Rashmi Tripathi and Maneesha Singh – two outstanding women singers from U.P.

This weeks feature is all about great women singers from the state of U.P.  Traditionally the region had produced many pioneer play back singers like Rajkumari Dubey and Gauhar Jaan. Gauhar was born to British parents in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India and learned Hindustani music and Kathak and was one the most proficient singers of her time. She got the golden chance to be the first performer to record music on 78 rpm records in India, and released by Gramophone Company of India. This record happened to be India’s first ever disc of music recorded where Gauhar Jaan, singing a khayal in Raag Jogiya.

It gives us such immense pleasure to bring these two women singers representing U.P. in our feature this week. It was during our feature covering Sneha Hole from Maharashtra, Bhavishya from U.P. and Geetika from Uttarakhand the response from the readers was really a warm acceptance of this humble efforts from our side. All the emails reached us were either proposing their favorite singers or singers themselves proposing showed a  level of enthusiasm, that we can not fathom. We have no words to thank you all enough for reaching out to us. There were more than fifty emails in two-week time. It was our inability to read through all those emails and respond individually. Few that came in earlier were promptly responded. More tougher task was to hear all those singers and write to them individually. Who all wrote to us your efforts will not go wasted. We will get to all of them pretty soon. A big thank you.

Rashmi Tripathi

It gives such a great pleasure to introduce Rashmi here on a feature where we honor a great women legend of U.P. Girija Devi. What is so special about Rashmi is that her parents lived in as a tenant in Girija Devi’s rented house and when Rashmi was a child happen to live around Girija Devi who was then very famous and was at the peak of her career.

Let us without delay hear some of the very special songs from Rashmi’s profile. Rashmi’s singing always represent her love for life and playfulness.  She says she like all her followers and people who support her singing and all watch her songs.

Saati re bhul na jana by Ashaji, Here Rashmi explains the song herself. Listen. Rashmi is a singer who try many style songs as you going to see, her serious side here.

Rashmi sings Zindagi Kaisi heyPaheli, A beautiful song here joined by Rashmi’s frequent collaborator Pravin. Pravin did a good job. Look at Rashmi’s funny side during the interlude. She is an all fun singer. Nothing serious but realistically singing should be all that, but with proper shruthi, and laya. Great job here.

Rashmi joined here in a beautiful collab. with Tariq on Isharon Isharon song. Beautiful strong performances.

Jo bhi Kasmein- a fun song joined by Pravin, Very nice when someone join a song and complement so well. Pravin did a great job.

Rashmi joins Bahvishya on a excellent invite from him, excellent singing by both. Abhi mujme kahin.

Rahmi show her fun side. Some songs in Hindi films need a side of  singer who can bring expressions as this song. Great flexibility in style of singing. Right on. Give a listen. Warning the purple glare may blind you. (He he)

This following one is an excellent singing joined by a very talented singer Sujith. Excellent singing and excellent song selection. No end to praises when Rashmi do such songs. Sujith is an awesome singer on Smule.  Sathiya tune kya kiya? acha kiya zaroor

A very precious classic by Asha Bhonsle collab Chain se Humko Kabhi, joined by an excellent singer Suryarekha. No words to describe this and we really think Suryarekha madam is a super star already with her superhit Jo wada kiya  .Sure give a listen to her super hit at the link. Excellent singing. This song is a beauty and excellent production.

Rashmi joined here with Kunaal Kaushik on a beautiful song Yaar Bina chain kahan re very cool. This is what Smule sing bring some unknown talents here. Very impressive.

A beautiful song, Jaane do na, paas aaona, joined here by a very unique presence on Smule sing Sangeeth ka Pujari. Enjoy

Rashmi joined by two of her frequent collaborations Sangeeth Ka Pujari- on a multi collaboration. Very nice singing and production. Kajrare, a super hit from Bollywood music.

Rashmi back to serious side. Very nice join on an invite from SeemaArzoo on a beyond beautiful song Raheinna Rahein hum. So precious song selection, and a commendable singing by the Seemaji. Enjoy. Old is gold.

We leave this feature with Rashmi back to her serious side of singing and excellent song choice and a golden performance here. Very commendable join by Saumil. When songs of this caliber can be done with such conviction we would have to agree the fact that she is a very good singer.

We love knowing this singer through her singing. And we thought she deserves a place in here in an elite circle of excellent singers.

Maneesha Singh

This is how we happen to know this singer.

Comment: Hello everyone, namaskar ! I’m Maneesha, yes this is what I want to be called, I’ve played different roles in life…of a daughter,daughter in law, wife and a mother, but all these years I wanted to be called as Maneesha…my Identity…I’m a homemaker and I’m proud of myself what I’m today. I’m originally from Varanasi, now residing in Kolkata, have been many years lived in Delhi and have done my masters in applied arts,(fine arts) but couldn’t make a career in arts field…I’m in love with music right from early childhood, God has gifted me with a little better voice than many…I try to imitate and sing what I listen…I call myself a Kaansen not a Tansen, that’s a good listener…music to me is like meditation and its like therapy to me, I feel very happy while singing…
Thanks,
Maneesha Singh

A strong letter which caught up our attention big time. We like strong women like her who try to express themselves through the Smule Sing with such confidence and conviction of their personal expression. We are so thankful to Maneeshaji to write on the blog, really very sweet gesture. We love you for that a lot. Very commendable, we think she is true representation of Girija Devi this particular feature is dedicated to.  You will later see her singing skills are right on and as many people who use the app for singing practice she display strong singing skills.

Her idols inculde the Hemant Kumar, Ashaji, Lataji and she says she is a die hard fan of Jagjit Singh (Ghazal King, What a nice choice, tells volumes about this singer). Among classical musicians Pandit Jasraj, Channu lal Mishra, Girija Devi are her picks. Beautiful choices again. Among the recent female singers Shreya Ghoshal is her most favorite.

Maneesha says she was very ambitious in having a career of publishing. She holds a degree with Gold medal in Fine arts from Banaras Hindu University. She authored several features she published in Times of India, Dainik Jagran, Hindustan news papers. She worked as a content writer and copy writing for an advertising agency. After marriage she took a back seat; and now children moved out of house she is trying to find her lost creativity and Smule sing and this feature wish Maneeshaji all the best with her singing career and her painting talents she never explored fully. She said her partner in life her husband is a great support for her talents.

Her own words quoted above depicts every bit of information that she wanted to tell our readers. So we go right away to her  songs and she is such a great singer absolutely beautiful speaking voice and even more beautiful singing voice. Listen to her speaking in some of these videos, her speaking voice sounds like a radio jokey.

Payalay Chunmun a beautiful singing with Bhavishya, not prefect still very commendable. Singing with Bhavishya with such conviction is not easy.

Maneesha sing an awesome song with our all time star favorite singer whose singing was featured before Akash Singh. Listen to this collaboration by Akash whose magical voice and singing style hope will catch up the attention of his fans and everyone else once again. Again and again we think Akash is one of the best singers on Smule Sing. There is some magic in his voice. Maneesha, also will agree this, she was one of the followers wrote on his feature.

The original sung by multi talented most promising young Hindi actor Ayushman Khurana.

