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Kala Ramesh

Inward Flowering

My faith in religion began to waver. I often wondered, ‘What is that oneness that I’ve read about in Advaita, the Hindu philosophy that speaks of all things as one undivided whole — that blade of grass, that mountain, you and me, all one pulsating consciousness?’

          in a search
          to know more about
          this life
          japa mala and prayer books
          cease to be my companions

For me, music had always been a passion from the earliest time I could remember. Now, after being a home-maker for over a decade, I turned to music to find myself, realizing that the many conflicting roles I had to play in life were blurring my persona. I first discovered Kumar Gandharva at a music shop in Mount road. I’d never heard of him before . . . but I loved his voice and his style instantly. I bought his LP of Marathi stage songs without knowing that language and went home. That was the Chennai of 1975.

          this dive
          again and again . . .
          the eagle
          perfecting her swoop
          for the nth time

After marriage, I found a perfect guru. But, as I often quipped, she was too perfect for me! Under her guidance, I began to explore ragas such as Kalyan, Bhimplasi, Lalith, and Marva, for Indian classical music is based on ragas or melodies, hundreds of them. Each day, each minute, the joy of discovery was overwhelming. For two years I practiced ‘mukha bandhi’ — singing with one’s mouth shut as an exercise to activate the resonators from the ‘nabhi’ or navel. For hours I practiced — each note, each nuance, repeating it a hundred times to get it right. I soon realized that to hit that perfect note each time is not easy. Kumar ji once said that finding the correct spot is like a razor’s edge; if you swerve either left or right, you’ll fall. But once you are on that note completely and squarely, then that note opens out for the singer to lie on — it becomes broad. He called it ‘shoonyata’ — the void.

         reaching
          Saurkundi Pass
          in the Himalaya —
          our layers stripped away
          until truth stands alone

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About the Author

Kala Ramesh is a renowned pioneer in the field of haikai literature in India. Her 2017 book Beyond the Horizon Beyond was awarded a Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize Certificate.