Mahindra Kabira Festival Day 1 celebrates the magic of music

Scheduled to take place from November 18-20, 2022, the Mahindra Kabira Festival opened its first day with an eclectic musical programme. The Festival featured a variety of renowned artists performing various pieces of music and giving insightful talks based on the teachings of the 15th century mystic saint and poet Kabir.

Check out the photos from day 1 below!

Speaking about the Festival, Jay Shah, Vice President, Head of Cultural Outreach, Mahindra Group, said: “As the sun rises on the first day of the Mahindra Kabira Festival, our hearts fill with an immense sense of gratitude to be able to present another edition of this Festival in Varanasi. The steller and diverse programming ranging from instrumental to classical music, talks and walks and even a dramatic sequence will establish Kabir’s thoughts in innovative ways.”

Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts said: “Mahindra Kabira was born 6 years ago out of the idea of ​​how relevant Kabir’s teachings are in the contemporary world. It gives us immense pleasure to return to Banaras every year and bring back the Festival to the ghats of the timeless city.With the melodious Morning Music, the Festival starts today to create another statement spreading the syncretic philosophy of Sant Kabir.At the Mahindra Kabira Festival, we are committed to minimizing our carbon footprint.As ‘Zero-Waste’ Festival, Mahindra Kabira has minimized its carbon footprint in every way.”

The morning began with a presentation of Hindustani Classical Music by Morning Raga Bairagi and Dhun by ‘India’s first female classical slide guitarist’, Vidushi Dr. Kamala Shankar, along with young guitarist Shri Nirmal Saini, and accomplished tabla player. from Banaras Gharana and a disciple of Pt. Kashinath Khandekar, Pandit Vinod Lele. Sharing his enthusiasm for performing at the 6th Mahindra Kabira, Shankar said, “For the Mahindra Kabira Festival, I performed on Shankar guitar, along with my partner and disciple. I started my performance with Raag Bairagi, which is a raag derived from the meaning of the existence of life in the world and without having any concern about it I chose to do this Raag because I felt it was appropriate for this program, especially along the banks of the Ganges river, giving a fresh start to the mornings spirits at the Festival.”

Music is worship or aradhana and not pure entertainment. It is a sound journey for the invisible that takes you to a state of joy. An act called Drupad Kabir performed on the show with an up-and-coming young vocalist from Dhrupad’s ‘Dagar Bani’ and an accomplished vocalist from Banaras Gharana’s ‘Charpat ki Gayaki’: Ashish Kumar Jaiswal with the talented Pakhawaj artist, Dr. Ankit Parikh . This was followed by a short address by academic, spiritual mentor and theology researcher, Umesh Kabir.

Speaking of his performance, Jaiswal said: “The first part of the performance was a skillful development of the Raga into an elaborate alaap that is meditative. This slow and deliberate melodic development gradually introduced a rhythmic pulse that slowly increased in pace. The second part of the performance was the composition ‘Pada’.

Sharing his thoughts, Umesh Kabir, said: “I dwelled on Kabir’s witty wisdom, his secular and religious tolerance, how he opposed superstition, meaningless rituals and intolerance through his couplets. I spoke about his philosophy and its relevance in the modern era. Kabir’s couplets are daring, bold and intrepid and subtly point out the communal disharmony and religious hypocrisy of society.”

At Guleria Ghat, an eye-opening afternoon session featured Director and Chief Curator of the Kiran Nadar Art Museum, Dr. Roobina Karode, in conversation with Ojas Art Director, Anubhav Nath. Together they discussed the innovative approach to Indian art while presenting fresh new ideas in the contemporary art space. Speaking of Kabir’s teachings, Nath said, “Sant Kabir’s teachings have been widely explored by various musicians who received phenomenal popularity. The session was based on Kabir’s teachings represented through visual art. The Mahindra Kabira Festival has grown in a very organic way and is a must for people interested in Kabir, music and Varanasi. It’s really an amalgamation of all three aspects that I hold at heart.”