A solo by Maneesha, Beautiful singing, Strong vocals  and very confident performance. The song is one of the romantic song from Bollywood classic sung originally by Kishore Kumar

This one is one of the prefect one with Bavishya. There is a lot for Maneesha to be proud here. Perfect to the pitch and she is at her best vocals here. ENJOY. The original is sung by Kumar Sanu and Sadhna Sargam. Even though this new wishes came two month late the year 2018 is still young. And Bavishya made this song so of his own style and we love this singer

We like to leave our featured singers here and want readers to continue this Anecdote about a great Hindustani style singer Girija Devi.

Anecdote

Girija Devi- Queen of Benaras Gharana

Girija Devi (8 May 1929 – 24 October 2017)  her singing career we thought is the most appropriate for this feature. We can not go without speaking about Girija devi and her music if we are featuring two ladies from the state of Uttar Pradesh, where traditions of Hindustani Gharanas sleep.  A phenomenal proponent of Benaras Gharana Girija devi was born in famous city of Varanasi (Benaras) in a time of India’s women never heard of freedom. Girija devi learned her first music lessons from her father at very early age itself and later took lessons in singing Khyal and tappa from vocalist Sarju Prasad Misra and kept further studying various styles of Hindustani from Sri Chand Misra.

It was those times of India where women performing in public was not possible especially for a women from Brahman upper class family; thus it created a huge uproar when Girija Devi performed on All India Radio to the public. Devi have to agree with the social polices of that time not to sing in public anymore. But progressive thinking people of U.P. pursued Devi to change her decision and Devi performed again in public few years later. She later held several teaching faculty positions in prestigious music teaching schools and taught many youngsters and till date she is inspirational to musicians from all across India.

See the following video where Girija Devi perform a tappa in Raga Desh. The beautiful sound of the string instrument is the magical north India instrument of Sarangi.

The following video is shot when she traveled to Bombay to sing because Suresh Wadkar, a famous play back singer invited her to sing. This was one of the rarest videos of her performances where she try to display various styles of Benaras Gharana style in a short 45 minutes to students and other famous musicians.

She says in the beginning speech that she want to do this because she want younger generations to take this traditions and learn these styles.

She is one of the gem of a Hindustani artist from the state of U.P. and we dedicate this feature to the most melodious music she created for us. In the video for novice to understand what is she singing. Devi sings a bada khyal, chota khyal, Thumri and a Kajri. Just for the information of people not so familiar how a typical stage performance of a Hindustani music is; First things first, a Khyal or Khayal is the modern genre of classical singing in North India. The name comes from an Arabic word meaning “imagination“. It is thought to have developed out of Dhrupad introducing frequent taans and alankars in it.

A typical khyal performance uses two songs — the bada khyal or great khyal, in slow tempo (vilambit laya), comprises most of the performance, while the chhota khyal (small khyal), in fast tempo (drut laya), is used as a finale and is usually in the same raga but a different taal. The speed gradually increases over the time of the performance. The songs are sometimes preceded by improvised alap to sketch the basic raga structure without drum accompaniment; alap (not metered) is given much less room in khyal than in dhrupad. A best example of all the above features for people who like to learn how to enjoy a Hindustani recital is embedded here. Please pay attention to all the above mentioned factors in the following video. Accompanying wind air instrument Harmonium is something unique in Girija Devi’s performances, her dad was a Harmonium artist of the time and she was taught by her dad all the music accompanied by this instrument. Although not an essential instrument for all Hindustani performances use of this instrument is very notable in all her stage shows. Also about 21 minutes into the singing she give Sarod and harmonium to be heard by themselves. Very well planned mastery of a performer. You may also see Sonu Nigam ( earlier few times and around 27 minutes of the video) sitting next to Suresh Wadkar in the audience. About 24 minutes the the tempo catches up, you may hear the Tabla catches up fast rhythm for a short focus to set the fast tempo part of bada khyal. Over all, this performance is like a text book display of a Maestro singer on essential aspects of many styles. Such a pleasure to watch this. She in the middle says a joke about the fact that she rushes through all these styles so fast she says it feels like look into a toy binocular that display all famous places in India. It is the perfect simile. She sing a bada khyal, chhota kyal, thumri and a kajri in 45 minutes. and lastly she sing  a dedication Jhoole to one of the organizers.

We hope the video above tells volumes about our mission here that carried from such great musicians like Girija Devi. The younger generations should get motivated and take an active part in learning India’s music traditions that no other country can claim, and only unique to our nation.

LYRICS TIME

We leave you with India’s National Anthem Jana Gana Mana by none other than Lata and Asha Mangeshkar

Jana Gana Mana

A song written and composed by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore on January 24, 1950.

Jaana Gaana Maana Adhinayaka Jayehe
Bharata bhagya vidhata;
Punjaba Sindhu Gujarata Maratha,
Dravida Utkala Banga,
Vindhya, Himachala, Jamuna, Ganga,
Ucchhala Jaladhitaranga;
Taba Shubha Naame Jaage
Taba Shubha Ashish Maage
Gaye taba jaya gaatha.
Jana gana mangala dayaka jaya he 
Bharata bhagya vidhata.
Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he, 
Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!

English translation

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
Dispenser of India’s destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of the Punjab,
Sind, Gujarat, and Maratha,
Of the Dravid, and Orissa and Bengal.
It echoes in the hills of Vindhyas and,
Himalayas, mingles in the music of the
Jamuna and the Ganges and is chanted by
the waves of the Indian sea.
The pray for the blessings,
and sing by the praise,
The saving of all people
waits in thy hand.
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny,
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

END NOTES

Since we deal with a country that is a miracle with myriad of cultures held together by a strong bond, We thought it may be very appropriate this video that represents so many legends in one video, both old and young singers of India in one place. We may have mentioned many of these names one of these features for sure

Watch this

Come back every week to enjoy a new singer up close and sure we will have plenty of stuff to display when we are talking about INDIA.

Arjun Muralidharan and Vipin K. Subramonian: singers Synonym of Originality

Arjun and Vipin are the pick for this extra special feature covering music from Kerala. This  was tough to decide here without at least one main female singer included. We wanted to have an all girl’s feature here. Unfortunately, it was not possible due to lack of consent from singers that picked for the profiles. This only happens when Kerala comes up. Wonder why? We also don’t know. But sure we have to change this soon.

Although Kerala is the only state where ratio of women to men  is greater compared to the demographics from rest of India, that reflects a high literacy and education of women in this state. This feature was supposed to be all about that 100 % literacy and education of women that only Kerala can brag about. Sadly what we realize till now is that what education can’t  break, is the societal and traditional norms that ties down a women’s freedom in letting them do want they want. We have to believe that the Secret Superstar of India must be living in Kerala. Yet not to reduce the importance of these men singers we are very proud to support these two male singers here.

Arjun Muralidharan

Arjun is a recently made friend but followed him very closely for a long time (we seriously have a doubt that he is really a ‘Gandharvan’ living on earth). We have such a pleasure to introduce this singer through our blog. We may have to say such words as when we introduced another Malayalam singer Arun Mohan; likewise Arjun’s singing profile display such maturity in his singing techniques. He is a great listener, if he hear a good singing no matter how insignificant they may be he will acknowledge that; very graceful singer and conduct himself on Smule Sing with a great amount of dignity and personality. More than any of these qualities, why he is here, because he is a great singer with unbelievable mastery on his sangathies  (we are using Malayalee’s colloquial versions of musical terms here especially for this feature).

