The Music Room Quotes

“When things get bad, you create a perceived enemy, especially when there is resounding endorsement from all quarters.”
― Namita Devidayal, The Music Room

“When she went back for her first lesson, Dhondutai automatically greeted het teacher by touching her feet. Kesarbai held her shoulders, lifted her gently and said, "You are a Brahmin's daughter. There is no need for you to do that." But this was something Dhondutai would not compromise on- even though she knew that she and Kesarbai occupied two ends of the social order in which women were either 'good' or 'bad', respectable or indecent. These were labels that had been stuck on by men, by society, and Dhondutai would not fall into that trap.”
― Namita Devidayal, The Music Room

“The most common cycle used is the sixteen beat cycle, called teentaal or tritaal. Dha dhin dhin dha. Dha dhin dhin dha. Dha tin tin ta. Ta dhin dhin dha…sixteen beats divided neatly into four times four. The sixteen-beat cycle starts and ends and stars and ends, creating a repetitive circularity; the melody has to accommodate itself within its scaffolding; it has to negotiate with the parameters to find a happy balance between freedom and responsibility, rights and duties, exhilaration and restraint. There is scope for risk-taking, within reason, as long as one came back to the line of control in time, and hit sama, the drum stroke where one cycle ended and the new one began; a point of arrival and of departure. This is a musical metaphor for life as it should be lived. Truly great musicians can swerve into unchartered bylanes, but still find their way back to the destination. On time”
― Namita Devidayal, The Music Room

“To understand and perform the raga in its true sense requires life-long meditation on the notes- and on yourself,' Dhondutai told me. 'Merely mastering the notes is not enough. You have to reflect on the human condition, on life itself. Everytime I sing a raga, it unfolds and expands revealing new insights and pathways. That is why they say that a musician really becomes a musician at the end of his life. It is only once you can use the notes to tell a greater story that you are floating in that bottomless ocean.”
― Namita Devidayal, The Music Room

“Make the sound of your sa merge into the sa of the tanpura until both are one and you can't tell the difference,' said Dhondutai. 'Sa encompasses all the notes, just as white light contains all teh colours of the rainbow.”
― Namita Devidayal, The Music Room

“I started with the first note, sa. On the first day, to my dismay, Dhondutai made me sing only the base note- the tonal pillar of Indian music which remains unchanged, constant, reliable, and stoically oblivious to the whims and fancies of the other notes. It is the foundation, the first and last note, the point at which the circle begins and ends. Within the boundaries of sa, one can play out all of life's dramas and moods. But every time one gets back to it, there is a sense of closure- like coming home after a long and exciting journey.”
― Namita Devidayal, The Music Room