The Call of Music

Ravi was trying to find out the similarity of the sound with a scene of the movie which he enjoyed greatly. Yesterday by chance he got a passenger and dropped him where the musical programme was going. Ravi the rickshaw puller never heard such a type of sound which was just like ..like… he murmured-“Yes fountain !” He became pleased as he could name the sound.  When he dropped the passenger and turned his rickshaw to the railway station, so that he could get more passengers, very quickly he felt a peculiar attraction with the sound of the instrument. He saw on the stage a man of curly long hair keeping the instrument on his lap was playing on it, his eyes closed as if he was in deep meditation

How long he was listening to this enchanting sound he did not count but when he felt someone is tapping on his shoulder and whispered –“what a beautiful sound! What a beautiful play! He suddenly turned his head and saw-Bishu…Kaka…and some others rickshaw pullers were around him. None of them could just leave the place as the artist mesmerised everyone who gathered there. Ravi asked a man –Who is that man? And what’s that magical instrument?  He came to know the man is a great artist of Indian Classical Music on the string–Suddhashil Chatterjee and the instrument is Santoor.

The next day Ravi saw a car arrived in front of the railway station area. Three or four people got out of the car. Bishu cried out with joy –“Ravi look, that great man ..we heard his music… yesterday night. “ Bishu rushed towards the artist and others, including Ravi and encircled him within a moment. “ Very …beautiful…. Bea..uti..full. Ravi was stumbling down to express his deep emotion. The artist became surprised and looked at them with curiosity. He soon realised that they by chance were present in the programme and they liked his rendition. They liked to express their emotions but hesitated.  The great santoor player, though already bagged many fame, admiration but such an experience of the impact of music on the people of extreme down to society he never had.

The name used here is in fact imaginary but it is factual. The artist- Suddhashil Chatterjee, while sharing his experience with me, said that it moved him greatly. It happened in the year 2011 at Bishnupur, in a musical conference organised by the State Govt of West Bengal, India. It is still a treasure to him.

Suddhashil from childhood was reared up in a great musical ambience. His grandfather, parents, cousins and other relatives used to gather in their house- the evenings used to be very colourful with music. But the little Suddhashil though could enjoy this ambience at the same time he could feel restlessness. He could not be able to fathom what made him so stirred when he used to be present in such musical evenings and just engage himself to blot every note of music.  “Actually my search for music started at that time but I could not find my way”  – Suddhashil described. His mother, a nice singer though not a professional, entered him into the enigmatic world of music. His schooling of music started under the feet of his mother. Though he continued his schooling in music from Dhirendra Nath Chatterjee and Kalidas Pal yet his search for music and his guru went on. His restlessness abated when he met guru  Pandit Samaresh Chowdhury – the renowned vocalist of Indian classical music at Durgapur- an industrial town in West Bengal, India. Suddhashil the brilliant student, admitted to Durgapur Govt. College for higher study. He completed his Master’s Degree in Geology. At the same time, slowly but steadily the horizon of Indian Classical Music was unveiling with the blessings of  Pt.Samaresh Chowdhury. About a decade passed on and Suddhashil enriched himself with the proper guidance of – Pandit Samaresh  Chowdhury.

He had a bright scorecard on school and college exams and his parents always had the expectation that after completion of school he would be in an engineering or medical college. But Suddhashil by that time was absorbed in the call of music. He gradually realised that he could not touch the zenith of classical music to his heart’s content by singing. An instrument would help him to stride on the way firmly. So what instrument should he choose?

By this time he had to be busy to earn the bread and butter of his own. His friend Soumitrajit Chatterjee, a professional and famous tabla player, advised trying Santoor. Being inspired by the advice of his friend and great Tabla player he met  Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumder, a legendary sarod player.

 Panditji sent him to the eminent santoor player Pandit Tarun Bhattacherjee. Suddhashil became acquainted with the excellent instrument. He loved the sound, he got an in-detail description of the instrument. Then after some time he again went to Pandit Tejendranara Narayan and his schooling started with Panditji, one of the all-time great sarod players.

Time went on and music engrossed him entirely. In the deep ocean of music, Suddhashil lost himself and he decided to sacrifice his bright future as the Regional Manager of a multi-national company because his thirst for music always drove him to the farthest region of music. He felt the enigmatic call of the music. His years of training and practice as a vocalist gave him pace and confidence to be a successful santoor player. Yes, he from that time has become able to attract the attention of several stalwarts of Indian classical music.

He shifted to Mumbai to take lessons from the great legendary maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. The only man who shaped a folk song instrument to a fabulous classical instrument and made the instrument very popular in the country and abroad.

Sitting at the feet of the great maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Suddhashil got his rebirth and started to blot out each and every instruction and lesson from his Guru. He could smell the fragrance of  Indian Classical Music more distinctly and realised that at last the mysterious world of music slowly unveiling itself in front of him.

Suddhashil, a brilliant student in his academic life and also properly settled in his earlier profession, threw away all the certainties which he achieved and merrily embraced the life of an artist – a man to whom music and creativity is the only meaning of life.

Since then Suddhashil has been taking part in musical concerts in India and abroad, and his unique style of rendition makes everyone spellbound because his music always creates an ambience of solemnity, peace and celestial joy.

But what makes me attracted towards him is that he is not only a great santoor player but a man who is carrying a philosophy and clear view of life, society and culture. Sometimes a glimpse of his great thoughts sparkles and makes others enlightened.

He plays on the musical instrument but it’s not only the rendition of a Raag or his expression of the Indian Classical Music- he always tries to attain the spirituality through the music. He believes the way his rendition will take him to the almighty.  His message to the next generation of students of music is to pursue the way through music that can light up the urge to attain the soul, to find out one’s inner self and get peace in life.

Before I end, I would like to mention his YouTube Channel: Santoor Sudddhashil Chatterjee(E.mail-suddhashil.santoor@gmail.com). Interested viewers may easily get a nice experience of his excellent and beautiful style of playing on Santoor- a musical instrument that showers anyone with the sound of a running fountain that comes out from the far end of a mountain…a paradise.