Asked about his musical aspirations, without doubt he said he would love to sing playback and of course that is his dream to achieve in his music career. He says he also love to perform on stages to live audience. He says “performing on stage is what he is really good at, so he is always on the look out for like-minded musicians and form a band”. Very excellent and clear thoughts; we would say we hardly have very few singers came out to say such well thought answers. Very impressive and Kudos, keep it up.  Arjun says with regret that “forming that dream band still remain a dream”. We wish he fulfill that dream pretty soon.

His favorite singers? He immediately came out with a long list of very fine music directors and singers with authority of someone who is a great listener of good music. He put Johnson masters music among the first from Malayalam, Illayaraja, AR and again Sharreth from Malayalam. Coming to singers, Hariharan and SPB stood first. He says some famous Ghazal singers, like Mehdi Hassan, (OMG what a singer he is, he is a Pakisthani Ghazal singer who is described as king of Ghazals) and Ghulam Ali, two of the most revered Ghazal singers are his favorites of that style songs. Recent time singers he pick understandably Haricharan and Arjith Singh (speaks volumes about Arjun’s soft singing style). And he pick two most successful bands Agam (Agam is a Bangalore-based contemporary Carnatic progressive rock band) and Avial (Avial an alternative rock band from India from Thiruvananthapuram, capital of State Kerala). This sums up about what Arjun want to achieve with his singing talent. Soon you will see how smart his choices as afar as his talent and self assessments match. His voice suits some very textured songs like Ghazals and romantic melodies.

His profile is one of a kind with songs executed with utmost care. It is almost impossible to have someone to be so meticulously sang every one of them to such perfection. The best quality of Arjun we think is that he is an ardent listener of music and his hearing sense is different from many, he hears that slight variations that many miss, and have the talent to execute them perfectly in his singing. A very important quality for a singer to hear what music directors sing to them and execute them perfectly. Here, he is singing one of his favorite music director’s song Kannalane with co-singer Abhirami, from Bombay movie (music by A. R. Rahman).

Arjun  Muralidharan singing a recent Malayalam movie hit song Mizhiyil Ninnum from movie “Mayanadhi” with a very talented Malayalam singer Dhanasree.  Very beautifully and meticulously executed. Excellent treatment of the lyrics by both. Kudos to both singers.

Malayalam movie is seeing a flood of new talents and innovative musicians, especially we like to highlight this singer Shahbaz Aman. Like our singers of this feature, he sounds like not any other regular singing voices Malayalam ever heard; yet Malayalees (pertain to people from Kerala) accepted him with both their hands open. Changing times definitely. Give a listen to both versions. ENJOY! Use of some instruments by the music director in this song is very unique. Great job by new music director Rex Vijayan.  (He is the lead guitarist of the band Avial, Arjun’s pick of the band and aspiration to make one soon).

Poovasam Purapedum pennai  a Tamil song with Sarah Vineeth John.  Arjun as usual 100% on all singing departments.

Original Poovasam, super star Kamal Hassan in this video, and sung by one and only Sadana Sargam and Vijay Prakash

A song so close to heart all about that Kerala’s unique tunes and singing. Thiruvavani Raavu and Arjun join one of the best female singers on Smule Sing Ranjini Hannah

Mayamanjalil with very talented singer Rahul

NITHISH WITH ARJUN

NITHISH BHASKARAN WROTE
NITHISH BHASKARAN (Smule.ID: Nithish_B) says:
FEBRUARY 21, 2018 AT 8:53 AM EDIT
“VERSATILE” is the 1st word that comes to my mind when i see Arjun singing. I have been his fan since his irreplaceable, mindblowing join of Breathless. Always a pleasure to hear his each and every join/collab and try and learn some “ArjunTechniques”!!!

Vipin K. S.

This week we also want to bring with Arjun a phenomenal Malayalam singer Vipin, K.S. He is absolutely is the very own singer of Malayalam with a lot of influences of Kerala’s music in his singing style that one may find in this anecdote about Vipin and his dream family Aarabhi. We know very little about Vipin. When approached him, he was kind of reluctant and started like this “What is all this for, ya”.

Yet another aspect of being good in Kerala require one to be so humble they try to hide from everyone. Aha! We have to change this!

A singer with very unique style of singing, we are sure his singing is based in proper classical training. He hails from the hub of Kerala’s social culture the district of Thrissur, We earlier have covered yet antoher great singer from Thrissur Reji Radhakrishnan. Vipin acknowledges all his collaborators on Smule Sing with lots of moderation. A very pleasant presence on the Malayalam Smule. Asked about a name he and few others use on their profile as Aarabhi; he explained, “Aarabhi is a group of Smule singers which they enjoy singing collaborations together” (great initiatives by many on Smule) and Vipin says “first it was just singing together but now they are like my family”. Team Arabhi (Aarabhi raga is an Owdava-sampoorna raga meaning, 5 swaras occur in the arohana (so it is called Owdava and in avarohana all swaras occur; so sampoorna. It is a raga without much gamakas and frequency variations, relying instead on flat notes) as the deep meaning of the word itself is a group of singers of exceptional talent; but not so much appreciated on Smule Malayalam. So here is your turn to be in the limelight. There is a lot for these young singers to be proud of. We are sure if you listen to these singers you will be convinced as well. These are the members of this group, Yadunath K.S., Swethanksoman and Jyothirajan. These singers are exceptionally talented and need a special mention here.

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A group of singers of whose style of singing carries the very flavors of music of Kerala. Sure everyone go and listen to Vipin and his team Aarabhi. So enjoy this whole week with this beautiful singer. We would say you judge yourselves. Here are the main members of Aarabhi.

Vipin, Jyothi and Yadu

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Enjoy this special group of singers: Here in this first song Vipin singing a romantic melody (kind of (not exactly) in the style of Mapilapattu style of Kerala (see below for details of this style). The co-singer is Yadunath K.S. Malayalam’s own Kannu nattu kathirunittum by Jayachandran.

Jyothiragan a versatile super talented singer with Vipin. Jyothi is so less appreciated but a very talented singer. Listen to her with yet another gem of singing by Vipin. Neelaksham originally sung by Sujatha and Najim Arshad.

The original song from the Dulquer Salman’s (Malayalam’s young super star) movie “Jomonte Suvisheshangal”  The male singer is our favorite Najim Arshad and female singer is Sujatha Mohan. In the movie clip the westerners who visit Kerala is treated like celebrities, and that is what Keralalites do when anybody visit Gods own country. Watch the video.

Swethank Soman a wonderful singer herself and part of the Aarabhi team singing with a remarkable male singer AmalGhosh; singing a classic Malayalam song remade in Hindi. Original is sung by none other than Shreya Ghoshal. Very commendable for a Smule Sing production.

Appendix

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Music of Kerala: A briefing from Sopana Sangeetham to Temple music

{Note: We tried our best to come up with most correct interpretation of the music of Kerala in our writings. Nothing is written without proper research and references}

Kerala is described as  Gods’ own country where there was a King whose kingdom  where all were treated equal,everyone lived happy, and there was plentiful of resources. An ideal place to live. The king left such an impression on his disciples that they celebrate his ‘coming’ every year, as Onam. The traditions of Kerala’s music revolves around south Indian classic music. The people of the state generally are the biggest critiques of everything but such critiques propagate quality. With half of the population live elsewhere around the world other than this state, Keralites enjoy a fair share of International influences in its life style and music.

