Saptak: Santoor recital evokes legend’s legacy

Ahmedabad: On Day 9 of Saptak, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma's son Rahul Sharma settled on the main dais with his santoor, in the third baithak on Friday. He occupied the top level of the two-tier stage.On the second level, just feet away from the santoor scion, a group of Saptak students sat in padmasana.One kid was wearing a tiny blue winter cap and a Size L demeanour of classical enthusiasm. The latter aspect was worn by all kids on the second tier.Sharma opened the recital with Raga Kaunsi Kanada. During the aalaap, Sharma used the mallets on the santoor strings with such tenderness that the sounds flickered like the lights of earthen lamps.Scores of people in the packed house bowed their heads to join the prayer.As the slow tempo of the aalaap entered the jod phase, tabla maestro Yogesh Samsi joined Sharma. Jod is the transition point between the aalaap and the climactic jhala.The notes quickened without rushing. The santoor's peals rolled out like a velvet carpet on which the tabla's riffs tiptoed.Kaunsi Kanada's insistence on decorousness has made it the natural raga for devotional compositions demanding methodical intensity.One such popular composition is "Rajan ke Sirtaj, Maharaj Sri Ramachandra". Singers present this ode to Lord Rama as an austere invocation, the sparse style accentuating piety.When Sharma gave full rein to the jhala, the santoor's peals and the tabla's syllables roused a cascade of "wahs" in the audience.The force of all three sounds took the raga to its summit, and the scion conquered a full Saptak house as assuredly as his father always had.