To conclude the afternoon sessions, award-winning Carnatic vocalist Sushma Soma, joined by Praveen Sparsh on percussion and Abhinandan R on guitar, performed songs from her critically acclaimed album, ‘HOME’. The performance also featured songs from his previous releases including songs by Rabindranath Tagore, Shaivite saint Tayumanavar and Sant Kabir among others. The icing on the cake was Soma’s performance in her debut of two new songs from her upcoming release. Speaking about her performance at the Festival, Soma said: “Growing up, music existed as my vehicle to experience the numinous beyond this material realm. Today, as I experience that, I also simultaneously channel everything I experience in my everyday life. through my music My passion today is the environment and our planet Earth, and I view music through that lens.

The evening music program began with a beautiful performance by Little Flower House School, followed by a musical puppet theater performance based on Kabir’s dohas by The Ishara Puppet Theater & Soulë Band, and a symphonic poem called Anahat with the iconic sitar set Pt. Shubhendra Rao and the teacher Saskia Rao-de Haas.

He also said: “The concert was a unique jugalbandi with my wife, Saskia Rao-de Haas. Saskia is an amazing musician and a pioneer in introducing the Indian cello. There is a beautiful translation of one of Kabir’s songs by none other than El Rabindranath Tagore himself where he talks about a thousand Saraswatis listening to music, where one can experience and get to the Anahat stage, of unbeaten sound. So, it was a beautiful experience for the audience to go on this journey with our music and understanding of Kabir’s philosophy.” .

Speaking of performing at the Festival, Padma Shri, Dadi D. Pudumjee said, “Ishara Puppet Theater Troupe, accompanied by specially composed tracks by Soule Band, was honored to be a part of the Mahindra Kabira Festival in Varanasi.”

The program concluded with a special concert for the Festival, with Padma Shri Aruna Sairam presenting a traditional Carnatic rendition, covering a variety of poetry by mystical composers from the southern belt. Speaking of his performance at the Festival, Sairam said: “The Mahindra Kabira Festival is a great platform to celebrate our diversity as people and how through different musical forms, Kabir’s teachings hold true for all of us as citizens of the world. To Creating and performing music that has universal appeal, sharing and spreading the words of wisdom written and spoken by great poets and philosophers, is every artist’s dream.”

Mahindra Kabira Festival is committed to minimizing our carbon footprint. As a ‘Zero Waste’ event, the Festival has eliminated single-use plastics and switched to reusable and compostable materials as much as possible, making Mahindra Kabira the second greenest Festival in the country! The last day of the Festival is scheduled to feature some spectacular performances.

About Mahindra:

Founded in 1945, Mahindra Group is one of the largest and most admired multinational federations of companies with 260,000 employees in more than 100 countries. It enjoys a leading position in agricultural equipment, utility vehicles, information technology and financial services in India and is the world’s largest tractor company by volume. It has a strong presence in renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality and real estate.

Mahindra Group has a clear focus on leading ESG globally, enabling rural prosperity and improving urban life, with the aim of driving positive change in the lives of communities and stakeholders to enable them to grow.

About the arts of teamwork:

Teamwork Arts is a highly versatile production company with roots in the performing arts, social action and the business world. For over 30 years, Teamwork Arts has brought India to the world and brought the world to India, featuring India’s best artists, writers, change makers and visual artists in the arts and knowledge space at the India and abroad. Every year, we produce more than 33 festivals in 42 cities and 17 countries in the fields of performing and visual arts and literature. We produce the world’s largest literary gathering – the annual Jaipur Literature Festival; JLF International now travels to the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the Maldives and Europe soon.

Even in the midst of the hectic and unsettling times of 2020 and up to 2021, Teamwork Arts successfully launched the digital series, ‘JLF Brave New World’ and ‘Words Are Bridges’, which were viewed by more than 4.8 million people on his first season. Through its digital avatar, the Jaipur Literature Festival reached over 19 million viewers in January 2021. Our ‘Art Matters’ initiative empowers artists across India to collaborate across genres by commissioning them to create new works, which generates changes and raises awareness. The ‘Be Inspired’ digital series launched in 2021, a series that looks to the future with conversations about science, technology, innovation, the environment and more.

More information at: www.teamworkarts.com.