Traditional music unique to Kerala are Kathakali padam, Mohiniyattam songs. Although there are great influences of neighboring states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu folk arts and south India classical music which over rides when comes to talk about quality music, the region is very unique in evolving its own characteristic music. The visual arts associated with many forms of music is very earthy and very much in harmony with the nature. Use of colors made from natural sources to bring expressions of various art forms make the traditional dance and music art performances with unique smells and colors. Each festival have a special earthy color and the smell associated with it. Only those who lived there will know what this means. But all are welcome to come and feel the life to its purest form by living to the basics of life. Music so much intertwined with the religion is basically the main characteristic of many art forms and associated music.

Sopana Sangeetham

Sopana snageetham is one of the major classical music art form only unique to Kerala. The typical Sopanasangeetham depicts not always but most of the traditional style revolve around a Hindu god’s praise. The performances are typically done at the Kalam where Kali happens. Both words roughly translate to Stage and Play respectively. A little more details to the origins of this music relates to the most reverent scripture Geetha Govindam written by an 11th century Sanskrit poet Jayadeva. The very word sopanam means steps that lead to a Kerala hindu temple. That in itself is a beautiful concept that it represents the steps one take in owns life and  each of those steps lead one to its destiny. The most unusual musical instrument called Idakka and its heavenly vibrations that creates the ambience for this type of singing and it is heavenly. Sopanam is traditionally sung by men of the Marar and Pothuval community, who are Ambalavasi (semi-Brahmin) castes engaged to do it as their hereditary profession. If one look into the history of music there was an entire time period the music like in many other states of India was in the hands of upper caste.

Here we embed one of the rarest videos of Sopanasangeetham performed and explained by its most revered maestro Harigovindan Ramapoduval. For the non-speaking readers here is an explanation of the first part of the video. He first explain basic raagas that normally sung during the dusk time and there are raagas that sung during the late night performances. He later explains how the Idakka’s sound (see the musical instrument in the video) which is an integral part of the principles of the song and aksharas. The performance added here is a depiction of the love between lord Krishna (he is God) and Radha ( is an earthy human being) and their separation, their worldly relation that have all human feelings of love and passion in a relation;  The subject of Geethagovindam revolves around Lord Krishna and his life on earth. Listen here, how this music despite a language barrier, will convey all that complex sensations of human existence expressed using some simple singing techniques. We are sorry some part of it is in Malayalam but yet this genius maestro is basically talk music so give a listen, sure you will understand. Watch this video for sure.

Njeralathu Harigovindan is a young propagator of SopanaSangeetham. Here enjoy this video. Harigovindan was a faculty in a higher education institute and quit his profession to pursue singing. He is also a very socially responsible human being and  he created some novel versions of the Sopanam with lyrics not essentially from Geethagovindam. Here in the embeded video the song is a praise of Hari (another name for Lord Krishna). At the end listen the famous ‘Vande mukunda hare‘  really beautiful. Lord Krishna himself is one of Hindu God we can write a whole thesis about.

Kathakali padam

Unique to Kerala and most famous art form of stage drama. Here we highlight the singing that goes with this art form performed by one of the younger generation singers of this style of singing. The language used in these songs is called Manipravalam (It is a mix of Tamil and Vedic language Sanskrit, Malayalam which is a derived version of this ancient language according to references have been derived from Tamil; Controversial statement though). The songs are sung in Sopanam style as well. See above video to compare. Veera viraada of Uttaraswayamvaram play.

Mappila Pattu

The origins and descriptions of this music from Kerala need a feature of its own. The influence of the Muslim dialect on Malayalam language and the Persian, Hindustani influence on Malayalam songs is enormous. The harmony of incorporation of a beautiful culture into the Hindu majority of Kerala’s fabric is very unique. We will be very happy to include this form of music in a future feature and would encourage singers of excellence on Smule sing who like to sing this style of music to write to us, so that we may take a look at your profile to write about this beautiful music style from Kerala.

Ottamthullal Songs

The following is a video of another unique form of art and singing. Pioneered by legendary Kunchan Nambiar, the following is a video of Kalamandalm Geethanandan who died very recently during a performance, Great performer of this art form and singing. This blog keeps all our hands here to heal all the people hurt seeing their favorite artist die in front of them. A perfect way to go for any artist.

Pulluvan Pattu –

A form of music sung to worship Snake, the caste that known to perform these rituals treat snake as their deity. Have you heard of snake worshipers from Appalachia (US)? if not watch this video here. The most unusual musical instrument in display in this video is called PullorKutam.

Sarpam Pattu: A very old tradition of singing practiced in some parts of Kerala. A rare video.

Temple Music (Panchari melam)

It gives us immense pleasure to introduce this form of music one never will see no where else in the world. It is the music of Keralam. The temple music. One have to listen to this beauty. Organization and discipline of various kalams that goes through entire evenings and nights and a whole lot of music listeners that stand on their legs to listen and encourage these musicians. This music is very loud and always wondered how those elephants feel about this, all the time.

Vipin’s own place and its music. Thrissur Pooram. It is almost like the Mardi Gras famous in western world.

MAIN REFERENCEs:

1. Rolf, Killius (2006). Ritual Music and Hindu Rituals of Kerala. New Delhi: BR Rhythms.
2. and web resources.

END notes:

We like to end this music discussion with the hope that our readers are little bit more aware about yet another unique style of music found in a southern most corner of the peninsula on the shores of Arabian sea. The effect of the traditional music of Kerala on an entire culture is very evident time and time again when we screened tens and hundreds of profiles from this state. Everyone here seem to yearn for that perfection in their own singing and in their judgement on others singing as well; thus many times come out very arrogant and judgemental on aspiring singers. There is a lot of openness to a new world culture is needed; need people to stop reading between the lines too much.

Smule Sing as the name says is the Sonic Mule ( In other words, it is “Kazhutha raagam”; a mule is a hybrid of horse and a donkey with a cry that sounds like a donkey, OMG, have you heard one, it is awesome. We could see why the creators of the app when gave the power of Karaoke singing in hands of everyone they expected all sort of music made using this app.  But the creators themselves had shown this app may be used for creating great music like Stanford laptop opera . Essentially this app in your hands can be used for a lot good creative music and nurture the propagation of it, unlike any other time in the history of music. Let Ge Wang’s innovative idea revolutionize the Kerala’s progressive thinking of singing music world. Hope this app will do that magic soon.

Here a famous Malayalam movie scene in which the Sopanasangeetham is beautifully incorporated. These scenes stay in the hearts of Malayalees like a never forgotten incident because the directors of this scene knew how use of Sopanasangeetham will strengthen the mood of this scene. Vande Mukunda Hare song is sung by none other than M.G. Radhakrishnan sir. MGR was a famous Malayalam music director who made music that brought heart and soul of Kerala music to popular film and light classic music.

POETRY TIME

We like to dedicate this blog to two great poets of Malayalam who gave us the best lyrics that used in light classical music and film music: Kavalam Narayanapanikar and O.N.V. Kurup. The following is a video of Kavalam’s own son Sreekumar singing his dad’s lyrics. Listen if you can sing Malayalam lyrics you can speak any language in this world. It is one the toughest language to learn.

Malayalam is blessed by one and only ONV sir (O.N.V.Kurup) and his lyrics that made some of the Malayalam movie songs at such lyrical quality levels that it exceed the standards of a film music nationally.

Here we leave you with this beautiful music from an older movie “Ullkadal” and a song written by ONV sir, The actors of the scene are Venu Nagavalli and very beautiful Shoba (National award for acting at age of 17). Beautiful and beyond words and forgive a poor translation of these great lines.

