Day One: Competition Inaugural Night and other random info

I've done a lot of mentioning of the "Competition" but haven't really gone into detail.  This is mainly because I felt by this point it would be out of context so now that my memories are coming to the point where Thanksgiving is now in the past and the Competition is eminent, it's important to backtrack.

As you may recall my dad and mom brought us here to the States when I was but the tender age of 3, my bro 5.  Abbu was already a musician by lineage and passion but not necessarily by trade.  I believe his job in Bangladesh was as a Bank Manager for a bit, a very reliable stable job but his first, last and forever love would always be music and he had not only the talent but the knack for teaching it.  He had already an impressive group of students in Bdesh but looked to recreate the same here as well as extend his student-ship.  And when opportunity knocked in the form of a visa, he packed his plaid bell-bottoms, trimmed his handlebar mooch (that's mustache to y'all) and embarked for Umrika, leaving his wife and children back in the motherland while he struggled for about 2 years to 'make it'.  Although his older brother was here, he struck out independently shortly thereafter and was able to quickly find a bunch of long haired hippie Indian music loving students.  That was truly the beginning of a very impressive and long career for my father.

[Total side story...Abbu told me that when he landed here his brother had scooped him up from JFK.  Chachu (dad's brother) figured Abbu would be hungry after the long journey and suggested they grab some hot dogs.  My father was flummoxed...his first exposure to the new world and it was where people ate dogs...hot?  He told me that his confusion was great and he didn't know how to tell his esteemed older brother that he had no interested in consuming garam kutta's (garam = hot...kutta = dog) for dad took this in a very literal sense.  He still laughs to this day when someone mentions hot dogs and he'll ask me "Beta you want a Garam Kutta?" then chuckles while I roll my eyes.]

To say my father was successful is a slight understatement.  This one singular man was able to move to a new country and in a few short years bought a house, a car, and had expanded his student base to an impressive number.  He also finally went to get his family and thus we landed here to be engulfed in a world of classical music many thousands of miles away from where it was first conceived.   He has always lived and breathed music, his love was so evident in the resonance of the sounds of the harmonium, sitar and tabla that always seemed to linger within our walls of our home.  In fact, there had been times in the past, as a young woman when I was sitting in my house and swore I could hear the lingering sounds of music coming from the basement.  Sounds spooky doesn't it?  But it's almost as if the walls of our home had absorbed all those lovely notes and played them back to us when everything was quiet.

And BTW, just so you know, music in itself is very much in my (our) blood.  Ours is a musical family.  My grandfather was Ustad Kader Baksh from Kolkatta (Calcutta) and my dad's immediate older brother is also an Ustad of classical vocal.  His sons all followed in mastering the art of tabla and my brother too did the same, starting from the age of 5 when the drums was far too big for him to even see over and my mother used to threaten him to sit and actually practice for at least a half hour a day.  I have a very clear recollection of him banging on those darn things and thinking to myself how much I would love to own earplugs at that moment.  That same dude now is...well hell he's brilliant.  And may I add I seriously dislike him for his talent.  You think that being awesome at tabla was enough?  No, no, not for this guy.  He had to self-learn sitar too and even has a fairly good voice.  How annoying is that?  Oh it doesn't stop there either.  His knowledge base on anything Indian classical is totally obnoxious and add to that being pretty good at the whole 'computer' thing (to the point where he can write his own darn programs and have actually released a few interactive CD's...more on that later) and you have a recipe for slightly toeing the 'brilliant' line.  Over-achievers really piss me off. 

What did I do then, you may wonder?  After all considering the amazing lineage I come from...surely something equal to Big Bro, right?  Let's just put it this way...NO.  I guess in this sense I was more the black sheep of the family.  Of course my father and even mother wanted me to take up some form of music tapping into my genetics but I was far too busy running around the neighborhood getting into fights with boys and scraping my knees.  The words 'drive', 'focus' or even 'passion' were not in my vocabulary at that time and I can assure you that this was very much a point of contention between my parents and I.  I think it was slightly mortifying for my father, an Ustad (Maestro) of Indian classical music, to have to respond when asked what it was that his daughter was learning, "she hasn't really settled on anything yet but she has time...".  Poor Abbu, this particularly when he always said that in order to master and understand any classical form of music, one should start at a pretty young age.

Anyhow, I was encouraged to learn Bharatnatyam and although I thought it was a lovely graceful talent to try to learn...well the fact was that it was so not for me and I blew chunks at it.  All that bending...yikes.  I tried vocal but found it too boring, I mean I wanted to be Debbie Gibson or Madonna, not just practice scales endlessly and sure enough wasn't mature enough to do riaz (practice) for hours upon hours.  I picked up the western flute in elementary school and guess what?  I was damn good at it, enough to win a seat as second flute in the Baltimore Symphony Junior Orchestra (which I couldn't join because it required a two week traveling stint to Russia for a few performances which my mother would not allow).  I learned flute throughout most of my school career, loving it however at the same time I was also learning Kathak..which I adored.  That too I eventually quit after 9 years because mom was opposed to the idea of me dancing on stage...good Muslim girls did not do such things. 

