Ironically, soon after the hollow promise of ‘Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai' died a violent death in the 1962 war, a mortified India was celebrating the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda. At that time, a music-teaching, vocalist couple at Barasat (tucked away in the northern fringes of Kolkata) was blessed with their first-born, Debashish, on January 12, 1963, the auspicious day of the centenary celebration of the greatest advocate of universal brotherhood. Although those were the days when the colour of scepticism dominated the social — even domestic — scene, the simple-living-high-thinking couple, inspired by this happy happenstance, sowed the seeds of high moral values in their three children's psyche along with music, the mode of ‘highest worship', as practiced and preached by Swamiji.
They have every reason to be proud of their eldest child Debashish Bhattacharya, recognised as a world renowned Indian slide-guitar wizard, guru and beacon of the Bhattacharya School of Universal Music (BSUM), today. While, during his struggling days, he was busy carving a small niche as a musician under the able guidance of his revered gurus Pandit Brijbhushan Kabra (guitar) and Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty (vocal) and making innovative changes in his instrument to be able to imbibe the gayaki-anga of Hindustani classical music, he also inspired and supported his siblings to do the same and is, now, a proud brother of highly in-demand tabla exponent Subhashis and vocalist Sutapa.
According to him this strong familial bond helped him in his profession immensely, because, as he puts it, “life's tapestry is woven with the threads of give and take. Though we rightly claim that Indian classical music is essentially solo, even a soloist's music, that adjusts with the accompanists, mirrors life with all its balancing acts. This freedom has its own share of responsibilities that gets halved when shared by a brother, albeit one has to accommodate another individual within the given space and both need to tread this path very carefully so as not to upset the other. This mindset is very important for musical bliss – be it solo or duet.”
Debashish recently organised a cross-disciplinary event, “National Brothers' Concert”, in Kolkata. On his inspiration for the concert, he explains, , “The world is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Swamiji this year; but unfortunately we see that no one pays any heed to his call for brotherhood for the well-being of this universe. With Swamiji as my mentor, I am trying in my small capacity to focus on this through music. I was pleasantly surprised when I received blessings from Pandit Rajan-Sajan Mishra and encouraging response from the famed violin brothers Ganesh-Kumaresh. Rajan-ji sent his fast rising sons Ritesh-Rajnish to take part. That Subhashis and I would participate was taken for granted; and that is how a multihued melodic message of love and mutual understanding took shape. For the first time in India a celebrated vocalist-duo sang along with slide guitar and the violin-duo, juxtaposing Carnatic and Hindustani classical styles.”
The description sounds more like a fusion event, but Debashish clarifies, Don't you think this was more of a fusion? “No; because we did not stray from our styles. With little adjustments here and there, we need not.” Moreover, he points out, music has a universal language. “That is the guiding light of my BSUM,” he adds. “My ultimate goal is to popularise this universal music that springs from a broader outlook. I play an instrument which was brought to India by Tau Moe from Hawaii almost eight decades ago. Now it is more Indian than Hawaiian (what with my innovations and calling them Chaturangui, Gandharvi and Anandi); but Moe liked them immensely when I offered my music on his 90th birthday, his last. That inspired me to work in the direction of building musical consciousness, working towards better living through the practice of raga and kindling awareness about its blissful spirituality.”