LYRICS TIME

Poet O.N.V. Kurup
Movie: Ullkadal

Saradindu malardeepa naalam neettee   (The moon of Autumn looks like small light floating in water with red chethipoo around)
surabhilayaamangal sruthi meettee (This beautiful evening is playing a musical note)
saradindu malardeepa naalam neettee (The moon of Autumn looks like small light floating in water with red chethipoo around)
surabhilayaamangal sruthi meettee (This beautiful evening is playing a musical note)
(saradindu …) 
ithuvare kaanatha karayilekko (Are you calling me to a shore we never seen?)
iniyoru janmathin kadavilekko (or are you calling me to the shores of our re-incarnation?)
madhuramaai paadi vilikkunnu (Is that what your this sweet song is calling me for?)
aaro madhuramaai paadi vilikkunnu (I hear a distant sweet unknown singing calling me for)

(saradindu …) 

ariyaathoridayante venu gaanam (like a lonely shepherd boys’ song from his flute)
akale ninnethunna venu gaanam (that music played on his flute from a distance is reaching my ears)
hrudhayam kothichu kothichirikkum ( my heart is yearning for his love messages)
pranaya sandhesham akannu poke (it seems all that messages I yearned for seems too far)
hari neela kambala churul nivarthi (like a beautiful blue satin that spread from a crumble)
varavelkkum swapnangal ningalaaro (are you the one, accepting dreams of mine as yours)
varavelkkum swapnangal ningalaaro (are you the one, accepting dreams of mine as yours)

(saradindu …) 

iniyum pakal kili paadiyethum ( Still I hear that bird of day come to me singing)
iniyum thrisandhya poo choodi nilkkum (still this dusk is waiting with a flower in her hair)
iniyum nammal nadannu pokum (still we will walk long distances together)
vazhiyil vasantha malar kilikal (on the way we will see many good things)
kuravayum paattumaai koodeyethum (we together will have many merry times)
chirakaarnna swapnangal ningalaaro (who gave those dreams wings to fly?)
chirakaarnna swapnangal ningalaaro (who gave those dreams wings to fly?)

The above Song from the movie

Come back next week to meet with two singers of your choice from U.P. again. You chose them so make it a celebration you people so proud of your state’s singers.

Geetika Pant and Bhavishya Joshi -two singers of different styles

Geetika Pant Arora

Bavishya Joshi

It gives us immense pleasure to talk about these singers Geetika Pant Arora from Kashipur-Nainital (Uttarakhand) and Bhavishya Joshi from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (U.P.); and a very special friend of ours Rekha Upadhyay from Varanasi (U.P). The first two singers are very seasoned with proper classical music training and very experienced singers, while Rekha is an aspiring singer.

INTRODUCTION

Uttar Pradesh (UP) and its venerable cities of Varanasi, Lucknow, Agra, and Rampur are considered as the very heart of the Hindustani Classic music. The folk music traditions of these states are very refined intertwined and one of the most expressive music found in the world; examples are thumris, kajris, and birhas. Enjoy Kajri style Shehanayi, this is heavenly. Please give a listen…

If the city of Awadh is world-famous for its Ghazals (a unique North Indian style of singing popularized by many great singers throughout India), the city of Ajmer is known for its Qauwalli songs and its great performers. Such is the diversity of traditional art forms from north India. A beautiful dance art, called Kathak is unique to the state of U.P., is nurtured mostly in Lucknow and Varanasi. Please read an Epilogue at the end of this blog that describes classical music of Hindustani style as displayed using the performances of great proponents of this music system from the north.

Geetika Pant Arora

Geetika hails from one of the most beautiful places on earth called Nainital. Her profile was noted by us when browsing for Hindi singing artists. The very first time itself it struck us that this voice must belong to a recording artist. Getting to know her, turned our doubts to be true. She is one of the top contestants of Indian Idol season 5, winner of many awards (Winner of National Singing Talent Hunt “Surtarang” judged by A. R. Rehman and Khayyam, Jagjit Kaur and Kumar Sanu, the Best singer of Kumaon, Judged by Ustad Sakhawat Khan (of Rampur Sahaswan Gharana). She already sang for several regional language music albums and movies (listen to some of Geetika’s play back singing albums in her regional language).

Her career graph from childhood is filled with achievements of awards, and associations with legends in the Bollywood industry. Her dad remained her teacher throughout life with a mother who by profession is a classical music teacher and a brother seriously pursuing a singing career in Bollywood movies. She grew up with music around her. Her mentor in the film industry was none other than Late Ravindra Jainji and he remained her mentor throughout her career. Just to introduce Ravindra Jainji to all our readers, he is from Rajasthan, born blind and made a career in Bollywood movies as a music director and created many memorable Hindi movie songs.

If one ask Geetika, her favorite singers are Ashaji, Lataji and Sunidhi Chauhan. For her, trying out a variety of singing styles and being versatile is her identity. She mostly enjoys singing romantic numbers while she also enjoys singing peppy/item numbers as well (Well, we will soon see Geetika can sing such songs the best). Her classical training allowed her to sing Bhajans and Ghazals equally well as any other genre. Although Ashaji is her first pick (which tells volumes about this singer); when she sings she likes to keep her identity and never does a mimicry of any singer. She says “A singer should have his/her identity and that is the best quality one should have to become successful.” A seasoned singer’s thought and the take-home message. She has done everything that a music career can offer, television, radio, channel TV programs, stage shows, and performed on stage alongside playback singers like Usha Mangeshkar and many others.

So, she doesn’t need to be on a feature here, still, we appreciate Geetika agreed to be on this feature and share her vast experience in a career in music that she attained at a very young age itself. She is featured here to show every girl or boy singing on Smule sing, that it doesn’t matter which unknown corner of the world you belong to, the possibilities of you to reach to the world has no limit. Also, we want to support Geetika’s career aspirations in further singing by following her on her Smule profile.

This feature is all about Geetika’s talent that attracted many music directors and competition judges. Let us listen to her singing of Lataji songs. She shows complete mastery and she displays to be very versatile. Great job indeed. Bhaiya Na Dharo

Let us listen to Geetika singing yet another Lataji romantic number Dhoori Na Rahe a Bollywood classic and she shows her authority on singing business here. Great singing

Listen to her singing a beautiful up-beat song here  ‘Kay sera sera‘ with a super talented free soul and our favorite Rashmi Tripathi.

Here Geetika sings a wonderful super hit by Alisha Chinai MADE IN INDIA; wonderfully executed by this super talented Geetika; she is a superstar par excellence and her voice is made to sing such peppy songs.

Original Made in India by Alisha Chinai (from Ahemadabad, Gujarat). Just for our readers to understand why this number was a super hit because Alisha says everything made in India including men are the best for her. Of course, watch the video for sure. The actor represented is Milind Soman.

Geetika singing this Hindi film Classic with Pakisthan ke Tijamal Mere Mehabob Tuje, Beautiful,  Beautiful. A male concentric song sung originally by Rafi Saab sung here as a duet is very refreshing, Tijamal as usual very powerful singing, yet have all that feelings. Hope he will try to control his beautiful voice a bit more.

Geetika singing Mohe Rang do lal, We have heard many sing this song; this is sure different and feels the right. All that feel of the song and perfect with that very touch of north India’s soil.

