A Broken Puzzle: Reflections on the Delicate Ecosystem of Intimate Baithaks

Scene 1

Two of the most promising young Hindustani classical vocalists (they happen to be husband and wife) are about to perform at a centrally located venue in Pune. They are quite famous and have a huge fan following. We entered the venue with the expectation that there would be little space to sit. To our surprise, we are two of the handful of people (some of them relatives of musicians). The organizers are nowhere to be found. After ten minutes (five minutes before the performance is supposed to start) a young girl (the organizer’s wife) enters. 

“I had my own shoot in the morning; got delayed. Others are also coming…” It was a lot of self-talk because there was much to be ‘done’ rather than said. The venue light boys had organized the levels to create a stage suitable for an orchestra. Ten minutes past the scheduled time of the concert, they started rearranging. 

“By the way, where are Tanpuras?”  

Another few minutes passed away in knowing the ‘status’ of Tanpuras. Finally, the program started fifty minutes later than scheduled, with a few more chairs occupied. 

Scene 2 

A talented young vocalist is performing in front of an audience of 20-25 people (of course, some of them relatives of the singer and the accompanists) in a ‘free’ concert organized at a central venue with ample car parking. The insider talk was that the Guru of this musician is not on good terms with his own Guru, who now happens to be one of the most famous singers of today, and many young musicians in Pune are his disciples, who apparently ignored this concert. Apart from that, students from the college where the event was organized were absent. Interestingly, the same premises hosted a book exhibition which was drawing unending stream of visitors for almost a week. The organizer had not put even a single poster to facilitate the cross-pollination!

Scene 3 

Two celebrities are singing on stage (they are also relatives, but I will not tell their relation. That would make things too obvious :). It’s the same old stuff that their Guru popularised. The audience just comes to get a ‘feel’ of it – like we take kids to a mini ‘snow world’ and tell them this is how you feel in the Himalayas. The auditorium is filled to the capacity. The lady is screaming, managing to be in tune for a little portion here and there. Most of the audience is ‘naive’, and some musicians are present, hoping to be called to perform later. About 80% of the audience is in awe, but 10-15% realize that they have been sold the Himalayas (a free concert, but I am talking about the concept selling) and delivered a ‘snow world.’ They start leaving. We also find that many young performers and rasiks mock what happens inside over a cup of chai and Batata Wada. 

Something is not right in the world of Hindustani classical music. Multiple shifts and undercurrents, some known and some unknown, lead to unpredictable patterns. Big festivals like Sawai Gandharva and others pull great crowds but are ignored by hardcore music listeners. The small, intimate home baithak organizers always complain about minimal audience turnaround and inability to manage the expenses. In fact, we have seen quite a few of them wrapping up their monthly concert series and just doing one or two events annually to make their presence felt. Often, excellent musicians have to perform in front of empty chairs. Quite a few times, even ‘celebrities’ find it difficult to sell tickets. 

One can always say this is how things were, and things are. Or one can just nostalgically talk about the ‘golden era’ and all that stuff. But what is ‘really’ going on with the concert world? There are many shifts in the play – some absolutely beyond our control and some caused by us as a community behind the situation. Here are just a few of them: 

1. Nothing is about what it is about: The home baithak where the compere says they preserve the rich tradition and promote young artists is often just about promoting the host and plan of an elaborate barter system. Imagine dozens of musicians doing this kind of stuff. They sort of cannibalize each other. People in the music circle know these things and avoid going to these concerts as they have nothing to gain in this ‘economy’. Often, since organizers are just trying to settle the favors, there is no consistent quality and unified experience for the audience. They go somewhere else (tip: Netflix gives a lot of high-quality content right on your sofa.). The city is flooding with many such concerts and no one knows why are they happening! 
2.  Dear rasiks, you are very selfish: Most ardent listeners want to open the bottle and sip just their authentic music brand. They hardly know or care about what all goes in the making of that one bottle. It might require openly listening to, encouraging, and qualitatively criticizing many young musicians who are not ‘up to the mark.’ By not engaging with ‘what we have’, we can never get ‘what we want’. 
3. Artists are getting busier: Dear organizers, all those tiny, little, helpless artists that you want to help and want to flock at your concerts, at last they are getting busy, and it’s a good thing. Many young musicians we know teach online, conduct individual and group classes, do recordings, do practice sessions, etc. Like it or not, attending a concert now has a significant opportunity cost. As a result, music students and musicians are very choosey about which concerts they want to attend. While some might argue this is not good for the arts, this is what reality is. An artist first needs to sustain herself; other things come later. 

 The list can continue like Hanuman’s tail. The point is that a lot has changed. A lot has changed with the musicians, with the community and with the music itself (the I, We and It as Ken Wilber calls it.). The pieces of the puzzle don’t fit anymore. Silos and politics are definitely making things worse. More about that sometime later!