Saran - BAAT NIKLEGI TOH PHIR: the life and music of jagjit singh

Baat Niklegi
Toh Phir

THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF JAGJ IT SINGH

SATHYA SARAN

HarperCollins Publishers India

CONTENTS

Taareef us khuda ki jisne jahan banaya
Kaisee zameen banayi kya aasman banaya

Sooraj se humnein payee hai garmee bhi roshni bhi
Kya khoob chashma toone ay meherbaan banaya

Pairon taley bichhaya kya khoob farsh khaki
Aur sar pe laaj wardi ek saaibaan banaya

Rehmat se tere kya kya hai neemat-e-mayyassar
In neematon ka mujhko kya qadrdaan banaya

Mittee say bael bootay kya khushnumaan ugaye
Pehna ke sabz khilat unko jawan banaya

SARDAR AMAR SINGH WHO RECOGNIZED
HIS SONS LOVE FOR MUSIC

T he year was 1941. There was nothing to indicate what the future held. Nothing unusual. Amar Singhs wife, Bachan Kaur, had borne him the third of their eleven children.

Perhaps, when this baby cried, his voice held a different quality, but in a house full of children, and with so many chores waiting to be attended to, who had the time to notice?

In due course, the ceremonies that marked the first milestones of a childs life were duly held. The newborn was given a name, Jagmohanone who charms the world. And life went on, a river meandering through the peaks and valleys of daily living. Later, the young Jagmohans name would be changed to Jagjit Singh.

Jagjits father, Amar Singh, was born a Hindu. But the young Amin Chand, as he had been named by his parents, found himself drawn to the teachings of the Sikh Gurus. What his parents felt about his conversion to Sikhismgrowing his hair and adopting a turban and the other signs of his new religionis unknown, but the seventeen-year-old took the tenets of Sikhism seriously. Changing his name to Amar Singh, he joined the Namdhari sect. The Namdhari Sikhs believe in the purity of word, thought and deed. They are passionate about the protection of animals and practise vegetarianism. Amar Singh held all these tenets close to his heart; he turned vegetarian and lived his life with honest piety.

Working hard to rise from the poverty he had been born into, Amar Singh worked by day and studied by night, and finally found himself a job in the Public Works Department. It was a job that spelt security and a certain degree of comfort. He was sent to Bikaner, where he would set up home.

His wife, addressed as Beeji by everyone, came from a family better off than his. A chance encounter resulted in their marriage. A meeting on a train between two passengers, an exchange of family stories, and Amar Singh was betrothed. He soon found himself in the new role of husband and householder.

A young Jagmohan Singh riding pillion

JAGJIT SINGH WITH HIS YOUNGER SISTERS

Following the rules laid down by his Gurus, Amar Singh presided over a household that was spartan in its lifestyle to the extent that tea and other mood-enhancing drinks were forbidden to its members. Yet, he was a man known for his generosity. He believed in sharing whatever little he had with friends and relatives who passed in and out of his home, and with his many children. He would father eleven in the course of his married life, and be a strict and firm father to the seven who survived.

The Singh family lived a quiet but industrious life. Amar Singh provided for his family while his wife cooked, sewed clothes and busied herself with the endless cycles of housekeeping chores and tasks that concerned her children. If they noticed that the tenor of their lives improved after the birth of Jagmohan, no one made much of it. Though Amar Singh would mention the fact much later, prompted perhaps by what the future brought to his experience.

Perhaps the first intimation that, of all his children, Jagmohan would be the most distinctive one, came to Amar Singh when the familys Namdhari Guru advised him to change Jagmohans name to Jagjit. He will win the world over, the Guru predicted. Obediently, the boys name was changed. Jagjit Singh was formally born.

Whether the world would be conquered by Jagjits sword or pen, or whether he had the makings of an administrator, was not a matter of conjecture. Jagjit did what his brothers did: he went to school where he learnt to read and write in Urdu, and was taught how to do his sums. The school was humble and the children sat cross-legged on the floor and wrote on slates. In the evenings, studies would continue by the dim light of lanterns.

Music was not a part of their daily life, at least not in the way it is today. Radios were a luxury not everyone could afford, Jagjit Singh had said of his early years. World War II was on, and I remember going for walks with my father to the park so that we could overhear the news on the radio from a nearby house.

His first encounter with music must have been at the singing of the Gurbani. The ragas that accompanied the sacred words of the Gurus would have become familiar by repetition. Amar Singh loved the sound of music, and decided that at least some of his children should learn it formally, for their own understanding of its intricacies and for the joys music could bring.

He chose Jagjit. The boy seemed to have a natural love for music. When the family moved to Sri Ganganagar, where Amar Singh originally hailed from, circumstances seemed to have changed for the better. Among the trappings of an easier life was the presence of a radio, as much to keep abreast of the news as to provide relief from the monotony of daily chores.

Jagjit, especially, was entranced by the songs that played on the radio from the films of the time. The twelve-year-old would listen intently and sing as he went about his share of household jobs, which included carrying water from the well, buying vegetables, or running errands.

His singing did not go unnoticed. It led to his first formal lesson. To his delight, he was taken to the blind singer, Pandit Chhaganlal Sharma, to learn classical music. Jagjit proved a good pupil, listening with a keen ear, dedicating himself to absorbing all that his teacher taught him. Soon enough, there was little else he could learn from the Pandit. Once he had mastered the basics, Jagjit was taken to Ustad Jamal Khan, who would take the lessons forward, teaching him thumri and khayal. He could not have asked for a teacher with a more impressive lineage, for the Ustad claimed descent from the legendary Tansen himself.

Jagjits youngest brother, Kartar Singh, who lives in Delhi and runs the very successful Hao Shi Nian Nian restaurant that specializes in Chinese cuisine, remembers how his brother would sit for hours on end with the Ustad, learning greedily whatever the teacher could offer. He was full of