We have to add this video here of India’s phenomenal Singer Shreya Ghoshal since we talked about her many times in our previous blogs and here we are talking about a singer found through Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and Indian Idol we thought to talk about how reality shows give a chance to many unknown talents and now Smule Sing brings such revolutionary app that changed how singers can be on the world stage. Enjoy Shreya singing Mohe Rang do laal.

O sathire A Shreya Ghoshal song, sung by Geetika beautifully executed

Here Geetika is at her best with the genre of peppy/item numbers most perfectly executed. Wonderful co-singer sandhyashivaswam needs a mention here. The Pallavi second part on Geetika joins the song. Listen carefully to Geetika’s lyrics presentation; it is right on and 100 % on all departments, words dhoka, toka bring the full feel right there and nothing less or more. Wonderful singing. We really feel Geetika sings this genre of songs the best.

Asha Bonsle is her favorite singer and here Geetika sang a Ashaji’s classic

A haunting melody of recent times sung in her own style, Ye barfani raathein.

Bhavishya Joshi

Undoubtedly Bhavishya is one of the finest male voices on Smule sing. When he was approached he was genuinely expressed his gratitude and came out as professional accepting our offer to feature him here with clear thoughts on why such a platform is important for him. Kudos Bhavishya, way to go! great attitude and you deserve more this than anybody else on Smule. Because you are an absolutely great singer who should be singing professionally and everything one could get in that profession.

We have such a great pleasure to write this about Bhavishya. His voice is a million dollars. He told us that all he is today he owes big time to his mother who is his teacher in classical music and everything he knows about singing. Bhavishya’s mom Mrs. Renu Joshi is a Visharad from Almora College and taught music at GIC, Almora college. We were hoping Bhavishya could make her sing, but unfortunately, she does not sing anymore and in her generation, there were no Smule recordings either. So rightly, she taught her son whom we have plenty of songs to listen to from Smule Sing. We suggest everyone to visit this singer and follow him and encourage him.

He is from Lucknow, UP and he says he like Manna Dey and Yesudas. That reminds us we heard him first when he was singing a Yesudas song. We think he is none like any singer’s voice we ever heard. Very fine artist with a great interest in Indian classical music. He is a very strong unique presence on Smule Sing among Hindi singers. He deserves this place here, as the very third male singer sing mainly in Hindi Smule to be featured on this blog. It is a very crowded field with many good singers, but some like Bhavishya stand out. Play all his songs here. You will be convinced.

Yeh Dil tum bin beautiful voice of Bhavishya, which we think is his best identity and asset; OMG, this is what one says quality recording voice. It is beautiful and can listen to it for the whole day. The co-singer is sarita7CH_RSF. Give a listen.

You can see Bhavishya enjoy every moment of his singing and he really shows his true love for music in every video embedded here. He is a true singer.

Geetika and Bhavishya; Bhavishya is the greatest supporter of Geethika. They are friends and we hope this video makes both of them happy that we put one here for them to share their friendship here as well. More to add this is a gem of them singing together.

This one is one of the best collaborations we found on Bhavishya’s profile. Perfect melody, mood, and perfect video. Jyoti Mishra the co-singer can be very proud of this video performance. Give a listen.

Bhavishya sings a perfect Bollywood classic Kishore Kumar-Lata song

Special Mention

Rekha Upadhyay from Varanasi

Rekha is such a sweetheart who approached us to nominate a friend of hers to be featured here and was very vocal about it.  She took the initiative to send us many of her favorite videos. Here is a small gift on this most important blog in this series on music from UP and thanks for representing so perfect your state and especially Banaras (Varanasi).  We just wanted to take a look at her profile and found Rekha is a better singer herself than her friend. Rekha knows what she wants in her singing very clear thoughts on her career aspirations. Way to go. Keep those dreams alive. She wants everyone to know her Smule profile and please visit her on her page and follow her and encourage this singer. You guys see for yourselves and we are sure you all agree she has such a grasp on her singing techniques. Rekha sings Moh Moh ke dhage.

We leave you guys with extended writing made with a new style of displaying various styles of Hindustani Gharanas. No one has attempted yet to put all the great Hindustani singer performances in one page. Daring, but hope that is beautiful.

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A short visit to Hindustani Classical Music Styles

This is one of the most special blogs where we dared to write a comprehensive account for our readers about Hindustani music’s Gharanas (styles= may be too easy a translation, but close enough we hope). Everything is new for us as well, so forgive any overlook or over-simplification of this great classical tradition of North Indian music. Nothing is written without proper references (see the references at the end).

Gharanas- A briefing

It says our India’s soil smell of music. Gharanas is that very word that is pretty hard to describe in English. It can be said as an idea that represents a group of singers who nurture a style of singing and teach that style to his disciples and thus keep a very strict instruction that the disciples of a particular style stick to it, popularize it and help move forward by their own talents, creativity, artistry, etc. So no disciple of a Gharana is restricted from improvisation or moving forward in his own ways, but they stick to the basic style of the singing of their Guru’s lessons (the great teacher). So the first task of the musician who likes to join a particular Gharana is to master the styles and basics (which may take almost half of one lifetime of training and live with your guru and follow him constantly) and when he himself ready to improvise he put a lot of learning himself and experiment himself and sing the songs to the audience. Instead of words, we have the power to use recorded audio of the maestro singing, in various styles. We are going to go through the various Gharanas of Hindustani and we picked one proponent of prominence to display the different styles here. This may be very long but we promise to listen to these videos of India’s maestro the first of its kind where sound and videos are used to describe these styles. So without delay let us start with the various styles and corresponding proponents singing Hindustani in

Gwalior Gharana-  Founders Ustad Hassu Khan, Ustad Haddu Khan, Ustad Nathu Khan: Proponent of recent times Veena Shasrabuddhe– of this oldest form of style of Hindustani singing. Give a listen. The distinctive feature of this style of singing has been noted as its lucidity (clarity of expression) and simplicity.

Agra Gharana Founders Ustad Faiyaz Khan- Haji Sujan Khan, Ustad Ghagghe Khuda Baksh: A great importance on developing forcefulness and deepness in the voice so that the notes are powerful and resonant. Listen to this style from none other than one and only Ustad Faiyaz Khan.

Kirana Gharana Founders – Abdul Karim Khan and Abdul Wahid Khan: In the Kirana style of singing, the swara is used to create an emotional mood by means of elongation and use of Kana-s. The super-phenomenal Pandit Bhimsen Joshi sings in this style. Oh my god, wish had that voice.

Jaipur – Atrauli Gharana Founders – Ustad Alladiya Khan: The most distinctive feature of the Jaipur Gharana can be best described as its complex and melodic form which arises out of the intricate and undulating phrases that comprise the piece. The proponent of this style famous Kishori Amonkar.

Rampur Sahaswan Gharana-Founders – Ustad Inayat Khan: The Rampur Sahaswan Gharana there is a stress on the clarity of swarms and the development and elaboration of the raga is done through a step-wise progression. Rampur is a place in the state of Uttar Pradesh and the singers of today’s feature are from this region as well. Proponent Ustad Rashid Khan

Proponent Ustad Rashid Khan and his most famous light classical hit.

Patiala Gharana Founders – Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and Ustad Ali Baksh:
Patiala Gharana is regarded as an offshoot of the Delhi Gharana. The Patiala Gharana is characterized by the use of greater rhythm play and by Layakari with the abundant use of Bols, particularly Bol-tans. The major singers of the Patiala Gharana are Bheegum Aktar and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan: the first video is of Begum Akhtar and her Ghazals of this style.

