Upping Indian Culture with ‘Upstairs with Us’

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Ashoka chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Hours before I am to attend an Indian classical music event, I am met with a sense of teetering tranquillity, similar to what engulfs me every January when I prepare to attend the Saptak Annual Festival of Music in my hometown of Ahmedabad, a thirteen-day-long affair where legendary artists deliver breathtaking performances in the realm of Indian classical music.  

I have been attending concerts at Saptak ever since I can remember. Memories of Saptak nights with my parents, as we sat on the crisp white sheets delicately wrapped around the gaadis (mattresses), sipping steaming cups of kesar (saffron) milk, have been etched in my heart with indelible ink. I consider myself immensely blessed to have been born into a family that has bestowed me with a deep sense of respect for Indian classical music. Whether it was listening to my father and brother play the tabla or my mother practising Hindustani classical singing with me, or my own journey as a student of kathak or as a spectator of frequent musical baithaks held in our home, I have grown up to find a sense of unshakeable solace in listening to— and occasionally creating— Indian classical music.

Given this staunch passion for Shastriya Sangeet that my family embodies, it came as no surprise to any of us when my mother and I chose to spend the evening of September 6, a Saturday, immersing ourselves in a rather rare form of Hindustani classical music: Dhrupad. Mom was visiting me in Delhi for the weekend, and when we discovered Upstairs with Us, a South Delhi home concert series, we couldn’t think of a more colourful way to spend our limited time together, a way that would ensure that when we parted, we would do so in the most heartfelt yet heartbreaking way possible.

We reached the baithak’s Vasant Kunj venue, the cosy residence of an amiable couple whose brainchild Upstairs with Us is, after a one-hour drive from Greater Kailash 1, where Mom and I were staying for the weekend.

From the moment I walked in the house, the chaos of Saturday evening that usually descends upon Delhi went on mute. It was as if I had opened Narnia’s wardrobe, and stepped into a magical, mystical world of music and music lovers – a world arduous to imagine, especially when you’re in the heart of cacophonous Delhi.

The yellow lights painted the living room with a sepia hue that reminded me of baithaks back home, where we too would refrain from turning on bright lights in order to sculpt a desirable mahol conducive to relaxing Indian classical music.

The room was perfectly sized: not too large that it would create a barrier between the gathered worshippers of pure music, but also not too small to cause cramped congestion. The seating was designed to be thoughtfully eclectic: not only were there Saptak-like white mattresses sprawling over the floor, but there were also different kinds of chairs to accommodate those with trouble sitting cross-legged. As I took my place on the gaadi, I loved how there was just the right amount of space between the audience members: enough for the notes of the soulful music to string us all together into one chain of profound introspection, stirred by the sublime sounds reverberating around us.

There was a sense of belonging found in having the artists sitting so close to us – not on some stage that would have put them on a frigid pedestal, but right in front of us on the floor, humanising the music that they were producing and making it easier for us to resonate with Dhrupad singing, a form of Indian classical music that is relatively difficult to grasp.

The capaciously talented vocalist Pelva Naik, along with the highly adept Pakhawaj player Sanjay Agle, collaborated on a joyride of impromptu jamming, capturing the spontaneous yet structured nature of Dhrupad perfectly.

Dhrupad singing was originally developed as a form of chant where the singer offers prayer to the Lord through nadas or sounds, and sitting in the baithak at Upstairs with Us evoked those feelings of bliss and divinity, likening the experience to one of devotion. We were all engrossed in trying to soak in the positivity brimming inside the walls of the living room, sitting either in profound thought or engaging with the music by uttering occasional kya baat hais (words of appreciation in Hindi) and whipping our hands in the air emphatically each time the music arrived at the sam (first and most important beet of the taal or rhythm).

What made the Upstairs with Us experience even more culturally immersive was how we were served piping hot, sumptuous home-cooked Bengali food (owing to the ongoing Poojo month) after the performance, and everyone got a chance to speak with and get to know one another. Even though the other members of the audience were all significantly older than I was, I felt a strange sense of familiarity and comfort as I interacted with them, having shared with them the ineluctably transformative listening experience. The artists, too, were a part of the dining party – a true testament to the concept of an ‘intimate home baithak’ where artists are not just performers, but primarily music enthusiasts and appreciators, just like the audience.

As my mother and I left the joyous, thought-provoking evening, I couldn’t help but notice the gratitude simmering in my body. I am fully aware of just how alive an evening of musical quietude can make me feel, and Upstairs with Us is an incredibly artistically stimulating platform that brings to the spotlight our unique culture of Indian classical music, in the most non-intimidating and light-hearted manner possible.

What our country’s arts and culture spectrum needs is more such home baithaks to ensure that the potent power of Indian classical music to heal and console is not lost, but transcended across generations for our own sanity.

It is high time we stop misinterpreting and shunning Indian classical music as an exclusive, elite, and almost enigmatic genre limited only to concert halls and either prodigiously famous performers or phenomenally knowledgeable listeners.

We must strive to up our Indian cultural game, and climbing towards appreciation of our roots with Upstairs with Us could be where you start.