Tai touched you with her music

The music great

Mogubai Kurdikar

’s village of Kurdi was submerged when the Selaulim dam was constructed. Such was mai’s devotion to the Ravalnath Temple of her native village that she got it rebuilt at Valkini.

She was a regular at the temple from then on, always accompanied by her children and disciples.

It is here that I once caught mai with daughter Kishori Amonkar weaving garlands from aboli flowers. It is this mother and daughter who keep the name of this obscure Goan village alive. Amonkar had a pride about her Goan origins, just like her mother.

Mai was extremely humble, it may not be the same with Amonkar, but it was for a reason.

It is rare for someone to even aim for perfection in Indian classical music and Kishori Amonkar dared to aim for it. Her singing could even touch someone who did not understand the grammar of music. Her focus was on emotions of the ragas and she later wrote a treatise speaking about just this. Some of her renditions were so beautiful that you can liken the feeling of experiencing it with that of the enlightenment of the soul. This is the reason why lovers of her music are spread not just across the country, but around the world.

Many may have stories of her ‘arrogance’, but she simply did not want her audience to disturb her. This was for her to be able to take her audience to a heavenly destination with her music. And she was very frank about it.

As good as she was with her classical music renditions, so was she with renditions of abhangs, many of which she composed herself. She has composed the tunes to the writings of several

Hindu saints

, from

Sant Tukaram

to

Sant Dnyaneshwar

.

(Janardhan Verlekar is a music critic and president of Gomant Vidya Niketan)