Another proponent Bade Gulam Ali sang this beautiful Bollywood Mughal Classic song Prem Jogan. Wowed at that fine voice.

Delhi Gharana Founders – Ustad Mamman Khan: The highlights of Delhi Gharana are pleasing vistaar (roughly imagination of the singer, it is the heart of Hindustani singing click the link on the word to understand this) and exquisite compositions. A proponent of this Gharana by the one and only Ustad Chand Khan is displayed here.

Bhendi Bazaar Gharana Founders – Ustad Chajju Khan: Ustad Aman Ali Khan– whose disciples are famously Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey (who is Bhavishya Joshi’s’ idol). He hails from Uttar Pradesh. Hear this heavenly singing. The most distinctive feature of the Bhendi Bazaar Gharana is the presentation of Khayal, which is open voice, using Akar. There is a stress on breath-control and singing of long passages in one breath is highly regarded in this Gharana. Famous Yesudas sounds like him.

Benaras Gharana Founders – Pt Gopal Mishra: Girija Devi: The Benaras Gharana evolved as a result of great lilting style of khayal singing known by Thumri singers of Benaras and Gaya.

Mewati Gharana Founders – The founder of Mewati Gharana was Ghagge Nazir Khan: The Mewati Gharana gives importance to developing the mood of the raga through the notes forming it and its style is Bhava Pradhan. It also gives equal importance to the meaning of the text.

Referemces : Kumar, Raj (2003). Essays on Indian music (History and culture series). Discovery Publishing House. and  Modern history of Hindustani classical music at ITC Sangeet Research Academy. We regret any mistakes made here although we were very careful to read all the music from many references available at the time of writing this blog.

END THOUGHTS

Hope everyone had a wonderful time knowing this maestro of Hindustani classical music and the amazing traditions of North India’s music. We can not stop adding videos because the styles of music either classical or folk music from these two states are endless. We only were able to cover a sliver of what this region has to offer. More important to mention is the singers we represent from both Uttarakhand and Uttarpradesh are fabulous and show the influences by being trained by classically trained parents who influenced their music in a big way.  Keep singing, and readers please come back every week to enjoy knowing India’s music up and close. Next week we are going back all the way to Kerala and we will cover every unique music style from the southern peninsula of the Indian sub-continent. It is the closest to our hearts so please come back to hear about it. Thanks All.

LYRICS TIME:

Here we leave you with a poem written by Sumitranandan Pant a phenomenal poet from Uttarakhand. He is considered one of the major poets of the Chhayavaadi school of Hindi literature. Thanks to our dear friend Nithin Kumar. Nitin Kumar is a native Hindi speaker from New Delhi, India. His education qualification includes Masters’s in Robotics and Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering. Currently, he is working in the Research and Development in Robotics in Germany. He did this translation and posted on his blog. We are sharing his blog link here.

कविता (Kavita – Poem) : सुख-दुख (Sukh-Dukh – Happiness-Sadness)
कवि (Kavi – Poet) : सुमित्रानंदन पंत (Sumitranandan Pant)

मैं नहीं चाहता चिर दुख,
सुख दुख की खेल मिचौनी
खोले जीवन अपना मुख!

I don’t want eternal sadness,
the game of happiness and sadness,
opens the mouth of the life.

सुख-दुख के मधुर मिलन से
यह जीवन हो परिपूरण,
फिर घन में ओझल हो शशि,
फिर शशि से ओझल हो घन!

from the pleasant union of happiness and sadness,
the life is fulfilled,
then the moon disappears in the clouds,
and then the clouds disappears from the moon.

जग पीड़ित है अति दुख से
जग पीड़ित रे अति सुख से,
मानव जग में बँट जाएँ
दुख सुख से और सुख दुख से!

The world suffers from much sadness,
and the world suffers from much happiness,
the men will be divided,
from sadness happiness and from happiness sadness!

अविरत दुख है उत्पीड़न,
अविरत सुख भी उत्पीड़न,
दुख-सुख की निशा-दिवा में,
सोता-जगता जग-जीवन।

constant sadness is harassment,
constant happiness is also harassment,
in the night and day of happiness-sadness,
awaken and slept the world of life.

यह साँझ-उषा का आँगन,
आलिंगन विरह-मिलन का,
चिर हास-अश्रुमय आनन,
रे इस मानव-जीवन का!

this veranda of dusk-dawn,
of the embrace of separation and union,
of the face of eternal laughing-mourning,
of this human life!

NAMSHKAR- SABI LOKOM KO SHUBH KAMANAYEN (ESS EYE BEE) TEAM KE TRAF SE (BYE and ALL THE BEST FROM SIB TEAM).

Yugal, Milan Lama and Ali Zafar- Three singers from the banks of mighty river Ganga (Ganges)

Introduction to two special singers from Nepal

Yugal S

Yugal

We are so excited to introduce our featured singers from this region. We have two singers from Nepal. Although Nepal is not an integral part of India as a landlocked country with huge influence in its culture and music from mainland India we can not forget our brothers from Nepal. Especially, Yugal and Milan became such close friends in a short time. Yugal especially is a big supporter of the cause of this blog, we have to write about him here. Earlier one of his songs was selected to be featured on our feature on singers from the state of West Bengal. We truly appreciate his willingness to come out and write on our blog at that time. Here is your reward for that kind gesture.  We earlier had identified this singer for his superfine voice which resembled a lot like quality fine Kashmir silk, Pashmina, and we are more convinced here that he is a super talent need highlight here. Yugal is doing his studies on Masters in Strasbourg, Germany, and is single at the moment. When we told him that we are working on a feature on his profile he was very humble and wrote his self-assessment as not at par with other singers featured here before. But that is ok, you are one of kind we do not compare anybody here and that is not the aim as well.

Yugal says for him “Music is the shortest connection to the God. it’s the easiest and beautiful way to look into ones’ self”. A philosopher and that deep meaningful words come from a country where music is deeply rooted in religious activities.  He rightly acknowledges his greatest influence and favorite singer none other than Udit Narayanan, who is one of the finest male Hindi playback singers. Not many may know that Udit is from Nepal. That is why we said Nepal although a foreign country, all of India embrace singers like Udit as our own. He is absolutely a singer many in India consider as one of the best playback singers we ever had. Yugal also said he adores a few other Bollywood singers of fine talent like Sonu Nigam, KK, and Lucky Ali. He is also a big fan of AR music. Among recent young singers of his like is Arijit Singh.  He confesses that he is very camera-shy, so expect still video edits of his songs here. That is his choice.

Here Yugals’ friends wanted a collaboration with him to be on the blog. They wrote to us and here is what you wanted. A beautiful romantic melody Aisa lagtha hai originally sung by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik, sung in the following video by Yugal with his friend with the screen name xcruciator . He has a wonderfully great voice; We may cover your profile write to us when you see this. Thanks to Yugal’s friends for suggesting his profile.

When someone falls in love this is how one feels………………….

Here Yugal sing from his heart a most beautiful melody with smule profile ID Breeze a beautiful soul and Yugals’ favorite collaboration Piya Basanti Re. His voice and singing style are so unique we feel he is none like any other Hindi singer we ever heard.

