Annapurna Devi : Lady shrouded in mystery - Page 6

This is possibly the best thread I've ever been through in a long long time. My sis had posted bits of the early posts on Ravishankar and Annapurna Devi a year ago. It was very moving, but this latest post on Shubho is even more painful...Yes, I too would like to read the 'unheard melody' for sure.

Originally posted by: punjini

My next job is to buy "An unheard melody". But its going to be very painful reading it...

Yeah it definitely sounds tragic. What a waste of lives. Why wasn't shubho shown te right way when he faltered?

This is the para which is making me shed tears from the morning:

After Ravi Shankar's programme, Annapurna began playing on the surbahar till late in the night in her room upstairs. The grave, sombre tone of the surbahar, the unhurried pace of the alap and the seamless jod reverberated through the empty courtyard of the house. Baba Allauddin Khan lay silently listening to the music. The faint moonlight filled the house. In the middle of this playing Subho suddenly asked his grandfather, "Is this the raga of sadness, Dadu?"

Baba could no longer hold back. He burst into tears: "Yes child, sorrow and suffering. My daughter's life is full of sorrow..."

Sorry to side-track a little. This Shubho dude's snap reminds me of the actor, who played the protagonist in Satyajit Ray's 'Protidwondi'. The same actor also starred recently in '15 Park Avenue' as the shrink.

And now back to track... How can anyone love his wife AND another woman at the same time, like RS? Hmmm, I guess I can't fathom the minds and thoughts of truly creative people. There's R.S., who on the one hand has led a very (if I may say so) a very "colourful" life and a very glamorous one too. And then there's Annapurna Devi's life as a recluse. What a contrast! Music is supposed to bind people together. In this case, it sadly caused a lot of heartbreak. So much so that it didn't even spare the child of this couple...

Originally posted by: adi_0112

Yeah it definitely sounds tragic. What a waste of lives. Why wasn't shubho shown te right way when he faltered?

Because his parents were not united. A child without a normal childhood would grow up with innumerable complexes. Plus Shubho was always sickly. In the biography of Ravi Shankar that I have (written by Anushka Shankar), it is mentioned that the first fights between RS and Annapoorna Devi were caused by baby Shubho's non-stop crying throughout the nights (he had some rare intestinal disorder). Then the parents drifted apart.

Originally posted by: punjini

Because his parents were not united. A child without a normal childhood would grow up with innumerable complexes. Plus Shubho was always sickly. In the biography of Ravi Shankar that I have (written by Anushka Shankar), it is mentioned that the first fights between RS and Annapoorna Devi were caused by baby Shubho's non-stop crying throughout the nights (he had some rare intestinal disorder). Then the parents drifted apart.

Yes its truly pathetic. If shubho's crying was the cause of the rift I must say, RS proved to be a very selfish father. When a child suffers in pain, the parents suffer more.The child's well being becoomes more important than one's personal space or needs. I wonder what happened to his other children.Do they also have complex personalities.

RS & AD seems to be a case of total mismatch..wish life was different.wish they had all handled the pressures differently. It proved to be a very costly mistake...

I have read this book not completly but few pages and was not able to read through becasue of one reason or other..

here is a reveiw of the book by india .com book store.

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An Unheard Melody Annapurna Devi By- Swapan Kumar Bondyapadhyay View Larger Image Email this link to friends List Price: Rs. 295 Our Price: Rs. 295 Availability Usually ship in 24 hours < =home-ing-sub>Delivery Time</> =Payment Realization + Availability + Shipping Time*

Product Details

Publisher	Roli Books
ISBN	8174363998
Edition	01/e Hardback (Special Indian Edition)

