On Feb.11th evening, Dwarkamai Shirdi Sai Temple experienced a truly melodious evening of Hindustani Classical Music presented by Smt. Purba Debnath, a disciple of the eminent scholar-musician-guru from Agra and Gwalior gharana, late Pandit V.R. Athavale and the thumri exponent late Shri Bireshwar Gautam.  Learnquest faculty members, Smt. Preeti Chakrvarthy on harmonium and Dr. Nishikant Sonwalkar on tabla provided excellent accompaniment in the concert.

The evening began with a bhajan 'Sumiran Karale mero mana' in raga Yaman sung by Smt. Purba's students, followed by her own concert. Smt.  Purba started her concert with the early evening raga Puriya Dhanashree, a vilambit composition 'bal bal jau' set to Ektaal. The melodious beginning improvisation aalaps slowly progressed into complex and creative aalaps in taar saptak (upper octave) followed by the  vibrant booltaans and taans. This was followed by fast composition 'kaise nagariya jau aaj sakhi' set to Teentaal. The crisp taans and variations added much flavor to the raga. Dr. Sonwalkar’s opening of the drut Teentaal piece was dramatic and Smt. Preeti Chakravarthy provided superb accompaniment on harmonium.

The second raga of presentation was MadhuKalyan composed by Pandit V.R. Athavale, a beautiful combination of raga Madhukauns in upper half and raga Kalyan in lower half.  Smt. Purba sang madhyalay bandish 'ye ho nandalal', set to taal Rupak. The words of the song expressed the desire to seek the lord (Krishna) and seemed to be composed very wisely by careful placement of ragas in appropriate words that brought out the soothing yet compelling emotions in the song.  This was followed by a fast composition 'mose raar karo na naad piya'.  Dr. Sonwalkar's complementing accompaniment on the fast bandish as per the accent of the words and the variations was particularly appreciated.

This was followed by a dadra 'main tod layi raja', based on raga pancham se gara. The song was sung with lot of beautiful variations added with Dr. Sonwalkar's laggi  and Smt. Preeti Chakravarthy accompaniment on harmonium took the audience in a totally different mood. The dadra was followed by a peaceful bhajan 'aaya dwara tumhare ho rama' based on raga Charukeshi. The program concluded with the famous bhairavi 'Bhavani Dayani' set to Jhaptal.

The program was free of cost to the music lovers. The evening concluded with daily aarti followed by dinner treat provided by the dedicated Dwarkamai volunteers for around 100 people who attended the program. One of the program attendee Mr. Sudhakara Rao complimented Dwarkamai volunteers by writing "We were very pleased not only with the concert but also with the post concert aarti ceremony. The disciplined way of conducting the proceedings was quite impressive". A similar sound echoed from a bunch of people from the audience expressing that they enjoyed the concert and visiting Dwarkamai. We wish all the artists and Dwarkamai team good luck with the hope to continue such programs that brings our valued heritage and arts to the community.

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