{"id":7084,"date":"2014-02-13T10:29:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T15:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/?p=7084"},"modified":"2019-07-05T22:36:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T02:36:55","slug":"comic-verse-about-indian-music-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/comic-verse-about-indian-music-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic Verse About Indian Music, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Oral Tradition: Some Hidden Aspects \u2014 or, The Ustad’s Advice.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was in my early days,
\nI fell in love with raags,
\nThough my mother said the singers
\nSounded more like frogs.<\/p>\n

I learned to sing the alap,
\nI learned to sing the cheez,
\nMy taan became proficient,
\nBut still it failed to please.<\/p>\n

I asked an ancient ustad,
\nhow to make a lovely note.
\n“My son,” he said, “it just requires
\na clearing of the throat.”<\/p>\n

“You start down in the glottis,
\nand gargle up some phlegm,
\nthen bring it through your larynx
\nfor a truly great ACC-HEM!”<\/p>\n

“My son,” he then continued,
\n“Your music won’t be great, ’till
\nYou can make a wad of mucus,
\nStained red from years of betel.”<\/p>\n

I listened to the records
\nOf the pandits and ustads;
\n’twas true, I found: the greatest singers
\nMade the biggest wads.<\/p>\n

When Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
\nThrows all his weight around,
\nHis taans, alaps, and gamaks
\nProduce a stirring sound.<\/p>\n

But he’s got something else, my friends,
\nWhich modern singers lack:
\nA wonderfully resonating way
\nof going “Aaaaaaak!”<\/p>\n

I heard the maestro Faiyaaz Khan,
\nwho sang in days of yore:
\nHe’d scrape his learned larynx,
\nand bring up more…and more.<\/p>\n

Paluskar’s hack was beautiful,
\nAnd likewise Amir Khan…
\nBut now this great tradition,
\nit seems cannot go on.<\/p>\n

The modern crowd of singers
\nWill stay forever small,
\nFor though they may sing sweetly,
\nThey cannot cough at all.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Oral Tradition: Some Hidden Aspects \u2014 or, The Ustad’s Advice.” When I was in my early days, I fell in love with raags, Though my mother said the singers Sounded more like frogs. I learned to sing the alap, I learned to sing the cheez, My taan became proficient, But still it failed to please. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,34,7,9,310,638],"tags":[1323,1322],"class_list":["post-7084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-india","category-indian-music","category-music","category-personal","category-vocalists","tag-dagarel","tag-doggerel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7084"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7594,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084\/revisions\/7594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}