Title Details

another reveiw

Date:28/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/br/2005/06/28/stories/20050 62800181400.htm Book Review Unveiling the mystique of a reclusive artiste JAYA RAMANATHAN Unveils the mystique of the only female surbahar player in the country, Annapurna Devi, Baba Allaudin Khan's daughter, Pandit Ravi Shankar's first wife, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's sister, representative of the Maihar-Senia Gharana AN UNHEARD MELODY ANNAPURNA DEVI — An Authorised Biography: Swapan Kumar Bondyopadhyay; Roli Books Pvt. Ltd., M-75, GK II Market, New Delhi-110040. Rs. 295. Annapurna Devi, the beleaguered first wife of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar belonged to the celebrated ranks of the world's greatest recluses, till she with the help of her biographer decided to unveil the mystique that has surrounded her for so many decades. The hitherto "unheard melody" is now screaming from the rooftops, and believe me, it is not easy on the ears. Any biographer would have given an arm and a leg to bag this assignment and yet Bondyopadhyay and Roli between them have managed to put together, at best a hazy life story that is more preoccupied with lambasting Ravi Shankar than giving us the persona behind the best surbahar player this country has conjectured and romanticised but has rarely heard. Impeccable lineage Of impeccable lineage, the daughter of Baba Allauddin Khan of the Maihar-Senia Gharana, sister of Ali Akbar Khan, married a man with an equally impressive background, Ravi Shankar, the brother of Uday Shankar who started the radical school of dance in Almora and gave India and indeed the world, some of the most astounding performing and visual artistes. Already blessed with a Hindu name thanks to the Maihar maharaja, Baba's patron, Annapurna "converted" to Hinduism and thereupon ventured on a life of tribulations. Insights The marriage teeters from the word go. She is a purist, he caters to popular demands, he switches over to the more avant-garde sitar, but she is steadfast with her surbahar and to the teachings of her father, she is as conservative as he is open to experimentation and showbiz. To top it all, there is the inescapable abhimaan; he lives in fear of being overshadowed by his more consummate artiste wife and contrives to prevent her from giving public performances. In all this the worst sufferer is their only child, Shubhendra, talented, but torn between a desire to emulate his father and, love and empathy for his strict, disciplinarian mother; perhaps it was the doomed marriage of his artiste- parents that made him take a non- musician, white woman for a life partner. Celebrated disciples Annapurna's marriage to her student Rooshikumar Pandya, several years her junior, is one of the few edifying insights the book offers, as not many people are aware of this since the relationship has not been flaunted. In fact, it appears Rooshi has been instrumental in getting the reclusive artiste to authorise the book. There are pages dedicated to an interview with him but nothing comes off it on the nature of their togetherness or why she even agreed to marry him in the first place. The other nugget is the lady preferred to teach her students (many of them celebrities in their own right, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nikhil Banerjee, Basant Kabra among others) after midnight. The book is characterised by unreadable prose and proofing howlers. Shubho's birth date is mentioned twice as March 30, 1941 and their wedding date as May 15, 1941. In vain I searched for a mention of the child conceived and delivered before marriage till in a later page the year of birth has been revised to 1942. Again it is said Shubho studied at Modern High School — while it is not clear whether this was in Calcutta or Delhi, either way it is fallacious. The school in Calcutta, this reviewer's alma mater was and is still an exclusive girl's school. The school in Delhi is only known as Modern School; so which one is it Swapanda? The biographer translates literally throughout the book — both bytes and his own thoughts. The writer's description of the protagonist's anguish, "The turn of events would neither crush nor subdue nor embitter her. Three things sustained and supported her from within. Her attachment to and profound love for her father; the music she bore in her heart and kept apart from all worldly contacts... " By now you do not want to know the third. When the son was "taken away" from her, Annapurna recalled the meat vendor from her childhood days, when a bird swooped down and snatched a piece of meat from his hand. She now understood what he must have endured. Is that how you would describe your feeling when your child opts for the other parent? Having eagerly picked up the book — after all who can resist the unveiling of an enigma — you are left cold at the end of it.

Originally posted by: adi_0112

Yes its truly pathetic. If shubho's crying was the cause of the rift I must say, RS proved to be a very selfish father. When a child suffers in pain, the parents suffer more.The child's well being becoomes more important than one's personal space or needs. I wonder what happened to his other children.Do they also have complex personalities.

RS & AD seems to be a case of total mismatch..wish life was different.wish they had all handled the pressures differently. It proved to be a very costly mistake...

Adi, the stresses of married life get compounded when a child is born. And if the child is a sickly one, it is worse. I wouldn't call RS selfish without really knowing all the facts. The child's illness was probably not allowing both of them to do riyaaz - and these frustrations got channeled in an unfortunate direction. Don't forget that these were highly creative individuals. Creative people can get frustrated to distraction when they are not allowed to create. Even normal parents start blaming each other when things go wrong.

Probably, if they had somehow stuck together for some more time, the bad phase would have passed and they would have got their life back on track. Not to forget that Annapoorna Devi was a proud lady with a ferocious temper (after all she was Baba's daughter). Today RS is at peace with his wife Sukanya, with whom he has spent more than 30 years. Somewhere he once said that he wished he had met Sukanya earlier, then he would not have gone through so many failed relationships - she was the one for him.

I think RS's daughter Anushka has reaped all the benefits of loving, united parents.

All that's fine. Now what to do? I'm tempted to pick up 'unheard melody', but some of the reviews are not just discouraging - they are positively scathing. Wish I could get it from a library...

Now I don't want to sound like I'm prying, but plain interested. Do AD and Rooshi have an offspring? I hope they do, who hopefully is also very talented. That will be treat indeed for music enthusiasts.

I don't want to be harsh and judge these creative musical geniuses, by the same yardstick as I'd consider ordinary people. There's something that's kind of askew somewhere, but that's because they've reached this pinnacle of creativity and knowledge. Somewhere, the other side of their personality development takes a knocking. Consider other creative people, like Charlie Chaplin and back home, Kishore Kumar. They too were eccentric and didn't find marital bliss till quite late.