There aren't too many extraneous factors that bother him: Pushkar Lele, the 31-year-old musician from Pune is engrossed in setting up the computer for his audio-visual performance, “Kumar Gandharv Darshan” to begin in a couple of minutes. I stand quietly behind him, hoping that he will turn around and notice me. Not so lucky; I grab his attention and without wasting a second he rushes out for a photoshoot. “Can we finish this quickly,” he insists, and we are done in precisely two minutes. Ready at sharp 6.30, Pushkar begins the concert, not willing to give a few extra minutes for late comers.
Extremely serious about what he is doing, Pushkar is intensely engaged. Each moment of his melodic expedition, you sense his reflective self. More or less switched off to the audience, one sees a constant struggle to discover fresh meanings as he lives through the music of his ‘spiritual guide', the inimitable Kumar Gandharv. Pushkar's music is mellifluous and deep, but he aspires for more.
You started learning music fairly early. A gift from your aunt — a toy harmonium — triggered off your interest in music. What were your expectations from music?
Since I started learning music very early in life, the stage of ‘hobby' never came in my life! I was performing on stage even before I realised that I am doing something different and special for my age. For me, it was fun and absolutely normal. I used to take part in many music competitions and was notorious to come out first in all of them! Also, I was not old enough to have any expectations as such. But it was a beautiful phase in my life. I was a darling of my guru Pt. Gangadharbua Pimpalkhare. It's only now that I realise what an important foundation in music I have got, thanks to Pimpalkhare Guruji. One's first guru is very important.
How did you balance your interest between academics and music? How did your family react to your intense interest for music?
The fact that I couldn't read or write when I started learning music came as a blessing in disguise for me. Whatever was taught to me by guruji was committed to memory then and there, forever. My mother was, and is, my pillar of strength. She used to drive me on a scooter to Pimpalkhare guruji's house and later to Vijay Koparkar's house come rain, sun or wind. Whatever I am today is the result of her toil, the grace and blessings of my Gurus. I am not trying to be humble since classical musicians are expected to be so stereotypically! This is what I genuinely believe. I was amongst the top five in my class all the time. I also used to do swimming and malkhamb (a traditional artistic exercise on a pole). To a large extent I am a loner. I never had or have any concept of ‘time-pass' or ‘chilling out' or ‘hanging out' and sometimes felt I have missed a normal child's life. But the joy that I derived from music and its allied activities was unparalleled. One has to let go of few things in order to achieve something. My father was supportive too. Unfortunately, we lost him to cancer. Kumarji's life was a rigorous search for not just a musical idiom/expression that was his own, but also a spiritual quest for the ‘self'. What led you to Kumar Gandharv? Do you catch yourself articulating Kumarji's thoughts and find it too overwhelming a presence within you?
After learning music for about 15 years, I felt I had hit a plateau. I found myself asking many questions about music, for which I could not find any satisfactory answers in the musical environment around me. It was then that I chanced upon ‘Mukkam Vashi', a transcription of Pt. Kumar Gandharva's residential workshop in Vashi. It opened an entirely new and unknown, yet a very natural a world for me. I found many of the answers I was looking for in Kumarji's thoughts, resulting in an irresistible urge to learn his diverse repertoire of music.
It was my singular privilege to have had the chance to learn from Pt. Vijay Sardeshmukh, a senior disciple of Kumarji. When I started learning from him, he made me sing just ‘sa' for six long months! It was utterly frustrating after having learnt for 15 years. But one day, when I hit the ‘sa' he wanted, he smiled and I realised that I had, till then, never hit the centre of a note before! Learning from Vijayji was like changing my religion. I had to unlearn many things. You have done several innovative programmes — how have they enriched you intellectually?
Enrichment to me comes from various sources, not just music. For a true artist, any stimuli coming from outside or inside him are enriching and eventually find expression in his art. Good films, theatre, nature, books, dance and so many other art forms enrich me. My primary vocation might be music. But all aspects of life enrich me. I am not the kind who would say, “what have I got to do with films/dance/sculpture/painting/architecture....” Well they are all connected and are just subsets of one big set which is divinity/spirituality.
Tradition plays a big role in shaping the individual, but it is also imperative to distance oneself from tradition to find context and meaning. This is nevertheless not a disengagement from tradition. How do you find yourself negotiating with tradition and your own self?
As you have rightly pointed out, finding one's individuality need not be disengagement with tradition. Tradition is not a stagnant pond of water, but is like a flowing stream. Kumarji did the same thing and found his own idiom. However such occurrences are rare, when one finds one's own gayaki, so to say. It's a task easier said than done. Like everyone else, I too strive to find my ‘voice'. But it is a process which does not have a specific processing time. It can take years or occur to you in a flash! Hence one needs to keep at it hoping to find the elusive voice. Hypocritically, the audience does not expect musicians who belong to a grand lineage to undergo the same process! They are expected to continue in the same tradition as their famous forefathers. But a shishya is asked to find his own ‘voice' or ‘gayaki'! So it is a constant struggle and challenge to negotiate such circumstances, people, as well as the self within!