Back to the genesis of the Competition, Abbu was offered a teaching position with the Ethnomusicology Department at the University of Maryland Baltimore County ("UMBC"), which was where he actually made his first "contact" with what would end up spring boarding the competition from a 'thought' to reality. 

I don't know when the idea of the competition first popped into his head, I was probably far to young to realize what he was cooking up in that symphonic head of his but before I knew it we were told that we, as in him and our family, would host an annual competition where people could come from all over the United States and compete in various categories.  The event would last 3 days, the first being an inaugural concert followed by 2 full days of the actual competition (yes with judges and all!).  The first happened 29 years ago...I was 10 years old and it was nothing but fun then with no responsibilities other then being the MC and running around with my friends having fun and exploring the university campus.  How dad did it back then I have no clue particularly when everything was done by hand as well as snail mail with computers far far into the future.

The inaugural program was always the true kick-off to the actual event.  It was where we could sit back and listen to the artist invited to perform and breath for a few hours.  After wards a few select people would be invited to dine with the artist.  We kept things this way for many years until the burden of organizing the program along with advertising and then hosting the dinner just became far too exhausting when one took into account the following 2 days of insanity.  For a few years in the middle, thankfully, Dad dropped the idea completely (which I can't lie, I was glad for) but as of about 2 years ago, it's back and although it does make the weekend just that much longer, as an adult I more so enjoy the music and artists that perform then before.

Oh, did I forget to mention that the Competition is always on Thanksgiving weekend?  That's typically the 3rd weekend in the month of November (for those who have no clue as to when it is) and always held at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Fine Arts building.  It's advertised for about 2 months ahead of time and we try to restrict it to approximately 120-140 competitors.  Yes, that's a lot of people and the only one of it's kind outside of India, the competition, not the people, I mean brown people are everywhere after all...well never mind. 

The categories run the gamut from north classical vocal to all kinds of instrumental, bhajan, shabad as well as south classical.  We used to have Nazrul Geeti and Rabindra Sangeet but well I guess it just wasn't as popular as the others so we eventually cut them out.  The most popular ones to watch are on Sunday which features Ghazals, Film Songs, Duets and Dances of India. 

Wait, I'm jumping ahead of myself.

Once it started though, those 29 years back, it's been going strong and (I think) getting better.  With the advent of modern technology (such as the computer and Internet) we have been able to spread the word and hope that eventually it becomes bigger and bigger.  Also because of the popularity it has gained, the names we bring to our Friday night inaugural concert are impressive.

This most recent competition, which was just a few weeks ago, we invited Shakir Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan to perform on Friday.  Now I've already spoken about Shakir in one of my blog entries but it never hurts to repeat.  He is a brilliant young artist who, with his natural talent and mehnat (otherwise known as hard work) has gained popularity and a fan base.  He is also a cool cat who we had fun joking around with. 

As for Ustad Salamat Ali Khan he too was brilliant and being the student and disciple of the Late Medhi Hassan Sab, well no wonder.  I had a chance to meet him at our house where he enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with us the night before.  He was extremely pleasant and sincere, humble as well and didn't seem to mind the chaos.  If anyone can withstand the Hossain craziness without running away screaming, then they are good in my books (although shrinks may wanna have a good long chat with them...just sayin').  Same goes for Shakir.  He seemed to legitimately enjoy the mad house and all those who resided within not to mention gel with the lunatics without batting an eyelash. 

The evening was no doubt lovely, the auditorium full and the artists were both in their element and fantastic spirits.  Sitting in the darkened chair reunited with friends I let the notes wash away the exhaustion from a whole day of generating judges score sheets, preparing badges and running errands for last minute items that needed to be picked up.  It was full speed ahead for most of the day from the moment I woke up and then I was told that I would be MCing which added an annoying layer of trepidation.  Making a fool of myself up on stage isn't my most favorite thing to do.  Couple that with the fact that no one had prepared bios for the two artists that I could use for introductions *frustrated sigh*...thanks to my friend R, I was quickly able to throw some appropriate sentences together and at least appear as if I was well rehearsed. 

Sitting there in the front row, I leaned back, closed my eyes (not even close to sleeping) I sighed and smiled when my cousin squeezed my hand.  Okay, so may be the next 2 days were going to be just fine?  
 
Next blog, I'll tell you if it was or not : )  Lol, this is in an effort to leave you in suspense! Just humor me.  =\