The original Piya Basanti re, sung by Ustad Sultan Khan, and Chithra of Malayalam a very unusual song of choice. The pick of this song reveals a lot about Yugal himself. Coming from a mountain-rich state that lies in the lap of the great Himalayas, this song is a great expression of where Yugal is originally from. The northern parts of India largely face a lot of separatist movements which is depicted in the storyline of the original song. Enjoy. Sure Yugal and Breeze did excellent work here, Kudos.

If you do not know who is Ustad Sultan Khan, he was an Indian Sarangi player and Classical vocalist belonging to Sikar Gharana. He was one of the members of the Indian fusion group Tabla Beat Science, with Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell.

Since we talked about Sikar Gharana we would like to include this video about the Sikar Gharana music traditions. Here to-date the most prominent musician from Sikar Gharana Imran Khan playing Sitar with Ramon Rodríguez on tabla and cajón. Enjoy the peaceful sounds of this music nowhere else you will find. Kudos to westerners who embraced the traditions of India.

Yugal and Breeze again singing a love song Goonjisi hai; Excellent rendition, very beautiful expressions by both singers. ENJOY. Here Yugal, singing his favorite singers’ song (Udit Narayanan and Sadhana Sargam are the singers of this original version of Goonjisi hai. Listen to the video added below, one of a kind from Bollywood).

The original Goonjisi Hai. The beautiful face here is India’s Aishwarya Rai, Miss World, and Bollywood actress. ENJOY both the versions and we are sure you will be convinced how unique Yugal is. Beautiful and our favorite Udit Narayanan’s voice.

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Milan Lama

Milan Lama

Milan was spotted when we were covering the North Eastern state of Assam. Milan owns his songs and he is sure very grounded for his age. Milan like Yugal lives elsewhere where he is pursuing better opportunities. He lives in the big city of Tokyo and absolutely has a career interest in singing. Please see his youtube link here.  You may follow him on his Facebook here.

He mentioned that at the moment recording his own songs or has aspirations of doing so very soon. Wish him good luck with it. Lets us know when they come out, we will put it up on the blog.  He is an ardent fan of Bollywood songs and enjoys singing them like many Nepali youngsters. He had a voracious appetite for all genres of songs. But close to his heart is soft melodies that soothe one to sleep, this is the real inner Milan of that strong male voice. He doesn’t like to idolize anybody or imitate anybody. But one singer he mentioned to us is Kishore Kumar. Excellent choice of course. He spent hours building his own webpage and promoting his singing for his benefit. He absolutely shows all influences of the modern lifestyle of Tokyo. Although he selected some songs for us, we thought these Nepali songs highlighted his talent better. Here he sings a beautiful Nepali song, we don’t know the meaning but are awed by the professional touch.

We really feel he sing Nepali better than anything else. Hear another Nepali movie song here.

My heart will go on- Celine Dion song by Milan x 2 Milan himself make a joke that this is his twin brother singing with him. It really looks like it. We like that Milan joking. Keep the cool.

Milan singing about Hawayein

Milan is very encouraging and very responsive to any comments he receives. As well he listens to every one of his collaborations. Here Milan sings a Hindi classic from Jab we met on his invite to the song.

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Alizafar from Jamshedpur_Jharkhand

Ali Zafar

We have such immense pleasure to bring Ali to our blog. He comes from a part of India not much represented in the National scene as far as singing is concerned. This blog never forgets all those people who live in India who never got a chance to be in the limelight. Ali Zafar is outstanding among a very crowded male Hindi singers on Smule. Again why he is so special? We believe he has a very distinct identity that is his very likable singing style, mastery of techniques; this makes him so distinguishable from many male voices currently in the playback industry. He is tremendously talented, extremely camera-shy and the picture above is obtained with so much pursuing. We happen to see him first a few months back singing some of the Hindi classics. Very fine singing by this great singer, you yourself judge by playing these videos. Here he sings a great Classic by Lata and Rafi Saab, Alis’ favorite singer. Paushali co-singer in this video is a phenomenal singer of Hindi singing Smule.

Tal se tal mila with Sulguna Nanda, we have to mention Sulguna is a fine singer. We have included her singing in our feature on Odisha singing with Jugal Karan.

In the following video Ali singing with a super phenomenal talent Tarangini whom we featured here in one of our earliest picks. This particular collaboration invite from Tarangini is one of the most played videos on Smule sing. Agar tum mil jao.

Ali Zafar singing yet another beautiful song here. ENJOY. Asi deewanagi.

Music of Jharkhand and Nepal

The Adivasis of Jharkhand (Mundas, Santhals, and Oraon)s are born dancers and singers. Their songs and music are joyous and depict the festive spirit that prevails whenever there is an occasion for people to get together. The indigenous musical instruments and the traditional tribal costumes and jewelry worn by the dancers, add to the beauty of the dance. Our readers from Africa will sure find this very interesting seeing similarities of African tribal dances and musical instruments.

Nepali Dohori , it is long exercise and yet one of a kind. The singer Pashupati Sharma is awesome in this video. ENJOY.

We like to thank all our singer friends that we cover here in this feature; a big expression of Love from the heart of the SIB team.

END NOTES

We genuinely hope you all enjoy these blogs about India’s music up and close, by going through each state and knowing each of these young singers. We tried to know them through the Smule app and messages and more by listening closely to their singing. We learned a lot about how each culture uses the music and the variety displayed by this sub-continent; this journey amazed us beyond any expressions we can write here. All these singers seem to carry the influences of their surroundings they grow up. Their music styles although change when they move to a more modern life yet in the heart of heart each singer expresses a deep touch of their self. Yugal and Milan thanks for being part of India’s culture. “Ali Zafar” you are an awesome singer, keep singing. The background you coming from and how you try to keep up with the rest of the world is amazing. We love you for your great singing. Thanks for agreeing to be a part of this blog. We are honored.

LYRICS TIME

We are leaving you with two poems written by a young Nepali Poet Arun Budhathoki of recent times. He like our singers educated Abroad and write in English. ENJOY. Arun’s poems come from loneliness and feeling very different, which many artists who live abroad can relate to.

Arun Budhathoki

Arun Budhathoki

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Lonely

The street is lonely

The wind doesn’t stop yelling

The trees shiver in the cold

While people live within their insulated homes

Lonely, lonely, lonely

The sky is absolute grey

The surroundings severely pale

St. John River mute like a shattered lover

While people live within their insulated homes

Lonely, lonely, lonely

Downtown is empty

King’s Place wears dejected look

Traffic lights blink in pain

One by one

While people live within their insulated homes

Lonely, lonely, lonely

This house is so peaceful

I don’t feel any cold

The winds keep swooshing outside

While I live within this insulated home

Lonely, lonely, lonely

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Brown
Arun Budhathoki

Everything is brown
The world
The color of her
The color of her eyes
Lighter brown
We are brown
Our world is brown too
The kisses we share brown too
Her hair is brown too
Her hugs and everything brown
The stars flashes like a brownie
The road stuck between the crossroads
The signs are brown too
My fingers
The words I type
Thoughts in my mind
My skin
The air I breathe
The food I eat
The water I drink
Everything is brown
My heart is brown
My soul
My heart
She makes my world brown
END

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All readers, from all over the world please come back every week and please write so that people know you all support the cause of this blog. Thanks from our hearts. Come back every week and support us by writing a few lines of your thoughts every time. We love all of you to be a part of this celebration of Music.

Lots of love

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SIB team