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Have you ever seen Lord Krishna dancing with his gopis in the rains? If not, we’ll take you to the time of Krishna through our music this evening,” singer Ramesh Pokharel said before he started crooning during a cultural event “Songs of Shravana: Bhajan, Kajri, Jhoola” organized by Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) at the Durbar Hall in Naxal on Thursday evening.[break]
Attended by more than hundred people, the audiences inside the classic décor of the hall waited patiently to listen to some of the most mellifluous semi-classical numbers to celebrate this year’s monsoon.
The event was organized to welcome the month of Shravan, the rains, and the monsoon, which was one of ICC’s monthly cultural programs. ICC Kathmandu has been organizing various cultural events to strengthen the cultural relations between Nepal and India ever since its establishment in 2008.
The show stealer of the event, Ramesh Pokharel started the event with a beautiful khayal piece. Promising tabla player Gopal Kaushik and upcoming artist Sarita joined Pokharel on tanpura to begin the musical saga.
As the chilly evening went ahead, the hall transformed into a holy musical place where people from different walks of life — expatriates, professors, writers, doctors, artists and music enthusiasts — got themselves carried away emotionally to the semi-classical tunes of “Songs of Shravana”.
Indeed, the post graduates in music from Banaras Hindu University, Ramesh Pokharel and Durga Prasad Khatiwada (flute), along with the recipient of Visharad in music from Luckhnow Vidyapeeth Gopal Kaushik, did not let the spirit of monsoon go down by performing both enthralling and soothing numbers one after the other.
From picking up braj-bhasha sangeet to singing bhajan, kajri and jhoola, the night remembered the jugalbandis and mastis of Lord Krishna dancing with gopis in the rains. The lyrics shared different expressions and moments of life, love, departure and sorrows. The tabla beats went hand in hand giving a tough competition to the notes of flute, which were clean, sharp and soulful. In the meantime, singer Pokharel did not leave any space to awe the audiences by his extremely skilled vocal variations.
Music has no language barriers and it cannot be put into a single definition. This statement became so obvious on Thursday evening because even those audiences who knew nothing about Hindi or Nepali moved to the semi-classical rhythms, irrespective of the fact that they may not have understood the lyrics.
As the event came close to its conclusion, few from the audiences joined the floor together and moved their toes gracefully to jhoola performed by the trio. “It’s a good show,” writer Basanta Thapa commented.
Prominent artist Kiran Manandhar made it quick before he left, “I thoroughly enjoyed and yes this event gave me the true feelings of monsoon.”
Followed by refreshments, ICC Kathmandu bid adieu to the artistes promising to bring in more of such cultural activities in future.
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