A tribute to our dear Guru, one of the best humans we have ever met.
A man of few words, with knowledge filled to the brim, heart as humble as the earth
fingers as agile as the storm, as generous as the ocean
A true Guru - Pandit Ravindra Yavagal!
Guru is the one of the most important element/spirit in our lives in India
It is said that if you have found your Guru and you have done your seva to the Guru
that you are half way to Nirvana already!
And especially, if your seva allows you, compels you, and makes you work hard
towards bringing the awareness of your Guru's existence to the world
it is your karma to be able to be recognized as one of the great devotees that ever existed.
So, now that Shri Ravindra Yavagal's students have all got together, his son, everybody, family,
to be able to recognize his contribution and his existence in a way that the world is aware of it
I am very happy and delighted that such devotion still exists in this part of the world
and I compliment the students for working hard towards recognizing their Guru and
on the great sacred occasion of Guru Purnima, when you offer yourselves, your respect, your devotion, and
your faith to your Guru, you are presenting our wishes to him as well.
I would personally like to wish Ravindra bhai a very happy Guru Purnima and
through him his Gurus Sheshagiri Hangal who again is one of the great tabala maestros of our time
So, happy Guru Purnima Ravindra bhai and happy Guru Purnima to all your followers and devotees!
Tabaa playing with lehera
We used to reside at Unkal Station where there was one Mani Master
and there was an atmosphere of vocal music and harmonium playing
Listening to that he (Pandit Ravindra Yavagal) would come home and play on the utensils at home
Estimating this musical inclination, his father who observed him doing this everyday got him the tabala.
My father was very fond of music since his childhood.
Apparently, he also sang very well back then.
Since, his family did not have an inclination towards music
my father did not receive the encouragement to purse the musical arts.
Nevertheless, the musician in him continued to remain alive over the years.
Looking at me, he believed that if I were to be taught music or the tabla then
it could do good to me in life.
With that desire rekindled, he started teaching me the art of playing tabla as per his knowledge then.
He also purchased the tabala for me.
In 1964, I was transferred from Bangalore Akashvani to Dharwad Akashvani.
It must have been a few months since I arrived and a programme was going in front of an audience
A programme by the name "Gili Untu" was going on then.
G. V. Hiremath, known to everyone as "radio kaka" carried in a very young boy in white pyjama-jubba
and had the boy seated onto the stage
He was a very young boy and must have been barely 5-6 years old, according to me
They had kept a tabla-dugga in front of this boy.
We thought, "Such a young boy, such tiny little fingers. How would he even be able to play the tabala!
His fingers wouldn't even have the strength"
With that thought, we sat there with much curiosity about this young boy
When his fingers started playing on the dugga-tabala, we realized that he wasn't any ordinary young boy.
Since his birth, from some unknown lifetime, he had inherited in his very blood
the knowledge of the rhythms and cosmic sound itself!
He must have barely played for about five minutes then. We clapped for the next five minutes! He played with such brilliance!
It was only later that we realized that the young boy was Pt. Ravindra Yavagal.
In those days, when the newspapers printed program announcements about music concerts,
my father compiled all of those paper clippings in a scrapbook!
Even to this day, I have that book of paper clippings!
And wherever an opportunity arose, he would have me perform. He used to do such things.
My father thought that 'My son should learn well and play well. He should become a good musician.' Such was his desire.
If any well-known personality were to listen to my playing or speak well about me,
my father would have their testimony documented and compile it diligently.
Even to this date, I have all of that! Such was the dedication of that man!
My father's childhood friend was Veeranna Kamkar who had established the Gayathri Sangeeta Shale in Cotton Market.
My father enrolled me in that school where I learnt to play the tabala for about one to one and a half years.
When I was ten years of age, my father left me with my Guru Pt. Sheshagiri Hangal.
Pandit Veeranna Kamkar was also my Guru who used to teach tabala in Cotton Market.
After I had joined the class, even Pt. Ravindra Yavagal started coming in with his father.
From there I went to Pt. Bendigeri. Whereas, Pt. Ravindra Yavagal went to Pt. Sheshagiri Hangal to learn the tabala.
Pt. Ravindra Yavagal was a good artist back then and used to play very well.
He started to imbibe the Farrukhabad style of tabala playing whereas I was playing in the Ajrada, Delhi, and Purab styles.
When he was in Dharwad, he performed quite extensively and we have performed together on numerous occasions.
Once, we even performed jugalbandhis and solo at the Mysore Dussehra festival.
Pt. Ravindra Yavagal was ten years old when he came to learn from Pt. Sheshagiri Hangal. We have known him since then!
He used to live in Hubballi while we were in Dharwad.
He was just a small boy, ten years of age, how was he to travel to and fro on his own!
His parents used to send him to Hubballi everyday like that. I was then required to drop him off to the bus stand.
The bus route used to pass by our house and I was required to get him onto the bus once his tabala lessons were done.
For that reason, we asked him to stay back and go home every alternate day.
His parents sent forth food from his home to ours and then he would eat with us.
Whatever time his Guruji came home, he would still wait to eat with us.
Having left in the morning, Pt. Shesagiri Hangal would finish his duty by 3 pm or so.
We would then have stay back as it would get close to getting dark and have him leave in the morning.
Having had his shower and breakfast, he would then be dropped off by me to the bus stop.
I would then speak to the conductor and instruct them to hand over the little boy only to his parents.
