwill of life. You, the battler again, learn to cry aloud in despair, sob in solitude and recollect the turmoils that you never wanted to go through but braced so earnestly.

    Marwa is the lonely cry of a warrior. The battle is lost. But the blood in vein is still warm and resolute to sail through the next challenge. While you fail miserably to gauge the colossal confidence of His rendition, Khan sahib stands aside and smiles: do it or stop whining!

    Happy birthday to the Almighty of Indian classical music- the unparalleled and inimitable Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.