Ghar nyara

This morning I had a house concert. Straight from a singer’s house to my house. Junuka Deshpande, singer, artist, writer, blogger….treated me to a one-on-one recital, over Skype. She sang 3 Kabir compositions…the first one in Bibhas conjured up temple bells….but of course, like all of Kabir and all of Kumar Gandharva (who sings him), her rendition too took me beyond the temple plane and into that place where, as another of his compositions sung by Kumar G says…there is no night, day, light, dark, structures, nothing. The Deshkar and Khamaj compositions were lilting, lifting….so visual too in their words and Junuka’s treatment. Junuka sang with abandon, grace and an understanding that made her the song itself. What a treat! She has put me on a track this morning, and I am youtubing away….and from more kumar g…I have happily lurched on….and am currently at bhuvanesh komkali singing aijaiyo saware…. I have extracted a promise of a night recital from junuka (we live on opposite sides of the globe so she was singing at 10 in the night for my this morning’s listening)….
While I was listening, I thought of how my dad would have marveled at her singing and at the technology that brought her into my house and me into her house, this morning! I thought of my mother, looking in that wry way of hers from her photograph, and I only had a brief moment of WHERE ARE YOU, COME BACK. Because they never go away, your parents, if they have been able to give you this, the ability to make friends across continents, respond to music that comes down from centuries and decades and is flowing into the future via a young woman like Junuka…
One more Kabir composition that she pointed me to, just as we were getting off skype: Kumar Gandharva singing in bhairavi… talks about ‘that house’ being ‘sabase nyara’ – jahan puraan purush hamara – (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sho8H8HSEfg&p=2CA56E6127DBC49A&playnext=1&index=2)
Listening to it makes me think that my parents (and so many other people, and all of us in the futre) are inhabiting that nyara house…jahan nahi such-dukh, saacha-jhuta nahi, paapan-punya pasara…bina jyoti ujaala. My brother has gone down that same road to that same ghar nyara too I hope, where pursuer, pursuit, pursued, all ends and merges…perhaps. And if this Kabir song is all just a construct, a human mind-construct, to feel better…then so be it. That’s ok too.
Jiyo, gaao, Junuka!