Then after a while, this became very troublesome to him. The to and fro travel, going to school.
There was a school near "yemmi keri" by our house in Dharwad which he used to attend.
He transferred from there to the KE board school.
By then his father said enough is enough and put an end to it. His father set up a small shop in Dharwad!
Cooking in that shop, brining his son to our house, that is how his father ensured that his tabala lessons continued.
While I was at the the K. E. Board High School, I happened to fall down while playing.
The skin on my hand got scraped and the top most layer had come off.
It looked like a deep wound but it was not deep at all.
I saw this as an opportunity. I knew that if I were to face my Guru,
he would have then investigated and known that it was not that bad at all!
In fact, I knew that he would have then made me play the tabla.
Therefore, even before my Guru could come back from work, I went to his house and met his mother.
I told her that I have hurt my hand therefore I would be going home and left.
When my Guru returned from work, his mother told him that I had hurt my hand.
My Guru, everyone knows, could not walk. Yet, in that moment,
without thinking about how tired he was having returned from a hard day's work
Came all the way to my house!
He was worried about what would happen if I had indeed broken my arm and couldn't play the tabala anymore!
He came home and then asked me to stretch my fingers this way and that way and I did it.
That is when he was really satisfied!
Then he himself applied the bandage to my wounds and went home.
My father would come home at about one or one thirty in the afternoons.
We would then all have lunch together, after which he would take a small nap.
Within half and hour, I would make signs and ask Ravi to join me to a game of cricket.
Ravi would vehemently refuse at first. But, later we would anyway go play cricket.
My father would sleep and we would be playing cricket.
When we would come back, he would ask Ravi "Are you done playing cricket?"
If Ravi were to stop playing the tabala, my father would wake up immediately. He had to continuously play the tabala then.
My father loved Ravi very much!
On another occasion, my Guru would observe how my feet would crack when I caught high fever.
He used to watch me limp around with high fever and a hurting leg.
Growing tired of it, he asked me to come to him and then had a look at my legs.
He had a balm with him called "sol mena" which he then actually went onto my legs!
That is how he taught me with such affection and love!
Pt. Sheshagiri Hangal has taught him with great love! Nothing short of extraordinary!
He has taught him to give selflessly.
He used to teach him lying down, even as he was resting. He would tell him "You have made a mistake".
Ravi would then stop playing to which Pt. Hangal would ask him to correct his mistake and play it once again.
Pt. Hangal would continue lying down and Ravi would ask "how do I play this?"
He would then once again ask Ravi to correct his mistake and continue playing.
Ravi would only stop playing when Pt. Hangal would ask him to.
Otherwise, he would continue playing until his Guruji asked him to stop! Ravi would eventually play whatever he was asked to play.
In our house, Pt. Hangal treated Ravi like a son, even more so!
He used to come to Pt. Sheshgiri Hangal's house in Deshpande Nagar for learning tabala.
There he served his Guru even as he continued to learn to play the tabala.
Unlike the trend today, he did not pay any sort of fee or remuneration and learn to play the tabala.
Engaged in seva (service), doing whatever his Guru asked him to, and attending to the chores at his Guru's house,
Ravi continued to learn to play the tabala.
I remember, as festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi or Navarathri approached,
he would whitewash his Guru's house, both inside as well as outside!
Thus, having satisfied his Guru in that manner with his dedicated service,
Ravi has now become the storehouse of immense knowledge passed down to him by his Guru! This is how I feel about it.
While I was continuing to learn to play the tabala in the traditional style,
the desire to start accompanying other artists was also there in me.
That is because, invitations for tabala solo performances are few and far between.
It is by accompanying other artists that a tabala player is established as an artist.
I used to go to Ustad Bale Khan's house. If I was not to be found in my Guru's house, then I would be in Ust. Bale Khan's house.
That is all that I knew within Dharwad back then. I did not know anything else apart from those two places.
At Ust. Bale Kahn's house, sitar playing was perpetual.
Be it the students or his father taking classes, his brothers teaching or he himself used to teach his students.
I used to go and spend time there and play with them whenever time permitted. Otherwise, I would play by myself.
In a way, that atmosphere was fun!
Ravi used to come sit, where my father used to take his class and he used to just play the theka (groove).
His father wanted him to know the art of accompanying instrumental music.
That he developed right from the age of, I think, ten.
My father used to always admire him for his laya sadhana and
he always used to love having him in the class and playing the theka.
That is how we were growing together and we used to sit and practice hours together.
This is all fresh in my mind (which) I always like to share.
Every year, I used to go to Ust. Rahimat Khan's punyatithi.
In 1977, after having finished the ceremonies, my brothers as well as Bale Khan's brothers got together around 11 am
and were playing cards in the attic of Bale Khan's house.
Ravi came in and asked whether he could sit down and practice in a corner.
I said "what's the big deal, sit and play".
Both the tabla-dugga were in the class itself, so he sat down to play at about 11:00 am.
We continued to play cards and he remained engaged in tabala playing.
The composition that he had started playing at a fixed laya at 11 am,
Dhir Dhir Kita Taka Ta Tira Kita Ta Tira Kita
he continued to play in the same laya until 5 pm! Non stop!
He was playing continuously seated at the same place.
At about 5 pm, I told him that he had played enough and asked him to go.
"You have been playing from 11 am up to 5pm, are you not tired yet?" I asked him.
He replied, "I do not get tired however much I play".
Tabala playing to a lehera..
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