THE BASTION IS BREACHED

The Bastion is Breached

PAINTING by Dr Mukta Kamplikar

I must have been in class 4 or 5, when my mother brought in a Tabla teacher home in her white Premier Padmini, as she drove back home in that car, from the hospital / medical college that she as a Gynaec worked at. She did that, as this was an aspiration that she nursed, but her father admonished her, for this was a man’s preserve. She therefore wished her son to play the table, the instrument that she was denied. And mind you, this denial came from the father who was very highly educated and primarily an educationist, having held the rank of Director of Education for UP.

Though not with ease, the bastion has been breached by several women and the ones that come to my mind foremost are Sunayna Ghosh and Anuradha Pal.

Anuradha learnt the art from several exponents of this ancient music form, including Pt Kishan Maharaj, Alah Rakhan and his illustrious son Zakir Hussain. When I heard her for the first time at a concert, in the beginning her style sounded dubious, but as she advanced, it had an indelibly clear imprint of the Benaras Gharana.

The bastion was breached by another woman, Sunayana Ghosh of Kolkatta, a disciple of the famous tabla maestro Pt Shankar Ghosh of the Farukhabad Gharana. Again extremely talented, and having made her space in the male bastion with ease that does not fail to astonish you.

But of course, to me, it is Anuradha who appeals more, just because she is from the Benaras Gharana and the extraordinary Gamak of the Dahina nevers cease to mesmerize me. 

Just the other day, I saw on TV, a smart lady Capt Geetika Rathore, who was one of the 6 women to scale the Everest two years ago, leading a contingent at the Republic Day Parade.

They are indeed breaching the till now male bastions.